week 11/session 10 Technology and our future

        
“Tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today”
                                                                 - African Proverb -

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This is one quotation from slides. I really like this quotation. It is because I really feel that it telling the truth. We cannot foresee the future, but we can plan our future. Every seconds from now is going to be in the future. Someone who prepare for the future, can have a better plan and have a advantage comparing to others.

The class watched a video by Siemens during class which I feel gave me a very good idea of the ways in which the world is evolving urbanization, demographic change, increasing world population, energy and challenges.Water, energy is the main concern in the current days and in the future. With the growing world population, the need for power, healthcare, water, industry, mobility, safety, security and even food is even greater than before. It is however, important to note that especially for necessities like water, they are very scarce in supply and they tend not to be renewable. With this pressing concern in mind, it is necessary to realise that the only way to make up for this loss is to supplement it with technology. In the case of water for example, in Singapore, the invention of NEWater has resulted in the increased in supply of water through the purification and treatment of waste water. While people may argue that the usage of wastewater for drinking purposes might meet the psychological barrier of many, most of such water is used for industrial purposes. Through this way, natural supply of water can be used for drinking purposes whereas purified water can be used for industrial purposes.

Some interesting parts from another video of global trends talks about the future,

F_fast
U_urban

T_tribal

U_universal
R_radical
E_ethical
These trends are happening whether we like it or not. Are going to drive a big way of what we are going in the future. Hence, while man improves, technology has to improve at a similar, if not faster pace. This requires the growing ability to recognise our needs and wants, imagination and even more so, the accompanied willingness to turn dreams and imagination into reality. Only then can the world be sustained and hence, improve in and for the future.

Overall, I will give the session 8/10.

Week 10/Session 9--Future Technologies

                    “You see things; and you say, 'Why?'
                     But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'”

                                                                           - George Bernard Shaw -

This week’s lesson revolved around emerging and future technologies. We have touched on some drivers of emerging and future technologies, and almost all sessions are releated to this week's session. World is changing, hence technology also need to change in order to fit the world. Therefore, people dream things that never were, after that new technologies come.

One interestling point is form video Plastic Electronics, one example is for taking medicine, there is an electronic label on the bottle telling you when to take the medicine. Another example is from individual presentation, one of them mentioned about the google glasses, which is the idea that he Internet and computers will be accessible anywhere at any time without having to use one's hand. I find that all tese new and future technologies can make our life easier and more convenient. Prof points about the idea of which one is more smart, technology or human. This is the second to discuss this question. My answer is still humans. Minority of people did a lot of research and work and come out the technology, hence human is more smart. And what can change the world is not technology, is humans.

Another interesting point mentioned would be the unment market opportunities and need. This seems to be concerned with technology that is demand / market driven. Considering the fact that especially in today’s world where people tend to be more demanding in the things they require for their everyday lives. The increasing demand and increasing knowledge of human potential hence results in many unmet needs in humans. I feel that these kind of technologies play such an interesting role in making people realise what they could possibly want. It introduces us to new ideas that we would possibly have never ever thought about. This thus refers to the case of technology-driven inventions, where technology helps the masses realise things that people might not have imagined man to be capable of.

One of the key take away messages is a quotation from Albert Einstein,“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” This means that dreamer is more powerful than a academic person if greamer can translate dreams to reality, otherwise you are only a dreamer.

Another key take away message is the confluence of 4 smarts that was mentioned in class. Smart People, Smart Ideas, Smart Money & Smart partnership. These 4 are all integral factors in change. Smart people are generally people who are willing and more able to think out of the box and innovate. With this, smart ideas will be able to better come into place as people become more imaginative as they become smarter. Then use money to the correct ideea and make the money meanful. Lastly,there are often more than a single party involved in technological innovations, especially the most complex ones. In this case,  partnerships will have to be forged with like-minded people to propel these projects. Thus, in my opinion, while these ’4 smarts’ can refer to 4 different aspects, they can also interact with and be linked with each other.

Another important message I find is from a product in the future--women robots. A Japanese robotics website claims to have developed the "Perfect Woman" with the ability to satisfy every domestic need. This product make me think about the trend of today's world. Products make our life easier and make us even more lazy. Everything is technology, if people living in a non-technology place, they cannot survive for sure. Hence, in my opinion, besides having a knowledge of new technologies, people also need to have basis skills to confront some problems by themselves. People cannot over relied on technologies.

What I hope we discussed more: I think it would have been nice if we discussed more on if we suddenly lose all our advanced technolgy, what will people do? And as we know new technology usually be very expensive, and if we do not have these technologies, our life will not be influenced. Hence, why we still need and invent new technologies. 

Overall, I will give 8.5/10 for this week's session.

Week 9/Session 8 --Energy and World Change

Today’s session: first of all, prof shows us a short but interesting video, which talk about New habits, New technology, New ideas and New thinks. This video is closly related to today's session and lead to the main idea of today's session.

With the global economic development, especially the exponential economic growth in developed countries, the world’s demand for energy is increasing at a similar pace. This is especially so as energy is required when more poor are pulled out of poverty and gain access to electricity, and even air conditioners, refrigerators and cars. Furthermore, energy is required to power firms such that they will be able to function optimally. With this increasing demand for energy, other sources of energy need to be discovered and further utilized to meet the demands. This also indicates that sustainability in energy sources is required.  For example, China currently uses 25% of oil compared to US. And because of the increasing demand of energy, China need to research on new energies, such as solar energy, wind energy and biomass energy. Increase energy not only can reduce the dependence on petroleum, but also can  help in the advancement of the country. In addition, new energy is usually more environmental friendly and pollution prevention.

One interesting point I get from this session is that almost all kind of energies are come from the sun. No matter energy below the ground(such as coal, oil and gas) or energy above the ground(wind, water and wave). Hence, most of the energy come from the sun in direct and indriect way. However, 75% of the energy are wasted, the amount of energy given from the sun is not equal to  the amount we use. People cannot catch the energy dirsecty from the sun. Therefore, if people can make advantage of using sun, human will get more benefits and will produce more energies. Another interesting point I get from the session is the energy uses situation around the world. Middle east use more natural gas and oil. Asia use more coals and natural gas. North America use more coal, oil and natural gas. Europe also use more coal, oil and natural gas.

 In the recent years there has been a paradigm shift towards new, renewable energy resources and away from fossil fuels.  Billions of dollars are being invested in hundreds of new ideas. These ideas range from conservative improvements on to current technologies, all the way to outlandish sci-fi like concepts.  It is likely that there won’t be one magic bullet, but instead,  a number of innovations will help free us from the bondage of our current energy situation. The following innovations are some of the more exotic and exciting new ideas in renewable energy, some of which may have the potential to change everything we know about how our world is powered.

1). Tornadoes Power Plant

Tornadoes are among nature’s most powerful and destructive forces. In fact, tornadoes have the highest energy density of any storm in nature.  Traditional wind turbines have been around for years, and have continuously improved their efficiency. Unfortunately, modern wind turbines are limited by the wind speed and consistency of their location. Hawaii based company Makani Power believes they have invented a new technology that will allow them to circumvent the constraints of traditional turbines by capturing wind at much higher altitudes via energy generating kites.  Below is an enlightening TED presentation about their new technology.

2). Inflatable Solar Collectors

One of the major problems with solar energy is cost. Solar cells, mirrors, and rigging equipment are expensive and reduce the value of solar technology as a viable alternative energy solution. To address this problem, the company Cool Earth Solar has developed an inflatable solar collector that is cheap, lightweight, durable, efficient, and can be repaired with tape. According to Cool Earth Solar. Below is a video of the Video of Cool Earth’s technology in action:

 

3). Solar satellites

Current energy-efficient solar power plants can produce significant amounts of electricity, but consistency is a major hurdle. Earth based solar power does not work in unfavorable weather conditions and cannot harvest electricity at night. Solar Satellites on the other hand, have the advantage of being above the weather conditions, and would be able to harvest electricity from the sun 24 hours per day. The technology is in very early stages with scientists at NASA, and in conjunction with private companies, they are working on making the technology feasible. While potentially an excellent solution, the issues with the technology reside in the prohibitive costs of getting materials in space, and the technology required to send the collected energy back to earth for consumption. 

4). solar island

Creating solar power plants that produce a large amount of electricity requires a great deal of space for the mirrors and solar cells. Additionally, solar power plants need to reside in areas of the world that have sunlight for the majority of the year. In the United States, places like this are abundant, but in other regions of the world, other solutions must be used. CSEM, an energy and technology company from Switzerland has pioneered a solution by conceptualizing the first “Solar Island.” These solar islands could be placed on land or in the ocean, and would have the capability of generating up to One Gigawatt of electricity. The concept has gone over so well, the UAE has commissioned a pilot program from the company. Below is a video explaining the solar island in greater detail.

What I hope we discussed more on: I wish we discussed more on the relationship between climate change and energy change. And I find that Climate Change Program aims to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy based on sustainable use of renewable energy sources in concert with major energy-efficiency gains, sustainable agricultural practices, and low-emissions transportation, hence I want to know more about carbon trading.

In addition, Worldwatch research shows that new energy would create vast economic opportunities, spur innovation and job creation, and assist efforts to reduce poverty while providing a more resilient and sustainable global economic system. I wish we can discuss more on this part, which is about how does new energy influence the country's economy.

Overall, I will give this session 7.5/10. 

 

Recombinant DNA technology may be the key to future cancer research.

ZHANG YUXUAN (yx.zhang.2012@sis.smu.edu.sg), BSc (Information Systems Management), 1st year student, School of Information System Management

1. Executive Summary

Cancer is an incurable disease in the past. In 2007, cancer claimed the lives of about 7.6 million people in the world. In the past, cancer treatments are surgery and basic radiation. Currently, there are some ways to prevent and cure cancer, cancer can be treating or curing by using chemotherapy, immunotherapy, hormone therapy, or gene therapy. All these methods can only control tumours development, but cannot completely cure the cancer.

In addition, everyone has the invisible cancer cells, and all cancers occur due to abnormalities in DNA sequences. That means cancer is the commonest genetic disease. Currently, recombinant DNA is widely used in biotechnology, medicine and research. Hence, with the progress of technology, cancer is no longer an incurable disease. In the future, recombinant DNA can help patient cure the disease.

2. Introduction/Background

2.1 Definition of cancer

Cancer is a kind of diseases characterized by out-of-control cell growth. One report from National Cancer Institute1 shows that there are over 100 different types of cancer, and each is classified by the type of cell that is initially affected.

All cancers begin in cells, and the body is made up of many types of cells. These cells grow and divide in a controlled way to produce more cells as they are needed to keep the body healthy. When cells become old or damaged, they die and are replaced with new cells.

However, sometimes this orderly process goes wrong. The genetic material (DNA) of a cell can become damaged or changed, producing mutations that affect normal cell growth and division. When this happens, cells do not die when they should and new cells form when the body does not need them. The extra cells may form a mass of tissue called a tumour, which can be seen from Figure 1(From National Cancer Institute).

Figure1. Normal and Cancer cell division

Most of cancer is caused by genetic mutations. Single mutations are generally not sufficient to cause cancer, but they produce changes that may predispose cells to malignant growth. Additional mutations in other genes, caused by damage from the environment, continue the cells' malignant transformation. Thus, cancer is a multi-step process involving the interaction between genes and their environment.

2.2 Recombinant DNA technology

Recombinant DNA is the general name for taking a piece of one DNA, and combining it with another strand of DNA. Recombinant DNA is also sometimes referred to as "chimera." By combining two or more different strands of DNA, scientists are able to create a new strand of DNA. This technique makes it possible to take any gene from any specie and place this gene in any other organism or specie. It is similar to cloning because when the foreign gene is incorporated in an organism like bacteria then multiple copies are made through cloning to use the gene in different applications.

From the definition of cancer, we knew that cancer is mostly caused by genetic mutations. Hence, recombinant DNA can change the altered genes and cure diseases.

2.3 Application of Recombinant DNA technology

The use of recombinant DNA technology has become commonplace as new products from genetically altered plants, animals, and microbes have become available for human use.

Genetically Modified Plants
Recombinant DNA technology is used is to genetically alter plants by adding or removing genes. Genes are often added to plants to increase the plant's resistance to bacterial or fungal infection, making herbicides less necessary, or to increase the sweetness of fruit. Genes can also be subtracted to slow the process by which the fruit spoils or to modify the colour of the flowers.

Transgenic Animals
Another use of recombinant DNA technology is to add an outside gene to the DNA of animals, creating a transgenic animal. These genes are added to the animal before it is born. Genes can be inserted into the animal to alter its protein content--for example, to produce a cow with low-lactose milk. Transgenic pigs might have organs that can be used for human transplantation. Creating disease-resistant animals is another possibility with recombinant DNA technology.

Recombinant DNA in Medicine
The recombinant DNA molecules can be used in various ways useful in medicine and human biology. There are many applications for recombinant DNA technology. Cloned complementary DNA has been used to produce various human proteins in microorganisms. Mass production of bacterial and viral antigens with recombinant DNA technology is likely to provide safe and effective vaccines for some disorders for which there is no prevention. The cloned probes for the human α- and β-globin loci, for specific disease genes, such as the Z allele of α-antitrypsin, and for random genomic sequences are proving useful for prenatally diagnosing human genetic disorders and preventing their clinical consequences.

3. Historical Perspective

3.1 Early Experiments
Recombinant DNA technology first emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. However, the basic principle of recombination had been discovered many years earlier. Indeed, in 1928, Frederick Griffith, an English medical officer studying the bacteria responsible for a pneumonia epidemic in London, first demonstrated what he termed "genetic transformation". Living cells took up genetic material released by other cells and became phenotypically "transformed" by the new genetic information. More than a decade later, Oswald Avery repeated Griffith's work and isolated the transforming molecule, which turned out to be DNA. These experiments showed that DNA can be transferred from one cell to another in the laboratory, thus changing the actual genetic phenotype of an organism.

Key Developments in Recombinant DNA Technology
Following these early experiments, four key developments helped lead to construction of the first recombinant DNA organism (Kiermer, 2007). The first two developments revolved around how scientists learned to cut and paste pieces of DNA from different genomes using enzymes. The latter two events involved the development of techniques used to transfer foreign DNA into new host cells.

3.2 Earlier treatment for cancer

Surgery
Surgery is the oldest known treatment for cancer. If a cancer has not metastasized, it is possible to completely cure a patient by surgically removing the cancer from the body. This is often seen in the removal of the prostate or a breast or testicle. After the disease has spread, however, it is nearly impossible to remove all of the cancer cells. Surgery may also be instrumental in helping to control symptoms such as bowel obstruction or spinal cord compression.

Radiation
Radiation treatment, also known as radiotherapy, destroys cancer by focusing high-energy rays on the cancer cells. This causes damage to the molecules that make up the cancer cells and leads them to commit suicide. Radiotherapy utilizes high-energy gamma-rays that are emitted from metals such as radium or high-energy x-rays that are created in a special machine.

4. Current Situation

4.1 Current way to prevent/cure cancer
Cancer treatment depends on the type of cancer. There is no single treatment for cancer, and patients often receive a combination of therapies and palliative care. Treatments usually fall into one of the following categories: surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, hormone therapy, or gene therapy. Surgery, radiation and chemotherapy are old treatments which have been touched on in historical perspective. Here are the current and new methods.

Radiation
Early radiation treatments caused severe side-effects because the energy beams would damage normal, healthy tissue, but technologies have improved so that beams can be more accurately targeted. Radiotherapy is used as a standalone treatment to shrink a tumour or destroy cancer cells, and it is also used in combination with other cancer treatments.

Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy utilizes chemicals that interfere with the cell division process - damaging proteins or DNA - so that cancer cells will commit suicide. These treatments target any rapidly dividing cells (not necessarily just cancer cells), but normal cells usually can recover from any chemical-induced damage while cancer cells cannot. Chemotherapy is generally used to treat cancer that has spread or metastasized because the medicines travel throughout the entire body. Chemotherapy treatment occurs in cycles so the body has time to heal between doses. However, there are still common side effects such as hair loss, nausea, fatigue, and vomiting. Combination therapies often include multiple types of chemotherapy or chemotherapy combined with other treatment options.

Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy aims to get the body's immune system to fight the tumour. Local immunotherapy injects a treatment into an affected area, for example, to cause inflammation that causes a tumour to shrink. Systemic immunotherapy treats the whole body by administering an agent such as the protein interferon alpha that can shrink tumours. Immunotherapy can also be considered non-specific if it improves cancer-fighting abilities by stimulating the entire immune system, and it can be considered targeted if the treatment specifically tells the immune system to destroy cancer cells. These therapies are relatively young, but researchers have had success with treatments that introduce antibodies to the body that inhibit the growth of breast cancer cells. Bone marrow transplantation can also be considered immunotherapy because the donor's immune cells will often attack the tumour or cancer cells that are present in the host.

Hormone therapy
Several cancers have been linked to some types of hormones, most notably breast and prostate cancer. Hormone therapy is designed to alter hormone production in the body so that cancer cells stop growing or are killed completely. Breast cancer hormone therapies often focus on reducing estrogen levels (a common drug for this is tamoxifen) and prostate cancer hormone therapies often focus on reducing testosterone levels. In addition, some leukemia and lymphoma cases can be treated with the hormone cortisone.

Gene therapy
The goal of gene therapy is to replace damaged genes with ones that work to address a root cause of cancer: damage to DNA. For example, researchers are trying to replace the damaged gene that signals cells to stop dividing (the p53 gene) with a copy of a working gene. Other gene-based therapies focus on further damaging cancer cell DNA to the point where the cell commits suicide. Gene therapy is a very young field and has not yet resulted in any successful treatments.

Using cancer-specific immune system cells to treat cancer
Scientists from the RIKEN Research Centre for Allergy and Immunology in Yokohama, Japan, explained in the journal Cell Stem Cell (January 2013 issue) how they managed to make cancer-specific immune system cells from iPSCs (induced pluripotent stem cells) to destroy cancer cells.

The authors added that their study has shown that it is possible to clone versions of the patients’ own cells to enhance their immune system so that cancer cells could be destroyed naturally.

Hiroshi Kawamoto and team created cancer-specific killer T-lymphocytes from iPSCs. They started off with mature T-lymphocytes which were specific for a type of skin cancer and reprogrammed them into iPSCs with the help of “Yamanaka factors”. The iPSCs eventually turned into fully active, cancer-specific T-lymphocytes - in other words, cells that target and destroy cancer cells.

4.2 Positive/Negative impact s of current technology
By the time you start reading this impact statement, you've probably got a good idea of what Recombinant DNA is, how rDNA is made, how rDNA works, and some general places where rDNA is currently important. You should also be able to see that Recombinant DNA is going to have a large impact on the future. And like a lot of new science technology, Recombinant DNA has the possibility to be used for "good" and "bad" purposes. There is a bit of grey area here, as each person defines good and bad in a different way. The following is a list of ways Recombinant DNA will impact the future, broken up into what are commonly considered good and bad. For the positive impact of Recombinant DNA, it improved medicines, improved Livestock (resistance to disease) improved Crops (resistance to disease, higher yields) , prevention of Genetic Diseases lowering the cost of medicines (i.e. Insulin) and safer Medicines (i.e. Insulin), and reatment for pre-existing conditions (i.e. Cancer)

5. Future Considerations / Possible Problems

Recombinant DNA has been gaining in importance over the last few years, and recombinant DNA will only become more important in the 21st century as genetic diseases become more prevalent and agricultural area is reduced.

Over the past 100 years, knowledge of genetics has grown exponentially. Today, scientists have benefited from years of research and are now successfully exploring the field of genetic engineering. By combining DNA from two different organisms, using a technique called recombinant DNA, many outcomes are possible, and the potential of this science is virtually limitless. The uses of recombinant DNA vary wildly and it is employed in many industries from medicine to agriculture.

5.1 How does Recombinant DNA technology cure cancer?
5.2 Possible problems

6. Conclusion

Recombinant DNA technology may be the key to future cancer research

 

7. References

Matthew Williams. (2012). The Uses of Recombinant DNA. Received from http://www.ehow.com/about_5377900_uses-recombinant-dna.html

Leslie Pray (2008). Recombinant DNA technology and transgenic animals. Nature Education. Received from http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/recombinant-dna-technology-and-transgenic-animals-34513

Amna Adnan. (18 August, 2010). Applications of Recombinant DNA technology in Medicine. Received from http://www.biotecharticles.com/Genetics-Article/Applications-of-Recombinant-DNA-Technology-in-Medicine-350.html

Maureen Malone. Application of Recombinant DNA Technology. Received from http://www.ehow.com/about_6165534_application-recombinant-dna-technology.html

Biochemical Products of Recombinant. Received from
 https://www.boundless.com/microbiology/microbial-genetics/genetic-engineering-products/biochemical-products-recombinant-dna-technology/

National Cancer Institute. What Is Cancer? Received from http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/cancerlibrary/what-is-cancer

Mayo Clinic staff (2012). Cancer diagnosis? Advice for dealing with what comes next. Received from http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cancer-diagnosis/HQ00379

Anthony J.F. Griffiths. Recombinant DNA technology. Received from http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/493667/recombinant-DNA-technology

 

Week 7/Session 7--Environmental  Life Sciences and Industrial Biotechnology

Today’s lesson is a nervious session. It is because I have my individual presentation this week. What I present today is For Food Security, China tries an alternative to industrial Agriculture. This article talks about the methods China used to confront food insecurity problem to ensre food security. I did some research regarding agriculture and its sustainable. And one important issue for tihs session is can diversitified agriculture feed the changing world?  


“When we are able to grow the resources we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability” I think there is very little chance of that happening with the present level of consumption. If the world continues to consume resources at the same rate as it does now, I doubt the world has enough resources to support the world’s population. Prod said that it can achieve, but need time and efforts.

We started off class with a video on the relation between man and the environment, and how the acts of man now can greatly influence the environment and hence, man in the future. The video portrayed man as parasites and it showed how the pursuit of self interest can potentially destroy the future of mankind. While I feel that describing man as ‘parasites’ may be abit extreme, I do agree that there is an element of truth in it. One clear example of this would be the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest in South America. Despite forests having large amount of resources to start with, man’s continual pursuit of self interest has resulted in the accelerated reduction of resources and even homes for biodiversity.

While this may be seen as some to be beneficial for us as it meets a portion of our current needs, I think it is necessary for us to keep in mind that while we may find it hard to search for alternatives to these resources, our future generations will have it a lot more worse because they start off with a lot less than we had when we did.

There are lots of interesting points about GM food, today also got two presenter who present  feel that GM food. I think food and biotechnology can be the answer to world hunger. However, biotechnology can help to solve world hunger but regulations and checks must be done to ensure that food is safe and that people in poor countries are not simply ‘forced’ to eat food that may fill their hunger temporarily but may bring greater harm to their health in the longer term. Currently, there is a report in America by a scientist who shows that GM food is not as safe as we are thinking. He did a research about GM food, which is to feed 200 mice with GM maize. However, after few month, 80% of these mice got cancer. It is a horrible research and doube the safety of GM food. However, some scientist did not agree with him. I personally think GM food should be labelled, consumers can make their own choice on what they want to consume. And take the responsibility of what they choice. Hence, peopel can have an idea about what they consume. This is consumers' right.

One more interesting point I find in oral presentation is a discussion about the safety about GM vegatable or GM meat. In my personal view I think consumers can accept GM vegatable instead of GM meat. As a consumer, I think there are large number of vegatables are genetic modified. Other people can accept it, I also can eat it. However, consumer cannot accept GM meat. It is because we heard that GM animals are easily sick and die. If we eat them, we will have healthy problem soon. Hence, I still think people cannot make a bias statement that GM food is totally good or bad. It still needs time to improve and complete it.

What I wish we discussed more: The long term implications of biotechnology. I do agree that biotechnology, in this case, in food, can bring many benefits to mankind in the long term. However, problems such as possible religious problems associated with food biotechnology, our still-limited knowledge on genetically engineered food and their potential long term problems still exist and will continue to emerge. How will we be able to identify them and eventually get around them such that we can reap the full benefit of food biotechnology?

Overall, I will give 7.5 for today's session.

Week 6 —— Biomedical Science

"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose 
shade they know they shall never sit in. "

- Greek Proverb -

 

This is the quotation from this week's reading. What I understand about this quotation is for countries, especially for developing countries, it is necessary to have the basic public health care infrastructure and services. So that in the future, their populations can have better health care. Prof says this quotation means what they are doing now is not for their own uses, but for future uses. I think this week's topic is very important, biomedical science changes will directly influence people's healthy problems.

It is very shock when I know that market size of bio-business in Singapore is only 4-5%. Prof says this is because of the young generation, Singapore do not have a lot of elderly. But I read from newspaper that the current social problem Singapore faced is elderly problem. The reason for this problem is because of Singapore lack of bio-business market. In contrast, market size of bio-business in US is 52%. Singapore now are trying to catch up with other ountries regarding bio-business. What I wish we discussed more: I want to have a discussion about the Healthcare Industry in Singapore. It is because I feel that the Healthcare industry is something the government should prioritize ecause of the extent to which it seeps into our lives. I think it would be good if ountries are able to recognise the significance of the healthcare industry and now what can be done to improve. Hence, I also want to discuss about what trategies can be used by government to improve health care industry?

Beyond this, the key take away messages is I feel that this is an issue that eeds to be paid attention to because Healthcare is a very basic and ecessary part of our lives and something that can have such profound impact on us. Should the amount of money spent on healthcare not translate into quality or the spread of healthcare, then what is the money spent on when the
most fundamental objective is not met? We discussed that a large amount of money could be used up for reasons such as regulation, oversight and control. While this is ‘legitimate’ in the sense that the money is used for legally accepted reasons, I feel that it should not be the case that this is depriving people who very much need the money for treatment.

From the recommended readings, I get some interesting points: There is a global healthcare trend in recent years, and growing opportunities for innovative healthcare-related products, services and technology platforms. The application of modern approaches and technologies brings the potential to radically transform public health and healthcare for those who cannot now afford such care, while enabling unprecedented levels of care for those who can. We stand at the threshold of an exciting new era in healthcare. Innovators and entrepreneurs who come up with newer and better ways of providing care are likely to benefit substantially – and they stand to make a real and very substantial difference in the lives of millions.

Overall, I will give 8.5/10 for today’s session.

 

Week 5 --- ICT and World Change

The overall theme for this week’s lesson is ICT, which is Information and Communication Technology. ICT refer to the convergence of audio-visual and telephone networks with computer networks through a single cabling or link system. There are large economic incentives (huge cost savings due to elimination of the telephone network) to merge the audio-visual, building management and telephone network with the computer network system using a single unified system of cabling, signal distribution and management.  I think this week’s topic was one that most of us can easily relate to, with ICT weaved into our daily lives, creating our dependence on them even.

At the start of the lesson, we watched an interesting video on Project Natal. I felt that the video was very interesting in the sense that I have never expected it to be possible for a real human to be able to communicate with a virtual person so smoothly and effectively. I truly feel that that is one big step in technology that far exceeds what we have ever expected it to be, and I find it so amazing. One concern I have though, is how effectively can this be? Can we expect similar quality of communication? If yes, is it possible for us to expand the uses of such ‘virtual people’ to help us in our daily lives?

ICT as a Driver of Change
I truly believe that ICT can cause change, especially with regard to how it can play a role in alleviating poverty. This is also with reference to the reading “Making ICTs Work for the Poor: Pursuing the Millennium Development Goals Through ICTs”. We can often see these advanced technology appeared in movies. Although they are just movies, the content may not true, but the technology they imaged are reational and may come true one day. The following video is an interesting video about the future Nokia product.

What I hope we discussed more: Technology can make our life much easier than before, rich people like  to try new tings and have theh ability to afford it. But will it increase the gap between poor and rich?What can the future of these technology be? Because I feel that majority of people lack of ability to afford it.

Prof brought up the idea of how gaming has in fact influenced the way surgeries are done via the remote control method. I think this is something that I never thought about because more often than not to me, games and work they are 2 separate things. Thus, I feel that it is brilliant how people can incorporate lessons learnt from games into other aspects of technology, even to the extent of creating a system for surgeries based on the technology of games. This links me to the presentation by Toh Xin, where he talked about the Business Gaming model and how it is an interesting and engaging way of letting people learn Business through games.I brought up in class that it might be possible that sometimes people get so engrossed in playing that they forget the fact that they’re supposed to take something out of it. Considering how the youths these days tend to be pretty easily distracted, this might be a concern that we should take into consideration when games are created with the intention of letting people learn from them – because it might end up being counterproductive.

While all of us know what gmail, hotmail, dropbox, facebook etc are, I’m not sure if all of us knew that they are part of Cloud computing because I myself never did! It is only today that I realised that while I have always thought that Cloud Computing is something I have never come into contact with, it is actually one device that I make use of every day of my life. While I remain very fascinated by the idea of Cloud Computing, the extent of usage of this is so great that it makes me wonder where will the world be left at should this system fail. We have so much information stored in the Cloud and it serves as such an essential form of communication – what if?

Potential Risks & Problems
While ICT can be very useful in our everyday lives, I think the potential risks and problems it can bring about is something we have to take extra care about. Linking this back to Wesley’s presentation, there are firstly, cases of data mining. He mentioned that websites that don’t charge a single cent are the ones that data mine the most. Since most websites we visit do not charge us, does this perhaps mean that our data is stored and used by so many webpages? Does this mean that a lot of our personal private information is actually all over the Internet? Though, however, I would have to agree that quite often even we do not key completely accurate information into the net. This may hence reduce the possible harmful effects of data mining and hence the problem with ICT.

I really enjoyed today’s lesson because I feel that ICT is something that is very present in our lives and hence, very related to our everyday lives. I also feel that it has the ability to change the direction of our lives in the future – especially in the case of improving our lives and that of the poor and therefore is something very integral. And I will give 8/10 for today's session.