Monthly Archives: March 2015

The United States Technological Future: An Endless Frontier?

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Endless Frontier, the 1945 civilian-science manifesto by U.S. wartime research chief Vannevar Bush, cites the information technology, life-science and consumer-product breakthroughs of the 1930s (radar and radio, sulfa drugs and penicillin, rayon and air conditioners) as evidence of the possible future:

More jobs, higher wages, shorter hours, more abundant cropslearning to live without the deadening drudgery which has been the burden of the common man for ages pastcontrol of our insect enemiesmeans of defense against aggressionprevention or cure of diseases.

To bring dreams to earth, Endless Frontier suggested a permanent government commitment by the United States to scientific research and education. This would include federal investment in basic research, scholarships for science and engineering students, transparent patent laws, a research and development tax credit and so on.

Mr. Bush (unrelated to the political family of the same name) seems to have worried that idealistic hopes and predictions of better lives might not be enough to get the job done. So he added a mildly nationalistic warning:

A nation which depends upon others for its new basic scientific knowledge will be slow in its industrial progress and weak in its competitive position in world trade.

Seven decades later, the Obama administration hopes to win approval for a $135 billion science budget, replete with interesting follow-ons to the 1930s breakthroughs. It includes projects for deep-space exploration, carbon capture, anti-viral medicine, nano-engineered materials, cyber-security and more.

Apart from the merits of this work, how does it fit into the 21st-century scientific world?

The OECDs annual Main Science and Technology Indicators provides figures for research spending, scientific employment and more in the 34 OECD member countries plus Argentina, China, Taiwan, Russia, Singapore and South Africa.

The OECDs most recent estimates find the United States home to 1.25 million working researchers, out of roughly 6.3 million worldwide. It is home to 16% of the worlds researchers. By comparison, the United States has about 4% of all world workers.

Measured by spending, the OECD finds about $1.6 trillion in R&D worldwide as of 2013, of which the United States, with a commitment of about $470 billion, is the worlds largest spender.

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The United States Technological Future: An Endless Frontier?

Self-confidence sets millennial women apart

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Nigel Marple

"NANO GIRL": Michelle Dickinson is a perfect example of a millennial woman.

When a computer advised a young Michelle Dickinson to be a fish farmer when she grew up, she did the only sensible thing: she grew up to be a bio engineer - albeit unintentionally.

"I found that totally by accident at a university open day," Dickinson says.

"It wasn't until I finished my PhD in biomaterials engineering that I had a clearer idea about where I wanted my career to go and I had been in university for eight years by then."

The self-starter went on to found New Zealand's first nanomechanical research laboratory after gaining a PhD from Rutgers University in the United States and a Masters in biomedical materials engineering from Manchester University.

Now she holds down a senior lecturer position at the University of Auckland's engineering department, writes her own science blog, Nano Girl, and squeezes in regular television appearances with TV3's Firstline Breakfast and 3rd Degree.

The high-energy millennial woman also counts adventure sports as a favourite pastime and at one stage planned to be the first woman to kitesurf under the Auckland Harbour Bridge until bad weather put paid to that idea.

According to new research by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Dickinson is the type of woman more women want to be like, with millennial women - those born between 1980 and 1995 - more ambitious than any other generation.

The survey of nearly 9000 women from 75 countries found more are highly educated, are entering the workforce in unprecedented numbers and have "entirely new career mindsets".

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Self-confidence sets millennial women apart

The Revealingly Flawed AI of "Chappie"

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Chappie (left) meets his non-AI counterpart and contemplatesjust a littlewhat it is that distinguishes conscious matter from unconscious matter. (Credit: Sony Pictures)

What is consciousness?

That question has been fertile ground for millennia of philosophical debates, centuries of scientific research, and decades of juicy movie plots, going back at least to Fritz Langs Metropolis. This week it gets a workout yet again in Chappie, a new movie directed by Neill Blomkamp (District 9) and starring sci-fi stalwarts Sigourney Weaver and Hugh Jackman along withless predictablyDev Patel, best known as the star of Slumdog Millionaire.

Broadly speaking, there are three classes of machine intelligence fiction. Class One assumes that human consciousness is unique and can exist in a machine only if that machine is part human (RoboCop is a prime example). Class Two assumes that machines can mimic many aspects of human consciousness but lack the essential soul (the Terminator movies are a modern archetype). Class Three treats consciousness as a solvable programming problem: Put in the right code, or give the wrong code some kind of mysterious scramble, and a conscious machine emerges. Familiar examples of Class Three movies include Her, AI: Artificial Intelligence and, er, Short Circuit.

Chappie falls squarely into Class Three, with all of the dramatic potentials and conceptual pitfalls it entails. I spoke with Blomkamp and his cast about why they went down this path. Their commentary explains a lot about the movies take on artificial intelligence and its confusing scientific politics. Chappie turns out to be a great case study in the challenges of squeezing an expansive concept into the tight confines of mainstream Hollywood entertainment.

If youve seen the trailer you get the basic concept. Chappie is set in a near-future South Africa, where the government has decided to address rampant crime by introducing a squadron of robotic police officers. So far so good: This is a classic forward-spin on existing ideas and technologies. Simple battlefield robots already exist and have been tested in limited deployment, and the company that builds Chappie is patterned knowingly on South African arms company DENEL. I also note that the Chappie design looks similar to the humanoid robots that participated in an ongoing DARPA robotics challenge.

But in true Short Circuit style, a rogue element emerges: One of the military robots becomes self-aware, and takes off on a totally new mission to understand his identity. In this case, the change occurs not via a lightning strike, but through the deliberate actions of Deon Wilson, a genius computer programmer (Patel). And heres where Chappie goes intriguingly awry as it dips into some common sci-fi tropes.

Chappie and Deon, his creatora prime, improbable example of the lone genius at work. (Credit: Sony Pictures)

The lone genius. Its a common theme: A single man (and yes, its almost always a man), through sheer brilliance, solves one of the greatest science or technology puzzles in historyand does it with no help and, seemingly, without even consulting anyone else. In the case of Chappie, Deon not only develops a conscious computer program, he seemingly solves the problem in a single night of furious work. This kind of plot device serves an obvious cinematic function by creating a simple, solitary hero, but it doesnt have much relationship to the real practice of research and engineering.

I was curious what Blomkamp had in mind. Was this pure storytelling economy, or is Chappie intended as commentary on the nature of the creative process?

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The Revealingly Flawed AI of "Chappie"

EDM Artist ALIA Launches Kickstarter Campaign For Music Project "Feminine Medicine" – Video

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EDM Artist ALIA Launches Kickstarter Campaign For Music Project "Feminine Medicine"
EDM Artist ALIA Launches Kickstarter Campaign For Music Project "Feminine Medicine" Feminine Medicine is an electronic music album and stage show that is a platform to bring more women #39;s...

By: SanDiego Evidence

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EDM Artist ALIA Launches Kickstarter Campaign For Music Project "Feminine Medicine" - Video

Westman doctors denied residency at home

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Medical school graduates from the southwest corner of Manitoba where the pain of the doctor shortage is acute have been denied residency in their own province, partially because they travelled outside the country to get their education.

There are as many as four people in the area in the same situation, and for the last four years, there has been a trained doctor working in a secretarial position at the Virden medical clinic.

Theyre sitting here, wanting to be able to practise ... and yet (they) cant get her a residency spot, said Virden physician Dr. Jennifer Hammell.

Potential resident physicians across the country apply for spots through the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS), which splits applicants into two streams: Canadian-trained and internationally trained. More residency spots are open to Canadian-trained doctors.

With as many as 40 specialized and family doctors needed in the Prairie Mountain Health region, Hammell said its an easy fix: the province needs to increase the number of residency spots and CaRMS needs to create a separate stream for Canadian doctors who have been internationally trained.

If the number of residency spots increased in the province, within two years, they are a practising doctor and the more residents you have, the more hands you have to see patients, Hammell said.

In 2013, the province did add rural residency training positions, including five in the northern and remote residency stream, four first-year medical residency training positions in Brandon, two in Morden-Winkler, two in Steinbach and two in Portage la Prairie.

However, its important to note that decisions on filling residencies are made by medical schools with a view to matching competencies and medical needs across the country, a Manitoba health spokesperson said in an email.

In addition, physicians choose where they practise, and may decide to work elsewhere upon graduation.

One doctor born and raised in the southwest corner of the province, who wants to eventually practise to help fill the dire need for doctors in the area was not accepted into any Manitoba residency.

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Westman doctors denied residency at home

Madalyn A. Cimino

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Cooperstown, N.Y. Madalyn A. Cimino, a native of Cooperstown and in 1972 the first woman to be named an Administrative Officer at Dartmouth Medical School, died Thursday morning, March 5, 2015, at Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown. She was 82.

A native of Cooperstown, Madalyn was born June 14, 1932, at Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital, a daughter of Jack and Maria ne Falzarano Cimino.

She first attended Cooperstown schools and later the Knox School for Girls, graduating from there in 1953. She then moved to Albany where she was employed as an administrative assistant to the Neurologist-in-chief at Albany Medical College.

In 1972 she was named Registrar of Dartmouth Medical School. She served in this position for 25 years until retiring in 1997.

At her retirement in July of 1997, the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees and Dartmouth Medical School honored Madalyn for her distinctive personal and professional services to the Dartmouth Medical School community by appointing her Registrar of Dartmouth Medical School Emerita. The letter which informed her of this honor stated that you were a central figure in the life of the school and its students and that your interest in the students, both as individuals and professionals in training, made you a very important person in their lives. Further, your participation in the ever changing administrative and academic programs has been invaluable.

Upon returning to her native Cooperstown, Madalyn became actively involved in the life of the village. A communicant of St. Marys Our Lady of the Lake Roman Catholic Church, she also served a 3-year term on the Village of Cooperstown Board of Trustees and was a member of the Glimmerglass Opera Guild. She was also a member of the garden group in Cooperstown, and was justifiably proud of the flower gardens at her home at 16 Maple Street that she devotedly and carefully tended, and which garnered several Clark Foundation awards and letters of commendation for her efforts.

Since 1966, Madalyn also found time to travel extensively throughout Europe.

Madalyn is survived by four nieces, Elizabeth Lochte of Spokane Valley, Wash., Susan Lochte of Charlottesville, Va., Jane Barry and her husband Paul of North Bend, Wash. and Cynthia Zacharchuk and her husband Michael of Cherry Valley; four great nieces and four great nephews; and cousins.

She was predeceased by two sisters, Mrs. Stella Vagliardo and Mrs. Lucy Lochte, and her Goddaughter, Charlene Vagliardo.

The Liturgy of Christian Burial will be offered at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 21, 2015, at St. Marys Our Lady of the Lake Roman Catholic Church in Cooperstown, with Fr. John P. Rosson, pastor, presiding.

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Madalyn A. Cimino