How can insurers use DTC genomics to profile?

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The Answer: They float a trial balloon in the Merry 'Ol Land of Oz......


So when everyone pointed out to me that this NIB in Australia was offering deep discount Navigenics tests, I laughed.......Why?

You did see the story on DeCode in Newsweek and the fate of deCodeMe right? Or Daniel's blog?

You see, these little SNP chips have got to find a market or they will soon die. Even worse, these little SNP tests have got to find a market soon or they will die too.......

And maybe the companies associated (Not the people mind you) with them?

So when I posted about the Humana Executive who was running Navigenics after Mari Hit the Road and the high likelihood of Navigenics trying to find an insurance partner for their little charade.....

That is precisely what I thought when I saw the presser from Navi about Jack Lord, Humana's "Innovation" director running Navi.

I thought, which Insurer would be stupid enough to use the DTC genomic tests to profile patients' risks for disease.....

Well, it turns out that they aren't so stupid over here. Instead, they convince some company in 'Oz to do it as a "trial balloon"

Guess what? It has failed. Thanks to bloggers like Daniel and reporters like Kerry O'Brien

"KERRY O'BRIEN: Are you aware the American Medical Association recommends that a doctor should always be involved in a person's genetic testing and that according to The Washington Post the lack of doctor involvement in precisely these kinds of tests has made the tests technically illegal in some American states.

MARK FITZGIBBON: No, I wasn't aware of those findings, but again using my example I took my test to the doctor. Now, if we need to do more in terms of encouraging people to take these tests to their doctors, we're already offering a counselling service, an advice service as part of the product offering. Maybe that's what we'll do. And this is very much in a pilot stage."


Oops, did KPCB forget to tell NIB that this was Illegal in some states?

So much for Due Diligence.....try Google next time Fellas....

The Sherpa Says: If there is any question how I feel about this test clinically, you can read here. But as to my thoughts on using it to estimate community risk pooling for insurance. Didn't GINA outlaw that?

ITC Opens Second Apple Investigation In Three Weeks [Apple]

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First, Nokia successfully got the ITC to investigate Apple over patent infringement claims. Now the regulatory body has taken Kodak's complaint seriously enough investigate RIM and Apple. Again. The stakes? A possible ban on US iPhone and BlackBerry imports.

In announcing that they'd investigate the complaint, the ITC made it clear that they weren't taking sides... yet. But before you dismiss Kodak out of hand for being rabble-rousers, it's worth noting that they've won similar judgments recently against both Samsung and Sun Microsystems.

Will we actually see the iPhone and BlackBerry banned from US stores? Highly doubtful. This will end the way these things always end: vast amounts of money changing hands. But with two simultaneous ITC investigations and countless lawsuits, the regulatory heat's been turned up at Cupertino. And a loss in either the Nokia or Kodak case could hit Apple's reputation even harder than its checkbook. [USITC via CNET]


Rocket launch blows away the sky | Bad Astronomy

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Perched on top of an Atlas V rocket, on February 11 the Solar Dynamics Observatory launched into space. About a minute after leaving the Earth, the rocket did two things: it passed the speed of sound, and screamed past a sundog, a rainbow-colored optical effect in the sky caused by ice crystals.

And when it did, well, it was incredible. What’s below is just about the coolest video I have ever seen. And I mean that seriously. Click the "720" button and pay close attention at the 1:50 mark. You won’t miss it, the crowd in the audio will alert you…

Wow! I’m quite sure the footage shown here is legit and not a hoax. Several people I know said they saw the same thing, and there are photos of it as well. Those ripples were caused by the shockwave of the rocket going through the cloud, which quickly dispersed. Since the cloud had ice crystals in it, the sundog got literally blown away.

I love the digital revolution. There are so many video cameras out there that stuff no one would’ve believed before are becoming more and more common. Bright meteor fireballs, rocket launches like this, clear footage of flying saucers… oh, wait.

Anyway, awesome. If you ever get a chance to watch a rocket launch, take it. You never know what you might see!

Tip o’ the nosecone to jhumbug on Twitter.


London’s Garbage Will Soon Fuel Some British Airways Flights | 80beats

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British-AirwaysIn a bid to go green, British Airways has announced that come 2014, part of its fleet would be powered by biofuel derived from household trash. The airlines announced Monday that it has inked a deal with U.S. company Solena Group to set up Europe’s “first sustainable jet-fuel plant.”

The plant will be located in east London, and it will take food and plant waste from the city’s homes and businesses and convert it to bio-fuel. The airline said in a statement that the plant “will convert 500,000 tonnes of waste per year into 16 million gallons of green jet fuel through a process that offers lifecycle greenhouse gas savings of up to 95 percent compared to fossil-fuel derived jet kerosene.” The aviation fuel will be produced from gasification of the waste into a so-called syngas which is then converted by the Fischer Tropsch process into liquid fuel [Reuters]. The biofuel would power part of the British Airways fleet flying out of London. The airline also says that diverting waste from landfills will curb the production of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that is generated when garbage decomposes.

The move is part of a larger push by British Airways to get biofuels into the fuel tanks of its planes. BA plans to have biofuels make up 10 per cent of its total fuel usage by 2050, but not all will be derived from the Solena plant. Willie Walsh, BA chief executive, said the Solena partnership would pave the way for BA to cut net carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2050 [Financial Times].

But aviation authorities haven’t yet signed off on British Airways’ bid to use biofuel for its fleet. Officials want further tests to make sure aircraft safety and performance are not compromised by engines running on biojet fuel, rather than conventional 100% crude oil-based kerosene [The Guardian] Some experts think that using pure biofuel won’t work for planes, as planes require high operational performance at all times and because of the extremely cold temperatures in which airline engines must operate [The Guardian]. In the United States there is just one plant producing biofuel similar to the type Solena will produce in London, and U.S. safety authorities allow planes to only mix in 50 percent of the green fuel with the conventional kerosene jet fuel.

Activists also note that biofuel is expected to power only 2 percent of British Airlines’ total flights, barely impacting the fleet’s greenhouse emissions. They say that if the aviation industry in Britain is serious about reducing its carbon footprint, it must reconsider plans of building a third runway at Heathrow International Airport.

Related Content:
80beats: Poisonous Seeds Can Be Turned Into Jet Fuel
80beats: Biofuels or Cheap Food: Do We Have to Choose?
80beats: Study: Algae Biofuel Production Guzzles Water & Energy

Image: British Airways



Video: HexBug Nano Newtons Are As Loathsome As Real Insects [We Love Toys]

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If your children are a bit too at ease with insects, grabbing ants or putting ladybugs into their tiny chocolate-ringed mouths as they are wont to do, introduce your little ones to bugs' terrifying, too-fast-to-keep-track-of nature with HexBug Nano Newtons.

We're not unfamiliar with HexBug's line of robotic creepy crawlies, including crabs, ants, worms and more—but the new Nano Newton might be the creepiest of the bunch. Whereas the other ones are big enough in size that they are discernible as harmless plastic imitations of the real thing, the Newtons are so tiny that at first glance they could just as well be radioactive cockroaches. And they act like it.

The Nano Newtons doesn't so much move as they freak the fuck out, skidding around on their miniature rubber feet and bumping into things like real cockroaches would—if you gave them each a human-sized cup of coffee. They can even flip themselves over if they end up on their backs. Here is a whole intrusion of the Newtons, thankfully contained beneath plastic in a maze:

See?! Icky.

The first Nanos were out last year, but the Newtons come in collectible test tube packages with various different genetic "mutations" (read: colors). They're available to teach your kids the important, lifelong lesson of insect-fear at Toys R Us or HexBug's website for $9.99, along with special collectors cases and modular habitats if you really grow fond of your microbots. [HexBug]

Toy Fair is the annual event where we get to completely regress back to childhood and check out all of the awesome toys coming out for the rest of the year. And well, we love toys.


Mimas Up Close

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Mimas "The Death Star". Click for a really closer look (see text). Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

On February 13, 2010 the Cassini spacecraft made a close pass at the Saturn moon Mimas.  The image above was taken from about 70,600 km (~ 43,680 miles).

The main feature that just sticks out is the huge impact crater called Hershel, so named for William Herschel the discoverer of Mimas (on September 17, 1789).  Mimas is not a very big moon and the crater Hershel is some 130 km (nearly 81 miles!) across.   It’s easy to see where the “Death Star” analogy comes from.

The Cassini site had a raw image of a portion of Hershel from just 18,017 km (11,195 mi), I did some processing on it and you can see it by clicking the image above.

NASA Launches New Moonage Daydream Space Shuttle Without Warning [Humor]

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Perhaps fearing more budget cuts by Obama, NASA has launched their new experimental Moonage Daydream space shuttle by surprise. It will complete a two-week mission inspired by David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust period. NASA will also launch a new Mars rover:

Called the Leper Messiah, NASA's new rover will carry a new instrument to measure sunlight on Mars' surface, to check if it's "enough to snow white tan", the Onion's Science and Technology reports.

NASA's Moonage Daydream will study "paranoia, decadence, and the fluidity of sexual identity in a zero-gravity environment." No word on astroturf smoking effects. I can't wait for the five-member crew to report their discoveries. Godspeed Maj. Tom Louis, Maj. Tom Greely, Maj. Tom Ohweiler, Maj. Thomas Sinclair, and Maj. Tom Keenan! [The Onion]


Color-Compensation Chip Will Make Cellphone Displays Viewable Outdoors [Guts]

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LCD displays aren't exactly made for the outdoors. You have to squint, tilt the screen, and adjust the brightness to decipher anything in bright sunlight. But with NEC's new color-compensation chip that will hopefully be an issue of the past.

Apparently the chip identifies colors which are "problematic" in outdoor light conditions (such as beige or yellow) and adjusts the contrast accordingly to make them easier to view. There's no word on when the technology will be integrated into our cellphones, but I hope that it's soon because between Florida and California, I keep finding myself in bright sunny places. [CrunchGear]


Dieter on Jon [Blockquote]

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That's what legendary designer Dieter Rams had to say when a journalist suggested that Jonathan Ive was ripping off his designs. I have to agree with—in my opinion—the best industrial designer of the 20th Century, Jobs, and Picasso:

If you happen to be in London, don't forget to go to the Design Museum and experience Dieter Rams' original work and his 10 Principles for Good Design first hand. [The Local's Interview and Design Museum]


Square Head Machine Bolts for Pipe Bolting?

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Here is the question at hand: can square-headed bolts be used for connecting flanges? If they can be, is it advisable? What is the advantage / disadvantage of using square-headed bolts v. using hex head bolts in this application? I typically see hex heads in used to bolt up, which is why I'm asking.

New Chipset May Triple the Speed of USB 3.0 [Guts]

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Hardware manufacturer NEC has built a chipset which could allow USB 3.0 to reach speeds of up to 16Gbps. In comparison, the fastest technology hitting the production lines right now is Intel's Light Peak, "which could provide as much as 10Gbps by the end of this year."

It will take some time before this chipset is accepted as part of a standard, so for now we'll have to be content with USB 3.0's 5Gbps specs. [Electronista]


Four Works Workstation Crams a Desk Into a Chair [Furniture]

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The Four Works Workstation is a very fancy chair designed for working from home. It's got everything you need to do so efficiently save a toilet under the seat so you never have to stand up.

The Four Works features a fold-out laptop stand, cabinet space for peripherals, a spot for the requisite mug of cofee and a nook for your keys and phone.

But really, it just looks classy, if a bit impractical. I mean, sure, it's nice to have it all in one space, but I'm not sure it does anything a, you know, desk doesn't do. But for those completely desk-averse, here you go. [Four Design via Materialicious via Unplggd]


Vesta interest | Bad Astronomy

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hst_vestaTonight, the 530 km (320 mile) wide asteroid Vesta is at opposition. That means that it’s opposite the Sun in the sky, so it rises when the Sun sets. That makes it easier to observe since you have literally all night to go out.

vesta_oppositionBut it also means it’s at the point in its orbit when it’s closest to Earth. Since it orbits the Sun in the main asteroid belt, about twice the distance of the Earth to the Sun, it’s at perigee (closest to Earth) when the Sun, Earth, and Vesta are all in a line. The diagram above I made using my awesome Photoshop skillz should help.

Objects that are closer are brighter (and at opposition we’re looking straight down the beams of sunlight shining on Vesta’s surface, so it’s like a full moon effect too), so tonight is just about picture perfect to look for the asteroid.

Even better, it’s the brightest asteroid in the sky! It’ll be shining at about magnitude 6.1 tonight, which is just barely visible to the human eye without aid, though binoculars will help. It’s in Leo, not far from the bright star Regulus. Go to Sky and Telescope for a map.

And if you happen to spot the tiny world, take a moment and think about this: the NASA mission Dawn will settle into orbit around Vesta next year, in 2011. The image I posted above is from Hubble, and is pretty much the best one we have from here on Earth. In late 2011 we’ll have images of it that will be sharp and clear, and, I’m quite sure, jaw-dropping. But until then, go out and take a look for yourself! If not tonight, then sometime in the next week or two.

Astronomy is really cool, but what makes it so fantastic, to me, is that you can go out and do it yourself. Go.

Image credit: Ben Zellner (Georgia Southern University), Peter Thomas (Cornell University) and NASA


Meteorite, Maybe Older Than the Sun, Shows Chemistry of Ancient Solar System | 80beats

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MurchisonFour decades later, the Murchison meteorite is still full of surprises. When this extraterrestrial hunk fell to Earth near its namesake town in Australia in 1969, people managed to salvage more than 200 pounds of it. And now a new analysis of the meteorite, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that it could hold millions of carbon-containing compounds. Researchers say the findings provide insight into the complex chemistry present when the chunk of space-rock formed, back when our solar system was young.

Back in 1969, researchers found amino acids and many other molecules in the carbon-rich rock. Many researchers have analyzed the chondritic meteorite for amino acids and other possible precursors to life, because some theories hold that life on Earth began with the delivery of prebiotic organic compounds from space via asteroids or comets [Scientific American]. But scanning techniques have advanced since then, so the new team used tools like ultra-high-resolution mass spectrometry to take a fresh look at the meteorite.

In the tiny sample they crushed to study, the team turned up at least 14,000 unique organic (carbon-containing) compounds. They say that is actually conservative guess; the somewhat limited scope of their tool could have missed some, and the true number could be as high as 50,000. And because each collection of atoms can be arranged in numerous ways, the authors estimate that there may be millions of distinct organic compounds in the meteorite [Scientific American].

Not only is Murchison rich in organic compounds, it’s old. Scientists believe the Murchison meteorite could have originated before the Sun was formed, 4.65 billion years ago. The researchers say it probably passed through primordial clouds in the early Solar System, picking up organic chemicals [BBC News]. As a result, the researchers say the meteorite could have something to say about the origin of life and our solar system as it continues to let go of its secrets. It was only two years ago, after all, that scientists confirmed that the presence of subunits of DNA and RNA on Murchison were genuine, and not the result of soil contamination.

Related Content:
80beats: Scientists Pick Up the Pieces (Literally) of an Asteroid Spotted Last October (of ‘08)
80beats: Incoming Asteroid Burned Up in Earth’s Atmosphere Right on Time
DISCOVER: Confirmed: 1969 Meteorite Brought Genetic Building Blocks From Space

Image: Wikimedia Commons


The Swiss Army SIM: SK Telecom Squeezes Storage, CPU and Android OS Onto One Card [Android]

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This magic SIM card from SK Telecom is a long way off from being commercially viable. But so help me, when someone stuffs this much information into a single SIM, I'm going to stand up and take notice.

Packed into this protoype are a processor, memory, 1GB flash storage, and Android OS. That's enough to keep your entire mobile world into one SIM, making switching phones the simplest thing in the world. You could also use it to easily switch off information between your handset and your netbook.

Of course, it also means that losing your phone would come with its own additional host of problems. Though by the time this would actually be available, it's likely that all your most important stuff would be in the cloud anyway.

I'm looking at you, AT&T SIM in my phone. I'm looking at you with equal parts pity and regret. [PC World via Engadget]


Create Your Homegrown 3D Avatar Movie for $250 [3D Video]

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Ron and Amy Jo Proctor at Weber State Universe 3D have created a "low cost apparatus for capturing stereoscopic video". I was sold at apparatus and the total cost: Only $250. Here's the shopping list.

• 2x Kodak Zx1 Digital Camcorders
• L-Shaped Extruded Aluminum
• 2x 1/4" Nylon Washers
• 3x 1/4-20 Wingnuts
• 2x 1/4-20 Panhead Machine Screws
• Tripod with Quick Release Shoe

That's it. Put everything together as shown in their page, and create 3D videos like this:

For the Avatar bit, just apply generous blue powder all over your body. All of it. [Savi]


Shooting Challenge: Blow Out [Photography]

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Most of the time, we want a level of exposure in our photos that preserves color and detail. But who says that photography needs to be about color and detail? Which brings us to this week's Shooting Challenge...

The Challenge

Allow too much light through your lens for too long to take artistic advantage of clipping, the phenomenon of blown-out highlights that look like nothing but white. While almost any RAW photo can be tweaked to overexposed levels, as usual, we'd like you to create your image in-camera as much as possible. But if you'd like to preserve some of the photo's contrast, then we won't consider this Photoshop tutorial to be complete cheating.

The Method

I actually haven't come across an excellent tutorial on this one (drop any links in the comments if you have), though obviously, longer shutter speeds and open apertures will capture more light. And the more light, the more clipping. Most any automatic mode just will not do.

The Rules

1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos need to be taken the week of the contest. (No portfolio linking or it spoils the "challenge" part.)
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings and technique used to snag the shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com.
5. Include 800px wide image AND 2560x1600 sized in email. (The 800px image is the one judged, so feel free to crop/alter the image for wallpaper-sized dimensions.)

Send your best entries by Sunday, February 21st at 6PM Eastern to contests@gizmodo.com with "Blow Out" in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs or GIFs, and use a FirstnameLastname.jpg (800px) and FirstnameLastnameWALLPAPER.jpg (2560px) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email.

[Lead photo by ljmacphee on flickr via digitalphotographyschool]