Science can read you like a (progressively less expensive) book

Venessa Posavec at MemeBox FutureBlogger uploaded this deceptively short post today.

Her post describes the very rapid decrease in the cost (in both time and money) of having a human gemone sequenced. While she focuses on the utility and function of these mounds of data, I'd like to give a different perspective, the role of technology.

Gene sequencing, of the kind done by the Human Genome Project, is a hugely complicated process. It might sound simple, there are only four letters in the language of our DNA, but actually getting down and reading out the book of life for the first time took millions of dollars worth of man-hours and laboratory equipment. After all, you cant just grab your microscope and get somebody to take notes while you read off the code. The individual base pairs of DNA are only a couple of nanometers wide, too small for even the most powerful vision enhancement. Even if you could read the DNA directly, there are some 3 billion base pairs in the human genome and there is no room for error.

So how did they solve this problem? By inventing the new techniques and machines to assist in reading out and piecing together the code. The Human Genome project used what they call the 'shotgun' approach. They take a strand of DNA, make a few billion copies (which is easy, because DNA is designed to do that), then break these copies up into short chunks. These chunks are small enough for specialized machinery to read off the letters a few hundred at a time. Once the DNA is broken up into random pieces and fed into a computer, it then takes a relatively simple, but highly time-consuming process to piece matching portions together into a complete strand.

As with most other sciences, the rapid improvement of informational technology boosts the second two steps of the process exponentially. The jigsaw-like matching algorithms have been improved over time, the computers that run them have gotten faster, and the system for reading off the individual chunks has been improved as well. Yet at the same time, these systems become more inexpensive and require less expertise to operate.

Technological advancement like this is the root of nearly all the recent leaps forward in science that have yet to make themselves felt. The first human genome was sequenced in 2003, but we still haven't finished translating the finished code into usable knowledge.

Space, politics, computers... all that sort of stuff.

Here we go, another post in not too many days. I'll use up to my backlogged news eventually.

The DailyTech blog reports that IBM has developed a new vertical stacking method for computer chips. Most modern integrated circuits are all sketched onto a single plane, but by expanding upwards, they allow much more processing power to be contained in less real estate. The downside being that there is less surface area to dissapate heat, requiring more complex cooling systems.

Physorg.com is running an article about the development of a new telescope. This telescope is similar to the very large array in Arizona, with the notable exception that it is an optical-, rather than a radio-telescope. This first generation tech will only have a few telescopes small working in concert, but they will have an effective aperture of dozens of meters. One can easily imagine blanketing the sky with a large array of these sometime in the future, making a telescope the size of a planet.

Also out in space, Wired reports on a Pentagon imagining of orbit-based solar farms beaming power down to the planet. Unfortunately, economics will most likely prevent it from occurring without a breakthrough in solar panel efficiency or great reduction in shipping costs to space. Fortunately, developments are working along both those lines, see the previous post or google for space elevators.

Slashdot reports that the NSA and the leaders of our executive branch are working on expanding the already broad power granted to them. Now, I'm totally not opposed to letting the president tap phones at will and do whatever he likes as long as we are granted the same power. If the NSA wants to listen in on me, let us listen in on them. It's a balance of power between the three branches of government (which is being demolished) and the state and people tha has maintained our nation for so long. Times change and the balance will shift but we have to push back so that no one leg of our five-legged table grows too long and flips us on our metaphorical backs.

An Iraqi veteran is one of 25 or so trying out a new prosthetic leg designed for above the knee amputees. The new limb acts more like a natural limb than those previous by sensing the environment and preforming the actions of calf muscles. It's being called the first bionic prosthetic for it's efficiency in acting like a regular limb, and personally, the guy looks awesome wearing it. Check out the pic through the link.

And our last article for the night, also from physorg.com, describes a new online census showing more female Americans are online than male. It's not stunning news, what with myspace, flickr, and other social and life-sharing sites popping up, it stands to reason that more persons less interested in viral video would come onboard. I guess the old meme about there being no girls on the interwebs has finally had it's coffin nailed shut.

First batch of news.

Techdirt reports that another child incapable of taking criticism nation has banned youtube for a single offensive video. The poster who uploaded the video has taken it down. As techdirt says, this sort of reaction only draws more attention to the offense in question. The proper way of censoring an idea is not to draw more attention to it.

Slashdot has a post showing patent application for a Hybrid Machine/Human Computing Arrangement. Basically, this is crowdsourcing for computers. First step towards a Manna system. I for one, do not welcome our robot-people overlords.

Slashdot is also linking an article showing how completely useless the change to daylight savings is. While the California energy department still affirms that setting our clocks back for half a year conserves energy, power companies don't seem to be feeling the difference. (Insert joke about the opposite of progress). Political bashing aside, there is a real problem with how elected officials conflict science.

And finally, Make online has a blog post up detailing Quinn Norton's body hacking talk. Hit it up for a primer on to the current state of functional body modification and some things we should look for over the next year or two. If you can stomach a ~180 MB download, there is a video link posted on BMEZine's Modblog.

Blogs aren't intended to operate in a vaccuum, so post comments and send emails to me with anything you feel like needs to be said.