- Many vaccines today are composed of live viruses modified to trigger an immune response without causing the symptoms of an actual infection.
- Drawback to this 'live-attenuated' vaccine method:
- Refrigeration (4°-8°C) is necessary for the vaccine's effectiveness.
- Costs hundreds of millions of dollars in the developed world.
- Nearly impossible to maintain in delivering vaccines to the developing world where immunizations are most needed
- A new process developed by British scientists (jolly-good old chaps) can keep unrefrigerated vaccines stable for 4 months, even at tropical temperatures.
- If proven to be economically feasible (the key with any new technology), vaccines against tuberculosis, malaria, bird flu, and maybe even HIV could be delivered to those most at risk for contracting the spreading these diseases.
2.21.2010
Vaccines feel the heat
2.17.2010
Amare Stoudemire - Basketball Conundrum
Few power forwards in the NBA have both the physique (6'10", 250 lbs.) and the skill (21 ppg, 9 rpg) to match Amare. However, with a history of injury problems and a poor defensive effort most nights, the good comes with the bad. 'Stat' is making $17 million this season and has 1 more season left on his contract with the Suns. But (big but) he has the option to 'opt-out' of his current contract and seek a larger payday. This is trouble for the Suns who's current salary is a shade over $63 million with big contracts to Steve Nash ($13 million), Jason Richardson ($13 million), Leandro Barbosa ($6.6 million), and Stoudemire. With a projected drop in the NBA's salary cap to $50-$55 million next season the Suns are looking to dump some of these bigger contracts while still remaining playoff contenders. Nash signed a 2 year contract extension and is playing the best basketball of his career (at the tender age of 36) so he'll be staying. While still playing well, J-Rich is hardly worth the $ Barbosa has been plagued with injuries all season while Goran Dragic has proved himself an excellent back-up to Nash as point guard.
Despite Stoudemire's defensive shortcomings, there is no one in the league at PF who is as valuable as Stat on offense. In my opinion, it would be wise for the Suns (who are back to playing at the top level of the western conference) to keep Stoudemire, thereby guaranteeing the Suns being a top offensive team next year (barring any injuries), and trading Richardson and Barbosa (both potential all-stars) for role players who can shoot 3's, run out on the fast-break, and play tough defense.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=TradeTalkRoundup-2010
Despite Stoudemire's defensive shortcomings, there is no one in the league at PF who is as valuable as Stat on offense. In my opinion, it would be wise for the Suns (who are back to playing at the top level of the western conference) to keep Stoudemire, thereby guaranteeing the Suns being a top offensive team next year (barring any injuries), and trading Richardson and Barbosa (both potential all-stars) for role players who can shoot 3's, run out on the fast-break, and play tough defense.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=TradeTalkRoundup-2010
2.15.2010
Top off the gas tank with some algae
- DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has been able to extract oil from algal ponds at $2 per gallon and says they will soon be able to implement large-scale refinement of that oil into jet fuel for less than $3 per gallon.
- This project stemmed from the US military being the nation's single largest energy consumer at 60-75 million barrels of oil per year.
- Pros to algae-based fuel:
- Algal farms don't threaten food supplies (unlike corn-based ethanol).
- Algal strains can be grown on household waste or other unsanitary water supplies.
- Algae absorbs CO2 during its growth (theoretically making the fuel carbon-neutral before procession & transport).
- It's amazing how research to reduce military costs could end up being America's saving grace for an affordable renewable energy source.
Want to learn a foreign language, buy a phone
- Google is developing software which combines current technologies which would allow for foreign language translations over the phone in real time.
- There is already Google Translate for translating written text, and a voice recognition system for conducting web searches from spoken commands, so it's only a matter of time before a combination of the two is optimized to create a 'phone interpreter'.
- A giant leap for universal communication or a death wish for foreign language? Only time will tell.
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