Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Inkjet Printers and Nanotubes

Today I saw an article in The Engineer Online about scientists at Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute who dissolved carbon nanotubes (buckytubes) in water, injected the solution into standard, off-the-shelf inkjet ink cartridges, and then used an off-the-shelf inkjet printer to print the solution down onto paper and plastic.  Here’s the link to the RPI press release about the results.

Why is this cool?  Because if a standard, el-cheapo inkjet printer can deposit buckytubes and make the pattern electrically conductive (a physical property of buckytubes), then printing may be a cheap way to make circuits and complex structures out of buckytubes.  And this may open up new and interesting applications for buckytubes (which already have potential applications ranging from 40,000 mile long space elevator cables to molecular transistors to super-efficient thermal conductors to water purification to hydrogen storage).  Some new applications suggested by the RPI researchers in their press release include gas sensors, newspapers with changable print, and even wearable batteries for electronics integrated into clothing.

Neat stuff.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

The Micro Pundit:  Individualized Drugs

The New York Times online has an interview with Dr. Mary V. Relling, a pharmacist at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.  In it, Dr. Relling talks about how she became interested in genetic testing her leukemia patients to provide guidance in what drugs to prescribe to the patients.  In essence, the results of genetic testing suggest which patients will respond to a particular drug and which ones have debilitating side effects and so require the use of a different drug.

This is amazing.  We’re entering the age of truly individualized medicine, when your genes will help determine a doctor’s course of treatment for any number of diseases such as, in the case of Dr. Relling’s patients, childhood leukemia and cancer.  This may yet turn out to be one of the greatest results of the Human Genome Project, if the business model of the pharmaceutical industry doesn’t kill it first.

As is pointed out in the interview, the vast majority of the pharmaceutical industry doesn’t want individualized drugs.  They want blockbuster drugs that work for nearly everyone and that can come in standardized doses that they can make and sell by the millions or billions of tablets and capsules.  And individualized prescriptions make each group of patients into smaller and smaller markets for a particular drug or dosage, eating into the drug company’s profits.  As such, we’re already seeing that drug companies are “orphaning” the very drugs that can help people simply because it’s not a good business decision.  Never mind the childhood leukemia drugs that Dr. Relling describes, lets talk paromomycin, the drug that was found to cure visceral leishmaniasis (aka black fever or kala azar), a parasitic disease that kills more people yearly than any other except for malaria.  The problem?  All the patients are poor and from poor countries, so the drug was never produced by the big drug companies - no money in it.  And now it’s taking the Gates Foundation’s resources to turn that around and, hopefully, eliminate the disease entirely (story).

(Bullshit like paromomycin and orphan drugs that treat childhood cancers are part of why I hate the business of health care.  Doing the right thing (ie helping other people when they’re sick) should never be a business decision, and the fact that it has become one is one of the strongest arguments I can think of in favor of some form of nationalized health care.  But I digress.)

I look forward to the time when sick patients can get a quick DNA test and then be prescribed the best drug for treating their condition along with the “ideal” dose that will maximize the drug’s effectiveness and minimize it’s side effects.  Part of me thinks that this level of medical care and technology is inevitable, but then I remember paramomycin and my cynical side takes over.  May my idealism on this issue be rewarded - we’ll all be better for it.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Taking Lessons from Hezbollah

After the cease fire in southern Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah took hold, reporters started reporting on how Lebanon was going to rebuild.  And it ultimately came down to a single thing - Hezbollah was going to rebuild Lebanon itself.  As just one concrete example, take the following NPR story:  “Lebanese Families Cope with War Deaths” At the end of the story, we hear about how Hezbollah gave a man $12,000 cash to rent an appartment for a year, and Hezbollah was going to build his now-homeless family a new home - for free.

This is how politics is done in the Middle East.  You provide the victims enough money, no questions asked and no strings attached, for them to get themselves on their feet, and you offer to house and clothe them until they are back on their feet.  This intensely local approach is why, unless we dramatically change our approach, “non-natives” like Israel and the U.S. are going to lose their respective conflicts.  This local focus keeps the average person happy, and it gives them hope and self-respect after they’ve lost everything, and so the locals are willing to tolerate terrorists like Hezbollah in spite of the periodic destruction that rains down on their heads.  As Hezbollah runs hospitals, rebuilds homes, pays for schooling, and reconstructs infrastructure in Lebanon, so they are viewed by many Lebanese as saviors, and even the Lebanese who despise Hezbollah are forced to grudgingly respect them.  This is one lesson that we could learn from Hezbollah.

Another lesson is the effective use of propoganda.  We live in an open society that deplores media manipulation, yet our very openness makes us far too accepting of the media we are exposed to, especially the images we see on our televisions and in our newspapers.  Not only should we learn that images can be staged or faked (and Hezbollah was caught doing this) and thus to be critical of what we see in the media, but we should also learn to effectively play the propoganda game.  Because even though Hezbollah faked and staged some photos for the international media, it doesn’t matter - the photos still provoked the necessary emotion, especially hatred of Israel in Lebanon and throughout the Arab world.  So how do we learn to manipulate media to suit our ends?  How about showing images of Hezbollah fighters launching rockets from the backyard of a private home and then fleeing before the home is bombed?  Show enough images like this, and not only can you reduce the “Israel claims, Hezbollah claims” rhetoric, but you can gradually illustrate that Hezbollah is actually doing what Israel claims.  And make damn sure that the photos or video get LOTS of airplay internationally, because while you might not convince your enemy’s supporters, you can nonetheless quell criticism among your own allies.  Until the U.S. and Israel start showing proof of terrorism to their own people on the evening news and on the internet, groups like Hezbollah will continue to win the propoganda war.

Finally (for this discussion, anyway), we have to ask ourselves where Hezbollah gets the money for all their charity work (like rebuilding homes and offering $12,000 cash for a year’s appartment rental).  While there is no doubt in my mind that Hezbollah gets some money from everywhere around the Middle East, the primary source is from the government of Iran.  And Iran gets it’s money from where?  Oil sales.  And who buys the bulk of the oil in the world?  The United States.  Which means every gallon of oil we pump into our SUVs lines Iran’s pockets to some greater or lesser extent.* And some of the money Iran gets from us goes to people like Hezbollah, the Badr Brigade, and the Mahdi Army (the former of Lebanon, the two latter are militias who have fought the Iraqi government and the U.S. military in Iraq).  And what’s the lesson we should learn from this unpleasant truth?  That only morons fund their enemies.

How expensive is gas again?

*The international oil market largely works like this:  every nation that pumps oil puts their oil into tankers and pipelines, and many tankers and pipelines accept oil from multiple nations at the same time.  Now, since we can track oil tankers and ensure that Iranian oil doesn’t hit our shores, we know we’re not using any Iranian oil.  But since the oil market is tied to demand and prices are largely set on a global basis, the more we drive up demand in the U.S., the more money Iran makes from oil sales.  And with Iran producing between 4% and 5% of the world’s oil, you can basically figure that they’re getting about $0.07 from every gallon of gasoline pumped in the world, assuming that crude oil accounts for about 50% of the total price/gallon at the pump.  So remember, every time you fill up your 31 gallon tank for your superSUV, you just indirectly paid Iran $6.50.

Monday, August 14, 2006

The Micro Pundit:  Scary Religious Folk

I’m not a fan of evangelical Christians.  My prior writing on this site and others makes this abundantly clear (and probably disqualifies me from ever holding political office in this country, unfortunately).  Sometimes I conclude that most evangelicals aren’t loonies, but then I stumble across things like this:  A Christian Site Grapples with Muslim Mysteries, from the New York Times.

In essence, the people quoted in the article believe that the end of the world is coming very soon, which would be fine with me except that people living for their deaths and who believe the end of the world is nigh tend not to care about what they do to the planet or to other people, and I find that outright immoral.  But the coming end times isn’t the meat of the story, as you can tell from the title of the article.  Nope, we’re going to hear about how some evangelicals on this site think that Muslims should be prevented from emmigrating and those here (even the citizens) should be spied on and eventually deported.  Thankfully, while I consider pretty much everyone on that site woefully misguided (as you might expect from someone who abandoned Christianity after concluding that God couldn’t exist, there are many people at the Rapture-Ready website who are NOT representative of the people quoted in the NYTimes article.

And if you’re interested in reading a little more, here you go (from the thread

I feel deeply saddened by the hatred that is fueled by all sides of this issue, and I fear there is no turning back on the road to major clashes between muslims, jewish & christians. I pray that God will shorten the days soon and spare as many as possible from sins’ oppresion. We are not capable as mere humans of rightfully judging and fixing this conflict. May our Lord Jesus come quickly and complete the mission His Father has asked of Him. (CitySearcher)

This is a great example of why I don’t like end-timers - CitySearcher belives that we cannot fix the Middle East conflict, and if only God can fix it, then why should we even try?  I find this belief immoral and unethical, and I reject it utterly.

I also feel sorry for Muslim women but I hestitate in offering a tract or witnessing to them; not for my own safety but for theirs. What would happen to them if their husband found a Christian tract in their possession? This religion teaches that human life is not sacred and that violence is the end all. (ShoutToTheLord)

Another great example, in this case of misunderstanding the Koran.  ShoutToTheLord (and many others on the site) is just as guilty of picking and choosing his/her Koranic verses to support his/her argument that Islam is a death cult as Osama bin Laden and the Taliban are.  If Christians can twist the Bible to support violence, is it any surprise that Muslims can do the same with the Koran?

What we have a problem with is, as a Christian, is that we see things differently than a Muslum. While we may pray for all unsaved people we do not see it as our relegious responsability either to win people for Christ or kill them. The muslums believe that all people should convert to Islam are be killed. We cannot have real peace with a Muslum. (Betty Lou)

Yet another example of rank misunderstanding of Muslims and the Koran.  I personally know many Muslims myself, both Sunni and Shi’a, and every one of them would take issue with Betty Lou’s comments about Muslims.  As would the vast majority of Muslims in the world.  But as with our own country, he (or she) who makes the most noise gets the most attention.  Quietly living your life according to your beliefs doesn’t usually get you noticed, and so the most extreme elements of a religion or society get noticed.

Islam is not like any other faith.
Islam’s goal is to take over countries one city after another untill Islam becomes the faith of choice. Join or die.
It’s happening in Europe, Indonesia, Africa, etc.
Islam is a cancer.
I can not say that of any other faith. (JesusIsLord)

As a member of a minority religion who often feels pressed in by the dominant faiths of the United States, I can personally say that Christianity’s goal is to take over countries one city after another until Christianity becomes the faith of choice.  It’s happening in Africa, Asia, and it happened in South America, North America, and Europe.  There was a time in Christianity’s history (and to some extent that time continues today) when Christianity was as much a cancer as Islam is perceived by JesusIsLord.  Any religion that tries to force me to adapt my behavior to match its morality is inherently oppressive, and I haven’t yet met an organized religion that doesn’t believe that everyone should believe as they do.

As I said early on, some people just plain scare me.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

The Micro-Pundit:  Liquids on Airplanes

With the few details that are coming out about the plots to bomb planes from the UK to the US, I’m not surprised that the Department of Homeland Security and the TSA have gone absolutely apeshit over liquids on planes.  After all, many (most?) binary explosives are in liquid form, and according to various explosives experts I heard interviewed on NPR today, binary explosives are very, very hard to detect.  So cutting out liquids is a good idea.

But what about parents with small children?  Sure, if you’re formula feeding, then you can theoretically bring on a small can of formula, but parents of a breast-fed child may need multiple bottles of breast milk, and those bottles might have to be destroyed, potentially leaving a child with too little milk to drink (especially if it’s dad who’s traveling with the kid insted of mom).  Sure, breast milk is expressly excluded from the restrictions for this reason, but to the best of my knowledge, you have to have the child with you, so working moms coming back from a business trip with pumped milk are at risk of being forced to throw out days worth of pumped breast milk.

And how about things like Oragel and Tylenol for teething babies?  No prescription options there, so they’re not allowed.  Nor is non-prescription diaper cream.  Or over-the-counter allergy medications and acid reflux medicine.  No prescription, no access.

And that’s just the problems for parents - what about people with life-saving medications like epinephrine autoinjectors?  Usually the pharmacy puts the lable around the box, not the injector itself, and most of the time the boxes get tossed.  So all of a sudden someone with a potentially lethal food allergy (like my wife) may be forced to throw out the only medicine that could keep them alive long enough for the plane to land.  Any other medicine where the lables are not usually put on the tube has this same problem.  Are inhalers included?

Now, to be fair, having a baby miserable and screaming is still a lot better than having a plane blow up, but as the husband of someone who needs her perscription but unlabeled medications with her at all times, I’m not willing to fly if she can’t take her drugs along - there have been too many times when people around us brought peanuts on board as snacks or when kids were served a peanutbutter sandwich as their in-flight snack.  Hopefully over the next few weeks, patients who need these kinds of medications will be able to get labels attached to them, but if we had to fly tomorrow without replacement, labeled drugs, I’m not sure we would be.

And what’s even scarier is that I can STILL think of a lot of ways to sneak a binary explosive on board.  Sure, it’s a little harder, but without disallowing ALL carry-on of all kinds, there’s no way I can see to stop a sufficiently determined psycho or terrorist from blowing up a plane.  After all, there is no such thing as perfect security.  All security is designed to make breaking the security not worth the effort, and if someone is willing to put any effort needed into breaking the security, it’s only a matter of time before the security is bypassed.

And yes, this does mean that it’s a matter of when another terrorist attack happens here in the U.S., not a matter of if.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

The Micro Pundit:  The Evolution of Kansas

In Kansas, the State School Board has 10 members, five of which are elected every two years to four year terms.  For the last several election cycles, control over the school board has swapped between moderates who support the teaching of science in science classes and socially conservative creationists who want to water down science in the service of religious indoctrination.  And so, every two years, Kansas creates new guidelines for teaching biology in public schools.

I weep for the kids unfortunate enough to be stuck in public school in Kansas.

Not because they are forced to deal with two years of bullshit “science” education when the creationists are in power (although that frustrates me to no end too), but because they have no continuity to their education.  Kansas, obviously a state that is pretty much split down the middle on this issue, is raising a generation of graduates who are scientifically illiterate through no fault of their own.  The graduates are suffering from educational split personality disorder.  And what’s worse, I don’t see any end to this any time soon.

The two sides are locked in a religious war and neither side is going to give in.  Yet in order for the Kansas public schools to get themselves back in some semblance of order, moderates on both sides of this particular conflict will need to look past their differences and come up with some compromise.  Until that happens and Kansas stops flfip-flopping every two years on the issue of evolution and creationism, Kansas will continue being the laughingstock of science education.