“The sleep of reason brings forth monsters” Goya’s famous painting never seemed so relevant as it does today, as humans divide themselves into mutually hating tribes in Europe, the Middle East and even the USA. “he that is quick to Anger exalteth folly” [1]. We here take the opposite view, Real progress is only achieved by slow, careful thought. And as evidence of that, we’d like to cite three examples, small in their own way of what can be done to fix real problems. When we pause to actually think, that is.
Seeing the cancer One of the most tragic moments in life is to here a cancer patient tell you “it’s come back” after an operation. This is not to blame the surgeons; it’s just that up to now they haven’t always been able to see all the cells. Now, according to Colin Fernandez of the Mail, a new technique will light up the tumorous cells, making them much easier to spot and excise altogether. By the way, some of this work was funded by Cancer Research UK,[2] a marvellous organisation whom we have often covered in these pages.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13511467/dye-prostate-cancer-tumours-glow-surgeons.html
Spotting the Cancer We have often hymned the praises of AI as well. Particularly in medical and biological research. One of its principal advantages is that it can carry out the routine stuff much faster than we can, without tiring. Kate Pickles of the Mail covers how it’s being applied to look at cancer scans to rapidly improve diagnostics. In the long term we could see AI applied to any number of laboratory techniques from Forensic science to Ecology, opening the way to boundless new knowledge and techniques
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13518481/AI-better-doctors-spotting-prostate-cancer.html
Concrete Batteries? After they lost the battle on the reality of global warming, Big Oil and its lackeys have waxed lyrical on how difficult the transition to clean energy might be. “yes you can make clean energy, but how are you going to store it?” they would sneer. Well, lots of ways, it has turned out. But one we never dreamed of was the very concrete that makes up our roads, bridges and homes themselves. Unbelievable as it may seem researchers at MIT are looking at new types of concrete which will store and release energy exactly as we need it. What price oil and gas now? This excellent piece is from Victor Tangerman of the Byte:
Thanks to P Seymour
https://futurism.com/the-byte/new-concrete-stores-electricity-homes-batteries
Tiny examples, perhaps. But the mark the dividing line between the Thoughtful and the Emotional. We’ll go with the former.
[1] Proverbs 14 29
#cancer #health #medicine #AI #global warming #climate change #renewables #concrete
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