Title: Seeing Crime Before It Happens(Technology)

URL: http://discovermagazine.com/2011/dec/02-big-idea-seeing-crime-before-it-happens

http://extensivereadingprogram.blogspot.com/2012/04/seeing-crime-before-it-happens.html?utm_source=BP_recent

Reading Time: 13minutes

Level of Difficulty: 3

Summary:

DHS was trying to develop a sensor called FAST to predict crimes through the subtlest of physical changes. In theory, FAST has the potential to detect terrorists in the final minutes before they act, but it denies that people have the capacity to control their own actions and to change their behavior in new environment. Although this technology has many problems , it is still worth pursuing.

Feedback/Comment:

Sensors judge a person who has criminal motivation only by measuring heart rate , breathing and some physical reactions. That sounds so skin-deep. Some people claim that people were friendly since they were born. However,others don’t think so. Anyway, only one thing is sure. That is ;environments have great impact on people and we can learn some fundamental concept of ethic through education. People who  disobey the law will be sent to the prison, but they are still miniority. It suggests that the majority of people can control their own actions. The system violates a basic tenet of personhood: free will. Thinking about one thing and actually doing are quite different. We can’t limit human’s freethinking. Even though this technology has many problems , it still has some deterrence. Just as you see a sign saying,“Video Surveillance Is in Operation”Whether the location set the surveillance camera or not,it still has a reductive effect. As a result , they are still worth pursuing.We shouldn’t deny their existence too early.

Discussion Issues

1. If this technology sensor is set in public, will it have positive effect?

Title: Misery index (Health)

URL: http://extensivereadingprogram.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-to-build-dog-science.html?utm_source=BP_recent

http://www.economist.com/node/21552539

Reading Time: 12minutes

Level of Difficulty: 3

Summary:

Biologists are starting to understand why low social status is bad for your health. To investigate this phenomenon relates to social hierarchies, scientists were searching for correlations between social rank and gene activity.Finally, they found that glucocorticoids, which regulate immune-system activity and response to stress played an important rule. However, the destiny wasn’t such absolute.They can be wiped away and changes in gene expression appropriate to the new status quickly followed. Those who do break free from their lowly station, then, may begin to reap the health benefits immediately.

Feedback/Comment:

The result is based on the research about macaques. After reading the article ,you would know that glucocorticoids and genes can control immune-system activity and response to stress. In particular, low-status individuals showed high levels of activity in genes associated with inflammation .It was the sign of sickness.As a result, it seems reasonable because most of the celebrity can face the challenge and make a good deal with friends. Moreover,they always put much attention on health and diet. Even though ,you were very intelligent and had a high status,you still needed to live longer.Otherwise,you may die first before your dream was realized. As with any animal study, this one cannot simply be mapped straight onto humans. But it does provide pointers that researchers who work on people can use. In particular, the experiment ensured that social rank was the only factor being changed, providing strong evidence that the chain of causality runs from low social status, through a disrupted immune system to worse health.In my opnion , whether your genes and immune system is bad or not, promotion and determination are still the most important factors.

 Discussion Issues

1. We observed monkeys and get the conclusion. Is it result suitable to human?

Title: Who Are We Really? (Science)

URL: http://extensivereadingprogram.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-to-build-dog-science.html?utm_source=BP_recent

http://the-scientist.com/2012/03/01/who-are-we-really/

Reading Time: 14minutes

Level of Difficulty: 3

Summary:

We have learned that the behavior and disease are controlled by gene. In fact ,living in and on the human body is an ecosystem of microorganisms. Because the consequences of even ostensibly benign genetic manipulations cannot be predicted with certainty.Research is currently investigating the potential role of microbes and the relation between disease and ecosystem of microorganisms.

Feedback/Comment:

Because the consequences of even ostensibly benign genetic manipulations cannot be predicted with certainty,we started to think about the changes to the human microbiome , especially to the microbiomes of infants and children, and whether such changes could offspring inherit.The effect of antibiotic is often judged by how permanent it will persist.However,it just presented that microbiomes  return to a fairly stable state. Babies  were  immediately colonized by microbes since they were given birth by female.In the case of cesarean section, different characteristic hosts a significantly different bacterial community. Hence, it is possible to exposure or lack of exposure to certain microbial communities may have important implications for health and illness later in life since it born. More important in the context is the possibility that if the adult microbiome is indeed relatively stable, then such early childhood manipulations of the microbiome may be used to engineer permanent changes that will be with the child throughout life. Although many of opinions were hypothetical, I believed that time will reveal these problems as research progressed rapidly.

Discussion Issues

1. Can human really control gene or microbiomes in the future?