Recently we received good news from the World Health Organization: on March 27th the world region that counts one-fourth of the population, South-East Asia, was certified as free of polio. This progress now means that 80% of people now live in certified polio-free regions. Polio (or poliomyelitis) is a viral disease that can affect a person’s nerves, leading […]
The sub-title reads, “The eradication of polio suggests ways to tackle even deadlier diseases.” That good news appeared recently in The Economist” (18 January). The anti-polio campaign in India started in 1995, with massive efforts and money poured into millions of doses of vaccine and the services of millions of vaccinators who administered the oral drops. […]
“Believe it or not, the electric storage battery — a technology that has been around since the eighteenth century — could change the economic course of the twenty-first century. Thanks to breakthroughs on the horizon, batteries qualify as one of 12 disruptive technologies that the McKinsey Global Institute has identified.” That paragraph is how a […]
Good news has been published about a vaccine that might help people with diabetes produce their own insulin. The injection helps reduce the number of cells that attack the needed insulin-producing cells. Diabetes occurs in people whose pancreas does not produce sufficient insulin or whose cells do not react to the insulin produced. Insulin is a hormone […]
“How would you run a whole country without oil?” That’s what Shai Agassi is asking. Agassi is the founder of Better Place, which has developed a model and infrastructure for using electric cars as an alternative to fossil fuel technology (see The Good Times story of August 2011). His answer is to convert an entire country (in […]
Biotechnology or biotech is not just the weird stuff that goes on in Michael Crichton novels (for example Jurassic Park, Next, Prey or The Andromeda Strain). According to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, it is “any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific […]
According to the large American company General Electric, ecomagination is the conglomerate’s “commitment to imagine and build innovative solutions to today’s environmental challenges while driving economic growth.” Here’s one imaginative feat highlighted on the ecomagination forum: Jeremy Rowsell, an Australian pilot and insurance industry executive, is planning to fly from Sydney to London on fuel made […]
In an article last March, I talked about the titanic telescope that is to be built in either southern Africa or Australia/New Zealand. Well, in late May, the members of the SKA organization announced that the world’s largest radio telescope would be built in BOTH southern Africa and Australia/New Zealand. In phase one, Australia will host the […]
