The supply chain for synthetic biology and life science technologies is quite Western-focused — labs in other parts of the world find it difficult to procure even fundamental tools for their fields. That’s why part of David Sun Kong and his lab’s work is focused on developing low-cost, open-source, and accessible technologies that scientists in these areas can make themselves. An example is Teja Jammalamadaka’s DNA electroporator, which uses a flyswatter as its energy source and only costs around 10 USD to make. Read full article here
Societal Issues
AI Predicts Crime A Week In Advance With 90 Per Cent Accuracy
An artificial intelligence model built by Ishanu Chattopadhyay and his colleagues analysed crime data in Chicago from 2014 to 2016 and managed to predict future levels of crime down to the nearest 300 metres, a week before they actually happened. While extremely useful, this artificial intelligence has been shown to expose racial prejudice in law enforcement. Hopefully, as the study’s data and methodology have been made available for others to evaluate, these prejudices can be avoided in the next iteration. Read full article here
Merv
August 15, 2022
