This week, the New York Times published a nice profile on Nobel Laureate Martin Chalfie at Columbia University. Chalfie shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry last year for his work on an amazing protein found in jellyfish called Green Fluorescent Protein, or GFP. The article is a great reminder of how very basic research on jellyfish and worms, of all things, yields invaluable scientific tools and knowledge.
GFP has the natural property of absorbing invisible ultraviolet light and producing green light – a discovery made in 1961 by Osamu Shimomura (who also shared the 2008 Nobel Award with Roger Tsien and Chalfie).
Chalfie’s “aha” moment, in 1989 at a department seminar, was a recognition that the light-producing properties of GFP could be harnessed as a sort of molecular flashlight. (Read more…)
In my past two blogs, I’ve outlined Google’s Clean Energy 2030 proposal for reducing carbon emissions and increasing renewable energy production in the US, and added my personal comments. Here’s a few more…let us know what you think.
I like the fuel efficiency standard of 45mpg by 2030, although from a technology standpoint I think it can go a bit higher, considering that Europe has set the same standards for 3 years from now. Obviously this is a behavior issue though, as Americans like large inefficient cars. Perhaps that will change in the next 20 years though, where we will find we can eclipse this mark. (Read more…)
This week my new computer showed up. I was excited to get it set up and start using it right away. There was only one problem. Before I could put my new computer on my desk, I had to pull apart all of the wires and cables, sort them out, and decide which ones were needed for the new computer. There was a power cable for the computer, a power cable for the monitor, a cable for the camera attached to the computer, power cables for the computer’s speakers, cables going to and from the USB hub, a cable connecting the computer to the printer and another cable to power the printer, and various cables for plugging in iPods, cameras, etc. There was even a loose cable tangled in with the others that seemed to have no purpose.
They were all in such a twisted mess that I was reminded why I kept them all stuffed down behind my desk and kept out of sight. Untangling all of the cables and then figuring out how to connect them all to my new computer was the most time consuming part of installing the computer. If only someone would invent a way to power a computer and all of the peripheral devices without the need for all of the cables. What if there were such a thing as wireless transmission of electricity? (Read more…)
In advance of President Obama’s national speech on health care reform tonight, I thought I’d direct your attention to a cleverly-written piece in the New York Times a few weeks back, “A Common Sense American Health Reform Plan.” Author and economist Uwe Reinahardt pokes a little fun at the idea that our health care reform plan should be guided by good ol’ American common sense.
My favorites on his tongue-in-cheek All-American Wish List for Health Reform:
4. Cost-effectiveness analysis should never be the basis of any coverage decision by public or private third-party payers in health care, for to do so would put a price on human life — which, in America, unlike everywhere else, is priceless.
7. Government should stay out of health care. Specifically, government should not control health care prices, nor should it increase its spending on health care, which is out of control.
On the topic of health care reform, NU’s medical school recently hosted Dr. Stephen L. Ondra, spinal surgeon and Senior Policy Advisor for Health Affairs in the Department of Veterans Affairs. Ondra delivered the keynote address at our medical school convocation, making several key points. (Read more…)
