Category Archives: Transhuman News

Growing up in Tanzania, I knew that fruit trees were useful. Climbing a mango tree to pick a fruit was a common thing to do when I was hungry, even though at times there were unintended consequences. My failure to resist consuming unripened fruit, for example, caused my stomach to hurt. With such incidents becoming frequent, it was helpful to learn from my mother that consuming the leaves of a particular plant helped alleviate my stomach pain.

This lesson helped me appreciate the medicinal value of plants. However, I also witnessed my family and neighboring farmers clearing the land by slashing and burning unwanted trees and shrubs, seemingly unaware of their medicinal value, to create space for food crops.

But this lack of appreciation for the medicinal value of plants extends beyond my childhood community. As fires continue to burn in the Amazon and land is cleared for agriculture, most of the concerns have focused on the drop in global oxygen production if swaths of the forests disappear. But Im also worried about the loss of potential medicines that are plentiful in forests and have not yet been discovered. Plants and humans also share many genes, so it may be possible to test various medicines in plants, providing a new strategy for drug testing.

As a plant physiologist, I am interested in plant biodiversity because of the potential to develop more resilient and nutritious crops. I am also interested in plant biodiversity because of its contribution to human health. About 80% of the world population relies on compounds derived from plants for medicines to treat various ailments, such as malaria and cancer, and to suppress pain.

One of the greatest challenges in fighting diseases is the emergence of drug resistance that renders treatment ineffective. Physicians have observed drug resistance in the fight against malaria, cancer, tuberculosis and fungal infections. It is likely that drug resistance will emerge with other diseases, forcing researchers to find new medicines.

Plants are a rich source of new and diverse compounds that may prove to have medicinal properties or serve as building blocks for new drugs. And, as tropical rainforests are the largest reservoir of diverse species of plants, preserving biodiversity in tropical forests is important to ensure the supply of medicines of the future.

The goal of my own research is to understand how plants control the production of biochemical compounds called sterols. Humans produce one sterol, called cholesterol, which has functions including formation of testosterone and progesterone - hormones essential for normal body function. By contrast, plants produce a diverse array of sterols, including sitosterol, stigmasterol, campesterol, and cholesterol. These sterols are used for plant growth and defense against stress but also serve as precursors to medicinal compounds such as those found in the Indian Ayurvedic medicinal plant, ashwagandha.

Humans produce cholesterol through a string of genes, and some of these genes produce proteins that are the target of medicines for treating high cholesterol. Plants also use this collection of genes to make their sterols. In fact, the sterol production systems in plants and humans are so similar that medicines used to treat high cholesterol in people also block sterol production in plant cells.

I am fascinated by the similarities between how humans and plants manufacture sterols, because identifying new medicines that block sterol production in plants might lead to medicines to treat high cholesterol in humans.

An example of a gene with medical implications that is present in both plants and humans is NPC1, which controls the transport of cholesterol. However, the protein made by the NPC1 gene is also the doorway through which the Ebola virus infects cells. Since plants contain NPC1 genes, they represent potential systems for developing and testing new medicines to block Ebola.

This will involve identifying new chemical compounds that interfere with plant NPC1. This can be done by extracting chemical compounds from plants and testing whether they can effectively prevent the Ebola virus from infecting cells.

There are many conditions that might benefit from plant research, including high cholesterol, cancer and even infectious diseases such as Ebola, all of which have significant global impact. To treat high cholesterol, medicines called statins are used. Statins may also help to fight cancer. However, not all patients tolerate statins, which means that alternative therapies must be developed.

The need for new medicines to combat heart disease and cancer is dire. A rich and diverse source of chemicals can be found in natural plant products. With knowledge of genes and enzymes that make medicinal compounds in native plant species, scientists can apply genetic engineering approaches to increase their production in a sustainable manner.

Tropical rainforests house vast biodiversity of plants, but this diversity faces significant threat from human activity.

To help students in my genetics and biotechnology class appreciate the value of plants in medical research, I refer to findings from my research on plant sterols. My goal is to help them recognize that many cellular processes are similar between plants and humans. My hope is that, by learning that plants and animals share similar genes and metabolic pathways with health implications, my students will value plants as a source of medicines and become advocates for preservation of plant biodiversity.

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Dwindling tropical rainforests mean lost medicines yet to be discovered in their plants - The Conversation US

What happened

Shares of Precision BioSciences (NASDAQ:DTIL) rose as much as 19.5% today, as the company continues to benefit from its pipeline update that took place on Nov. 6. The gene-editing company released initial clinical data from its first drug candidate, PBCAR0191, demonstrating its potential to treat cancers of white blood cells, such as non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).

Two of the three patients in the low-dose cohort achieved an objective tumor response, while the third showed signs of anti-tumor activity. That's about as good as the company could have hoped for in the early stages of development. It's also reminding investors that CRISPR gene editing isn't the only game in town -- and that Precision BioSciences' specific approach could prove valuable in engineering immunotherapies.

As of 1:40 p.m. EST, the stock had settled to a 16.9% gain. The gene-editing stock is up 70% since the beginning of November.

Image source: Getty Images.

Precision BioSciences is developing the ARCUS gene-editing platform, which offers several potential advantages over the more familiar CRISPR-Cas9 tools. The cutting enzymes are smaller, which makes it easier to deliver the genetic medicines. The enzymes don't make a double-stranded break in DNA, which could improve safety. It has also proven to be more accurate and more efficient at making genetic edits. And it's not subject to the bitter patent disputes and tangled web of licensing agreements affecting CRISPR tools.

In addition to those advantages, Precision BioSciences has wisely chosen to focus initially on engineering immunotherapies, rather than on directly editing cells in a patient's body. That gives researchers more control over the edits being made, and allows for a more homogeneous product.

The lead drug candidate, PBCAR0191, applies the ARCUS gene-editing platform to chimeric antigen receptor T cells. The idea is to engineer CAR-T cells to overcome their single largest limitation: strict patient matching requirements. By editing the surface of CAR-T cells, it may be possible to manufacture a product that can be used by any patient. The "off-the-shelf" approach could be combined with other genetic edits to make immunotherapy, already a promising treatment paradigm, the preferred treatment option for white-blood-cell cancers in the long run.

Investors shouldn't get too carried away; Precision BioSciences has only reported limited data from just three patients. It plans on presenting additional results from the ongoing phase 1/2 trial on Dec. 9 at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), including results from the same three patients in the low-dose cohort and patients in the cohort with the next highest dose.

But that doesn't mean the current rally is unsustainable. Considering the gene-editing company had a market cap of just $325 million at the beginning of November, the stock's ascension could simply be a sign of investors nodding to the potential of the ARCUS platform.

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Here's Why Precision BioSciences Is Soaring Today - The Motley Fool

Across the US, more than 100,000 people are awaiting organ transplants. But there simply arent enough hearts, lungs, livers, and kidneys to meet demand, and 20 people die every day without the organs they need. For decades, scientists have dreamed of using animals to help fill the gap. Theyve been particularly interested in harvesting organs from pigs, whose physiology is similar to our own. Unfortunately, pigs also present some big biological challenges, including the fact that their genomes are chock full of genes that code for what are known as retroviruses, which could pose a serious threat to patients who receive porcine organs.

In 2015, George Church, a geneticist at Harvard University, announced a stunning breakthrough: Working with pig cells, he and his colleagues had managed to disable 62 copies of a retrovirus gene in one fell swoop. This would have been virtually impossible and a logistical nightmare with older forms of genetic modification, writes Nessa Carey in her new book, Hacking the Code of Life: How Gene Editing Will Rewrite Our Futures. But by using the new gene editing technology known as Crispr, the task was a relative cinch.

Nessa CareyHacking the Code of LifeIcon Books

Its just one example of how gene editing is giving us the power to alter the genome with unprecedented speed and precision. Carey, a biologist with a background in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, offersa brisk, accessible primer on the fast-moving field, a clear-eyed look at a technology that is already driving major scientific advances and raising complex ethical questions

Its giving every biologist in the world the tools to answer in a few months questions that some scientists have spent half their careers trying to address, Carey writes. Its fueling new ways to tackle problems in fields as diverse as agriculture and cancer treatments. Its a story that began with curiosity, accelerated with ambition, will make some individuals and institutions extraordinarily wealthy, and will touch all our lives.

Though there are several different approaches to gene editing, the most prominent and the one that really supercharged the field is Crispr. The technique, based on an anti-viral defence system thats naturally present in bacteria, requires two pieces of biological material: an enzyme that acts as a pair of minuscule scissors, slicing strands of DNA in two; and a guide molecule that tells the enzyme where to cut.

In bacteria, these guide molecules direct the enzyme to chop up the genomes of invading viruses, preventing them from replicating.

But in 2012 and 2013, two teams of scientists reported that it was possible to hack this system to slice into any strand of DNA, at any complementary location they chose. Researchers could, for instance, create a guide molecule that steered the enzyme to one specific gene in the mouse genome and insert the editing machinery into a mouse cell; the enzyme would then make its cut at that exact spot.

Also Read: Is There More to Gene Editing Than Creating Designer Humans?

The cell would repair the severed DNA, but it would do so imperfectly, disabling the gene in question. In the years that followed, scientists refined the technique, learning to use it not only to inactivate genes but also to insert new genetic material at specific locations along the genome.

The approach is cheaper, easier, and faster than older methods of genetic engineering, which were first developed in the 1970s. In addition, as Carey explains, it can be used to create smaller modifications to the genome, and leaves fewer extraneous genetic elements. In its most technically exquisite form, gene editing leaves no molecular trace at all. It may just change, in a precisely controlled manner, one letter of the genetic alphabet.

But in 2012 and 2013, two teams of scientists reported that it was possible to slice into any strand of DNA. Photo: qimono/pixabay

The applications are almost endless. Gene editing has immense potential for basic research; scientists can learn a lot about what genes do by selectively disabling them. In addition, researchers have used the technology to create a wide variety of organisms that could become valuable agricultural commodities, including mushrooms that dont brown; wheat that produces fewer gluten proteins; drought tolerant, high-yield rice and corn; disease-resistant pigs; and super muscular goats.

How these products will do on the market if they ever reach it remains uncertain. Globally, gene-edited organisms are regulated by a patchwork of conflicting rules. For instance, in 2018, the US Department of Agriculture announced that it would not regulate gene-edited crops that could otherwise have been developed through traditional breeding techniques. A few months later, however, the European Union said that it would subject gene-edited plants to stringent restrictions.

Beyond agriculture, gene editing has enormous potential for medicine. It might, for instance, become a much-needed treatment for sickle cell disease. That painful, debilitating disease results from a genetic mutation that causes patients to produce a deformed version of haemoglobin, a protein that helps red blood cells transport oxygen. In a clinical trial currently underway, scientists are removing stem cells from the bone marrow of sickle cell patients, using Crispr to edit them, and then infusing the edited cells back into patients.

Also Read: Explainer: What Is CRISPR and How Does It Work?

Even if this trial succeeds, however, gene editing will not be a cure-all. It doesnt always work perfectly and can be challenging to administer directly to living humans (which is why some scientists are instead editing patients cells outside the body). Moreover, many diseases are caused by complex interactions between multiple genes, or genes and the environment. In fact, many of the most common and debilitating conditions arent likely to be good candidates for gene editing any time soon, Carey writes.

And, of course, the ethics of human gene editing can be enormously fraught. Thats especially true when scientists modify sperm cells, egg cells, or early embryos, making tweaks that could be passed down to subsequent generations. This kind of gene editing could theoretically cure some absolutely devastating genetic conditions, but we still have a lot to learn about its safety and effectiveness. It also raises a host of difficult questions about consent (an embryo obviously cannot give it), inequality (who will have access to the technology?), and discrimination (what will the ability to edit a gene related to deafness mean for deaf people, deaf culture, and the disability rights movement more broadly?).

Even in the face of these questions, at least one scientist has already forged ahead. In November 2018, He Jiankui, a researcher then at the Southern University of Science and Technology in China, shocked the world by announcing that the worlds first gene-edited babies twin girls, who He called Nana and Lulu had already been born. Months earlier, when Nana and Lulu were just embryos, He had edited their CCR5 genes, which code for a protein that allows HIV to infect human cells. By disabling the gene, He hoped to engineer humans who would be protected from HIV infection.

Also Read: How a Rogue Chinese Experiment Might Affect Gene-Based Therapies in India

The outcry was swift and harsh. Scientists alleged that Hes science was sloppy and unethical, putting two human beings at unnecessary risk. After all, there are already plenty of ways to prevent HIV transmission, and the CCR5 protein is known to have some benefits, including protecting against the flu. And He had raced ahead of the experts who were still trying to work out careful ethical guidelines for editing human embryos. He Jiankui has shot this measured approach to pieces with his announcement, and now the rest of the scientific community is on the back foot, trying to reassure the public and to create consensus rapidly, Carey writes.

Scientist He Jiankui attends the International Summit on Human Genome Editing at the University of Hong Kong on November 28, 2018. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

Hacking the Code of Lifedoesnt break much new ground, and for readers who have been paying attention to Crispr over the past few years, little in the book will come as a surprise. But it does provide a broad, even-handed overview of how much has already happened in a field that is less than ten years old.

Carey swats down the most dystopian dreams about Crispr, like the prospect that criminals might edit their own DNA to evade justice. Shes similarly skeptical that well end up using the technology to create super-beings with enhanced genomes that will make them taller, faster, more attractive.

We actually understand very little about the genetic basis of these traits and what we do know suggests that it will be very difficult to enhance humans in this way, she writes.

But she also acknowledges real risks, including the possibility that the technique could be used to create dangerous bioweapons, that gene-edited organisms could destabilise natural ecosystems, and that our new, hardy crops could prompt us to convert even more of the Earths undeveloped places into farmland.

None of this means that the technology should be abandoned; it has immense potential to improve our lives, as the book makes clear. But it does mean we need to proceed with caution. As Carey writes, Ideally, ethics should not be dragged along in the wake of scientific advances; the two should progress together, informing one another.

Emily Anthes, who has written for Undark, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Wired, and Scientific American, among other publications, is the author of the forthcoming book The Great Indoors.

This article was originally published on Undark. Read the original article.

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How Gene Editing Is Changing the World - The Wire

Upon meeting for the first time at a dinner at Stanford earlier this year, Fei-Fei Li and Jennifer Doudna couldnt help but note the remarkable parallels in their experiences as scientists.

Stanfords Fei-Fei Li and Jennifer Doudna of UC Berkeley will discuss the ethics of artificial intelligence and CRISPR technology. (Image credit: Getty Images)

Both women helped kickstart twin revolutions that are profoundly reshaping society in the 21st century Li in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and Doudna in the life sciences. Both revolutions can be traced back to 2012, the year that computer scientists collectively recognized the power of Lis approach to training computer vision algorithms and that Doudna drew attention to a new gene-editing tool known as CRISPR-Cas9 (CRISPR for short). Both pioneering scientists are also driven by a growing urgency to raise awareness about the ethical dangers of the technologies they helped create.

It was just incredible to hear how similar our stories were. Not just the timing of our scientific discoveries, but also our sense of responsibility for the ethics of the science are just so similar, said Li, who is a professor of computer science at Stanfords School of Engineering and co-director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI).

The ethical angle to what we were doing was not something that either of us anticipated but that we found ourselves quickly drawn to, said Doudna, who is a professor of chemistry and of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley.

The echoes between Li and Doudnas lives were also not lost on the dinner host that night, Stanford political science professor Rob Reich, who invited the pair to resume their conversation in public. Their talk, titled CRISPR, AI, and the Ethics of Scientific Discovery, will take place at Stanford on Nov. 19 and will be moderated by Stanford bioengineering professor Russ Altman(livestream will be available here).

The event is organized by the Stanford McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society and HAI and is part of the Ethics, Society & Technology Integrative Hub that arose from the universitys Long-Range Vision.

The subject of the lecture hits the sweet spot of what the Integrative Hubs work is about, which is to cultivate and support the large community of faculty and students who work at the intersection of ethics, society and technology, said Reich, who directs the Center for Ethics in Society and co-directs the Integrative Hub.

I cant think of two better people to engage in a conversation and to really take seriously these questions of how, as you discover the effects of what youve created, do you bring ethical implications and societal consequences into the discussion? said Margaret Levi, a professor of political science at Stanfords School of Humanities and Sciences. Levi is also the Sara Miller McCune Director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and co-director of the Integrative Hub.

Fei-Fei Li is a professor of computer science and co-director of Stanfords Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)

In 2006, Li wondered if computers could be taught to see the same way that children do through early exposure to countless objects and scenes, from which they could deduce visual rules and relationships. Her idea ran counter to the approach taken by most AI researchers at the time, which was to create increasingly customized computer algorithms for identifying specific objects in images.

Lis insight culminated in the creation of ImageNet, a massive dataset consisting of millions of training images, and an international computer vision competition of the same name. In 2012, the winner of the ImageNet contest beat competitors by a wide margin by training a type of AI known as a deep neural network on Lis dataset.

Li immediately understood that an important milestone in her field had just been reached, and despite being on maternity leave at Stanford, flew to Florence, Italy, to attend the award ceremony in person. I bought a last-minute ticket, Li said. I was literally on the ground for about 18 hours before flying back.

Computer vision and image recognition are largely responsible for AIs rapid ascent in recent years. They enable self-driving cars to detect objects, Facebook to tag people in photos and shopping apps to identify real-world objects using a phones camera.

Within a year or so of when the ImageNet result was announced, there was an exponential growth of interest and investment into this technology from the private industry, Li said. We recognized that AI had gone through a phase shift, from being a niche scientific field to a potential transformative force of our industry.

The field of biology underwent its own phase shift in the summer of 2012 when Doudna and her colleagues published a groundbreaking paper in the journal Science that described how components of an ancient antiviral defense system in microbes could be programmed to cut and splice DNA in any living organism, including humans, with surgical precision. CRISPR made genomes as malleable as a piece of literary prose at the mercy of an editors red pen, Doudna would later write.

CRISPR could one day enable scientists to cure myriad genetic diseases, eradicate mosquito-borne illnesses, create pest-resistant plants and resurrect extinct species. But it also raises the specter of customizable designer babies and lasting changes to the human genetic code through so-called germline editing, or edits made to reproductive cells that are transmitted to future generations.

This bioethics nightmare scenario was realized last fall when a Chinese researcher declared that he had used CRISPR to edit the genomes of twin girls in order to make them resistant to HIV. Doudna decried the act but allows that her own views on germline editing are still evolving.

Ive gone from thinking never, ever to thinking that there could be circumstances that would warrant that kind of genome editing, she said. But it would have to be under circumstances where there was a clear medical need that was unmet by any other means and the technology would have to be safe.

Both Li and Doudna fervently believe in the potential of their technologies to benefit society. But they also fear CRISPR and AI could be abused to fuel discrimination and exacerbate social inequalities.

The details are different for CRISPR and AI, but I think those concerns really apply to both, Doudna said.

Rather than just leaving such concerns to others to work out, both scientists have stepped outside of the comfort of their labs and taken actions to help ensure their worst fears dont come to pass. I almost feel that at this point of history I need to do this, not that its my natural tendency, Li said. It really is about our collective future due to technology.

Both scientists have testified before Congress about the possibilities and perils of their technologies. Li also co-launched a nonprofit called AI4All to increase inclusion and diversity among computer engineers and she co-directs Stanford HAI, which aims to develop human-centered AI technologies and applications. Doudna spends significant time talking to colleagues, students and the public about CRISPR. In 2015 she organized the first conference to discuss the safety and ethics of CRISPR genome editing.

Because we were involved in the origins of CRISPR, I felt it was especially important for my colleagues and me to be part of that discussion and really help to lead it, Doudna said. I asked myself, If I dont do it, who will?

To read all stories about Stanford science, subscribe to the biweekly Stanford Science Digest.

Altman is the Kenneth Fong Professor of Bioengineering, Genetics, Medicine, Biomedical Data Science and host of the Stanford Engineering radio show The Future of Everything. Levi is a member of Stanford Bio-X, the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, and the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Li is the Sequoia Capital Professor at Stanford and a member of Stanford Bio-X and the Wu-Tsai Neurosciences Institute.

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AI and gene-editing pioneers to discuss ethics - Stanford University News

In August of this year, Gail Bradbrook, a co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, called for the widespread ingestion of psychedelic substances to help bring about a transformation in attitudes to the climate crisis and the living world. The proposal may sound far-fetched, but it has some science behind it. Studies show that, in the right setting, psychedelics can not only be effective against addiction and depression but can also help people feel more connected to nature. Yet the living world of tropical coral reefs surpasses in wonder and beauty anything engendered in the human mind by psychedelics. As the evolutionary biologist Leslie Orgel once said, evolution is cleverer than you are. A reef will convince you that it also has a bigger, stranger and subtler imagination.

Most damage of the last couple of decades has been from manageable stresses like pollution, overfishing and development

There are few better guides to the glories of reefs than Callum Roberts. Reef Life is a vibrant memoir of the joys, as well as the grind, of a research career beginning in the 1980s that has spanned a golden age of coral reef science. It is also a fine introduction to the ecology of reefs and the existential threats they now face. Roberts is well equipped for the task. He is chief scientific adviser to Blue Planet II, and has given us two of the best books in the last 15 years about the ecology of the sea and its fate in human hands: An Unnatural History of the Sea and Ocean of Life.

Roberts revels in the details of life on a coral reef. A mantis shrimp, for instance, has a carapace of mottled green edged with a thin red line like the piping on an iced cake. Its eyes, frosted glass balls on blue stalks, marked with a horizontal line like the slot of a helmet visor, give it an almost supernatural power to see linear and circularly polarised light. This book also addresses the major questions regarding human responsibility and possibilities for change. We live at what is probably the zenith of coral reef evolution in hundreds of millions of years in terms of their diversity and productivity, but human action might bring this all to an end within a few generations: It is an extraordinary position that I still grapple with daily to understand.

Coral reefs are, arguably, lifes greatest miracle. Hugely productive ecosystems in nutrient-poor waters, they harbour a quarter of all marine diversity in less than 0.1% of the oceans extent. On a healthy reef, top predators such as sharks are abundant, while life lower down the food chain appears to be scarce a seeming inversion of the pyramid were familiar with on land, where a vast savannah supports a herd of wildebeest, but only a few lions or leopards. (The solution to the apparent paradox is that life at the lower trophic levels on reefs provides abundant resources for predators but turns over very fast.)

Despite their intense vibrancy, reefs are also vulnerable, both to direct human impacts such as overfishing, pollution and insensitive development, and to indirect impacts of the large-scale combustion of fossil fuels, which result in global heating and changes to ocean chemistry. In the past four decades, three pulses of heat have devastated many reefs around the world, including, in 2016 and 2017, the Great Barrier Reef. The risk to their future is unlike anything they have experienced in millions of years.

There is already a rich literature, and to a lesser extent a filmography, on the threats they face and what, if anything, can best protect them. Among the highlights are John Charlie Verons sober and devastating A Reef in Time, the gripping documentary film Chasing Coral, and Coral Whisperers, Irus Bravermans fluent account of 100 or so interviews with leading scientists and conservation managers. Journalists continue to document how the destruction of reefs impacts on the mental health of researchers, who report ecological grief. Roberts is a humorous, determined expert, who has spent more than three decades trying to come to terms with such issues. As his book begins, he is a fresh-faced student assisting in some of the first detailed studies of coral reefs on the Saudi Arabian coast of the Red Sea. Working in harsh conditions, blundering into embarrassing situations and sometimes exposing himself to danger, he is carried forward by thunderclaps of wonder. A few years later, and now a respected marine biologist, he is assessing the aftermath of the huge releases of oil into the Persian Gulf by Saddam Husseins forces as they fled from Kuwait in the first Gulf war. Remarkably, some of the reefs here among the most northern in the world survive, having escaped the tide of pollution.

Further adventures, from the Caribbean to the Maldives and far beyond, follow. In 2013, Roberts is in Australia supporting scientists and environmentalists who are trying to slow and even reverse the impact on the Great Barrier Reef of the development of new port facilities for the export of coal. By this time, scientists are warning that even a relatively small increase in the global average temperature, let alone the 2 Celsius or more that now looks probable, is likely to have a devastating impact on most of the worlds reefs. Roberts finds himself deployed as part of what turns out to be an effective campaign to change minds regarding the proposed coastal development; by 2015 the opposition Labor Party come to power with a promise to protect the reef. It is poignant to read this in 2019, long after Australian voters have returned a government that does not appear to believe that the climate crisis should be a cause for concern.

I dont know a single coral expert who is not haunted by doubt, Roberts writes. It is already possible to glimpse the most dystopian of futures. But, he stresses, there are hopeful strands. It has been found, for example that some corals can survive in hotter and more acidic waters than was previously thought. Further acclimation and adaptation may be possible in some instances. Genetic engineering to make more heat-resistant corals may be feasible, though controversial. But above all, according to Roberts, there is a role for well-managed marine parks. Most coral reef damage of the last couple of decades has been from manageable stresses like pollution, overfishing and development rather than climate change. Where these pressures are reduced, corals and the endless forms of life they support have a fighting chance.

In a moving penultimate chapter, he describes a visit to Palmyra Atoll in the Pacific, the worlds most isolated reef, and currently among its most intact. Palmyra is part of a huge US conservation zone called the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. Roberts, with his irrepressible warmth and passion, concludes: Now is the time for action, not mourning. There is everything to play for.

Reef Life: An Underwater Memoir by Callum Roberts is published by Profile (16.99) To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com or call 020-3176 3837. Free UK p&p over 10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of 1.99.

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Reef Life by Callum Roberts review miraculous and threatened - The Guardian

For the first time human life changed significantly in the 20th century after several centuries of incremental progress. After hundreds of years of social, economic and political change, technology was the harbinger of a complete transformation. Commercial electricity, automobiles, aircraft, refrigeration, radar, sound recording, radio, film, television, x-rays, rayon, aspirin, antibiotics, organ transplants, transistors, microchips, nuclear power, spaceflights, genetic engineering, ATMs, credit cards, mobile phone, computers, robotics Internet and the whole gamut of digital services, around which our lives revolve all in the course of a few decades altered our human society. The speed of change has only increased. Since the turn of the millennium, we have already discarded some of the things which came into existence in our childhood. E-commerce shared services and AI are creating a new ecosystem of 24 & 7 engagement and consumption. What will come in the next 10 years will supersede a lot of what came in fifty years earlier, including some products and services we consider au courant and new age today.

The most obvious change in the next decade will still be in the digital domain. While it may seem that we are already submerged in a sea of devices and media constantly glaring at us through various screens. The next iteration of all such familiar services will be smarter, effective and personal. With faster and more powerful microchips AI (Artificial Intelligence) will be the framework of tomorrow's mindscape. What exactly is AI? Simply put AI is the use of massive amounts of data that is processed through machine learning to mimic human intelligence. A computer or any other device with a microchip to process data acquires an ability to respond to certain actions and behavior through the use of algorithms in a manner the user would have in a similar situation. We already see AI being used in several home appliances or even websites like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and online news services. Depending on your viewing pattern content is served (and suggested) for you to read, listen or watch. Newer models of cars have AI embedded in their navigation system. In the years to come most of our mundane and routine tasks will be done by machines, often very inexpensive and omnipresent. Much of the tedium and often dangerous work will be tackled by AI-assisted service providers and devices. Smart homes and cities which for example Prime Minister Modi keeps talking about are not some Utopian dreams but tomorrow's reality.

Sine 2015-16 we are using Web 3.0 as the overlay of our digital universe. This is a Semantic web that incorporates Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Data Mining, Natural Language Search and Machine Learning technologies, Social Media, Internet of Things (IoT) and other customized online services including social media and streaming services. By 2025 we should usher in Web 4.0. This next development of the Internet will create services that will be autonomous, proactive, self-learning, collaborative and safe and secure, interacting with sensors and implants, natural-language services, or virtual reality. In simple terms, it means self-driving cars, remote diagnostics, and surgery, instant accounting, virtual reality in films and gaming, curated content and commerce, voice-activated devices and services, virtual assistants, digital concierge, and smart homes and offices. Blockchain ensures flawless data analytics and transparency in every transaction. From utility bills to land records, banking to governance all enabled seamlessly. The role of JAM (Jandhan Bank Account, Aadhar, and Mobile) along with India stack is what will enable the big leap forward in India-similar initiatives at different scales elsewhere too. While most are familiar with JAM, India Stack is less known. This truly empowering technology is the creation of a unified software platform that brings a billion-plus Indians into the digital age. A set of API (application programming interface)s that allows governments, businesses, start-ups, shop keepers, merchants and traders and soon farmers to utilize a unique digital Infrastructure to solve India's hard problems. Initially championed by Nandan Nilekani India Stacks is going to be a force multiplier in our lives tomorrow. Almost any service can be used anywhere in the world using a particular API and this infrastructure is cheap and convenient. There are concerns about privacy and data theft which I will tackle later in this article.

One of the fundamental principles of anything which is shared is trust. In a networked society that is increasingly based on a transactional economy or shared information, it is imperative that this trust is not only apparent but is inbuilt in the architecture of all contracts, monetary or otherwise. Today and in future blockchain provides trust and transparency. In a way similar to how Wikipedia is built where anyone can identify herself and participate in creating a shared resource, a blockchain, too, is just an immutable of record of data that is managed by cluster (or more) of computers and every bit of this data is simultaneously visible to all who are a part of the particular blockchain. It's a shared ledger that transparently records every transaction in real-time. Since each block of data is secured and bound to each other using cryptography it is entirely trustworthy. Blockchain is now used in social networks, banking, e-commerce, governance, Industry, security, trade, taxation, storage platforms, Intellectual Property Protection (IPR), education, content production, and distribution. In the next few years, blockchain will be the digital backbone of our existence. Cryptocurrency Bitcoin was the first to popularize blockchain but even in 2019, it is a bit unconventional to find mass acceptance. In India for example blockchain in the years to come will allow instant polling in a fully transparent manner eliminating a lot of costs and political bickering. Internet of Things (IoT) is dependent on blockchain as is autonomous mobility.

In the last 50 years owing to advances in science and technology-enabled healthcare humans are living longer. Thus for the first time, the world is faced with a demographic dilemma. How to take care of an increased number of geriatrics even as it grapples to treat millions of people suffering from various small and terminal ailments. There have been substantial breakthroughs in medicine. Vaccines for diseases like smallpox, measles, rotavirus, polio, yellow fever, rabies, hepatitis, HIV to common ailments like influenza and pneumonia are saving millions of lives every year. Digital technology is now routinely used for diagnostics. CAT Scan, MRI, Ultra Sound Scan, Doppler have in the recent past changed both the speed and accuracy of curative and palliative care. In the coming years, not only smartphones but other inexpensive wearables will allow almost anyone to monitor body functions. Blockchain will allow a healthcare professionals with access to a mobile phone to access the most advanced advice. Robotic surgery will in the next decade become miniaturized and much more ubiquitous. The most pressing need for the healthcare industry is to upgrade skills. Medical education has to move beyond Gray's Anatomy and stethoscope to next-gen healthcare. 60 percent of the world's population still has little access to a doctor or a hospital. Broadband and blockchain will empower even a paramedic or midwife to be able to provide first point care to the sick and injured. New digital tools paired with AI analytics will almost certainly boost diagnosticians' accuracy and speed, improving disease detection at early stages and thus raising the odds of successful treatment or cure.

Living well and longer are two primordial human obsessions. Helping us to be healthier for longer in the next decade will be rapid advances in genetic engineering, new age diagnostics, and stem cell therapy. As more research is done in genomics, microbiome and molecular biology we can expect the beginning of a new range of pharmaceuticals. Although we have had pacemakers and other simple implantable devices like contact lenses and cochlear aids for years the next decade will see the advent of IEMDs such as phrenic nerve stimulation to restore breathing function in patients with breathing disorders, glucose sensors for diabetics, sacral nerve stimulation for patients with bladder disorders, and implantable drug delivery systems. Epilepsy, Alzheimer's and other neurological illnesses will be treated by electrochemical sensors and miniature tissue oxygenators and drug delivery systems will be introduced within the next decade. Immunology, 3 D printed organs and Cancer treatment are other areas where data analytics and web-based tools will help tomorrow's healthcare professionals a lot. For billions of people around the world, these small scientific interventions may be the difference between life and death. However, the physical presence and skill of a doctor will be the basis of all technological advancements in medicine. In fact, technology is opening up several new opportunities for employment in diagnostic centers in small towns, even villages, online supply and delivery of medicines and other medical goods. Riding on Internet schemes like Ayushman Bharat will not only provide affordable healthcare to the poorer sections of India but also provide employment to young paramedics, nurses, pharmacists and other health professionals across various touchpoints.

There are other changes in the offing. Most of these too are web-based technologies like cloud computing, AI, VR, Blockchain, Robotics, and Machine learning. According to a McKinsey report released in 2017, 800 million people around the world will lose their jobs in ten years due to automation. I believe while the actual job losses will exceed a billion, several hundred million will get redeployed in other jobs that the digital value chain creates. We have seen while e-commerce has displaced traditional merchants and shopkeepers, it has created perhaps a larger number of jobs in logistics, customer experience, and transportation. In India hundreds of thousands of artisans, craftspeople and small merchants were getting bogged down by a shortage of capital or changing of customer preferences. I recently bought a handcrafted lace table cloth from Amazon. After that, I got a message from an artisan based in South India who was the actual supplier. He messaged me a list of other items he could custom make for me and I did place a small order with him directly. When I called him up he said Amazon has changed his life by enlarging his customer base manifold that he now employs 12 people in his new workshop. In the last decade, we have seen how mobile phones empowered our neighborhood vegetable seller or fisherwoman. I spend regular periods in a village in Himachal. I am surprised at the speed which phones and the Internet are transforming the lives of these simple hill folk especially youngsters. This non-formal economy is where the growth will happen in the next decade. So expect more services like home improvement, repair & maintenance and sundry other service providers riding the digital infrastructure. So more Urban Claps, Zomatos, Just Dials, Swiggys, Groffers, Country Delight, Home Advisors, Prato, 1mg, etc all offering convenience to consumers and employment to others.

Transport is another area that will see a radical change. In 10 years more than half the automobiles in the world will switch to non-fossil fuel engines, largely electric. Of course, solar-powered vehicles, hydrogen cell cars will also appear on the road before the end of the next decade. Autonomous mobility should be a reality in the next five years. A switch to shared self-driving vehicles is already exciting for the large automakers to innovate and customize their product portfolio. The self-driving car market should start coming into its own in 10 years. In India, the Metro network will grow exponentially even as shared mobility expands. Maglev trains and vehicles and Hyperloop should be visible in some countries. Traffic management will be entirely managed by computers and GPS will sit on the AI engine. However, there is a limit to how many more vehicles the existing infrastructure even after upgradation can support. Obviously by the end of decade reverse migration from large metropolises will begin as newer towns and cities emerge. More airports and intra-city helicopter services will necessary. Smaller air ambulances will make an appearance. Drones will be a common form of delivery for various kinds of packages besides being used for security and surveillance.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are strictly those of the author.

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From self-drive cars to IoT, these next-wave techs will rule 2020s decade - Business Standard

KAMPALA The views expressed by both Hon Nsaba Buturo (NRM Bufumbira CountyEast) and Hon Silas Aogon (Kumi Municipality) in the PML Daily article Titled: MPs support Presidents rejection of GMO Bill dated November 6 2019 indicated a serious lack of understanding by the parliamentarians why, in the first place, Uganda should enact a law on Biotechnology and Bio-safety. As was revealed in the article, the two MPs were speaking on behalf of the Parliamentary Forum on Ethics and Integrity.

They really believe that GMO or Modern Biotechnology is about profits and interests of multinational companies and superpowers. What misconception! Modern Biotechnology or GMO is actually about Ugandas survival and economic development interests.

We have to remember that Uganda already has a National Biotechnology and Bio-safety Policy (2008) and that for nearly two decades Uganda, under the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), has been conducting research on crop plants produced through modern biotechnology aimed at overcoming our countrys persistent crop production and food insecurity problems which include pest infestation, incurable crop diseases, drought stress, and malnutrition, among others issues. (Dr Wilberforce Tushemeirwe, head of NARO, Daily Monitor 9 October 2015) NARO which is mainly manned by well trained agricultural research scientists is mandated to find solutions to our countrys farming technical issues such as crop and animal diseases, yield and breed improvement, increasing nutrient content of crops, soil health, among many others.

We should also remember that Modern biotechnology is not only about Genetic Modification (GMO) or Genetic Engineering (GE) which the Parliamentary Forum for Ethics and Integrity seems to be vehemently opposed to. Nor is it, really, about ethics and integrity.

Biotechnology is described by scientists as a technology which uses living things or parts of living things to make useful products that benefit mankind and the environment. In agriculture it is used to produce improved plant varieties. It is also used in medicine to produce antibodies and vaccines.

Many countries across the world are using the technology for industrial and economic development. Uganda wants to use modern biotechnology for national development and over the years it has invested heavily in training scientists and construction of state of the art biotechnology laboratories as well as funding research and development of improved crop varieties.

A visit to Kawanda Agricultural Research Institute by any doubting Thomas will reveal a modern biotechnology laboratory whose foundation stone was laid by His Excellency President Yoweri Museveni who is now hesitating to sign the bill. Modern biotechnology research is going on in quite a number of our NARO stations across the country under the funding of both the Uganda government and development partners. Modern biotechnology includes tissue culture, cloning, grafting, and genetic engineering (GE or GM) and a whole range of other innovations aimed at improving crop varieties with regard to their resistance to disease, yield enhancement, test improvement, pest infestation, drought, and nutrition. Modern Biotechnology is taught at Makerere University, UNIK (University of Kisubi), and other institutions of higher learning, not to mention its recent introduction in Ugandas secondary school curriculum.

(http://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=17626)

However, all countries engaged in modern biotechnology activities are required to have a regulatory law such as the National Biotechnology and Bio-safety Bill, which Uganda is trying to put in place. We are, in fact, trying to comply with an international agreement known as the Cartagena Protocol to which Uganda is a signatory. What the Parliamentary Forum for Ethics and Integrity are opposing is a protocol requiring all countries engaging in biotechnology to take appropriate legal, administrative and other measures at national level to implement their obligations under that protocol.

The Parliamentary Forum for Ethics and Integrity is also blind to the fact that Uganda whose population is among the fastest growing in the world is facing acute food production decline thanks to incurable crop diseases, declining soil fertility, land fragmentation, and negative

climatic conditions. In this country every woman produces 5.6 children and our population increase rate is only next to that of Gambia and Mayotte globally, according to the Washington based Population Reference Bureau. (www.prb.org) Banana which is a staple crop in Uganda is under threat of disappearing due to the incurable Banana Bacterial Wilt (BBW). Dr Jerome Kubiriba who heads the Banana Research Project at Kawanda under NARO has revealed that Ugandas annual $500 million worth production of banana has reduced to $350 million due to the disease. Using modern biotechnology (Genetic Engineering) the researchers have developed banana plants that are resistant to BBW which however remain in enclosed fields at the research centre because they cannot be passed on to Ugandan farmers to grow since Uganda has not yet passed the Uganda Biotechnology and Bio-safety Bill into law. Banana is also under attack by nematodes and weevils for which biotechnology research has found a solution but the farmers continue to spend heavily on pesticides because government is taking too long debating the adoption or non-adoption of modern biotechnology.

Uganda, where ten out of every ten farmers grow bananas, is the leading banana producing country in Africa but we will soon lose that position because, according to the Uganda Biotechnology Information Centre (UBIC) production of the crop is declining at the rate of seven out of ten expected bunches due to BBW. Maize which is a staple food and an important livestock feed component is under attack by the fall army worm and stem borer. Its production is further proving harder due to frequent long droughts. Modern biotechnology research under NARO has developed drought tolerant and pest resistant maize varieties but they cannot be given to farmers to plant because the likes of Nsaba Buturo and Silas Aogon are against passing of the Biotechnology and Bio-safety Bill. Eighty percent of Ugandan farmers grow maize which in the past generated an estimated $51 million annually to the country but yields have been reduced to about 40 percent in the recent years due pest infestation and drought. (UBIC) Uganda suffers from what Harvest-Plus, an international anti-hunger organization, refers to as hidden hunger which is a form of malnutrition caused by filling the tummy with non-nutritious food.

Most poor households eat banana and sweet potato without other crops to gain such nutrients as vitamins etc. Using biotechnology scientists under NARO have produced pro-Vitamin A bananas which would improve nutrition in poor households. The country suffers an annual loss of $899 million according to the Cost of Hunger Report 2013 in addition to millions of working hours lost every year by people abandoning work because of malnutrition illnesses and burials of people killed by malnutrition illnesses.

Irish potato farmers in Uganda allocate nearly 50 percent of their in-puts to pesticides fighting the late blight disease. Consumers of the crop face the health risk associated with pesticides and the producers lose money and suffer reduced profits. Yet researchers in NARO through GMO research or Modern Biotechnology have developed pest resistant Irish potato which farmers can grow without using the costly pesticides. There must be a regulatory law in place for the farmers to be allowed to grow the pest resistant varieties but our government is delaying its formation and passing. Consumption of Irish potatoes is known to reduce malnutrition since in vitamin B6, minerals, and fiber.

(UBIC) Uganda is the leading producer of sweet potato in Africa. Sweet potato is a major food crop for both humans and livestock. Harvest-plus is B promoting the production and consumption of bio-fortified sweet potatoes enhanced with such nutrients as iron, zinc, and vitamin A which are highly recommended by the WHO as crucial for healthy living. Sweet potato production is declining due to virus diseases and weevil infestation. NARO is working to develop GM sweet potato that can resist virus and weevil attack.

We have issues with rice production related to poor soils and long droughts which according to UBIC is causing an annual loss of US$6.2 million as opposed to an estimated annual gain of US$19.9 million that would be possible if we grow GM rice. (UBIC) We also have problems with cotton production yet our cloth production industries are in need of revamping. It is GM cotton that has boosted the apparel industries in such countries as India and it is the reason our neighbour Kenya is soon adopting GM cotton production. Clearly Biotechnology is being used to address our national agricultural problems and not to promote foreign interests as Nsaba Buturo and Silas Aogon seem to think. It is even false to assert that we would not any foreign market for our products. Ask Brazil for example where it sells its Biotech products. Brazil our coffee competitor is the biggest exporter of GM crops to Europe.

There must be economic benefits to gain and it must be the main reason why such nations as the USA, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, India, Paraguay, Pakistan, China, Uruguay, Bolivia, Australia, Philippines, Myanmar, Spain, Mexico, Columbia, Vietnam, Honduras, Chile, Portugal, Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Slovakia, and Czech Republic are growing Biotech crops. (International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Application ISAAA) Here in Africa, South Africa, Sudan, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Egypt are already growing Biotech crops, while Kenya, Ethiopia, and Zambia are just about to go into commercialization of Biotech crops.

Eating GM food is not harmful in any way to human health or the environment. Tobacco smoke, red meat, salt, and alcohol cause death every year and figures to that effect are available in nearly all countries. But not one death, not a single death, caused by eating GM food has been reported by the WHO or the FAO. No country has any credible research findings to prove that a death has been caused by GMO food. In May 2016 the US National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine released its twenty-year-research report into possible harmful effects of GMO crops and declared them entirely safe.

It was a comprehensive review of some nine hundred researches on GMO crops since 1996 and it revealed that GMO crops and ordinarily bred crops are have no difference with regard to possible risks to human health livestock health and the environment.

Irrigation which Hon Nsaba Buturo recommends will not stop BBW from reducing banana production, nor will it stop the fall armyworm. Yet planting of improved seeds which he is talking about comes with some exercise of Biotechnology.

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MICHEAL J. SSALI is a veteran Journalist.

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MICHEAL J. SSALI: GMO technology is in Uganda's interests - pmldaily.com