A Roadmap to Nowhere

I normally hate to write bad reviews on books I read, but 'When Gaints Fall' by Michael Panzner raised my ire to a high degree.

The book predicts the fall of America (I guess not a difficult prediction now) and then paints a picture of doom and gloom in the United States and the rest of the world. About ten to fifteen points (Fall of the U.S, De-globalization, Increasing violence & wars, Fall of the Dollar, Changing Demographics, Energy crisis, Water shortage, Shortages of other natural resources and a few more) are repeated through out the book - the continuous repetitions making it a very difficult process to read the book. Extensive quotations are used - so much in fact that about 65 pages of the 260 page book are used up for bibliography!

Maybe the future predicted by Mr.Panzner is a possible outcome and he is entitled to his opinion. But the book claims to provide a economic roadmap for the future and also promises to show 'how the chaotic years of the future would present a singular opportunity for the reader to realize goals....' (quoted from the cover flap of the book). Here the author grossly misleads the reader. The book hardly provides any suggestions for the future except to 'focus, analyze, prepare well, network..' and to keep in mind that nothing will work out as planned!

The book is divided into two parts - Part 1 of 122 pages explaining the descent into chaos and Part II of about 60 pages supposedly to tell the reader how to prepare for the future. However Part II continues to repeat most of the points made in Part 1 with hardly a worthwhile suggestion. After some laborious effort, the author comes close to making a couple of positive suggestions (Invest in Canada, Invest in commodities & precious metals) but then immediately highlights why those steps are also fraught with danger!

The author completely misses out on Science & Technology and how today's challenges can be tomorrow's opportunities. A book written in haste - I guess to take advantage of the current pessimistic world outlook.

India's National Science Day

In Honor of "Raman Effect"

Today (Feb 28) is celebrated in India as the National Science Day in honor of the discovery of the 'Raman Effect' by C.V.Raman on the same day in 1928. This won him the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930.

What is the Raman Effect?

I found a simple explanation by Dr.Nirupuma Raghavan in India-Space portal.

Check it out if you are interested : http://www.space-india.org/nr/national_science_day.pdf

Full Gene sequencing for $5000 !!

Door opens for Personal Genomics

With the announcement this week by Complete Genomics Inc. that it will offer $5000 sequencing of a whole human genome (~3 billion base pairs) by mid-2009, the door is finally opening for Personal Genomics.

This means in a few years, millions of people will be getting their genome fuly sequenced. Think about the huge opportunity not only for gene sequencing companies, Pharmacogenomics players and so on, but also for IT companies who will need to create solutions to store, analyze and interpret the data!

Another Universe? if you dont like this one :)

A strong hypothesis for another Universe

Distant galaxies that are hurtling at high speeds towards the same patch of sky may be evidence that something very big lurks beyond our cosmic horizon, such another universe.

Sasha Kashlinsky, a Senior Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre at Maryland, has been studying how rebellious clusters of galaxies move against the backdrop of expanding space. He and colleagues have clocked galaxy clusters racing at up to 1000 kilometres per second - far faster than our best understanding of cosmology allows. Stranger still, every cluster seems to be rushing toward a small patch of sky between the constellations of Centaurus and Vela.

Kashlinsky and his team claim that their observation represents the first clues to what lies beyond the cosmic horizon. Finding out could tell us how the universe looked immediately after the big bang or if our universe is one of many. Others aren't so sure. One rival interpretation is that it is nothing to do with alien universes but the result of a flaw in one of the cornerstones of cosmology, the idea that the universe should look the same in all directions. That is, if the observations withstand close scrutiny.

It can't be caused by dark matter, Kashlinsky says, because all the dark matter in the universe wouldn't produce enough gravity. It can't be dark energy, either, because dark energy is spread evenly throughout space. That, leaves only one possible explanation, he concludes: something lurking beyond the cosmic horizon is to blame.

Therapy from Human Embryo Stem Cells - Finally!

Geron Corp of Menlo Park, California finally won approval from U.S Federal Regulators to start the first trial of an experimental therapy derived from Human Embryonic stem cells (hESC) in patients with acute spinal cord injury . Geron will inject the cells into the spinal cords of 10 newly injured patients. At this point Geron's treatment only has a chance of success if it is administered within a few weeks after the spinal injury.

GRNOPC1, Geron's lead hESC-based therapeutic candidate, contains hESC-derived oligodendrocyte progenitor cells that have demonstrated remyelinating and nerve growth stimulating properties leading to restoration of function in animal models of acute spinal cord injury.

The ultimate goal for the use of GRNOPC1 is to achieve restoration of spinal cord function by the injection of hESC-derived oligodendrocyte progenitor cells directly into the lesion site of the patient's injured spinal cord.

Coming days after President' Obama's inauguration let us hope that this signals the new administration's position on Science!