A Must read on global warming

[bobblehead]

There is a very famous scientist named Ray Kurzweil that insists solar is becoming very viable. He says certain nanotechnology designs will have solar ahead of oil and coal in 5-7 years. Gov't can't speed that up, public pressure and private enterprise desiring to can.

Increasing government support of these lines of research (university and industrial via SBIR grants, etc.) would likely speed things up a bit. Programs like cap and trade would do nothing to help technology, but there are useful things that the government can do.

You mean like gov't support of the human genome? They were predicting another 8 years and private industry one day said "hey, the across the board technology is finally in place, we should be done in 18 months." At this point gov't people scoffed them and derided them. 16 months later the human genome had been decoded by private enterprise.

[MJZiggy]

With or without Federal funding?

[texaspackerbacker]

Which one is PIP and which one Ziggy?

Neither. The one on the right would be your mother, the other two I assume are your sisters.....or brothers?

Actually, my mother looked a lot like Sarah Palin with lighter hair. I never had any sisters, but it I did, they would have looked like Britney and Paris and my childhood sweetheart, Haley Mills--she and I are the same age.

[packinpatland]

Which one is PIP and which one Ziggy?

Neither. The one on the right would be your mother, the other two I assume are your sisters.....or brothers?

Actually, my mother looked a lot like Sarah Palin with lighter hair. I never had any sisters, but it I did, they would have looked like Britney and Paris and my childhood sweetheart, Haley Mills--she and I are the same age.

OK........I can dig that.......and I'm a dead ringer for Meryl Streep

[bobblehead]

With or without Federal funding?

Without, they wanted to hold onto certain intellectual property.

[MadScientist]

There is a very famous scientist named Ray Kurzweil that insists solar is becoming very viable. He says certain nanotechnology designs will have solar ahead of oil and coal in 5-7 years. Gov't can't speed that up, public pressure and private enterprise desiring to can.

Increasing government support of these lines of research (university and industrial via SBIR grants, etc.) would likely speed things up a bit. Programs like cap and trade would do nothing to help technology, but there are useful things that the government can do.

You mean like gov't support of the human genome? They were predicting another 8 years and private industry one day said "hey, the across the board technology is finally in place, we should be done in 18 months." At this point gov't people scoffed them and derided them. 16 months later the human genome had been decoded by private enterprise.

Yes, let's look at the human genome project, and what led up to it. The automated seqencing machines were initially developed by Leroy Hood's group at Cal Tech using government funding. The shotgun sequencing techniques used by Celera were greatly advanced by government sponsored projects to sequence H. influenzae, E. coli and others.

Also the public HGP did publish an initial draft first, and the availability of the data in Genbank (another government program) is a tremendous boon for researchers.

[bobblehead]

There is a very famous scientist named Ray Kurzweil that insists solar is becoming very viable. He says certain nanotechnology designs will have solar ahead of oil and coal in 5-7 years. Gov't can't speed that up, public pressure and private enterprise desiring to can.

Increasing government support of these lines of research (university and industrial via SBIR grants, etc.) would likely speed things up a bit. Programs like cap and trade would do nothing to help technology, but there are useful things that the government can do.

You mean like gov't support of the human genome? They were predicting another 8 years and private industry one day said "hey, the across the board technology is finally in place, we should be done in 18 months." At this point gov't people scoffed them and derided them. 16 months later the human genome had been decoded by private enterprise.

Yes, let's look at the human genome project, and what led up to it. The automated seqencing machines were initially developed by Leroy Hood's group at Cal Tech using government funding. The shotgun sequencing techniques used by Celera were greatly advanced by government sponsored projects to sequence H. influenzae, E. coli and others.

Also the public HGP did publish an initial draft first, and the availability of the data in Genbank (another government program) is a tremendous boon for researchers.

Your missing my point. The technology to crack it wasn't caught up across the board but sitll gov't was pounding money into it. Sure they had a few success stories, but even then they were on record as saying its 8 years away. When certain necessary technologies (private no less) caught up the rest of the project was slammed out in 16 months.

If your point is that sometimes gov't accomplishes things (more expensively) then I concur. If its in any way that gov't can do it faster/better/cheaper then I would say you are off your rocker. The only projects gov't is better at is ones where private industry has no interest/incentive to get involved.

[MadScientist]

Your missing my point. The technology to crack it wasn't caught up across the board but sitll gov't was pounding money into it. Sure they had a few success stories, but even then they were on record as saying its 8 years away. When certain necessary technologies (private no less) caught up the rest of the project was slammed out in 16 months.

If your point is that sometimes gov't accomplishes things (more expensively) then I concur. If its in any way that gov't can do it faster/better/cheaper then I would say you are off your rocker. The only projects gov't is better at is ones where private industry has no interest/incentive to get involved.

You're missing my point. Because government was willing to put in money before the technology was ready was one of the driving forces to get the technology to be ready. Without all the government money buying the ABI 377 machines, the 3700 would not have come out when it did. Without that, there is no Celera project. If you fund research, you get technology. Either directly, in the case of the original research that lead to automated sequencing machines, or indirectly by becoming a large consumer of sequencing machines, leading to better machines.

[bobblehead]

Your missing my point. The technology to crack it wasn't caught up across the board but sitll gov't was pounding money into it. Sure they had a few success stories, but even then they were on record as saying its 8 years away. When certain necessary technologies (private no less) caught up the rest of the project was slammed out in 16 months.

If your point is that sometimes gov't accomplishes things (more expensively) then I concur. If its in any way that gov't can do it faster/better/cheaper then I would say you are off your rocker. The only projects gov't is better at is ones where private industry has no interest/incentive to get involved.

You're missing my point. Because government was willing to put in money before the technology was ready was one of the driving forces to get the technology to be ready. Without all the government money buying the ABI 377 machines, the 3700 would not have come out when it did. Without that, there is no Celera project. If you fund research, you get technology. Either directly, in the case of the original research that lead to automated sequencing machines, or indirectly by becoming a large consumer of sequencing machines, leading to better machines.

So why aren't we funding research into immortality...I want to live forever...who doesn't? If we can simply throw money at it and it will come to fruition then we should be doing that.

[MJZiggy]

We are silly. Are we not throwing funding at every disease that kills people and attempting to slow down aging at the same time? We already live far longer than previous generations and except for the fact that people eat like crap and don't take care of ourselves like we know we should, the life expectancy would still be going up. Have you had your probiotics today?

[bobblehead]

We are silly. Are we not throwing funding at every disease that kills people and attempting to slow down aging at the same time? We already live far longer than previous generations and except for the fact that people eat like crap and don't take care of ourselves like we know we should, the life expectancy would still be going up. Have you had your probiotics today?

I'm pretty sure that 95% of that is being funded by PRIVATE enterprise.

[MJZiggy]

Source? I'm thinking much of that research is done by NIH as I recently heard a speech given by one of the docs from their speakers bureau about what they know about taking care of ourselves. He seemed to have a clue, though he needed to dumb it down for the non-scientists in the office.

I mean the Alzheimer's people are going absolutely crazy about their govt. funding being reduced as they have new drugs they're working on and the AIDS people are panicking because the government wants to focus research dollars elsewhere...

Which private company was it that has made cancer much less fatal than it was a couple decades back?

[texaspackerbacker]

It's the best of both worlds--or the worst, depending on your point of view.

Most research and advances indeed are done by private business. Those businesses, however, get a lot of government grants. Thus, even though the government has a hand in it, the "intellectual property" thing still stays with the companies doing the research. If not for that system, there would be a lot less incentive to succeed.

[bobblehead]

Source? I'm thinking much of that research is done by NIH as I recently heard a speech given by one of the docs from their speakers bureau about what they know about taking care of ourselves. He seemed to have a clue, though he needed to dumb it down for the non-scientists in the office.

I mean the Alzheimer's people are going absolutely crazy about their govt. funding being reduced as they have new drugs they're working on and the AIDS people are panicking because the government wants to focus research dollars elsewhere...

Which private company was it that has made cancer much less fatal than it was a couple decades back?

Don't have time to drudge up numbers atm, but I will work at it. I have been advocating immortality (yes, I know, I'm a loon) since around 1997 when the telomere decaying was found as a major reason for cells losing the ability to divide.

Several keynote guys like Ray Kurzweil, Aubrey de Grey and Michael Rose have been working at it. The amount of money the gov't actually puts into it isn't that much. I'm talking actually ending aging as a disease, not controlling symptoms as most of that is handled by big evil pharma. Anyway, gotta get in the shower, but I love the immortality (or immorality typos) sublject and will gladly put a lot of time into any such thread.

If you are interested start with Ray Kurzweils book..."Live Long Enough to Live Forever"

[Tyrone Bigguns]

There is a very famous scientist named Ray Kurzweil that insists solar is becoming very viable.

Kurzweil is no scientiest.