Menu

Blog

Page 6755

Feb 21, 2021

Cybersecurity, Emerging Tech, Risk Management — Winter 2021 Writings & Media

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, energy

These three pillars of cybersecurity risk management need not stand alone. In fact, they all should be incorporated together in cybersecurity framework strategy to identify gaps, mitigate threats, and build resilience in the case of an inevitable cyberattack. Of course, there are many other elements and protocols associated with utilization of these cyber risk management pillars. Combining them creates a more holistic mindset that also makes it easier to plan and adapt. With the growing sophistication of global cyber-threats and the expanding digital attack surface, a vigilant three pillar approach makes good sense.

Chuck Brooks, President of Brooks Consulting International, is a globally recognized thought leader and evangelist for Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies. LinkedIn named Chuck as one of “The Top 5 Tech Experts to Follow on LinkedIn.” Chuck was named as a 2020 top leader and influencer in “Who’s Who in Cybersecurity” by Onalytica. He was named by Thompson Reuters as a “Top 50 Global Influencer in Risk, Compliance,” and by IFSEC as the “#2 Global Cybersecurity Influencer.” He was named by The Potomac Officers Club and Executive Mosaic and GovCon as at “One of The Top Five Executives to Watch in GovCon Cybersecurity. Chuck is a two-time Presidential appointee who was an original member of the Department of Homeland Security. Chuck has been a featured speaker at numerous conferences and events including presenting before the G20 country meeting on energy cybersecurity.

Feb 21, 2021

CRISPR Dreams: The Potential for Gene Editing

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical

Bonny Lemma. Originally published in the HIR Winter 2019 Issue.

Jennifer Lopez has one more industry to add to her illustrious résumé: molecular biology. In 2016, she was asked to be the executive producer of a new futuristic bio-crime drama for NBC called C.R.I.S.P.R. While that project is a work of science fiction, the CRISPR technology that it is based on is very real.

CRISPR, or Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, is not just a gene editing technique, but also a phenomenon that carries significant implications for the future of biotechnology. Therefore, the interactions between the countless players in this field and the objectives driving them are crucial to understanding of CRISPR and the promise it holds.

Feb 21, 2021

Nature’s ‘kill code’ may destroy cancer

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Could also be used for other viruses too.


Two new studies explain how each cell in the body embeds a code that may become active when a healthy cell mutates into a cancerous one.

Feb 21, 2021

Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Scientific investigations of dreaming have been hampered by the delay between a dream and when people report on their dream, and by a change in state from sleep to wake. To overcome this problem, Konkoly et al. show that individuals in REM sleep can perceive and answer an experimenter’s questions, allowing for real-time communication about a dream.

Feb 21, 2021

Optical frequency combs found a new dimension

Posted by in category: futurism

Scientists from EPFL and IBM Research Europe have demonstrated the generation of tunable and coherent frequency combs in a pair of hybridised optical microresonators.

Feb 21, 2021

“SuperAger” brains defy tau tangles associated with Alzheimer’s

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Although the definitive causes of Alzheimer’s diseases aren’t yet fully understood, one of the leading suspects is the accumulation of abnormal proteins in the brain that impinges on the activity of the neurons. Scientists at Northwestern University have explored this phenomenon in a group of elderly individuals with excellent memory, known as SuperAgers, and found them to be far more resistant to the troublesome buildup of some of these proteins, shedding further light on how the disease may take hold.

A lot of the research into the progression of Alzheimer’s focus on a pair of proteins called amyloid and tau. Clumps of amyloid are thought to build up and develop into plaques that impact on memory and cognitive function, while tau takes the form of tangles that interfere with the way nutrients are taken up by the neurons, eventually leading to the death of the cell.

The Northwestern University researchers carried out experiments to study the prevalence of these proteins in SuperAgers, a group of subjects over the age of 80 with the memory capacity of someone 20 to 30 years younger than them. These subjects are assessed annually as part of ongoing research at Northwestern’s Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease.

Feb 21, 2021

Autism gene interference silences song memory in birds

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Muffling expression of an autism-linked gene in a key song-related area of the brain renders young zebra finches unable to learn songs from older birds.

Feb 21, 2021

This Jacket Turns Into Sleeping Bag For Homeless

Posted by in category: futurism

Sheltersuit by the Sheltersuit Foundation is a life-saving wind and waterproof jacket that transforms into a sleeping bag to provide immediate shelter to the homeless who deserve “warmth, protection, and dignity.” (More info: https://youtu.be/_HOec-P6Jl4)

https://youtu.be/_HOec-P6Jl4

Feb 21, 2021

Increasing optical data transmission speed

Posted by in categories: energy, materials

Pulsed lasers repeatedly emit light for a short period of time as if blinking. They have the advantage of focusing more energy than a continuous wave laser, whose intensity is kept unchanged over time. If digital signals are loaded in a pulsed laser, each pulse can encode one bit of data. In this respect, the higher the repetition rate, the more the amount of data that can be transmitted. However, conventional optical-fiber-based pulsed lasers have typically had a limitation in increasing the number of pulses per second above the MHz level.

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) announced that the research team led by Senior Researcher Dr. Yong-Won Song at the Center for Opto-Electronic Materials and Devices was able to generate at a rate at least 10000 times higher than the state of the art. This achievement was accomplished by inserting an additional resonator containing graphene into a fiber-optic pulsed– oscillator that operates in the domain of femtoseconds (10-15 seconds). The data transmission and processing speeds are expected to increase significantly by applying this method to data communications.

The KIST research team noted that the characteristics of the wavelength and intensity of laser light that change over time are correlated (Fourier transform). If a resonator is inserted into the laser oscillator, the wavelength of the pulsed laser is periodically filtered, thereby modifying the pattern of laser intensity change. Based on this background research, Principal Researcher Song synthesized graphene, which has the characteristics of absorbing and eliminating weak light and amplifying the intensity by passing only strong light into the resonator. This allows the laser intensity change to be accurately controlled at a high rate, and thus the repetition rate of pulses could be increased to a higher level.

Feb 21, 2021

Scientists say clinical trials for ‘variant-proof’ vaccines could start very soon

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Scientists are developing a range of second-generation Covid vaccines aimed at expanding protection against the disease.