The Zen of Technology & Scientific Discovery! (& Robots)

[Jundo]

This reminded me of the Walt Whitman poem When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer:

When I heard the learn'd astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

I love science, especially astronomy and astrophysics, but looking at the sky with only the mind is incomplete, we must also look with the heart.

Shinshou (Dan)
Sat Today

Yes, perhaps we need both. Otherwise we end up as only cold number crunchers on the one hand ... or astrologers who believe that the stars are little holes for angels to peer through on the other.

Gassho, J

SatTodayLAH

[Shokai]

There ya go Jundo; you just crushed another of my deeply held beliefs.

gassho. Shokai

stlah

[Jundo]

Poor rogue planets ... I hope they are not lonely ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm5RI3ftOf4

How they were discovered is pretty amazing too.

Gassho, J

STLAH

[Jundo]

Another (we hope) amazing feat of human engineering and exploration today ...

At 3 p.m. ET on Monday, November 26, a group of researchers will be really sweating. The NASA InSight spacecraft will try to land on Mars.

After six months of flight, the lander component of the probe will detach itself from the cruise stage and head into the atmosphere. ... About 3½ minutes after the probe hits the atmosphere, a parachute will deploy, slowing down the probe even more. Fifteen seconds later, explosives will blow the heat shield off, exposing the actual InSight probe hidden inside. Ten seconds after the heat shield falls away, the probe will extend its legs, much like an airplane extends its wheels before touching down. ... So, what does InSight hope to achieve? Well, as it happens, a lot. But it's different than the intrepid Curiosity probe, which NASA landed in 2012. InSight will not move around. Instead, it will stay put and tell us of the interior of Mars. ...
https://us.cnn.com/2018/11/25/opinio...oln/index.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyD0q57zw40

Every little bit of information about the planets that we are not tells us a little more about the planet that we are.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Jundo]

Another (we hope) amazing feat of human engineering and exploration today ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyD0q57zw40

Every little bit of information about the planets that we are not tells us a little more about the planet that we are.

Gassho, J

STLah

FOLLOWUP NOTE: IT MADE IT!

After seven months of traveling through space, the NASA InSight mission has landed on Mars. A few minutes after landing, InSight sent the official "beep" to NASA to signal that it was alive and well, including a photo of the Martian surface where it landed.

Although we are goalless in the universe, we can still have goals to aim for in the universe. Although there is no place to go, there are still places to go. Although the whole of space of time in contained in a grain of sand, a grain of sand on earth is not a grain of sand on Mars. How can both be True at once, as mysterious as the Red Planet.

The InSight Koan

Gassho, J

STLah

[Shokai]

and tune in next week for the answer to THE INsight Koan ??

click here

gassho, Shokai

stlah

[Jundo]

Now, after celebrating the above engineering marvel ...

... the latest in robot engineering, on a project said to be "harder then landing on the moon," ...

... to start to clean up the greatest engineering fiasco in world history. Just a little over 100 miles from our house in Tsukuba, as the crow flies ...

https://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x6xtj8u

Robots come to the rescue after Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster - CBS 60 Minutes

More than seven years have passed since a monster earthquake and tsunami struck northeast Japan and triggered what became, after Chernobyl, the worst nuclear disaster in history at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

When three of its six reactors melted down, hot fuel turned to molten lava. And burned through steel walls and concrete floors. To this day no one knows exactly where inside the reactor buildings the fuel is. And it is so deadly, no human can go inside to look for it. So the Japanese company that owns the crippled plant has turned to robots. ... There are four-legged robots, robots that climb stairs and even robots that can swim into reactors flooded with water. They're equipped with 3D scanners, sensors and cameras that map the terrain, measure radiation levels and look for the missing fuel.

This is part of a massive clean up that's expected to cost nearly $200 billion and take decades.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/robots-...er-60-minutes/

Gassho, J

STLah

PS - Life is just normal around this part of Japan, and folks rarely even mention it.

[Amelia]

Watched the 60 Minutes segment on Sunday. It's gonna be a long road, but as one of the guys said, every step is progress: you just have to take it and then make the next one.

Sat today, lah

[Jundo]

Watched the 60 Minutes segment on Sunday. It's gonna be a long road, but as one of the guys said, every step is progress: you just have to take it and then make the next one.

Sat today, lah

I live in "Tsukuba Science City," next to the M.I.T. of Japan, home to two Noble Prize Winners and our own local population of physicists, biologists and the like. I have been told that, by living here, "I am living inside one of the greatest physics and biology experiments ever conducted." The radiation and fallout here is far less than north of here, but it is here and is monitored. Here is a nice research paper on that very topic ...

Atmospheric radioactivity over Tsukuba, Japan: a summary of three years of observations after the FDNPP accident

This paper reports the impacts from the FDNPP accident over approximately 3 years in Tsukuba, Ibaraki (approximately 170 km southwest from the accident site), as a typical example of the atmospheric pollution from the accident. The monthly atmospheric 90Sr and 137Cs depositional fluxes in March 2011 reached approximately 5 Bq/m2/month and 23 kBq/m2/month, respectively. They are 3–4 and 6–7 orders of magnitude higher, respectively, than before the accident. Sr-90 pollution was relatively insignificant compared to that of 137Cs. The 137Cs atmospheric concentration reached a maximum of 38 Bq/m3 during March 20–21, 2011. After that, the concentrations quickly decreased until fall 2011 when the decrease slowed. The pre-FDNPP accident 137Cs concentration levels were, at most, approximately 1 μBq/m3. The average level 3 years after the accident was approximately 12 μBq/m3 during 2014. The atmospheric data for the 3 years since the accident form a basis for considering temporal changes in the decreasing trends and re-suspension (secondary emission), supporting our understanding of radioCs’ atmospheric concentration and deposition.

https://progearthplanetsci.springero...645-015-0066-1

Whatever that means. In the days and weeks after the accident, the video rental store would rent you a movie and a geiger counter to check your house. We did, and found relatively high readings by storm drains where rainwater congregates.

But people here don't think about it, and just go on with life. As a local economist (we have those too) told me, it is just one more thing that may or may not get you, like getting hit by a car, eating too much fat in one's diet, a lightning strike, pollution from coal generation, a deadly can of soup falling off the shelf onto my head. It can happen, and the accident maybe increased by a small measure the risk of cancer, but it is too small to measure for any individual (barely measurable over large populations) and just one more thing. There is no reason to think it dangerous for our kids, especially compared to crossing the street or riding in our car.

So, we don't worry. Human beings like to make up all kinds of "what if" fears in their heads, but that is largely where the fear exists.

Yes, we work to protect the environment, but don't live in a mental world of "what if" small risk fears.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Jundo]

I have very mixed feelings about this story today. On the one hand, it is messing with our genes and the side effects are unknown ...

On the other hand ... CRISPR is AMAZING ... resistance to HIV! ...

The Chinese government has ordered an "immediate investigation" into the alleged delivery of the world's first genetically edited babies, as experts worldwide voiced outrage at such use of the technology.

The pushback comes amid claims made online by Chinese scientist He Jiankui that twin girls had been born with DNA altered to make them resistant to HIV, a groundbreaking move that is likely to spark significant ethical questions around gene editing and so-called designer babies.

... He claims that he used a tool known as CRISPR-cas9, which can insert or deactivate certain genes. In his YouTube video, He describes the procedure as having "removed the doorway through which HIV enters."
He's claims have neither been independently verified nor peer-reviewed. Editing the genes of embryos intended for pregnancy is banned in many counties, including the United States. In the UK, editing of embryos may be permitted for research purposes with strict regulatory approval. It is unknown whether the procedure is safe or, if used in pregnancy, whether it can have unintended consequences for the babies later in life or for future generations.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/26/healt...ntl/index.html

So, what is CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing and how does it work?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZImVkl8QTW8

Is it ethical? I am not sure that the Buddha contemplated this in the Precepts.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Jishin]

I have very mixed feelings about this story today. On the one hand, it is messing with our genes and the side effects are unknown ...

On the other hand ... CRISPR is AMAZING ... resistance to HIV! ...



So, what is CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing and how does it work?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZImVkl8QTW8

Is it ethical? I am not sure that the Buddha contemplated this in the Precepts.

Gassho, J

STLah

Hi,

If it means that the net effect to humanity is positive then it is probably ethical. If the net effect to humanity is negative then it is probably unethical.

If we create a Hulk like human with the intent of wiping out the Klingons when they arrive in planet earth wanting to exchange technologies then it is probably ethical. It’s hard to say, really.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Amelia]

I agree, Jishin. I had a hard time explaining this perspective when my grandmother expressed that the gene editing was unethical. I didn't push it too hard because her Catholic upbringing is hard to work around, despite that she is fairly progressive.

Sat today, lah

[Jundo]

I must confess that this scared me a little ... especially the part where it gets annoyed ...

https://us.cnn.com/videos/world/2018/12/03/iss-robot-debut-orig-vstan-vpx.cnn

Meet CIMON, the first AI-based assistance system for astronauts. CIMON was created by Airbus, in cooperation with IBM, to provide mission and flight assistance aboard the International Space Station. The 11-lb. (5 kilograms) round robot looks like a medicine ball and has an unforgettable face.

CIMON's computer voice and screen face, which Gerst gave input on, will help the AI to "make friends" with the astronauts on board the space station

Gassho, J

STLah

[Mp]

I must confess that this scared me a little ... especially the part where it gets annoyed ...

https://us.cnn.com/videos/world/2018/12/03/iss-robot-debut-orig-vstan-vpx.cnn

Gassho, J

STLah

I am sorry Jundo, but you can't do that!

Yah, this is whole AI thing is getting a bit nutty ... pretty soon they won't need us humans.

Gassho
Shingen

Sat/LAH

[Amelia]

"I'm sorry Dave..."

"Daisy... daisy..."

Sat today, lah

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