tisiwoota

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Excerpts: “Geometry is just Satan’s way to get children to draw his symbols”; “Sex education should give equal time to the possibility of virgin birth”

Last week’s Economist points out a prime example of the impact of patent monopolies on innovation. Apparently the original (American) patents on PCR technology have just expired. As the Economist puts it, “[w]hat the dominance of Microsoft Windows is to personal computers, the dominance of polymerase chain reactions (PCR) is to biotechnology… The procedure is used in all aspects of the life sciences, from paternity tests and cloning to decoding the genome and detecting disease”. Anyone who has stepped foot in a biology lab can attest to the fact that the technology is an essential step in a vast array of procedures for genetic research. Not only will patent-expiration result in PCR being significantly cheaper for those projects that already use the technology, but other, more cash-strapped research areas will now be able to start using the application for the first time.

In particular it will be a great boon to the open-source biology movement, especially initiatives aimed at finding cures for tropical diseases. (And as the proposal for the Tropical Disease Initiative explains, the commercial model for pharmaceuticals “only works if companies can sell enough patented products to cover their research and development (R&D) costs.” Thus the existing system is not set up to meet the needs of the developing world, where few patients can afford to pay prices for patented drugs.)

Anyway, it’s quite amazing to think just how far the ramifications of just a couple of patents can extend, in terms of all the other technologies– and ultimately, people– that are affected by the terms and cost of access to just one basic technique.

A nice human interest story from Wired, which tells the story of four high school kids from an underprivileged area who pull off a surprise victory in a competition against college engineering teams. It’s an inspiring account of determination against the odds– but what I find especially poignant is that it’s not just a feel-good america-as-the-land-of-opportunity fairytale.

In another era, winning the competition might have been the end of the story, maybe followed up by news of college scholarships and other rewards conducive to a better chance in life. But the rags-to-riches storyline is thwarted by the fact that these kids are undocumented immigrants– and thus ineligible for federal aid (and besides that, they’re not even qualified for in-state tuition). It’s a real tragedy that, even apart from the clear human rights aspect, a nation so in need of high-skilled labor wouldn’t be willing to make such an investment that is so plainly beneficial to the long-term interests of the economy.

The article makes reference to the Dream Act, bipartisan legislation (first introduced in 2003 by Senators Orrin Hatch [R-UT] and Richard Durbin [D-IL], and due to be re-introduced sometime this spring) that would give in-state tuition and temporary resident status to undocumented students who graduate from a US high school after being enrolled in the States for five years or more.

So yes, I switched to a slightly snazzier abode. Although let me know what you think about the wallpaper, such as whether you think it looks, well, too much like wallpaper?

And a question: can anyone tell me how to make a “recent comments” sidebar? I tried downloading some plugin that was supposed to handle that, but I must not have figured out the installation bit right. Once I’ve got that figured out, I’ll be armed and operational for good. Well, except perhaps for some spoiler fins and a souped up engine.

Jerusalem
by Naomi Shihab Nye

“Let’s be the same wound if we must bleed,
Let’s fight side by side even if the enemy
Is ourselves; and I am yours, you are mine.”
–Tommy Olofsson, Sweden
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