Suggested readings week 43/2022
Genes and genius
Genetics and eugenics are now at a critical point of confrontation. The potential of biotechnology, with its ability to make use of what we now know about of genes and DNA, is disrupting several industries and sciences.
This is an interesting interview on the ethics of certain aspects of biotechnology to one of the most influential scientists. She already published books and articles trying to explain that knowing the real possibilites and roles of genes helps also fight the temptation of an eugenic view of humans.
historically, genetics has been misused. But [eugenics] is literally the opposite of what I’m advocating
Stealing sound using lamps
This scientific paper is interesting for a couple of reasons.
First, it was published after the Covid-19 pandemic and introduces what the authors call Lamphone, an optical side-channel attack used to recover sound from desk lamp light bulbs, now commonly used in home offices. It works well at a distance of 35 meters.
Second, this is one of the latest works by Adi Shamir (and others), cryptographer and one of the three fathers of public key cryptography and prolific researcher in this field.
https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity22/presentation/nassi?utm_source=pocket_mylist
Vannevar Bush
He's described here as a Difference Maker, and indeed this is exactly what he was. As an engineer he's not linked to any specific invention or technology, but instead he tutored and inspired an entire generation of important scientists with his vision of a new world based on computing and human machine interaction.
He paired and is linked to people of the caliber of Alan Kay and Claude Shannon, and published several landmark essays starting with the famous As We May Think.
Communication, computing and industrial research as we experience was incredibly influenced by the ideas of Vannevar Bush..
https://news.mit.edu/2011/timeline-bush-0216?utm_source=pocket_mylist
Battery for a sustainable future
An initiative aimed at inventing the sustainable batteries of the future.