Job Shortage in US: Problems due to Technology

Researchers at MIT analyzed that machines have a significant role in job losses than normally understood. They say, "Many workers are losing the race against the machine" in “Race Against the Machine,” an e-book to be published on Monday.

This reminds me of an old argument in India during the nineties that introducing computers in the workplace would take away jobs from the people. However, as it is evident that the argument proved false as India's economic surge largely was due to the computer based industries and related services.

The reality about the present state of technology is that although people may fear that technology would one day replace almost all aspects of human social life, there is still a long way to go in reaching the stage. Marketing is still an area where people to people contact wins the deal rather than computers. Computers are at their best, at the moment, provide a means for information. People-to-people connection can help you make decisions. 

May be, in future, we might see computers interacting with us as effectively as other humans, but at present this seems unlikely for another 5-10 years or so.

As the authors at MIT put in 

"...computers tend to be narrow and literal-minded, good at assigned tasks but at a loss when a solution requires intuition and creativity — human traits. A partnership, they assert, is the path to job creation in the future.
In medicine, law, finance, retailing, manufacturing and even scientific discovery, the key to winning the race is not to compete against machines but to compete with machines."

With the help of computers and humans, once can take informed decisions. The key is to anticipate the future and prepare for it.

Read complete article at the NYT.

No evidence for Cell Phone linked Risk of Brain Tumor

A recent study claimed that there is no link between cell phone radio frequency emission and the risk of Brain Tumors. The biggest study ever to examine the possible connection between cellphones and cancer found no evidence of any link, suggesting that billions of people who are rarely more than a few inches from their phones have no special health concerns.

Read more

Powerful Antibody to Neutralize HIV Virus

Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute have found new insight about how a capable antibody grabs hold of the virus. The antibody was found to attach to the sugar as well as the virus’ envelope protein. This study shows potential in the design of new, more potent molecules against HIV. Read more

Difficulty Learning History? Try Ancient History Encyclopedia

Understanding historical events can be tedious for some who can’t remember dates and specially those who find it boring going through traditional textbooks. Ancient History Encyclopedia (AHE) can help you understand history. The encyclopedia is free for all and its run by the community of historians and history enthusiasts. The need for this website is felt because the lack of reliable source of information on ancient history on the internet. As the website points out:

“The goal is to make quality ancient history information freely available on the internet, which is something that is clearly missing: Books are expensive, Wikipedia is comprehensive but unreliable, and  many other sites are either amateurish, with a nationalist agenda, or their presentation is so bad that it nearly makes them useless.”

AHE contains topics in alphabetical index containing articles with suggestions of useful books. You can use most of the website material freely as they are under the creative commons license. However, examine the license policy before using the articles as some might be protected under copyright.

An excellent tool provided in AHE is the ‘Timeline’ search for a specific period of history. You can find historical events during a defined period. For example in my search of events related to Greece during 1600 BC to 300 BC, I got 69 results nicely arranged in two forms of timeline as shown below. This site can be a great tool for young students and scholars who wish to explore history in an interactive way from an authentic source.

Ancient History Encyclopedia can be accessed from here.

Learn Science and Engineering from Home: Free online course content from IIT

If you want to learn science and engineering but do not have enough time and resources to attend college, then Government of India's (Ministry of Human Resource Development) initiative called NPTEL is for you. With the increase in the internet connectivity to the masses, it is now easy to learn whatever you want online sitting at home.

NPTEL (National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning) is a great step towards providing free and easy learning to everyone. NPTEL provides free video lectures and other course content online. The videos can be downloaded for offline viewing and their quality is excellent. The videos are available in different sizes for easy download. These lectures are prepared by distinguished faculties from Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institute of Science, etc. 

Since this is the new initiative, the courses provided at present are only few. However, the list is soon going to be large covering all course types.

Initially in the first phase, there are 260 courses available while in the next phase it is expected to include 1016 courses.

You can access the NPTEL website to explore courses and download the content as shown below.

How mosquitos find humans and cause deadly diseases

Aedes aegypti mosquito.[by USDA]

The carbon dioxide we exhale and the odors our skins emanate serve as crucial cues to female mosquitoes on the hunt for human hosts to bite and spread diseases such as malaria, dengue and yellow fever.

This interesting study points out that Carbon dioxide alone attracts these mosquitoes and does not require assistance from other odors. Skin odors, however, become important when the mosquito is near the host, selecting biting sites.

Details can be found here.