With the steady evolution of DNA sequencing technology, the cost of the machines as well as the cost of running them continues to drop. Due to their revolutionary technology, one of the biggest players in the field recently has been Ion Torrent (acquired by life sciences giant Life Technologies in 2010). And I don’t use the word “revolutionary” lightly here. Their technology is a game-changer and we previously described how it would lead to a democratization of genomics, making it more accessible to researchers on a small budget. But now, a company called Oxford Nanopore Technologies has barged right into their party, with its own impressive approach to DNA sequencing.
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Monday, July 23, 2012
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Abundance – The Future is Better Than You Think
I’ll start with poverty, which has declined more the in the past 50 years than the previous 500. In fact, during the last 50 years, while the population on Earth has doubled, the average per capita income around th world (adjusted for inflation) has tripled.
We’re not just richer than ever before, we’re healthier as well. During the last century, maternal mortality has decreased by 90 percent and child mortality by 99 percent, while the length of the average human lifespan has more than doubled.
As Steven Pinker has made clear, since the middle ages, violence on Earth has been in constant decline. Homicide rates are a hundred-fold less than they were when they peaked 500 years ago. So we’re not only healthier, we’re safer as well.
If your measure of prosperity is tilted towards the availability of goods and services, consider that even the poorest American’s today (those below the poverty line) have access to phones, toilets, running water, air conditioning and even a car. Go back 150 years and the wealthiest robber barons couldn’t have hoped for such wealth.
Read the full piece here
We’re not just richer than ever before, we’re healthier as well. During the last century, maternal mortality has decreased by 90 percent and child mortality by 99 percent, while the length of the average human lifespan has more than doubled.
As Steven Pinker has made clear, since the middle ages, violence on Earth has been in constant decline. Homicide rates are a hundred-fold less than they were when they peaked 500 years ago. So we’re not only healthier, we’re safer as well.
If your measure of prosperity is tilted towards the availability of goods and services, consider that even the poorest American’s today (those below the poverty line) have access to phones, toilets, running water, air conditioning and even a car. Go back 150 years and the wealthiest robber barons couldn’t have hoped for such wealth.
Read the full piece here
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