Redesigning Life

Author(s):  
John Parrington

We can now edit genomes. The technique, which involves cutting and pasting DNA code into the genome, is faster and cheaper than traditional genetic engineering and can be used on almost any animal or plant. What will this technology mean for the future? It may pave the way to banishing many diseases, and help feed the burgeoning population of the world. Woolly mammoths may again roam the tundra. But are there also risks? Might a nightmarish world of bioterrorism and rogue synthetic organisms await? John Parrington reports on the astonishing revolution underway in genetic engineering and why it matters to us all.

2017 ◽  
Vol 225 (4) ◽  
pp. 324-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitrios Barkas ◽  
Xenia Chryssochoou

Abstract. This research took place just after the end of the protests following the killing of a 16-year-old boy by a policeman in Greece in December 2008. Participants (N = 224) were 16-year-olds in different schools in Attiki. Informed by the Politicized Collective Identity Model ( Simon & Klandermans, 2001 ), a questionnaire measuring grievances, adversarial attributions, emotions, vulnerability, identifications with students and activists, and questions about justice and Greek society in the future, as well as about youngsters’ participation in different actions, was completed. Four profiles of the participants emerged from a cluster analysis using representations of the conflict, emotions, and identifications with activists and students. These profiles differed on beliefs about the future of Greece, participants’ economic vulnerability, and forms of participation. Importantly, the clusters corresponded to students from schools of different socioeconomic areas. The results indicate that the way young people interpret the events and the context, their levels of identification, and the way they represent society are important factors of their political socialization that impacts on their forms of participation. Political socialization seems to be related to youngsters’ position in society which probably constitutes an important anchoring point of their interpretation of the world.


The Eye ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (128) ◽  
pp. 19-22
Author(s):  
Gregory DeNaeyer

The world-wide use of scleral contact lenses has dramatically increased over the past 10 year and has changed the way that we manage patients with corneal irregularity. Successfully fitting them can be challenging especially for eyes that have significant asymmetries of the cornea or sclera. The future of scleral lens fitting is utilizing corneo-scleral topography to accurately measure the anterior ocular surface and then using software to design lenses that identically match the scleral surface and evenly vault the cornea. This process allows the practitioner to efficiently fit a customized scleral lens that successfully provides the patient with comfortable wear and improved vision.


1985 ◽  

The World Tourism Conference, held in Manila from 27 September to 10 October 1980, proved that the human community is still able to think generously and clearly, and to hold a courageous vision of the future. The Conference was convened to examine a subject which would lead to modification of outmoded concepts and practices, and would induce governments as well as the travel industry to reconsider all of their activities in the tourism sector. The Manila conference was able to show the way to build for the future in a field – that of free time and leisure – which is becoming one of the important responsibilities of governments, as non-working time increases in relation to working time because of the transformations that modern society is undergoing.


Adam alemi ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 90 (4) ◽  
pp. 11-20
Author(s):  
R.T. Khassenova ◽  
◽  
M. S. Sarkulova ◽  

The article considers the project “Tugan Zher” (“Homeland”) of the Kazakhstani national program “Course towards the future: modernization of Kazakhstan’s identity” and the possibility to resort to the works and ideas of the well-known Italian philosopher and semiotician, recognized expert in Middle ages Umberto Eco while implementing the program, as in his numerous works the Italian scientist reflects much on the meaning of such notions like signification, reconstruction and memory. His philosophy of culture is the study of signs and languages and belief that understanding of the world requests understanding how we interpret it through the language and signs we use, constant mediation that stands in the way between us and the world. The poetics of openness, advocated much by Eco, is especially actual under the current realities. The present research proves the semiotic concept of U. Eco to be effective in exploring cultural landscapes, which being regarded as signs, carriers of some valuable information, add much to the spiritual legacy of the nation.


Through case studies of incidents around the world where the social media platforms have been used and abused for ulterior purposes, Chapter 6 highlights the lessons that can be learned. For good or for ill, the author elaborates on the way social media has been used as an arbiter to inflict various forms of political influence and how we may have become desensitized due to the popularity of the social media platforms themselves. A searching view is provided that there is now a propensity by foreign states to use social media to influence the user base of sovereign countries during key political events. This type of activity now justifies a paradigm shift in relation to our perception and utilization of computerized devices for the future.


2022 ◽  
pp. 13-63

COVID-19 has dramatically changed our world in terms of telework specifically and remote life in general. We are still learning new things about balancing family and work; trustworthiness, performance, and accountability issues; important changes and discoveries about the way the world goes to work; and discussions of the dynamic ways people communicate. This chapter examines reasons for resistance to telework to shed light on how COVID-19 has changed us. The discussion that follows centers on qualitative interviews concerning telework, an evaluation of employee engagement now and in the future, and ideas and actions that should prove helpful to organizations. Analyzing the interviews reveals several common threads: distractions, fatigue, accountability, communication, productivity, technology, coping, work hours, resources, and plan approaches.


2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 97-102
Author(s):  
Luke Tredinnick ◽  
Claire Laybats

This paper compiles a series of responses from key information professionals to the novel coronavirus pandemic of 2020. Respondents were invited to answer the questions how the pandemic has impacted on their work, and how it might change the way of working in the future. Contributors to the article include Scott Brown, Steve Dale, Denise Carter, Alison Day, Hal Kirkwood and Emily Hopkins.


2012 ◽  
Vol 367 (1586) ◽  
pp. 181-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew R. Evans

The world is changing at an unprecedented rate. In such a situation, we need to understand the nature of the change and to make predictions about the way in which it might affect systems of interest; often we may also wish to understand what might be done to mitigate the predicted effects. In ecology, we usually make such predictions (or forecasts) by making use of mathematical models that describe the system and projecting them into the future, under changed conditions. Approaches emphasizing the desirability of simple models with analytical tractability and those that use assumed causal relationships derived statistically from data currently dominate ecological modelling. Although such models are excellent at describing the way in which a system has behaved, they are poor at predicting its future state, especially in novel conditions. In order to address questions about the impact of environmental change, and to understand what, if any, action might be taken to ameliorate it, ecologists need to develop the ability to project models into novel, future conditions. This will require the development of models based on understanding the processes that result in a system behaving the way it does, rather than relying on a description of the system, as a whole, remaining valid indefinitely.


1993 ◽  
Vol 86 (5) ◽  
pp. 411-414
Author(s):  
Robert Mayes

Mathematics and the way we teach it are undergoing dramatic changes. The NCTM's Curriculum and Evaluation Standards (1989) has determined a direction and focus for the future of mathematics education. The study of mathematics should be an active experience for students—one in which they explore the world of mathematics, make conjectures based on patterns discovered, and induce the mathematical concept. The idea of a guided-discovery approach for students in mathematics is hardly new. Socrates taught this way. However, he had the luxury of a lighter student load and no state or federal mandates on expected student outcomes. In short, Socrates had the time.


2021 ◽  
Vol V (1) ◽  
pp. 159-165
Author(s):  
Elena Smirennikova

The article deals with a fragment of a lecture by V.V. Bibikhin, in which eternity is interpreted as a constant renewal, the young-new. The new present, the “now”, makes the preceding present different, thereby turning it into the past. This "now" does not exist in the way of being and is recognized only as the boundary between the past and the future. But it touches us, captures us. The new can't be planned, it can only be allowed, let be. The allowing is a risk, because the unknown will always fall out, something that you cannot prepare beforehand, prepare a way to deal with it. However, in the new we always recognize the same thing. Also to be ready for the new is to be ready for the generosity of being, which gives more and more. Being gives space and time to appear. The non-appeared, the different, seems to us separated with a line, a boundary. And we imagine eternity as something being abroad, beyond the line of time. But for Bibikhin, this is a meeting with the boundary itself, which is different both to what is located on one side of the boundary and to what is on the other. Eternity is not there, “beyond the line”, but here and now: it exists by its absence. Absolutely different, boundary, line, eternity — not just different, but is different, new each time. That is why Bibikhin's eternity is the young-new itself.


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