Feb 26 2013: Not exactly, read it very well and focus on this part:
Our Sporobeads can be used to purify water from heavy metal ions, toxins and plastic by expressing proteins on their surface that specifically bind such targets.
and I repeat the important part of this:
heavy metal ions, toxins and plastic
those are very limited pollutants in water, water purification is more complex than that, therefore my original comment states a bacteria that acts as a pig (can practically digest anything) in water, not a chicken (that will only feed on some limited organic and inorganic materials), pigs have an incredible digestive capacity to eat almost anything in front of them and properly dipoe of it, hence creating a bacteria that purifies water is more complex than simply removing some heavy metals and some organic materials, it requires a true feeder bacteria to acomplish that.
Feb 26 2013: Ty Jason, look forward for more questions and to interact with your conversations, I like the way you pose the question, inspires to think.
Feb 26 2013: ??? enriched Uranium or plutonium takes thousands if nto millions of years to get rid of radioactivity, you cannot "suck" every energy, actually radioactive energy is not "converted" into electricity or useful energy, radioactivity is the vehicle by which the plant converts , a nuclear plant is simply a steam engine, not a converter of radiation into electricity, although photovoltaic panels do convert some type of radiation (UV) ito electrical current and some recent studies on nanotubes (carbon) are being developed to do so, hence no there is no way to suck radioactive energy out of the nuclear waste, that s why we are burying it for thousands of years in the middle of our deserts.
Feb 26 2013: Credit rating was created ina very similar way as halliburton..it seems to be the right cool financially nice thing to do but in the end people will be hurt since the credit report is not a proven fact of trustwothiness, capacity or even morality of an individual, the reality is that credit is a way of pushing away and discerning what a financial mathematical curve decides it is correct based on a bunch of assumptions, should an employer check and base a decision to hire someone based on this FICO (fallacious) score?, the reality is that it has not been proven that a person with bad credit will perform poorly at a job, actually most of the credit problems a person may face in their life is not lack of financial or moral lackness but external factors that are beyond his/her control, you can name a few: get a ticket and you surely will pay that ticket before the creidt card, get sick and you will buy the medicines before paying that christmas gift, get in a car accident, lose your wallet, gosh hundreds of happenings and collectors will be on top of your head making your life miserable and unless you are sadomasochist I dont think anyone wants to be chaed around and risk the paycheck for that, I know of several hundreds of thousands of people that lost their credit due to the last recession, are they less capable of performing their jobs because of that? I dont think so and whoever employee thinks that is living inside a fallacy bubble where the reaility doesnt enter regardless of any argument to the contrary, applicants that are requested to submit a credit report should ask for the financial reports of the companies that want to hire them (lets see if they like that).
Feb 26 2013: Bacteria that can purify water, a combination of inorganic materials where the bacteria can feed itself and have some type of function (photocatalytic perhaps) that can purify water.
Feb 26 2013: Yes Jay, thank you for your comments, however curiosity is not a cognitive ability but an instinct developed through innate abilities for search, defense and attack, when you see a dog apparently recognizing the word ball and chasing the round object in a payful manner the reality is that the dog is training its skills of defense, attack, hunting and curiosity, although humans may seem curiosity as part of the analytical capacity of the brain, it seems that curiosity is a more simple task with its origins in the survival skills necessary on any species.
Humans have definitely improved (used loosely) due to the cognitive and analytical abilities of our brains, the development of agriculture yes is definitely the result of a series of observational, learning and deduction processes, however the beginnings of agricutlure were mostly rudimentary and aimed at satisfying a necessity more than a scientific analysis, empirical learning has been with us up until modern times and even games played by children tend to enrich the instictive nature of our brains more than the logical or deductive capacity of our brains. the evolutionary advantage has blurred the separation between our instinctive nature (stronger in primtive times) than the cognitive and analytical abilities we have improved and developed through our evolutionary process, hence the conclusion in my opinion is that our brains and mind have become more analytical, yes, but in most cases the hunting, perpetuation, defense, feeding, curiosity and even love as natural insticntive abilities of our species are the predominant factors in determining what represents an interest to us, no wonder that prime television has a sexual,violence, even the sense of integration innuendos that are very popular among humans, whereas the mental process required to advance a logical conclusion or a mental process tends to be tedious and burdensome. that seems in my opinion why science is not a prime time material.
Feb 25 2013: Because our societal structure has promoted through hundreds of years the innate and instinctive abilities instead of the cognitive capacity, therefore is more burdensome for us to pursue and attend to mental processes that require analysis than to use simply our instictive abilities such as hunting, territorial dominion, sense of power, reproductive necessity, species perpetuation and others that are activated through the media very easily, when the cognitive abilities get involved we tend to block this messages and become "bored" by these otherwise useful concepts.
We are animals that want to eat the chicken not to analyze how the chicken came about.
Feb 25 2013: Hi Jason, specificity will be needed to address this question in my humble opinion, the measure by which we define big problems and how they are addressed, it may require a full study of the subject problems one by one and an interconnected mapping of the relations between them, in your post you mention 6 big problems and therefore I will try to give my opinion on those summarizing one or more constants that represent one of the causes for this happening:
1. Ignorance of facts, risk and statistics.
2. Lack if proper information on the dangers it poses.
3. contrary interests.
4. financial burden
5. financial interest by a countering party.
6. lack of consensus
7. lack of proper interaction between disciplines.
8. corruption.
9. fear.
10. ignorance by the majority.
With those ten I think we have the majority of the why addressed, unfortunately the "big problems" we face are solvable but the human race seems to be destined to self-destruction based mostly on ignorance that spurs lack of interest in solving these issues, where we have a Country (The United States) where 30% of its population believes that climate change is not happening, where 40% believe in ghosts, where in this Planet an outstanding 80% believe in witchcraft, I presume Ignorance to be the major factor even so the technology is put forward to solve these big problems the majority of the People in the World finds it hard to believe we have solutions for some of these problems but prefer to believe in ressurection or 72 virgins on paradise. therefore the majority of this planet is more concerned of spending time in a church than in a scienctific symposium. We will perish because the minority does not have a strong voice to spur the majority to act, just take a look at the US Congress and see how many of these people actually believe or knows technologies such as Photocatalysis or Transportation of atoms in space/time, etc.
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A reply on Conversation: What genetically engineered machines (modified bacteria) should we build?
Our Sporobeads can be used to purify water from heavy metal ions, toxins and plastic by expressing proteins on their surface that specifically bind such targets.
and I repeat the important part of this:
heavy metal ions, toxins and plastic
those are very limited pollutants in water, water purification is more complex than that, therefore my original comment states a bacteria that acts as a pig (can practically digest anything) in water, not a chicken (that will only feed on some limited organic and inorganic materials), pigs have an incredible digestive capacity to eat almost anything in front of them and properly dipoe of it, hence creating a bacteria that purifies water is more complex than simply removing some heavy metals and some organic materials, it requires a true feeder bacteria to acomplish that.
A comment on Conversation: "Why Can't We Solve Big Problems?"
A reply on Conversation: Is there any environmentally friendly way to keep the waste of nuclear power?
A comment on Conversation: All Government or all Private?
A comment on Conversation: Are we being subject to emotional and financial blackmail by public officials ?
you can bet on that!!!
A comment on Conversation: Should employers not hire you or fire you when they discover your bad credit history?
A comment on Conversation: What genetically engineered machines (modified bacteria) should we build?
A comment on Conversation: Why don't we treat science experiments like primetime TV?
Humans have definitely improved (used loosely) due to the cognitive and analytical abilities of our brains, the development of agriculture yes is definitely the result of a series of observational, learning and deduction processes, however the beginnings of agricutlure were mostly rudimentary and aimed at satisfying a necessity more than a scientific analysis, empirical learning has been with us up until modern times and even games played by children tend to enrich the instictive nature of our brains more than the logical or deductive capacity of our brains. the evolutionary advantage has blurred the separation between our instinctive nature (stronger in primtive times) than the cognitive and analytical abilities we have improved and developed through our evolutionary process, hence the conclusion in my opinion is that our brains and mind have become more analytical, yes, but in most cases the hunting, perpetuation, defense, feeding, curiosity and even love as natural insticntive abilities of our species are the predominant factors in determining what represents an interest to us, no wonder that prime television has a sexual,violence, even the sense of integration innuendos that are very popular among humans, whereas the mental process required to advance a logical conclusion or a mental process tends to be tedious and burdensome. that seems in my opinion why science is not a prime time material.
A comment on Conversation: Why don't we treat science experiments like primetime TV?
We are animals that want to eat the chicken not to analyze how the chicken came about.
A comment on Conversation: "Why Can't We Solve Big Problems?"
1. Ignorance of facts, risk and statistics.
2. Lack if proper information on the dangers it poses.
3. contrary interests.
4. financial burden
5. financial interest by a countering party.
6. lack of consensus
7. lack of proper interaction between disciplines.
8. corruption.
9. fear.
10. ignorance by the majority.
With those ten I think we have the majority of the why addressed, unfortunately the "big problems" we face are solvable but the human race seems to be destined to self-destruction based mostly on ignorance that spurs lack of interest in solving these issues, where we have a Country (The United States) where 30% of its population believes that climate change is not happening, where 40% believe in ghosts, where in this Planet an outstanding 80% believe in witchcraft, I presume Ignorance to be the major factor even so the technology is put forward to solve these big problems the majority of the People in the World finds it hard to believe we have solutions for some of these problems but prefer to believe in ressurection or 72 virgins on paradise. therefore the majority of this planet is more concerned of spending time in a church than in a scienctific symposium. We will perish because the minority does not have a strong voice to spur the majority to act, just take a look at the US Congress and see how many of these people actually believe or knows technologies such as Photocatalysis or Transportation of atoms in space/time, etc.