Lesson 7 - 26 Sep 11

Biobusiness part 2.

I saw one part about Bioremediation and I thought it was very fascinating. So i went on to google and here is what i found.

1) Bioremediation involves the use of bacteria
2) The bacteria can de-contaminate the area by digesting nuclear radioactive waste
3) Mycofiltration involves using fungi to disassemble contaminants, to become CO2 and H20, which are much less harmful.
4) It is amendable, meaning that you can ionize it, to suit different type of situations.

I think one very practical use is for Japan's Nuclear situation, one potential use is to decontaminate the water at the reactors which is said to have leaked radioactive wastes that contaminated the sea.

Another practical use is on the superfund sites, where the lakes and seas in those identified areas have been polluted via industrialisation. This would void the need to use expensive machinery, chemicals and employment of extra manpower to clean up the sites.

We finally have an answer to these pollution and bioremediation does not require much machinery and manpower to operate. This has much cost savings and the money could be used in further research&development for better techniques to remove pollution.



I am going to talk about Genetically Modified Food (GM Food), it may sound very cliche by now because everyone is talking about it, but I really do not understand why there are so much objections against this? Is it because they are modified to beyond the purpose of providing more food?

Why in my opinion GM Food is good.

1) Increases yield.
GM crops are modified in such a way that they can withstand conditions that naturally it can't, and also to resist pests. This is very useful for our well-being, as well as for the farmers because a bad yield means wasted effort resources invested for the crop. With that, we can increase the quantity sold to the market and for consumption. In economics terms, with an increase in supply, keep demand constant, the seller would be able to sell more at a lower price, with an overall profit, and the overall benefit to both the consumer and the supplier in the market will increase too.


2) It alleviates food shortage
Let's face it. Lets look at the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and we see how far our target is. And if we look at our world's current problem, i do not think that attention will be given to those poverty as stated in the MDG. We had the Japan Earthquake recently, then Greece and USA's economical problem, with recession looming in the world, i am certainly not very optimistic about the climate of the situation, in the short-run(1-3years), unless we really come out with something useful.

GM food can help. If GM food can retain the same or if not, more nutrition with better yield, that will really help people in the poorer countries, to obtain more food, for survival.



I wished we could talk more about bioremediation, i thought it was quite interesting to see that there are other friendly bacterias, than we see at yakult and vitagen.
Overall : 8/10!

Lesson 6 - 19 Sep 2011

Today's lesson is on BioBusiness Revolution: Healthcare and Biomedical Sciences.

When I look at this topic, i get reminded of the development of Stem cells. It seems to be the area of research and development with the greatest potentials and benefits to be reaped.

Stem cells, is widely known to have great potential to improve our lives. As i read on about it, i realised that they have 2 main characteristics :
1) Self-replicating : Able to multiply on its own
2) Morphing : it can morph into specialised cells, that is used for different purpose.

Stem cells are found in our body, in various tissues. When cultured in a particular way, we get a type of cell that will develop in a purpose that we want it to serve. What are the benefits?

taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_cell


Looking at the potentials, for human mankind alone, it can already help in so many ways. Many of the disabling or life-threatening ailments now have a potential solution.

This is why it is very important to advance our research in that area and reach a stable technology, these illnesses are very undesirable to people and I believe the world will be a much happier place with such a treatment becomes widely available. With resistance and cures to ailments, humans will now be able to search deeper frontiers which had not been explored.


I was disappointed when the top scientists we "poached" from overseas left Singapore for other opportunities. They cited reasons like our government's red tape, bureaucracy, lack of support and funding. I found it quite a waste that Singapore spent so much money on the development of infrastructure, mainly at the biopolis and the science park, and that when the top researchers left, there was media coverage and it does not reflect very well of our country.


Based on World Health's Organisation data, General government expenditure on health as a percentage of total expenditure on health, over the years in the world have been close to 70%.
(source : http://apps.who.int/ghodata/?vid=1901#)

This signifies that governments around the world recognises the need for healthcare to be developed and provided for their citizens. This may be due to it's relatively high cost and it is inevitable that humans will fall ill. Therefore there needs to be resources allocated for the flourishing of the biomedical field to flourish.

I feel that at our current rate we would eventually be able to reach a level that stem cells would be 'mass-produced' for mankind to use for cures. However, this process would be very slow due to ethics, red tapes, and government regulation issues which would hinder the growth of that sector. This i guess cannot be helped as there are also a lot of situations which require immediate attention, and as compared to R&D in biomedicine as the yield may not be seen as quickly.


I rate this session a 9/10
+ I was envisioning a better future in this world, that gives me hope to live longer.
- Ethics issue tend to come to play when we talk about genetic engineering, which i felt that there will be no end to the discussion.



Are there any hopes for Singapore to be like the past, in the golden times where Biology was thought to be the new niche?

Lesson 5 - 12 Sep 2011

Today we went on to talk about ICT and world change.

I would like to zoom in on one particular topic : Cloud Computing.

When we discussed this, it struck me hard that it is everywhere. It is announced by apple to be the next big thing in the iOS5, where personalisation and other information may be saved in an online database, without the need for iTunes syncing with from the device to the computer.

Many people marveled at it's capabilities. Comments about the marvellous cloud computing sprang up after the Apple WWDC (WorldWide Developer's Conference).

Wait a minute, did they not realise that Cloud Computing is all around us?


The most native form of cloud computing could be illustrated with e-mails or even web hosting. If information is not stored in your computer but accessible anytime on-demand, that is cloud computing!


Cloud computing is also related to cost savings, which firms and consumers would take a liking to that very attribute. Cost of physical storage (Hard disk) over portability may not be as attractive as Storage on clod computing. Simply said, you save more and it's more portable and convenient. Good deal isn't it?


Talk about cost saving, i remember in 2007 i read this article about OLPC (One Laptop Per Child). It's mission is to provide every child with a laptop, providing low cost computing to needy people especially in the poorer countries. I was looking at the article, sub-$100 laptops? No WAY! How on earth you can make a laptop so cheap when a typical motherboard would cost that much? I read on and realised cloud computing was used in this project.


Belowis the picture of an OLPC computer.

Looks like one that you can get from Toys R Us isnt it?

Anyway, one of the reason why they can make it so cheap is because they make use of cloud computing! They forgo physical storage as it cost a lot, they have 5GB to ensure that it is just enough for a modified windows XP to run onn the machine, and let cloud computing to do the rest.

Word processing? My personal Microsoft Office comes in a DVD, a whopping 4.7GB storage, coupled with my Windows XP which is about 3GB, how is that sufficient on the 5GB OLPC computer? Cloud computing saves the day! Word processing is done by google documents. They use cloudo, which is a web-based application which pack myriad of features! One of them is a music player.

Ever wonder what is the turning knob for? It is actually using kinetic to generate electricity for the computer in case of a lack of power supply. In rural areas there may not be any electricity sources available so that knob is quite an useful feature i would say!


Many people criticised the failure of the OLPC computer, citing reasons like poor maintenance and support for the computer. Software problem could easily be solved by flashing the OS, but hardware maintenance would prove costly to those really in need and such technical expertise may be difficult to source for in the less developed countries too. The producer would face a big challenge to cut cost, and at the same time provide an extensive support to a big geographical area.

I rate the session an 8/10, because i could better see how ICT changed the world and to relate to my own life. I did an individual presentation which i felt I could had done better.

TWC Individual Topical review paper Outline and framework

Internet and Cybercrime

This paper seeks to draw the link between the proliferations of cybercrime with the innovation of internet. Additionally, this paper will first study how the internet revolution has changed our lives, and subsequently explore the effects of cybercrime on our society, with adversaries using the internet as a medium to perpetrate. More information about the difficulties of identifying these criminals will also be studied as a result of their concealment, and also what are the ongoing efforts to mitigate or eliminate such happenings. Finally we will look at any future developments and potentials to curb the cybercrimes.

The internet signifies a new age of free information flow between everyone; it is the epitome of globalization which also meant the “shrinking of the world”. Given its myriad features, we can use it for information acquisition. However, there are always antagonists who seek to abuse the features for their benefit or for disruptions. While the internet provides a proxy for anonymity, cybercrime perpetrators could use this concealment attribute to deter their true identification. Modern techniques still proved to be difficult for tracing the real identities of these people and therefore there is a rising trend and widespread of cybercrime all around the world.

• Introduction
• Rising of the internet (The innovation and modernization of internet and how it has improved our lives)
• Proliferated use of the internet (How it affected the world)
• Explain how internet is a good platform for cybercrime
• Examples of cybercrime and their effects

• Historical perspective
• Explain how internet and information evolved from past to present
• How E-Mail was used as a tool for cybercrime (One example)
• Other forms of Cybercrime (phishing and piracy)
• Trend (getting bad to worst?)
• Example of past cases

• Current situation
• What is the current impact
• Current challenges faced
• How is it being mitigated now
• Examples of modern cases
• Identifying the reasons for cybercrime, the implications, the protection put in place to deter crimes on Internet and list down case examples.
• Are people deterred from doing transactions over the Internet despite the widespread of cybercrime? Why and why not? 

• Future considerations
• Predictions for the future by looking at current trend
• Emergence of cloud computing and it’s possible effects
• Various developments for the future
• What are being developed
• What do your foresee in the future in the realm of cybercrime?
• Any emerging technologies that can successfully tackle cybercrime? Or with the number of Internet users increasing everyday, will cybercrime be more and more prevalent resulting the cyber world to be less secure? Collapse of the Internet due to cybercrime? Possible?

• Conclusion
• Is there hope for the future
• Recommendations of what we can do as an individual
• Realize that cybercrime is inevitable for as long as there are users around

-Red comments are from Jerry (thanks jerry!)
-Italics denote completed portions

Last updated : 07 Oct 11, 0311hrs.

Lesson 4 - 04 Sep 2011

From Professor Shahi's slides :


“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” 
- George Bernard Shaw -

"Unreasonable". This word often gives us a negative connotation. Someone who is stubborn, authoritative, and is someone who is often disliked by many. However, you can have these attributes to make changes, and be successful.

Who says being stubborn is always an obstacle to success? We can use the spirit of determination to support how this person can be successful.Thomas Edison was stubborn to failure. One of his famous quotes will justify why :

Results? Why, man, I have gotten lots of results! If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward....

- Thomas Edison

Who says that being authoritative and being disliked by many will bring us negative change? When Adolf Hitler was ruling Germany, he sure clamped down on each aspect that he can grasp his attention on. People were leading hard lives but Germany eventually improved in terms of unemployment and technology.

In modern days, I feel that being an advocator of change, we need to gain support from the masses because after all it is a democratic world now (mostly), and that people now have more freedom to choose. In order for change to happen, we have to put in more work to convince the people that it is for the right cause and it truly must be, else an uncover will banish one's reputation rock bottom and never to be raised again.

In the second part of the lesson, we visited : Pessimism VS Time curve :

Prof shared that this could be applied to Relationships too!

Uniformed Optimism - Honeymoon period

Informed Pessimism - The obstacle of living with each other's difference

Informed Realism - Get married, realised that the commitment is for real now

Completion - Hopefully, ever after

To me, I feel that running a marathon could also be applied here too.

Uniformed Optimism - I felt fresh, i felt i could go on forever.

Informed Pessimism - The breathlessness, lack of water, fatigue is wearing me down as I do not see the end anywhere near. This is the crucial point because giving up here means everything is over, while persevering till the end spells something more positive.

Informed Realism - I see a sign that leads me to the end, or that I am at the half-way point. Now I have a much clearer information of where I am at now and how long will it take for me to finish it.

Completion - The end is there, objective achieved.

Session ratings : 9/10

+ The guest presenters were really good! Now that it reminds me of my upcoming presentation in the next lesson...

- Personally, not much qualms, maybe more videos?