The Silver Ink

Sunday, September 19, 2021
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Bill gates warns the next disease epidemic will be much worse

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bill gatesBill Gates describes the Ebola epidemic as both global failure and a wake-up call at Ted (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference.

Ebola virus disease or Ebola is caused by ebolaviruses. Signs and symptoms stars between two days and three weeks after contracting the disease.

It has killed 11000 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

 He said that there were plenty of technology tools that could be used to contain the spread of a virus and governments should learn from how nations prepare for war.

Countries that are part of the NATO frequently run exercises to check if they are ready if a world war breaks out, but the last serious simulation of an epidemic in the United States took place way back in 2002.

Technology can play an important role in preventing the spread of virus he said. Mobile technology can be extensively used to report where the disease breaks out and satellite mapping can collate where the problem areas are.

Advances in biology are tremendous and it has cut the time to quickly develop the vaccine for new viruses.

“There is a significant chance that an epidemic of a substantially more infectious disease will occur sometime in the next 20 years” he said.

He said, even if the system has worked out well for Ebola but it may fail to contain more infectious disease. He further added that he believe that we can solve this problem just like we have solved the other problems.

“The United Nations should empower and fund a global institution to coordinate the creation of a warning and response system, disease surveillance database, and more research on drugs, vaccines, and diagnostic tests.”

“By building a global warning and response system, we can prepare for it and prevent millions of deaths,” Gates concluded.

 

3D printer inspired by liquid metal robot of film ‘Terminator’ displayed

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terminator

Inspired by the scary killer liquid metal robot in the movie ‘Terminator’, a group of scientists displayed a revolutionary 3D printing technology at the TED conference on Tuesday.

Chemist Joseph DeSimone put on display a 3D printer that allowed creations to rise from molten liquid pools in mostly the similar way as done by the terrifying T-1000 robot from the second ‘Terminator’ flick rose from the silvery puddle.

Presenting the incredible three-dimensional printing device at the conference, DeSimone said, “We were inspired by the ‘Terminator 2’ scene for the T-1000.”

A team of scientists led by DeSimone developed an advanced technology, known as “Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP)”, which they say enables harnessing of the powers of oxygen and light in a printer. This further allows bringing of the designed objects instantly into existence from small elastic material reservoirs having sophisticated properties.

DeSimone explains they have a reservoir that holds the puddle in the similar way as the T-1000.

The team calls the technology a “game changer” as the process of printing finishes parts at speeds that are competitive with current manufacturing processes.

Currently, the 3D printers much depend on spraying the layer upon layer of material, leading to very slow building of objects that even takes hours.

The longer durations taken by such printers intend that it is not feasible to use resins that chemically transform before the final completion of the printing process.

According to the researchers, CLIP is faster as much as 25 to 100 times than the traditional three-dimensional printers. Moreover, CLIP uses synthetic resins with mechanical properties that are strong enough to enable them finished parts.

 

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