Curating the Internet: Science and technology micro-summaries for July 25, 2019

Contract programmer faces justice for inserting logic bomb into spreadsheet; Lightsail2 has deployed its sails in low-Earth orbit; Clinical trials for personalized cancer vaccines; A robotic prosthetic that provides a sense of touch to amputees; How arctic animals manage to keep warm

Straight from my RSS feed:

Links and micro-summaries from my 1000+ daily headlines. I filter them so you don't have to.

1. A contract programmer faces 10 years in jail for inserting a 'logic bomb' into a spreadsheet that caused Siemens to keep rehiring him - A programming contractor is facing up to 10 years in prison after being accused of planting bugs into a spreadsheet that would cause it to fail every few years and force the employer to rehire him. The article says that the scheme was uncovered when the failure was triggered during the programmer's vacation, and he was forced to give the spreadsheet password to someone else. The defendant's lawyer argues that the logic bomb was done to protect his intellectual property, not to generate revenue.


2. LightSail2 has just unfurled its sails and is now powered by the sun - The solar powered craft is now in low-Earth orbit, with its motion powered by photons from the Sun. LightSail1 stayed in orbit for a period of days during 2015. The modern thinking on space-sails began with Carl Sagan in the 1970s, and the concept has historical roots as far back as Johannes Kepler in the 1600s.


3. Personalized Cancer Vaccines in Clinical Trials - The recent history of personalized cancer vaccines begins in 2014, and continues to the present time, where researchers choose from 3 methods for creating them: (i) they extract cells from the patient's body, culture them with neoantigens that are tailored for fighting the patient's particular illness, and then inject the cultured cells into the patient's body; (ii) Create synthetic cells with customized neoantigens and inject those into the patient's body; or (iii) Inject DNA &RNA that are coded for customized neoantigens into the patient's body so that the body can produce customized cells. In all cases, it is hoped that the body's immune system will make use of the customized cells to kill the cancer without harming healthy cells. At present, more than two dozen early-stage trials are going on to evaluate these techniques. Early results have been promising, but the long term utility of the technique remains to be seen. h/t RealClear Science


4. A Robot Hand Helps Amputees “Feel” Again - To simulate the sense of touch, researchers mapped 119 tactile perceptions on a patient by implanting electrodes, and constructing a sort-of replacement "wiring system" and connecting it to a prosthetic hand. In order to judge the effectiveness of the device, the patients had covers placed over their eyes and ears, while they reported on whether objects that were held in the robotic hand were soft or hard. The device costs $100,000 to $200,000 and FDA approval will take several years. Tactile robotics were previously discussed in Science and technology micro-summaries for July 4, 2019


5. STEEM Arctic animals: How do they warm up? - @tanyaschutte describes a 3-tier defense against the cold. Tier one is the fat or blubber that lies just below the skin. This provides a source of insulation against the cold, and also energy when food is scarce. The second tier is the under-fur or down that lies immediately outside the skin. It provides additional insulation against the cold air. Third and finally, outside the under-fur, the animal's fur or feathers provide a shield against rain, snow, and wetness. The post also describes an experiment that a child can do with latex gloves, Crisco oil, and a bowl of water to observe the insulation effect of blubber first-hand... no pun intended ; -). (A beneficiary setting has been added to direct 5% of this post's rewards to @tanyaschutte.)

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