For three years, Nathan has been directing and funding a team here at the Lab dedicated to culinary sciences. Chemists and chefs from some of the best restaurants in the world working on the cutting edge of applying scientific knowledge to the way we prepare food. They are just about to ship the cookbook they’ve created – Modernist Cuisine: The Art & Science of Cooking is a 2400 page tome (in six volumes) on the science of cooking, available to pre-order from Amazon. Check out the 20-page excerpt for a preview. The Lab kitchen has a drill press, a bandsaw, a rotary evaporator, a homogenizer and a pharmaceutical freeze dryer. They cook with liquid nitrogen and most of the rest of the periodic table. They’ve kept our machine shop busy with requests like “can you cut this microwave in half?” to make cross sectional images of cooking processes so cool that kitchenware companies have started sending us their products in hopes that we will cut them in half too.
We’re proud of this team, some of the hardest working people in the lab. Hopefully they can take a good break and then come back to work to help us invent the future of food.
In order to better understand malaria and its spread, we first need to have an understanding of how the carriers of this disease behave. One of the big questions that we are exploring is, what attracts mosquitoes to humans in the first place? Sure they need our blood to reproduce, but how are they able to seek us out? How do they know to land on me and not the tree I’m standing next to? Why are some mosquitoes within a species more attracted to cows, and others more attracted to humans?
Over the last few years there has been a lot of destruction caused by a handful of very devastating hurricanes. In fact, six of the 10 costliest hurricanes to hit the United States have struck since 2004 (Katrina, Wilma, Ike, Charley, Ivan and Rita).
One of the consequences of global warming is that more energy is available in the ocean and the atmosphere to produce weather. Energy from the sun heats up the surface of the ocean. As that heat irradiates up and fuels storms, they can become ever more dangerous hurricanes. Reducing their destructive potential is possible if we could cool off the surface of the ocean.
A few years ago, Intellectual Ventures inventors, including wave energy expert Stephen H. Salter, an emeritus professor at the University of Edinburgh, began work on a new approach that may offer a more feasible and affordable way to drain energy from hurricanes and typhoons.
As we head into this tough hurricane season, we wanted to answer some of the most common questions we receive about the Salter Sink.
…well, minus the CD-ROM. The slideshow gives a rundown of the Photonic Fence’s mechanics and envisioned uses. Enjoy…unless you’re on a Flash-hating iPad
Several years ago we had a thought. The discussion that followed looked more or less like this:
If mosquito populations can be effectively controlled, then we could make a huge impact in the fight against malaria.
Okay, so why not just shoot the mosquitoes out of the sky?
That’s absolutely preposterous…let’s do it!
It wasn’t exactly clear how to convince the disease carriers to fall from the air. However, we were confident that a system could be designed that was far cleaner and more controlled than fumigation and certainly more efficient than old-fashion hand slapping. Wondering if an unhealthy dose of photons might do the trick, we set out in search of an energy- and cost-effective way to kill a mosquito with light. This was no easy task as it became apparent that these insects, though tiny and seemingly fragile, are very resilient. Research engineer, Tom Nugent walks us through the various dosing experiments that have led us to our current method of mosquito elimination.
If you have followed us for long, you’ve probably heard of our facility’s supercomputer and laser systems. However, the first thing I like to reveal when telling people about the lab is the mosquito insectary. Not only is it slightly bizarre having colonies of pests nurtured and bred mere feet away from where I work everyday, but the insectary serves a vital role in several of the lab’s projects.
The insectary consists of the supplies and equipment needed to grow mosquitos, and is housed in rooms that mimic the temperature and humidity of India and Sub-Saharan Africa, where these species originate. Biologists Barcin Acar and Emma Mullen conduct experiments and observations at all stages of the insects’ life cycle in order to gain a better understanding of their behavior, anatomy and vulnerabilities so that we can have every advantage possible in the fight against malaria. Barcin and Emma work closely with Photonic Fence and other projects, providing invaluable support to disease eradication efforts.
In our efforts to fight malaria, the Photonic Fence has been getting all the attention lately, but this is just one of several ideas that we are actively working on to combat disease. Another key malaria project is Epidemiological Modeling. This is a highly detailed computer simulation that predicts how the disease spreads at local, regional and global scales. The model takes into account many variables that affect transmission such as temperature, population, transportation, and the use of vaccines, bed nets and even innovations such as the Photonic Fence.
There are a wide variety of epidemiological modeling approaches that many groups use to study malaria. Ultimately, our work and other existing approaches are used to evaluate and predict effective strategies for malaria eradication.
Mathematician, Philip Eckhoff, and computational scientist, Karima Nigmatulina, explain the project and software.
TerraPower’s university collaborations contribute meaningful progress to the design of the traveling wave reactor. We’ve been proactive about introducing future generations of nuclear engineers and scientists to new advanced reactor technology, but this work is appealing to young computer science students as well. In November, Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer, visited four college campuses to talk with students about how new capabilities in computers will help solve the world’s complex issues. Mundie showcased the cutting-edge work taking place at Microsoft as well as some of TerraPower’s modeling work.
Mundie offered computer science students some insight into what the future of scientific research might look like. At the Intellectual Ventures Lab, we are shaping that vision.
The evolution of computing impacts our ability to solve some the most complex issues facing the world. TerraPower’s modeling software is one example. Used to develop the traveling-wave concept, this software, has cut the time required to complete high-fidelity nuclear engineering calculations by several orders of magnitude. These computational analyses have enabled TerraPower to design a practical traveling-wave reactor which provides a new basis for innovation in nuclear energy.
Last week, Nathan Myhrvold, founder and CEO of Intellectual Ventures presented several of IV’s “malaria projects” to the audience at TED 2010. The Photonic Fence is one piece in a suite of inventions we are working on to help track, understand, detect, treat and eradicate malaria. It has captured a lot of attention and we have received many questions about how it works. In response, we wanted to share some details on the mechanics of this project.
The following video of 3ric Johanson was shot the night before our TED talk at 3 AM in a hallway of the hotel. The hotel staff were good sports despite the death rays and bug boxes.
The Photonic Fence is not for sale today. IV does not produce products, but ideas. To that end, this prototype is a proof of concept. We are looking to partner with another company or organization to make this idea a reality. So stay tuned.
You can learn more about our other malaria projects here and stay tuned to the lab blog for future updates.
