Prague

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Jane Poynter: Life in Biosphere 2

Summary:
Jane Poynter in her presentation is talking about living in the Biosphere 2 for two years and twenty minutes with seven of her colleagues. In the Biosphere 2 she and her crew were experimenting living in the complete sealed environment. Biosphere 2, built in 1991, is an atmosphere created artificially by people. It has rain forest, ocean, farm where they were producing own food and did experiments. During this time they faced oxygen loss problem which was absorbed by concrete; furthermore, they were testing how small can be this biosphere. The Biosphere was tested in the space and they are planning to grow plants on the Moon and on the Mars. After spending 2 years in the Biosphere 2 she lost touch with our biosphere and realized that people stink; it is because we are using deodorants, hair sprays and other chemicals to refresh ourselves. The Biosphere is a ground breaking technology which will help our world in the future.
Words: 160
Response: I think this is one of the most useful and amazing thing that was built by humans. It is like a new world had been created. Now I can see that we can relocate from earth to Mars or any other planet. Furthermore, if the global warming continues then we can create and hide in the Biosphere 2 isn’t it amazing? I can imagine myself to live in such a place if it comes to a worst in our world. Now at least we know that we have an option of hiding if the air is not good for us. In other words, this is a big achievement for us, all the movies where this kind of world was simulated now is the reality.
Words: 130

Irwin Redlener on surviving a nuclear attack

Summary:
Irvine Redlener in his presentation is talking about the chances of surviving nuclear attack. He noted that the preparedness of the USA is inadequate if nuclear bomb goes off. Furthermore, the USA has high value target which are easy to attack e.g. 9/11. The professor refutes the early theory that the nuclear bomb explosion is not possible to survive. He simulated a nuclear explosion in Manhattan, which illustrated that it is possible to survive the nuclear explosion. Professor Irvine Redlener explained the chances of survival of the blast effects. If people survive the blast actually they have pretty high chances to survive the attack; however, they have to make important steps such as getting out of the area about 1,5 miles, go down wind, get covered etc. According to the professor the critical point is to survive the blast and take right steps after it. In his presentation he proves that nuclear explosion is survivable.

Response:
Personally, I have found his presentation very interesting. Before watching it I thought after the nuclear blast the chance of survivor is zero. However, there is a possibility to survive which is good news. I think the steps that Irvine explained are very useful compared to the video from the 60’s, and I will keep it on mind in case of emergency. The only thing which disappointed me is the attitude of the government of the United States. They had been under a threat of nuclear attack for many years, and they had no rescue plan if some bomb goes off. The question is are they ready now? I doubt it. Another surprising fact is the huge amount of information available on the internet about building a nuclear bomb. In my opinion this should be top secret and not browse able.

Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education

Summary:

In this TED Talk, Salman Khan talks about how and why he created the Khan Academy. The Khan academy is famous for its teaching videos used by one million students all over the world. First he started to tutor his cousins remotely by putting videos on you tube. Tutoring this way had a big success with his cousins. By the time, he had started to get positive feed backs not only from his cousins, but also from students and teachers. They saw the advantages of Khan’s videos and they started to use it more frequently both in schools and home. The reason why it is so popular between students is that they can watch it in their own pace, pause it, and watch it over and over again until they get the content. After positive feedbacks he continued posting videos and decided to create the Khan Academy. The Khan Academy has developed high quality teaching system which has been used at the present the by the Los Altos school which has great results of this teaching style. As a result the teachers spend more time with their students, and have better overview of what the students know and what they don’t know.
Words:210

Response:
Personally I am supporting his idea to use the Khan Academy as a supplement for self studying.
It can help students to understand the content and achieve better results in school. Furthermore, the biggest advantages could be for the parents who have to spend time and money for tutoring their children. As a parent I would really push my children to use these videos in their free time to get better results at school. However, some kids might have problem with concentration of learning of the computer screens because of distraction possibilities from the internet. But this is a great idea how individuals and groups can improve their knowledge for free. Free education would be useful in countries in the third world where many families can’t afford their children’s education because of their bad financial situation. Therefore, I hope that these videos will get to the people who really need free education and help them achieve their dreams.

Words:160

Spencer Wells builds a family tree for humanity

Summary:
Spencer Wells is a genetics who wants to create a family tree of humanity from our DNA. He has travelled around the world investigating the diversity and the origin of people. He is analyzing our direct ancestors and how the world’s population spread from one place. He approaches this question with different manner. He is looking for the answer in our DNA. Our DNA contains information which can unveil the origin of our ancestors. The DNA carries information from paternal and maternal side which traces our ancestors to Africa. This means that Africans had been accumulating this mutational diversity. In other words, we have been originated in Africa, it’s written in our DNA. The DNA proves that within 200 000 years we all share one ancestor, a single person, - Mitochondrial Eve who gave rise to all the diversity of the world today.

Words:150


Response:
The presentation of Spencer Wells is very interesting. I never thought about that all the world’s population goes back to a one single person. Moreover, our DNA carries information which can say who was our predecessor. I found it very useful because it can help those people who want to create more precise family tree and find their distant relatives. He described how the human population diverted from Africa and spread to the world. Furthermore, the fact that we all came from Africa and the center of human evolution is there amazed me.
Words: 100

Bart Weetjens: How I taught rats to sniff out land mines

Summary:
Bart Weetjens in his presentation explained that rats are magnificent creatures and are able to save human lives. Furthermore he explained the whole process of the training. The training starts with a basic clicking method as any other animal training. Once the rat learns that one click means food then he is taught to stick his nose for five seconds in the target smell. After learning this skill the rat is placed into a cage with several hidden target holes. With successful results the rat is taught to walk on a leash and find smell targets. The last phase is the test of finding real land mines. When they past this test the rat gets an international licence of ability finding land mines. The test is the same as for land mine sniffing dogs, but there is on difference which is that rat training is cheaper than dog training. Tuberculosis is one of the most critical illnesses in Africa last year almost 1.9 million people died from Tuberculosis. Rats are also trained to recognize sample contaminated with a virus of TBC. An ordinary laboratory test with a microscope is able to test 40 samples per day; where as the trained rat can recognize the same amount of samples in 7 minutes. In a one day the trained rat can recognize 1600 samples. With this procedure they are able to increase the time of revealing diseases faster and save people’s lives. Furthermore, the rats have a potential of training to detect environmental pollutions in soil, elicit goods in containers, detect earthquake survivors etc. Bart Weetjens and his team want to standardize rat training. Using rats for sniffing land mines and illness samples is already working successfully and it has a potential to be used more frequently for saving people’s lives.

Respond:
This is another example of that our world is magnificent. People usually think that rats are pest animals and they are disgusted of them. Bart Weetjens with his presentation had simply refuted the idea that rats are pest animals. After seeing his presentation I have completely changed my point of view at rats. Rats can be used for useful things like dogs. Surprisingly the training is cheaper than the training of dogs. If we will use the rats smelling ability to recognize contaminated disease samples and landmines we can save lot of time and people’s lives. Like Bart Weetjens illustrated with the 40 analyzed samples by microscope in one day; however, rats can recognize the same amount of samples in 7 minutes. Furthermore, the future of using rats as rescue factor in earthquake affected areas is make a logical explanation because rats are small and they can rake through soil to find survivors and signal their location. Isn’t it amazing?

Christopher McDougall: Are we born to run?

Summary:

In my video Christopher McDougall presents about human’s ability to run. He explained that the mankind has been running for 2 million years. Before the invention of tools people were hunting in an interesting way. They were running down animals in groups during hot days.  The reason why people were able to hunt down animals is that we have a unique ability to sweat. Sweating is a thing which no other mammal, on earth, can do at the same time while running. He also compared the modern humans with our predecessors. Our predecessors hadn’t have advanced technology like running shoes they were running bare foot. He gave an example of the Mexican Indian tribe Tarahumara which remained unchanged since the Stone Age. These people can run unbelievable distances 100 to 150 miles at once without special equipments. The reason why these people can run for long distances is unknown. Scientist in the Harvard and University of Utah are trying to figure out their secret. Christopher McDougall also discussed the endurance of modern men and women.  Modern women are not considered faster than men, but they are able to run longer distances than men.  Running was always part of human nature; people were running for long time. The modern technology spoiled people that we are not running anymore.

Respond:  

From my point of view, it reasonable that people in the past were able to run such a long distances. They weren’t surrounded with modern technological equipments like we are in the present. If they wanted to survive they had to figure out how to hunt down their pray. In their case running was in what  they were good at it; therefore, it was the best weapon for them. However, the modern mankind is more comfortable, we have special equipments which are making our lives easier. What surprised me in this video is the Tarahumara Indian tribe in Mexico, these people haven’t had changed for the last 1000 years, which is amazing. They can run really long distances. I think the reason why they can run such a long distances is that they are not using high technology. They are basically running everywhere which keeps their running endurance in a high level