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"If you write great code or are an expert in genomics or know how to develop new seeds, I’d encourage you to learn more about the problems of the poorest and se
by Blahah 13y ago
"If you write great code or are an expert in genomics or know how to develop new seeds, I’d encourage you to learn more about the problems of the poorest and see how you can help."
Check, check, check. And actually it was a previous article of Bill's that made me want to become a scientist, and now we're Gates funded to develop more efficient crops.
Coders of the world - we have awesome data to play with. Come and help :)
- lifeisstillgood 13y agoWho is we and what sort of playing is needed?
- jmpe 13y agoClick his handle, check the profile.
- onebaddude 13y ago>to develop more efficient crops. Forgive me, I'm a bit out of my element here: I assume you're talking about "genetically modified foods"? How do you plan on dealing with the anti-GMO doomers? That perspective seems to be pervasive.
- erikpukinskis 13y agoI'm relatively pro-GMO for a liberal, but I hang out with a lot of alarmists so I have a sense of their position. There are some "naturalists" who are just fundamentally against it, but I think a lot of people just don't like that they're so untested. If we can do more long- term studies feeding animals these foods I think you could make inroads with those folks. Also, though there's nothing inherent about GMOs that encourages pesticide use, in practice many of the existing GMO crops are designed to facilitate heavy use of Roundup, which makes people uncomfortable. Again, because there is limited science about what the long-term effects of that are. So maybe when you're thinking about GMO research it's good to keep in mind that "research" includes not just development, but testing, which helps address the challenge you raise.
- jrkelly 13y agoGMOs undergo far more extensive testing than any other type of new crop introduced. The people who don't like GMOs do so b/c they don't like industrial agriculture. GMOs are just the weakest link in industrial Ag to attack.
- tcdent 13y agoIs it really necessary to lab test wild (though bred over many years) varieties? It's natural; it worked before we touched it. The biggest risk GMO has is over-confidence in human science.
- Blahah 13y agoIt's not really necessary to test any food, but because people are scared of GMOs, we do. Being natural does not imply safety or health.
- tcdent 13y ago> Being natural does not imply safety or health. Definitely agree with you there. I was speaking to the "tried and true" or "test of time" aspect of traditional crops.
- Houshalter 13y agoThere are small amounts of toxins in every plant. Not enough to cause any real problems, but I doubt you could get them approved if you were to artificially create the exact same thing.
- gcb0 13y agothe REAL problem with GMO is this: someone cross seeds, radiate them, etc... gets a seed that naturally produce a harmless parasite poison. He sacks that. Keep crossing, radiating, sprinkling magic dust, whatever those guys do... now he gets one that is healthy even after being bombarded with some common pesticide. But that common pesticide is public domain. So they keep doing their thing until they get a seed that survives whatever pesticide the company can patent and exclusively distribute. Is it better then the others? well, the pesticide to not have been patented have to use weird stuff that is probably carcinogen (good reason to not have been patented before) and the nutrients is probably worse than the others... but if they sack the research on the others nobody would have that option. anyway, i'm tired of typing. but you get the idea.
- tstactplsignore 13y agoHey Blahah, I'm an undergraduate in Biophysics at a highly regarded US university. I have a few years of experience in coding, bioinformatics, computational biology, and wet lab research. I find the Cambridge Plant Sciences department's work really interesting- are there any summer programs or internships for foreign undergrads ongoing there, or any that you know of in the same field at another university?
- Blahah 13y agoHey, email me - address is in my profile.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- joel_perl_prog 13y agoWhat can I do? I have a bachelor's degree in mathematics...mostly useless, I suppose. Been writing software professionally for 15 years. I've always wondered how can I make the jump, and contribute as a reasonably skilled and experienced developer (as opposed to in a scientific capacity, as a biologist could; bioinformatics analysis, etc. Although I'm kind of interested in that, too).
- Blahah 13y agoMany of the most promising potential routes to solving the hardest biology problems are heavily maths and software dependent. We use high-throughput techniques to generate a lot of data of different types, then use mathematical insights and computational power to reduce the data, then more maths and machine learning to extract meaning. That maths degree probably means, at the least, that you're comfortable learning graph theory, combinatorics, discrete optimisation, probability theory, etc. These things are the foundation of systems and computational biology. The software development skills are also sorely needed - a huge proportion of computational biology software is unusable outside of the lab that developed it, and well-engineered software underpins a LOT of successful research. Many great ideas go wasted due to lack of good programmers to implement them properly. I would say there are two ways in: 1. Stay in your current job, and do hobby work collaborating with scientists to write scientific FOSS and publish it. If you're interested in this, I have a long list of ideas. 2. Transition to science - get a job in a bio lab or at a computational biology/genomics institute. Depending on the specific problem you want to work on and where in the world you are, I can suggest places. Probably 1, then 2 would be a good idea.
- sitkack 13y agoI was thinking that we need to optimize for growing crops indoors under minimal water and light scenarios. Living in your own apt/led greenhouse. To do this it would be nice to run thousands of experiments to find the optimal conditions, crowd source the variable space. Thoughts?
- tcdent 13y agoInstead of trying to build life-supporting systems from the ground-up, look to nature, which had been thriving with no human intervention for thousands of years. Chemical fertilizer can't come anywhere close to the fertility and output of a rainforest. Look into holistic environmental systems; living soil, the role of fungi and bacteria in the capture and sustained release of nutrients, the role of animals in the growth/death cycle. The world's food crisis is not caused by a lack of petrochemical distribution, but by the abuse (and thus death) of the soil.
- mempko 13y agoalso food distribution....
- tcdent 13y agoAre there any civilizations you're aware of that, after soil rehabilitation, wouldn't have a local source of food? Except for the poles and extreme elevations, this entire planet is well suited for life.
- sitkack 13y agoBorneo is going to a lifeless rock in a couple hundred years after they have killed all of their soil from Oil Palm production. After a plantation is dead from over fertilization, no life will grow. With nothing to hold the soil in place it will wash into the sea.
- bowlofpetunias 13y ago"If you write great code..." Sorry, but I nearly spat my drink all over my keyboard at that sentence. This from the man who a decade ago used all his influence to fight tooth and nail against the notion of sharing knowledge and code for the benefit of mankind instead of profit, and didn't blink at screwing over developing countries in this particular area to increase his profits I'm sure he means well and does great things these days, but this is pushing it a bit.
- cscurmudgeon 13y agoOkay... So, Selling code you wrote == Preventing sharing of knowledge.
- bowlofpetunias 13y agoNo. But keeping the code you wrote a locked up secret and trying to discredit and destroy anyone that doesn't do the same is.
- cscurmudgeon 13y agoI am curious. Can you be more specific? If I am making my living writing software, and if you buy a copy of it and make it available to potential customers, why is it immoral to ask you not to do so?
- teddyh 13y agoIf I have a copy of some information or software, and I can easily copy it to my friend, and my friend needs it, why should I deny him? Would I not be mean in denying him? If I would, then would you not be immoral for coercing me to be mean to my friend? That, in essence, is the argument. You could argue that your business model requires me, i.e. all your customers, to agree not to give their friends (or anyone else) copies. But the world does not owe you a living. If your business model requires you to ask people to behave badly towards their friends, then it is destroying the social fabric of society, and you could rightly be called immoral. Anyway, see https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-free.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-free.html if you truly want to read more.
- elbear 13y agoDo you accept remote devs? :)
- latj 13y agocheck, check, no check for me. Where is the link to the data?
- Blahah 13y agoThe most interesting data is not yet public (and I'm not in a position to make it so). But feel free to email me if you'd like to talk.
- Datsundere 13y ago>it was a previous article of Bill's that made me want to become a scientist I'm sorry that you had to take inspiration from a lowly businessman to become a scientist. That man was against open source software just a decade ago.
- Blahah 13y agoI didn't have to - it was just chance :). Regardless of what he did to make his money, he's spent more of it on trying to make the world a better place than anyone in history. I'm not ashamed to take inspiration from him.
- temujin 13y agoThis sort of thing is in fact exactly what I've been doing for the last year. (Took a widely used, but no longer maintained, program and sped/scaled up the important parts by 2-3+ orders of magnitude; this will soon become the official new version.) I'm looking for other high-impact optimization opportunities, so if you've got any problems which currently require supercomputers but you have a nagging suspicion that they shouldn't, that nagging feeling is probably right and I'd love to hear from you.
- Blahah 13y agoHey, I'd love to talk. I have a list of exactly such problems. No contact details in your profile, but please feel free to email me or let me know how to contact you.
- outside1234 13y agoCan you provide more information about how we can help? I'm interested in hearing more.
- Blahah 13y agoI'm working on a way to scalably allow good coders to get involved. In the meantime, please feel free to email me.
- davedx 13y agoHow can I help? Email me: davedx@gmail.com :)