Remarks at a recent Michigan State University leadership meeting. MSU is currently #1 in the US in annual Department of Energy (DOE) and DOE + NSF (National Science Foundation) funding. There are ~30 institutions in the US with larger annual research expenditures than MSU, however in all but a few cases (e.g., MIT and UC …
I just returned from the UK, where I attended a Ditchley Foundation Conference on machine learning and genetic engineering. The attendees included scientists, government officials, venture capitalists, ethicists, and medical professionals. The UK could become the world leader in genomic research by combining population-level genotyping with NHS health records. The application of AI to datasets …
This is He’s talk from a conference on gene editing, in progress now in HK. (Should start at 1h09.) This article describes serious discussions between He and bioethicists over the last year. It’s important to note that CapEx required for this process is quite modest — not beyond the capability of a medium-sized IVF clinic. …
The UK is ahead of the US in the application of genomics in clinical practice. Part of this is due to their leadership in projects like the UK Biobank (500k genomes with extensive biomedical phenotyping), and part is due to having a single-payer system that can adopt obviously beneficial (and cost-beneficial) practices after some detailed …
I came across this interview with Fields Medalist Alain Connes (excerpt below) via an essay by Dominic Cummings (see his blog here). Dom’s essay is also highly recommended. He has spent considerable effort to understand the history of highly effective scientific / research organizations. There is a good chance that his insights will someday be put …
This is a conversation with two Stanford students about the current status of genetic testing of embryos in IVF, focusing on related ethical issues. Because there is a lot of interest in this topic I suggested we record the conversation and put it online. I was at Stanford last fall to give a #nofilter talk …
The US needs a national AI strategy. Many academic researchers that could contribute to AI research — including to fundamental new ideas and algorithms, mathematical frameworks for better understanding why some algorithms and architectures work better than others, etc. — are not able to get involved at the real frontier because they lack the kind …
What is the dominant causal mechanism for the results shown above? Is it that better family environments experienced by affluent children make them more likely to invent later in life? Is it that higher income fathers tend to pass on better genes (e.g., for cognitive ability) to their children? Obviously the explanation has important implications …
Some perspectives from a Berlin tech guy who has also worked in China. To some extent Europe is like the Midwest of the US: a source of human capital for SV and other places. Europe and the Midwest have strong universities and produce talented individuals, but lack a mature tech ecosystem which includes access to venture …
At Oregon I was part of an interdisciplinary institute that included theoretical physicists and chemists, mathematicians, and computer scientists. We tried to create a program (not even a new department, just an interdisciplinary program) in applied math and computation, but failed due to lack of support from higher administration. When I arrived at MSU as …
Chris Contag is the founding director of the Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering and the chairperson of the new Department of Biomedical Engineering in the College of Engineering. Contag was previously a professor in the Departments of Pediatrics, Radiology, Bioengineering and Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University. He held the titles of …
Hmm… how do they compute the Net Merit and GTPI? (But, but, what about all of that missing heritability?) See also Applied genomics: the genetic “super cow” Genomic prediction: no bull. Attention climate virtue signalers: more efficient cows produce less methane per liter of milk! Drink milk from genetically engineered cows :-) Tweet
MIT Technology Review reports on our startup Genomic Prediction. Some basic points worth clarifying: 1. GP’s first product, announced at the annual ASRM (American Society of Reproductive Medicine) meeting this week, tests chromosomal abnormality. It is a less expensive but more accurate version of existing tests. 2. The polygenic product, to be launched in 2018, checks …
Data from the 2016 NSF report on global Science & Engineering Indicators shows the rapid rise of China in both academic science and applied technology. Rapid growth in number of Chinese S&E articles, reaching parity with US in 2013, and well ahead of Japan and India. Fraction of high impact (top 1% most cited) papers highest for …
The excerpt below is from a recent comment thread, arguing that the US Navy should de-emphasize carrier groups in favor of subs and smaller surface ships. Technological trends such as rapid advancement in machine learning (ML) and sensors will render carriers increasingly vulnerable to missile attack in the coming decades. 1. US carriers are very …
For background on this subject, see How to beat online exam proctoring. It is easy for clever students to beat existing security systems for online exams. Enterprising students could even set up “cheating rooms” that make it easy for test takers to cheat. Judging by the amount of traffic this old post gets, cheating on …
How did we get ICBMs? How did we get to the moon? What are systems engineering and systems management? Why do some large organizations make rapid progress, while others spin their wheels for decades at a time? Dominic Cummings addresses these questions in his latest essay. Photo above of Schriever and Ramo. More Dom. … …
It’s great to see innovation and competition in space launch technology. These small launchers from startup Vector Space Systems can put 50-100kg payloads (e.g., micro satellites) into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for $2-3 million. There are obvious military applications for the rapid placement (or replacement) of satellites. For example, see A2AD Fait Accompli? Commercial applications are …
This video is one of the best introductions to the coming genomic revolution that I have seen. It emphasizes breakthroughs like CRISPR that will make gene editing simple, safe, and effective. However, it spends little time explaining how scientists will decipher genetic architectures (i.e., using big data sets and machine learning) in order understand which …
All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man? What is the ape to man? A laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. And man shall be just that for the superman: a laughingstock …
This is a good discussion of VR technology, on the Andreesen Horowitz podcast. I recently bumped into a tech founder who swears the transition to full immersion is real and right around the corner technologically. a16z Podcast: Mapping the Future of Virtual Reality Virtual reality is coming fast, and everyone seems to assume that it …
By now you’ve probably heard that Moore’s Law is really dead. So dead that the semiconductor industry roadmap for keeping it on track has more or less been abandoned: see, e.g., here, here or here. (Reported on this blog 2 years ago!) What I have not yet seen discussed is how a significantly reduced rate …
Recent profile in the Guardian; 15 facts about Hassabis. The mastery of Atari games through reinforcement learning deep neural nets is described here (Nature). See also Deep Neural Nets and Go: AlphaGo beats European champion. Guardian: … “We’re really lucky,” says Hassabis, who compares his company to the Apollo programme and Manhattan Project for both …
NewStatesman: Who owns the future? How the prophets of Silicon Valley took control In an era when politics is bereft of grand visions, bioengineers and Silicon Valley tech geeks are claiming the mantle of leadership and prophecy. But what do they want and where are they leading us? … The 20th century was shaped by …
Safe and Effective soon for humans? In vivo genome editing improves muscle function in a mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophyin vi Science DOI: 10.1126/science.aad5143 Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a devastating disease affecting about 1 out of 5000 male births and caused by mutations in the dystrophin gene. Genome editing has the potential to restore …
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. Mary was born in the twenties, when the tests were new and still primitive. Her mother had frozen a dozen eggs, from which came Mary and her sister Elizabeth. Mary had …
MSU research ranked #6 among US universities in combined National Science Foundation + Department of Energy funding. Ahead of Michigan, Stanford, Caltech, and Berkeley. MIT is #1. Tweet
Radar and nuclear weapons could not have been developed without the big brains. Feynman’s War: Modelling Weapons, Modelling Nature Peter Galison* What do I mean by understanding? Nothing deep or accurate—just to be able to see some of the qualitative consequences of the equations by some method other than solving them in detail. — Feynman …
For relentless technological advance, powered by high g researchers, venture capitalists, capital markets, and government investment in basic research, continues to deliver a cornucopia of benefits to the average joe. (Note, however, that Moore’s Law itself has stalled out recently …) Tweet
I saw this video at one of the Scifoo sessions on drones. Beautiful stuff! I find this much more pleasing than fireworks. The amount of waste and debris generated by a big fireworks display is horrendous. Tweet
Two faculty raised the bar and inspired us all with their music and poetry. Thank you to faculty rapper Robby Ratan in the MSU College of Communication Arts and Sciences and faculty poet Glenn Stutzky in the MSU School of Social Work. Tweet
How do we actually facilitate faculty innovation at Michigan State University? To better understand our innovation advocacy practices, we conducted a three-part reflective self study this year and have some initial answers. We’re sharing our initial findings in this 3-pager. Bill Heinrich also shared insights in this blog post. Here’s how we learned about what …
WSJ reports on institutional interest in blockchain technologies. WSJ: Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. is testing a new use of the technology that underpins the digital currency bitcoin, in a bid to transform the trading of shares in private companies. The experiment joins a slew of financial-industry forays into bitcoin-related technology. If the effort is deemed …
Photos from two meetings I attended last week. Some general comments on crypto-currencies: 1. Bitcoin doesn’t really solve any payment problems, unless of course you are a paranoid libertarian who hates “fiat” currencies. But why should you trust the Bitcoin Foundation any more than you trust a central bank? (See Bitcoin dynamics.) 2. Most potential users …
Via Dominic Cummings (@odysseanproject), this long discussion of the history of venture capital, which emphasizes the now largely forgotten 1980s. VC in most parts of the developed world, even large parts of the US, resembles the distant past of the above chart. There is a big gap between Silicon Valley and the rest. Heat Death: …
Michael Tietelbaum’s new book on STEM labor markets and human capital is reviewed by John McGowan. John and I attended Caltech together many years ago. Falling Behind? Boom, Bust, and the Global Race for Scientific Talent by Michael S. Teitelbaum Princeton University Press March 30, 2014 Introduction Falling Behind? is a recent (March 2014) book …
“It’s been only half jokingly said that today a third of GDP is attributable to quantum mechanics,” — former Lockheed CEO Norm Augustine. I’ve heard the one third or 30% of GDP figure from time to time, but have never seen a detailed analysis. A list of modern technologies that arose from quantum mechanics …
Earlier CRISPR posts. MSU symposium with video (Patrick Hsu, one of the speakers (no relation), is from the Zhang lab). Technology Review: Discovery of the Century? There’s a bitter fight over the patents for CRISPR, a breakthrough new form of DNA editing. … In April of this year, Zhang and the Broad won the first of several sweeping patents that cover …
I highly recommend The Hollow Men II: Some reflections on Westminster and Whitehall dysfunction by Dominic Cummings. It is full of insights into the failings of bureaucracies, government by crisis and news cycle, and hollow leadership. The essay is long, but the excerpts below give some of the flavor. … Most of our politics is …
I just bought 10 copies for my team at MSU. More here. The book is based on Thiel’s Stanford class CS 183: Startup — see course notes. Earlier posts on Thiel. Tweet
I was at the Amazon campus in Seattle yesterday to give a talk. Unbelievable construction and development in this part of town. This is the famous Bezos “door desk” :-) Tweet
I’m catching up on podcasts a bit now that I’m back in Michigan. I had an iTunes problem and was waiting for the next version release while on the road. Econtalk did a nice interview with Y Combinator President Sam Altman. Y Combinator has always been entrepreneur-centric, to the point that the quality of the …
New Yorker: … I was relieved when factory-made Soylent arrived in the mail. It was basically Rhinehart’s formula, which I’d tasted in L.A.: a thick, tan liquid that is yeasty, grainy, and faintly sweet. Compared with the taste of my chocolate version, regular Soylent was pleasant. (Office taste-test results: “Naked protein shakes that are made …
Great article by Nick Bilton on the creation myth (and true story) behind Twitter. To see that luck plays an unimaginably huge role in life you just need to look carefully at the story behind any successful company or entrepreneur. NYTimes: … Soon, the question of a name came up. Williams jokingly suggested calling the …
These quotes appear in an excerpt from a new biography by Brad Stone. Stone uncovers some new ground — tracking down Bezos’ long-lost biological father, who was unaware(!) that his son had become a billionaire e-commerce titan. I had always heard that Bezos has a vulcan or hyper-rational management style. It’s good to know he occasionally loses …