Phone: Past, present, future

PAST
The first cell phone created by Motorola in 1983

Analog Motorola DynaTAC 8000X Advanced Mobile Phone System mobile phone as of 1983.

The first hand-held mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Dr Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing around 2.2 pounds (1 kg). In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first to be commercially available. From 1990 to 2011, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew from 12.4 million to over 6 billion, penetrating about 87% of the global population and reaching the bottom of the economic pyramid.

In the 1870s, two inventors Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell both independently designed devices that could transmit speech electrically (the telephone). Both men rushed their respective designs to the patent office within hours of each other, Alexander Graham Bell patented his telephone first. Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell entered into a famous legal battle over the invention of the telephone, which Bell won.

The first telephone created in America in 1877

Mobile telephone communication was introduced to the public in 1946. For a substantial fee, people could make phone calls from a radio device in their cars. This mobile communication was run on radio bands as opposed to telephone lines, and the service was limited to only a dozen radio calls at a time. Cellular telephony was conceptualized in 1947, but the technology to support it did not exist.

PRESENT

Facts and Figures

Top Five Worldwide Total Mobile Phone Vendors, Q4 2012
Rank	Manufacturer	Gartner[38]	IDC[39]
1	Samsung	22.7%	23.0%
2	Nokia	18.0%	17.9%
3	Apple	9.2%	9.9%
4	ZTE	3.4%	3.6%
5	LG	3.2%	-
5	Huawei	-	3.3%
	Others	43.5%	42.3%

FUTURE
5G is a technology used in research papers and projects to denote the next major phase of mobile telecommunication standards beyond the 4G/IMT-Advanced standards. 5G is not officially used for any specification or official document yet made public by telecommunication companies or standardization bodies such as 3GPP, WiMAX Forum, or ITU-R. New standard releases beyond 4G are in progress by standardization bodies, but are at this time not considered as new mobile generations but under the 4G umbrella.

http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventors/a/telephone.htm
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/telephone/gallery/gallery1.html
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/05/the-evolution-of-cell-phone-design-between-1983-2009/
http://www.qwiktag.com/index.php/knowledge-base/158-history-of-telephone

PROS and CONS of Technology

PROS

Improved performance at work

-faster communication via email, video conferencing and telephone etc.

Improves transportation

-Thanks to technology,vehicles such as cars,bikes,buses,trains and  planes were invented to make places more accessible

Improves communication & interaction

-messages are pass down faster via emails than mailing of letters

-can easily contact your friends and family through phone calls/text messages/social media/internet etc even when they are overseas

-improve businesses

-strengthen relationships with others

-social media such as facebook and twitter improves social lives

Improves education

-online learning portals such as LMS asknlearn and ace-learning

-some schools use IT gadgets to aid students’ in their learning.This makes learning more fun & engaging and students get to learn what’s beyond textbooks

Provide entertainment and relaxation

-online games

-online music

Makes task easier

-Machines aid and reduce human’s work

-Eg. sewing machine

Provide comfort and convenience

-Online shopping

Makes things more accessible

-improved transportation,communication,etc

Enhance quality of work

-IT gadgets/internet provide suggestions & help to complete work faster

 

CONS

Dependency

-over reliant of inventions such as phones/internet etc

Adverse effects on a person's health and safety

-radiation from nuclear power plants and gadgets

Online abuse

-cyberbullying

Inappropriate content

-explicit contents such as violence & sexual contents

Harming of Earth

-technological processes cause pollutions and deplete natural resources

Lost of jobs

-companies adopt automatic machines to cut down costs of labour

Online frauds

-Identity theft

Negligence in studies

-did not regulate usage of IT gadgetsàaddiction

Weaken relationships between people

-As technology becomes more advance, more people prefer to communicate through the use of IT gadgets and internet which may cause miscommunications as words conveyed across through online chats etc may not be as clear as face-to-face conversations

With reference to

http://bjc.hubpages.com/hub/Pros-and-Cons-of-Technology

and http://hcdesk.com/blog/pros-and-cons-of-technology/

 

Biomedical Ethics: Evolution of Science and Technology

Designer Babies/Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis

With the advanced technology nowadays, scientists have developed a method to screen human embryos for genetic disorders. This method is known as Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis, or simply, PGD.

PGD is a technique that enables people with a specific inherited condition in their family to avoid passing it on to their children. It involves screening the genes of embryos created through in-vitro fertilisation for this genetic condition.

How does PGD work? (as shown on website of  Human Fertilisation Embyology Authority of UK)
The procedure for PGD is likely to be as follows:

Step 1-One undergoes normal IVF treatment to collect and fertilise her eggs.
Step 2-The embryo is grown in the laboratory for 2-3 days until the cells have divided and the embryo consists of around eight cells.
Step 3-A trained embryologist removes one or two of the cells (blastomeres) from the embryo.
Step 4-The cells are tested to see if the embryo from which they were removed contains the gene that causes the genetic condition in the family.
Step 5-Embryos unaffected by the condition are transferred to the womb to allow them to develop.
Step 6-Any suitable remaining unaffected embryos can be frozen for later use. Those embryos that are affected by the condition are allowed to perish.
Step 7-About two weeks after the embryo transfer, the woman is given a pregnancy blood test.

Removal of cells (blastomeres) from embryo

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Could you envision a world without genetic diseases, where parents could control their child’s height, muscle strength, eye color, personality, and even intelligence? Some might consider this a tempting endeavor while others see it as a horrifying science fiction novel turning into reality. The topic of the most recent Intelligence Squared U.S. debate, Prohibit Genetically Engineered Babies, sparked a heated discussion on whether or not this science should be banned. Even if the science were perfected, would human genetic enhancement be considered morally wrong?

The team arguing for the motion to prohibit genetically engineered babies was Sheldon Krimsky, a professor at Tufts University and chair of the Council for Responsible Genomics, and Robert Winston, professor at Imperial College London. Arguing against the motion was Nita Farahany, professor at Duke University, and Lee Silver, professor at Princeton University.

Krimsky argued that there are less ethically controversial and more dependable methods of preventing the birth of a child with a severe genetic abnormality by using prenatal embryo diagnosis, with the exception of mitochondrial disease.

“The idea of genetic enhancement grows out of a eugenic ideology that human perfection can be directed by genetics,” said Krimsky. “The danger is not so much that it will work, but as a myth, it will have social power that can be used by those who have wealth and resources to make others believe that to be prenatally genetically modified makes you better.”

Arguing against the ban, Farahany explained how women with a high level of mitochondrial abnormality will be able to have their own healthy genetic children through genetic engineering of the babies through two techniques: pronuclear transfer and maternal spindle transfer that safely eliminate the risk of these diseases. She raised the question, what distances will women afflicted by mitochondrial disease travel to safeguard their children? “Reproductive tourism is already rampant, where women and couples are traveling to foreign countries to gain access to reproductive technologies banned in their own countries,” said Farahany.

Website References: 

http://www.hfea.gov.uk/preimplantation-genetic-diagnosis.html

http://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/designer-babies-debate-heats-up/81247994/

Research posted by: Sherissa Chua (29)

Biomedical Ethics: Evolution of Science and Technology

Creating Organs from Stem Cells

Need an organ? Just print some stem cells in 3D

An inkjet for living tissue (Image: Colin Hattersley)

Printing blobs of human embryonic stem cells is the latest step towards being able to grow organs on demand.

Researchers had already used inkjet printers to print out 2D cultures of living cells. But printing blobs of cells rather than flat sheets is closer to real tissue.

Human embryonic stem cells are pluripotent, which means they are capable of becoming a cell in any type of tissue, making them attractive to those who are trying to grow new organs. But it is hard to print them, says Wenmiao Shu at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK, because they are sensitive to manipulation. So Shu has modified a valve-based printer nozzle so it gently squirts out cells in blobs rather than a single layer.

The blobs have structural rigidity, says Shu, so could be used to grow organs without a scaffold. "They are like building blocks" says Shu.

"It's a nice piece of work," says Brian Derby at the University of Manchester, UK. "If you put a blob of cells down it will fuse into clumps, which is closer to how it is in the body." But he would like to see more evidence that the cells retain their pluripotency after being printed.

Journal reference: Biofabrication

Website reference: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23133-need-an-organ-just-print-some-stem-cells-in-3d.html?full=true&print=true

Video about a Stem Cell Spinal Cord Operation

http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/30685-one-step-beyond-stem-cell-spinal-operation-video.htm

Website reference: http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/cellular-microscopic/stem-cell.htm

Research posted by Sherissa Chua (29)

Research on social networking

Social networking

A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on facilitating the building of social networks or social relations among people who, for example, share interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections. A social network service consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most social network services are web-based and provide means for users to interact over the Internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, activities, events, and interests within their individual networks.

The main types of social networking services are those that contain category places (such as former school year or classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages), and a recommendation system linked to trust. Facebook, Google+, tumblr and Twitter widely used worldwide. A 2011 survey found that 47% of American adults use a social networking service.

History of Social Networking

Efforts to support social networks via computer-mediated communication were made in many early online services, including Usenet, ARPANET, LISTSERV, and bulletin board services (BBS). Many prototypical features of social networking sites were also present in online services such as America Online, Prodigy, CompuServe, ChatNet, and The WELL. Early social networking on the World Wide Web began in the form of generalized online communities such as Theglobe.com (1995), Geocities (1994) and Tripod.com (1995).

This newer generation of social networking sites began to flourish with the emergence of SixDegrees.com in 1997, followed by Makeoutclub in 2000, Hub Culture and Friendster in 2002, and soon became part of the Internet mainstream. Friendster was followed by MySpace and LinkedIn a year later, and eventually Bebo. Attesting to the rapid increase in social networking sites' popularity, by 2005, it was reported that MySpace was getting more page views than Google. Facebook, launched in 2004, became the largest social networking site in the world in early 2009.

Social interaction

More and more relationships and friendships are being formed online and then carried to an offline setting. Psychologist and University of Hamburg professor Erich H. Witte says that relationships which start online are much more likely to succeed. Witte has said that in less than 10 years, online dating will be the predominant way for people to start a relationship. One online dating site claims that 2% of all marriages begin at its site, the equivalent of 236 marriages a day. Other sites claim 1 in 5 relationships begin online. Most sites are free instead of being paid based which allows younger people with stricter budgets to enjoy some of the same features as those of adults who are more likely to be able to afford pay based sites.

 

Problems that may occur

Privacy concerns with social networking services have been raised growing concerns amongst users on the dangers of giving out too much personal information. In addition, there is a perceived privacy threat in relation to placing too much personal information in the hands of large corporations or governmental bodies, allowing a profile to be produced on an individual's behavior on which decisions, detrimental to an individual, may be taken.

Furthermore, there is an issue over the control of data—information that was altered or removed by the user may in fact be retained and/or passed to third parties. This danger was highlighted when the controversial social networking site Quechup harvested e-mail addresses from users' e-mail accounts for use in a spamming operation.

Cyber-bullying is a relatively common occurrence and it can often result in emotional trauma for the victim. Depending on the networking outlet, up to 39% of users admit to being “cyber-bullied”.

As social networking sites have risen in popularity over the past years, people have been spending an excessive amount of time on the Internet in general and social networking sites in specific. This has led researchers to debate the establishment of Internet addiction as an actual clinical disorder. Social networking can foster feelings of sensitivity to disconnection, which can lead to loneliness.

According to ComScore, up to end of November 2011:

Worldwide Unique Visitors Facebook.com 792,999,000 Twitter.com 167,903,000 LinkedIn.com 94,823,000 Google+ 66,756,000 MySpace 61,037,000 Others 255,539,000   Social impacts Web-based social networking services make it possible to connect people who share interests and activities across political, economic, and geographic borders. Facebook and other social networking tools are increasingly the object of scholarly research. Scholars in many fields have begun to investigate the impact of social-networking sites, investigating how such sites may play into issues of identity, privacy, social capital, youth culture, and education. An article about a harmful effect of facebook:  http://mashable.com/2013/02/01/facebook-mental-health/             An article about the some changes facebook has made: http://mashable.com/2012/06/25/facebook-email-address/ An article about the success of facebook as a social networking site: http://mashable.com/2012/06/11/international-social-networks/    Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking_service

Introduction

Hello Sheryln, Xiang Jie and Charlotte! :)

This will be the blog where we will be posting all of our research information. This will be seen by Ms Fernandez too so use proper English and do not type nonsense here! Most of your research information should be posted here by 20th March. Every post should have your name and register number so that Ms Fernandez will know how much you have contributed. :)