linkstream2 microblog

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/16/when-the-feds-went-after-the-hedge-fund-legend-steven-a-cohen

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/02/rewriting-the-code-of-life

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/23/the-heroism-of-incremental-care

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/09/can-technology-make-football-safer

http://nymag.com/selectall/2016/12/google-wifi-review.html

Building a Brain in the Lab
https://www.ScientificAmerican.com/article/building-a-brain-in-the-lab/ Nice summary of the development of organoids & their promise for personalized treatments

The Man Who Kicked Off…#Biotech by @CarlZimmer
http://nautil.us/issue/44/luck/the-man-who-kicked-off-the-biotech-revolution H Smith for discovering restriction enzymes + a history of the term

QT:{{”
“Trying to make sense of the failure, Wilcox suggested to Smith that the bacteria were destroying the viral DNA. He based his suggestion on a hypothesis proposed a few years earlier by Werner Arber, a microbiologist at the University of Geneva. Arber speculated that enzymes could restrict the growth of viruses by chopping up their DNA, and dubbed these hypothetical molecules “restriction enzymes.”” “}}

LongISLND: in silico sequencing of lengthy & noisy datatypes https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27667791 @PacBio sim. software (NB: was advisor to @binaTechs)

The Demon Voice That Can Control Your…phone
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/01/the-demon-voice-that-can-talk-to-your-smartphone/513743 Verbal malware: Yell into a crowd, “Hey #Siri, text mom, I’m pregnant”

QT:{{”

“Here’s a fun experiment: Next time you’re on a crowded bus, loudly announce, “Hey Siri! Text mom, ‘I’m pregnant.’” Chances are you’ll get some horrified looks as your voice awakens iPhones in nearby commuters’ pockets and bags. They’ll dive for their phones to cancel your command.

But what if there was a way to talk to phones with sounds other than words? Unless the phones’ owners were prompted for confirmation—and realized what was going on in time to intervene—they’d have no idea that”
“}}

A Bigger Problem Than ISIS?
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/02/a-bigger-problem-than-isis The #MosulDam is failing. A breach would cause a wave killing >1M. Infrastructure woes