Humanitarian Tech In Action

Either I was about to guffaw uncontrollably, or widen my eyes in shocked amazement at what I heard . We were at Mapua Institute of Technology Manila where I hosted the thirteenth leg of our Manila Futurists Society seminar-event campus tour last September , and I was chatting with a communications professor when, I heard him say with utmost conviction that technology is "immoral". Duh.

Of course I thought I heard wrongly... but yes, he really meant it. Cannot believe my ears, really.

How can this happen in this day and age? I asked myself.

Just when scientific advancements and technological breakthroughs have been making milestones year after year --- whether it be in the field of health and medicine , cyberculture and information technology, business and society --- some "unenlightened " souls are still suffering from "future shock" , scared of technology, fearful and intimidated by scientific breakthroughs and technological achievements.

And today, I stumble upon PopSci.com's feature on "Humanitarian Tech In Action" --- samplings of how technology helps humanity in the Third World for year 2008, a ready helping hand for rural India, tsunami-ravaged Indonesia, and far-flung areas of Sierra Leone .


Check it out: http://www.popsci.com/scitech/gallery/2008-09/humanitarian-tech-action

NETFLIX FOR SCHOOLS

Digital StudyHall

The Digital Study Hall project films classroom lessons and then mails the DVDs to schools in rural India, where there’s a shortage of teachers.

TEACH A MAN TO BUILD…

Build Change

The architects behind BuildChange do more than build earthquake-resistant houses in developing countries: They create designs that are as quick and cheap to build as traditional homes, using readily found materials, so locals can continue to put up safe structures after volunteers leave. For instance, they trained builders following the tsunami Indonesia, and are currently working with people there who lost their homes in earthquakes.

SUPER SEEDS

Arcadia Biosciences, Inc.

Nitrogen fertilizers, commonly used on farms, cause pollution when they volatize into nitrous oxide or wash into rivers and oceans. Arcadia Biosciences is creating an unusual alternative—not a new kind of fertilizer, but a genetically modified plant that uses less nitrogen. So far they’ve inserted a nitrogen-efficiency gene into canola, tobacco, and rice plants. They’re currently doing testing (hopefully including environmental assessments) in this Chinese rice paddy and elsewhere, and Arcadia hopes to have a super-seed on the market by 2012.

QUICK DIAGNOSIS

MedMira Inc.

With a simple portable tool, doctors can find out within three minutes if a patient has HIV, Hepatitis B, or Hepatitis C. They just have to drop a bit of blood onto MedMira's Multiplo HIV/HBV/HCV cartridge, the only quick test that can detect three diseases at once. Here, doctors use the test in Sierra Leone.