O'REILLY

A few weeks ago we recorded a conversation with George Church, a Harvard University geneticist and one of the founders of modern genomics. In the resulting podcast, you'll hear Church offer his thoughts on the coming transformation of medicine, whether genes should be patentable, and whether the public is prepared to deal with genetic data.

Here's how Church characterizes the state of genomics:

"It's kind of like '93 on the Web. In fact, in a certain sense, it's more sophisticated than electronics because we have inherited three billion years of amazing technology that was just like a spaceship that was parked in our back yard and we're just reverse-engineering and probably not fully utilizing even the stuff that we've discovered so far."

For more about this episode and links related to the things we discussed, visit http://radar.oreilly.com/2013/07/podcast-george-church-genomics-spaceship-parked-in-our-back-yard.html

[Thumbnail image courtesy Harvard University Center for the Environment]

More on this episode

George Church on genomics: "Like a spaceship that was parked in our back yard"

Jim Stogdill and Jon Bruner sit down in New York City to talk about where innovation happens. Concentration still seems to matter, even in a networked world, but concentration of what? Minds, money, markets or manufacturing know how?

Where Innovation Lives

We chat with Pete Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center, and Bob Lee, CTO of Square, about quantum computing, NASA's collaboration with Google, and fraud prevention. For more about our discussion, visit http://radar.oreilly.com/2013/07/podcast-quantum-computing-with-pete-worden-and-bob-lee.html

Quantum Computing with Pete Worden and Bob Lee

Is popularity just a matter of simple luck–-of some early advantage compounded by human preference for things that are already popular? A paper published today in Science offers some insight into the way that popularity emerges in online ratings. Lev Muchnik, Sinan Aral, and Sean Taylor were able to set up a randomized experiment on a popular Reddit-like message board in which they gave some posts a one-point upvote on publication and others a one-point downvote. Posts that were “born lucky” ended up with 25% higher scores on average than those without modification.

In this podcast, Jon Bruner and Renee DiResta are joined by Sean Taylor, Hilary Mason and John Myles White to talk about Sean’s findings and about ratings, rankings and reviews in general.

For more about this episode and links to the papers and articles mentioned, visit http://radar.oreilly.com/2013/08/podcast-ratings-rankings-and-being-born-lucky.html

Ratings, rankings, and the advantage of being born lucky

Jenn Webb and Mary Treseler chat with Involution Studio's Jon Follett, covering the magnitude of the coming disruption in the design space -- including design's increasing role in genomics and synthetic biology, robots taking our jobs, embedded sensor networks, policy as a design problem, and scientists growing burgers in labs.

Emerging technology and the coming disruption in design

At our <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_Foo_Camp">Sci Foo Camp</a> this past summer, <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/jbruner">Jon Bruner</a>, <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/jims">Jim Stogdill</a>, <a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/2717">Roger Magoulas</a>, and I were joined by guests <a href="http://www.amandaparkes.com">Amanda Parkes</a>, a professor in the Department of Architecture at Columbia University, and CTO at algae biofuels company <a href="http://www.bodegaalgae.com/index.html">Bodega Algae</a> and fashion technology company <a href="http://skinteractivestudio.wordpress.com">Skinteractive Studio</a>; <a href="http://www.ivanpoupyrev.com">Ivan Poupyrev</a>, principle research scientist at Disney Research, who leads an interaction research team; and <a href="http://www.hayesraffle.com">Hayes Raffle</a>, an interaction designer at Google [X] working on Project Glass. Our discussion covered a wide range of topics, from scalable sensors to tactile design to synthetic biology to haptic design to why technology isn't a threat but rather is essential for human survival.

Here are some highlights from our discussion:
<ul>
<li>The <a href="http://www.disneyresearch.com/project/botanicus-interacticus-interactive-plant-technology/">Botanicus Interacticus</a> project from Disney research and the <a href="http://ipoupyrev.wordpress.com/2012/08/12/botanicus-interacticus-and-revel-at-siggraph-2012/">Touch&eacute; sensor technology</a>.</li>

<li>Poupyrev explains the concept behind the Touch&eacute; sensor is that we need to figure out how to make the entire world interactive, developing a single sensor that can be scalable to any situation &mdash; finding a universal solution that can adapt to multiple uses. That's what Touch&eacute; is, Poupyrev says: "a sensing technology that can dynamically adapt to multiple objects and can sense interaction with water, with everyday objects, with tables, with surfaces, the human body, plants, cats, birds, whatever you want." (2:50 mark)</li>

<li>The ultimate goals of Google Glass and Touché, Raffle says, are similar in that they're both trying to make computers disappear &mdash; Disney is putting the computation into the world so that it's indistinguishable from objects around us, Glass aims to bring technology closer to you so that it almost fades into the background when you're using it. (4:17 mark)</li>

<li>In a similar vein, Parkes is interested in bringing the interactivity of our surroundings &mdash; such as the overwhelming visual pollution in Times Square &mdash; back to a more natural, softer state &mdash; and is there any hope for the <a href="http://www.timessquarenyc.org/live-work/times-square-transformation/index.aspx#.UlLJFRY2_zI">Times Square redesign</a>? (5:56 mark)</li>

<li>Parkes' discussion of her work prompted a nod from Stogdill to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Design-Nature-Constructal-Technology-Organization/dp/0385534612">Design in Nature</a>, by Adrian Bejan and J. Peder Zane.</li>

<li>We also discussed how the expansion in our experience of interfaces and interaction is enhancing our possibilities to be entertained as well as enhancing beauty, aesthetics and pleasure (9:15 mark); Poupyrev stressed as well that it's the technology that makes humans who we are &mdash; technology isn't a threat; it's the most important thing for human survival. (13:28 mark)</li>
</ul>

Additional points of note include a discussion of Google Glass in the wild (14:19 mark); biocouture (19:15 mark); Parkes' experiment feeding organic conductive ink to slime mold to see if it'll produce conductive circuit traces &mdash; can we can grow our own circuit boards? (17:50 mark). Also, research into haptic technology that creates tactile sensations in free air (23:58 mark)

Expanding our experience of interfaces and interaction

At our <a href="http://www.oscon.com/oscon2013">OSCON conference</a> this summer, <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/jbruner">Jon Bruner</a>, <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/reneed">Renee DiResta</a> and <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/jennw">I</a> sat down with <a href="https://twitter.com/aallan">Alasdair Allen</a>, a hardware hacker and O'Reilly author; <a href="https://twitter.com/joshmarinacci">Josh Marinacci</a>, a researcher with Nokia; and <a href="https://twitter.com/tsmuse">Tony Santos</a>, a user experience designer with Mozilla. Our discussion focused on the future of UI/UX design, from the perils of designing from the top down to declining diversity in washing machines to controlling your car from anywhere in the world.

The Internet of Things should work like the Internet

Manufacturing is hard, but it's getting easier. In every stage of the manufacturing process--prototyping, small runs, large runs, marketing, fulfillment--cheap tools and service models have become available, dramatically decreasing the amount of capital required to start building something and the expense of revising and improving a product once it's in production.

In this episode of the Radar podcast, we speak with Chris Anderson, CEO and co-founder of 3D Robotics; Nick Pinkston, a manufacturing expert who's working to make building things easy for anyone; and Jie Qi, a student at the MIT Media Lab whose recent research has focused on the factories of Shenzhen.

For more about this episode, visit http://radar.oreilly.com/2013/11/podcast-the-democratization-of-manufacturing.html

And for more on these topics, check out Solid, O'Reilly's new conference about the intersection of software and the physical world: http://solidcon.com/

The democratization of manufacturing: a conversation with Chris Anderson, Nick Pinkston, and Jie Qi

Reporters, editors and designers are looking for new ways to interact with readers and with the physical world--drawing data in through sensors and expressing it through new immersive formats.

In this episode of the Radar podcast, Jon Bruner and Jenn Webb talk with three people who are working on new modes of interaction:

Mark Trammell, of Sonos (previously of Obama HQ and Twitter)
Rebekah Monson, of the University of Miami
Robert Hernandez, of the University of Southern California

For more on this episode, including links to the things we discussed, visit http://radar.oreilly.com/2013/12/podcast-news-that-reaches-beyond-the-screen.html

News that reaches beyond the screen

We were snowed in, but the phones still worked, so <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/jbruner">Jon Bruner</a>, <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/mikel">Mike Loukides</a>, and I got together on the phone to have a chat. We start off talking about the results of the <a href="http://solidcon.com/solid2014">Solid</a> call for proposals, but as is often the case, the conversation meandered from there. Read more and find related links from our chat at <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/2014/01/podcast-solid-…e-a-field-trip.html ">O'Reilly Radar</a>.

Solid, tech for humans, and maybe a field trip?

What happens if emerging technology and automation result in a world of abundance, where anyone at anytime can produce anything they need and there's no need for jobs? In his recent Strata keynote, James Burke warned that society is not prepared for scarcity (and the value it brings) to be a thing of the past &mdash; an eventuality Burke predicts will occur in the next 40 years or so. This topic kicks off a discussion between <a href="https://twitter.com/jstogdill">Jim Stogdill</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/JonBruner">Jon Bruner</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/jennwebb">myself</a> that we recorded while at Strata.

For more on what we discussed and related links, visit <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/2014/03/podcast-automation-and-an-abundance-oriented-economy.html">O'Reilly Radar</a>.

Automation and the implications of an abundance-oriented economy

Max Shron and Jake Porway talk with Jon Bruner about frameworks for making reasoned arguments with data. Max's recent book, <a href="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920029182.do">Thinking with Data</a>, outlines the crucial process of developing good questions and creating a plan to answer them. Jake's nonprofit, <a href="http://www.datakind.org/">DataKind</a>, connects data scientists with worthy causes where they can apply their skills.

For more on this episode, visit the <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/2014/03/podcast-thinking-with-data.html">O'Reilly Radar blog</a>.

This episode is brought to you by <a href="http://solidcon.com/">Solid</a>, O'Reilly's new conference about the intersection between software and the physical world--including hardware, manufacturing, design, and the code that makes sense of it all. For more information on Solid, and to reserve tickets, visit http://solidcon.com.

Thinking with data

Jim Stogdill, Jon Bruner, and Mike Loukides chat about personalizing all the things.

This week in our Radar podcast, Jon and I both had colds. You'll be pleased to know that I edited out all the sneezes, coughs, and general upper respiratory mayhem, but unfortunately there is no Audacity filter for a voice that sounds like a frog caught in a mouse trap (mine). If that hasn't dissuaded you from listening, we covered some things that were really interesting, at least to us. 

For more on our chat and links to our chat fodder, visit <a href="http://oreil.ly/1h8zU7N">O'Reilly Radar</a>.

Personalizing hardware with data? Personalizing people with CRISPR?

In this episode, <a href="https://twitter.com/globalmoxie">Josh Clark</a> (in an interview) and <a href="https://twitter.com/timoreilly">Tim O’Reilly</a> (in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvG6GbqxNfY">keynote</a>) both address the importance of designing for contextual awareness and physical interaction. Clark stresses that we’re not facing a challenge of technology, but a challenge of imagination. O’Reilly argues that we’re not paying enough attention to the aspects of people and time in designing the Internet of Things, and that the entire system in which we operate is the user interface &mdash; as we design this new world, we must think about user needs first.

For link fodder related to the episode, please visit <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/2014/07/podcast-design-for-how-the-world-should-work.html">O'Reilly Radar</a>.

Design for how the world should work

Jon Bruner and Mike Loukides talk about the classical music publishing industry and how it's being disrupted by projects like the Petrucci Music Library (http://imslp.org/) that make public-domain scores available online.

The future of classical music

Jim Stogdill, Edd Dumbill and Roger Magoulas have a conversation about in-memory databases and the impact on real time analysis. Leave questions and comments for us at http://radar.oreilly.com/2013/05/talking-about-in-memory.html

Talking about in-memory

Jon Bruner, Mike Loukides and Jim Stogdill from O'Reilly Radar muse on the return of software to the physical world.

Software and the physical world

Jon Bruner, Jim Stogdill, and Roger Magoulas talk about anthropology in big data, advances in JavaScript, searching for ancient civilizations, the importance of context, and good sites for checking the weather.

Related blog post: http://radar.oreilly.com/2013/06/radar-podcast-anthropology-big-data-and-the-importance-of-context.html

Anthropology, big data, and the importance of context

Jon Bruner, Jim Stogdill, and Roger Magoulas talk about what's been on their minds this week: the NSA's surveillance programs, what defense contractors will do with their technology as defense budgets dry up, and a Californian who isn't doing what you think he's doing with hydroponics.

For more on these topics, and links to the things we talked about, see http://radar.oreilly.com/2013/06/radar-podcast-the-internet-of-things-prism-and-defense-technology-that-goes-civilian.html.

The Internet of Things, PRISM, and defense technology that goes civilian

At Sci Foo Camp last weekend we enjoyed sitting down with several thoughtful scientists and thinkers-about-science to record a few podcast episodes. Here we speak with Tom Daniel, a professor of biology, computer science, and neurobiology at the University of Washington, and Ben Lillie, co-founder of The Story Collider and a Stanford-trained physicist. First topic: what brings people to science, and how we compare to our icons.

For more on some of the things we talked about in this episode, including relevant links, visit http://radar.oreilly.com/2013/06/podcast-what-makes-a-scientist.html

O'REILLY

CharlyPrudent