I
had a theory, once: an invention
is only half-invented if its flaws are not taken into account and
adjusted for.
DDT (dichloro
diphenyl trichloroethane) and Thalidomide were, on the surface, useful
chemical inventions. But they were introduced so hastily that no one
knew until it was too late that the one killed most bird life, and the
other caused cruel deformities in the offspring of women taking the
drug. So should we put on the brakes — stop progress for fear of
similar downsides? Not at all.
However, we can
take a step back and give the "new" a critical look. We can
take just a little longer to ensure that the latest innovation, in its
present form, is not prone to creating dangerous waste as a side effect,
or breaking down at some lethal juncture.
Aircraft, for
example, are becoming more and more automated — I assume that most
readers who fly will want those systems thoroughly tested before they
get on board that 747.
Keeping this in
mind, we continue our off-the-cuff survey of the upsides and downsides,
the good and the bad, both, of Edge Trends as they unfold, this time, in
the realm of technology
and chemistry. Let’s start this time with a downside and head on up
from there.
THE BAD -- Sandia
National Labs
"Red Team" has
been invading and attacking dozens of information systems at various
websites — but these attacks were carried out at the behest of the
sites’ owners. They’ve been demonstrating that hackers can penetrate
almost all networked computers. Sites investigated by the "bad
guys" at the Information Design Assurance Red Team include
information systems from two very large corporations and several key
government agencies. They "found specific weaknesses in every
system." Results "disconcert Red Team clients every time"
as their defenses are always breached. This means, of course,
that banking, national defense and energy providing systems are even
more vulnerable than previously believed. The Trojan Horse scenario
poses another problem. Most software is written overseas now, and may be
without validation. Trojan Horses could go off when the adversary
chooses to trigger them.
THE GOOD -- Red
Team’s methods teach security specialists for the various systems how
to think like an adversary. Sandia has developed a new style of defense
called "intelligent agent." According to Sandia, "the
cyber-agent, still in the laboratory stage, actually functions as a
multi-agent collective -- a distributed program that runs on multiple
computers in a network. The program reacts with suspicion to port scans
that scan all ports, net addresses on a computer that allow entry to
different functions, even if the scan takes place over a long period of
time, like a year. The agent program works by setting up a supra-net
collective that constantly compares notes to determine what unusual
requests or commands have been received from external or internal
sources."
THE BAD -- Our
reliance on the air conditioner and our increasingly layered home
entertainment systems and computer variants has left us prone to sudden,
ravenous surges of power gobbling, leading in turn to rolling brownouts
and the risk of bigger, less controlled blackouts.
THE GOOD -- A
recent Department of Energy (DOE) study has found that new software that
predicts future energy demand could avert most power
emergencies.
Presently, power companies simply respond to demand, willy-nilly; if
they had real readiness they could disburse the power more effectively,
without having to shut systems down. The DOE projects new, sophisticated
software tools based on probabilistic risk assessment that would
simulate load flow, energy dispersal options, weather factors and more.
That is, our energy supply systems would become intelligent — a
real change.
THE BAD -- The
highest levels of plutonium contamination have been detected in air
samples collected in a 10-day period after a fire in June 2000 scorched
nearly half the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state. A
second radioactive isotope has been found at elevated levels in
Sagebrush across the Columbia River from Hanford, according to results
from the State Department of Health. Both were detected at hazardous
levels. Radiation related to nuclear
energy,
both in terms of waste storage risks and leakage, continues to be a
major concern.
THE GOOD --
Sandia Labs has developed a cheap means for the removal of toxins from
groundwater contaminated by nuclear waste — and a similar means is
being tested to clean water in Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands
of people are believed to have died from arsenic poisoning in the water.
The source of the arsenic poisoning is not known -- it may be natural,
or pollution-related. Scientists have designed "getters" –-
designer mineral solids that suck much of a particular contaminant out
of the water. Contaminants are attracted to a specific type of mineral
and then eventually become entrapped in it, freeing the water or soil of
the arsenic or other metal molecules.
THE BAD --
Amphibians are regarded by many biologists as the "canary in the
coal mine" of the ecology, forerunners of reactions that other
parts of the biota may have to environmental changes. For a while it’s
been known that frogs and other amphibians are declining, or turning up
inexplicably sick. Some of them are the victims of a new fungus,
probably introduced by human intrusion into their habitat. Large numbers
of deformed frogs have been recently found and researchers
suspect the deformities to be the result of pollution by chemicals
similar to retinoids-compounds, which are known to cause limb
deformities and birth defects in humans. Some agricultural pesticides,
which easily find their way to the frogs through groundwater, are
related to the retinoids.
THE GOOD -- For
some time, scientists have known that certain microorganisms can be used
to clean up polluted soil and water. These microorganisms can break down
industrial toxins into less harmful byproducts. A microbiologist at the
University of Tennessee in Knoxville has found that the bacterium
Pseudomonas Fluorescens HK44 can be genetically engineered to emit a
blue-green light as it digests hazardous wastes. The faint glow
indicates which areas are tainted, how concentrated the pollutant is and
whether there are enough bacteria to clean up the mess. The bacteria not
only cleans a polluted area — it "lights the way"…a
strangely beautiful concept. Bacteria are a perfect example of the two
sidedness of organisms — they cause much misery, but they can be
vastly valuable also, depending on how they’re used and where they
are.
So the dark
side can turn into the light side — and even glow with it.