Showing posts with label Bill Gates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bill Gates. Show all posts

Monday, November 08, 2021

News: November 8

Alphabet Chases Wonder Drugs With DeepMind AI Spinoff Isomorphic Labs Predicting the structure of proteins, the complex molecules underpinning all biology, is notoriously difficult. But DeepMind’s AlphaFold2 made a quantum leap in capability, producing results that matched experimental data down to a resolution of a few atoms. ........ In July, the company published a paper describing AlphaFold2, open-sourced the code, and dropped a library of 350,000 protein structures with a promise to add 100 million more. ......... There have been three AI drug discovery IPOs in the last year, and mature startups—including Exscientia, Insilico Medicine, Insitro, Atomwise, and Valo Health—have earned hundreds of millions in funding. Companies like Genentech, Pfizer, and Merck are likewise working to embed AI in their processes. ........ “Biology is likely far too complex and messy to ever be encapsulated as a simple set of neat mathematical equations,” Hassabis wrote in his recent blog post.

“But just as mathematics turned out to be the right description language for physics, biology may turn out to be the perfect type of regime for the application of AI.”



Protein Folding AI Is Making a ‘Once in a Generation’ Advance in Biology Proteins are the minions of life. They form our bodies, fuel our metabolism, and are the target of most of today’s medicine. ......... Similar to Transformers, many protein units further assemble into massive, moving complexes that change their structure depending on their functional needs at the moment. ......... One of biology’s grandest challenges for the past 50 years has been deciphering how a simple one-dimensional ribbon-like structure turns into 3D shapes, equipped with canyons, ridges, valleys, and caves. ........ Deciphering protein folding is bound to illuminate an entire new landscape of biology we haven’t been able to study or manipulate. The fast and furious development of Covid-19 vaccines relied on scientists parsing multiple protein targets on the virus, including the spike proteins that vaccines target. Many proteins that lead to cancer have so far been out of the reach of drugs because their structure is hard to pin down.



In Glasgow, I saw three big shifts in the climate conversation A lot has changed in the past six years. ...... The climate conversation has shifted dramatically, and for the better. ....... accomplishing that will require a green Industrial Revolution in which we decarbonize virtually the entire physical economy: how we make things, generate electricity, move around, grow food, and cool and heat buildings ........

we need a huge number of new inventions

.......... (It made me wish we could get the same kind of turnout and excitement for conferences on global health!)


Why scaling innovation is key to stopping climate change Before the last major COP meeting, innovation was barely on the climate agenda. This year it will take center stage. ..........

innovation is the only way the world can cut greenhouse gas emissions from roughly 51bn tonnes per year to zero by 2050.

.......... sustainable airplane fuel,

green steel

and extra-powerful batteries—now exist and are ready to scale. ........... Once you can make green hydrogen in a lab, you have to prove that that it works—safely and reliably—at scale. That means building an enormous physical plant, ironing out engineering, supply chain and distribution issues, repeating them over and over again and steadily cutting costs. Demonstration projects like this are hugely complicated, extremely risky, and extraordinarily expensive—and it’s very hard to finance them. ......... At COP, the world should put scaling clean technology innovation—both for mitigating the worst impacts of climate and for adapting to the impacts that we will already feel—on the agenda in the same way it put R&D on it in 2015.


My message to the world at COP26 We need to make zero-carbon alternatives affordable for people all over the world......... It’s deeply unfair that the world’s poorest people, who contribute the least to climate change, will suffer from its effects the most. Rich and middle-income countries are causing the vast majority of climate change, and we need to be the ones to step up and invest more in adaptation. ....... People are already being affected by a warmer planet. Those impacts will only get worse, especially for the world’s poorest. .........

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Toilets For The World's Poor


 
Bill Gates Names Winners of the Reinvent the Toilet
California Institute of Technology in the United States received the $100,000 first prize for designing a solar-powered toilet that generates hydrogen and electricity. Loughborough University in the United Kingdom won the $60,000 second place prize for a toilet that produces biological charcoal, minerals, and clean water. University of Toronto in Canada won the third place prize of $40,000 for a toilet that sanitizes feces and urine and recovers resources and clean water. Special recognition and $40,000 went to Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology) and EOOS for their outstanding design of a toilet user interface...... One year ago, the foundation issued a challenge to universities to design toilets that can capture and process human waste without piped water, sewer or electrical connections, and transform human waste into useful resources, such as energy and water, at an affordable price. ..... Food and water tainted with fecal matter result in 1.5 million child deaths every year. Most of these deaths could be prevented with the introduction of proper sanitation, along with safe drinking water and improved hygiene. ...... “Imagine what’s possible if we continue to collaborate, stimulate new investment in this sector, and apply our ingenuity in the years ahead,” said Gates. “Many of these innovations will not only revolutionize sanitation in the developing world, but also help transform our dependence on traditional flush toilets in wealthy nations.”
Gates Foundation Wants To Reinvent The Toilet
Bill Gates spends millions for toilet of the future challenge (PHOTOS)
Swiss boffins craft new toilet for world's poorest