Australia II: A Case Study in Engineering Ethics.

Australia II became the first foreign yacht to win the America's Cup in 1983. The boat had a revolutionary wing keel and a better underwater hull form. In official documents, Ben Lexcen is credited with the design. He is also listed as the sole inventor of the wing keel in a patent application submitted on February 5, 1982. However, as reported in New York Times, Sydney Morning Herald, and Professional Boatbuilder, the wing keel was in fact designed by engineer Peter van Oossanen at the Netherlands Ship Model Basin in Wageningen, assisted by Dr. Joop Slooff at the National Aerospace Laboratory in Amsterdam. Based on telexes, letters, drawings, and other documents preserved in his personal archive, this paper presents van Oossanen's account of how the revolutionary wing keel was designed. This is followed by an ethical analysis by Martin Peterson, in which he applies the American NSPE and Dutch KIVI codes of ethics to the information provided by van Oossanen. The NSPE and KIVI codes give conflicting advice about the case, and it is not obvious which document is most relevant. This impasse is resolved by applying a method of applied ethics in which similarity-based reasoning is extended to cases that are not fully similar. The key idea, presented in Peterson's book The Ethics of Technology (Peterson, The ethics of technology: A geometric analysis of five moral principles, Oxford University Press, 2017), is to use moral paradigm cases as reference points for constructing a "moral map".

Who Invented the Possum? What Historians Can Learn from Disabled Innovation in Britain's Responaut Communities.

This article provides a new exploration of disabled innovation that transforms our understanding of collective contributions to the history of science and technology. It does so by showing how a user network galvanized individual inventions into disabled expertise by tracking the development of two technologies-the Selectascan/Possum and the adapted Loudspeaking Telephone. Hamraie and Fritsch's 2019 "Crip Technoscience Manifesto" defined "disabled expertise" by exploring how disabled technology modification has been devalued. This article takes up their manifesto's challenge to combine disability history with science and technology studies by analyzing the technologies discussed in Responaut, a British quarterly magazine published between 1963 and 1989. Responauts were people who depended on respirators to breathe. This technological interdependence meant that users adapted an extraordinary variety of technologies to live well with respirators and modify their personal environment.

Impacto de las nuevas tecnologías en la neurología en España. Revisión del Comité Ad-Hoc de Nuevas Tecnologías de la Sociedad Española de Neurología / Impact of new technologies on neurology in Spain. Review by the New Technologies Ad-Hoc Committee of the Spanish Society of Neurology

Introducción: Las nuevas tecnologías (NT) están cada vez más presentes en el ámbito biomédico. Utilizando la definición de consenso de NT del Comité Ad-Hoc de Nuevas Tecnologías de la Sociedad Española de Neurología (SEN), se evalúa su impacto en la neurología española a través de las comunicaciones de las reuniones anuales de la SEN. Material y métodos: Se define el concepto de NT en neurología como una tecnología novedosa o aplicación de una tecnología anterior, caracterizada por un cierto grado de coherencia persistente en el tiempo, con potencial de tener impacto en el presente y futuro de la neurología. Se plantea un estudio descriptivo tomando como fuente las comunicaciones de las reuniones de la SEN desde 2012 hasta 2018 y analizando los tipos de NT empleadas, la subespecialidad, así como su distribución territorial. Resultados: De las 8.139 comunicaciones presentadas, 299 estaban relacionadas con NT (3,7%), incluyendo 120 pósteres y 179 comunicaciones orales, variando desde el 1,6% en 2012 hasta el 6,8% en 2018. Los tipos de tecnología mayormente representados fueron neuroimagen avanzada (24,7%), biosensores (17,1%), electrofisiología y neuroestimulación (14,7%) y telemedicina (13,7%). Las áreas neurológicas con mayor empleo de NT fueron trastornos del movimiento (18,4%), enfermedades cerebrovasculares (15,7%) y demencias (13,4%). Madrid fue la comunidad que presentó más comunicaciones (32,8%), seguida por Cataluña (26,8%) y Andalucía (9,0%). Conclusiones: Las comunicaciones sobre NT siguen una tendencia creciente. El número de NT empleadas ha ido aumentando de manera paralela a la disponibilidad tecnológica. Se encontraron comunicaciones en todas las subespecialidades neurológicas, con una distribución geográfica heterogénea.(AU)

Introduction: New technologies (NT) are increasingly widespread in biomedicine. Using the consensus definition of NT established by the New Technologies Ad-Hoc Committee of the Spanish Society of Neurology (SEN), we evaluated the impact of these technologies on Spanish neurology, based on communications presented at Annual Meetings of the SEN. Material and methods: We defined the concept of NT in neurology as a novel technology or novel application of an existing technology, characterised by a certain degree of coherence persisting over time, with the potential to have an impact on the present and/or future of neurology. We conducted a descriptive study of scientific communications presented at the SEN's annual meetings from 2012 to 2018, analysing the type of NT, the field of neurology, and the geographical provenance of the studies. Results: We identified 299 communications related with NT from a total of 8,139 (3.7%), including 120 posters and 179 oral communications, ranging from 1.6% of all communications in 2012 to 6.8% in 2018. The technologies most commonly addressed were advanced neuroimaging (24.7%), biosensors (17.1%), electrophysiology and neurostimulation (14.7%), and telemedicine (13.7%). The neurological fields where NT were most widely employed were movement disorders (18.4%), cerebrovascular diseases (15.7%), and dementia (13.4%). Madrid was the region presenting the highest number of communications related to NT (32.8%), followed by Catalonia (26.8%) and Andalusia (9.0%). Conclusions: The number of communications addressing NT follows an upward trend. The number of NT used in neurology has increased in parallel with their availability. We found scientific communications in all neurological subspecialties, with a heterogeneous geographical distribution.(AU)

Early contact between late farming and pastoralist societies in southeastern Europe.

Archaeogenetic studies have described two main genetic turnover events in prehistoric western Eurasia: one associated with the spread of farming and a sedentary lifestyle starting around 7000-6000 BC (refs. 1-3) and a second with the expansion of pastoralist groups from the Eurasian steppes starting around 3300 BC (refs. 4,5). The period between these events saw new economies emerging on the basis of key innovations, including metallurgy, wheel and wagon and horse domestication6-9. However, what happened between the demise of the Copper Age settlements around 4250 BC and the expansion of pastoralists remains poorly understood. To address this question, we analysed genome-wide data from 135 ancient individuals from the contact zone between southeastern Europe and the northwestern Black Sea region spanning this critical time period. While we observe genetic continuity between Neolithic and Copper Age groups from major sites in the same region, from around 4500 BC on, groups from the northwestern Black Sea region carried varying amounts of mixed ancestries derived from Copper Age groups and those from the forest/steppe zones, indicating genetic and cultural contact over a period of around 1,000 years earlier than anticipated. We propose that the transfer of critical innovations between farmers and transitional foragers/herders from different ecogeographic zones during this early contact was integral to the formation, rise and expansion of pastoralist groups around 3300 BC.

Science shines in a new virtual SY-Stem.

The third 'Symposium for the Next Generation of Stem Cell Research' (SY-Stem) was held virtually on 3-5 March 2021, having been cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As in previous years, the meeting highlighted the work of early career researchers, ranging from postgraduate students to young group leaders working in developmental and stem cell biology. Here, we summarize the excellent work presented at the Symposium, which covered topics ranging from pluripotency, species-specific aspects of development and emerging technologies, through to organoids, single-cell technology and clinical applications.

Innovative Homo sapiens behaviours 105,000 years ago in a wetter Kalahari.

The archaeological record of Africa provides the earliest evidence for the emergence of the complex symbolic and technological behaviours that characterize Homo sapiens1-7. The coastal setting of many archaeological sites of the Late Pleistocene epoch, and the abundant shellfish remains recovered from them, has led to a dominant narrative in which modern human origins in southern Africa are intrinsically tied to the coast and marine resources8-12, and behavioural innovations in the interior lag behind. However, stratified Late Pleistocene sites with good preservation and robust chronologies are rare in the interior of southern Africa, and the coastal hypothesis therefore remains untested. Here we show that early human innovations that are similar to those dated to around 105 thousand years ago (ka) in coastal southern Africa existed at around the same time among humans who lived over 600 km inland. We report evidence for the intentional collection of non-utilitarian objects (calcite crystals) and ostrich eggshell from excavations of a stratified rockshelter deposit in the southern Kalahari Basin, which we date by optically stimulated luminescence to around 105 ka. Uranium-thorium dating of relict tufa deposits indicates sporadic periods of substantial volumes of fresh, flowing water; the oldest of these episodes is dated to between 110 and 100 ka and is coeval with the archaeological deposit. Our results suggest that behavioural innovations among humans in the interior of southern Africa did not lag behind those of populations near the coast, and that these innovations may have developed within a wet savannah environment. Models that tie the emergence of behavioural innovations to the exploitation of coastal resources by our species may therefore require revision.

24.0 kyr cal BP stone artefact from Vale da Pedra Furada, Piauí, Brazil: Techno-functional analysis.

Current archaeological paradigm proposes that the first peopling of the Americas does not exceed the Last Glacial Maximum period. In this context, the acceptance of the anthropogenic character of the earliest stone artefacts generally rests on the presence of projectile points considered no more as typocentric but as typognomonic, since it allows, by itself, to certify the human character of the other associated artefacts. In other words, without this presence, nothing is certain. Archaeological research at Piauí (Brazil) attests to a Pleistocene human presence between 41 and 14 cal kyr BP, without any record of lithic projectile points. Here, we report the discovery and interpretation of an unusual stone artefact in the Vale da Pedra Furada site, in a context dating back to 24 cal kyr BP. The knapping stigmata and macroscopic use-wear traces reveal a conception centred on the configuration of double bevels and the production in the same specimen of at least two successive artefacts with probably different functions. This piece unambiguously presents an anthropic character and reveals a technical novelty during the Pleistocene occupation of South America.

[From incidentaloma to secondary discovery]. / De l'incidentalome à la découverte secondaire.

The term incidentaloma, created in 1982, has spread throughout medical literature. However, there does not seem to be a precise definition to describe what an incidentaloma is. In the initial uses, the word incidentaloma systematically designated a mass that was detected during an imaging examination prescribed for diagnostic purposes unrelated to the reason for carrying out the examination. Naming this mass "incidentaloma" did not give any precision on its nature as it can be located in many anatomical zones, secreting or not, benign or malignant, etc. Today, the term "incidentaloma" carries a much broader dimension which seems to cover the notion of incidental discovery, whether radiological, biological or genetic. The evolution of the term "incidentaloma" demonstrates its heuristic nature. It is a sign of a change in modern medicine which hesitates between a patient clinic and a data clinic. Fortuitous discoveries are a phenomenon known and anticipated by radiologists. Thus, these discoveries are no longer fortuitous, or even unexpected, but secondary to the use of health technology.

TITLE: De l'incidentalome à la découverte secondaire. ABSTRACT: Le terme incidentalome, créé en 1982, s'est, depuis, diffusé dans la littérature médicale. Il ne semble cependant pas exister de définition précise pour décrire ce qu'est un incidentalome. Dans les usages initiaux, l'incidentalome désignait une masse détectée à l'occasion d'un examen d'imagerie prescrit à visée diagnostique sans qu'un lien ne soit déterminé avec le motif de réalisation de l'examen. La qualification d'« incidentalome ¼ de cette masse n'apportait aucune précision sur sa nature, celle-ci pouvant être située dans de nombreuses zones anatomiques, être sécrétante ou non, être bénigne ou maligne… Aujourd'hui, le terme d'incidentalome porte une dimension beaucoup plus large, semblant recouvrir la notion de découverte fortuite, qu'elle soit radiologique, biologique ou génétique. Cet usage évolutif du terme démontre son caractère heuristique. Il est le signe d'une modification de la médecine moderne qui hésite entre une clinique des patients et une clinique des données. Les découvertes fortuites sont un phénomène connu et anticipé par les radiologues. Ces découvertes ne sont donc plus fortuites, ni même inattendues, mais bien secondaires à l'usage de la technologie en santé.

Five thousand years of minimal access surgery: 3000BC to 1850: early instruments for viewing body cavities.

Surgeons and their patients recognise that one of the major advances in surgical technique over the last 20 years has been the growth of minimal access surgery by means of laparoscopic and robotic approaches. Partnerships with industry have facilitated the development of advanced technical instruments, light sources, recording devices and optics which are almost out of date by the time they are introduced to surgical practice. However, lest we think that technological innovation is entirely a modern concept, we should remember that our predecessors were masters of their craft and able to apply new technologies to surgical practice. The history of minimal access surgery can be traced back to approximately 5000 years ago and this review aims to remind us of the achievements of historical doctors and engineers, as well as bring more modern developments to wider attention.This review will comprise a three-part series:Part I 3000BC to 1850 Early instruments for viewing body cavitiesPart II 1850 to 1990 Technological developmentsPart III 1990 to present Organisational issues and the rise of the robots.

Invention and Early History of Gapmers.

Gapmers are antisense oligonucleotides composed of a central DNA segment flanked by nucleotides of modified chemistry. Hybridizing with transcripts by sequence complementarity, gapmers recruit ribonuclease H and induce target RNA degradation. Since its concept first emerged in the 1980s, much work has gone into developing gapmers for use in basic research and therapy. These include improvements in gapmer chemistry, delivery, and therapeutic safety. Gapmers have also successfully entered clinical trials for various genetic disorders, with two already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of familial hypercholesterolemia and transthyretin amyloidosis-associated polyneuropathy. Here, we review the events surrounding the early development of gapmers, from conception to their maturity, and briefly conclude with perspectives on their use in therapy.

Fluted-point technology in Neolithic Arabia: An independent invention far from the Americas.

New World archaeologists have amply demonstrated that fluted point technology is specific to Terminal Pleistocene American cultures. Base-fluted, and rarer tip-fluted, projectile points from the Americas have been well-documented by archaeologists for nearly a century. Fluting is an iconic stone tool manufacturing method and a specific action that involves the extraction of a channel flake along the longitudinal axis of a bifacial piece. Here we report and synthesize information from Neolithic sites in southern Arabia, demonstrating the presence of fluting on a variety of stone tool types including projectile points. Fluted projectile points are known from both surface sites and stratified contexts in southern Arabia. Fluting technology has been clearly identified at the Manayzah site (Yemen) dating to 8000-7700 cal. BP. Examination of fluted points and channel flakes from southern Arabia enable a reconstruction of stone tool manufacturing techniques and reduction sequences (chaines opératoires). To illustrate the technological similarities and contrasts of fluting methods in Arabia and the Americas, comparative studies and experiments were conducted. Similarities in manufacturing approaches were observed on the fluting scars of bifacial pieces, whereas technological differences are apparent in the nature and localization of the flute and, most probably, the functional objective of fluting in economic, social and cultural contexts. Arabian and American fluted point technologies provide an excellent example of convergence of highly specialized stone tool production methods. Our description of Arabian and American fluting technology demonstrates that similar innovations and inventions were developed under different circumstances, and that highly-skilled and convergent production methods can have different anthropological implications.

Digital technology and social change: the digital transformation of society from a historical perspective
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Digital technology, including its omnipresent connectedness and its powerful artificial intelligence, is the most recent long wave of humanity's socioeconomic evolution. The first technological revolutions go all the way back to the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages, when the transformation of material was the driving force in the Schumpeterian process of creative destruction. A second metaparadigm of societal modernization was dedicated to the transformation of energy (aka the "industrial revolutions"), including water, steam, electric, and combustion power. The current metaparadigm focuses on the transformation of information. Less than 1% of the world's technologically stored information was in digital format in the late 1980s, surpassing more than 99% by 2012. Every 2.5 to 3 years, humanity is able to store more information than since the beginning of civilization. The current age focuses on algorithms that automate the conversion of data into actionable knowledge. This article reviews the underlying theoretical framework and some accompanying data from the perspective of innovation theory.
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La tecnología digital, que incluye una altísima conectividad y una poderosa inteligencia artificial, constituye el desarrollo más reciente y significativo en la evolución socioeconómica de la humanidad. Las primeras revoluciones tecnológicas se remontan a las Edades de Piedra, Bronce y Hierro, cuando la transformación del material fue la fuerza impulsora en el proceso Schumpeteriano de destrucción creativa. Un segundo metaparadigma de modernización social fue el que ocurrió con la transformación de la energía (también conocida como "revoluciones industriales"), incluyendo el agua, el vapor, la electricidad y la energía de combustión. El metaparadigma actual se centra en la transformación de la información. A fines de la década de 1980, menos del 1% de la información almacenada tecnológicamente en el mundo estaba en formato digital y ha llegado a más del 99% en 2012. Cada 2,5 a 3 años, la humanidad puede almacenar más información que desde el comienzo de la civilización. La era actual se centra en algoritmos que automatizan la conversión de datos en conocimiento procesable. Desde la perspectiva de la teoría de la innovación, este artículo revisa el marco teórico subyacente y algunos datos inherentes a él.

La technologie numérique, sa connectivité omniprésente et la puissance de l'intelligence artificielle font vivre à l'humanité sa phase d'évolution la plus longue sur un plan socio-économique. Les premières révolutions technologiques remontent à l'âge de pierre, du bronze et du fer, lorsque la transformation de la matière était le moteur du processus schumpétérien de destruction créatrice. La transformation de l'énergie qu'elle soit hydraulique, à vapeur, électrique ou par combustion (aussi appelée "révolutions industrielles") est à l'origine d'un deuxième méta-modèle de modernisation sociétale basée sur le changement technologique. La transformation de l'information est au centre du méta-modèle actuel. Moins de 1 % de l'information était stockée en format numérique à la fin des années 80, contre plus de 99 % en 2012Tous les 2,5 à 3 ans, l'humanité est capable d'archiver plus d'informations que celles créées depuis le début des civilisations. Nous sommes maintenant entrés dans l'ère des algorithmes qui automatisent la conversion des données en connaissances exploitables. Dans cet article, nous nous plaçons du point de vue de l'innovation pour analyser le cadre théorique de cette transformation et certaines données qui y sont inhérentes.

Intelligent, Autonomous Machines in Surgery.

Surgeons perform two primary tasks: operating and engaging patients and caregivers in shared decision-making. Human dexterity and decision-making are biologically limited. Intelligent, autonomous machines have the potential to augment or replace surgeons. Rather than regarding this possibility with denial, ire, or indifference, surgeons should understand and steer these technologies. Closer examination of surgical innovations and lessons learned from the automotive industry can inform this process. Innovations in minimally invasive surgery and surgical decision-making follow classic S-shaped curves with three phases: (1) introduction of a new technology, (2) achievement of a performance advantage relative to existing standards, and (3) arrival at a performance plateau, followed by replacement with an innovation featuring greater machine autonomy and less human influence. There is currently no level I evidence demonstrating improved patient outcomes using intelligent, autonomous machines for performing operations or surgical decision-making tasks. History suggests that if such evidence emerges and if the machines are cost effective, then they will augment or replace humans, initially for simple, common, rote tasks under close human supervision and later for complex tasks with minimal human supervision. This process poses ethical challenges in assigning liability for errors, matching decisions to patient values, and displacing human workers, but may allow surgeons to spend less time gathering and analyzing data and more time interacting with patients and tending to urgent, critical-and potentially more valuable-aspects of patient care. Surgeons should steer these technologies toward optimal patient care and net social benefit using the uniquely human traits of creativity, altruism, and moral deliberation.

Marine resource abundance drove pre-agricultural population increase in Stone Age Scandinavia.

How climate and ecology affect key cultural transformations remains debated in the context of long-term socio-cultural development because of spatially and temporally disjunct climate and archaeological records. The introduction of agriculture triggered a major population increase across Europe. However, in Southern Scandinavia it was preceded by ~500 years of sustained population growth. Here we show that this growth was driven by long-term enhanced marine production conditioned by the Holocene Thermal Maximum, a time of elevated temperature, sea level and salinity across coastal waters. We identify two periods of increased marine production across trophic levels (P1 7600-7100 and P2 6400-5900 cal. yr BP) that coincide with markedly increased mollusc collection and accumulation of shell middens, indicating greater marine resource availability. Between ~7600-5900 BP, intense exploitation of a warmer, more productive marine environment by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers drove cultural development, including maritime technological innovation, and from ca. 6400-5900 BP, underpinned a ~four-fold human population growth.