The Bewilderness

Good stem cells require innovative tools

Stem cells are one hypefest that peaked before the curve. Years after they were trumpeted as a cure-all, and encouraged surgical butchery in unscrupulous countries, research programmes are beginning to bear some fruit. Even with the recent setback in the United States over embryonic stem cells, results have begun to be published.

A recent paper on the introduction of adult stem cells to damaged heart tissue has begun to answer some of the deep problems:

• How do you inject stem cells into damaged tissues?
• How do you ensure that the stem cells survive and begin to replace the damaged tissue?
• Can any clinical programme resulting from this research satisfy the FDA or other medical regulators?

The answer lies in technique and tools, rather then the content, with some nifty engineering and biomechanical materials:

But now, WPI researchers have developed a biopolymer microthread technology that could deliver these hMSCs directly to damaged heart tissue. The microthreads are made of fibrin, which is a protein that assists in blood clotting, and can be engineered to acquire different tensile strengths and to dissolve at various rates once implanted. This makes it easier to adjust the threads for several different uses. 

[Glenn] Gaudette and [George] Pins used small bundles of the fibrin microthreads to seed hMSCs, where the stem cells would attach to the threads. Once attached, the hMSCs were cultured for five days. According to the study, the stem cells started multiplying and eventually covered the two-centimeter-long threads completely. There were approximately 10,000 hMSCs on each one. 

Once the seeding and growing process was complete, the microthreads were attached to a surgical needle and drawn through a collagen gel. This gel stimulated the human tissue, keeping the stem cells both alive and attached to the threads. This result suggests that the cells could be sutured into human tissue.

These researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute illustrate the lesson over stem cells: that they are only as good as the tools that propel them to the damaged tissues. Innovation in medical tools may prove even more important than stem cells themselves if medical researchers wish to explore their full potential.

If you can't beat them, buy them

It was always too much to hope that a commercial space launch facility in private hands would not be co-opted by government. The combination of private money, Silicon Valley cool and waving the flag for private enterprise was a tempting morsel for the Obama administration.

The Washington Post is describing the test launch of the Falcon 9 in those juicy terms beloved of lobbyists, earmarks and boondoggles "in a major test for the commercial space industry". A successful test flight does not define a major industry, but ramping up the rhetoric on government/private sector contractual partnerships and supporting the international space station will lead to another suckler of the taxpayer's teat (the more nascent the better). 

Such rhetoric warns us of the dangers that NASA poses in stifling innovation and commercial markets in space. Why develop alternative services when the government becomes your sole and very important customer? The moral of the story is: if you can't beat them, buy them.

A series of six for social networks

Hoovering up social networking predictions commences round December time. David Armano of Edelman Digital has put together a series of six for the Harvard Business Review. Some strike a similar tone to those discussed on here earlier: the downfall of the location specialists like Foursquare as their niche is integrated into the larger players. 

Edelman's predictions highlight some of the larger themes that we can expect to continue during 2011: the inability of any large player to maintain a walled garden for their users; the continued dominance of the first movers and greater innovation in hardware and software to keep people on the go all of the time.

Three of the points do merit further play. The first is the return of the Googleplex, as Google cements its role with search functions that tap into the social networking history of the networked individual. And there will be a market for a Wayback machine for individuals. As the second point is social media schizophrenia: individuals torn and twisted by the informational overload. The answer for this may come in 2011, with an early for of the avatar (where are you when we need you?)

The third issue was the slow take-up of social networking amongst companies. Successes have been limited to PR, marketing and brand management. That is because firms have not had to allow social networking or Web 2.0 to leap the firewall. That may start to change.

Location, vocation, staycation - the network tripod

Location networking received a lot of hype over the past year or two. Gowalla, Foursquare and other services used rivalry, competition and status to enhance their esprit de corps amongst the early adopters. Yet, the chances of achieving a breakout appear less than they do for Twitter. Then again, who ever thought a 140 character limit was attractive.

My hunch is that Foursquare and Gowalla and similar services are going to need to adapt to survive. Why? Because most of the world does not really care about mapping their check-ins to let their friends know that they are grabbing coffee down the street. What people do care about though is getting local discounts and scoring a good deal on purchases. People want value, especially in this economy.

Unions return for one last round in the class war

Len McCluskey, the newly elected leader of the trade union, Unite, has taken a strong step towards co-ordinated union strike action with the existing online campaigns against cuts and student protestors. In an article reminiscent of 1970s rhetoric, McCluskey wishes to draw battlelines and render the United Kingdom ungovernable. Ignore the existing laws on union activity, bring back flying pickets and mobilise the working classes.

Yet, this is not the 1970s, and most unionised activity is in the public sector. Let them go on strike and most people would not notice. After all, what does our town hall do for us these days? Not a lot! To get more bang for their buck, unions and protestors have to come out onto the streets and disrupt normal life. Most people do not like disruptions or violence. They are likely to support measures that prevent that, especially when those protesting do not have public support. Welfare is not popular.

Unite has signed up to the Coalition of Resistance campaign group which brings together unions with local anti-cuts campaigns across the country, he said, adding that the challenge was now to persuade people that there is an alternative to the cuts.

"Unless people are convinced not just that they are hurting – not hard to do – but also that there is a coherent alternative to the Cameron-Clegg class-war austerity, then getting millions into action will remain a pipe dream."

McCluskey nor Labour does not offer an alternative and the avenues for action have narrowed with the implosion of the bond market and the Eurozone. Unions have rediscovered class war rather late in the day, when their final bastion is threatened.

As the reduction in state expenditure is miserably small compared to the haircut that could be imposed in a real financial crisis, we can ask whether the union leadership is using dominance of the Labour party, weak leadership and a climate of austerity to make a power grab and regain influence lost since the 1970s. These reactionary dinosaurs would like nothing more than the power to call strikes and direct workers without the inconvenience of one man one vote.

A slow take-up for quick response codes

Another understated innovation of 2010  is the QR (Quick Response) code, linking mobile phones and existing logistics chains. It is the invasion of just-in-time to retail and consumers. The history of the QR code is one of catch-up, not creativity. QR codes have been used in Japan since 1994 and are now being utilised in the West.

As with all black boxe, adoption is driven by a purposeful agency:

One Japanese innovation already beginning to enjoy widespread use in overseas markets such as Europe and the US is the QR, or “quick response”, code – a matrix barcode that can give users with a mobile phone or similar device access to information ranging from a restaurant access map to an airline check-in number.

Invented in 1994 by Denso, a Toyota affiliate, and now ubiquitous in Japan, QR codes are being adopted more widely overseas in part due to the efforts of SET, a Tokyo-based but internationally-managed advertising and communications agency.

This adoption only took sixteen years: not all innovation happens in the now. One wonders what other tools from mobile saturated cultures will find their way to our shores.

Click as you like

Was the Facebook Open Graph product the most important development in social networking in 2010. The innovation certainly has a claim to fame in this respect. OpenGraph was announced at F8, the most recent Facebook conference for dealing with developments. Its objective was to link the web, walled gardens and any damn think that any Facebook member could potentially like (within legal constraints).

"The Web is at a really important turning point right now," Zuckerberg said. "Up until recently, the default on the Web has been that most things aren't social and most things don't use your real identity." Facebook, now, is forging its way across the Web and staking a claim to its infrastructure. Zuckerberg called the demonstrations at F8 "a taste of the future where everything can be more personalized." And, it seems, one where Facebook is the center of it all.

We have seen these alliances springing up, so that one may now get Facebook updates on Skype, Yahoo and Msn. For Zuckerberg, the underlying protocol for thsi real-time stream across all websites is the use of the Like button. Simple to use, an innocuous and incremental link that potentially deepens the ties between friends on Facebook.

However, the Facebook woodpile includes multiple jurisdictions involving privacy laws and data protection. 2010 was the year of the open graph, 2011 will be the year of signing up to share so Zuckerberg can avoid going to Jailbook.  

Not so slick: BP lost control and failed to converse

@BPGlobalPR was one of the biggest trending twitterers (Sic) in 2010. The handle was a successful example of how a realtime social network can hold a corporation to account, damaging reputation with critical questioning via spoof PR. Unfortunately for BP, the only part of their operation that was slick turned out to be the oil from Deepwater. Spoof twitter could be confused with real utterances from BP employees.

BP found that they operated in new times, where their message was open to far greater exposure and response in the media. Even more galling was the information firewall surrounding corporates with propaganda broadcasting from the towers was undermined by the new media: unguarded comments led to confusion in these transparent times. Traditional tools of PR proved a vehicle for ridicule. Unable to initiate a conversation, BP fell prey to chinese whispers.

This sounds the death-knell of traditional PR and institutional secrecy. The State Department can vouch for that. Corporations are struggling with the loss of control over the message. Grappling with a public as awkward buggers rather than passive receivers, they are building the firewall higher and tighter. Yet, whilst we will see more companies under siege, the pendulum will swing slowly from control to conversation. We are not quite there yet.

Give Leroy Stick his due:

I’m trashing a company that is literally trashing the ocean, and these idiots are trying to figure out how to protect that company?  One pickledick actually suggested that BP approach me and try to incorporate me into their actual PR outreach.  That has got to be the dumbest, most head-up-the-ass solution anyone could possibly offer.

Libdem pipedreams come out of a bong

Nick Clegg is now damaged goods, perhaps beyond repair. Signing up to the pledge for short-term advantage has ruined their position within the Coalition. The anger at the government is genuine: and university reforms harness the worst of both worlds. A pricing policy for a centrally planned system, denying competition in higher education. Only innovation, productivity and competition can reduce costs in this sector.

The anger at the Liberal Democrats may be bad for the left-wing of the party. We could see a number of defections at local and national level to Labour, reminiscent of the departure of opportunists from the Tory party in 1997. Now they have had a taste of power, they search out a would-be successor. Yet, this could be good news for the coalition: as liberal wings in both parties shore each other up. Despite the storm over tuition fees and the mess, common ground and electoral weakness may drive the Tories and Liberals even closer.

That suggests Clegg’s leadership cannot be guaranteed for the duration of the first Coalition Parliament but is conditional on the LibDem grassroots being unable to find themselves a credible leader to find a way back to a discarded Liberal faith.

The parliamentary party may value power, but the grassroots does not have the stomach for compromise. Thereare more dreams to be crushed before we get through this. 

A Merrier England?

After McFarlane's work in the 1970s on "The Origins of English Indvidualism", some further work has come out to undermine the peasant theories that lead to misunderstandings of the Middle Ages. Work undertaken at the University of Warwick corroborates suspicions that England (and other European countries) were wealthier than realised.

"By the late Middle Ages, the English people were in a position to afford a varied diet including meat, dairy produce and ale, as well as the less highly processed grain products that comprised the bulk of the bare bones subsistence diet," he added.

Less convincing is the comparisons with modern day developing countries using per capita comparisons. Mediaeval England was not a subsistence society and did not face the sheer existential risks that modern day subsistence farmers face. In this instance, they had a better diet, but indicators such as life expectancy and infant mortality were far worse given the level of medical knowledge and the risks of dying a violent death.

Further details can be found in the work here (large pdf file).