Researchers at Osaka University in Japan have found that proteins can store data. Professor Tetsuro Majima has developed a new method for spatiotemporally regulating fluorescent proteins. He can array a pattern of proteins using a photochemical technique, read the pattern and then erase the surface using photoirradiation. This process is useful for holding information. such as binary code for storage of data.

Memory devices based on biological building blocks have numerous advantages verses traditional magnetic devices. Protein devices should be immune to magnetic interference and thus the danger of a rogue magnet erasing your memory will be obsolete.  Another advantage is it is believed memory capacities will be larger with a protein hard drive.

A lot of hard work is still left before this is a commercially viable technology. Currently the protein memory has the greatest stability at 4 degrees Celsius.  However, this is not an acceptable temperature for a consumer computer product.  Furthermore, the protein patterns take about one minute to write, a time far too long for traditional memory.

At the 2008 Greener Gadgets Conference in New York, a conceptual design was released that could cool food or items while at the same time heating other items in a separate compartment. The design recieved a notable entry reward. The concept uses solar energy and converts it into electrical to run a compressor. The compressor can then cool or heat the items that have been placed in the compartments.

The original designers built the device with the intention of holding food. While I can imagine this would be a nice cooler to use for a picnic on a sunny day, it seems like it would have limited utility with the solar power requirement. However a great need exist in pharmaceuticals for an efficient and cheap way to ship new drugs or vaccines that require 4 degrees Celsius. With a slight modification to the device this could be a potential cheap and reusable shipper which could keep a constant temperature, a possible boon in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries.  

If you use the following encryption software for your sensitive laboratory results you may just be out of luck. Microsoft’s BitLocker, Apple’s FileVault, Linux’s dm-crypt and most other common encryption methods just became security vulnerabilities due to the research done by a team of academic, industry, and independents headed at Princeton University, Engineering School.

The flaw is found in the RAM, random access memory, a core component in computers. Computers use RAM to temporary store information and in the process store the keys used to unlock Encrypted data. The researchers found that you can access these keys while a computer is networked or even just remove the RAM and place it in another computer to retrieve the key. This flaw demonstrates that data encrypted on a company laptop is not as safe as previously believed.

Without the security blanket of encryption how does this change the protocols and policies at many companies that allow laptops to leave the workplace? With the recent reports of lost laptops at many United States Government Departments and subsequent reports of identity theft the question must be raised are we placing too much trust in programs?

Google announced an initiative with the Clevland Clinic to put patients in charge of their own health care information. The purpose of this program is to give patients the ability to interact with multiple physicians, healthcare service providers, and pharmacies. The current system places a great burden on the patient to obtain and distribute his/her own medical records. The new program is not yet publicly available, but is offered to current Cleveland Clinic patients on an invitation-only basis for between 1,500 and 10,000 patients. The test program will not currently permit patients to take their information outside of the Cleveland Clinic, but will rather test the system’s integration with Google’s platform.

“Patients are more proactively managing their own healthcare information,” said C. Martin Harris, M.D., Chief Information Officer, Cleveland Clinic. “At Cleveland Clinic, we strive to participate in and help to advance the national dialogue around a more efficient and effective national healthcare system.

While I fully believe in empowering patients to be in charge of their own health care records and trust them with the information, the question is whether Google is trustworthy enough and what Google’s motives are. Although Google clearly has the computing and software development capacity to handle and search the information, one must wonder whether Google has proved its ability to maintain patients’ privacy. Furthermore, how will Google seek to profit from the service? Serving ads alongside patient records seems like a conflict of interest and may not generate many eyeballs since the information is not meant to be widely shared. Sitting around on a Friday night perusing my medical records is usually not my favorite pastime. And I don’t particularly want to see ads targeting drugs towards any medical condition Google determines that I may have.

This is not a new idea, and there are already competitors in the field, such as http://www.ihealthrecord.org/ where you can create a medical profile and store your health records online.