Science and Technology

Question 1

Major areas of technology

Answer 1

1. Medical
2. Agriculture
3. Military
4. Digital
5. Transport
6. Energy/Environment

Question 2

In-vitro fertilisation

Answer 2

In-vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a form of assisted reporductive technology to help couple struggling with infertility.

Saviour sibling - a child conceived for the purpose for producing tissue to older sibling to treat life threatening illnesses

Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis - tests embryos for a specific genetic or chromosomal abnormality
allow selecting embryos of ones choice, offered in conjunction with IVF

Question 3

Trump administration, coronavirus

Answer 3

Under the Trump administration

suppressed and censored scientists working to study coronavirus

claimed that all who oppose his views were faking their science for political agendas.

ordered Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to put out inaccurate information and harmful treatments for covid-19.

Question 4

Stem cell scam

Answer 4

April 2014, Haruka Obokata

Stem cell biologist in Japan

claimed that stem cells could be produced by soaking adult cells in citric acid

However, the findings were false and it was found that Obokata doctored her images and plagirised other papers.

Hubris in the drive to make a historic discovery was her problem.

Question 5

Coca-Cola

Answer 5

Coca - cola

Teamed up with influential scientists

say that weight conscious Americans are overly fixated on how much they eat and drink but exercise is more important factor

Coca Cola provided financial and logistical support to these scientists, acting as a form of bribery

Misleading and effort to deflect criticism about sugary drinks causing diabetes and obesity, so as to reduce losses in revenue/profit

Question 6

Stem cell research

Answer 6

Stem cell can develop into many different cell types in the body, allowing us to develop cell based therapies such as tissue engineering

Most common source for stem cells are human embyros - potentially become a viable human organism.

Singapore uses the 14-day rule, and that embyros after the age of 14 days are considered to be living and is illegal to be used for stem cell research

Question 7

Abortion and euthanasia

Answer 7

Abortion and euthansaia

Ethically controversial due to redefinition of life and death.
Conflicting definitions of when life begins

Question 8

Higgs boson

Answer 8

Higgs Boson, aka God particle or Higgs particle, found by Peter Higgs

Found in the largest particle accelerator in the world, Large Hydron Collider (LHC) by CERN

Took more than 30 years and 13.25 billion dollars

Validates the Big Bang theory creating the univrse, going against religions that say a higher being made the universe

Some people feel its a waste of money and resources as it does not have much practical use for normal people

Question 9

science religion quote

Answer 9

Former leader of Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II

Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish

Question 10

HIV drug price

Answer 10

In 2015, Martin Shkreli, an American entrepreneur and CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals was named the most hated man on earth

Raised the cost of a life saving HIV drug by 4200 percent overnight, from 11.63 per pull to 484.56 per pill

Question 11

Technological Pres

Answer 11

Theorist Paul David
Technological Presbyopia is where humans excessive faith in technology is akin to an elderly with long-sightedness: we envision a distant but bright technological utopia, and we trip over the obstacles that are directly in front of us.

Question 12

Nike Vaporflys

Answer 12

Eliud Kipchoge
broke the sub-2 hour marathon barrier using Nike Vaporfly 4% shoes that increased effiency of movement by 4%

2016 Olympic marathon, 4% was the difference between 1st and 15th place, top 3 finishers all wearing Nike Vaporfly’s

Question 13

Gm food

Answer 13

genetically modified food
enchance resilience and yield
GM soybeans, maize and cotton have created a 37% decrease in pesticide use, a 68% increase in profit for farmers and - most cruically for the issue of meeting our species sustenance needs - 22% overall increase in output.
In underdeveloped regions, yields grew by more than 14% compared to developed regions - a reassuring reminder of technology’s help

However, they can be abused.
Monsanto sells high-yielding and pest-resistant GM seeds such as cotton seeds to India.
However, these seeds have been engineered to be infertile so that farmers have to keep buying new seeds from Monsanto
Genetic Use Restiction Technology (GURT) helped corporations profit at the expense of farmers in developing countries.
A staggering 60000 Indian farmers commited suicide due to losses incurred by the seeds.

Question 14

Hydraulic Fracturing

Answer 14

1950s innovation that enabled petroleum companies to recover gas and oil from shale rock

increased oil production by 1200% within a week

not until 2011 that it was discovered fracking sites release a toxic stew of particles that can cause asthma, birth defects and cardiovascular diseases, also polluting the air and water too,
contributing to global warming

also linked to increased earthquakes in Texas and Oklahama in 2018 and 2019

Question 15

SingHealth, Hiv, trump kim summit

Answer 15

Singaore experienced a cyber attack in 2018, when data in SingHealth was breached. The Prime Minister’s (Prime Minster Lee Hsien Loong) health data was stolen along with the data of 1.5 million patients

During Trump Kim summit in 2018, Singapore was hit by 40k attacks, mostly from Russia, in under 21 hours.

In 2019, data of 14200 Singaporeans with HIV was leaked by an American fraudster. Data included phone numbers, addresses, HIV results and medical conditions

Question 16

Doctor’s basic duty

Answer 16

Doctors take the Hippocratic oath. Doctors’ basic duty is to prolong life.
Not allowed to help people die because can lead to possible abuses. Giving doctors licence to kill, increases risk of patients dying
EG.
Jacob “jack” kevorkian - “Dr death”. American doctor, helped end lives of 130 ailing patients some without consent and Convicted of 2nd degree murder and 8 years in prison.

Question 17

end suffering

Answer 17

US Terri schiavo brain dead in 1990. Brain dead for 15 years, life support machine kept her alive. Court battle from 1998-2005 between husband and parents. Husband asked court’s permission to remove life support for wife. Parents didn’t want. Provide peaceful and dignified death. Court rules in husband’s favour. Feeding tube removed. 2005 died.

Question 18

expensive survive

Answer 18

Scarcity of resources and financial costs. Allowed because of opp costs. Prolong life of terminally ill patient at expense of patient with hope of recovery. Scarce medical resources channeled to treat terminally ill, channel resources away from treating patients who can recover.
Eg.
USD50-100k to keep terminally ill patient alive. With this money, can avoid 5 other deaths.

Question 19

voluntary death

Answer 19

Netherlands, first country in world to legalise mercy killing in 2002. Patients experiencing unbearable suffering can request Euthanasia. Must come from patient alone, when he is of sound mind. Doctor (get 2nd opinions from a panel) and patient must be convinced no other solution. Must be voluntary. Patients leave written agreement. This helps to ensure that the request to die is voluntary

Question 20

Slippery slope

Answer 20

Sippery slope
Allow something harmless today, something currently not accepted to be accepted. Don’t know where to draw the line. Acceptance of physician assisted suicide. People in low quality of life or burden to society like frail elderly could be saved from “predicament” by compulsory Euthanasia.

Eg.
Belgium, 2013, 45yo twin bros, Marc and Eddy Verbessem. Born deaf, go blind soon. Terrified of ending up in an institution, chose death as unable bear thought of never see one another again. Killed by Belgian doctors after seeking Euthanasia. In my view, first step down slippery slope because twins were not suffering extreme pain yet doctors agreed to end what twins perceived as suffering. Prevent slide down slippery slope, not advisable for society to allow.

Question 21

Apple

Answer 21

Apple practices planned obsolescence

After an IOS update in 2017, users of older iphones found that apps loading significantly slower (around 58%) or the device shutting down altogether.

Apple said they throttled the performance to protect the battery of older devices and increase their longevity. However, this could be achieved if the battery were replaceable. Apple made it so their products parts were extremely difficult to replace, and if third parties try to fix it, it would void the warranty of the phone.

In a series of lawsuits that concluded in 2020, Apple was fined or reached settlements to pay hundred of millions of dollars. Undoubtedly, this amount pales in comparison to the extra revenue they generate by limiting the lfiespan of their products.

Apple maximised profit at the expense of their users.

Question 22

Zoom

Answer 22

Global usage of Zoom during the covid-19 pandemic increased from 10 million to 200 million users, allowing for schools and businesses to continue

Question 23

Vatican

Answer 23

The Vatican released an app called Click To Pray. It informs the user of what the Pope is praying for, and acting as a means for them to join in as well

Question 24

Health

Answer 24

Advanced monitoring and imaging capabilities like electrocardiography, x-ray computed topography and Magnetic Response Imagery (MRI) lets doctors retrieve highly resolved and precise images of anatomical structures and physical functions that was never possible before their creation.

These technology has saved countless lives. Average lifespan in 1900 was 31 years old. Today, it is closer to 73, thanks to these advancements in medical technology

Question 25

CRISPR

Answer 25

Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palidromic Repeats
All organisms have DNA, which acts as blueprints which create cells and the entire organism. CRISPR acts asa a molecular scissors, which allows us to cut certain parts of the DNA, or insert foriegn DNA, effectively modifying the blueprint of the organism.

CRISPR has been used to change a cow’s gut microbes to control how big they get and reduce the amount of methane they produce. Cows are major contributors to greenhouse gases, in turn contributing to global warming

Lead in to GM food

Question 26

Self-driving cars

Answer 26

Powered by artificial intelligence over 5g mobile connections, self driving cars have the potential to bring a lot of social good to the world’s disabled community. Companies like Waymo are developing self-driving cars that are wheelchair-friendly, aka wheelchair-accessible vehicles (WAVs)

Question 27

MOOCS

Answer 27

Massive Open Online Courses such as Udacity, Coursera, edX are available to everyone for free. Content from highly established universities and instituitions such as Stanford and Harvard, and spans across a wide range of disciplines

Question 28

Drones

Answer 28

In 2019, The Beak and Skiff apple orchard became the first in the world to pollinate trees using drone.

More than 700 species of the North American bee are heading to extinction, which could spell disaster for the global food supply.

Question 29

Renew energy

Answer 29

Renewable energy sources such as photo voltaics and wind turbines are slowly replacing conventional sources of energy.

In Germany, the government has been replacing the remaining power stations with clean sources of energy. In 2016, they successfully supplied nearly all of domestic electricity demands with renewable energy

Question 30

Carbon Sequestration

Answer 30

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas which traps heat and causes global warming. Under high pressure, it turrns from a gaseous state to liquid state. Carbon sequestration is the process of channeling the carbon dioxide in our atmosphere deep below the earth. Under an impermeable layer, the carbon dioxide cannot escape, and hence carbon dioxide levels will drop.

Question 31

Vaccine

Answer 31

Edward Jenner discovered the vacination for smallpox, which killed 300-500 million people in 20th century. By studying how milkmaids who have cowpox did not have smallpox, he inoculated the non-deadly cowpox virus in healthy people, finding that they were immune to smallpox afterwards.

Question 32

Marie Curie

Answer 32

Marie Curie discovered radioactivity which was later used in X-ray to help treat the wounded soldiers in WW1. Her discovery of X-ray won her the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. Her discovery of radium and polonium, named after her birth country, Poland, won her the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911. She changed the landscape of medical research and treatments. Marie Curie’s revolutionary research laid the groundwork for our understanding of physics and chemistry, blazing trails in oncology, technology, medicine, and nuclear physics to name a few. However, she ultimately died in 1934 due to overexposure to radiation.

Question 33

Fake data

Answer 33

A survey by the Public Library of Science revealed that 2% of scientists have intentionally manipulated experimental results before.

He Jiankui claimed to have produced the HIV immunity conferring CCR5 variant in twins, but was a blatant misrepresentation of data and a deliberate falsehood.

Andrew Wakefield claimed behavioural and physical regression in children after vaccination but manipulated facts of patient’s medical histories to support his claim. Funded by anti-vax parents who sued vaccine manufacturers.

Question 34

Deformed babies

Answer 34

Thalidomide was marketed as a mild sleeping pill for pregnant ladies in 1960s. However, it caused these pregnant women who used them to give birth to thousands of children with birth defects, such as shortening or absence of limbs.

Question 35

AI helps make jobs and take away too

Answer 35

In a 2017 MIT Sloan Management Review survey, one in five companies reported they had “incorporated AI in some offerings or processes”, and it is estimated that overall, AI could deliver $13 trillion in additional global economic activity by 2030, which is a big plus for governments and businesses.

There are scary predictions that up half the jobs we know today will disappear soon, and that 47% of total US employment is at risk from automation.

researchers in Quartz found that these are the jobs humans will thrive in: People (Interpersonal skills, creativity) , Numbers (applying math to real world), Medicine (Human health related jobs)

Question 36

AI intellect

Answer 36

IBM computer Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov in 1997.
AlphaGo defeated Lee Sedol in 2016.
However, AI still unable to hold realistic conversation with humans

Question 37

Ai save and take lives

Answer 37

In Nigeria, machine learning is being used by doctors for the early detection of birth asphyxia—the third highest cause of under-5 mortality in Africa.

The most widely discussed example involves weaponizing “drone swarms”, fitting them with small explosives
and self-driving technology and then setting them loose to carry out untraceable assassinations as so-called
“slaughterbots”.

Question 37

Ai save and take lives

Answer 37

In Nigeria, machine learning is being used by doctors for the early detection of birth asphyxia—the third highest cause of under-5 mortality in Africa.

The most widely discussed example involves weaponizing “drone swarms”, fitting them with small explosives
and self-driving technology and then setting them loose to carry out untraceable assassinations as so-called
“slaughterbots”.

Question 38

Technological Determinism

Answer 38

The theory that social progress follows an inenvitable course driven by technological innovation, thus technology is determined to be the key mover in history and society, and therefore humanity by determining our cultural values, social structure and history

Question 39

Technological Constructivism

Answer 39

It is generally accepted that technology does not determine but operates and is operated upon a complex social field (Murphie and Potts, 2003)

Technological constructivism states that human actions determine and shape science and technology. Inherent motivations, human factors like economics, governance and politics or even human limitations exist.

Question 40

Paul David one

Answer 40

The march of technology advancement, interminable and inexorable, seems to be the one true constant of the modern era. This dependability makes it easy to trust in its capacity to cure human fallibility, tackling problems in the present and even evolving to take on problems as they emerge in the future. The worship of technology as an all-powerful force force is, however, misguided. Theorist Paul David terms this popular phenomenon as Technological Presbyopia, where human’s excess faith in technology is akin to an elderly with long-sightedness - we envision a distant but bright technological utopia, and trip over the obstacles that lie immediately ahead of us. We tend to also overestimate its potential benefits and underestimate its potential costs, and assume it is used to help rather than harm. It is thus true, that we place too much faith in technology.

Question 41

role

Answer 41

The role of technology in human society is difficult to pin down. It is, of course, a major asset; its utility in solving both extant and emerging problems is perhaps the entire reason for its existence. It is thus understandable that humans look towards it with a starry-eyed idealism, trusting it to cure all of the world’s problem on its own. However, in unthinking assuming it to be more beneficial than it is, or uncritically embracing it as an unqualified force for food, we have come to trust in technology more than is justified - and more than is judicious. Our excessive faith in technology has become a liability, exposing us to new problems while preventing us from acting on those problems it promises to address. A rethink is thus in order: our approach to technology must be grounded in reason, and not a matter of faith.

Question 42

From artifical

Answer 42

From artificial intelligence to bullet trains, it is no overstatement to say that technological advancements in recent decades have brought us many benefits across different spheres. Aside from spurring economic growth through means like machine automation or more efficient production process, technology has also introduced new cornerstones of daily life, such as the Internet, social media, and even contact tracing technologies that have proliferated during the pandemic. Technology is now integral to our lives and has made the world more interconnected, but we have to be careful to avoid looking to technology to solve every single issue of challenge that humanity faces. Although we can acknowledge the numerous benefits that technology has brought about, technology is not in and of itself capable of solving all our problems, and therefore our faith in it to do so is misplaced.

Question 43

while the ability

Answer 43

while the ability of technology to solve all our problems sounds attractive in principle, there are many obstacles that hinder it from becoming an all-encompassing solution. Although technology itself is not a moral agent, its potential for solving any problems - much less all problems - lies in the hands of those who distribute and use it.

Question 44

Environmental conservation should be the concern of citizens and not the government. Intro

Answer 44

Humanity faces a crisis like never before. From the imminent extinction of once-populous species to vengeful hurricanes sweeping across the seas, the consequences of our centuries-long plunder of nature can no longer be ignored. Yet, despite near-universal agreement that something needs to be done, the question of who needs to do it remains. One answer which a curious number of people, no doubt brainwashed by the other stakeholders trying to shirk their duty, believe is that it is their job to save the Earth, since they exist in such numbers that the long-term effectiveness of environmentalist movements seems to rest on them. However, an equally plausible rebuttal is that it is the government l, with its unique authority and access to resources, that has to play its part of they are to succeed. Ultimately, the first answer is wrong not because preserving the natural world should be the concern of governments rather than citizens - but because it should be the concern of both stakeholders at once, as collaboration gives us the best odds of success.

Question 45

Environmental conservation should be the concern of citizens and not the government. conclusion

Answer 45

Crises beget an abundance of finger-pointing but a dearth of helping hands. Sadly, every second wasted dodging the issue is a second that can never be recovered as we careen towards our own demise. In the campaign against environmental degradation, two things are simultaneously true: the governemnt is better at covering the economic and executive side of things, and citizens are better at ensuring commitment and compliance on the ground. Thus, we will be worse off overall if one party or the other takes complete charge of the matter. Environmental preservation must then, be the concern of both parties at once, if it is to at all stand a chance of succeeding.

Question 46

Discuss the view that environmental conservation efforts today are nothing more than token gestures. intro

Answer 46

Ever since the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s, man has been contributing to environmental degradation
on an unprecedented scale and at an exponential rate. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that global temperatures could rise a further 5 degrees Celsius by 2100, but even 2 degrees will lead to unprecedented catastrophic effects. Fortunately, today, more than ever, social media and globalisation has empowered individuals, corporations and governments to contribute to environmental conservation efforts on a large scale. Optimists argue that their efforts are far more than just token gestures, with many stakeholders going out of their way to create positive change for the environment. Yet, pessimists argue that these instances are regretfully far from the norm. Amidst growing concerns over the fate of our planet and continued inaction by major stakeholders, I proffer that environmental conservation efforts today are nothing more than just token gestures.