Episode description

Dr. Diane Mucci, Cathe Smith, Gary Shelton, and "Speaker To Lab Animals" are our featured guests.

Topic:  Cutting Edge Bioinformatics and Genetics.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the August 17, 2011 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 42 minutes]. This is the first half of a discussion panel recorded before a live audience on July 16, 2011 in Chattanooga TN at the SF&F convention LibertyCon. (The second half will be presented next week.)

Dr. Diane Mucci, formerly with the National Institute of Health (NIH), is currently a full time professor of biotechnology, and has a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry, and Microbiology. Cathy Smith is an insect molecular geneticist with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). Gary Shelton is an agronomist with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). And Speaker To Lab Animals (who writes under the name Tedd Roberts) is an associate professor at an unspecified "major southeastern medical school."

News Item: CNN, AP, Routers and every other prominent news service on earth carried stories this week about Epidermal Electronic Systems. Wikipedia describes this technology as "a breakthrough field whereby very small and sensitive electronic sensors and relays are made to interact with a human's body and nervous system. It is believed that in the years to come this technology will have a host of applications from medical devices to the creation of more interactive video games and consumer electronic devices." Confused at how to explain the technology to the less tech-savvy of their viewers (and reporters) CNN described them as "Medical Tattoos." All those actually involved in the decades-old medical tattoo field, probably cringed or shook their heads in astonishment. 

Stephen Euin Cobb is the author of Skinbrain.