We play Stump the Professor!

A rigorous academic competitive contest resulted in Jennifer Small stumping the professor on her global SMART DUST program question.

A directed-energy weapon (DEW) is a ranged weapon that damages its target with highly focused energy without a solid projectile, including lasers, microwaves, particle beams, and sound beams. Potential applications of this technology include weapons that target personnel, missiles, vehicles, and optical devices.

PAVE PAWS (PAVE Phased Array Warning System) is a complex Cold War early warning radar and computer system developed in 1980 to “detect and characterize a sea-launched ballistic missile attack against the United States”. The first solid-state phased array deployed used a pair of Raytheon AN/FPS-115 phased array radar sets at each site to cover an azimuth angle of 240 degrees. In accordance with the Joint Electronics Type Designation System, the “AN/FPS-115” designation represents the 115th design of an Army-Navy fixed radar(pulsed) electronic device for searching. Two sites were deployed in 1980 at the periphery of the contiguous United States, then two more in 1987–95 as part of the United States Space Surveillance Network. One system was sold to Taiwan and is still in service.

Molecular communications systems use the presence or absence of a selected type of molecule to digitally encode messages. The molecules are delivered into communications media such as air and water for transmission. The technique also is not subject to the requirement of using antennas that are sized to a specific ratio of the wavelength of the signal. Molecular communication signals can be made biocompatible and require very little energy.

Neuromodulation is the physiological process by which a given neuron uses one or more chemicals to regulate diverse populations of neurons. Neuromodulators typically bind to metabotropic, G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) to initiate a second messenger signaling cascade that induces a broad, long-lasting signal. This modulation can last for hundreds of milliseconds to several minutes. Some of the effects of neuromodulators include altering intrinsic firing activity, increasing or decreasing voltage-dependent currents, altering synaptic efficacy, increasing bursting activity and reconfiguring synaptic connectivity.

CRISPR (acronym of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a family of DNA sequences found in the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria and archaea. Each sequence within an individual prokaryotic CRISPR is derived from a DNA fragment of a bacteriophage that had previously infected the prokaryote or one of its ancestors. These sequences are used to detect and destroy DNA from similar bacteriophages during subsequent infections. Hence these sequences play a key role in the antiviral (i.e. anti-phage) defense system of prokaryotes and provide a form of heritable, acquired immunity. CRISPR is found in approximately 50% of sequenced bacterial genomes and nearly 90% of sequenced archaea.

CRISPR Therapeutics AG is a Swiss American biotechnology company headquartered in Zug, Switzerland. The company does business as CRISPR Therapeutics, Inc. in the United States. It was one of the first companies formed to utilize the CRISPR gene editing platform to develop medicines for the treatment of various rare and common diseases. The company has approximately 500 employees and has offices in Zug, Switzerland, Boston, Massachusetts, San Francisco, California and London, United Kingdom. Its manufacturing facility in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Personalized medicine, also referred to as precision medicine, is a medical model that separates people into different groups—with medical decisions, practices, interventions and/or products being tailored to the individual patient based on their predicted response or risk of disease. The terms personalized medicine, precision medicine, stratified medicine and P4 medicine are used interchangeably to describe this concept, though some authors and organizations differentiate between these expressions based on particular nuances. P4 is short for “predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory”.

Southern California Logistics Airport (IATA: VCV, ICAO: KVCV, FAA LID: VCV), also known as Victorville Airport, is a public airport located in the city of Victorville in San Bernardino County, California, approximately 50 mi (80 km) north of San Bernardino. Prior to its civil usage, the facility was George Air Force Base, from 1941 to 1992 a United States Air Force flight training facility.

The airport is home to Southern California Aviation, a large transitional facility for commercial aircraft. As a logistics airport, it is designed for business, military, and freight use. There are no commercial passenger services at this facility except for FBO and charter flights.

Please subscribe to my Substack Channel:
https://juxtaposition1.substack.com/podcast