WEBVTT - The Think 2018 Science Slam Part One 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:07.200 Get in tech with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:14.360 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:18.320 I'm Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer at how Stuff 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:21.079 Works and I love all things tech and I am 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:27.560 continuing a special series of podcasts recorded on location in 0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:31.880 Las Vegas, Nevada during the two thousand and eighteen IBM 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:37.000 Think Conference. So if you think this doesn't sound like 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:40.760 a normal episode, that's why I am literally by myself 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:43.680 in a hotel room. I've got an air conditioner blasting 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:46.400 at me not far away, because I am in Las Vegas, 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:50.960 a desert. There's no producer here, there's no studio here. 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:54.600 It's just me and a recorder and a microphone and 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:57.400 a song in my heart and a dream in my brain, 0:00:57.760 --> 0:00:59.520 and the A C just shut off so it'll be 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:03.600 a little more quiet now. But the Think Conference is 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:07.839 a pretty big deal. It's a hundreds thousands of people 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:14.039 all gathered together learning about uh top topics in computing, 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:19.840 getting education and workshops involved in all sorts of different things. 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:25.720 And last night I went to a science slam at 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:31.199 the conference where we were treated to five different presentations 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:36.240 by scientists that are related to IBM Research, and we 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:39.960 got to learn about some breakthrough sciences and some scientific 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:43.920 work that was pretty pretty interesting, and I wanted to 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:46.199 kind of report on that and what I saw and 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:52.000 the sort of implications that the presentations have for us, 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:56.040 as you know, human being type folks. Well, the presentation 0:01:56.160 --> 0:02:00.840 was opened by the Director of IBM Research, Our Krishna, 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:03.160 who came up on stage and sort of set the 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:08.560 ground explained what in brief the five different science breakthroughs 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:11.240 we're going to be about. There was a lot of 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:15.079 overlap between them, so expect that when I get into 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:18.520 the nitty and the gritty. And he then introduced the 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:23.280 actual MC of the evening, Jamie Garcia. Now, Jamie Garcia 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:29.000 is a polymer chemist. She works on lots of different projects, 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:32.320 including ways to figure out how to break down long 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:37.520 chain polymers so that you can get rid of plastics 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:41.200 that would otherwise pollute the environment. So an important work. 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:43.720 It was pretty interesting hearing her talk. She talked about 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:49.480 how her specific work is very tricky because if you 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:54.160 want to create computer models of long chain polymers, it 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:57.480 requires a lot of processing power. The bigger the molecule is, 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:00.959 the more processing power it needs to simulate the interaction 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:04.200 of molecules properly because the computer is trying to keep 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:07.120 track of all the little sub atomic particles. All those 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:11.520 little electrons have to be modeled and simulated, and as 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:15.880 you add atoms to your molecule, creating these long chains, 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:20.040 it creates exponential more work for your computer. So she 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:26.360 has a vested interest based upon what she studies in 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:30.800 the advancement of computer sciences. Then she began to introduce 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:34.920 the actual presenters, and each presenter had about five minutes 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:41.040 to present his or her study her work and explain 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:43.360 what they were there about. And it was really interesting 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:45.640 because there was a it was a good variety. There 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:48.600 were two men and three women who each got up 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:52.880 on stage, and they all were trying to explain to 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:58.080 us the importance of their various projects and what what 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:01.960 stage they were in, why we should be interested, and 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:04.440 they all had very different styles, and it was very 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:10.120 interesting to see these different uh approaches of present presenting 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:12.760 this information to a general audience, because you know, a 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:16.800 lot of people in the crowd were not scientists or 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:20.280 data analysts or anything like that, so it was it 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:23.599 is a challenging thing to have to communicate science to 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:27.159 an audience where you're not entirely certain what their background 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:30.440 happens to be, but they all did a really good job. 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:33.440 The first one to get up was a guy named 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:40.200 Andreas Kind, who is an expert on uh cryptography and blockchain, 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:42.919 and I mentioned a bit in the preview episode the 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:46.080 kind of Overview episode that blockchain was going to be 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:49.200 one of the topics that I was going to look 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:51.520 into here, and I've got a little bit better grip 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:57.000 on what some aspects of blockchain are all about, and 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:00.680 it really blew my mind. So Kind came out and 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:08.280 mentioned that almost everything that we encounter, whether it's a 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:14.640 product like a designer bag or shoes or car parts, 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:19.719 or even drugs like medical drugs, has been copied at 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:25.279 some point, and he cited a number that in counterfeit 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:32.880 goods were valued at one eight trillion dollars. So you're 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:37.960 looking at a massive problem across multiple industries where you 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:42.000 could encounter copies of stuff being passed off as if 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:44.880 they were the real thing, and in some cases that 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:47.839 just ends up being kind of a a slap in 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:50.520 the face to rich people who are buying luxury goods. 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:52.080 You know, it might be hard for you to feel 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:55.680 any kind of sympathy for that, because who's going to 0:05:55.760 --> 0:05:59.960 feel badly about a billionaire walking up to a play 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:04.000 a said buying, you know, some sort of ridiculously expensive wallet, 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:07.599 and then finding out three months later that it was 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:10.360 actually a cheap knockoff that was being passed off as 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:12.600 the real thing. Most of us probably wouldn't lose very 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:15.880 much sleep about that. Although that is a legitimate problem, 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:20.280 and obviously anyone who has built their business on creating 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:24.360 luxury goods of any kind has a really really powerful 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:27.400 interest in this. They don't want their products to be 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:31.240 copied because that obviously undervalues what they do. If no 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:36.159 one trusts that the thing you're selling is actually from you, 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:38.280 then you're not going to sell very much of it. 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:42.520 But there are other issues as well that affect, you know, 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:47.320 the common folk like myself, where even if we didn't 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:50.480 feel sympathy for the rich people who we're buying these 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:56.080 luxury goods, we may feel very strongly about these other cases. 0:06:56.360 --> 0:07:01.240 So Andrea's kind gave another example about car parts, and 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:04.360 specifically he was talking about breaks, but it really could 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:07.160 be any car part. He said that in certain parts 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:09.840 of the world, depending upon where you are, you might 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:13.520 discover that up to forty of auto parts in the 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:18.239 aftermarket are copies. They are not the legitimate part that 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:22.800 they are, you know, claimed to be, So that could 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:26.480 be a huge issue. If perhaps you were getting new 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:29.280 brakes put into your vehicle, your old brakes are wearing out. 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:32.360 You go to an auto mechanic shop, you pay a 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:35.160 certain amount of money to have brand new brakes put in, 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:38.880 but you may not be absolutely certain that the brakes 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:41.320 that are being put in are the real deal, like 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:44.520 they are actually made by the company that you are 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:49.440 told made them. It may be that they were cheap knockoffs, 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:52.000 and thus they may not perform at the right level, 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:57.080 and they might fail more readily than a real set 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:00.360 of brakes would from the actual manufacturer. That the could 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:04.360 be life and death, and that obviously is something that 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:09.040 affects anybody. It's not just the people who have money 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:12.119 to burn, it's all of us who may rely upon 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:15.160 this sort of thing. And even if you aren't someone 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:18.480 who drives, and you're you're not too concerned about auto 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:20.440 parts and whether or not they're the real thing, or 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:24.280 maybe maybe you think you know, I'll risk it, I'll 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:27.760 be careful and maybe my skill as a driver will 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:33.640 counteract any downfall of the parts there might be. It's 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:36.240 still not that easy to just kind of walk away 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:40.040 from this, uh. As Kind pointed out, another big issue 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:44.760 is medical drugs. He cited a case of a blood 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:51.080 thinning drug and some researchers who discovered that some instances 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:56.640 of this blood thinning drug had up to filler material 0:08:56.760 --> 0:09:00.280 in them. In other words, there were instances of this 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:06.120 drug where it had been replaced with non active ingredients 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:10.720 are even harmful ones, and this obviously can cause medical problems. 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:15.319 It can lead to uh serious issues, even even the 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:18.840 death of the person who is taking the drug potentially, 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:25.319 and that of course is absolutely unacceptable. And again depending 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:28.719 on what country you are. In some countries, you you 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:33.320 are not certain about the origin of the medication that 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:36.000 you're getting. In certain countries, you know, if you're going 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:39.920 to a reputable doctor and reputable pharmacist, you're in pretty 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:43.800 good shape. You're reasonably certain that the medication you are 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:47.959 taking is in fact what you were told it would be. 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:53.600 But in other countries where the medical industry isn't as 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:58.120 as well established and maybe not as well funded, then 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:01.679 you can't necessarily be certain. You may be taking drugs 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:04.800 that were bought at a discount, and it turns out 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:06.839 that a lot of them just don't have the active 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:09.360 ingredients they're they're supposed to have, and it's not going 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:11.800 to be an effective treatment for you. So all of 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:15.760 these different examples were problems that kind was pointing out 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:20.120 that he said blockchain could help solve, and that raised 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:23.560 a question. Guys, They're still more to come about the 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:26.800 science Slam, but before we jump into the next segment, 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:37.160 let's take another quick break to thank our sponsor. Blockchain 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:42.840 is a digital construct, right. Blockchain is math and code. 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:47.320 It's something that exists on computers, but not quote unquote 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:50.960 in the real world. There's no physical presence of blockchain. 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:55.559 With cryptocurrency. It's easy to understand more or less at 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:59.559 a high level why blockchain is effective because every single 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:04.480 trans action that you make with cryptocurrency becomes part of 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:08.680 this blockchain that you cannot alter, at least you cannot 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:13.160 reasonably alter it without having to rebuild the entire blockchain 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:16.560 from that point of transaction moving forward, and since the 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:20.240 blockchain is constantly getting added to essentially every ten minutes 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:23.280 in the case of bitcoin. Your computer is never going 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:26.839 to be fast and strong enough to build back that 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:31.040 chain and uh and beat out the rest of the 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:34.280 system so that you can alter a transaction and make 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:37.760 it look legitimate. So anytime you buy something with bitcoin, 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:44.000 anytime you transfer bitcoin to someone else, that transaction becomes 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:47.800 part of a block of transactions that the overall system 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:52.480 will validate, and once validated, it joins the chain, and 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:57.360 every future transaction that is made will contain a record 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:02.920 that includes your transaction. Though this ledger of transactions is 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:06.439 shared across the entire network of computers that are participating 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:11.040 in that blockchain. So if you have ten thousand computers 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:14.040 in this network, all ten thousand can see that ledger 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:17.760 and they can see the history of transactions that includes 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:21.600 the one that you just did. So it makes it 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:25.880 impossible to really alter things. It's a very reliable record, 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:28.440 and it makes it very difficult for you to claim 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:31.280 that you didn't actually spend that bitcoin, and you in 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:34.280 fact still have that bitcoin and you could spend it 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:37.880 on something else, well the ledger will say otherwise, and 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:41.040 that will mean that you will not have a legitimate argument. 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:45.800 That is fine for bitcoin transactions, but how can you 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:50.920 use that same technology to ensure that real physical things 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:52.920 are what they say they are, because if you could 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:56.839 tag a physical object in such a way that it 0:12:56.920 --> 0:13:00.920 was related to a point of data within a blockchain, 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:05.680 then you could trace the movement of that that physical 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:10.080 component as it moved through a system. As Kind pointed out, 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:15.320 manufacturing in the twenty first century is really really complicated 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:18.400 because you have lots of different entities that contribute to 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:21.960 making all sorts of stuff, whether it's drugs or electronics 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:26.679 or car parts. You might have factories and manufacturing facilities 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:29.520 that are spread around the world that are all contributing 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:33.400 toward this. Even if you're talking about food supply, you 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:36.320 might be able to go to your local grocery store. 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:40.239 Let's say that you live someplace like San Francisco, California. 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:42.120 You might be able to go to a market in 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:46.880 San Francisco and pick up food that was originally grown 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:51.400 in Japan. Well, you don't know the pathway that food 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:54.920 took from the point of origin where it was grown 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:58.160 or caught. Let's say it's fish. You don't know where 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:01.000 that fish was caught. You don't know who that fish 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:04.320 was sold to, you don't know where that fish was processed. 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:07.480 All you know is where you bought the fish. That's 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:10.960 your last point of contact. You don't know anything else 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:13.600 about it. But with blockchain, if you were able to 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:18.600 somehow physically link the fish into a blockchain operation, you 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:22.280 can actually look at that chain of events and trace 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:26.600 back every single point of contact that fish had all 0:14:26.640 --> 0:14:29.000 the way back to where it was caught, and you 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:32.280 would be able to verify that in fact everything was 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:36.280 UH was safe and healthy, that it didn't pass through 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.000 any hands where there might have been contamination, or at 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:42.200 least it decreases that, and if there were contamination, you 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:45.200 would be able to trace exactly where that happened because 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:46.520 you would be able to look at the chain of 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:49.520 events and say, well, according to this, it must have 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:52.280 happened at this processing facility, which would make it much 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:56.120 easier to UH to do inspections to make certain that 0:14:56.160 --> 0:14:58.240 everything is on the up and up. But how do 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:01.760 you actually tag that? How do you have some sort 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:06.360 of record between the physical object and the digital record, 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:10.840 Because if if you don't have some way of verifying 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:13.680 that the physical object you're looking at is in fact 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:17.080 the same one that's in the digital record, you can't 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:21.360 be certain that the blockchain is an effective uh list 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:26.480 of transactions for that specific physical object. If I'm looking 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:29.120 at a pair of shoes and the blockchain tells me 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:31.320 that the pair of shoes is absolutely legitimate because I 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:34.240 can trace everything back, But it turns out the blockchain 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:37.280 is a record of a different pair of shoes, I 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:39.800 don't I don't know that because there's nothing that's tying 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:42.840 the physical object in my hands to this digital record. 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:45.360 It doesn't do me any good. So here's the problem. 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:48.440 How do you How do you link those two? Andrea's 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:52.240 kind talked about a way of doing that using something 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:58.359 called crypto anchors. These are anchor points on physical objects 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:04.600 that can link them to digital ledgers like blockchain and uh. 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:06.520 The whole idea is that you have to have some 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:10.160 sort of encryption, physical encryption that you can attach to 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:14.080 those physical objects in some way that would allow you 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:18.240 to verify that, in fact, the chain of events is 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:22.000 exactly what the digital record says it is. But what 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:24.720 does that even mean? Like, what what sort of physical 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:27.640 crypto anchor could you come up with? He gave a 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:30.520 couple of different examples. One of them I thought was 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:36.120 incredibly interesting. He talked about a malaria test. Now, if 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:38.840 you are in another country and you need to take 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:41.160 a malaria test, you've been bitten by a mosquito, and 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:44.200 you want, obviously you want to make sure that you 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:48.320 are testing negative for malaria. You want to also be 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:51.240 certain that that test is legitimate, that it came from 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:56.760 a trusted source. So he showed off a type of 0:16:56.840 --> 0:17:00.320 malaria test this piece of paper that had very tiny, 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:03.160 little colorful dots on one part of the paper, and 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:09.480 those colorful dots represented an algorithm, a code. So first 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:11.879 you would look at those colorful dots and you would 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:15.520 make certain that it was the right pattern, the right colors, 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:19.160 and you would have a blockchain record of this malaria 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:23.639 test that would correspond to the code that you're looking 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:25.880 at the physical code. So as long as the physical 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:29.679 code on the malaria test matched the one that was 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:34.439 on the blockchain, you then could feel confident that, in fact, 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:37.359 this test is a legitimate one. But you say, what 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:40.800 about counterfeiting? What would happen if someone was able to 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:43.600 look at the blockchain, they were able to see what 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:46.320 the code was supposed to be. They take some regular 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:48.560 old paper that doesn't have a malaria test on it 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:52.439 at all. Then they very very carefully placed those dots 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:56.399 in the right configuration, in the right set of colors. Well, 0:17:56.880 --> 0:18:01.280 the secret to this is that the actual code itself 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:05.080 is the thing you see is only half of the code. 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:10.400 When you expose that piece of paper to liquid, then 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:14.240 the ink dots, which are on little bitty micro pillars, 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:17.600 some of them wash away, some of them are revealed, 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:20.960 and you have a new code that will be there 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:24.720 in replace. It's usually in this case with the malaria test, 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:27.560 you would actually use a serum to do this. So 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:31.119 only with contact with the legitimate serum would this series 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:33.439 of dots change and they would change it to a 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:35.480 new code. And that new code is also tied to 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:38.639 the blockchain, so you would have a before and after. 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:41.840 So after adding serum to this malaria test, you could 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:45.480 then verify that in fact, the malaria test is a 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:48.040 legitimate one, it's a legitimate source. Then you can actually 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:51.679 use the malaria test on a patient. So that is 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:54.760 sort of the way to confound counterfeiters. If you think 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:58.000 about it, it's not that different from like a special 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:02.639 water mark on uh uh a unit of currency, or 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:05.200 one of those elements where you have like a transparent 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:09.640 panel that's inside a dollar bill or or some other 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:12.159 unit of currency. It's one of those things that is 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:17.639 meant to to uh make counterfeiting much more difficult. So 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:21.920 by having this dual layer of code that only gets 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:24.439 revealed if you add serum to the malaria test, you 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:29.199 have helped ensure that the the test that you you 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:31.720 have in your possession is in fact an authentic one 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:35.560 and it is linked back to this instance of the blockchain. 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:38.359 And by having this unique kind of code for every 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:42.479 single malaria test, you make it incredibly difficult for anyone 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:46.200 to make a legitimate counterfeit or a legitimate a seemingly 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:50.119 legitimate counterfeit. And I thought that was really neat this 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:55.399 idea of making sure using these physical uh components, something 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:58.480 that you could then link to a digital record. It's 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:02.200 really really clever. Now kind also talked very briefly, because 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:04.480 he was coming towards the end of his his presentation 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:09.879 at this point, about the use of micro chips. I 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:12.720 was gonna say microelectronics, and I guess technically it kind 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:14.720 of is, but I mean they're super super small. We're 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:17.560 talking about chips that are about the size of a 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:20.760 grain of rice that have more than a million discrete 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:23.760 components on them, so essentially like a million transistors on 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:28.479 this little size of rice chip, or even the size 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:32.199 of a grain of salt. These chips can still have 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:38.800 very sophisticated components to them, including things like motion sensors 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:43.680 or or a transmitter sensor. And the idea is that 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:47.760 these particular chips will cost very little less than ten 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:51.920 cents to create a single chip, and that they are 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:56.240 able to monitor and analyze and communicate and even act 0:20:56.840 --> 0:21:02.240 on information. And these little tiny chips would be able 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:06.240 to analyze products and measure them in such a way 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:10.879 to make absolutely certain that they are in fact um legitimate. 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:13.720 They would concentrate on what are considered to be unique 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:17.600 identify irs or whatever the product is, whether it's the 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:23.359 specific shape or the chemical makeup or uh any other 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:27.040 sort of physical property that is considered to be unique 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:31.040 to that product, that it would be almost impossible, if 0:21:31.080 --> 0:21:35.240 not outright impossible, for someone to duplicate that exactly. You 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:36.960 would have the chip program in such a way to 0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:40.919 detect that quality, and if the quality is not present, 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:44.520 then obviously the chip would indicate that, and the chip 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:47.800 would be the thing that's low. That's that's tied to 0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:50.840 the blockchain. So as long as the chip is active 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:54.159 on this uh, this product, whatever it may be, and 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:57.200 that it's verifying that it is in fact authentic, and 0:21:57.440 --> 0:22:00.280 you can record the process of where the chip was 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:03.560 from one point in the supply chain to the next, 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:06.199 all the way to its end point, whether it's a 0:22:06.200 --> 0:22:10.879 consumer or a doctor or a manufacturing facility, whatever it 0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:13.639 might be. You could then look at the blockchain verify 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:16.040 that in fact, all the right steps were taken, it 0:22:16.080 --> 0:22:18.439 went to all the right points of contact, all the 0:22:18.520 --> 0:22:23.920 right processes were uh were performed on this product, and 0:22:24.320 --> 0:22:26.520 the chip is still verifying that the product that is 0:22:26.600 --> 0:22:29.479 in your hands is in fact authentic, then you have 0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:32.520 this ability to say, yes, this is the real thing. 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:36.800 And at least according to kind Uh, he said that 0:22:37.840 --> 0:22:41.960 using this you could end up cutting counterfeiting in half 0:22:42.440 --> 0:22:46.000 within the next couple of years, and then moving forward 0:22:46.040 --> 0:22:49.679 you could reduce it even further. So this again would 0:22:49.880 --> 0:22:54.879 help people be certain that the thing they got was 0:22:55.440 --> 0:22:58.280 completely legitimate and they wouldn't have to worry about whether 0:22:58.400 --> 0:23:01.240 or not the product they had was going to fail 0:23:01.280 --> 0:23:04.760 on them or be harmful to them or otherwise not 0:23:04.920 --> 0:23:08.639 be what they thought they were getting. So that was 0:23:09.000 --> 0:23:12.679 number one of five. Still have some more people to 0:23:12.720 --> 0:23:16.160 talk about, some more ideas, more cool notions that were 0:23:16.160 --> 0:23:19.520 brought up at the IBM Research Science Slam. I think, 0:23:20.760 --> 0:23:23.920 but first let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. 0:23:31.160 --> 0:23:34.639 The second person to come up was a PhD student 0:23:35.040 --> 0:23:40.440 named Chichilia Boscini and chi Chilia. She talked about lattice 0:23:40.520 --> 0:23:47.520 based cryptography and I loved Chichilia's presentation. UH. This young 0:23:47.560 --> 0:23:51.879 woman got up on stage and began to speak about 0:23:51.960 --> 0:23:58.520 post quantum cryptography lattice based UH encryption systems, and she 0:23:58.600 --> 0:24:03.439 made it funny and engaging, which is kind of a 0:24:03.480 --> 0:24:06.800 magic power. She talked about how once you learn the 0:24:06.840 --> 0:24:11.240 fundamentals of mathematics, you can build all sorts of things, 0:24:11.280 --> 0:24:14.119 and that when she was a child, she fell in 0:24:14.200 --> 0:24:17.160 love with math. She thought math was fun. She liked 0:24:17.440 --> 0:24:20.280 coming up with problems and solving them. She talked about 0:24:20.280 --> 0:24:23.640 a teacher who would use a story of a fictional 0:24:23.640 --> 0:24:28.280 old old lady who had an electric wheelchair, and a 0:24:28.359 --> 0:24:31.760 fictional old lady kept on getting into various problems. Various 0:24:31.880 --> 0:24:35.520 situations and the math problems were all related. To figuring 0:24:35.560 --> 0:24:39.640 out how this nice old lady in electric wheelchair could 0:24:39.680 --> 0:24:42.399 get out of a various predicaments. So it was this 0:24:42.520 --> 0:24:46.600 sort of this real world kind of of scenario to 0:24:46.960 --> 0:24:53.600 frame all these very ethereal math problems. And Chilia loved it. 0:24:53.720 --> 0:24:58.600 So she went into looking UH into math further and 0:24:58.640 --> 0:25:01.840 studying it, you know, is her primary area of focus. 0:25:02.400 --> 0:25:05.959 She also talked about things like number theory, where you 0:25:06.000 --> 0:25:10.400 take integer numbers and you take prime numbers and their properties. 0:25:11.040 --> 0:25:14.120 And you may remember in the review episode I talked 0:25:14.119 --> 0:25:18.200 about how cryptography is very much reliant. Our current status 0:25:18.200 --> 0:25:21.440 of cryptography is very much reliant on things like prime 0:25:21.520 --> 0:25:26.440 numbers and factoring. So to give you a quick update 0:25:26.560 --> 0:25:28.960 on what I said or a quick refresher, I guess 0:25:28.960 --> 0:25:32.400 on what I said. If you're looking at modern day cryptography, 0:25:32.400 --> 0:25:36.359 modern day encryption UH strategies, typically what you do is 0:25:36.400 --> 0:25:40.760 you take an extremely large prime number. That's a number 0:25:40.800 --> 0:25:43.959 that's only divisible by itself. It doesn't have any other factors, 0:25:44.040 --> 0:25:47.240 so you can't divide by two or four or seven 0:25:47.320 --> 0:25:49.639 or anything like that. It's only divisible by itself. But 0:25:49.760 --> 0:25:53.440