Dan Gartenberg: The brain benefits of deep sleep — and how to get more of it (#4)

Americans do not get enough sleep. That is the basis of Gartenberg's argument. We attribute low sleep to certain disorders and diseases. Poor sleep also has its many negative effects. So then why do people get so little sleep, or such poor sleep? Most people don't get deep sleep, and therefore cannot get the recovery that sleep offers.
Gartenberg partnered with another sleep scientist to research how sounds played at specific times can make sleep more efficient. This shows the benefits of this technology, because if it becomes consumer-grade, it can make sleep better overall. I feel that this offers a vast benefit to people.

Mariano Sigman and Dan Ariely: How can groups make good decisions? (#3)

Sigman and Ariely discuss the dynamics of groups. They discuss how groups come to decisions, whether they are good or bad. They performed some experiments on crowds, showing that crowds gave more accurate answers than individuals on average. They concluded that group behaviors apply well to right-or-wrong answers. But what about other questions? It is shown that in dilemmas, groups with people who are confident with being in the middle of viewpoints are more likely to reach a concensus.
The researchers then attempted to determine how these decsisons are made. It was shown that groups used a procedure known as the "robust average," which gives a rough estimate of all the answers that the members give while discrediting outliers.
I feel like this is a very interesting aspect of group behavior, because how groups make decisions is how most interactions in society go.

Nina Fedoroff: A Secret Weapon Against Zika and Other Mosquito-borne Diseases (#2)

Fedoroff opens with the discussion of diseases its effects. Specifically, she discusses Zika, its origins, its spread, and its symptoms. The virus itself is localized within a few countries, including areas within South America and West Africa. However, the virus can spread through hosts without the hosts even being aware of it. This is especially prevalent in airline passengers who travel between these countries, as they can contract the virus at the places they visit and then bring it back to their home country.
Now, Fedoroff says, the virus is now within the US and being transmitted locally. She then discusses the controlling methods of mosquitos, the primary carrier of the virus. The first method was to use insecticides, which turned out to be very damaging to the environment and weren't effective overall. She then discusses another idea, one that involves genetics. This was created by Oxytec, which modify the genetic code of the mosquitos to interrupt their reproductive cycle. This proved to be an effective method but was not allowed in the US because it was a GMO. 
I find this to be a very interesting discussion, as it offers a solution to a dangerous virus but isn't used because of fears of modifying a species. Overall, this technology has shown its uses in Brazil and I think it should be legalized in the US.

Natalie Panek: Let's clean up the space junk orbiting Earth (#1)

Space debris is accumulating and becoming a large problem for anything present in the far reaches of the atmosphere. This is because of the lack of regulation for how the materials sent up there should be disposed and how it degrades. As a result, Panek says that "only about one in seven is currently operational, and in addition to the satellites that are no longer working, there's also hundreds of thousands of marble-sized debris and millions of paint chip-sized debris that are also orbiting around the Earth." This means that anything up there, such as satellites or rockets, are at risk of damage. Panek then presents ideas to clean up the space debris, such as the UK's satellite designed to burn up and dispose itself at the end of its life span. She then discusses that we need to innovate the way to clean up the orbits to be able to make way for space exploration.

I think this is a very important factor in the use of higher orbits and even making our way out to space travel and exploration. With the debris not being dealt with and more and more satellites being sent up there and not moved out of the way, this means that the orbits are a minefield. Even if we do not need the space for travel and manned missions, the satellites providing services such as GPS and other services could be affected and rendered inoperable due to the damage caused by debris.