Online Observations

A-B-C of Stem Cells

A lot has been written on stem cells, and yet almost no one knows about them (relatively speaking). Since we are going to have a baby in a few months time, I have been going through this topic quite a bit. While the topic is way more than what can be covered in a blog post, here’s a quick 1-2-3 version of it. The purpose of this is to just give the reader a very initial taste of this topic so that he/she is intrigued enough to do more research and get educated on this topic.

What are Stem Cells?

Stem Cells are the basis for all the cells in the body – each cell is created from a stem cell – whether it is a brain cell or another body organ. Scientists are finding new ways to work with these cells so that they can be programmed to convert into the desired cell type.

How do we get Stem Cells?

Well, there are many ways (as there are many sources of stem cells), and by far the easiest is to collect the cells during child birth – the umbilical cord blood of a baby as well as the amniotic fluid both contain stem cells which can be harvested during the child birth and stored for future use and research.

Why should I care about Stem Cells?

The main reason for knowing about this is because initial research has shown a lot of potential in treating ailments such as brain damage, cancer, spinal cord injuries, heart damage, diabetes, etc. to even more mundane things such as baldness, growing teeth, etc. The potential in this research is life changing. A lot of people (such as me and my wife) are opting for harvesting stem cells during the birth of their children and store it so that in case it is ever required in the future, we have it handy.

There is a lot of information that is out there regarding this topic, including controversies, since certain type of stem cells are only recovered from a live fetus or a cloned one. One should be aware of these as well. Some good starting resources for learning about these topics are the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and the WikiPedia Stem Cell page (as usual).

Spread the message, talk to your friends about it, discuss the pros and cons of it, learn more – the normal person on the street should be aware of topics like these. The more people who participate in this, the more momentum research such as this gains (and of course, the cheaper it becomes for the normal person to gain access to research and treatments such as these).

Hacking is not supposed to be evil, and can be used to do good

Power doesn’t have to be used to do evil. If you have what it takes to be a good hacker, then you have a power that not too many people possess. You can use this power to either wreck havoc on unsuspecting sites on the Internet, or you can choose to help the same sites tighten their security and prevent other evil hackers from penetrating them.

Well, even if you don’t have this power right now, you can learn it (as long as you have the will to help). IT Security is a hot field, and there are nearly not enough people with the right skill set out there. There is a big market out there for “Ethical Hackers”. Yes, that is an acceptable and recognized term. EC-Council offers courses for learning how to hack ethically. You can gain the skill sets to help companies improve their IT security by finding holes in their security environment (posing as a potential attacker).

As I mentioned, the industry doesn’t have enough people available who are on the good side and are skilled enough to make a difference. Consequently the demand for such individuals is very high, and the pay is good as well. If you are a natural hacker, then this would be a lot of fun for you. It would be like being a gamer and working for a gaming company for testing games. You will enjoy it a lot.

The EC-Council iClass program offers a variety of options for you to choose from. They have classes available on Security Fundamentals, Ethical Hacking, Penetration Testing, Computer Forensics, Disaster Recovery, and Secure Programming. As you can see, you can choose what suits you the best (maybe you are just a programmer who is learning how to write secure code).

Their courses are instructor led, and they have professionally designed courseware. And you get a certificate which lets every one know that you are on the good side. So, if you are willing to be a hacker, then get started.