Science in the Media - Assignment Example

Science in the Media The article by John Markoff “Scientists Consider Repurposing Robots for Ebola” in the Ney York Times Newspaper on October 23, 2014 should be considered a factual error and misleading. John Markoff reports that robotic scientist in the United States of America are considering the possibility of repurposing robotics to help in the fight of Ebola outbreak in Africa and now some parts of America (John, 2014).According to him, the robotic technologies would be deployed in rescue and disaster situations in assisting in containing the situation (John, 2014).

The robots would perform tasks like removal of waste, burial of dead bodies and other operations. The scientists are still in the negotiation process of whether to go on with the plan or not (John, 2014).Ebola is a viral disease that has threatened the lives of people especially in West Africa since its outbreak. The disease is very dangerous and can easily be transmitted from one party to the other. It has proved a nightmare to be managed because the health care providers have put their lives into risk while others have lost their lives.

Governments and states over the world have also given grants and technical advice in the fight against to help contain the disease before spreading to other nations and coming worldwide problem like the current HIV/AIDS disease (Berger, 2013).According to the reported situation that the medical staffs are facing in Ebola strike countries, I do not think that robots can be solutions. The robotic technology is still very limited in the field of medicine. Medical care should be taken with much care as it involves processes inside the body.

Robots can be used disarm bombs and drive cars which are limited levels of human capabilities. They may never be used to pick a poison inside stomachs (John, 2014).The Ebola crisis in Africa as well has also exposed considerable space between robot abilities and the requirements to manage humanitarian disasters (John, 2014). The countries experiencing the worst effects of the epidemic are not able to deploy the robots in fighting the horror disease. Instead of the use of robots, the scientist would have considered developing a vaccine and providing relevant and information about protection against the disease (Berger, 2013).

Training robots to act in the human reasoning capabilities would take much time surpassing the rate at which Ebola kills. Ebola would take four weeks to kill the infected while robotic technology development would take a lot of time to be developed especially in the field of healthcare and humanitarian disaster response. Robots do not have reasoning power but would function as per programmed hence they would not be flexibility (John, 2014).Robots may help in performing some duties but they may never work to avert the disaster totally.

Robots could even lead spread of the disease, for example; they can burry a dead body not they may never realize the dead bodies too are infected by a virus. They can touch the live bodies and infect more people.The project may look great technological breakthrough but may never solve the Ebola crisis. The Ebola crisis can only be averted by faster response to emergencies, symptoms and evacuation of uninfected people to safe regions. The medical team should also get adequate training on safety protection, Ebola management as well as financial assistance to undertake the control and prevention of the disease.

There should also be a global campaign to create awareness on the disease prevention (Berger, 2013)ReferenceBerger, S. A. (2013). Ebola: Global status. Los Angeles, Calif: Gideon Informatics. Retrieved on October, 23 2014 from https://www.worldcat.org/title/ebola-global-status/oclc/884521173&referer=brief_resultsJohn Markoff, (2014). Scientists Consider Repurposing Robots for Ebola. Retrieved on October, 23 2014 from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/23/science/scientists-consider-repurposing-robots-for-ebola.html?ref=science&_r=0