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According to Wikipedia, the widespread use of vaccinations has “greatly reduced the incidence of many diseases in numerous geographic regions,” a fact most people already know. But tracking who’s received vaccinations and which ones remains a daunting task for medical professionals, especially when it comes to keeping tabs on children. Now, a group of MIT researchers funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation says that invisible tattoos may be the best way to deal with this tracking issue, although there are some ethical concerns with their proposed solution.

In a paper recently published in the journal Science Translational Medicine (via Futurism), the group of researchers, led by Kevin J. McHugh et al., says that it is exploring a novel approach for maintaining accurate vaccination records by testing the implantation of “near-infrared quantum dots,” or NIR QDs, into pig skin, rat skin, cadaver flesh, and synthetic human skin. NIR QDs are water-soluable, biocompatible fluorescent nanocrystals—with diameters ranging from 2 to 10 nanometers—that emit near-infrared light and are safe for deep tissue insertion. As of right now, researchers are exploring NIR QDs for numerous medical uses, including, most notably, in vivo tumor imagining.

An illustration of how the NIR QDs would be applied and read. Kevin McHugh / Rice University 

In the case of vaccinations, the plan is to inject NIR QDs concurrently with a given vaccine via a small patch of partially dissolvable microneedles. (The video below offers a demonstration of this process on synthetic human skin.) After insertion into a person’s skin, the NIR QDs would then continuously emit a wavelength of light not visible to the human eye, but easily imaged by certain types of cameras. This would effectively imprint a kind of invisible tattoo on people who receive vaccinations, identifing them as already inoculated. The NIR QDs used in this particular study were readable with a modified smartphone aided by machine learning algorithms.

The fight to #EndPolio has vaccinated more than 2.5 billion children and mobilized 20 million volunteers around the world since 1988.

We’re 99.9% of the way there. With continued support, we will overcome the last hurdles to eradication! pic.twitter.com/6ZoOaHwKaT

— Gates Foundation (@gatesfoundation) January 24, 2020

The researchers say that they could read NIR QDs nine months after initial injection into rat skin, and resisted photobleaching even after receiving the simulated equivalent of five years of exposure to sunlight. The researchers also found that the NIR QDs didn’t interfere with the efficacy of the vaccines they accompanied, and they can easily customize their injection patterns in order to label or distinguish between different types of vaccinations.

This method of injecting invisible tattoos along with immunizations could potentially address the challenge of keeping accurate vaccination records in poorer countries, where centralized medical databases are hard to create or maintain. According to the researchers, if this method does indeed prove itself to be effective, it could eventually help to mitigate the 1.5 million vaccine-preventable deaths that occur each year. This would be particularly critical for children, who are especially susceptible to infectious diseases thanks to their relatively underdeveloped immune systems.

A look at the partially soluble patch of microneedles. Kevin McHugh / Rice University

Looking forward, these researchers would like to survey health care workers in various developing countries in Africa, with the intent of gaining insight into the most effective way to implement this kind of tattooed record keeping. But there people who are wary of this method of invasive record keeping, like Grace Lee, an infectious disease pediatrician at Stanford University’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. Lee, who wasn’t involved in the research, told Smithsonian Magazine that this kind of record keeping could potentially lead to confusion, as the NIR QDs could be misapplied, or misread thanks to their fading over time. Lee also told Smithsonian that this kind of on-the-body record keeping could lead to privacy concerns and discrimination, which could potentially render the benefits of the invisible on-the-body vaccination records totally moot.

A video of the soluble patch of microneedles containing the NIR QDs being applied to synthetic skin. 

What do you think about this method of using invisible markers to keep track of who and who hasn’t been vaccinated? Is this a brilliant way to save tons of lives in developing countries, or just a frightening invasion of privacy? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Feature image: Kevin McHugh / Rice University 

The post Scientists Propose ‘Tattoos’ To Solve Vaccination Issues appeared first on Nerdist.

This weekend marks the beginning of the Year of the Rat. To celebrate, one of the stars of the upcoming Birds of Prey movie — Cassandra Cain herself, Ella Jay Basco! — recorded a special Lunar New greeting exclusively for The Nerds of Color in front of the latest trailer. Check it out! Birds of […]

Birds of Prey breaks ground on many fronts. Its Feb 7th release will mark the first superhero movie both written and directed solely by women. The film will also make its mark as the first female-led R-rated superhero flick, and depending on how the Harley Quinn-led girl gang movie performs, it could break some box office records too. At a recent event to celebrate the launch of the film, Nerdist joined a small group of journalists who sat down with creator, producer and star Margot Robbie to talk about her five-year journey developing what she hopes is DC’s next smash hit superhero flick.

Warner Bros.

Robbie is clearly passionate about Birds of Prey, which makes sense since the actress-turned-producer first envisioned the project half a decade ago. But she explained that the rarity both R-rated and female-led superhero flicks threw up considerable road blocks as the process began.

“Even the quickest movie making process can be at least three years, I reckon,” Robbie told Nerdist. “But this one, it took a little longer, it was a tall order. It was before anyone had done an R-rated comic book film. I was saying, ‘I want to do an R-rated film.’ It was before Wonder Woman and I was saying, ‘I want a female-led action film’ – you know, those things weren’t being done yet. I think they wanted to make sure that if they’re going to take a risk like that, that it was going to be done correctly. So we spent a lot of time developing the script and making everyone feel confident in the material. Then once everyone was on board, some other things started coming out to help them feel like, ‘Oh yeah, this could work.’ After that it started to move really fast, but in the initial stages I think what I was pitching sounded crazy.”

Warner Bros.

Her inspiration for the film came during the press tour for Suicide Squad, when Robbie first fully encountered the huge fandom for her character as well as the amazing roster of female characters that the DC Universe had to offer.

“During Suicide Squad–when we would go to Comic-Con and such–I started to realize there was just such a huge fan base for Harley,” she remembered. “Whilst I was researching the character I started to read Birds of Prey and first I fell in love with Huntress, and I started looking into all of that. I was like, ‘Wow, there’s so many cool female DC characters and no one knows anything about any of them!’ So what if we had a platform for fans to get to know and fall in love with some of these other amazing women? Focusing on the Gotham City Sirens, there were only three of us and we were all well known, whereas with Birds of Prey you can pick any grouping for that, and I thought that might be the perfect platform to introduce some female characters who might really have some legs in the DC Universe.”

Warner Bros. 

Once she’d convinced the studio that Birds of Prey was a winning idea, Robbie was quick to find her creative collaborator in Bumblebee scribe Christina Hodson.

“Christina was one of the first writers that I met with,” she said. “We met, we started workshopping it, and we had a script within the first year, but we did get stuck in the treatment stage for a bit. Then it gets to the fun part, we’re good to go, we can bring in a director, we can bring in a cinematographer, we can start to cast… which is really the most fun part, when you see those actors reading your words and you’re like, ‘Oh, this is real!'”

As for how it feels now that the film is almost out there for the world to see, Robbie didn’t hold back her excitement – or anxiety.

“This is the scariest part,” she admitted. “I always find when you’re putting a film out there and you’ve spent years putting it together but it’s picture locked and you’re just waiting for everyone to see it, now I can’t do anything about it. I just have to wait for everyone to see it and that’s a scary thing, but I am really excited for people to finally see it. I just hope that they like it.”

Birds of Prey hits screens on Feb 7th.

The post Margot Robbie’s Five-Year Fight To Make BIRDS OF PREY appeared first on Nerdist.

Source: NBC / Getty

After Terry Crews voiced his thoughts on Gabrielle Union’s exit from NBC’s showcase America’s Got Talent, claiming the show offered “the most diverse place I have ever been in my 20 years of entertainment,” and adding that racism and a toxic work culture was “not his experience,” Union swiftly took to Twitter on Friday to reclaim her time.

Just a day prior Crews sat down with the hosts of Today where he distanced himself from Union’s experience. A Variety report published after her termination, which spoke with numerous sources, claimed she was asked to refrain from wearing hairstyles that were “too Black” and felt isolated after she reported a racial joke made by her co-worker, Jay Leno.

After a few days of build up, the show’s producers agreed to launch an investigation into AGT‘s work environment. In the midst of the investigation, former judge Heidi Klum and Crews, who currently serves as the show’s host, have both claimed that Union’s experience was not one they shared. But after Crew’s interview, it was clear that Union could no longer remain silent.

While she never specifically mentions Crews, Union began her Twitter commentary by responding to writer Wanna Thompson, who offered support after Crews’ interview went viral.

“Thank u!” Union wrote. Cuz girlllllll Truth telling, wanting change & having MULTIPLE witnesses who bravely came forward to let EVERYONE know I didn’t lie or exaggerate, really exposes those who enthusiastically will throw you under the bus, forgetting quickly who stepped up 4 THEIR truth.”

Why anyone would gleefully get up on TV and tell lies that NO ONE disputed…But we already know,” Union continued.

And in reference to Crews’ claims that the show values diversity behind the scenes as well as in front of the camera, Union had this to say:

As the investigation is ongoing, Union was committed to remain silent but, she voiced that she would rather continue to speak her truth and maintain her autonomy.

Crews’ comments proved to be discouraging and unsettling for many who believed he should have offered more support to Union or remained silent. By adding his voice to the other side, it left Union alone and without an important, nuanced outlook on the dynamics behind the scenes, as Union and Crews were the lone two Black faces on the show.

And many pointed out that after Crews came forward about being a victim of sexual assault, Union was one of his main supporters, being a rape victim herself.

Union has a plethora of folks on social media who have her back as the story continues to evolve. This is definitely nowhere near the end, nor should it be.