Prof. Paul Lam (Director, State Key Laboratory in Marine Pollution, CityU) gave an opening address and introduced guest speakers to us.
The first speaker was Mr. George BALAZS (Vice-Chair for the Oceania Region of the IUCN Marine Turtle Specialist Group) and his talk named “Magnificent and Mystical Marine Turtles: Cultural Links to Conservation”. Mr. Balazs introduced different types of turtles included Leatherback, Hawksbill Honu’ea, Olive Ridley, etc. Then he demonstrated the satellite tracking of Pelagic North Pacific Loggerheads included HK, China, Korea, Japan, Hawaii and USA.
The following chart showed the number of green turtles nesting at East Island from 1973 to 2014. The number of green turtles increased recently because of changing behaviors. At the end, George concluded that “Of all the things one can take when visiting a New Place, the most important is an Open Spirit”. (In Chinese: 以開放的態度接受與你不同的新地方、人、事物。)
The second speaker was Prof. Henry CHUNG (Professor, EE Dept., Director of Centre for Smart Energy Conversion and Utilization Research (CSCR), CityU) and his presentation title was “Smart Energy Saving Apparatus”. Beginning, Prof. Chung introduced his centre’s research areas included Smart City, Battery Modeling, Lighting System, Energy Metering & Management, Energy-recyclable burn-in System, Solar System, and Smart Power USB.
Then Prof. Chung briefed electrical transmission system in Hong Kong that separated into 3 major parts which were Generation, Transmission and Distribution. He mentioned the history of development in CSCR and explained their technology gave an immediate solution to reduce the electricity consumption without modifying existing infrastructure. He concluded his talk by the statement “Excellence Through Passion and Innovation”.
Prof. Michael LAM (Professor, BCH Dept., CityU) was the third speaker and his topic named “Analytical Tools for Environmental and Food Safety Applications”. He explained to us some advantageous features of sensing technology included in-situ measurement, non-destructive analysis, non-demanding on sample volume, low operating cost, … etc.
Then Prof. Lam introduced Chemosensors for food safety in which a small “sensor” that went together with pre-packaged food products to demonstrate their safety to customer in an eye-catching way. One of Prof. Lam researches was biogenic amines as meat spoilage indicators.
The forth speaker was Dr. YW Lam (Associate Professor, BCH Dept., CityU) and his topic entitled “Genetically Modified Crops: Monster or Saviour?” Dr. Lam briefed the history of agriculture technology and used “cultivated rice” as example. Then he stated the first “Transgenic Plant” which commercialized in 1994 named “Flavr-Savr Tomatoes”. This Tomato was removed a gene and became “Gene Silencing” that kept fresh upto 45 days.
Dr. Lam explained we need GM food to increase the yield of food production to solve the future population of people in the world. The argument of GM food was existing for the long time but Forbes Magazine stated “The debate over the risks associated with GMO food is effectively over” because of the publication issued “The 100 billion animal experiment” (A.L.Van Eenennaam and A.E. Young (2014) "Prevalence and impacts of genetically engineered feedstuffs on livestock populations" J ANIM SCI, Sep 2, jas.2014-8124)
The last speaker was Dr. Paul Shin (Associate Professor, BCH Dept., CityU) and his topic named “Conservation of Horseshoe Crabs”. I left early but I only know that the blood of Horseshoe Crabs could manufacture Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL) for testing Endotoxin in Medical Devices. I had also visited laboratory for breeding horseshoe crabs in 2012 (CUBIC event).
Reference:
CityU 30th Anniversary Homepage - http://www.cityu.edu.hk/cityu30/index.htm
CUBIC Life Science Group Tea Gathering - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/10/cubic-life-science-group-tea-gathering.html
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