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INNOVATION
Net
Works - The 'THE' network is one of three innovation
clusters designed to bring together projects with similar
innovation profiles as test beds for new concepts of systemic
innovation networking.
The
Mystery of Innovation: Aligning the Triangle of Technology,
Institutions and Organization - Understanding the strengths
and weaknesses of Australia's national innovation system
as it has developed over the last century (a PDF document).
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SCIENCE
Earth
Microbes May Mimic Mars Life - Finding out how life
exists on Mars may not involve a long space journey after
all, following the discovery by scientists of organisms
under the Earth's surface living in conditions like those
thought to be on the Red Planet.
Study
of Gene Shows It may Cut Life Short - A gene named after
one of the Greek Fates seems to indeed hold a person's life
in the balance, cutting short one's allotted time on this
planet. One version of the gene, called klotho, is much
more common in newborns than in 65-year-olds, which suggests
it does something to reduce lifespan, said the team at Johns
Hopkins University in Baltimore, working with a group in
Czechoslovakia.
New
Hope for the Blind from a Spinach Protein - Spinach
may make Popeye the Sailor Man strong, but a protein from
spinach may someday strengthen the vision of people who
can barely see. Researchers at ORNL and the University of
Southern California (USC) are investigating whether this
chlorophyll-containing protein might be useful in restoring
sight to the legally blind.
Planet
Reveals Telltale Signature of Plant Life - Astronomers
have identified a telltale signature of plant life in light
reflected from a planet for the first time - but the planet
is Earth. Researchers collected light from Earth that had
bounced back down from the shadowed side of the Moon. The
discovery provides a low-cost way to simulate the way that
light might be reflected from a distant planet that had
vegetation similar to the Earth's.
Material
Science Speeds Up - A new method promises to change
how companies create materials - using artificial intelligence
and a technique that simultaneously tests thousands of formulations
- dramatically speeding up the discovery process.
Anthrax
Researchers Want Your PC - A group of scientists and
major technology corporations asked people around the world
to use their personal computers to help develop a treatment
for anthrax. Members of the Anthrax Research Project, including
chipmaker Intel, software maker Microsoft, computing services
provider United Devices, the National Foundation for Cancer
Research and Oxford University, announced the effort in
a press release.
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TECHNOLOGY
Genome
Fits on Two Chips - Following the Silicon Valley pattern
of jamming more power into less space, Santa Clara's Affymetrix
has packed most of the human genome onto two DNA chips.
Previously, biotech scientists had to use five separate
Affymetrix chips to scan the universe of known human genes.
Self-Healing
Plastic - Composite materials - plastics or ceramics
bolstered by a fiber skeleton - are ubiquitous in the modern
world, giving resilient strength to everything from tennis
rackets to satellites. But eventually, stress and fatigue
create tiny cracks that continue to grow until the item
breaks. The dream material would be a composite that can
fix its own microcracks before they have a chance to cause
damage.
Bug-Propelled
Subs - Microscopic submarines powered by bacteria could
zip round the body delivering drugs and zapping tumours,
say researchers in Utah who are developing a novel biomotor.
Computers
by the Trillions - The notion of using molecules as
the working elements of a computer goes back several decades.
It wasn't until 1994, however, that anyone actually stepped
into a laboratory and succeeded in solving a computational
problem in a test tube. Now computer scientists and biochemists
have demonstrated how a test tube of DNA molecules can compute
on its own.
World
Will See Computers In Whole New Light - Advanced optics
such as lasers, crystals and holograms may work in concert
with quantum theory to revolutionize computers in this century,
promising tremendous speed and abilities that exceed the
human brain, according to a new book.
The
Quest for the Entertainment Gateway - As consumers grapple
with a staggering proliferation of digital video and audio
devices in the home, as well as a variety of broadband and
wireless networking options, the urge to integrate all of
these technologies into a single device has grown.
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BUSINESS
Amazon.com
Posts First Quarterly Profit - Amazon.com, the pioneering
Internet retailer that has symbolized for many the potential
and the pitfalls of dot-com commerce, posted its first net
profit ever in the fourth quarter, beating its own forecasts
and Wall Street's expectations.
Broadband
Backers Want Federal Help - Faced with tepid customer
response, some of high tech's largest firms now want federal
help expanding the high-speed Internet service on which
their futures depend. A public policy group that includes
the top executives of Intel Corp., Dell Computer Corp. and
the Hewlett-Packard Co. called for a national policy yesterday
to extend broadband Internet service to most American homes.
Carly
v Walter - The battle over Hewlett-Packard's plan to
buy Compaq, a rival computer maker, is becoming increasingly
personal. HP's management, led by its chief executive, Carly
Fiorina, has been trading blows with Walter Hewlett, a dissident
board member whose father co-founded HP and who believes
the merger is a big mistake.
Enron
Lured Backers With Insider Bait - Enron Corp. executives
enticed wealthy individuals and institutions to invest in
one of the partnerships that helped wreck the company by
dangling the prospect that inside knowledge could potentially
help them double their money in a matter of months, according
to partnership records and prospective investors. Records
show company executives wearing two hats, offering banks,
insurance companies, Wall Street firms and wealthy investors
inside knowledge about Enron and its off-the-books holdings
- information that they denied company shareholders.
Can
You Trust Anybody Anymore - There are business scandals
that are so vast and so penetrating that they profoundly
shock our most deeply held beliefs about the honesty and
integrity of our corporate culture. Enron Corp. is one of
them. This financial disaster goes far beyond the failure
of one big company. This is corruption on a massive scale.
Love
is the Killer App - If you want to fix your future,
start by fixing yourself. In the face of war and recession,
what the business world needs is less greed -- and more
love. So says Yahoo senior executive Tim Sanders, who argues
that now more than ever, the road to prosperity is paved
with a commitment to generosity.
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SOCIETY
E-Waste
Flooding Landfills - Worn out, obsolete, fried or just
plain dead. Yesterday's computers, cell phones, VCRs and
television sets are headed for the nation's 2,200 landfills
by the ton. Cities and states are scrambling to cope with
electronic waste.
Sweden
to Experiment With E-Voting - As part of a series of
small experiments in e-voting, the Swedish government is
funding a project to conduct student elections at Umeå University
via the Internet. The elections are to be held between April
27 and May 11. The project will use technology developed
by US company Safevote, in conjunction with the small Swedish
company Vivarto Technologies.
The
Bottleneck (Edward O. Wilson) - The 20th century was
a time of exponential scientific and technical advance,
the freeing of the arts by an exuberant modernism, and the
spread of democracy and human rights throughout the world.
It was also a dark and savage age of world wars, genocide,
and totalitarian ideologies that came dangerously close
to global domination. While preoccupied with all this tumult,
humanity managed collaterally to decimate the natural environment
and draw down the nonrenewable resources of the planet with
cheerful abandon.
Guarding
the Region's Riches - The next gold rush is on, to exploit
the wealth of the natural world. Asian lawyers and scientists
need to wise up or local people will be ripped off.
Is
Too Much Access Dangerous? - Jeremy Rifkin and Ray Kurzweil
discuss the impact of technology and the Internet on the
quality of life.
Searchin'
for the Surfer's Saint - "Lord, keep me from drooling
over Internet porn, spreading spam and wasting my day with
online games." This heartfelt plea may soon get a heavenly
hand: A group of Vatican elders is angling to give the Internet
a patron saint -- a holy helper with a dedicated connection
to the Divine. The church's leading candidate is a seventh-century
Spanish encyclopedist, Saint Isidore of Seville (560-636).
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THE FUTURE
The
Emergence of a Global Society - The Millennial Moments
will take you on a journey through the last 1,000 years
exploring the transformations that have changed our material
environment and our way of thinking.
Transcendental
Destination - Twenty years from now, by the year 2020,
the information revolution will have altered life on this
planet even more dramatically than in the last 20 years,
according to the experts. Even if they hesitate to specify
exactly what the technological changes might be over the
next two decades, the experts offer even more intriguing
insights into how those technological changes could, in
turn, change us as people, as
nations, and as a global web of human thought and action.
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