Innovation Watch Newsletter 1.14
July 27, 2002

SCIENCE

Scientists Estimate 30 Billion Earths - [BBC] Astronomers say there could be billions of Earths in our galaxy, the Milky Way. Their assessment comes after the discovery of the 100th exoplanet - a planet that circles a star other
than our own.

And Now the Weather… On Mars - [Cosmiverse] Blinding dust storms can seriously ruin your plans for a landing on Mars. ESA is adapting the global climate models that we use to forecast our weather on Earth for the turbulent conditions that Mars offers its future visitors.

Fishy Fossil Reveals First Steps On Land - [New Scientist] A fishy four-legged fossil discovered in Scotland is finally shedding light on the mystery of how animals first crawled onto land.

Light Turns Into Glowing Liquid - [New Scientist] Light can be turned into a glowing stream of liquid that splits into droplets and splatters off surfaces just like water. The researchers who've worked out how to do this say "liquid light" would be the ideal lifeblood for optical computing, where chips send light around optical "circuits" to process data.

Patterns Shape Ant Cemeteries - [Nature] Ants arrange their dead using the same principles that are thought to produce the markings on animal skin and on tropical sea shells.

Quantum Gyroscope Could Reveal Universe's Spin - [New Scientist] A quantum gyroscope could tell us if the entire Universe is in a spin, according to new research by scientists.

Evolution's Surprise: Fossil Find Uproots Our Early Ancestors - [Science News] In a discovery that upends the study of human origins, scientists have unearthed remains of what they say is the earliest known member of the human evolutionary family. Investigators led by anthropologist Michel Brunet of the University of Poitiers in France estimate that the creature, officially dubbed Sahelanthropus tchadensis, lived between 7 million and 6 million years ago.

New Spin on Transistors - [Nature] Scientists in Canada claim to have reinvented the transistor, the workhorse of electronic and information technology.

Kaspersky: The Internet Must be Locked Down - [ZDNet] Antivirus expert Eugene Kaspersky believes that the only way to counter the growing threat of viruses is for every Internet user to be issued a compulsory personal ID.

Boosting Car Performance with Computers - [CNN Money] Souping up that late model car is as simple as changing a chip. Automakers warn against it.

More Life in Moore's Law, Creator Says - [c/net] Moore's Law, which postulates that the number of transistors on a chip doubles every two years, will slow down a bit but continue to chug along, said Gordon Moore, the law's namesake and an Intel co-founder.

U.S. Shows Off Robot Plane - [BBC] The US Air Force has put on show a futuristic robot plane designed to survive the rigours of the battlefield.

Personal Robot of the Future Here Today - [Nando Times] Just show the ER1 robot - essentially a laptop on wheels - an empty bottle and it can scoot across the room and pick out a Heineken from among cans of Coke and Mountain Dew.

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BUSINESS

Chinese Net Retailer Finds Success Pedaling Its Wares - [Mercury News] Since the dot-com meltdown two years ago, China's biggest Internet portal has gained a new appreciation of old technology. Sohu.com has coupled high-speed modems with low-speed bicycles, solving one of modern technology's biggest riddles: How to turn a profit on the Internet.

Woman Sues after Receiving Unsolicited Prozac in the Mail - [Nando Times] A Florida woman opened her mailbox last month to find a free box of once-a-week Prozac from her pharmacy chain - astonishing, she says, since she didn't use Prozac and hadn't asked her doctor to switch her from another
antidepressant to it.

Telecom Failure Hitting Home in Silicon Valley - [Mercury News] As telecom continues its spectacular collapse, Silicon Valley companies that placed large bets on the industry are finding it harder to escape the fallout.

Microsoft, Sun Battle Over Indian Programmers - [ZDNet] In their tussle to dominate the emerging industry for Internet-based services, industry giants Microsoft and Sun Microsystems are doling out incentives as they woo programmers worldwide to back their rival software. The courting is particularly competitive in India, where by some estimates more than 10 percent of the world's programmers work for some of the industry's lowest wages.

University of Kentucky Robotics Center Gains Prominence - [Mercury News] Founded in 1986, the center, housed in the UK College of Engineering and financed by the state, has seven staff members, all professors at the college, who specialize in various fields, including ergonomics, welding, lean manufacturing, computer technology and machining. The center also employs a few dozen engineering students who work on various projects as part of their studies. But perhaps the area gaining the most national attention is the center's rapid prototyping lab.

Quest Subject to Criminal Probe - [CNN] Qwest Communications International Inc. confirmed it is being investigated by the U.S. Attorney's office in Denver. The company's one-paragraph statement Wednesday said federal prosecutors did not disclose the subject of the investigation.

Be Prepared for a Long Slump - [International Herald Tribune] After the "long boom" of the 1990s, what's the chance that we are now facing the prospect of a long slump in this decade - a Japan-like malaise that may last years before investors recover their fractured confidence?

Clampdown On Internet Portals in China - [smh.com.au] Internet portals in China, including Yahoo!'s Chinese-language site, have signed a voluntary pledge to purge the Web of content that China's communist government deems subversive, organisers of the drive say.

American Primacy in Perspective - [Foreign Affairs] If America's current global predominance does not constitute unipolarity, then nothing ever will. And despite what many have argued, no serious attempts by others to balance U.S. power are likely for the foreseeable future.

1776 and All That - [The Nation] The country is riven and ailing, with a guns-plus-butter nuttiness in some of its governing echelons and the sort of lapsed logic implicit in the collapse of trust in money-center capitalism, which has been an undergirding theory of a good deal of the work that many people do.

Marketing the Nation: A Book Review - [The Economist] War, peace, and the course of history". The subtitle alone shows that this is an ambitious work.

The Furor Over TIPS - [Mother Jones] Civil libertarians are up in arms, claiming a new Bush administration program would encourage Americans to spy on their neighbors.

Meet the Nigerian E-Mail Grifters - [Wired] She's a widow, he's a high-ranking government official. They have fallen on hard times and urgently request your assistance to get a large sum of money out of Nigeria. They will reward you handsomely for your help.

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ENVIRONMENT

Genetically Modified Plants Have Long Reach - [Dallas News] Genes from genetically engineered canola plants are able to spread to other fields but have only a modest effect, according to a study that found pollen fertilizing seeds more than a mile away.

Better Waste Disposal, Before Nuclear Expansion - [Guardian Unlimited] A leading nuclear scientist has warned that any plans to expand nuclear power capabilities in the UK must be backed up with proper independent research into waste disposal methods, or Britain could face a waste "crisis".

Scientists Create Virtual Ocean to Study Global Warming - [Nando Times] Los Alamos National Laboratory has created a virtual ocean in the middle of the desert. It's a comprehensive model, built by lab scientists and designed to provide key information about how global warming will change the Earth's climate.

Warning Over Dolphin 'Extinction' - [BBC] Bottle-nosed dolphins could become extinct in British waters within a decade, a report has warned.

Bush Plan to Ease Clean Air Rules Roils Court Cases Against Utilities - [Washington Post] A federal judge has ordered a hearing to determine whether the Bush administration's recent decision to relax clean air enforcement rules governing older coal-fired power plants has affected a pending case against two major plants in upstate New York.

Namibia Host to Key U.N. Summit on Desertification - [Namibian] Solutions for desertification can no longer be postponed, says Hama Arba Diallo, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Speaking at the opening in Windhoek yesterday of the African Regional Conference to review UNCCD, Diallo said the poor were both the victims and agents of environmental damage. "A large and growing population struggling to survive in a limited and fragile environment has resulted in the over-utilisation of available natural resources," he said.

State Officials Want Bush to Act on Global Warming - [Environmental News Network] Attorneys general from 11 states criticized President Bush Wednesday for failing to adopt a comprehensive policy to combat global warming, urging he "rethink" his response to climate change and enact a cap on greenhouse gases.

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THE FUTURE

Scientists, Dreamers Continue Refining Ideas for Future Lunar Bases - [Space] More than thirty years after Apollo 11 astronauts dropped into the history books by kicking up a little lunar dust, there appears to be the makings of a Moon renaissance. That's how experts around the globe see it as they turn their attention to renovating wild lunar territory into a new continent for creativity.