|
SCIENCE
Interplanetary
Superhighway Makes Space Travel Simpler - [Space Daily]
A "freeway" through the solar system resembling
a vast array of virtual winding tunnels and conduits around
the Sun and planets, discovered by an engineer at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., can slash the
amount of fuel needed for future space missions.
Second
Law of Thermodynamics 'Broken' - [New Scientist] One
of the most fundamental rules of physics, the second law
of thermodynamics, has for the first time been shown not
to hold for microscopic systems.
Molecular
'Spark of Life' Discovered - [New Scientist] The molecule
that triggers the fertilisation of a mammalian egg and prompts
it to begin growing and dividing has been discovered.
Extra
Gene Gives Mice Big Brains - [ABC] Researchers say that
adding an extra version of a single gene makes mice grow
big brains. In fact, it gives them brains so large they
have to fold up, much as human brains do, to fit inside
the skull.
Stem
Cells Determine Our Life Span - [Cosmiverse] Could longevity
be tied into stem cells? Scientists at the University of
Kentucky seem to think so. They have found that long lived
mice had bone marrow stem cells which were adept at repairing
DNA.
Ice
Reservoirs Found On Mars - [BBC] Water-ice has been
found in vast quantities just below the surface across great
swathes of the planet Mars.
Scientists
Say Woman is Pregnant with Clone - [Mercury News] A
fringe religious movement's South Korea-based scientific
team Wednesday said they had implanted a cloned human embryo
in a woman, the latest in a string of similar, unconfirmed
experiments to emerge from the underground field of human
cloning.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
TECHNOLOGY
A Robot to Grace One's Presence - [Wired] A 6-foot-tall
robot that courteously steps aside for people, smiles during
conversation and politely asks directions shouldn't be blamed
for being too eager to please. After all, it's programmed
to act that way.
Kids
to be Served Up with Chips - [vnunet] Chipping children
is being advocated in the US as a way of preventing parents
from losing their kids.
Anemone
of the Smart People - [Wired] Siggraph's Emerging Technologies
Exhibition.
Tiny
Flying Robots: Future Masters of Espionage - [CNN] Understanding
the aerodynamics that allow insects and hummingbirds to
fly is the key to an invention that researchers hope will
create a little buzz and a lot of flap.
Cell
Biology - [Washington Post] At the University of St.
Andrews, where he studies art history, the royal hottie
Prince William can't even go out for drinks with friends
without being tracked electronically by a pack of wired
women.
Are
Holograms Finally for Real? - [Business 2.0] This staple
of sci-fi is starting to live up to its billing, and its
potential in the workplace is anything but an illusion.
Giving
Neurosurgeons a Gift of Touch - [Business Week] SUNY
Buffalo's Thenkurussi Kesavadas is developing tactile-feedback
systems that could let brain docs practice delicate maneuvers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
BUSINESS
Forgent
Claims Rights to JPEG Patent - [ExtremeTech] Viewing
a digital photo album, scanning a picture, even browsing
the Web-all of these could become a little more expensive
now that a small video firm has claimed it owns the fundamental
rights to the implementation of the JPEG standard.
The
Golden Age of Internet Radio - [Guardian Unlimited]
Internet radio is a great illustration of why the unregulated
internet stimulates so much innovation and allows an unparalleled
range of choice. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that
it's under threat.
Gene
Patents Inhibit Innovation - [New Scientist] Patents
on DNA sequences "inhibit innovation and development"
and should be the exception rather than the norm, says a
panel of leading UK bioethicists.
Dotcom
Downsizing - [Economist] The shake-up at AOL Time Warner
has put the Internet in its place.
Hollywood's
Fight Against Internet Downloading Rages On - [CNN]
Hollywood escalated its fight against Internet trading of
movies and music, successfully urging key lawmakers to consider
letting the industry use hacker tactics to stop Americans'
exchange of songs and films they didn't buy.
Bush
Signs Bill to Stop 'Book Cooking' - [CNN] President
Bush signed into law Tuesday the Accounting Industry Reform
Act, a legislative recipe concocted to end so-called "book-cooking"
accounting tricks that have alarmed investors.
Japan's
Deflation: A Hard Lesson Heeded - [Business Week] The
similarities are unsettling, but the Fed's decisive actions
probably saved the U.S. from replicating Tokyo's traumas.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
SOCIETY AND POLITICS
DNA
Supplier Warned Defense Department of Terror Potential
- [Nando Times] The Iowa company that unknowingly supplied
bits of genetic material used by scientists to make their
own polio virus from scratch said it had recently asked
the government to take steps to oversee the shipment of
such DNA supplies.
U.S.
Loses Fight to Block U.N. Vote on Torture - [CNN] The
United States failed to block a U.N. vote on a plan to enforce
a treaty on torture, and its attempts to do so were widely
criticized by European and Latin American allies.
Criminal
Investigation into Korean Human Cloning - [New Scientist]
South Korea is launching a criminal investigation into a
claim that a Korean woman is pregnant with a cloned embryo,
it was announced on Friday.
Species
and Languages Flock Together -
[Nature] Areas with the most animal species also contain
the greatest number of human languages, say researchers.
U.N.'s
Risky Earth Summit Gambit - [BBC] The United Nations'
strategy for the World Summit on Sustainable Development
(WSSD) is a risk, a senior UN official says. It aims to
secure consensus on uncontentious issues, and purely voluntary
agreements on more ambitious goals.
U.K.
Fertility Expert Envisages Limited Human Cloning
- [Reuters] The architect of Britain's fertility laws says
she favors baby cloning in some cases of infertility and
expects it to happen one day.
U.N.
Says Democracy is at Risk - [BBC]
Rising inequality and corruption around the world are putting
the recent spread of democracy in many countries at risk,
the UN says in a new report.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ENVIRONMENT
Alaskan
Glaciers Raise Sea Level - [Nature] Alaskan glaciers
have thinned twice as fast over the past 5 years as during
the preceding four decades, say US researchers. Their melting
is making the largest contribution to rising sea levels
of any ice-bound region on Earth.
Filipinos
Turn to Mobile Texting to Combat Air Pollution - [Nando
Times] Mobile-phone operators say Filipinos send out an
average of 25 million text messages a day - as many as the
entire European Union. The idea behind BK's latest text
revolution, known as Smokebelchers Watchdog (Bantay Usok
in Tagalog) is simple. Essentially, anyone with a cell phone
is encouraged to report to BK - via mobile text - any vehicles
they see emitting black smoke.
Pollution
Impairs Blood Flow to Heart -
[MSNBC] Air pollution worsens heart disease by cutting off
circulation to the heart, Finnish researchers reported in
a study that helps explain why polluted environments aggravate
not only asthma but heart conditions.
Fixing
the Global Water Crisis Needs More than Taps and Toilets
- [WWF International] The world is facing a freshwater crisis.
People already use over half the world's accessible freshwater,
and may use nearly three-quarters by 2025.
Cosmic
Rays Linked to Global Warming - [Science Daily] A study
in the July 2002 issue of Journal of Geophysical Research-Space
Physics, published by the American Geophysical Union, proposes
for the first time that interstellar cosmic rays could be
the missing link between the discordant temperatures observed
during the last two decades (since recorded satellite records
began in 1979).
The
First Hydrogen Nation - [Sierra] Others talk, Iceland
kicks carbon.
Don't
Expect Another Kyoto Treaty - [Guardian] The free trade
agenda means the Johannesburg Earth summit will be a shadow
of its former self, says Danny Penman.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
THE FUTURE
Bill
Calvin's Brainstorm (Adobe Acrobat PDF) - [Global Business
Network] Bill Calvin is a neurobiologist at the University
of Washington and the author of almost a dozen books on
science.
|
