Innovation Watch Newsletter 1.19
October 5, 2002

SCIENCE

Remarkable Twins Give Clue to Cleft Palates - [New Scientist] A remarkable pair of almost-identical twins has led a team of geneticists to discover a gene that may play a role in the most common forms of cleft lip and palate. This disfiguring birth defect involves cracks in the lip and roof of the mouth.

Evidence Adds Up That Monkeys Can Count - [CNN] Brain neurons seem to provide knack for numbers.

People Born in Autumn Live Longer, Study Says - [Reuters] People born in the autumn live longer than those born in the spring and are less likely to fall chronically ill when they are older, an Austrian scientist said.

Interference Technique is Clean Cancer Killer - [New Scientist] A treatment for cervical cancer that kills tumour cells but does not harm healthy ones has been developed in the UK. The researchers say the results are "absolutely remarkable". The technique, called RNA interference (RNAi), works by knocking out two key genes in the human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes the vast majority of cases of cervical cancer. This effectively 'silenced' the virus.

Triassic Reptile Saw Red - [Nature] A reptile from the Triassic period may have done its stalking at night. So suggest scientists who have resurrected a 240-million-year-old eye protein that sees dim light.

New Space Telescope Plan Unfolds - [New Scientist] After a year of dithering, NASA has finally picked TRW to build its $825 million Next Generation Space Telescope, scheduled for a 2010 launch to replace the Hubble Space Telescope.

Study: Clones Have Abnormal Genes - [MSNBC] Cloned mice have hundreds of abnormal genes, which explains why so many cloned animals die at or before birth and proves it would be irresponsible to clone a human being, scientists said.

The Drone Armies are Coming - [Wired] Dispatched on a rescue-and-capture mission, unmanned vehicles arrive at the scene in minutes, corner a potential suspect and await visual confirmation before proceeding. Star Wars 2020? It might be happening sooner than you think.

The E-Books Evangelist - [Electronic Book Web] I was first introduced to electronic publishing on the Internet in the late 1980s and became intrigued by the power of this revolutionary development. Then, when Mosaic released the first Web browser in 1992, the Internet finally had a visual aspect. Suddenly, the vast Internet was transformed from a dimly lit warehouse for data storage and exchange, to a visible library and gallery for information. I was hooked. (Sam Vaknin)

New 'Entertainment' PCs Restrict Copying - [c|net] Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard on Tuesday released additional details about digital entertainment PCs coming for the holidays. But new anti-copying technology could hamper sales, say analysts and potential buyers.

Dr. Cyborg to Track UK Child - [Mail & Guardian] Concern over their daughter's safety, following the recent murder of two 10-year-olds, have led her parents to allow a controversial British cybernetics expert to implant a tracking device in her, British media reports said on Tuesday.

Automatic Sequencing Technologies Advances - [Content Wire] Campaigns to sequence the human genome were to a large extent driven by the development of and advances in automated sequencing technologies. In turn, the race to complete the sequence, in the search for not only basic knowledge but also a better understanding of disease mechanisms, served as a catalyst in the growth of the automated sequencer market. With sequence in hand, new challenges arise on several fronts.

Artificial Intelligence Taps the Global Brain - [International Herald Tribune] If you ran into him online, you might first be struck by the kid's prodigious memory. He calls himself SmarterChild and can recite a litany of facts - the entire baseball lineup this season, every word in the dictionary and the weather in a host of major cities.

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BUSINESS

Landmark Decision Clears Way for First Commercial Lunar Flight - [Space Daily] TransOrbital, Inc. has become the first private company in the history of space flight to win approval from the U.S. government to explore, photograph, and land on the moon. The company expects to launch its Trailblazer Mission from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan within the next 9-12 months.

The Firms that Can't Stop Falling - [Economist] At last, a new growth industry in America: corporate bankruptcy. Last year, 95 big, publicly owned companies filed to restructure themselves under Chapter 11 of America's bankruptcy code. Failing telecoms firms, energy traders and airlines should set fresh records this year. This week, UAL, the parent company of United Airlines, hastily hired a new boss as it struggled to stay out of bankruptcy. Of the ten biggest bankruptcies since America introduced the modern version of Chapter 11 in 1978, seven are in the courts now.

Clarifying the Rules for European E-Commerce - [New Media Zero] Remember the old cliché of the Internet as the new wild west, free of the constraints associated with the law in the offline world? In recent weeks where yet another regulation aimed at e-commerce has come into force - the snappily-titled Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 - new media businesses may be forgiven for rose-tinted reminiscence.

E-Commerce Could Hit $1.4 Trillion, Egypt Prepares - [Arabic News] Online commerce is certainly not new to world markets. But B2B (business-to-business) transactions, conducted online, are rapidly spreading as an effective and efficient way of conducting business. A recent report says that Egypt has taken various steps to spread the use of e-commerce, one of the most recent trade trends to sweep through the world, in order to enhance Egypt's trade, both locally and in foreign markets.

The Cost of Fighting Terrorism - [Business Week] So far, the tab hasn't been as great as many feared. But if conflict deepens, big sacrifices may have to be made.

Tobacco Giants Face Huge Lawsuit - [BBC] A US federal judge has decided that a lawsuit being brought against the tobacco industry can be conducted as a nationwide class action.

Retirement Age 'Should be Raised' - [BBC] The only way to solve the pensions crisis is to raise the state retirement age for younger workers to 70, says the Pensions Policy Institute.

Governments, Technologists Battle Over Internet Censorship - [Mercury News] Vietnam's government tries to block its citizens from such U.S.-based Web sites as the one run by expatriate Pham Ngoc whose pro-democracy rantings it considers dangerous and subversive.

Info Technology As Tool for Sustainable Development - [Space Daily] Information and communication technology can play an important role in fomenting sustainable development, says the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in a new report prepared for the international summit that began this week in Johannesburg.

At Johannesburg Talks, Warning of AIDS' Toll on the Future - [International Herald Tribune] The head of the UN's drive against AIDS complained that world leaders at the Johannesburg summit were not devoting sufficient attention to the pandemic, warning that sustainable development would be impossible without a concerted attack on the effects of the disease.

Lawmakers, Agencies Study Smart Cards - [Government Executive] Since Sept. 11, the debate about whether all American citizens should carry smart cards has reached a fever pitch. Although many experts don't believe the idea will bear fruit in the foreseeable future due to concerns about privacy and interoperability, another plan, proposed by Reps. Jim Moran, D-Va., and Tom Davis, R-Va., may have a better chance. The 2002 Driver's License Modernization Act proposes that drivers' licenses include smart card data to help prevent identity theft through the use of such biometrics as fingerprint identification.

What is the International Community? - [Foreign Affairs] Foreign Policy invited nine notable thinkers, activists, journalists, and policymakers from across the ideological spectrum to survey the international community and tell us what they see. Does such a community truly exist? If so, who is part of it? Who isn't? Whose values does it reflect? And perhaps most important, how does it work? How should it work? Essays by Kofi Annan, Noam Chomsky and Ruth Wedgwood.

West Nile Virus Endangers Blood Transfusions - [New Scientist] West Nile virus can survive in donated blood and very probably be transmitted via blood transfusions, health officials in the US announced on Thursday.

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ENVIRONMENT

Blair Warns of Greenhouse Gas 'Catastrophe' - [Independent] Prime Minister Tony Blair challenged fellow world leaders to summon the political will to tackle the problems of poverty and climate change. He said the world faced "catastrophe" unless greenhouse gas emissions were curbed and repeated his claim that the poverty of Africa was a scar on the conscience of the world that must be healed.

Australian Business the Big Loser from Kyoto Defiance: BP - [ABC] Oil giant BP says Australia's continued refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on global warming risked leaving local companies isolated and "in the lurch" with international competitors.

Plant Thieves Plunder America's Parks - [ENN] Plant pilfering is a persistent, if little-known, problem at a wide range of public places: public parks, botanical gardens, national forests, and acreage managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Most troubling: at least some national parks are also targets. The 10 Most Endangered National Parks list published by the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) includes some that incidentally attract poachers, including Mojave National Preserve (barrel cactus), Big Cypress National Preserve (saw palmetto berries) and Great Smoky Mountains National Park (ginseng).

Dangerous Recycling Said to be Poisoning India - [ENN] Indians are shying away from World Trade Center scrap steel shipped to the country to be recycled, afraid its history makes it inauspicious. But it may be more than that - it may be lethal. The potential dangers of the Trade Center scrap, which environmental groups say is contaminated, highlight a poisonous paradox confronting the world's largest recycler: recycling is not always good.

Solar Power, Water Services and Carbon Offsets - [EDIE] In this week's European Business Briefs, 50 new solar projects in Germany, a new water services contract in Malaysia, German carbon offsets for flights, and a 100 million Euro loan for wastewater treatment in Belgium.

Russia Struggles With Post-Soviet Nuclear Legacy - [ENS] Russian authorities have pledged to build new storage facilities to tackle the country's nuclear waste mess and import waste from overseas. On Tuesday, Russia's Nuclear Power Minister Alexander Rumyantsev was quoted by the official RIA news agency as saying that Russia has started construction of a new waste storage facility with capacity of 33,000 tons.

West Nile Virus Takes Toll on U.S. Birds - [ENN] The virus, blamed for dozens of human deaths and more than 1,500 cases of illness, is also taking a toll on avian wildlife in a wide section of the country from Minnesota south to the Gulf of Mexico and from Nebraska east to Ohio, experts say.

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THE FUTURE

Existential Risks - [Nick Bostrom] Because of accelerating technological progress, humankind may be rapidly approaching a critical phase in its career. In addition to well-known threats such as nuclear holocaust, the prospects of radically transforming technologies like nanotech systems and machine intelligence present us with unprecedented opportunities and risks. Our future, and whether we will have a future at all, may well be determined by how we deal with these challenges.