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SCIENCE
NC
State Chemist Creates Structure in Amorphous Materials
- [Cosmiverse] A chemist at North Carolina State University
has made breakthrough discoveries that advance basic understandings
of the nature of liquids and glasses at the atomic and molecular
levels. These discoveries could lead to the development
of totally new materials with useful optical and electronic
properties -- as well as applications not yet foreseen.
A
Telescope As Big As Earth - [SpaceRef] Astronomers have
created an Earth-sized virtual radio telescope that can
detect features 3,000 times smaller than the Hubble Space
Telescope can see. The virtual device, which was created
by linking signals from radio telescopes on several continents,
is the first to operate at shortest-ever (2 millimeter)
radio wavelengths.
Pioneers
On Edge of Solar Sail Era - [MNBC] For 12 seconds on
a blustery December morning in 1903, Wilbur and Orville
Wright kept their hand-built flying machine aloft on the
wind over the North Carolina coast, a seminal event that
opened the age of air travel and changed the world. Ann
Druyan imagines how the pioneering brothers felt - their
determination, the sense of daring and eventually, the unparalleled
feeling of accomplishment. She hopes to have a similar experience
as part of an international project -- known as Cosmos I
-- to launch the first solar sail-powered vehicle in space.
Fossil
Protein Breakthrough Will Probe Evolution
- [New Scientist] The first complete sequencing of protein
from a fossil bone suggests that proteins can survive for
millions of years - long enough to probe the evolution of
many extinct species, including the ancestors of modern
humans.
Quantum
Key Travels Record Distance - [Physics Web] A team of
researchers from Germany and the UK has transmitted a key
for quantum cryptography 23.4 km through the atmosphere,
more than twice as far as the previous best distance. The
experiment, performed by researchers from the Ludwig-Maximilian
University in Munich and QinetiQ in the UK, took place at
night between two mountains in the South German Alps. The
result suggests that quantum-encoded transmissions could
soon be established to and from low-orbiting satellites,
enabling completely secure communications between any two
points on Earth.
Race
for the $1000 Genome is On - [New Scientist] Genome
sequencing is about to get personal. For more than a decade,
thousands of researchers around the world have spent about
$3 billion to complete the human genome project. It is not
finished yet, but even when it is, we still will not have
the genome of a single person: the official consensus sequence
is based on DNA from 10 different people. This is not good
enough for some researchers. Their goal is to get very personal
indeed. "We are proposing to give people their own
sequence if they'll have it," says genomicist George
Church of Harvard Medical School.
Gene
Prevents "Brains Everywhere" - [Science Daily]
Scientists at the University of Utah and in Japan have discovered
a gene that ensures the flatworm's brain develops within
its head. When the "brains everywhere" gene is
silenced, brain material develops throughout the body, including
the worm's tail.
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TECHNOLOGY
IBM
Proposes Computing On Demand - [Europemedia] IBM has
announced a new business plan, that involves investing E10bn
in getting corporate customers to change their business
practises, so that computing power will be purchased as
any other utility, on a usage basis.
The
Robots are Coming - [CNET] IRobot, a privately held
12-year-old company, recently made a big splash when it
introduced "Roomba," a $199.95 robot that can
automatically clean floors for its owners. But company executives
say far more exciting applications of robotics technology
are on the horizon.
Report:
Net Not Getting Any Safer - [Wired] A recent Aberdeen
Group report paints a dismal landscape of a digital world
of compromised service providers, undermined networks and
virus-riddled computers.
Ericsson
Can Track You Down - [ZDNet] Ericsson said Monday it
has begun offering U.S. wireless carriers its new network
equipment that automatically e-mails a cell phone user's
exact location to friends or loved ones.
MP
Seeks Solar-Powered Laptop for Developing World - [ZDNet]
A UK MP has proposed a competition for the first company
to come up with a solar-powered laptop costing less than
£50, intended for use in the developing world. The
so-called Babbage Prize could become a regular event, picking
a new technology issue every time it is offered, according
to Derek Wyatt, MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey. Mr Wyatt
is attempting to gather corporate sponsors for what would
be the first Babbage Prize, and has suggested the solar-powered
laptop as a suitable first goal.
Nanotech
Finds Biological Inspiration - [UPI] Nanotechnology
research is focusing increasingly on DNA, nature's own molecular-scale
instructions, as a possible building block for man-made
devices, scientists said.
Chips
in Humans Okay, Says FDA - [Personal Computer World]
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has permitted
the use of implantable ID chips in humans, despite an FDA
investigator's recent public reservations about the devices.
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BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS
Solving GE's Big Problem - [Economist] Should the world's
biggest conglomerate break itself up?
The
101 Dumbest Moments in Business - [Business 2.0] In
a perfect world, a list like this would not exist. In a
perfect world, businesses would be run with the utmost integrity
and competence. But ours is, alas, an imperfect world, and
if we must live in one where Enron, Geraldo Rivera, and
Cottonelle Fresh Rollwipes exist, the least we can do is
catalog the absurdities.
Sick
Sigma - [Context] Six sigma is being used in lots of
new ways. Critics call the trend dangerous.
The
Oracle of Everything - [Fortune] Warren Buffett has
been right about the stock market, rotten accounting, CEO
greed, and corporate governance.The rest of us are just
catching on.
Thanks
to Net, Consumers Customizing More - [USA Today] The
influence of Dell Computer, which perfected made-to-order
PC retailing, is spreading. Sales of custom-made products
are changing how some retailers do business online, how
some consumers shop and how some products are designed.
An
Optional Expense? - [Economist] The International Accounting
Standards Board has called for the cost of stock options
to be deducted from company profits. This approach is likely
to be adopted by the European Union from 2005. But will
American standard-setters also fall into line?
Keith
Yamashita Wants to Reinvent Your Company - [Fast Company]
He may be the most influential consultant you've never heard
of. He's certainly one of the most creative. And his new
ideas about strategy are powering a number of high-profile
change efforts -- including Carly Fiorina's campaign to
transform Hewlett-Packard.
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SOCIETY AND POLITICS
Toward
a Biometrics Bill of Rights - [Business Week] Though
this security technology is exploding, no laws exist to
protect the privacy of individuals. Here's what Congress
should do.
Tradition
and Poverty Conspire to Make Women an Endangered Species
- [Scotsman] India's dramatically declining ratio of girls
to boys is soon likely to throw up all manner of social
ills. The problem is especially stark in the cities, where
the number of girls has shown the sharpest fall -- even
though that is where the richest and best educated live.
Political
Apathy of China's Young - [BBC] China is holding its
16th Communist Party congress to anoint a new leader and
chart the country's direction for the next five years. Former
BBC Beijing correspondent Carrie Gracie returns to China
to interview members of the twenty-something generation
who grew up alongside the switch to a market economy and
a one-child policy.
SMS
is Against Indian Culture - [India Express] A human
rights group has initiated a campaign in Delhi against Short
Message Services as it believes SMS to be the cause of divorces
in India. A concerned National Human Rights Council took
out a demonstration and burned a cellular telephone in protest
against the messages which are now dominating the Indian
sky.
W.
and the 'Boy Genius' - [Time] Karl Rove's strategy for
winning the midterm elections was risky and brash, like
its author. Here is the inside story of how the President
and his political strategist gambled it all and won.
Gates
Gives $100 Million to Fight AIDS in India - [Silicon
Valley] Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates announced a $100
million grant to battle HIV/AIDS in India, which has the
world's second largest number of victims of the deadly disease.
Massive
Famine Stalks Ethiopia - [BBC] Ethiopian Prime Minister
Meles Zenawi has warned that his country faces a famine
worse than that of 1984 which killed nearly one million
people and sparked a big international relief effort.
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ENVIRONMENT
Australia
to Create Biggest Marine Reserve - [BBC] Australia is
to create the world's largest marine reserve. The Heard
Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve -- 4,000 kilometres
(2,485 miles) off the south-west coast -- will be twice
the size of Switzerland and will protect one of the world's
most unspoilt environments from exploitation.
Indonesian
Wildfires Accelerated Global Warming - [ENS] Wildfires
that scorched parts of Indonesia in 1997 spewed as much
carbon into the atmosphere as the entire planet's biosphere
removes from it in a year, shows new research published
this week. The fires, which destroyed thousands of forest
acres and left peat bogs smoldering for months, released
as much as 2.6 billion metric tons of carbon -- mostly in
the form of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) -- into
the atmosphere.
U.S.
Keeps Wary Eye on Cruise Ship Pollution - [USA Today]
The stately cruise ship Norway, which sails to the Caribbean,
evokes a gentler time. Beneath modern trappings such as
an Internet cafe, the 40-year-old steamship with its grand
ballrooms is reminiscent of ocean liners that crossed the
Atlantic before the advent of the jet plane. But the Norway,
owned by Norwegian Cruise Line, long kept a secret: It illegally
dumped oily waste into the ocean, and the crew filed false
records to mislead the Coast Guard.
Arctic
Town to Get Offbeat Tidal Energy - [ENN] In a novel
use of clean energy, the world's most northerly town will
soon be the first to get electricity from a sub-sea power
station run on tidal currents tugged by the moon.
China's
Tailpipe Tally - [Emagazine] The tale of China's modernization
is being told along its winding dirt trails, the paved gray
roads in its cities and, more recently, its ambitious network
of highways. In rural Hainan, farmers still pedal to their
paddy fields before dawn, bumping along paths of dusty red
soil. In the urban explosions of Beijing and Shanghai, however,
bicycles now have to fight for space with ever-increasing
numbers of motor vehicles -- and residents have to fight
to breathe.
Regulation
of International Trade: An Ally for Species Conservation
- [WWF] Illegal plundering of bigleaf mahogany for the US
and European luxury furniture trade is threatening this
valuable Amazon tree with commercial extinction.
Shop
and Save - [Sierra] A guide to eco-labels.
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THE FUTURE
How
to Change the World - [GBN] How can we change the world?
How can we make an impact for the better? How can we influence
the future? And how can we make sense of all of this in
the world and language of business?
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