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SCIENCE
Gene
Breakthrough in Graves Disease - [BBC] Scientists have
discovered how the immune system attacks the thyroid glands
in patients with Grave's disease.
Astronomers
Spy Huge Flare On Io - [Astronomy.com] Ground-based
observations of Jupiter's moon Io reveal the largest volcanic
eruption ever witnessed in the solar system.
Flesh
Eating Disease Linked to Gene Differences - [New Scientist]
Genetic differences between people can explain why some
develop a fatal "flesh-eating" disease following
infection with a common bacterium, while others colonised
by the same strain walk away with just a sore throat.
Stem
Cell May Repair Hearts - [BBC] New research announced
at the world's biggest meeting of heart doctors suggests
it will soon be possible to use the body's own stem cells
to repair the damage caused by heart attacks.
Genome
Man to Create New Lifeform - [BBC] Scientists in the
United States are to press ahead with plans to create a
new lifeform in the laboratory. Dr Craig Venter -- the man
behind the privately funded human genome sequence -- and
Dr Hamilton Smith -- a Nobel Prize winning geneticist --
want to create a man-made microbe with the least number
of genes needed to sustain life.
Stone
Age Man Kept a Dog - [Nature]
Men and dogs go way back. New studies suggest that dogs
shared a hearth with early Stone Age humans and trotted
beside them across the Bering Strait into the New World.
Domestication may also have turned dogs into keen readers
of human behaviour, researchers say.
Photosynthesis
Analysis Shows Work of Ancient Genetic Engineering -
[Science Daily] The development of the biochemical process
of photosynthesis is one of nature's most important events,
but how did it actually happen? This is a question that
molecular biology has first posed, and now perhaps answered.
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TECHNOLOGY
Chemists
Build Body Fluid Battery - [Nature] Our bodies could
one day power their own electronic implants. Chemists have
developed a miniature battery that could run on bodily fluids
to drive sensors to monitor our health.
'Double'
Chip Promises Faster PCs - [BBC] The chip inside your
computer is about to get better at doing its job. The world's
largest chip maker Intel is introducing technology that
tricks a computer into thinking it has two chips instead
of one.
Linux
Finds Niche in Automobile Industry - [Philadelphia Inquirer]
For years, the big automakers bought pricey supercomputers
to design cars, run crash simulations, and crunch through
structural-analysis tasks. Now, a growing number of car-makers
are spending much less on high-horsepower computing by turning
to the open-source Linux operating system.
IBM
Wins US Gov Super Computer Deal
- [Register] The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded
IBM a $290 million contract to build the two fastest supercomputers
in the world with a combined peak speed of 460 trillion
calculations per second (teraflops).
Software
Aims to Put Your Life on a Disk - [New Scientist] Engineers
are working on software to load every photo you take, every
letter you write -- in fact your every memory and experience
-- into a surrogate brain that never forgets anything.
Robot
Mends Heart in Closed Surgery - [MSNBC] Surgeons at
New York's Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital have seen the
future of heart surgery: it has tiny metal hands.
655
Million Internet Users Worldwide by Year-End - [Middle
East Times] The global number of Internet users is expected
to reach 655 million people by the end of this year compared
to 500 million at the end of 2001, according to estimates
in a report released by the United Nations Conference on
Trade and Development. Internet usage is seeing an annual
rise of about 30-percent, equivalent to about 2.5 percent
of the global population.
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BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS
China: Japan's Economic Wake-Up Call - [CNN] As Japanese
companies struggle to survive amidst deflation and a decade-long
economic slump, they are increasingly turning to China --
not only as a source of cheap labor, but also as a growing
consumer market.
UK
Gets Silver Medal for E-Commerce - [ZDNet] In 1998,
the prime minister, Tony Blair, promised that the UK would
be the best place in the world to do e-commerce by 2002.
In 2002, it is in fact second. That's the official standing
of the UK in the world e-commerce league.
Metrics
Firm Expands Net 'Universe' - [c|net] Online audience
rating company Nielsen/NetRatings on Thursday unveiled a
new report that adds market share for Internet-based applications
such as instant messaging and media players to its Web site
traffic data.
Marking
Time - [Red Herring] If 2001 was the year of the storm
for venture capitalists, 2002 has been the year to canvas
the territory, assess the damage, and decide whether to
rebuild or move on. For those that press forward, 2003 will
be a return to the drawing board, when VC firms spruce up
the looks of existing portfolios and cultivate new images
for their next funds.
The
Hole Gets Deeper - [Economist]
Argentina will suffer most from not repaying a World Bank
loan. But President Duhalde and his economy minister may
have started something bigger.
Google's
Next Runaway Success - [Business 2.0] AdWords Select
kicks in a network effect for online advertising.
Innovation
Now - [Fast Company] Conventional wisdom says to get
back to basics. Conventional wisdom says to cut costs. Conventional
wisdom is doomed. The winners are the innovators who are
making bold thinking an everyday part of doing business.
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SOCIETY AND POLITICS
Criminal
Genes - [Popular Mechanics] It is a question as old
as Cain and Abel: Are some kids simply born bad? At long
last science has an answer, in fact two answers. The short
answer is yes, many criminals share a common genetic flaw.
The complete answer is more complicated, and could hold
the key to eradicating violent crime. The idea that crime
runs in families was revived this summer when researchers
at the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced they had
found a direct link between genes and behavior.
Teenage
Smoking 'Cut by Mobile Phones' - [Ananova] Teenagers
are smoking less because mobile phones give them something
else to do with their hands, a new report suggests.
NATO
Opens Door to 7 More Nations - [International Herald
Tribune] Without a tremor of controversy, NATO formally
embraced seven Eastern European countries in a historic
enlargement that will extend the alliance's territory to
Russia's borders in the Baltics and the Black Sea.
Pentagon
Drops Plan to Curb Net Anonymity - [c|net] A Defense
Department agency recently considered--and rejected--a far-reaching
plan that would sharply curtail online anonymity by tagging
e-mail and Web browsing with unique markers for each Internet
user.
Doctors
Want GM Crop Ban - [BBC] Genetically modified (GM) crop
trials in Scotland should be halted immediately as a "precautionary
measure" to safeguard public health, senior medical
figures have said. The British Medical Association (BMA)
was making its case for a moratorium in a submission to
the Scottish Parliament's health committee.
Annan
Cites Civil Liberties Risks in War on Terror
- [Earth Times] In a new period in international relations
dominated by the rise of cross-border terrorism, Kofi Annan
sees a need for what he terms "a new vision of global
security": one that will confront the terrorists' asymmetric
threat and draw as never before on the resources and legitimacy
of multilateral cooperation, yet at the same time respect
human rights.
Whiz
Kids in China - [International Herald Tribune] Quick,
what's 6 plus 8 minus 7 plus 6 plus 5? If you knew instantaneously
that the answer is 18, then congratulations! You're as bright
as a Shanghai kindergarten pupil - calculating in his or
her third language.
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ENVIRONMENT
Kyoto Chills Hopes of Developing World - [Washington
Times] The recent United Nations Conference in New Delhi,
India, concerning what to do about global warming did not
go as Western environmentalists had hoped.
Stanford,
Firms to Team Up On Global Climate - [NRDC] Stanford
University is launching what could be the biggest private
effort ever to develop technologies to combat global warming
-- in collaboration with companies whose lifeblood has been
the very fossil fuels that contribute to climate change.
Lawsuits
Threatened for New EPA Rules - [CBS] The Bush administration
on Friday eased clean air rules to allow utilities, refineries
and manufacturers to avoid having to install expensive new
anti-pollution equipment when they modernize their plants.
However, lawsuits to block these changes are already in
the wind.
Global
Warming Will Deplete Water in US West - [NRDC] Global
warming will have a devastating effect on water availability
in the western United States, a new climate forecast predicts.
The report involved more than two dozen scientists and engineers
from around the country who undertook the study as a test
of a national climate forecasting effort.
Blue
Planet: The Pain in Spain - [UPI] The recent breakup
of the 26-year-old tanker Prestige off the Galician coast
of Spain while carrying more than 20 million gallons of
oil should produce effects that are both better and worse
than early reports have predicted. The good news is that
although the environmental impact will be broad, it probably
won't be deep. However whatever is done now to improve the
situation likely will make things worse.
Fresh
Wind Farm Drive - [BBC] The potential of the UK's offshore
wind farm industry remains largely untapped, according to
a government document.
Trading
Might Save Nature - [Nature] Want wildlife? Then pay
for it, say two US economists. Schemes to maintain biodiversity
by funding economic development have failed on both fronts,
they contend. Others are concerned that nature is not ours
to trade.
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THE FUTURE
Climate
Change and Agricultural Vulnerability (PDF document)
- [IIASA] As a result of climate change, many richer countries
will gain agricultural production potential, while 40 of
the poorest will lose.
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