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SCIENCE
Speed
of Gravity and Light Equal - [Nature] Einstein's theory
of general relativity passes quasar test. The speed of gravity
is the same as that of light, say two physicists.
Scientists
Find Faint Objects With Hubble
- [Science Daily] Researchers using NASA's Hubble Space
Telescope reported they are seeing the conclusion of the
cosmic epoch called the "Dark Ages," a time about
a billion years after the big bang when newly-formed stars
and galaxies were just starting to become visible.
Gene
Data: Help for Bad Hearts? - [Wired] An Icelandic biotech
company that is mining the genetic information of its country's
citizens may be on the fast track toward testing a new drug
for heart disease.
Old
Clothes Filter Out Cholera - [New Scientist] Using old
saris to filter drinking water collected from rivers and
ponds has halved the number of cholera cases in remote Bangladeshi
villages.
Nut Theory Gets a Shakedown - [Nature] Whether the first
person to open the muesli, or the one who shakes out the
last of it, gets all the nuts depends on how vigorously
you shake the packet, and how full it is, say researchers
in Germany.
Genetic
'Tour de Force' Reveals Worm's Workings - [New Scientist]
By simply feeding roundworms genetically-modified bacteria,
UK scientists have conducted an extraordinary one-by-one
analysis of the function of nearly 86 per cent of the worms
20,000 genes. US scientists have put the data to immediate
use to search for genes that regulate fat storage.
DNA
Databases 'No Use to Terrorists' - [BBC] Some have raised
the possibility that terrorists could take publicly available
data on harmful microbes and use new genetic engineering
techniques to turn the information into lethal bio-weapons.
This frightening prospect has led to calls for the classification
of the genome data of harmful organisms.
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TECHNOLOGY
Rich
Reward Offered to Boost US Military Robot Technologies
- [ABC] A $US1 million cash prize is up for grabs in a planned
robot vehicle race between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The
US Defence Department says the "Grand Challenge",
which will take place in February 2004, is intended to spur
the development of technologies that could be used by the
US military.
Robots
for the Masses - [c|net] A start-up company says it
has developed a navigation system that is cheap enough to
bring robots to the mass-consumer market.
Lasers
Slim Enough for Chips - [Nature] US scientists have
made tiny lasers that can be incorporated into silicon microchips.
The devices could help make information technology faster
and more compact.
New
Robots Well Trained for War - [MSNBC] In future wars,
robots may drop from the sky by the hundreds from unmanned
aircraft, swarming like giant insects over battlefields
in coordinated, terrifying assaults. But that is a decades-away
scenario.
Need
for Transportation Technologies Heads into Overdrive
- [Breakthroughs] The transportation industry faces challenges
relating to vehicle fuel efficiency, regulated emissions
and global warming. Breakthroughs talked with Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory's Jud Virden, deputy director for the
Energy Science and Technology Directorate, about technologies
being developed for transportation.
Breakthrough
Gives Spinal Injury Sufferers a Standing Start - [E4]
For the first time, engineers have enabled paralysed people
to stand up and balance for significant periods without
holding an external support. This is an important breakthrough
in helping individuals with spinal cord injuries to start
standing again for useful lengths of time - up to seven
minutes have been achieved in experiments.
Zen
and the Art of Computer-Game Design
- [IHT] "People who buy games want to get excited,"
said George Fuller von Bozzay, a stress management specialist.
But Fuller and others in his business have long been interested
in radically different games designed to reward players
for being calm and staying that way.
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BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS
Perspective: Less Vision, More Execution Please - [c|net]
Disgraced Internet "visionaries" are a dime a
dozen these days, it seems, so shed no tears for outgoing
AOL Time Warner Chairman Steve Case.
Ireland
Falling Behind in E-Commerce Race - [RTE] A new report
shows that both Dublin and Ireland are falling behind in
the race to become an international hub for e-commerce.
Net
Visionaries: Bad Execs or Victims of Bad Timing? - [USA
Today] One fact is indisputable after Steve Case acknowledged
the anger of shareholders by announcing Sunday his decision
to resign in May as chairman of AOL Time Warner: The Internet
media visionaries of the late 1990s just didn't get it.
Business
Travel Rebound Could Be 18 Months Away - [Pacific Business
News] The National Business Travel Association says 83 percent
of its members report their corporate travel budgets are
2003 are either flat or down from 2002, when most of those
budgets were down from 2001.
The
Drumroll, Please - [Context] With senior executives
under federal indictment, with prominent companies paying
hundreds of millions of dollars in fines, and with trillions
of dollars of stock-market valuation evaporating into thin
air, it has been hard to find much good news for business
in 2002. So here is some: Innovation progressed at a furious
pace, generating products and ideas that will fuel economic
growth and improve productivity.
New
Face of Global Competition - [Fast Company] Not so long
ago, India's Wipro Ltd. sold cooking oils and knockoff PCs.
Now its 15,000 technologists cook up vital software applications
and research for Ericsson, GM, the Home Depot, and other
giant customers. Are you prepared to go head-to-head with
the best the world has to offer?
What
I Know Now: Seduced and Abandoned (and Grateful, too)
- [Inc.] Unable to resist the lure of growth, Denver Hopkins
made his small business big. Then he failed. Then he made
a discovery.
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SOCIETY AND POLITICS
Nuclear
Smugglers Face Neutron Test - [New Scientist] The security
cordon around the US could be tightened with an improved
system for catching people trying to smuggle nuclear material.
The detectors can ferret out fissile material such as uranium,
even if it is sealed in a lead container, and could be installed
within the year.
French
Use Genetic Coding Tools to Root Out Truffle Fraud -
[International Herald Tribune] A French research laboratory
has unraveled the genetic code of the famed black truffles
from the Perigord region, finally giving anti-fraud inspectors
a tool to distinguish between the pricey French fungus and
a Chinese competitor that looks identical but tastes insipid.
Dutch
TV to Use Instant Candidate Internet Polling During Election
Debates - [Europemedia] A panel
of internet users will grade the answers given by the prime
candidates during debates broadcast on SBS6, a Dutch television
station. Through a new research technology, the average
grades will be readily available on television and will
also be included shown during the debate.
Aids
in Africa Can Be Defeated - [Europa
World] The top United Nations envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa
said this week that his recent two-week tour of the southern
part of the continent had reinforced his fundamental conviction
that a concerted effort between the African people and the
international community can defeat the deadly disease.
Bush
Frees Cash to Secure Soviet Arms
- [USA Today] President Bush signed a special order to release
nearly a half-billion dollars in frozen funds to help Russia
secure or eliminate nuclear, biological and chemical weapons,
USA TODAY learned.
China
Blocks Bloggers' Sites - [New Scientist] State control
of the internet in China may have found a new target with
many "bloggers" unable to update their web journals,
apparently because of government restrictions.
Internet
Piracy Threatens Music Jobs - [MSNBC] In its harshest
indictment yet of Internet piracy, a top official of the
music industry said on Sunday Europe's 600,000 music professionals
risk losing their jobs unless the industry fights back.
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ENVIRONMENT
Mobile
Phones Blamed for Sparrow Deaths - [Guardian] The remarkable
decline of the sparrow remains one of British wildlife's
most enduring mysteries. Cats, lead-free fuel and even loft
insulation have all been blamed for the disappearance of
10 million house sparrows. Now scientists seeking to unravel
the cause of their disappearance have identified a new culprit:
the mobile phone.
Children
At War With Cold and Smog - [Daily Times] Children,
most of them infants, are bearing the brunt of the cold
with increased respiratory illnesses. Persistent cold and
fog continue to haunt people without respite. Respiratory
problems such as asthma have been on the rise among the
children and infants in Lahore.
Chernobyl
to be Sealed in Steel Vault -
[Independent] The contaminated site of the Chernobyl nuclear
power plant in Ukraine -- the scene more than 16 years ago
of the worst nuclear disaster in history -- will be capped
by a huge vault designed to "seal" the plant's
remains for decades.
EPA's
Water Quality Trading Plan Wins Support
- [ENS] The Bush administration believes market incentives
can be more effective than conventional regulations in reducing
the pollution runoff that continues to contaminate waterways
across the United States.
Air
Pollution Costs RP Cities $400 Million Yearly - [INQ7]
Heavy air pollution in the Philippines' four largest metropolitan
areas costs the country 400 million dollars every year,
nearly one percent of its gross domestic product (GDP),
the World Bank said.
More
Farm Fields Sprout Biotech Plants
- [Silicon Valley] A record number of genetically modified
crops were planted around the world last year - proving
resistant not just to bugs and weeds but also to political
and financial pressures.
Russia,
US Vow to Join Battle on Global Warming - [Space Daily]
The United States and Russia, two of the world's largest
emitters of polluting gases who have both failed to ratify
the Kyoto Protocol, said that they would seek a common approach
to battling global warming.
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THE FUTURE
Book of
the Future - [BBC] How do you see the world in 2020?
Explore who we are now through our visions of the future.
Write an article about what you think life will be like
in the year 2020. The top rated edited articles will be
published by the BBC this summer. Want to debate what's
important for our future with other researchers? Check out
the SpaceBar.
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