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SCIENCE
Scientists
Create Brand New Organism - [ENS] A group of scientists
has created an organism that produces an amino acid that
no other living thing has ever used. All living things use
the same 20 amino acids to build all of the proteins that
make up all living cells. Now, scientists led by Scripps
Research Institute chemistry professor Dr. Peter Schultz
have engineered a version of the E. coli bacteria that can
produce a 21st amino acid.
Parasites
Have Billion-Year-Old Plant DNA - [UPI] An international
team of scientists said Monday they have discovered parasites
scourging the developing world bear plant-like genes acquired
from algae.
Nut
Allergy Transferred Through Liver Transplant - [New
Scientist] In a case that has puzzled immunologists, a man
who received a liver transplant from a teenager who died
of anaphylactic shock went on to develop a life-threatening
nut allergy himself.
Odds
Against Earth-Like Planets - [BBC] Earth-like worlds
circling stars in orbital zones suitable for life may be
few and far between in the cosmos, according to new research.
DNA
Look-Alike Fools Enzyme - [Nature] Enzymes evolved to
work with DNA accept a cheap imitation, say US researchers.
'Sticky'
DNA Crystals Promise New Way to Process Information
- [Science Daily] Imagine information stored on something
only a hundredth the size of the next generation computer
chip -- and made from nature's own storage molecule, DNA.
New
Genetic 'Fishing Net' Harvests Elusive Autism Gene -
[Science Daily] Duke University Medical Center researchers
have developed a new statistical genetic "fishing net"
that they have cast into a sea of complex genetic data on
autistic children to harvest an elusive autism gene. Moreover,
the researchers said that the success of the approach will
be broadly applicable to studying genetic risk factors for
other complex genetic diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes
and multiple sclerosis.
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TECHNOLOGY
How
High Will They Build? - [Popular Science] World-beating
skyscraper engineering isn't dead. Across the Pacific, new
technology is feverishly being deployed to set records.
Boeing, Intel Pushing In-Flight Internet - [Internet
News] Boeing has plans to install servers, access points
and antennas in as many as 4,000 of its airliners in the
next few years. Boeing expects to have 150 aircraft retrofitted
in 2003, with another 800 planes to be Internet-ready in
2004. Future Boeing planes are expected to have this equipment,
as part of assembly line construction.
Kasparov
Draws Against Computer - [BBC] A series of six games
pitting Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov against the world's
best chess computer ended in a draw.
Artificial
Intelligence is Child's Play - [Better Humans] A digital
camera, voice recognition software and a 16-bit microprocessor.
And though Baywatch gets criticized for lacking intelligence,
Cindy Smart can read, tell time, identify pictures, identify
colors, identify shapes, speak, listen and, amazingly, remember
what she learns.
Countdown
for Rocket Planes - [Technology Review] In the wake
of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, a new generation
of rocket-powered launch technologies gets a closer look.
Technology
and the Quality of Life - [California Computer News]
Improving the quality of life enjoyed by persons with physical
disabilities has long been a dream of the medical profession.
Dyes
Boost Solar Cells - [Physics Web] US researchers have
made a new type of device for use in solar cells. Eric McFarland
and Jing Tang at the University of California at Santa Barbara
have fabricated a device with a high internal quantum efficiency
-- the number of electrons released per photon absorbed
-- which they believe could provide a low-cost alternative
to traditional silicon-based solar cells.
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BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS
Some
Stores Collecting Online Sales Taxes - [Silicon Valley]
Some major retailers this week began voluntarily charging
online sales taxes in 37 states and the District of Columbia,
a move that could reshape the way business is done on the
Web.
The
Power of Pricing - [Inc.] Transaction pricing is the
key to surviving the current downturn -- and to flourishing
when conditions improve.
Playing
Fast and Loose on the Digital Frontier - [Darwin] The
risks are real and the stakes are high. Unconvinced? In
2002, the theft of proprietary information totaled $170
million. Financial fraud totalled $115 million. Have we
got your attention now?
IT
Honeymoon: It's All Over - [CFO] According to the CFO
Enterprise Applications 2002 survey, information technology
is now the chief financial officer's second highest priority,
behind only financial management. The survey, conducted
by Fairfax Business Research among 240 CFOs in Australia
between September and October 2002, also found that CFOs
have become more involved in IT than they were in the past.
The
Future of Internet Cafes - [MSNBC] Is the mom-and-pop
espresso-plus-broadband business an endangered species?
Mutual
Fund Industry is Next Target for Regulatory Reform -
[Kansas City Star] Having found scandal on Wall Street,
greed in corporate boardrooms and fraud among accounting
watchdogs, regulators have now thrust mutual funds under
a microscope.
As
Broadband Gains, the Internet's Snails Fall Back
- [Star Tribune] America Online now has some company in
the Internet doghouse. Recently the company said the number
of subscribers to its flagship Internet service, by far
the nation's largest, had fallen in the fourth quarter.
It was the first decline in its history and further contributed
to the woes of its parent, AOL Time Warner.
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SOCIETY AND POLITICS
'Genetic
Bank' Call by Father of DNA - [Guardian] People should
forget about the threat to civil liberties and enter their
unique genetic "fingerprints" on to an international
database, says James Watson, the US scientist who jointly
discovered the DNA double helix.
Business
Clashes With Bush Over Race - [Guardian] Some of the
biggest names in corporate America are on a collision course
with President Bush over the issue of affirmative action
in US universities.
Vote
Swap Site Gets Court OK - [Internet News] A controversial
Web site that allowed people to switch their votes in the
2000 presidential election was completely legal, according
to a U.S. appeals court ruling. The 9th Circuit Court of
Appeals in San Francisco overruled a lower court's decision
that banned Web site www.votexchange2000.com from letting
voters exchange votes between Vice President Al Gore and
third-party candidate Ralph Nader in an attempt to defeat
then Texas governor George W. Bush. Another lower court
will now reconsider the case.
Boost
for Poor World's Cities - [BBC] The United Nations has
been given $15m to help it tackle poverty and the spread
of cities. The grant will provide geographic information
systems software to urban planners, and train them in its
use. The money is to be shared among 1,000 cities in the
developing world and comes from the Environmental Systems
Research Institute (ESRI), a US company.
Judges
Chosen for War Crimes Court - [BBC] Eighteen judges
have been chosen to preside over the world's first permanent
international war crimes court. The 11 men and seven women
will serve on the new tribunal, which will come into being
in the Netherlands later this year.
Paris-Moscow
Pact 'Signals New World' - [Expatica] Russian President
Vladimir Putin said late Tuesday a joint declaration on
Iraq he signed with France and Germany was a "step
toward a multipolar world" and warned the United States
against "unilateral action" against Baghdad.
Walker's
World: United Europe, Really? - [UPI] The most enduring
foreign policy principle of the United States, which has
lasted longer than the 40-year strategy of "containment"
against the former Soviet Union, has been its unswerving
support for a united Europe. The integration of the European
continent, despite the potential for economic rivalry and
despite the regular irritations of Paris, has always been
deemed to be in the American national interest.
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ENVIRONMENT
War
'Has Ruined Afghan Environment' - [BBC] Two decades
of war have laid waste Afghanistan's environment so badly
that its reconstruction is now compromised, the United Nations
says.
Bush:
$1.2 Billion for Hydrogen Cars - [CBS] President Bush
said Tuesday night in his State of Union address that he
wants $1.2 billion to develop hydrogen-powered automobiles.
Mr. Bush said the project would promote a healthier environment
and reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil.
Think
Tank Says Time is Running Out for Humans - [Dawn] The
human race has only one or perhaps two generations to rescue
itself, according to the 2003 State of the World report
by the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute.
Body
Burden: The Pollution in People - [Environmental Working
Group] In a study led by Mount Sinai School of Medicine
in New York, in collaboration with the Environmental Working
Group and Commonweal, researchers at two major laboratories
found an average of 91 industrial compounds, pollutants,
and other chemicals in the blood and urine of nine volunteers,
with a total of 167 chemicals found in the group. Like most
of us, the people tested do not work with chemicals on the
job and do not live near an industrial facility.
New
Images from Space Spotlight Asian, Australian Pollution
- [Science Daily] A visualization of satellite data captured
and processed January 1--20, 2003, by scientists at the
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) shows heavy
pollution from China and Southeast Asia blowing out over
the Pacific Ocean. The near-real time capability represented
by the image is a breakthrough for NCAR team members working
with the Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT)
instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite.
Pollution
Trends Shift from Rust Belt to Sun Belt - [Utne Reader]
Toxic pollution historically linked to the industrial sectors
of the Northeast and Midwest have shifted to the South,
according to a study by the U.S. Public Interest Research
Group summarizing industrial pollution from 1987-2000. In
2000 alone, more than a billion pounds of chemicals suspected
to cause neurological illnesses were released in Texas,
Tennessee, and Louisiana. An alarming number of these environmental
toxins are concentrated in small areas: 76 percent of all
chemicals linked to potential reproductive disorders appeared
in only 10 zip codes.
US
Children's Exposure to Pollutants Twice Adults' - [EDIE]
Exposure to some pollutants -- such as lead -- has decreased
in the US in recent years, but children are often experiencing
the highest exposures, according to new research by the
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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THE FUTURE
Foresight
and Governance Project Explores "Serious Games"
- [Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars] The
Wilson Center's Foresight and Governance Project hosted
a two-day workshop Game-Based Learning Models & Simulations:
Expert Blueprints for Project Success, to explore how the
management and performance of three sectors -- hospitals,
high schools, and parks -- can be improved using game-based
simulation, learning, and training technologies. (links,
documents and streaming video)
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