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SCIENCE
Scientists
Clone Long-Dead Animal - [CBS] Astounding even veterans
of the fight against animal extinction, cloning technology
has reproduced two endangered wild cattle bulls, each born
to dairy cows last week on an Iowa farm.
Nanotech
Decoys for Viruses - [Science Daily] Using nanotechnology
to stop HIV viruses from entering cells is the ultimate
aim of a new project at the University of California, Davis.
The researchers hope to create tiny particles that can interfere
with the proteins that viruses such as HIV use to attach
to cells.
Reaching
100 is Largely a Matter of Genes - [Web MD Health] Want
to live to be 100? A healthy lifestyle will certainly help,
but the evidence is mounting that good genes are even more
important. Now a study from Italy may help explain the complex
role that genes play in longevity.
Alien
Life Search Inches Forward - [Wired] Scientists behind
the world's largest distributed computing project are taking
a closer look at some of the most promising of the billions
of radio signals they've collected in their search for intelligent
life in outer space.
Antibodies
Cripple Prions - [Nature] The possibility of using antibodies
to treat variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) receives
a boost, with promising results from an animal trial.
Magnetic
Crystals in Brain Linked to Alzheimer's - [New Scientist]
Tiny magnetic iron crystals in the brain may be linked to
the development of Alzheimer's disease. If further work
confirms the hypothesis, it could be possible to diagnose
patients with early Alzheimer's disease by measuring the
level of iron oxide crystals, called magnetite, in their
brains.
Molecules
Designed To Interfere With DNA Upon Signal - [Science
Daily] Medical science's arsenal against cancer includes
compounds that interfere with the DNA of cancer cells. However,
these medicines often damage noncancer cells as well, making
chemotherapy a sickening treatment. Many scientists are
trying to develop compounds that can be released upon command
in the presence of disease cells. Now, Virginia Tech researchers
have developed a new molecule that early results show can
be signaled to bind to target DNA and stop replication.
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TECHNOLOGY
Wired
Oven Keeps Food Cool - [BBC] Imagine being able to leave
a meal in the fridge for the day but then send a command
over the internet to cook it so that it is ready when you
get home.
Launching
Telecoms II - [The Economist] New wireless technologies
that render bandwidth irrelevant could kick-start a revolution
in communications bigger than the internet.
Nanotechnology
to Revolutionize War - [International
Herald Tribune] Nanotechnology will eventually alter warfare
more than the invention of gunpowder, said Clifford Lau,
deputy undersecretary of defense with the Office of Basic
Research at the Defense Department. Lau says nanotechnology
will affect every aspect of weaponry, communications and
the welfare of soldiers.
Robotic
Planes Complete Fly-By Testing - [Space] Pilots spent
four days flying a trio of airplanes at each other over
the Mojave Desert, missing on each pass by as little as
300 meters (1,000 feet). Some 3,450 meters (11,500 feet)
below the cockpit, one pilot sat safely on the ground as
he coolly scrambled to avoid hitting his colleagues with
the skeletal experimental aircraft he flew by remote control.
DTI
Promises to Get Tough on Spam - [vnunet] Consumers and
businesses will be able to sue senders of unsolicited emails
and text messages under new proposals from the Department
of Trade and Industry (DTI).
Software
Breaks Data Transfer Record - [Nature] A new piece of
software more than trebles the speed at which information
can be sent over the Internet. It changes the way computers
monitor and respond to online traffic conditions.
Intel
Developing Blueprints for Robots - [ZDNet] Under the
Robotics Engineering Task Force, Santa Clara, Calif.-based
Intel is devising reference designs for relatively small
robots based around its silicon. The company's designs don't
focus on the mechanical aspects of robots -- such as the
wheels and motors -- but on the internal electronics.
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BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS
Is
Small Biz Microsoft's Next Big Thing? - [Business Week]
With new software and an army of resellers, Gates &
Co., are launching a massive offensive to target 45 million
businesses worldwide.
AT&T
Will Sell Prepaid Cards for Online Web Purchases - [USA
Today] They'll soon be hanging from hooks at checkout counters
across the country, near the bubble gum and breath mints.
But these products are an industry first that analysts will
watch closely: They are prepaid cards for the online purchase
of video games, music, cartoons and other relatively low-priced
items.
US
Cities Compete for Biotech Dollars - [Silicon Valley]
More than 80 percent of states and municipalities that responded
to a 2001 survey prepared for a Department of Commerce conference
listed biotech as one of their top two targets for development.
Ads
Heading to Mobile Phones - [C|NET] The kind of future
where adverts identify targets by scanning a person's retina
may be fictional and far off, but advertisers are hoping
timely, personalised marketing messages to mobile phones,
handheld computers, and other wireless devices will capture
consumers' attention.
McDonalds
Shiifting Ads Away from TV to Digital - [AdAge] McDonald
Corp.'s senior vice president of U.S. marketing, Bill Lamar
Jr., drove another nail in the coffin of the 30-second commercial
when he said the fast-food giant would be doing less TV
and shifting more of its advertising into digital media.
What'll
the Valley Be When It Grows Up? - [Business 2.0] The
difference between this bust and others is that this one
could turn Silicon Valley into Detroit. Unless, that is,
the tech industry can innovate as it matures.
Enter
Jobs, Exit Music Piracy? - [C|NET] The Apple Computer
founder and CEO has been exploring an acquisition of Vivendi
Universal's music division -- surprise talks that underscore
the deep problems facing the music industry. Apple's entry
into the recording business would no doubt carry huge risks
for the computer maker. But it could also help create a
catalyst for an industry desperate to innovate its way out
of the technology trap set when MP3s met Napster and the
high-speed Net some four years ago.
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SOCIETY AND POLITICS
Developing
World Another Casualty of Iraq War - [Reuters] The huge
task of post-war reconstruction in Iraq threatens to divert
world leaders' attention from other pressing needs in the
developing world such as affordable medicine, farm trade
liberalization and reducing poverty, according to a senior
United Nations official.
Demographic
Time Bombs - [Business Week] They may be off the radar
screen for the moment, but global population trends pose
increasing challenges for industrial economies, contends
economist Martin H. Barnes of BCA Research, a Montreal-based
investment advisory firm. In a recent report, he explores
three developments he deems especially ominous.
DNA
Pioneer Urges Gene Free-for-All - [Guardian] Governments,
popes and presidents should not try to control the use of
genetic knowledge, the man who began the DNA revolution
said. James Watson, who with Francis Crick in Cambridge,
50 years ago, deciphered the double helix of DNA, would
let people choose the characteristics of their children
if it could be done safely.
Who
Speaks for Europe? - [MSNBC] Jacques Chirac plays de
Gaulle, Tony Blair is Churchill, in an epic and increasingly
bitter rivalry for Old World power.
Scanning
the Future of Privacy - [ZDNet Australia] Engineers
who design biometric technologies and Internet authentication
mechanisms should take more aggressive steps to preserve
privacy, a new government report says.
Kevin
Sites and the Blogging Controversy - [Online Journalism
Review] Are Weblogs one more tool in the arsenal used by
online journalists to report the news? Or does a blog’s
typically individualistic voice and unfiltered attitude
place it outside the journalist’s palette? These rhetorical
questions have exploded into a raging debate among online
journalism watchers following CNN’s decision to force
war correspondent Kevin Sites to stop posting items to the
popular blog he created while on assignment in northern
Iraq.
The
Lessons of Experience - [The Economist] IRAQ is about
to join the growing list of countries and territories that
have been placed under foreign supervision until deemed
able to manage on their own. In other words, it will become
another modern protectorate.
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ENVIRONMENT
NGO
Warns About Over-Fishing - [Merco
Press] An Argentine non-government organization, NGO, Cedepesca
(Centre for the Defence of National Fishing), has publicly
warned about the increase of illegal fishing in the South
Atlantic, particularly regarding squid.
Climate
Change Could Dry Great Lakes - [UPI] The Great Lakes
states will look more like parts of the South and Southwest
by the end of the century as a result of global warming.The
changes will lead to hot, dry summers and severe flooding
in the winter and spring, a report by the Union of Concerned
Scientists and the Ecological Society of America predicts.
Fears
as Iceland Resumes Whaling - [Edinburgh News] Iceland
has revealed plans to resume whaling, 13 years after its
crews last fired their harpoons. It says the whaling will
be for research, which is allowed despite the present moratorium
on commercial whaling. Japan also catches whales in the
name of science, and only Norway kills them for straightforward
commercial purposes. But conservationists say they think
Iceland’s plans amount to a thinly-veiled decision
to resume commercial whaling.
Brussels
will have Final Say on GM Crops - [The Scotsman] The
Scottish Executive rejected criticism by the parliamentary
health committee about the way it had conducted genetically
modified crop trials. But almost lost in the rejection,
reaction from the slighted health committee and renewed
protests from anti-GM campaigners, was the fact that the
commercial GM decision will be made in Brussels.
Water
Demands Draining U.S. Rivers - [ENS] Many of America's
rivers are suffering from severe water shortages, with drought
and human water consumption placing some of these waterways
in acute peril, warns a new report released by American
Rivers.The conservation organization's report, "America's
Most Endangered Rivers of 2003," details 10 rivers
that face immediate and severe danger, but paints a larger
picture of a nation tumbling towards a possible water crisis.
The
Wealth of Nature - [Grist] Recently, a group of mavericks
known as "ecological economists" have begun to
hammer out a new paradigm that stands economic theory on
its head. Rather than the environment being a subset of
the economy, they argue, the market is a subset of the global
environment, and all the goods and services we trade ultimately
depend on natural resources and processes.
Rising
Clouds Leave Forests High and Dry
- [New Scientist] The base of clouds that form over the
north-eastern states of the US have been getting ever higher
over the past 30 years. It is a change that could severely
disrupt forests in the Appalachian Mountains. Rising cloud
ceilings have been spotted before in other parts of the
world. In 1999, scientists found that clouds in the Monteverde
cloud forests of Costa Rica were not forming as far down
the mountains as they once did.
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THE FUTURE
Can
We See the Near Future -- Year 2025? - [Closer to Truth]
Close your eyes. Fast forward 25 years. Open your eyes.
What do you see? 25 years ago, there were no personal computers
and no kids surfing the internet. 25 years from now, what
new things will emerge? What surprising discoveries? Will
technology make life happy or gloomy, content or confused?
Will the world be more free or more fragmented? People,
more equal or more estranged? What about competitiveness,
conflicts, hostilities, wars? Will First Contact be made
with aliens? We couldn’t forecast the past 25. Can
we do better with the next 25?
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