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SCIENCE
Eye
on the Future: NASA Explores Innovative Space Telescope
Technologies - [Space.com] The orbiting Hubble Space
Telescope has yielded light buckets full of discovery and
out-of-sight imagery. But make way for a revolutionary class
of 21st century observing outpost - huge, high-tech facilities
that could be assembled in space by a cadre of astronauts
and robots.
Neandertals
Not Our Ancestors, DNA Study Suggests
- [National Geographic] One more piece of evidence has been
added to the debate on whether there was any interbreeding
between Neandertals and early modern humans.
Space
Station Unlocks New World of Crystals
- [New Scientist] First results have been announced from
one of the most promising experiments on the International
Space Station. The project studies a type of matter called
a "dusty plasma", which contains particles big
enough to be seen and tracked with video cameras.
Personality
Changes Throughout Life - [New
Scientist] People's personalities are not set in stone by
the age of 30, contrary to popular and professional beliefs,
new research suggests.
DNA
Demands Chimps Be Grouped in the Human Genus, Say Wayne
State Researchers - [Wayne State University] New analyses
show humans and chimpanzees to be 99.4 percent identical
in the functionally-important DNA, which codes for proteins
and is shaped by natural selection. This provides further
evidence for revisions in our genus classification. Dr.
Goodman proposes that all living apes should occupy the
family Hominidae (which currently contains only humans),
and that both humans and chimpanzees should occupy the genus
Homo.
Superspreaders
May Hold SARS Clue - [Wired News] In the race to stop
severe acute respiratory syndrome, a little-understood group
known as "superspreaders" may hold important clues
-- or they may be just a myth. Superspreaders
are individuals who seem to spread the virus to larger numbers
of people than the average SARS-infected patient does. The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines a superspreader
as someone who transmits SARS to 10 or more people. The
typical SARS patient spreads the disease to fewer than three
people.
Synthetic
Gecko Hairs Promise Walking Up Walls - [New Scientist]
The prospect of being able to emulate a gecko and walk up
a wall and across the ceiling has come a step closer to
reality. Scientists in California have begun to work out
how to make a material coated with synthetic gecko hairs.
If engineers could create a material that matches the nimble
lizard's incredible grip, the applications would be endless.
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TECHNOLOGY
Library's
Robot is a Real Page-Turner - [International Herald
Tribune] Putting the world's most advanced scholarly and
scientific knowledge on the Internet has been a long-held
ambition for Michael Keller, the head librarian at Stanford
University. But achieving this goal means digitizing the
texts of millions of books, journals and magazines -- a
slow and tedious process that involves turning each page,
flattening it and scanning the words into a computer database.
Bang
Goes Anonymous M-Commerce - [IT-Director.com] What if
you could access items of content from content providers,
but not have to keep logging-on each time? Now this might
sound like the idea behind Microsoft's .NET Passport with
one account for all online services, but this is different.
Robot
Cleaner Hits the Shops - [BBC]
A robot vacuum cleaner that cleans your carpets all by itself
has gone on sale in the UK. The autonomous, cordless machine
uses ultrasound to avoid obstacles and to work out the most
efficient route around a room it has been set to clean.
GPS
Implant Designed for Humans 'Tested' - [New Scientist]
A prototype GPS tracking device, designed to be implanted
inside a person, has been successfully tested, claims its
manufacturer. However, technical experts are questioning
whether the system could really work.
Hackers
Use Xbox for More than Games - [USA Today] Microsoft's
strategy of selling the Xbox, its video game console, at
a loss has wrought an unforeseen consequence. Some users
increasingly view the Xbox as a cheap appliance easily rigged
to operate as a fully functioning personal computer.
Robots
are Rushing to the Rescue - [MSNBC] They look like something
out of a science-fiction movie, but they are real. One resembles
a giant spider. Another calls to mind a stubby snake or
a worm. But Japanese researchers think robots like these,
built to detect landmines or search rubble for earthquake
survivors, may soon save human lives.
California
Fines Spammers $500 Per Email - [ZDNet UK] The California
State Senate approved a bill that would make it illegal
to send unsolicited email advertising and allows people
to sue spammers for $500 per unwanted message. If the bill,
which now goes to the California Assembly, becomes law,
it would be one of the strictest antispam measures in the
country. Governor Gray Davis has taken no position on the
measure.
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BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS
What
Went Right 2002: E-Commerce -
[Fortune] Remember when you thought that Jeff Bezos had
come up with a genius idea and that pretty soon everyone
would be shopping online? No need to be embarrassed. You
were right.
Facing
the Future - [Fortune] How successful companies are
surviving the slowdown and preparing for the future—and
what we can learn from their experiences.
SARS
Impact Could Hit $100b - [Boston Globe] The economic
damage caused by SARS could approach $100 billion, making
it one of the costliest diseases to emerge in the past decade,
according to a report released by Cambridge research firm
Bio Economic Research Associates.
Saving
$3 Billion the HP Way - [Business 2.0] Written off as
just another ill-conceived megamerger, Hewlett-Packard has
exceeded all its goals. Here's why the union has worked
-- so far -- and what must come next.
Where
Are Your New Ideas Coming From? - [Darwin] In many other
industries, the logic underlying the closed innovation paradigm
has become fundamentally obsolete. The paradigm is increasingly
at odds with the knowledge landscape at the beginning of
the twenty-first century. Several factors have eroded this
paradigm.
The
IM Invasion - [Fortune] Instant-messaging providers
are targeting corporations in a big way. Does using IM make
sense?
Is
Your Company Up To Speed? - [Fast Company] Does your
strategy buck conventional wisdom? Are you as committed
to creating new leaders as you are to launching new products?
Is your organization built for speed? Here are 10 make-or-break
questions to evaluate your company's performance -- and
25 fast companies that pass the test.
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SOCIETY AND POLITICS
Australian
Privacy Groups Demand Opt-In for New ID Tags - [ZDNet]
Australian privacy advocates have cautiously welcomed news
from the United States that some radio frequency identification
tags will be fitted with a "kill switch" to prevent
them transmitting information if the owner desires it.
Web
Antidote for Political Apathy - [Wired News] A couple
of years ago the BBC was blindsided by a grassroots campaign
against rising taxes on gas. Although discontent had been
growing for some time, the BBC didn't report the story until
the British army was called out to protect gas stations
from protesters. Hoping to avoid this kind of blindness
to ordinary Britons' political concerns, the broadcasting
behemoth is launching a radical online experiment to reconnect
itself with grassroots sentiment.
Mind
Your Language - It May Soon Be Extinct - [Telegraph]
Languages are under greater threat of extinction than either
birds or mammals, according to an analysis that shows cultural
diversity is suffering more than biological diversity.
America
Threatens to Move Nato After Franks is Charged - [Telegraph]
America's top military officer has warned that Nato may
have to move from its Brussels headquarters after an attempt
to bring war crimes charges against General Tommy Franks,
the commander of coalition forces in Iraq, in the Belgian
courts.
Computers
That Cajole - [Computerworld] We all know ways that
computers employ psychology to change our attitudes or behaviors.
Weight
of the World - [MSNBC] The United Nations spent the
war on the sidelines, sent there by a Bush administration
contemptuous of its clout. Can Kofi Annan make it relevant
again?
Wireless
Cameras Raise Privacy Fears - [New Scientist] Data protection
experts say that the sudden proliferation of wireless surveillance
cameras may put some people on the wrong side of the law,
and that hackers could intercept the pictures. In addition,
civil liberties groups are concerned that people will now
be able to hide intrusive cameras just about anywhere.
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ENVIRONMENT
Illuminating
Survey Shows Most Children Never See the Dark, While Light
Pollution Blinds Us to the Stars - [Scotsman] An overwelming
majority of children in the UK have never experienced total
darkness because of a rise in the use of artificial light
in the home, according to a new survey.
Greenhouse
Gas Might Green Up The Desert - [Science Daily] Every
year, industry releases about 22 billion tons of carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere. And every year, when scientists
measure the rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it
doesn’t add up – about half goes missing. Figuring
in the amount that could be soaked up by oceans, some 7
billion tons still remain unaccounted for. Now, a study
conducted at the edge of Israel’s Negev Desert has
come up with what might be a piece of the puzzle.
Swiss
Biotech Crop Ban Passed by Lower House - [ENS] Switzerland's
lower parliamentary house, the Nationalrat, has approved
a five year moratorium on the farming of genetically modified
crops by inserting the ban into an agricultural funding
bill. Both parliamentary houses rejected the same idea last
October.
Ocean's
Great Fish All But Gone - [New Scientist] The world's
fisheries are in a far worse state than anyone thought.
Great predatory fish such as shark, marlin, swordfish and
tuna that once filled the seas are much scarcer than they
once were, according to a new assessment. And worse, stocks
that appear to be flourishing may already have been stripped
bare without anyone noticing.
Seawater
'Salt Pump' Threatens Drinking Water - [New Scientist]
Coastal freshwater wells could be sucking more pollution
from the ocean than previously thought, according to a laboratory
experiment which shows that salt in seawater pumps pollutants
into neighbouring freshwater.
Sewage
Turned into Hydrogen Fuel - [New
Scientist] Waste from sewage plants could be transformed
into clean hydrogen fuel with high efficiency using new
processing technology devised in Europe.
Environmentalists
Want Sea Bass Off Menus - [UPI] Environmental groups
are asking restaurants nationwide to take Chilean sea bass
off their menus until dwindling fish stocks in Antarctica
can be restored. About 1,000 restaurants, including 100
in south Florida, have agreed to stop serving the sea bass,
also known as the Patagonian tooth fish.
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THE FUTURE
Demographic
Diamonds: In Their Own Words - [American Demographics]
To celebrate the magazine’s first 25 years, American
Demographics offers a special report that forecasts key
demographic shifts and revisits some of the significant
consumer trends it has observed along the way.
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