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Reuters news service reports that German
scientists have found a new way to control the HIV virus,
by targeting a protein in human cells that the virus uses
for replication. The experimental chemical apparently has
no toxic side-effects. While early results are promising,
researchers say it typically requires five to ten years
of testing for a drug to become available.
Scientific American reports that
the weird science of quantum cryptography (see our February
2001 article, "Crazy
Computing") has moved from the laboratory to commercial
products. The technology is now being tested over much longer
distances. The European Space Agency will experiment with
space-to-ground transmissions. The European Union is planning
to use quantum encryption in ground communication networks,
to prevent eavesdropping by the Echelon surveillance system,
operated by the United States in cooperation with Britain
and other nations.
The BBC says scientists at the University
of California have combined muscle cells from rats and silicon
chips to create microscopic robots. These small devices
crawl around on their own, without an external source of
power. Professor Carlo Montemagno anticipates that muscle
could eventually be used to drive small electric generators,
to power computer chips.
DCM-Doll Capital Management -- a Silicon
Valley venture capital firm -- began investing in China
nine years ago. Business Week reports that two of
the companies in its portfolio have now gone public, and
the firm continues to make new deals. Co-founder David Chao
says it has just finished raising $375 million in additional
funds. Chao says that, in the technology sector, semiconductor-design,
media services, next-generation Internet, and next-generation
game companies or mobile-services companies are all attractive
investments.
KFC is serving up its original Kentucky
Fried Chicken recipe, and other unique dishes, in 1,200
locations in China. Parent company Yum Brands earned 15
percent of its operating profits -- more than $200 million
-- in China last year. This is expected to grow to 18 percent
in 2005.
The Christian Science Monitor reports
concerns in some quarters that the Bush administration may
be considering widespread mental-health screening of children
in the United States, but says these concerns may be overblown.
The New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, appointed by
President Bush, produced a report in 2003 that discussed
the benefits of mental-health screening of Americans of
all ages, and schools as a possible place to evaluate children.
There are no signs at the moment, the newspaper says, that
the administration has any immediate plans to act on these
recommendations.
Richard Gowan argues in The Globalist
that the European Union and African Union should partner
to create a more effective way of managing regional conflicts.
He calls this "a NATO for Africa." Such an arrangement,
he proposes, would move beyond the colonial history of European
interventions -- allowing the African Union to request EU
assistance, and engaging the African Union in joint operations.
The BBC reports on new research by
Australian scientists that confirms a decline in the amount
of sunlight reaching the Earth's surface. Comparison of
records since the 1950s shows dimming of 10% in the USA,
and as much as 30% in parts of the former Soviet Union.
This may affect world rainfall patterns, scientists say,
and may have contributed to drought conditions in sub-Saharan
Africa.
Based on interviews with experts, the Christian
Science Monitor speculates on what the future might
look like in the United States. Nat Irvin II, a professor
of future studies at Wake Forest University, says the country
should expect a 74 percent increase in the number of people
over 50 by 2050; 90 percent of the population increase in
minorities; and a significant rise in diversity, with implications
for music, food and other cultural experiences. Architect
Sarah Susanka anticipates major changes in the built environment.
Homes, she says, will be manufactured, and virtual reality
will allow buyers to experience them before they are assembled.
David Forrest
we welcome your comments and feedback at mail@innovationwatch.com
SCIENCE
German
Team Finds New Way to Block HIV Replication - [Reuters]
German scientists have found a new way to prevent the HIV
virus from replicating, offering hope in the face of the
virus's increasing resistance to existing drugs.
Genetic
Shuffle Linked to Fertility - [MSNBC] Researchers working
in Iceland say they have identified a genetic pattern that
makes some Europeans more fertile. The genetic pattern,
known as an inversion, is a stretch of the DNA code that
runs backwards in people who carry it.
Europe
Needs Space Nuclear Power Options - [Space News] Europe
will have no choice but to develop nuclear-powered satellites
if it wants to continue to explore the outer solar system,
European Space Agency (ESA) Science Director David Southwood
said.
Rats
Can Tell Two Languages Apart From Speech Cues, Sharing An
Ability With Humans And Monkeys - [Science Daily] Mammals
other than humans can distinguish between different speech
patterns. Neuroscientists in Barcelona report that rats,
like humans (newborn and adult) and Tamarin monkeys, can
extract regular patterns in language from speech (prosodic)
cues.
Universe
Measured by Mapping 260,000 Galaxies - [Boston Globe]
By looking at a vast swath of sky, astronomers said they
have figured out a way to measure the universe -- using
a kind of "cosmological ruler." Finding the cosmic
ruler required two teams of scientists to map more than
260,000 galaxies.
Genetic
Mutation Linked to Parkinson's Disease - [WebIndia]
A mutation in a recently discovered Parkinson's disease
gene is believed to be the most common genetic cause of
inherited forms of the disease, reports a study published
in the Lancet.
Possible
Planet Caught on Film... Again - [MSNBC] Astronomers
are highly confident that they've taken the first photograph
of a planet outside our solar system. Make that two photographs.
TECHNOLOGY
Software
Tool Helps Visualize Genomes - [Science Daily] The Broad
Institute of MIT and Harvard have created and released for
free a software browser to help researchers better visualize
and manipulate entire genomes.
Best-Kept
Secrets - [Scientific American] Beginning in 2003, two
companies -- id Quantique in Geneva and MagiQ Technologies
in New York City -- introduced commercial products that
send a quantum-cryptographic key. And, after demonstrating
a record transmission distance of 150 kilometers, NEC is
to come to market with a product at the earliest next year.
Others, such as IBM, Fujitsu and Toshiba, have active research
efforts.
'Smart
Bombs' Could Treat Cancer - [Guardian] Tiny exploding
capsules could be used to deliver cancer drugs directly
to tumours without affecting healthy cells, it was reported.
Scientists in Australia are developing
the "smart bombs" which are designed to allow
pinpoint accurate treatment.
Israeli
'Nano-Lightbulbs' Could Help Detect Drug's Efficiency
- [Israel21C] Polymer patches placed on the walls of living
cells actually change color and light up as a result of
events occurring on the cell surface.
Robot
Makers Say World Cup Will Be Theirs By 2050 - [Scotsman]
A Japanese consortium of robotics experts has thrown down
the gauntlet to future players of the beautiful game [of
football] by claiming their engineered humans will play
mankind off the park within 45 years.
Patients
Put on Thinking Caps - [Wired] Any geek worthy of the
moniker has dreamed of connecting his or her brain directly
to a computer for blissful freedom from keyboard and mouse.
For quadriplegics, that ability would give life a whole
new dimension.
'Living'
Robots Powered by Muscle - [BBC] Tiny robots powered
by living muscle have been created by scientists at the
University of California, Los Angeles. The devices were
formed by "growing" rat cells on microscopic silicon
chips, the researchers report in the journal Nature Materials.
BUSINESS AND ECONOMY
The
Dangers of Economic Isolationism - [The Globalist] Are
global companies -- and everyone who believes in free and
fair trade -- in danger of losing the battle of public opinion?
Mike Eskew, Chairman and CEO of UPS, acknowledges that those
opposed to globalization have stated their case much clearer
than those in favor of global integration. He outlines five
ways in which business should step up to the challenge.
Global
IT Outsourcing Deals Rocket Up to $163bn - [Silicon.com]
The IT Services Contract Tracker by analyst Datamonitor
and outsourcing advisers Everest Group found the combined
value of 2004 deals globally rose by 37 per cent to $163bn.
Microsoft's
Gates Wants Meeting with Brazil's Lu - [eWeek] Microsoft
Corp. is lobbying Brazil's government to agree to a meeting
between the company's chairman, Bill Gates, and President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the World Economic Forum next
week, a Brazilian official said. The country has taken a
prominent role in the so-called free software movement,
an effort that champions free computer operating systems
like Linux as an alternative to Microsoft's Windows program.
Virgin
Boss Unveils Space Trips - [BBC] Space tourism is less
than three years away, Sir Richard Branson has claimed.
There are already 13,500 potential passengers for the £100,000
($190,000) "Virgin Galactic spaceliner" trip,
Sir Richard told the BBC. The entrepreneur is having five
"spaceliners" built in the U.S. by the team which
launched the SpaceShipOne rocket plane last year.
Enron
Effect: The Changed Corner Office - [Christian Science
Monitor] Experts say the trials already completed -- and
the jail sentences under way -- have had a big impact on
corporate behavior. Lawyers for white-collar defendants
say that CEOs are now pressuring underlings to state earnings
accurately. Thanks to Martha Stewart, executives are more
aware of the dangers of lying to prosecutors. Corporate
leaders also know that Congress now requires them to personally
vouch for their companies' earnings statements.
Kentucky
Fried China - [MSNBC] China’s relentless appetite
for the colonel’s chicken has KFC on a building boom
in the world’s most populous country, with 1,200 locations,
soaring profits and a menu that mixes in bamboo shoots and
lotus roots.
VCs
in the Wild, Wild East - [Business Week] In 1996, Silicon
Valley venture capitalists were more keen on finding another
Netscape next door than in going beyond US borders. That
year some of them shook their heads when David Chao co-founded
DCM-Doll Capital Management, a VC firm that planned to invest
up to 25% of its funds in Asian technology and telecommunications
markets.
SOCIETY
Teens
Braking at Hitting Road - [Journal Gazette] while the
adults weren’t looking, teens have stopped driving
at 16 the way they used to. In a shift that has overtaken
the culture virtually without notice, a confluence of forces
has redefined the concept of “driving age.”
Technology
Changing Hajj Pilgrimage - [ABC News] Modern technology
has changed the way Muslims experience the hajj pilgrimage,
a rite required of able-bodied faithful who can afford it
at least once in a lifetime.
Saving
Seed Is Latest Tech Piracy - [Wired] Monsanto's "seed
police" snared soy farmer Homan McFarling in 1999,
and the company is demanding he pay it hundreds of thousands
of dollars for alleged technology piracy. McFarling's sin?
He saved seed from one harvest and replanted it the following
season, a revered and ancient agricultural practice.
Blacks,
Whites Still Separated by Wealth - [ABC News] Forty
years after the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and
decades after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. made strides
in racial equality, America remains split along racial lines
divided by the color green. Economic equality has become
the paramount civil rights issue of the 21st century, civil
rights advocates said as they prepared to celebrate King's
birthday.
Children
Make Deadly Soldiers in the World's Rebel Groups - [Christian
Science Monitor] Disparate groups in Sri Lanka, Indonesia,
India, and Burma (Myanmar) are fighting for different reasons,
but they share a common characteristic: their systematic
recruitment of children.
Beating
the Bullies - [TIME Europe] Abusive behavior is on the
rise in European schools -- and both victims and perps are
getting younger. Here's how governments, teachers and parents
are fighting back.
Screening
a Child's Mind - [Christian Science Monitor] Should
every child be tested for mental-health problems? Although
there are no present plans, a federal report stirs fears
the US will require it eventually.
GLOBAL POLITICS
Governing
Russia: Putin's Federal Dilemmas - [New Europe Review]
Russia must contend with the potential resurgence of ethno-political
and inter-communal conflicts that marked the collapse of
the USSR -- including the conflict between the Ossetian
and Ingush communities around Beslan -- and the further
deterioration of the region's economy, social conditions,
and political structures.
Global
Economy Will Be Built by BRICs - [Hindu Business Line]
The importance of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China)
-- as a source of new demand and as a share of global spending
-- could increase sharply over the next few decades. As
a result, the world might look very different than it does
today and sooner than most people expected.
Biological
Attack Likely by 2020, Report Warns - [Government Executive]
A terrorist group is "likely" to conduct an attack
using biological weapons by 2020, according to a report
released by a CIA think tank.
CIA
Sees China, India Emerging as World Powers - [The Union
Leader] India and China increasingly will flex powerful
political and economic muscles as major new global players
by 2020, an in-house CIA think tank said, likening the rise
of the two countries to the emergence of the United States
as a world power a century ago.
The
Transatlantic Yin and Yang - [The Globalist] The U.S.-Europe
relationship has been turned on its head. Once united against
a common Cold War enemy, the two sides of the Atlantic are
now growing farther apart. Stephen Klimczuk -- Director
of A.T. Kearney's Global Business Policy Council -- looks
at this unlikely role reversal. He also examines the prospects
for future transatlantic harmony.
A
Blueprint to Fight Poverty around the World - [Christian
Science Monitor] The developing world is not an unrelieved
landscape of despair. When high-level government vision
and support are accompanied by a significant increase in
funds -- often aid from richer countries -- problems of
poverty can be overcome, according to a detailed new UN
report.
Can
Europe Build a NATO for Africa? - [The Globalist] Africa’s
ongoing crisis -- from the genocide in Darfur to civil conflicts
in other countries -- continues to defy easy solutions.
Richard Gowan of the Foreign Policy Centre argues that the
EU should partner with the African Union to provide security
and stability. He outlines how an organization modeled on
the role NATO played during the Cold War could get the job
done for Africa.
ENVIRONMENT
Grid
Computing to Combat Global Warming - [ZDNet UK] Researchers
claimed that grid computing may be the answer to managing
the increasing number of renewable energy sources that could
eventually be integrated into the UK's power network
Hybrid
Buzz - [Metro Times] As many as 35 different hybrid
models are expected to be available in the United States
by the year 2008. Availability, however, doesn’t mean
dominance. In a report released last year, the US Department
of Energy predicted that hybrid market share in the US could
be as high as 15 percent by 2012.
Why
the Sun Seems to be 'Dimming' - [BBC] We are all seeing
rather less of the Sun, according to scientists who have
been looking at five decades of sunlight measurements. They
have reached the disturbing conclusion that the amount of
solar energy reaching the Earth's surface has been gradually
falling.
Dioxin
Found in German Eggs - [BBC] Germany has called for
higher environmental standards on farms after free-range
eggs were found to contain the cancer causing chemical dioxin.
'UK
Seas are in Crisis' says WWF - [BBC] Britain's seas
are in crisis, with key species in serious decline, according
to conservationists. A report by the WWF blames inadequate
planning and poor management.
Cities
Ban Cars to Lower Pollution Levels - [Scotsman] People
in Rome, Milan and other Italian cities got around on public
transport, bicycles, on foot and even on horseback as car
traffic was banned for several hours to lower air-pollution
levels.
Study
Links Child Cancer to Pollutants - [MSNBC] Most childhood
cancers are probably caused by exposure in the womb to environmental
and industrial pollutants that have been inhaled by the
mother, a British researcher said.
THE FUTURE
The
Future of Homes and Housing -
[Christian Science Monitor] In what kinds of houses and
communities will Americans be living in 2020? What kind
of jobs will people hold? Will fewer of us be married? Writers
Kim Campbell, Clayton Collins, Marilyn Gardner, and Elizabeth
Lund sought answers to these questions -- and more -- from
eight experts whose jobs require them to predict what our
lives will be like in 15 years.
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