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Small world...
Life is everywhere on Earth, including in
the skies. Scientists have now found that biological materials
contribute approximately 25% of suspended materials in the
atmosphere. This affects the weather by creating clouds
and rain, and may also influence climate by reflecting and
absorbing sunlight. It appears that bacteria and allergenic
proteins may be transported around the planet through the
air.
Enhancing humans...
Advances in science and technology offer
new opportunities to overcome disabilities and disease.
Experiments at the Institute of Bioengineering in Alicante,
Spain, appear to have influenced human blood cells to produce
insulin. When injected into diabetic mice, the modified
blood cells caused their blood sugar levels to return to
normal. The technique may eventually offer a new treatment
for diabetes, without the complications of existing protocols.
Several research groups report advances
in growing replacement teeth using post-natal dental stem
cells and tissue engineering.
Researchers have developed a bionic implant
that could recreate 20/80 vision in people with age-related
macular degeneration, who are legally blind. A 3-millimetre-wide
chip fits behind the retina. The new vision system -- which
includes the chip, goggles fitted with a small video camera,
and a wallet-sized computer -- has been tested successfully
in rats. The next step is to conduct trials in larger animals.
An interface between the motor cortex in
his brain and a computer -- the BrainGate system -- allows
quadriplegic Matthew Nagle to translate his thoughts into
action. The ex-football player can play computer games and
open email by moving the computer cursor using his mind.
Nagel can also control his TV. Scientists hope that he may
soon be able to operate other devices, including an electric
wheelchair.
Technology and commerce...
CFO Magazine has profiled a number
of emerging technologies that it expects will impact commerce
in the next 20 years:
- laser printers that create three-dimensional
solid objects;
- quantum computers with more power than
today's fastest supercomputing machines;
- 3-D teleconferencing;
- sensory networks of communicating, intelligent
objects; and
- holographic storage capable of rapidly
accessing vast arrays of data.
Anytime, anywhere, on-demand manufacturing?
Atomic-level information storage? Face-to-face meetings
with holograms? Inventory that tracks and routes itself?
Simple disk drives storing terabytes of information? It's
all in the foreseeable future, according to author John
Goff.
Social trends...
Trendspotter Marita Wesley-Clough tracks
social trends and countertrends to help Hallmark's creative
team develop 'on-trend' products. The company has shared
her insights in a recent article. Current trends include:
- The Pursuit of Happiness
- Ostentation Nation / Countertrend: Enough
is Enough
- Past Perfect / Countertrend: The Power
of Now
- Economics Shaping Culture
- Partnering Supersized / Countertrend:
Enter the Entrepreneurs!
- Eastern Sun Rising / Countertrend: Countless
Countertrends
- Cultural Collective / Countertrend: Individual
Isolationism
- Sleight of Hand Society / Countertrend:
Shifting Paradigm
- Push for Mono-Mind / Countertrend: New
Solutions, New Systems
- Surveillance Society
- Migrating Boomers / Countertrend: Block
that Move
The article -- which we link to in this
newsletter (see Society below) -- provides a description
of all of these trends, and a snapshot of our ever-changing
society.
The new Asia...
The Globalist reports on the diplomatic
battle that is now underway to decide the extent of America's
future influence in Asia. China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia
and other Asian countries are working through a new balance
of power. The question is whether India, Australia and New
Zealand should be included in pan-Asian initiatives, and
what role the United States should play. Author Martin Walker
calls this the "Great Game of the 21st Century -- the
coming struggle for mastery of Asia."
Shareholders and sustainability...
SustainableBusiness.com reports on
the growing corporate commitment to sustainable business
practices, describing three emerging trends:
- an increase in climate-neutral companies
that are reducing their global warming emissions
- an increase in the number of companies
that are quantifying the impact of their sustainable business
practices through environmental accounting
- an increase in companies that have committed
to cradle-to-landfill stewardship, recovering and recycling
products at end-of-life
Many of these companies are Fortune 100
firms.
Masters of Business Imagination...
Author and futurist Jim Carroll proposes
a new Masters of Business Imagination program that will
equip leaders with new capabilities and new ways of thinking,
to prepare them for a future of constant, disruptive change.
Without these skills, he says, people will "focus on
managing, rather than leading. Administering, rather than
inspiring. Complying, rather than creating." The result,
Carroll says, is that they will "continue to wake up
each morning and think, 'what happened to the world I
knew?' "
David Forrest
we welcome your comments and feedback at mail@innovationwatch.com
SCIENCE
DNA
Weak Links May Provide Clues to Cancer Biology - [News-Medical.net]
The chromosomes of mammals, including humans, contain regions
that are particularly prone to breaking under conditions
of stress and in cancer. Now, new research by geneticists
at Duke University Medical Center finds that yeast cells
also contain such weak links in DNA and begins to reveal
the molecular characteristics of these links that might
help to explain them.
How
Tunes Get Stuck in your Head - [BBC] Scientists may
have found what makes a tune catchy, after locating the
brain area where a song's "hook" gets caught.
Free
Trade May Have Finished Off Neanderthals - [New Scientist]
Modern humans may have driven Neanderthals to extinction
30,000 years ago because Homo sapiens unlocked the
secrets of free trade, say a group of US and Dutch economists.
The theory could shed new light on the mysterious and sudden
demise of the Neanderthals after over 260,000 years of healthy
survival.
Detritus
of Life Abounds in the Atmosphere - [New Scientist]
A global study has found that tiny fragments of biological
detritus are a major component of the atmosphere, controlling
the weather and forming a previously hidden microbial metropolis
in the skies. Besides their climatic influence, they may
even be spreading diseases across the globe.
Human
Blood Cells Coaxed to Produce Insulin - [New Scientist]
Tantalising experiments that seem to have made human blood
cells start producing insulin have raised the prospect of
a new treatment for diabetes. Although the treatment has
only been tried in mice so far, it might mean people can
be cured with implants of their own cells.
Growing
Your Own Replacement Teeth? Not Science Fiction! - [Science
Daily] Dental medicine is on the brink of profound change
due, in large measure, to unprecedented advances in science
and technology. Advances in stem cell biology will improve
our understanding of degenerative diseases and assist in
developing therapies for replacing damaged or diseased parts/tissues.
Biologists
Discover Why 10 Percent Of Europeans Are Safe From HIV Infection
- [Science Daily] Biologists at the University of Liverpool
have discovered how the plagues of the Middle Ages have
made around 10% of Europeans resistant to HIV.
TECHNOLOGY
'Bionic
Eye' May Help Reverse Blindness - [New Scientist] A
"bionic eye" may one day help blind people see
again, according to US researchers who have successfully
tested the system in rats. The eye implant -- a 3-millimetre-wide
chip that would fit behind the retina -- could be a dramatic
step above currently available technology, says the team
at Stanford University, California, US.
Revamp
for Web Navigation System Urged - [New Scientist] The
system the internet relies on to direct web traffic needs
to be revamped to thwart spammers and identity thieves,
says a report, which was funded by the US National Academies,
the Department of Commerce and National Science Foundation.
Tech
Brain Implant Reads Man's Mind - [Silicon.com] Quadriplegic
ex-American football player Matthew Nagle is using a system
that converts his thoughts into actions on a computer. Nagle's
brain is connected to his computer by the BrainGate system,
which thought impulses using a sensor implanted in the motor
cortex of his brain.
Attack
of the Soccer Robots - [Slate] It's spring training
at Carnegie Mellon's MultiRobot Lab. On a 6-by-4-meter,
green-felt field, little robot dogs run through drills:
shooting, passing, goaltending. Every Wednesday, the Sony
AIBOs line up for a full scrimmage, their heads swiveling
to find the ball and their rumps pointed to the sky. It's
last week's code against this week's code -- may the best
robots win.
Need
a Building? Just Add Water - [Wired] In a world with
millions of refugees, numerous war zones and huge areas
devastated by natural disaster, aid agencies and militaries
have long needed a way to quickly erect shelters on demand.
Soon, there will be such a method.
Nanotech
Company Aims to Put Paint in the Past - [C|NET] Chemical
giant DuPont is licensing technology from a small Ohio company
that could make industrial paint a thing of the past.
NASA
Turning Nanobot Swarm from Fiction into Science - [USA
Today] Engineers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
are testing a robot that they hope to shrink to nanobot
size and eventually form what NASA calls "autonomous
nanotechnology swarms" (ANTS). The researchers aim
to give ANTS enough artificial intelligence to make smart
decisions as well as know intuitively when and how to walk
and swarm.
BUSINESS AND ECONOMY
Oil
Prices Spread to Grapes, TVs, Pizza - [Christian Science
Monitor] The hike in oil prices is beginning to ripple through
the economy, pinching consumers at places far beyond the
gas pump.
Play
to Pay: Service Inserts Ads in Games - [C|NET] You've
just foiled a terrorist plot to destroy New York and managed
to knock off a few dozen evil henchman in the process. And
for some strange reason, you have a sudden craving for a
Dunkin' Donut. Be prepared for such moments to become a
regular occurrence, thanks to a new service that inserts
dynamic ads into video games.
Where
MBAs Learn the Art of Blue-Skying - [Business Week]
If you are looking for a business school that teaches you
how to think creatively, design new products and services,
manage your innovations through a corporate bureaucracy,
or present them to outside angel investors, Fontaine-bleau,
France-based Insead, the leading European B-school, just
outside Paris, may be just the place.
The
Performance Paradox - [Fast Company] Establish a reputation
for great value, top quality, or pulling late-night miracles
in time for crucial client meetings, and soon enough, the
goalposts move. "Greatness" lasts only as long
as someone fails to imagine something better. Inevitably,
the exceptional becomes the expected.
The
New Face of Identity Theft - [CFO Europe] While few
people regard the CFO as the front line of defence on computer
security, the potential damage to corporate reputation,
the threat of fines for failing to protect sensitive data
and the actual hit that corporate coffers could take make
data protection a major facet of risk management.
The
Age of Precision Markets - [HBS Working Knowledge] The
changes we are beginning to experience are as profound and
disruptive as those that occurred when roads were first
paved, local markets began to join together, and mass markets
first developed. Jonathan Byrnes calls this new era the
Age of Precision Markets.
In
the Year 2025 - [CFO Magazine]
Which technologies will revolutionize commerce over the
next 20 years? Our fearless predictions include 3-D printing,
holographic storage, teleimmersion, and more.
SOCIETY
Russia
Loses One Million People Every Year - [Pravda] The Russian
population is becoming extinct. The nation loses from 500
thousand to one million people every year.
Open-Access
Journals Flourish - [Wired] Despite concerns about the
ethics of pay-for-play publishing, the number of open-access
academic and medical journals is growing at a fast clip.
In January, an open-access pioneer announced it would more
than double the number of journals it offers. Meanwhile,
Blackwell Publishing, the world's largest publisher of academic
society journals, is dipping its toes into open access,
and the number of free journals has grown by about 300 over
the last few months.
Testing
Your Tech Smarts - [Wired] Unlike many other standardized
tests, the ICT assessment is not based on multiple-choice
questions or essays. Instead, the ICT asks test-takers to
complete tasks with the help of common internet technologies.
Those who take it may find themselves scanning e-mail messages
for important attachments, looking for documents using a
search engine and picking the most authoritative sources
out of a set of search results, among other things.
Swedish
Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves - [TIME Europe]
Why does one of the world's most gender-equal states need
a women-only political party?
Europe
is Working Longer - [Project Syndicate] France’s
decision effectively abolishing its 35-hour workweek by
allowing employers to increase working hours -- and pay
-- marks a reversal of a decades-old trend. In the 1980’s
and 1990’s, most European countries reduced working
hours: Germany went from more than 40 to 38 per week, the
UK from 40 to 37, Denmark from 39 to 37, and France from
40 to 35. Today, however, as Europeans struggle with high
unemployment and stagnating living standards, they may have
to work longer to cope with globalization.
Online
Criminals Challenge Police - [BBC] The net has not just
changed the way that businesses work, it has done the same
for organised crime too, a leading E-crime police officer
has said.
Trends
and Countertrends for 2005 and Beyond - [Hallmark] While
attitudes, perceptions and behavior continually evolve into
trends, and as individuals, the nation and the world adjust
to change, some trends become cultural characteristics,
observes Hallmark's trendsetter Marita Wesely-Clough.
GLOBAL POLITICS
China
to be World’s Top Outsourcing Destination - [Financial
Express] Twenty countries have emerged as the leading technology
outsourcing destinations in 2005. China, Costa Rica, the
Czech Republic and Hungary round out the top five countries.
The Report predicts that in 2015 the top five outsourcing
destinations will be China, India, the US, Brazil and Russia.
China,
India: Rule Global Tech? - [Wired] China and India should
work together to dominate the world's tech industry, bringing
together Chinese hardware with Indian software, China's
prime minister said. On a visit to India's southern technology
hub of Bangalore, Premier Wen Jiabao said the two nations
should put aside their historic rivalries for the venture
and welcome a new "Asian century."
Imperial
Reach - [The Nation] As the Defense Department begins
to look beyond the war in Iraq, a major priority will be
to commence a systematic realignment of US forces and bases
abroad. This massive undertaking will result in a substantial
reduction of American forces in Germany and South Korea,
and the establishment of new facilities in Eastern Europe,
the Caspian Sea basin, Southeast Asia and Africa.
Kofi
Annan and George Bush -- Finally United? - [The Globalist]
Believe it or not, but Kofi Annan and George Bush are sounding
a lot alike lately. Both men have publicly committed to
a stronger, more effective United Nations. As David Shorr
of the Stanley Foundation explains, the surprising similarities
between Kofi Annan and President Bush start with their respective
views on freedom.
Battling
for the New Asia - [The Globalist] The most interesting
and important diplomatic game now underway anywhere is taking
place in Asia. China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and other
Asian nations are engulfed in a pitched battle about the
future role of the United States in Asia.
Internet
Fans Flames of Chinese Nationalism - [Yale Global] Highly
connected and internet-savvy Chinese youth today have emerged
as virulent nationalists, hampering the government's attempt
at better relations with Japan. Meanwhile, rising Japanese
nationalism is adding fuel to the fire.
China's
Anti-Secession Law Boomerangs - [Project Syndicate]
The passage of any law by China’s rubber-stamp National
People’s Congress is always a mere formality. But the
controversial legislation to outlaw Taiwanese secession
has proved anything but routine. It raised the stakes for
the island’s pro-independence camp and increased the
risk of a cross-Strait military conflict.
ENVIRONMENT
Global
Ocean Plants Increasing, Coasts Greening - [New Kerala]
Amounts of phytoplankton, which are tiny free floating ocean
plants, have increased, indicating an improvement in the
oceanic health, researchers at the US space agency NASA
have said.
Growth
Foreseen for Ocean Fish-Farming - [Monterey Herald]
With the U.S. fishing industry unable to keep up with the
growing appetite for seafood, offshore fish farming is being
promoted as an alternative to depleting wild stocks and
importing billions of dollars in seafood. The trade deficit
for seafood in 2003 was $8 billion. The only natural resource
with a bigger trade gap was oil. So the federal government's
fledgling Aquaculture Program, formed in 2003, has a target
of quintupling the aquaculture industry to $5 billion by
2025.
Elephants
Driven to Extinction by Man, Not Climate Change - [The
Independent] Elephants have been hunted to extinction on
several continents and their global demise over the millennia
is the direct result of human migration rather than climate
change, scientists have found.
China's
Wasteful Ways - [Business Week] The World Bank figures
inefficient fuel use is costing China upwards of $120 billion
in lost industrial output annually and health costs related
to pollution. Not even fast-growing China can afford the
long-term bills that will come due from the way it burns
through energy.
Three
Sustainability Trends to Watch for 2005 - [SustainableBusiness.com]
Sustainability as a key bottom-line issue for investors
is poised to break through into the mainstream of consciousness
in 2005. After years of business leaders grappling with
the question of how to minimize the toll they take on the
environment, we now see such well-known companies as IBM,
Dell, AMD and Electrolux fully committed to sustainable
business practices.
Australia
Bids to Craft Alternative to Kyoto Protocol - [Environment
News Service] Business and government leaders from Australia
and New Zealand are attending an invitation only event to
map the path towards controlling global warming beyond 2012
when the Kyoto Protocol expires. The two countries, neither
of which is legally bound to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
under the protocol, are meeting to devise other ways to
limit climate change.
Extinction
Forecast for One-Quarter of All Primates - [Environment
News Service] Human encroachment, hunting and illegal trade
are wiping out the world's apes, monkeys, lemurs and other
primates, according to a new report released today by the
world's top primate scientists. Twenty-five percent, or
one in four, of the 625 primate species and subspecies on
Earth are at risk of extinction, the report demonstrates.
THE FUTURE
The
Masters of Business Imagination Manifesto - Complacency
in a time of rapid, disruptive change can be a death sentence
-- not only for organizations, but for the careers and skills
of those who work there! It's time to abandon the thinking
that has had you anchored firmly to the past -- and to shift
your focus to the future, with enthusiasm, motivation and
imagination.
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