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Cellular programming...
Scientists at the University of Utah have
shown that Planarian worms lose their ability to regenerate
amputated parts when the smedwi-2 gene is silenced in their
adult stem cells. Daughter cells are unable to differentiate
into cells that repair the amputation in the absence of
this gene. The precise mechanism for the gene's effect still
remains unknown; however, the results are intriguing. Plants,
animals and humans all have genes that are similar to smedwi-2.
Imitating life...
Israeli physicists have designed a small
robot that may swim more efficiently -- and faster -- than
biological organisms. Such nanoscale robots could swim inside
the spine, heart or lungs to capture images or deliver drugs.
Researcher Joseph Avron of the Technion-Israel Institute
of Technology says, "We are also studying swimmers
that are so small that quantum mechanics effects become
relevant."
Researchers at the University of Berkeley
are designing artificial vision systems using ideas borrowed
from nature. MSNBC reports that there are at least ten animal
vision systems, each of which has evolved in different circumstances
and with different capabilities. While researchers have
developed artificial lenses and are working on synthetic
retinas, they have not yet been able to develop a fully
functioning artificial eye.
The next wave...
Business Standard reports that corporations
are now starting to outsource IT infrastructure management.
It says data centers, networks, servers, storage and desktop
computers will increasingly be managed from offshore. The
global market for infrastructure management services has
been estimated at between $86 billion and $150 billion,
60 percent of which may be managed remotely. India is expected
to gain a large market share.
In harm's way...
GeoTimes says the U.S. federal government
is paying more for natural disasters. As the insurer of
last resort, it has seen costs triple as a percentage of
GDP in the last forty years -- excluding recent costs for
Hurricane Katrina. Less than 1 percent of declared disasters
-- hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, and floods -- account
for most of these costs. Paradoxically, the journal says,
mitigation measures against disaster may encourage greater
settlement in high-risk areas, placing "more people
and infrastructure in harm's way," and ultimately incurring
higher damages.
Early warning...
The International Herald Tribune
says movies and music foreshadowed recent riots in France
-- depicting the desperation of immigrant youths in the
Paris suburbs or banlieues. Mathieu Kassovitz's film,
"La Haine," or "Hate," made a decade
ago, was the first of many films that have come to be known
as "banlieue movies" -- portraying life in the
public housing projects. Years ago, rap groups had already
voiced the anger that burst forth suddenly last month in
violence and burning cars. As early as 1991, the newspaper
says, the group NTM rapped: "Go visit the banlieues/
Look at young people in their eyes/ You who command from
on high/ My appeal is serious, don't take it as a game/
Young people are changing, that's what is worrying."
Zoning out...
Yale Global says Americans are turning
away from the rest of the world. The percentage of U.S.
university students studying a second language has fallen
from 16 percent in 1965 to 8.6 percent today. The percentage
of foreign news stories on the front page of American newspapers
declined from 27 percent in 1987 to 21 percent in 2003.
Television coverage of foreign news was halved in the 1990s.
This shouldn't be a surprise, the journal says. "Because
since the days of ancient Rome, it is an axiom of political
science that economic well-being dulls the appetite of citizens
to participate in civil affairs."
Tipping points...
More scientists are speculating on the possibility
of sudden changes in Earth systems, triggered by global
warming. There is a genuine risk, they say, of tipping points
that produce a change of state on the planetary scale. Like
runaway melting of the Greenland ice sheet that raises sea
levels by more than 20 feet and disrupts the Gulf Stream.
"The concern," says Tim Lenton, an earth systems
modeller ar the University of East Anglia, "is that
there are tipping points out there that could be passed
before we're halfway through the century."
The Machine...
The Internet, Kevin Kelly says, is a megacomputer.
A "distributed chip" based on a billion active
PCs. And it's doubling in size every few years. "Since
each of its 'transistors' is itself a personal computer
with a billion transistors running lower functions,"
he says, "the Machine is fractal." We will become
more and more dependent on this megacomputer for knowing,
for remembering -- for our identity. It is nothing less,
Kelly says, than a "global field" of intelligence,
"a collaborative interface for our civilisation."
David Forrest
we welcome your comments and feedback at mail@innovationwatch.com
SCIENCE
That's
the Way the Spaghetti Crumbles - [Science News] Great
scientists sometimes do silly experiments. The renowned
physicist and Nobel prize winner Richard P. Feynman, for
instance, once got it into his head to figure out why uncooked
spaghetti doesn't snap neatly in two when you bend it far
enough to break. Pay attention next time, and you'll notice
that the pasta tends to shatter into three or more fragments
of unequal lengths.
Space
Food of the Future - [CNN] During the six- to eight-month
trip to Mars, space travelers will grow lettuce, spinach,
carrots, tomatoes, green onions, radishes, bell peppers,
strawberries, herbs and cabbage aboard their spacecraft.
Gene
Swapping Helps Bacteria Adapt - [Scientific American]
Bacteria, like all organisms, have to make a living in an
ever changing world. They face shifting climates, varying
food supplies and--horror of horrors--antibiotics. How do
they adapt? According to the results of a new study, simply
by copying the successful innovations of their relatives.
Scoping
Out the Planet - [Scientific American] EarthScope will
measure the movement and deformation of the earth below
the contiguous U.S. and Alaska with a level of detail and
data accessibility never seen in geophysics. The hope is
that a clearer understanding of the forces that shape the
environment will translate into better assessment of earthquake
and volcanic hazards and more precise knowledge of the country's
natural resources.
Japan
Probe Lands on Asteroid - [ABC News] A Japanese space
probe made history when it landed on the surface of an asteroid
and then collected rock samples that could give clues to
the origin of the solar system.
Normal
Chromosome Ends Elicit A Limited DNA Damage Response
- [Science Daily] Researchers at the Salk Institute for
Biological Studies discovered that cells co-opted the machinery
that usually repairs broken strands of DNA to protect the
integrity of chromosomes. This finding solves for the first
time an important question that has long puzzled scientists.
Silenced
Gene in Worm Shows Role in Regeneration - [Innovations
Report] Researchers at the University of Utah have discovered
that when a gene called smedwi-2 is silenced in the adult
stem cells of planarians, the quarter-inch long worm is
unable to carry out a biological process that has mystified
scientists for centuries: regeneration.
TECHNOLOGY
Finding
Fat Before Heart Attacks - [Wired] Biomedical engineer
Shelton Caruthers and his team at Washington University
in St. Louis are using nanoparticles to detect arterial
obstructions before they can cause serious damage.
Chaos-Encrypted
Information Goes the Distance - [Science News] On any
given day, millions of e-commerce transactions send credit
card and bank-account numbers zipping across the globe.
To keep the bits of information private, companies such
as PayPal use encryption software that employs mathematically
intense algorithms. In a more advanced tactic, researchers
now report sending a message embedded in light and masked
by a wildly fluctuating laser beam. The message successfully
traversed a commercial optical-fiber network.
Living
Camera Uses Bacteria to Capture Image - [New Scientist]
A dense bed of light-sensitive bacteria has been developed
as a unique kind of photographic film. Although it takes
4 hours to take a picture and only works in red light, it
also delivers extremely high resolution.
Animal
Eyes Inspire New Technology - [MSNBC] When nanotech
researcher Luke Lee is looking for inspiration for the next
generation of optical gadgets, he ponders the lobster. And
the house fly. And the octopus.
Has
Time Expired for Coin-Operated Meters? - [MSNBC] Using
cell phones, wireless, IBM takes aim at $26 billion parking
industry.
Tiny
Swimmer Makes a Splash - [Physics
Web] Physicists in Israel have designed a tiny swimming
robot that could help to answer fundamental questions in
biology and may also have applications in medical nanotechnology.
Professor
In Your Pocket - [MSNBC] Now course casting lets college
students skip classes and download lectures onto their iPods.
Biology rocks! But some parents just don't understand.
BUSINESS AND ECONOMY
Avian
Flu: Business Thinks The Unthinkable - [Business Week]
Executives are starting to confront the real chance of panicked
workers, supply disruptions, and economic upheaval.
Random
House: Digital is Our Destiny - [Business Week] Unwilling
to let a Google, Yahoo!, or Microsoft dictate terms in cyberspace,
Random House Inc., the world's largest trade publisher,
is taking the industry lead. In early November it outlined
ways it would begin to offer its books directly to consumers
on a page-per-view basis.
Learning
to Manage Complexity - [HBS Working Knowledge] It turns
out that complexity causes businesses to change in fundamental
ways. There are businesses that grow to billions of dollars
of revenues before this problem hits. These companies have
a fairly simple, controllable business model, and they can
pump more and more business through it. But when they begin
opening multiple factories or distribution centers, or sourcing
abroad, all of a sudden the world changes. Most often, their
internal systems and customary way of managing have to change
completely. Their managers don't know what hit them.
Google
Tool Maps Out Shopping Trips - [CNN] Joining the herd
of Web sites jostling to cash in on the holiday shopping
season, online search engine leader Google Inc. is adding
a tool designed to make it easier for consumers to map out
their local trips to the mall. The feature, unveiled Tuesday
at Google's Froogle shopping site, pinpoints merchants selling
a specific item within a designated ZIP code.
A
Long-Distance Relationship - [Business Standard] After
software, call centres and business processes, it’s
now the turn of IT departments to be offshored to India.
That’s right, IT departments. The IT infrastructure
-- everything from data centres, networks, servers and storage
to desktops -- of a number of the world’s top corporations
are now being “remotely” managed from India.
Making
Credibility Your Strongest Asset - [HBS Working Knowledge]
What happens when lots of other people are selling what
you've got, or many others are bidding for what you want?
One solution to distinguishing yourself in competitive environments
is to build your bargaining endowment -- storing up credibility
and resources by developing relationships, burnishing your
reputation, and controlling key assets.
Has
This Man Found the Next Gusher? - [TIME] Gene Van Dyke
is now the largest deepwater license holder in Africa, with
20 million acres under license, an area equivalent to 70%
of the Gulf of Mexico's deepwater fields. He believes that
the region could hold as much as 100 billion bbl., equal
to the reserves of such oil powers as Iran or Kuwait.
SOCIETY
The
Increasing Costs of U.S. Natural Disasters - [Geotimes]
The U.S. government, as the insurer of last resort, is becoming
increasingly vulnerable to the costs of natural disasters
through disaster declarations and spending by the Federal
Emergency Management Agency. The number of presidential
disaster declarations has generally increased over the last
half century, since the federal government has assumed continuous
responsibility for disaster aid. The federal government’s
costs for natural disasters are increasing both in terms
of the federal budget and the gross domestic product.
High-Tech
Child's Play - [Christian Science Monitor] When it comes
to technology, young children are a marketer's least discerning
demographic - they are largely uninterested in bandwidth,
megapixels, or thread counts. But this Christmas, tech-peddlers
are turning their gaze toward kids, with new lines of grown-up
gadgets built for tiny hands.
Entr'acte:
If Only French Leaders Listened to Pop Culture - [International
Herald Tribune] So life often imitates art. Yet with the
recent uprisings in some French immigrant neighborhoods,
this cliché came with a new twist: art in the form
of movies and rap music has long been warning that French-born
Arab and black youths felt increasingly alienated from French
society, that their banlieues were ripe for explosion.
Crackdown
Urged on Web Exam Plagiarism - [The Guardian] Exam papers
should be scanned by specialist computer software as part
of a crackdown on internet plagiarism by A-level and GSCE
pupils in their compulsory coursework, the government's
watchdog will urge today.
Cyborg
City - [The Guardian] William J. Mitchell is the world's
leading guru of how city life has changed in the age of
wireless communication, and author of the rather cultish
book Me++: The Cyborg Self and the Networked City.
He hails from Sydney, Australia, but is now a professor
at MIT's super-futuristic Media Lab in Massachusetts, where
the technologies of the near future are given a test-run
by some of the brightest minds in academe.
Painful
Truth of the Call Centre Cyber Coolies - [Yale Global]
Graduates burnt-out by dreary work, unsocial hours and Big
Brother-style observation -- all at the end of your telephone.
Thrift
Hero Bridges Generations in China - [Pacific News Service]
As China's economy skyrockets, a new generation of privileged
children have left the frugality of their parents' time
far behind.
GLOBAL POLITICS
Moral
Stakes of Exiting Iraq - [Christian Science Monitor]
As the war debate increasingly turns to withdrawal, all
sides cite moral obligations.
Iran’s
Nuclear Balancing Act - [The Globalist] Though determined
to acquire nuclear weapons capability, Iran is still years
away from putting all the pieces together. The MacArthur
Foundation’s Gary Samore explores what can be done
diplomatically in the intervening years to try and ward
off any large-scale confrontation -- and
keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapons capability.
US
More Cautious than Wary as China's Reach Grows - [Christian
Science Monitor] Guam has been a sleepy supply depot for
decades. But it is now becoming known as the "tip of
the spear" of US Pacific forces.
Asia’s
Polite Reception To Bush Masks Declining US Influence
- [Yale Global] Plans are afoot, spearheaded by China, to
forge an East Asian Community of free trade partners, akin
to that of Europe. With China’s booming economic might
and international prestige growing by the day, the US has
seen its own importance as a key importer of Asian goods
dwindle in the face of burgeoning East Asian cooperation
and trade.
Americans
are Tuning Out the World - [Yale Global] As the world
becomes accustomed to the American way of life, Americans
are tuning out the rest of the world. US citizens have paid
less and less attention to foreign affairs since the 1970s,
writes journalist Alkman Granitsas. The number of university
students studying foreign languages has declined, and fewer
Americans travel overseas than their counterparts in other
developed countries. News coverage of foreign affairs has
also decreased.
Pacifist
Japan Moves to Create a Stronger Military Presence -
[Boston Globe] The ruling Liberal Democratic Party formally
unveiled a revised draft of Japan's pacifist constitution
yesterday that would allow the country to have an official
military for the first time since World War II and give
the armed forces a more assertive international role.
Bush
Faces Dual Challenges on Iraq - [Washington Post] As
he leads a fierce campaign to rebut criticism of the Iraq
war, President Bush faces twin challenges -- one of them
rooted in history, the other in the political realities
of the moment.
ENVIRONMENT
California
Settles on Clean Coal Future - [MSNBC] California energy
regulators have approved new standards that embrace what’s
known as clean coal and preclude importing electricity from
conventional coal-burning power plants.
Can
'Tipping Points' Accelerate Global Warming? - [RedOrbit]
Many scientists say there are real risks of "tipping
points" -- sudden, catastrophic changes triggered by
human activities blamed for warming the planet.
DDT
Suspected in Male Fish with Female Parts - [MSNBC] Researchers
have found male fish with eggs in their testes and female
sex traits off the coast of Southern California and believe
that DDT may be the cause, according to a co-author of two
recent studies.
Global
Warming May Increase Water Losses - [ESPN] Climate change
experts led by Tim Barnett at the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif., found that at least one-sixth
of the world's population, including much of the industrial
world and a quarter of global economic output, appeared
vulnerable to water shortages brought about by climate change.
Core
Evidence That Humans Affect Climate Change - [Los Angeles
Times] An ice core about two miles long -- the oldest frozen
sample ever drilled from the underbelly of Antarctica --shows
that at no time in the last 650,000 years have levels of
the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane been as
high as they are today.
Chemical
Spill in Chinese River May Pose Cancer Risk - [New Scientist]
Exposure to benzene and nitrobenzene from a toxic chemical
spill into a river in China could put people at risk of
cancer and bone marrow problems, an expert warns.
Cotton
Strangles the Aral Sea - [The Globalist] If waters and
lakes continue to dry up in Asia, countries like Uzbekistan
will be confronted with a serious shortage of useable freshwater
-- a grave problem because they rely on the quickly shrinking
Aral Sea to irrigate their cash crops.
THE FUTURE
Unto
Us the Machine is Born - [Sydney Morning Herald] By
2015 the internet as we know it will be dead, killed by
a globe-spanning artificial consciousness, writes founding
Wired editor Kevin Kelly.
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