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In the news this week...
- A protein that regulates structural
changes in the brain.
- A gene chip that can be used to
improve citrus plants.
- The flow of venture capital from
Silicon Valley to China.
- Social entrepreneurship at the
TED conference.
- Growing protectionism as a response
to globalization.
- The shrinking Antarctic ice sheet.
- Consequences of the end of oil.
We also highlight...
Paul Ormerod's
book, Why Most Things Fail: Evolution, Extinction
and Economics: The book looks at parallels between
biology and economics -- notably the Iron Law of Failure.
"Species fail and become extinct, brands fail,
companies fail, public policies fail," Ormerod
says. To understand success, he says, we must first
understand the dynamics of failure in complex systems.
NASA's World Wind website: The site
provides free software that can be used to view the
entire Earth in three dimensions. Zoom in from satellite
level. Fly in any direction, and see the terrain at
eye level, as if you were really there.
An audio clip: An interview on WBUR
Boston with Meghan Daum, Jillian Straus, Miriam Datskovsky
and Kyle Smith on Generation Y relationships.
David Forrest
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SCIENCE
Top
Story: Discovery
of Molecule that May Hold Key to Learning and Memory
- [News-Medical.Net] Independent research teams from Harvard
Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston have identified
a master protein that sheds light on one of neurobiology's
biggest mysteries -- how neurons change as a result of individual
experiences.
Web
watch... most
recent articles
TECHNOLOGY
Top
Story: Researchers
Design Chip That Can Improve Citrus Varieties - [Science
Daily] UC Riverside researchers, in partnership with Affymetrix,
Inc., have designed a chip – the GeneChip® Citrus
Genome Array – that can improve citrus varieties and
suggest ways to better manage them. By helping determine
which genes are turned on in a tissue of citrus – genes
that are associated with taste, acidic content and disease,
for example – the chip provides information useful
to researchers for rectifying existing problems and making
improvements to the fruit.
Web
watch...
most
recent articles
BUSINESS
Top
Story: Increasingly
VCs Pass Up Bay Area to Invest in China - [RedOrbit]
China's ability to attract Silicon Valley's leading venture
firms, which have been instrumental in transforming the
Bay Area into the world's leading technology center, raises
questions about the Valley's prospects of maintaining its
competitive edge. Already, the infatuation with the Middle
Kingdom is causing changes in the Bay Area.
Web
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recent articles
SOCIETY
Top
Story: Geniuses
Show They Care at TED - [Wired] Saving the world trumped
profit margins for a few days last week, as millionaires,
billionaires and other assorted luminaries convened here
to mull the future of the planet at the exclusive Technology
Entertainment and Design conference.
Web
watch... most
recent articles
GLOBAL
POLITICS
Top
Story: Pace
of Protectionism Quickens - [International Herald Tribune]
As the pace of global trade quickens and the embrace of
globalization spreads, a paradox is rocking free markets:
Government involvement in deals is on the rise -- and analysts
say there are potentially distorting implications for industry.
Web
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recent articles
ENVIRONMENT
Top
Story: Antarctic
Ice Sheet Is Melting Rapidly - [Washington Post] The
Antarctic ice sheet is losing as much as 36 cubic miles
of ice a year in a trend that scientists link to global
warming, according to a new paper that provides the first
evidence that the sheet's total mass is shrinking significantly.
Web
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recent articles
THE
FUTURE
Top
Story: The
Get-Ready Men - [Technology Review] We will run out
of cheap oil, either now or later. The most pessimistic
disciples of the late geologist M. King Hubbert believe
that production will peak somewhere between 2000 and 2010.
Others suggest that production may top out a few decades
after that. What will happen next is unknown, but an increasing
number of the peak-oil handicappers share the dark beliefs
of James Howard Kunstler, who predicts that alternative
energy sources will never meet our needs and that we are
in for a "rough ride through uncharted territory"...
Web
watch... most
recent articles
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Featured Book:
Why Most Things Fail: Evolution,
Extinction and Economics
by Paul Ormerod
Resource
Page
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Featured Link: World
Wind - [NASA] World Wind lets you zoom from
satellite altitude into any place on Earth. Leveraging
Landsat satellite imagery and Shuttle Radar Topography
Mission data, World Wind lets you experience Earth
terrain in visually rich 3D, just as if you were really
there.
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Audio Clip: Twenty-Something
Love - [On Point] The fundamental rules apply,
as time goes by, we know. And yet, when it comes to
love and the dance of the sexes, the rules can apply
in very different ways in different generations. The
new rituals of meeting, mating, and marrying. (February
14, 2006)
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