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In the news this
week...
- Electrical interfaces to individual
cells.
- Mapping cities in real-time.
- Social networks and business success.
- Youth unemployment.
- Free trade in Asia.
- A new source of biofuel.
- Future leaders solve future problems.
We also highlight...
David Levy's book, Robots Unlimited:
Life in a Virtual Age... Levy describes the history
and current state of robotics, and speculates on the
next fifty years. A magnificent and encyclopedic survey
of the field.
The website of the SENSEable City
Lab at MIT... Widely dispersed sensors and mobile
devices allow the dynamics of cities to be viewed
in real-time. This research initiative at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology explores the opportunity to
use new technologies to monitor and design urban space.
An audio clip... A presentation by
Lester Brown of the Worldwatch Institute to the World
Affairs Network of Northern California on the growth
of China and its global economic and environmental
implications.
David Forrest
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SCIENCE
Top
Story: Neurons
Find Nanotubes Stimulating - [The Engineer] Thin films
of carbon nanotubes deposited on transparent plastic can
serve as a surface on which cells can grow. Researchers
at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB)
and Rice University suggest these nanotube films could potentially
serve as an electrical interface between living tissue and
prosthetic devices or biomedical instruments.
Web
watch... most
recent articles
TECHNOLOGY
Top
Story: Real-Time
Maps Could Help Make Cities More Livable - [Technology
Review] When people wander around the MIT campus with a
Wi-Fi-enabled cell phone or laptop, they're also participating
in a real-time mapping project. Carlo Ratti, a practicing
architect with a firm in Torino, Italy, runs the SENSEable
City Laboratory in the university's department of urban
studies and planning. He can reveal patterns of activity
on the MIT wireless network, which blankets almost the entire
campus, by measuring activity on wireless access points.
Web
watch...
most
recent articles
BUSINESS
Top
Story: Making
Those Connections Work - [Business Week] Dianne Bevelander,
executive director of RSM Erasmus University's international
MBA program in Rotterdam programs, is using software to
map the networks that students form among themselves and
track the student connections over time. School administrators
hope to use the lessons learned to teach students how to
more effectively create the networks they'll need to succeed
in a global business environment.
Web
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recent articles
SOCIETY
Top
Story: Career
Chasms for Youth - [Miami Herald] France isn't the only
place with complaints about youth unemployment. In Greece,
one of every four workers younger than 25 is jobless.
Web
watch... most
recent articles
GLOBAL
POLITICS
Top
Story: India
Calls for Asian Free Trade Area - [Daily Times] India’s
prime minister called for an Asian free trade area embracing
major economies to drive the region’s growth as he
opened the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) annual meeting.
Web
watch... most
recent articles
ENVIRONMENT
Top
Story: Carnegie
Mellon Researchers Say Use of Switchgrass Could Solve Energy
Woes - [Science Daily] Carnegie Mellon University researchers
say the use of switchgrass could help break U.S. dependence
on fossil fuels and curb costly transportation costs.
Web
watch... most
recent articles
THE
FUTURE
Top
Story: Youth
Excels at Solving Problems - [The Marietta Times] Future
Problem Solvers is a program designed to help elementary
school students develop problem solving skills by analyzing
future scenarios and constructing a plan of action to implement
for those problems.
Web
watch... most
recent articles
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Featured Book:
Robots Unlimited: Life in a Virtual
Age
by David Levy
Resource
Page
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Featured Link: SENSEable
City Lab - [MIT] The increasing deployment
of sensors and hand-held electronics in recent years
is allowing a new approach to the study of the built
environment.
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Audio Clip: China:
Forcing the World to Rethink Its Economic Future
- [World Affairs Network of Northern California]
Lester Brown looks at China's current consumption
of basic resources, and at future consumption when
its income is projected to reach that of the U.S.
today. (February 6, 2006)
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