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Future Pages: The bookmark collection... frequently updated links to other websites on trends, innovation and the future.
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Signs of the Future: The news archive... past postings of items from world media on emerging trends.
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SCIENCE
Top Stories:
Swarming Starlings Help Probe Plasma, Crowds And Stock Market - [ScienceDaily] Researchers at the University of Warwick’s Physics Department’s Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics have found a powerful technique that could be used to detect precisely when ordered patterns form in everything from plasma in the solar wind and fusion reactors, to crowds of people, or flocks of birds. The technique could even be used to find unusual patterns in stock market behaviour.
Human Stem Cells Heal the Hearts of Rats - [Reuters] A nutritious cocktail helped human embryonic stem cells thrive and repair the damaged hearts of rats, U.S. researchers reported. The experiment provides the best evidence yet that the powerful but controversial stem cells might be used to repair the ravages of heart attacks and heart failure, the researchers said.
TECHNOLOGY
Top Stories:
Hewlett Introduces a Web Feature to Make Document Printing Mobile - [New York Times] Hoping to alleviate a frustration of mobile computing, Hewlett-Packard has quietly introduced a free service designed to make it possible to print documents on any printer almost anywhere in the world. Cloudprint, which was developed over a period of several months by a small group of H.P. Labs researchers, makes it possible to share, store and print documents using a mobile phone.
3-D Printing for the Masses - [CNN Money] After midnight, it's dark and nearly silent in the Klock Werks Kustom Cycles shop in Mitchell, S.D. The only sound is the low hum emanating from a box that looks like a cross between a dormitory fridge and a Xerox machine. Behind a compartment of clear glass, the device -- a Stratasys Prodigy 3-D printer -- is constructing a complex shape, all curves and spaces, out of plastic.
BUSINESS
Top Stories:
Japan's Warp-Speed Ride to Internet Future - [Washington Post]
Americans invented the Internet, but the Japanese are running away with it. Broadband service here is eight to 30 times as fast as in the United States -- and considerably cheaper. Japan has the world's fastest Internet connections, delivering more data at a lower cost than anywhere else, recent studies show.
Cyber Boom - [Sydney Morning Herald] Edward Castronova, who heads the Synthetic Worlds Initiative based at Indiana University in the US, estimates that there are about 50 million people involved at some level in virtual worlds, with many of those making money online through commercial activities. And it's not just individuals. Small businesses and large corporations are also dipping their toes in the water, particularly on Second Life, where big players from Toyota and Sony BMG to news giant Reuters, Australia's Telstra and even the ABC now have a presence.
SOCIETY
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Tots Getting Internet Identity at Birth - [ABC News] A small but growing number of parents are getting domain names for their young kids, long before they can do more than peck aimlessly at a keyboard. It's not known exactly how many, but the practice is no longer limited to parents in Web design or information technology.
Scientists Say Sewer Water Tests May Reveal Drug Use Trends in U.S. Cities - [FOXNews] Researchers have figured out how to give an entire community a drug test using just a teaspoon of wastewater from a city's sewer plant. The test wouldn't be used to finger any single person as a drug user. But it would help federal law enforcement and other agencies track the spread of dangerous drugs, like methamphetamines, across the country.
GLOBAL POLITICS
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U.S. Consumers are Now Looking for the Country Label - [International Herald Tribune]
After contending with tainted toothpaste, suspect seafood, and poisoned pet food traced to China, many U.S. consumers are now looking for labels that indicate a product's country of origin. Some foods -- like shrimp and other types of seafood -- already must be labeled with a country name, thanks to legislation the U.S. Congress passed in 2002.
Nation's Position in 'Product Space' Determines Economic Growth - [Physorg] Researchers have constructed a network of the relatedness between products, providing insight into the economic question of why some countries can quickly climb the manufacturing ladder, while others fail to develop more sophisticated products.
ENVIRONMENT
Top Stories:
Water Experts Worry Biofuel will Crowd Out Food Crops - [International Herald Tribune] Demand for biofuels, such as ethanol made from corn or sugarcane, is surging as the world tries to wean itself of the fossil fuels blamed for global warming. Although biofuels are considered a green alternative, scientists warned that business leaders and policy-makers were ignoring the side effects.
More Arable Land 'Needed' by 2030 - [People's Daily] China's grain harvest is likely to fall considerably because of global warming and it will need an additional 10 million hectares of arable land to feed the people by 2030, a top climate official said yesterday.
THE FUTURE
Top Stories:
More Food Needed Now Than in All Recorded History - [OneWorld] To meet the needs of a rapidly rising human population, the planet needs to produce more food over the coming 50 years than it did in the last 10,000 years combined, warn experts organizing a major world forum on the critical need to restore and protect Earth’s precious soil resources.
Scientists Believe Artificial Life Will Be Possible in 3 to 10 Years - [FOXNews] Around the world, a handful of scientists are trying to create life from scratch, and they're getting closer. Experts expect an announcement within three to 10 years from someone in the now little-known field of "wet artificial life."
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