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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:
Digital Preservation: Alliance Set To Tackle Science's New Frontier - [Science Daily] A new digital divide, or rather chasm, is opening up in the scientific enterprise, and something urgently needs to be done to prevent data from being lost into oblivion.
A Molecular Map of Aging - [Technology Review] Even closely related animals can have drastically different life spans, a fact that scientists have been puzzling over for years. Mice, which live about two years, got the short end of the longevity stick: their rodent cousin, the Southern flying squirrel, can live nearly 20 years. Chimps are 99 percent genetically identical to humans but live only half as long. Now a new resource could help pinpoint the genetic changes that underlie those differences.
TECHNOLOGY
Top Stories:
Artificial Arm Might Feel Like Real Thing - [Chicago Sun-Times] A surprising discovery could open the way for amputees to feel with artificial limbs as if the devices were real arms or legs. Currently, even the most sophisticated prostheses are numb, robotic devices. But within a few years, experimental artificial limbs might have a sense of touch, be able to distinguish hot from cold and feel pain.
A Working Brain Model - [Technology Review] An ambitious project to create an accurate computer model of the brain has reached an impressive milestone. Scientists in Switzerland working with IBM researchers have shown that their computer simulation of the neocortical column, arguably the most complex part of a mammal's brain, appears to behave like its biological counterpart. By demonstrating that their simulation is realistic, the researchers say, these results suggest that an entire mammal brain could be completely modeled within three years, and a human brain within the next decade.
BUSINESS
Top Stories:
Indian Entrepreneurs Leave Outsourcing for Firms of their Own - [International Herald Tribune]
Some of the best minds in India, trained by leading global companies like Oracle, Yahoo and Microsoft, are slipping out of the back office to build start-ups. And Bangalore, the outsourcing capital, now looks like an incipient Silicon Valley of the East.
Is the Office Becoming Irrelevant? - [Management Issues] A growing number of Americans are using their offices just as places to touch down for meetings or catch up with colleagues, with their real work being done remotely, from home, on the road or simply wherever they can set up their laptop or Blackberry.
SOCIETY
Top Stories:
Disabled Could Think Their Way around Second Life - [Reuters]
People with severe paralysis could find new opportunities from shopping to doing business or making new friends in the virtual world of Second Life by just thinking about it, if experiments being conducted by a Japanese university bear fruit.
The Funeral Industry Increasingly Goes Digital - [International Herald Tribune] The funeral business is a solemn profession steeped in tradition, but as people grow used to living more and more of their daily life online, funeral directors and self-described "end-trepreneurs" are putting the latest Internet tools at the service of the eternal.
GLOBAL POLITICS
Top Stories:
World Faces "Cyber Cold War" Threat - [Boston Globe]
A "cyber cold war" waged over the world's computers threatens to become one of the biggest threats to security in the next decade, according to a report. About 120 countries are developing ways to use the Internet as a weapon to target financial markets, government computer systems and utilities, Internet security company McAfee said.
Big Oil Producers Invest Trillions of Petrodollars - [International Herald Tribune] Experts estimate that oil-rich nations have a $4 trillion cache of petrodollar investments around the globe. With oil prices likely to stay in the stratosphere, that number could increase rapidly.
ENVIRONMENT
Top Stories:
Coal Use Rises Dramatically Despite Impacts on Climate and Health - [Environmental News Network] World coal consumption reached a record 3,090 million tons of oil equivalent in 2006, an increase of 4.5 percent over 2005. China led world coal use with 39 percent of the total. The United States followed with 18 percent. The European Union and India accounted for 10 percent and 8 percent, respectively.
Connecting Wind Farms Can Make A More Reliable And Cheaper Power Source - [Science Daily]
Wind power, long considered to be as fickle as wind itself, can be groomed to become a steady, dependable source of electricity and delivered at a lower cost than at present, according to scientists at Stanford University.
THE FUTURE
Top Stories:
Artificial Intelligence Enters Brave New World - [NPR] The idea of what Artificial Intelligence should be has evolved over the past 50 years -- from solving puzzles and playing chess to emulating the abilities of a child: walking, recognizing objects. A recent conference brought together those who invent the future. A recent "Singularity Summit" brought together those who imagine -- and invent -- the future.
Toll Of Climate Change On World Food Supply Could Be Worse Than Thought - [Science Daily] Global agriculture, already predicted to be stressed by climate change in coming decades, could go into steep, unanticipated declines in some regions due to complications that scientists have so far inadequately considered, say three new scientific reports.
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