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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:
Study Maps Life In Extreme Environments - [Science Daily] A team of biologists have developed a model mapping the control circuit governing a whole free living organism. This is an important milestone for the new field of systems biology and will allow the researchers to model how the organism adapts over time in response to its environment.
Regenerating Nerves - [Technology Review] The human body can be amazingly resilient: wounds heal, bones mend, ligaments grow back together. But recovery from nerve damage is far less reliable. In the latest issue of Advanced Materials, researchers Christiane Gumera and Yadong Wang from the Georgia Institute of Technology announced that they have triggered the regrowth of nerve cells using a polymer coated with chemical structures that resemble acetylcholine, a common neurotransmitter. The research, which is the first to combine a neurotransmitter and a polymer, could one day lead to treatments for neurodegenerative diseases and spinal-cord injuries.
TECHNOLOGY
Top Stories:
Eight Business Technology Trends to Watch - [C|NET] Technology alone is rarely the key to unlocking economic value: companies create real wealth when they combine technology with new ways of doing business.
New Efficient Bulb Sees the Light - [BBC] Experts have found a way to make Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) brighter and use less power than energy efficient light bulbs currently on the market. The technology, used in gadgets such as mobile phones and computers, had previously not been powerful enough to be used for lighting. But Glasgow University scientists said they had resolved the problem.
BUSINESS
Top Stories:
Arts and Crafts Find New Life Online - [Business Week]
Although the craft craze is well-established, with sales hitting $31 billion in 2007, it's taking off with a vengeance online.
Web Worlds for the Grammar-School Set - [Internet Herald Tribune] The proliferation of broadband Internet access is forcing the major media players to rethink how they reach young people. Forget Second Life. The real virtual-world gold rush centers on the grammar-school set. Trying to clone the success of blockbuster Web sites like Club Penguin and Webkinz, children's entertainment companies are drastically accelerating efforts to build virtual worlds for kids. Media conglomerates in particular think that these sites -- part online role-playing game and part social scene -- can deliver quick growth, help keep movie franchises alive and instill brand loyalty in a generation of new customers.
SOCIETY
Top Stories:
Could 2008 Be the Year of the Social Networking Backlash? - [Contractor UK]
First Facebook, and now Google: the giants of Web 2.0, it seems, are determined to share every aspect of your life with everyone you know – whether you want them to or not. But curiosity killed the cat, and the increasing level of privacy invasion by social networking software, not to mention the widely publicised risk of identity theft, are causing experts to question whether 2008 could be the year the social networking boom comes to an end.
Measuring Your Digital Footprint - [Business Week] Barack Obama may or may not become the next President of the U.S., but he's a winner on the Internet. His status in cyberspace now surpasses that of Hillary Clinton, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, and even Paris Hilton, according to Garlik, a British startup that rates people's digital reputations. Such rating systems aren't new. But Garlik's service, called QDOS, claims to operate on an unprecedented scale.
GLOBAL POLITICS
Top Stories:
Japan's New Education Model: India - [International Herald Tribune] Despite an improved economy, Japan is suffering a crisis of confidence these days about its ability to compete with its emerging Asian rivals, China and India. One result has been a growing craze for Indian education in this fad-obsessed nation. The Indian boomlet reflects the insecurity many Japanese feel about schools in their country, facilities that once turned out students who consistently ranked at the top of international tests. But now many are looking for lessons from India, a country seen by many in Japan as the world's ascendant education superpower.
China Vows Fair Play in Its Global Search for Oil and Gas - [Washington Post] China pledged Wednesday that its worldwide search for oil and gas to power a booming economy will be carried out in a spirit of fair play and international cooperation so as not to disrupt sensitive international markets. The promise came in a government white paper, one of a series Beijing has issued in recent years to present its case to the world. This one, outlining energy policies, was aimed in part at fears that China's growing thirst for imported oil will drive up prices and generate friction over its diplomatic efforts to secure access to petroleum-producing nations.
ENVIRONMENT
Top Stories:
Helium Supplies Endangered, Threatening Science And Technology - [Science Daily] The element that lifts things like balloons, spirits and voice ranges is being depleted so rapidly in the world's largest reserve, outside of Amarillo, Texas, that supplies are expected to be depleted there within the next eight years.
Deep-Sea Species' Loss Could Lead to Oceans' Collapse, Study Suggests - [Science Daily] The loss of deep-sea species poses a severe threat to the future of the oceans, suggests a new report. In a global-scale study, the researchers found some of the first evidence that the health of the deep sea, as measured by the rate of critical ecosystem processes, increases exponentially with the diversity of species living there.
THE FUTURE
Top Stories:
US Under Threat from Shrinking Talent Pool - [Management Issues] Across America, organizations both large and small are facing the same critical challenge. They have to find and retaining the best talent, particularly for tomorrow's leadership positions. But in many cases, that talent simply isn't out there.
As DNA Research Advances, Science Plays God Ever More - [Seattle Times] It has been 50 years since scientists first created DNA in a test tube, stitching ordinary chemical ingredients together to make life's most extraordinary molecule. Until recently, however, even the most sophisticated laboratories could make only small snippets of DNA — an extra gene or two to be inserted into corn plants, for example, to help the plants ward off insects or tolerate drought. Now researchers are poised to cross a dramatic barrier: the creation of life forms driven by completely artificial DNA.
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