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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:
Stem Cells 'Halt Nerve Disease' - [BBC] An injection of stem cells has been used to cure mice with a normally fatal nervous system condition. The therapy which helped repair faulty nerve wiring raises hopes of treatments for children with rare and deadly nervous leukodystrophy disorders.
Are Microbes the Answer to the Energy Crisis? - [PhysOrg] The answer to the looming fuel crisis in the 21st century may be found by thinking small, microscopic in fact. Microscopic organisms from bacteria and cyanobacteria, to fungi to microalgae, are biological factories that are proving to efficient sources of inexpensive, environmentally friendly biofuels that can serve as alternatives to oil, according to research presented at the 108th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Boston.
TECHNOLOGY
Top Stories:
Inflatable Electric Car Can Drive Off Cliffs - [PhysOrg] It's hard to say what the most intriguing thing about XP Vehicles' inflatable car is. Maybe it's that the car can travel for up to 2,500 miles on a single electric charge (the distance across the US is roughly 3,000 miles). Or maybe it's the fact that you buy the car online, it gets shipped to you in two cardboard boxes, and the estimated assembly time is less than two hours. Perhaps it's that the car is made out of "airbags" - the same polymer materials used to cushion NASA's rovers when they landed on Mars. Then again, it could be the company's claim that you can drive the car off a cliff without serious injury, and that it will float in a flood or tsunami.
Microrobots Dance on Something Smaller than a Pin's Head - [PhysOrg] Microscopic robots crafted to maneuver separately without any obvious guidance are now assembling into self-organized structures after years of continuing research led by a Duke University computer scientist.
BUSINESS
Top Stories:
China's Business Model Innovators - [Business Week] The impression of China is of thousands of super-efficient electronics companies cranking out components and products with cheap labor. But there’s some really interesting business model innovation going on within the Chinese supply chain mega-machine.
Business is Booming in Virtual Worlds - [Mercury News] To save money in these tough times, universities, conference planners and global companies have started holding gatherings for far-flung employees and students in the online world known as Second Life. Sun Microsystems has only one rule: Employees should show up looking like humans.
SOCIETY
Top Stories:
Scientists Use Mobile Phones to Track Human 'Migration' Patterns - [CBC] The mobile phone, often marketed as an essential tool for people on the go, now offers a new possibility for scientists: keeping track of where people are going. In an experiment published in the journal Naturei>, researchers at Boston-based Northeastern University used mobile telephones to track the patterns of human movement. The study monitored the movement of 100,000 people over several weeks based on the signals their phones sent to transmitter towers, either through phone calls, e-mails or text messages.
China's Young Generation Hampered by Lack of Jobs - [Reuters] Nineteen years after a brutal crackdown against student protesters at Beijing's Tiananmen Square, China's youth are more focused on iPods, designer jeans and buying their first car than political reform. Most of all they are worried about getting well paid jobs and a share of the newfound wealth that many Chinese professionals are enjoying as the economy surges ahead with double-digit growth.
GLOBAL POLITICS
Top Stories:
China Will Become a Net Grain Importer in the Future - [Resource Investor] China will become a net grain importer due to the country's limited capacity to further expand grain supplies, China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said in a research report. "We should realize that tight grain supplies in China will be a common phenomena in the future. In the mid or long term, we will become a net grain importing country," the report, drafted by MOFCOM's policy research department, said.
UN Sets Out Food Crisis Measures - [BBC] UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged nations to seize an "historic opportunity to revitalise agriculture" as a way of tackling the food crisis. Mr Ban told a UN-sponsored summit in Rome that food production would have to rise by 50% by 2030 to meet demand.
ENVIRONMENT
Top Stories:
Africa's Deserts Could Supply Solar Electricity to Continent - [PhysOrg] Solar power from Africa's deserts could supply all 600 million citizens currently without electricity and even export power to Europe, a green energy conference in Nairobi heard. The ferocious desert sun could provide the energy equivalent of 1.5 barrels of oil per square kilometre, said Gerhard Knies, project manager for Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC), at a meeting of nine African states.
Giant Trees 'to Clear Excess CO2' - [BBC] The scientist who coined the term "global warming" in the 1970s has proposed a radical solution to the problem of climate change. Wallace Broecker advocated millions of "carbon scrubbers" - giant artificial trees to pull CO2 from the air.
THE FUTURE
Boom in Food Prices Raises Appeal of Farmland as an Investment - [International Herald Tribune] Huge investment funds have already poured hundreds of billions of dollars into booming financial markets for commodities like wheat, corn and soybeans. But a few big private investors are starting to make bolder and longer-term bets that the world's need for food will greatly increase — by buying farmland, fertilizer, grain elevators and shipping equipment.
Monsanto Pledges to Lift Food Supply - [International Herald Tribune] Monsanto, the leader in agricultural biotechnology, pledged to develop seeds that would double the yields of corn, soybeans and cotton by 2030 and would require 30 percent less water, land and energy to grow. The announcement, coming as world leaders are meeting in Rome to discuss rising food prices and growing food shortages, appeared to be aimed at least in part at winning acceptance of genetically modified crops by showing that they could play a major role in feeding the world. Much of what is in the commitment are things the company was doing anyway, though it now becomes a formal goal.
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