Technology has immortality, cures for the worlds devastating diseases, quantum computing and a host of other science fiction notions in its grasp. Current trends in a number of areas indicate that over the next 10 years many of these technologies will come to fruition. "The Next 10 Years" tracks the trends that will transform our everyday lives in almost unimaginable ways.

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Live Long? Die Young? Answer Isn’t Just in Genes - New York Times: "Josephine Tesauro never thought she would live so long. At 92, she is straight backed, firm jawed and vibrantly healthy, living alone in an immaculate brick ranch house high on a hill near McKeesport, a Pittsburgh suburb. She works part time in a hospital gift shop and drives her 1995 white Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera to meetings of her four bridge groups, to church and to the grocery store. She has outlived her husband, who died nine years ago, when he was 84. She has outlived her friends, and she has outlived three of her six brothers."

Live Long? Die Young? Answer Isn’t Just in Genes - New York Times: "Josephine Tesauro never thought she would live so long. At 92, she is straight backed, firm jawed and vibrantly healthy, living alone in an immaculate brick ranch house high on a hill near McKeesport, a Pittsburgh suburb. She works part time in a hospital gift shop and drives her 1995 white Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera to meetings of her four bridge groups, to church and to the grocery store. She has outlived her husband, who died nine years ago, when he was 84. She has outlived her friends, and she has outlived three of her six brothers."

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Physicists invent 'QuIET' single molecule transistors: "They have applied for a patent on their device, called Quantum Interference Effect Transistor, nicknamed 'QuIET.' The American Chemical Society publication, Nano Letters, has published the researchers' article about it online. The research is planned as the cover feature in the print edition in November.

A transistor is a device that switches electrical current on and off, just like a valve turns water on and off in a garden hose. Industry now uses transistors as small as 65 nanometers. The UA physicists propose making transistors as small as a single nanometer, or one billionth of a meter.

'All transistors in current technology, and almost all proposed transistors, regulate current flow by raising and lowering an energy barrier,' University of Arizona physicist Charles A. Stafford said. 'Using electricity to raise and lower energy barriers has worked for a century of switches, but that approach is about to hit the wall.' "

Saving Lives With Tailor-Made Medication - New York Times: "MEMPHIS — In Mary V. Relling’s office in St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital sits a small ceramic statue of St. Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of impossible causes.

Mary V. Relling with St. Jude Thaddeus, patron saint of impossible causes. Dr. Relling, the head of the department of pharmaceutical sciences at St. Jude, has a fondness for impossible causes.
Her own is pharmacogenetics, a clinical discipline in which doctors use high-tech genetic testing to custom-make drugs to patients’ individual needs.

Though pharmacogenetics is controversial and not yet widely done, Dr. Relling, 46, travels the country advocating its use. At St. Jude, patients with leukemia are now routinely given genetic tests to determine their individual response to a medication. “We’ve seen it save lives here,” she said. “That’s made me a believer.”"

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

WSJ.com - New York Times Pays $35 Million For TV and Film-Industry Database: "New York Times' acquisition last year of About.com, a news and information Web site, started to pay off in July, when the site reported a 34.4% leap in ad sales to $6.2 million."

Monday, August 28, 2006

First quantum cryptographic data network demonstrated: "A joint collaboration between Northwestern University and BBN Technologies of Cambridge, Mass., has led to the first demonstration of a truly quantum cryptographic data network. By integrating quantum noise protected data encryption (quantum data encryption or QDE for short) with Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), the researchers have developed a complete data communication system with extraordinary resilience to eavesdropping. "

Wired News: New Engine Combusts Old Ideas: "If your next car gets twice the gas mileage of your current vehicle, and belches out only a fraction of the pollution, you may have Carmelo Scuderi to thank.
Scuderi, a Massachusetts engineer and inventor, started tinkering with the fundamentals of the internal combustion engine when he retired in the mid-1990s. The result was a radical new design that could make engines for anything from gas-powered lawn mowers to diesel locomotives lighter, far more efficient, and a whole lot easier on the environment."

Brain's Filing System Uncovered: "New research from Harvard Medical School (HMS) investigators has identified an area of the brain where such memories are found. They report in the advanced online Nature that they have identified neurons that assist in categorizing visual stimuli. They found that the activity of neurons in a part of the brain called the parietal cortex encode the category, or meaning, of familiar visual images and that brain activity patterns changed dramatically as a result of learning. Their results suggest that categories are encoded by the activity of individual neurons (brain cells) and that the parietal cortex is a part of the brain circuitry that learns and recognizes the meaning of the things that we see.

“It was previously unknown that parietal cortex activity would show such dramatic changes as a result of learning new categories,” says lead author David Freedman, PhD, HMS postdoctoral research fellow in neurobiology. “Some areas of the brain, particularly the frontal and temporal lobes, have been associated with visual categorization. Since these brain areas are all interconnected, an important next step will be to determine their relative roles in the categorization process.” "

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Synthetic molecule causes cancer cells to selfdestruct: "'We have identified a small, synthetic compound that directly activates procaspase-3 and induces apoptosis,' said Paul J. Hergenrother, a professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and corresponding author of a paper to be posted online this week ahead of regular publication by the journal Nature Chemical Biology. 'By bypassing the broken pathway, we can use the cells' own machinery to destroy themselves.'

To find the compound, called procaspase activating compound one (PAC-1), Hergenrother, with colleagues at the U. of I., Seoul National University, and the National Center for Toxicological Research, screened more than 20,000 structurally diverse compounds for the ability to change procaspase-3 into caspase-3. "

Scientists Find Memory Molecule: "Scientists at SUNY Downstate Medical Center have discovered a molecular mechanism that maintains memories in the brain. In an article in Science magazine, they demonstrate that by inhibiting the molecule they can erase long-term memories, much as you might erase a computer disc.

Furthermore, erasing the memory from the brain does not prevent the ability to re-learn the memory, much as a cleaned computer disc may be re-used. This finding may some day have applications in treating chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, and memory loss, among other conditions.

The SUNY Downstate researchers reported in the August 25 issue of Science that an enzyme molecule called “protein kinase M zeta” preserves long-term memories through persistent strengthening of synaptic connections between neurons. This is analogous to the mechanism storing information as 0’s and 1’s in a computer’s hard disc. By inhibiting the enzyme, scientists were able to erase a memory that had been stored for one day, or even one month. This function in memory storage is specific to protein kinase M zeta, because inhibiting related molecules did not disrupt memory. "

Nanowire arrays can detect signals along individual neurons: "Harvard chemist Charles M. Lieber and colleagues report on this marriage of nanowires and neurons this week in the journal Science.

'We describe the first artificial synapses between nanoelectronic devices and individual mammalian neurons, and also the first linking of a solid-state device -- a nanowire transistor -- to the neuronal projections that interconnect and carry information in the brain,' says Lieber, the Mark Hyman, Jr., Professor of Chemistry in Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences. 'These extremely local devices can detect, stimulate, and inhibit propagation of neuronal signals with a spa-tial resolution unmatched by existing techniques.'

Electrophysiological measurements of brain activity play an important role in understanding signal propagation through individual neurons and neuronal networks, but existing technologies are relatively crude: Micropipette electrodes poked into cells are invasive and harmful, and microfabricated electrode arrays are too bulky to detect activity at the level of individual axons and dendrites, the neuronal projections responsible for electrical signal propagation and inter-neuron communication. "

Australian gets goahead to deepfreeze himself and parents: "Philip Rhoades, 54, told the Herald Sun newspaper it was believed to be only the third such centre in the world, and that he and his family would be among the first to be frozen in minus 150 degrees C (minus 238 F) liquid nitrogen.

'My parents are both science types, like me, and with my siblings are interested in this great experiment,' Rhoades said.

'If I can eventually help other people whose lives should be longer, this would also be a good thing to do.'

The New South Wales state government's health department has approved the centre, the paper said.

Rhoades has already spent 650,000 dollars (490,000 US dollars) developing plans for underground storage at Cowra, about 200 kilometres (130 miles) west of Sydney. He hopes to start building on the 60 hectare site within six months.

Under the cryogenic process, bodies are drained of blood, pumped full of chemicals and stored in liquid nitrogen to preserve them in the hope that future medical advances will enable them to be brought back to life. "

Saturday, August 26, 2006

GM plans diesel engine for 2009 - 08/25/06 - The Detroit News Online: "MILFORD -- General Motors Corp. one-upped rivals Thursday by revealing plans to offer a fuel-efficient diesel engine for its full-size pickups within three years, a move that competitors in the cutthroat pickup market may be forced to match if gas prices continue to rise.

GM said its new V-8 turbo-diesel will be 25 percent more fuel-efficient than a comparable gasoline engine and hinted the motor could also wind up in a range of vehicles besides pickups. But the engine won't be on the market until after 2009, GM said.

During a media briefing Thursday at GM's Milford Proving Grounds, company officials stressed the importance of diesel engines as part of a broad strategy to address growing consumer anxiety over high fuel prices."

GM plans diesel engine for 2009 - 08/25/06 - The Detroit News Online: "MILFORD -- General Motors Corp. one-upped rivals Thursday by revealing plans to offer a fuel-efficient diesel engine for its full-size pickups within three years, a move that competitors in the cutthroat pickup market may be forced to match if gas prices continue to rise.

GM said its new V-8 turbo-diesel will be 25 percent more fuel-efficient than a comparable gasoline engine and hinted the motor could also wind up in a range of vehicles besides pickups. But the engine won't be on the market until after 2009, GM said.

During a media briefing Thursday at GM's Milford Proving Grounds, company officials stressed the importance of diesel engines as part of a broad strategy to address growing consumer anxiety over high fuel prices."

GM plans diesel engine for 2009 - 08/25/06 - The Detroit News Online: "MILFORD -- General Motors Corp. one-upped rivals Thursday by revealing plans to offer a fuel-efficient diesel engine for its full-size pickups within three years, a move that competitors in the cutthroat pickup market may be forced to match if gas prices continue to rise.

GM said its new V-8 turbo-diesel will be 25 percent more fuel-efficient than a comparable gasoline engine and hinted the motor could also wind up in a range of vehicles besides pickups. But the engine won't be on the market until after 2009, GM said."

IPROMS 2006 Intelligent Production Machines and Systems Conference 2006

Cardiff's bees calculation sets industry buzzing: "When a bee finds a source of nectar, it returns to the hive and performs a dance to show other bees the direction and distance of the flower patch and how plentiful it is. The other workers then decide how many of them will fly off to find the new source, depending on its distance and quality. "

Researchers provide first evidence for learning mechanism: "'We show what everyone has always believed: LTP (long-term potentiation) is indeed induced in the hippocampus when learning occurs,' said Mark F. Bear, Picower Professor of Neuroscience. 'This is a big deal for neuroscientists because such evidence has been absent for the 30-plus years we have known about LTP.'

The findings described in the Bear paper and in a second, separate paper in the same issue of Science 'substantially advance the case for LTP as a neural mechanism for memory,' wrote Tim Bliss of the MRC National Institute for Medical Research in the UK, Graham Collingridge of the University of Bristol, and Serge Laroche of the Universite Paris Sud in a commentary on the work."

Comment: the genes and proteins involved in learning identified - look for strong 'learning enhancement' compounds to emerge.

Nanoscience May Produce 'Perfect' Materials: "A scientist at North Carolina State University has discovered that the tiny grains comprising many bulk materials can potentially contain nearly zero structural imperfections when the grains are smaller than a certain critical size, typically a few to several nanometers.

Therefore, materials created with grains of the right size could be structurally flawless. Not only would these materials possess exceptional strength and durablity, but their optical, electrical, and magnetic properties could be vastly improved as well. The number of potential applications, such as smart sensors and ultra-efficient “solid-state” lighting, as well as entire industries impacted, such as automobiles and defense, is staggering. "

Suspicion Confirmed Flat Molecules Better for Conducting Electricity: "The field of nanotechnology involves designing machines and devices on a nanoscale. One of the main challenges for scientists had been in figuring out how to test the conductance of electronic components that consist of a single molecule. Scientists have come up with a number of techniques, but the large fluctuations in the results produced by these techniques have made it difficult to predict how individual molecules will behave as electronic devices.

In her previous research, Venkataraman -- together with her colleagues Jennifer Klare, Colin Nuckolls, Mark Hybertsen and Michael Steigerwald from Columbia’s Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center -- came up with a refinement of one of the prevailing methods for measuring conductance in a molecule. She used a novel amine-gold link to attach single molecules to the gold electrodes (published in Nano Letters in March 2006). "

Thursday, August 24, 2006

The Future of Robots - Popular Science: "Human experience is marked by a refusal to obey our limitations. We’ve escaped the ground, we’ve escaped the planet, and now, after thousands of years of effort, our quest to build machines that emulate our own appearance, movement and intelligence is leading us to the point where we will escape the two most fundamental confines of all: our bodies and our minds. Once this point comes—once the accelerating pace of technological change allows us to build machines that not only equal but surpass human intelligence—we’ll see cyborgs (machine-enhanced humans like the Six Million Dollar Man), androids (human-robot hybrids like Data in Star Trek) and other combinations beyond what we can even imagine.

Although the ancient Greeks were among the first to build machines that could emulate the intelligence and natural movements of people (developments invigorated by the Greeks’ musings that human intelligence might also be governed by natural laws), these efforts flowered in the European Renaissance, which produced the first androids with lifelike movements. These included a mandolin-playing lady, constructed in 1540 by Italian inventor Gianello Torriano. In 1772 Swiss watchmaker Pierre Jacquet-Droz built a pensive child named L’Écrivain (The Writer) that could write passages with a pen. L’Écrivain’s brain was a mechanical computer that was impressive for its complexity even by today’s standards."

Mini aircraft touted for military work: "Developers say the ultra-light CyberBug is simple to operate, and that any child who has ever played a video game could learn to fly it in a few hours. But at $30,000, it's not priced to sell at toy stores.

The CyberBug represents a class of unmanned aircraft finding growing acceptance with police and military officials. Others are in use by the Army in trouble spots like Afghanistan. Some of the best-known unmanned aircraft are the Predator and the Global Hawk. "

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

New Method Makes Embryo-Safe Stem Cells - New York Times: "NEW YORK (AP) -- A biotechnology company has developed a new way of creating stem cells without destroying human embryos, billing it as a potential solution to a contentious political and ethical debate.

''This will make it far more difficult to oppose this research,'' said Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology, the Alameda, Calif., company that reported the new method.

Stem cell researchers were impressed by the new technique's ability to produce two robust lines of stem cells without requiring the destruction of embryos, and a White House spokeswoman called it encouraging. However, few on either side believe the new procedure will end the long-running bitter impasse over the science."

Engineers create geckoinspired, highfriction microfibers: "High friction materials can prevent sliding under high loads or steep inclines. The researchers found that the synthetic array of polypropylene fibers could hold a quarter to a glass slide inclined at an 80 degree angle, yet is not 'sticky' like adhesive tape. The fibers, packed 42 million per square centimeter, each measured a mere 20 microns long and 0.6 microns in diameter, or about 100 times thinner than a human hair.

'We think the result represents an important milestone in our ongoing research project to understand gecko adhesion,' said Ronald Fearing, UC Berkeley professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences and principal investigator of the project. "

NanowirePaper Offers Strength, Flexibility: "This two-dimensional “paper” can be shaped into three-dimensional devices. It can be folded, bent and cut, or used as a filter, yet it is chemically inert, remains robust and can be heated up to 700 degrees Celsius.

“Humans have used paper made from natural fibers for thousands of years,” said Z. Ryan Tian, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. “With this technology, we are entering a new era.” The researchers published their findings in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B.

Tian and his team used a hydrothermal heating process to create long nanowires out of titanium dioxide and from there created free-standing membranes. The resulting material is white in color and resembles regular paper.



Further, the material can be cast into different three-dimensional shapes, with different functions. The researchers have created tubes, bowls and cups using this process. These three-dimensional hollow objects can be manipulated by hand and trimmed with scissors, the researchers report. "

What the Devil Prince of Darkness Is Misunderstood, Says UCLA Professor: "'There's little or no evidence in the Bible for most of the characteristics and deeds commonly attributed to Satan,' insists a UCLA professor with four decades in what he describes as 'the devil business.'

In 'Satan: A Biography' (Cambridge Press), Henry Ansgar Kelly puts forth the most comprehensive case ever made for sympathy for the devil, arguing that the Bible actually provides a kinder, gentler version of the infamous antagonist than typically thought.

'A strict reading of the Bible shows Satan to be less like Darth Vader and more and more like an overzealous prosecutor,' said Kelly, a UCLA professor emeritus of English and the former director of the university's Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 'He's not so much the proud and angry figure who turns away from God as [he is] a Joseph McCarthy or J. Edgar Hoover. Satan's basic intention is to uncover wrongdoing and treachery, however overzealous and unscrupulous the means. But he's still part of God's administration.' "

comment: ancient religions are coming under increasing pressure - a major shift is underway.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Better quality coming for some Skype calls InfoWorld News 2006-08-21 By Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service: "Software in the Skype PC client that enhances call quality is now coming to dedicated devices such as mobile phones that use the peer-to-peer voice service.

Global IP Sound Inc. (GIPS) on Monday announced a deal with Skype, a unit of eBay Inc., in which it will license its GIPS VoiceEngine software to manufacturers of Skype-compatible devices. Skype licensed Global IP Sound's technology in 2003 for its PC VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) software, but until now, non-PC devices that can make Skype calls haven't had it. The deal will put GIPS VoiceEngine into software Skype provides for devices such as mobile handsets and ATAs (analog telephone adapters), said Gary Hermansen, president and chief executive officer of GIPS, in San Francisco. "

Microsoft sues 'cybersquatters' - Yahoo! News: "NEW YORK - Microsoft Corp. said it has filed three lawsuits against 'cybersquatters,' in an effort to fight back against a surge of online trademark infringement by people seeking profit from pay-per-click advertising.

The Redmond, Wash., software giant said cybersquatters and typosquatters — people who register Web addresses either with trademarked terms or with common misspellings in the hopes of luring Web surfers who mistype addresses into their browsers — are now registering more than 2,000 domains each day targeting Microsoft."

Monday, August 21, 2006

Energy from ceramics: "You’ve specially taken your laptop computer along so you can work while you travel, but before you’ve accomplished anything worthwhile, the battery has gone flat. The bugbear of notebook technology has always been its power supply. Developers have heralded micro fuel cells as the solution to the tiresome problem of mobile power supplies, but despite all their promises, not a single affordable miniaturized fuel cell is yet available for everyday use.

One reason for this situation, believes Dr. Michael Stelter of the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS in Dresden, is that the tiny power sources are put together from hundreds of filigree parts: “That makes them complicated to develop and expensive to manufacture.” The researcher and his colleagues are therefore pursuing a completely new approach, producing fuel cells from a new type of ceramic film called LTCC – Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic. The material has been in use in the chip industry for some time as a substrate for microelectronic components. "

Radical 'Ballistic Computing' Chip Bounces Electrons Around Like Billiards: "That next step goes by the imposing name of 'Ballistic Deflection Transistor,' and it's as far from traditional transistors as tubes. Instead of running electrons through a transistor as if they were a current of water, the ballistic design bounces individual electrons off deflectors as if playing a game of atomic billiards.

Though today's transistor design has many years of viability left, the amount of heat these transistors generate and the electrical 'leaks' in their ultra-thin barriers have already begun to limit their speed. Research groups around the world are investigating strange new designs to generate ways of computing at speeds unthinkable with today's chips. Some of these groups are working on similar single-electron transistors, but these designs still compute by starting and stopping the flow of electrons just like conventional designs. But the Ballistic Deflection Transistor adds a new twist by bouncing the electrons into their chosen trajectories—using inertia to redirect for 'free,' instead of wrestling the electrons into place with brute energy. "

Molecules spontaneously form honeycomb network featuring pores of unprecedented size: "Spreading anthraquinone, a common and inexpensive chemical, on to a flat copper surface, Greg Pawin, a chemistry graduate student working in the laboratory of Ludwig Bartels, associate professor of chemistry, observed the spontaneous formation of a two-dimensional honeycomb network comprised of anthraquinone molecules. (Click here to view animation.)

The finding, reported in the Aug. 18 issue of Science, describes a new mechanism by which complex patterns are generated at the nanoscale – 0.1 to 100 nanometers in size, a nanometer being a billionth of a meter – without any need for expensive processes such as lithography.

'We know that some of the most striking phenomena in nature, like the colors on a butterfly wing, come about by the regular arrangement of atoms and molecules,' said Pawin, the first author of the paper. 'But what physical and chemical processes guide their arrangement? Anthraquinone showed us how such patterns can form easily and spontaneously.' "

Creating a Place for Innovation: "Expecting revenues to increase year after year through business-as-usual practices may be standard for many companies. But becoming an industry leader requires significant revenue growth beyond what can be attributed to inflation, the positive aftermath of a merger or acquisition, or Enron-esque accounting practices. The essential ingredient, according to some, is innovation.

More than three-quarters of CEOs of fast-growing companies cited innovation as their strongest competitive advantage, according to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers survey. These respondents anticipated an average of 16.2% revenue growth in the next year, versus their peers' estimate of 12.5%—giving the innovation leaders a 30% edge in faster revenue growth.

So how do companies brainstorm to find out what they need to do to create stellar financial performance? Technology departments may hold the key, says Mark Turrell, Imaginatik's CEO. Building on the old concept of the employee suggestion box, enterprises are earmarking part of their corporate intranets for idea-sharing. In this way, companies are creating knowledge management systems that can shepherd cost-cutting methods or novel production approaches from the furthest satellite offices or manufacturing floor direct to company headquarters. "

The Robots Are Coming! - Forbes.com: "The robots are on the move--leaping, scrambling, rolling, flying, climbing. They are figuring out how to get here on their own. They come to help us, protect us, amuse us--and some even do floors.

Since Czech playwright Karel Capek popularized the term ('robota' means 'forced labor' in Czech) in 1921, we have imagined what robots could do. But reality fell short of our plans: Honda Motor (nyse: HMC - news - people ) trotted out its Asimo in 2000, but for now it's been relegated to temping as a receptionist at Honda and doing eight shows a week at Disneyland. The majority of the world's robots are bolted to a spot on a factory floor, sentenced to a repetitive choreography of welding, stamping and cutting. "

Spying an intelligent search engine CNET News.com: "While most would agree that Google has set the current standard for Web search, some technologists say even better tools are on the horizon thanks to advances in artificial intelligence.

Search is like oxygen for many people now, and considering Google's breakthroughs in Web document analysis, supercomputing and Internet advertising, it can be easy to think this is as good as it gets. But some entrepreneurs in artificial intelligence (AI) say that Google is not the end of history. Rather, its techniques are a baseline of where we're headed next."

Irish company challenges scientists to test 'free energy' technology: "The company, Steorn (http://www.steorn.net), says its discovery is based on the interaction of magnetic fields and allows the production of clean, free and constant energy -- a concept that challenges one of the basic rules of physics.

It claims the technology can be used to supply energy for virtually all devices, from mobile phones to cars.

Steorn issued its challenge through an advertisement in the Economist magazine this week quoting Ireland's Nobel prize-winning author George Bernard Shaw who said that 'all great truths begin as blasphemies"

Unleash Your Inner Genius - from InnovationTools.com: "Let’s say you are wrestling with a tough issue – maybe at work, at home, with your children or in your social life. You have been stuck for a while and you can’t seem to make a breakthrough. You want to come up with some really creative ideas. What can you do? Here are ten great practical ways to boost your inventiveness and to crack the problem:
1. Ask why, why? Ask, 'why has this issue arisen?” Come up with six different reasons and for each of them ask, “why did this happen?” Keep asking why for each cause. This helps you to better understand the different reasons why this is a problem and so in turn you will see different possible solutions.
2. Sleep on it. Ponder the issue and all its aspects for some time and then put it out of your mind. Get a good night’s sleep. The subconscious mind goes to work and often you come up with great ideas the next day.
3. Talk it over with someone who has nothing to do with the situation. They will often ask basic questions or make seemingly silly suggestions that prompt good ideas. Two heads are better than one but people who are too close to the issue will often come up with the same ideas as you, so try an outsider.
4. Ask how some celebrity would tackle the issue. What would Steve Jobs do? Or Bob Geldof , or Richard Branson, or Salvador Dali or Margaret Thatcher or Madonna or Sherlock Holmes? Take each individual’s approach to its extremes and it will likely give you some radical solutions.
5. Pick up any object at random and say to yourself, “this item contains the key to solving the problem.” Then force some ideas. Try this with several different objects and you will have a selection of radical and inventive ideas.

Innovation - More Lifelike Color TV Tech Studied: "Swiss scientists have unveiled a new technology that could lead to video displays faithfully reproducing a fuller range of colors than do current models.
The invention, based on fine-tuning light using microscopic artificial muscles, could turn into competitively priced consumer products within eight years, the scientists say.

'State-of-the-art displays such as LCD displays can only reproduce a limited range of colors because the three mixing colors red, green and blue are determined during the time of production,' said Manuel Aschwanden, a nanotechnology expert at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. "

Could a blimp improve communications: "Jones, a former NASA manager, envisions a fleet of unmanned 'Stratellites' hovering in the atmosphere and blanketing large swaths of territory with wireless access for high-speed data and voice communications.

The idea of using airships as communications platforms isn't new — it was widely floated during the dot-com boom. It didn't really fly then, and Jones is the first to admit the latest venture is a gamble."

Friday, August 18, 2006

Waking brain boots up like a computer - LiveScience - MSNBC.com: "As we yawn and open our eyes in the morning, the brain stem sends little puffs of nitric oxide to another part of the brain, the thalamus, which then directs it elsewhere.
Like a computer booting up its operating system before running more complicated programs, the nitric oxide triggers certain functions that set the stage for more complex brain operations, according to a new study. "

New Chip Design Promises Terahertz Processors - Windows News by InformationWeek: "Scientists at the University of Rochester have come up with a new 'ballistic computing' chip design that could lead to 3,000-gigahertz — that's 3-terahertz — processors that produce very little heat.

Marc Feldman, professor of computer engineering at the University, characterizes the design, the Ballistic Deflection Transistor (BDT), as radical. 'There's a real problem for standard transistors to keep shrinking,' he says. The BDT doesn't have a capacitance layer that becomes problematic at very small scales the way current transistor designs do.

Quentin Diduck, the graduate student at the University who came up with the idea, describes the BDT as the next step on the evolutionary track after relays, tubes, and semiconductors.
The BDT, according to the University of Rochester, '[bounces] the electrons into their chosen trajectories — using inertia to redirect for 'free,' instead of wrestling the electrons into place with brute energy.' It functions more as an intersection for electrons than as a device that expends energy to stop and start them. Because of this approach, far less power is required. "

'Electron-spin' trick boosts quantum computing - tech - 16 August 2006 - New Scientist Tech: "A team led by Lieven Vandersypen at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands has now created a device that can manipulate a single electron using conventional microchip fabrication technology.
'This is a breakthrough experiment,' says Guido Burkard, a physicist at the University of Basel in Switzerland, who was not involved in the research. 'A major benefit of making a qubit using this method is that they are built upon existing semiconductor technology.' This should make the qubits easier to scale up into larger systems, he adds."

Life Extension Daily News: "THE announcement that British scientists have identified a deficiency in the lining of the lungs of people with asthma that renders them particularly susceptible to coughs and colds could prove a turning point in the ongoing battle against a disease which now affects more than five million people in the UK. It's a major breakthrough that is likely to result in the first real new treatments for 30 years, and possibly, one day, even a vaccine.

Inflammation of the delicate lining of the lungs following exposure to inhaled allergens, pollutants and viruses is the primary cause of asthma, with the resulting congestion and narrowing of the airways causing the cardinal symptoms of cough, wheeze and shortness of breath.

Up until now, treatment, for all but the mildest cases, has centred on the use of anti-inflammatory ' preventers' such as steroid inhalers, but we have reached the end of the line in terms of their development. While today's anti-inflammatories are significant advances on their forbears developed in the Sixties and Seventies, they are not that much more effective, and around half of all people's asthma in the UK today remains poorly controlled. "

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Will technology revolutionize boinking? - Sexploration - MSNBC.com: "Earlier this month, Palatin Technologies announced that a trial of its new drug for post-menopausal female sexual dysfunction succeeded in rejuvenating desire in women who had little of it. The drug, a so-called melanocortin agonist, acts through the central nervous system.

Other companies have tried to gain approval for sex-stimulating drugs, mainly testosterone, but have failed so far. Still, whether this new one ultimately proves successful, its development indicates that the age of pharmaceutically enhanced sex is almost upon us. (Available impotence drugs like Viagra do not really enhance sex, they just make it possible.)"

New brain cells die without a job to do - health - 16 August 2006 - New Scientist: "When it comes to brainpower they say you either use it or lose it. Now a study in mice suggests that the survival of newly formed adult brain cells depends on the amount of input they receive.

Fred Gage of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, and his colleagues infected genetically engineered mice with a virus that stops new brain cells from producing NMDA receptors - proteins that sit on the surface of brain cells and help them communicate with each other. The virus used infects only newly generated cells, leaving other cells untouched."

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

DNA hints at roots of brain evolution - Science - MSNBC.com: "LONDON - They could be key pieces in the puzzle of human genetic evolution — areas of human DNA that changed dramatically after the evolutionary division from chimpanzees, though they had remained almost unchanged for millennia before.
Scientists from the United States, Belgium and France identified 49 “human accelerated regions,” or HARs, showing a lot of genetic activity. "

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Atoms looser than expected: "By studying how a single electron behaves inside an electronic bottle, Gerald Gabrielse and his colleagues at Harvard were able to calculate a new value for a number six times more precise than the previous measurements called the fine structure constant, which specifies the strength of the electromagnetic force, which holds electrons inside atoms, governs the nature of light and provides all electric and magnetic effects we know, from a flash of lightning to a magnet on a refrigerator. Knowledge of these fundamentals helps scientists and engineers design new kinds of electronic devices–and obtain more profound details on the workings of the universe. "

Experts Cite Distribution as Key in Fighting H.I.V. - New York Times: "TORONTO, Aug. 15 — Large studies of an array of promising new ways to prevent H.I.V. are nearing completion, but the world is unprepared to make them widely available to the hundreds of millions of people at risk of becoming infected, an international panel of experts reported here today.

Findings from some studies, like those assessing the effectiveness of microbicides and male circumcision, are expected within the next five years, some possibly in about a year, the panel said at the 16th International Conference on AIDS."

Elusive Proof, Elusive Prover: A New Mathematical Mystery - New York Times: "Three years ago, a Russian mathematician by the name of Grigory Perelman, a k a Grisha, in St. Petersburg, announced that he had solved a famous and intractable mathematical problem, known as the Poincaré conjecture, about the nature of space.

After posting a few short papers on the Internet and making a whirlwind lecture tour of the United States, Dr. Perelman disappeared back into the Russian woods in the spring of 2003, leaving the world’s mathematicians to pick up the pieces and decide if he was right."

comment: You don’t see what you’re seeing until you see it - broad implications from this complex proof

Google removes Froogle link from home page - MSNBC Wire Services - MSNBC.com: "NEW YORK - Google Inc., the search engine whose clean, minimalist home page was a stark contrast to the link-laden Web portals of the late 1990s, made a tiny tweak to its site last week that may have much bigger repercussions.
On Wednesday, Google removed a text link to its comparison-shopping site, Froogle, and replaced it with one pointing to Google Video, where amateur spoofs uploaded by users mingle with episodes of Dave Chappelle's show."

Scientists urge deep-sea cure for climate change - Yahoo! News: "BOSTON (Reuters) - Climate change could be slowed by burying greenhouse gases blamed for global warming deep below the ocean floor under thick, cold sediment that would trap it for thousands of years, said a team of Harvard-led scientists.

The seafloor along the U.S. east and west coast is vast enough to store almost unlimited carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. coal-fired plants, said Daniel Schrag, director of Harvard's Center for the Environment.

'It would make coal a green fuel,' he said in a telephone interview with Reuters.
Carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels is the main gas blamed for pushing up world temperatures. Many scientists say the buildup could trigger more floods, droughts, powerful storms, heat waves and rising world sea levels."

Scientists Begin to Grasp the Stealthy Spread of Cancer - New York Times: "The moment when a cancer begins to spread throughout the body — metastasis — has always been the most dreaded turning point of the disease.


Without metastasis, cancer would barely be a blip on the collective consciousness. Fewer than 10 percent of cancer deaths are caused by the primary tumor; the rest stem from metastasis to vital sites like the lungs, the liver, the bones and the brain."

Monday, August 14, 2006

Konarka develops photovoltaic products - Konarka Products: "The flexibility, conformability, performance, price and weight of Konarka’s light-activated products enable the Company to expand into several key product directions. Integration of this versatile power plastic into the design of systems for lighting, sensing, communicating and computing extend and enhance battery life without increasing or otherwise impeding the form factor of product designs. Konarka’s photovoltaic fibers and durable plastics bring power-generating capabilities to structures including tents, awnings, roofs, windows and window coverings. "

PALM technique points to protein whereabouts (August 2006) - News - nanotechweb.org: "Researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New Millennium Research, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Florida State University, and NuQuest Research, all in the US, have come up with an optical imaging technique that can pinpoint proteins in cells with nanometre resolution. The method, dubbed photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM) attaches fluorescent protein molecules to the proteins of interest and photoactivates, and images just a few of the fluorescent molecules at a time."

Wired News: India's Cut-Price Space Program: "BANGALORE, India -- Twelve-foot-high electric fences and fortified machine gun posts surround the administrative headquarters of India's space agency.

Although the space program is a civilian effort, it is a symbol of national excellence -- and that makes it an ideal target. But behind the several layers of security, the Indian Space Research Organisation, or ISRO, is abuzz with new projects "

trend: commercialization of space
comment: lowering entry barriers and advancing technology are driving the commercialization of space - space tourism is within the next 10 year time frame.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Spaceship guru looks over the horizon - Space.com - MSNBC.com: "MOJAVE, Calif. - As you stroll through the desert airport/spaceport here, you don’t see a “Keep Out! Spaceliner Under Construction” sign. On the other hand, there’s a palpable feeling that behind closed hangar doors, the future of public space travel is, indeed, a work in progress — and in good hands.

At Scaled Composites — home of the privately financed and built SpaceShipOne that made a trio of piloted suborbital flights in 2004 under the rubric of Tier 1 — the fabrication of a fleet of passenger-carrying space planes and huge carrier launch planes is under way. This activity is labeled Tier 1b."

Soon, mothers will routinely test their children...: "Soon, mothers will routinely test their children at home for the flu with a biosensor.

Soon, mothers will routinely test their children at home for the flu. Doctors will screen patients for cancer and begin discussing treatment based on the immediate results. Farmers will scrutinize the health of animals, and soldiers and environmental inspectors will test the safety of air and water, without time-consuming trips to the lab.

"

Saturday, August 12, 2006

I.B.M. to Buy Content Software Maker for $1.6 Billion - New York Times: "I.B.M. announced yesterday that it planned to pay $1.6 billion for FileNet, a maker of software that helps companies manage documents and other digital information.

The planned purchase, analysts said, is a move by I.B.M. to strengthen its position in the fast-growing market for so-called content management software. The market is thriving as companies struggle to find timely and useful nuggets of intelligence in the mountains of information stored not only in structured corporate databases, but increasingly in reports, e-mail archives, Web pages, video clips and podcasts."

Gilead -- Discovering, Developing and Commercializing Therapeutics to Advance Patient Care

comment: potential stock upside should Viread prove effective as HIV Prevention Pill.

HIV Prevention Pill Shows Early Promise - New York Times: "The first test of a daily pill to prevent HIV infection gave a tantalizing hint of success, but a real answer must await a larger study due out next year.

The experiment, done in Africa, mainly showed that the drug Viread is safe when used for prevention. Fewer people given the drug caught the AIDS virus than those given dummy pills, but so few in either group became infected that valid comparisons cannot be made, scientists said.

Still, ''it's incredibly encouraging,'' said Dr. Helene Gayle, president of the antipoverty group CARE and co-chair of the International AIDS Conference in Toronto, where the results were released on Saturday."

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Scientists make discovery in Alzheimer's: "Scientists have discovered molecular janitors that clear away a sticky gunk blamed for Alzheimer's disease - until they get old and quit sweeping up.

The finding helps explain why Alzheimer's is a disease of aging. More importantly, it suggests a new weapon: drugs that give nature's cleanup crews a boost.

'It's a whole new way of thinking in the Alzheimer's field,' said Dr. Andrew Dillin, a biologist at California's Salk Institute for Biological Studies who led the new research.

The discovery, published Thursday by the journal Science, was made in a tiny roundworm called C. elegans.

What do worms have to do with people? They're commonly used in age-related genetics research, and the new work involves a collection of genes that people harbor, too. Dillin's team from Salk and the neighboring Scripps Research Institute already is on the trail of potential drug candidates. "

InformationWeek Wireless License Auction Satellite, Cable Battle Wireless In FCC Auction August 10, 2006: "WASHINGTON - U.S. wireless carriers battled with satellite and cable operators Wednesday for valuable licenses for advanced wireless services -- like high-speed Internet access -- on the first day of an auction that so far has raised $933.5 million.

A partnership of the top two satellite television providers, EchoStar Communications Corp. and DirecTV Group Inc., led the Federal Communications Commission sale with top bids for 13 licenses totaling $282.5 million.

After the day's second round of bidding, the group knocked No. 4 U.S. wireless carrier T-Mobile USA out of the first place spot it had after the initial round. T-Mobile has the highest bids for 23 licenses, totaling $121.7 million."

TechWeb: TechEncyclopedia: "Semantic Web


The 'Defined' Web. It refers to the use of XML-tagged data that conforms to the Resource Description Framework (RDF). This is a collaboration of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and others to provide a standard for defining data structures on the Web.

Fewer Results - More Meaning
The goal of the Semantic Web is to identify more Web-based data and their interrelationships so that searches can be more effective. As the information on the Web grows, search engines routinely return tens of thousands of results when, very often, only one answer is desired. In order to determine what is true and meaningful, the Web has turned many people into research analysts whether they were ready for the task or not. For more information, visit www.w3.org/2001/sw. See RDF, XDI and semantics."

InformationWeek Gartner Gartner Names Hot Technologies With Greatest Potential Impact August 9, 2006: "Researcher Gartner Inc. on Wednesday identified the technologies it believes will have the greatest impact on businesses over the next 10 years, naming such hot areas as social-network analysis, collective intelligence, location-aware applications and event-driven architectures.

In its 2006 Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle report, Gartner assessed the maturity, impact and adoption speed of three dozen technologies and trends. The list was divided under three themes: Web 2.0, Real World Web and Application Architecture.

Under Web 2.0, social-network analysis and Ajax were rated as 'high impact' and reaching maturity in less than two years. Collective intelligence, on the other hand, was rated as potentially transformational to businesses. "

Space travel will take off in five years, travel boss says: "Will Whitehorn said the Lossiemouth Royal Air Force base in Moray, in Scotland, is on track to be used as a base for the company's spacecraft from 2011.

Virgin Galactic, owned by billionaire British entrepreneur Richard Branson, will charge 110,000 pounds (209,600 dollars, 162,900 euros) a ticket to give passengers to experience weightlessness for five minutes.

It plans to operate around seven spacecraft that will fly 87 miles (156 kilometres) above the earth's surface.

Whitehorn, speaking after a visit to the base on Wednesday, said: 'I met with all the officers on the base today and we agreed it was perfectly technically feasible.' "

New method of growing carbon nanotubes to revolutionise electronics: "Thus far the growth of nanotubes has been carried out at very high temperatures, and growth below 500 C was believed impossible. This made the direct implementation of nanotubes into electronic devices unthinkable. Trying to integrate nanotubes above 400–450 C would in fact damage the inter-metal dielectrics commonly employed in CMOS device fabrication.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Smartsourcing: outsourcing software development in Costa Rica: "Smartsource your enterprise into the innovation age economy, learn more about opportunities in Costa Rica.

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Smartsourcing: outsourcing software development in Costa Rica: "Smartsource your enterprise into the innovation age economy, learn more about opportunities in Costa Rica.

* The
Costa Rica free zone
system
* Commercial
real estate in Costa Rica
* The most effective
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*
Customs regulations Costa Rica
*
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*
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Monday, August 07, 2006

Intel's $600 Million Bet on WiMax Technology - Wireless Tech - NewsFactor Network: "Any doubts about Intel Relevant Products/Services from Intel's commitment to its fledgling WiMax business were just dashed. Despite rumors the computer chipmaker has considered dumping the business as part of a broad reorganization now under way, Intel announced it would invest $600 million in Clearwire, the wireless broadband provider founded by cellular pioneer Craig McCaw.

The goal: to help build a nationwide service that equips notebook PCs for fast Web access and Internet-based calling over vast swaths of the U.S."

Wired News: Two MP3s and a Microphone: "DJs are highly skilled artists who can read minds. They create new songs out of others on the fly and they can use records (or CDs) as instruments, thanks to years of practice and dedication to their craft. This column is not for them.

Instead, I want to address anyone with a bunch of digital music who might like to start 'spinning' music at parties, bars, weddings and the like. I use the term 'spinning' here instead of 'DJ,' as in 'spinning records' (laptop hard drives also spin, for the record), because the term 'DJ' should only apply to those who have the above-mentioned skills. The techniques mentioned below take so many computer-assisted shortcuts that anyone can get going in a matter of minutes no matter what kind of music they're into."

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Smartsourcing: outsourcing software development in Costa Rica: "Smartsourcing software development in Costa Rica

Why outsource software development and digital production to Costa Rica?
Friendly political environment
Highly educated English speaking labor force
Proximity to United States both geographically and temporally
Cost effective labor rates

Smartsource your enterprise into the innovation age economy, email Mike Holst for information about outsourcing in Costa Rica. Smartsourcing software development in Costa Rica

International crime rings, not hackers, true Internet villains: "The online peril is no longer brilliant young social outcasts penetrating networks for notoriety; it is international crime rings swiping billions of dollars with keystrokes and malicious computer codes, cyber cops agreed.

Ironically, potential champions in the battle for Internet privacy were sought among the thousands of hackers that made pilgrimages to the US gambling mecca nicknamed 'Sin City' for the three-day DefCon 14 conference. "

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Tiny inhaled particles take easy route from nose to brain: "Researchers also saw changes in gene expression that could signal inflammation and a cellular stress response, but they do not know yet if a buildup of ultrafine particles causes brain damage, said lead author Alison Elder, Ph.D., research assistant professor of Environmental Medicine.

The study tested manganese oxide ultrafine particles at a concentration typically inhaled by factory welders. The manganese oxide particles were the same size as manufactured nanoparticles, which are controversial and being diligently investigated because they are the key ingredient in a growing industry -- despite concerns about their safety. "

Researchers seed, heat and grow carbon nanotubes in long tubing: "'The work took us three years to develop and get right, but now we can essentially anchor nanotubes to a tubular wall. No one has ever done anything like this before,' said lead researcher Somenath Mitra, PhD, professor and acting chair of NJIT's Dep't of Chemistry and Environmental Science. Graduate and post-doctoral students who worked on the project are Mahesh Karwa, Chutarat Saridara and Roman Brukh.

The ground-breaking method will lead to improvements in cleaner gasoline, better food processing and faster, cheaper ways to clean air and water.

The discovery was recently described in the Journal of Material Chemistry, June 14, 2006, by Mitra and his team in 'Selective Self-assembly of Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes in Long Steel Tubing for Chemical Separation.' Other journals featuring their work are Chemical Physics Letters and Carbon and Analytical Chemistry. "

Ga Peaches touted as future fuel source: "Griner arrived at the Georgia Bioenergy Conference this week carrying of quart of the stuff in a Mason jar. He's licensed to make 10,000 gallons a year of the high-octane elixir that's distilled from fermented Georgia-grown wheat.

Sponsored by the University of Georgia, the three-day conference attracted about 500 farmers, scientists, engineers and politicians. Speakers from across the nation and at least one foreign country, Brazil, discussed the future of global energy supplies, the economics of biofuels, energy legislation and Georgia products that could be converted into fuels."

Plenty of nothing A hole new quantum spin: "
Known as a hole quantum wire, it exploits gaps – or holes - between electrons. The relationship between electrons and holes is like that between electrons and anti-electrons, or matter and anti-matter.

The holes can be thought of as real quantum particles that have an electrical charge and a spin. They exhibit remarkable quantum properties and could lead to a new world of super-fast, low-powered transistors and powerful quantum computers.

Associate Professor Alex Hamilton and Dr Adam Micolich, who lead the UNSW Quantum Electronic Devices group in Sydney, Australia, say the discovery that the holes can carry an electrical current puts the team at the front of its field in the quantum electronics revolution. "

Gene Expression

Friday, August 04, 2006

Future Boy: This is your brain on Google - Jul. 21, 2006: "SAN FRANCISCO (Business 2.0 Magazine) - -- Two years ago, a quadriplegic man started playing video games using his brain as a controller. That may just sound like fun and games for the unfortunate, but really, it spells the beginning of a radical change in how we interact with computers - and business will never be the same.
Someday, keyboards and computer mice will be remembered only as medieval-style torture devices for the wrists. All work - emails, spreadsheets, and Google searches - will be performed by mind control.

If you think that's mind-blowing, try to wrap your head around the sensational research that's been done on the brain of one Matthew Nagle by scientists at Brown University and three other institutions, in collaboration with Foxborough, Mass.-based company Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems. The research was published for the first time last week in the British science journal Nature."

Wired News: It's Alive (ish): "When Rene Descartes said, 'I think, therefore I am,' the philosopher probably didn't imagine a stamp-sized clump of rat neurons grown in a dish, hooked to a computer.
For years, scientists have learned about brain development by watching the firing patterns of lab-raised brain cells. Until recently, though, the brains-in-a-dish couldn't receive information. Unlike actual gray matter, they could only send signals.

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology figured they could learn more from neuron clumps that acted more like real brains, so they've developed 'neurally controlled animats' -- a few thousand rat neurons grown atop a grid of electrodes and connected to a robot body or computer-simulated virtual environment."

Biosingularity » Blog Archive » Researchers watch brain in action

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Eating processed meats raises stomach cancer risk - Yahoo! News: "STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Eating more processed meats such as bacon, sausage and smoked ham increases the risk of stomach cancer, Swedish scientists said on Wednesday.

A review of 15 studies showed the risk of developing stomach cancer rose by 15 to 38 percent if consumption of processed meats increased by 30 grams (1 ounce) per day, the Karolinska Institute said in a statement."