Innovation Watch» news

Working with China’s Generation Y (Businessweek)

iw — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:01:09 +0000

Multinational companies in China need to consider new strategies to manage Gen Y employees, now half of China’s working-age population. … Read more

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Metal-Mining Bacteria are Green Chemists (PhysOrg)

iw — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:59:07 +0000

Microbes could soon be used to convert metallic wastes into high-value catalysts for generating clean energy. … Read more

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Anti-Perfumes Smell Just as Sweet (NewsMail)

iw — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:57:25 +0000

A book geek to the end, I grasped an old leather-bound Shakespeare tome from a thrift shop, smelled it creepily, and wished I could bottle and wear its scent forever. … Read more

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Montmartre Artists Worry About Their Future (Earth Times)

iw — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:55:13 +0000

Globalization hasn’t spared the painters of Montmartre, who are as much a part of Paris as the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. They are increasingly finding themselves in competition with reproductions from China being sold in nearby galleries and souvenir shops at dumping prices. … Read more

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Scientific Breakthrough to Pave the Way for Human Stem Cell Factories (PhysOrg)

iw — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:53:37 +0000

Large scale, cost-effective stem cell factories able to keep up with demand for new therapies to treat a range of human illnesses are a step closer to reality, thanks to a scientific breakthrough involving researchers at The University of Nottingham. … Read more

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Seaswarm Robots Could Clean Gulf Oil Spill in a Month (Epoch Times)

iw — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:44:02 +0000

Created by researchers at MIT’s Senseable City Lab, Seaswarm employs a conveyor belt of absorbent, nanowire mesh. The specially deigned mesh can suck up oil on the water’s surface and then process and dispose of the oil it’s collected. The Seaswarm can continue to absorb more of the spill while the robot autonomously navigates and cleans the ocean for weeks on end. … Read more

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Advances Offer Path to Shrink Computer Chip (Mercury News)

iw — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:42:43 +0000

Scientists at Rice University and Hewlett-Packard are reporting this week that they can overcome a fundamental barrier to the continued rapid miniaturization of computer memory that has been the basis for the consumer electronics revolution. In recent years the limits of physics and finance faced by chipmakers had loomed so large that experts feared a slowdown in the pace of miniaturization that would act like a brake on the ability to pack ever more power into ever smaller devices such as laptops, smartphones and digital cameras. … Read more

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Cisco Seeking to Acquire Skype: TechCrunch (PhysOrg)

iw — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:40:14 +0000

US networking giant Cisco has made an offer to acquire Internet communications firm Skype, technology blog TechCrunch said. … Read more

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The Rare Earth Element Big Squeeze (Salon)

iw — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:37:56 +0000

If a conservative is a liberal who just got mugged, then an advocate of government intervention in the economy is nothing more than a free market believer who just realized that China dominates an industry with major implications for national defense and renewable energy technology. That’s the primary conclusion to be gleaned from a review of three recent studies of Chinese dominance of rare earth element mining and processing. … Read more

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Intel Buys Wireless Chip Tech in Mobile-Phone Push (Boston Globe)

iw — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:34:41 +0000

As the world’s biggest maker of computer chips, Intel Corp. can’t afford to ignore its huge blind spot in mobile phones. Eighty percent of today’s personal computers use Intel processors. But Intel is absent in smart phones, which are threatening PCs as gateways to the Internet. … Read more

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Food Crisis Looms After Floods in Pakistan (McClatchy)

iw — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:32:31 +0000

The worst floods in Pakistan’s history already have swept through the nation’s most important breadbasket provinces, destroying cotton and corn crops, vegetables and orchards, and leaving many people in need of emergency food. … Read more

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Infosys Plans ‘Extreme Offshore’ Model to Tide Over Visa Crisis (Business Standard)

iw — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:30:56 +0000

Against the backdrop of a clampdown on visas by the US and growing antagonism towards foreign workers and immigrants in that country, Infosys Technologies, India’s second-largest IT services firm, is mulling an ‘extreme offshoring’ model to help reduce its dependence on H1 and L1 visas. … Read more

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