What if machines could be controlled by thought alone? Quadriplegics could interact more freely with the world around them. A new generation of prosthetics could be interfaced directly to the brain. The field is advancing …

Inventor, entrepreneur and futurist Ray Kurzweil used the term ’singularity’ to describe the moment in history when machines will become more intelligent than humans. Exponential growth in technological capabilities, he says, will cause that to …

From the earliest days of computing, programmers have tackled the challenge of creating machines that can emulate human thought. As computers have become more powerful and programming techniques have changed, the ability of machines to …

Robots have had a central role in manufacturing for many years, but it is only recently that they have started to appear in the home — and then, only as devices. In the future, it …

In today’s wired world, business reputations are built and destroyed online. Blogs, citizen journalism, and instant information have made the consequences of a bad reputation more devastating than ever. Though it may be intangible, a …

There are 12 countries that the Paris-based human rights group Reporters Without Borders deemed "Internet enemies" in a March report because of their Web policies. Some of the governments on the list have adopted strict …

While long-term projections call for higher temperatures and heat waves even more intense than previously thought, considerable geographic variability is also in the forecast, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National …

Amid calls for transformative change in the world’s energy supply, Harvard chemist Ted Betley is taking a back-to-basics approach and examining the mother of all energy supplies — photosynthesis — for clues to how nature …

Google is inviting another 100,000 people to play in the Google Wave test pool. The developing duo of Jens and Lars Rasmussen envision Wave revolutionizing online communication and collaboration. I am not sure it will …

Free Wi-Fi has turned coffee shops into de facto work spaces. That’s good for a region full of digital nomads armed with laptops who want to escape the isolation of working alone. But it’s been …

Collaborative behavior is common in nature, visible as flocks and swarms. Research has shown that these phenomena emerge from very simple rules that govern individual behaviors. The flock or swarm then takes on an identity …

Social networks are created where relationships exist between people. They are represented graphically as nodes (people) and connecting lines (relationships), and a new science of social networks has emerged to explain the resulting patterns. Social …

The Internet has made possible new forms of collaboration, including the ability to capture the knowledge, ideas and opinions of large numbers of people. Research has shown that while individual inputs may be divergent, in …

Growing pressure to reduce CO2 emissions from traditional automobiles has heightened interest in electric vehicles. Many automobile manufacturers are bringing plugin cars to market, although mass production and widespread use are still years away. New …

As the Earth continues to warm, there is a growing sense among scientists and analysts that a fallback plan is needed. Seen only a few years ago as impractical and dangerous, geoengineering is now being …

As the Earth continues to warm, there is a growing sense among some scientists and analysts that a fallback plan is needed. Seen only a few years ago as impractical and dangerous, geoengineering is now …

As the Earth continues to warm, there is a growing sense among some scientists and analysts that a fallback plan is needed. Seen only a few years ago as impractical and dangerous, geoengineering is now …

As the Earth continues to warm, there is a growing sense among some scientists and policy makers that a fallback plan is needed. Seen only a few years ago as impractical and dangerous, geoengineering is …

Rising food prices, food scarcity, and an uncertain future where local food production may be impacted by climate change, have incented some nations to buy agricultural land in other countries to meet the needs of …

Global food inventories measure the balance between supply and demand. Months of supply measure the safety stock the world has available before it runs out of food. The balance between supply and demand changes over …

Warnings about rising government debt have been growing more urgent in recent years — even before governments spent trillions more to rescue the failing global economy. According to analysts, it will not be long until …

Clive Akass The Inquirer Emtech Researcher calls for tighter security… Read more

Scientists in the United Kingdom are reporting an advance toward overcoming one of the key challenges in nanotechnology: Getting molecules to move quickly in a desired direction without help from outside forces. Their achievement has …

How technology warned of the tsunami’s approach… Read more

Air travel doesn’t pose extra risks for individuals, infectious disease experts say, but it does spread diseases between populations…. Read more

Adapting to impacts of climate change will cost the developing world up to $100bn per year, a World Bank study concludes…. Read more

A simple method of magnifying light pulses in time could pack significantly more information into the data packets of the internet…. Read more

Extending high-speed Internet to all US households would cost $20 billion to $350 billion, according to officials writing a national plan for expanding the service…. Read more

AT&T Inc. plans to sell a satellite phone from TerreStar Corp. that can place calls even in the deep wilderness or at sea, the carrier said…. Read more

Google and the telecommunications industry are girding for the “mother of all battles” over the possibility of open-access rules on wireless networks… Read more

Google Earth comes alive. A dynamic alive city is generated in augmented virtual earth maps, using crowdcast videos. (5m 21s)

Innovation has for a long time been a closed process, performed in private to avoid losing competitive advantage. Organizations were limited to the expertise they could access internally. Open innovation is a new model that …

All of the different cell types in the human body originate from stem cells through the process of differentiation. It is only then that cells take on their own unique properties that are not expressed …

Scientists are becoming increasingly concerned about the health of the world’s oceans. Ocean temperatures and acidity are increasing. Fish stocks are declining, and many large fish species are now endangered. Huge floating islands of indestructible …

Computers have always used physical phenomena to store and manipulate information — representing bits, for example, using electromagnetic states. Quantum computing will use quantum states instead, allowing thousands or even millions of calculations to be …

Globalization, urbanization, increased mobility, and mass communication are reducing the barriers between peoples, and indigenous groups are being absorbed into the larger population. One of the results is a decline in cultural diversity — in …

Biological species emerge and disappear in the natural course of evolution. There have been times in the Earth’s past when mass extinctions have occurred, causing a large number of species to disappear in a short …

Faced with the prospect that we may some day run out of fossil fuels, or that they will become increasingly unattractive due to their contribution to global warming, we are looking more seriously at a …

Fast-food places have them. Banks and pharmacies do, too. Now hospitals are opening drive-thrus and drive-up tent clinics to screen and treat a swelling tide of swine flu patients…. Read more

The auto industry doesn’t work by the basic laws of the market—governments just won’t let dead companies go… Read more

Engineered E. coli can now trace the outline of an image in a feat that shows how manipulating organisms could lead to synthetic biological devices useful to technology and medicine…. Read more

Brain implants that can more clearly record signals from surrounding neurons in rats have been created at the University of Michigan. The findings could eventually lead to more effective treatment of neurological disorders such as …

You’ve seen movies in 3D. Now, how about your favorite TV series? Panasonic Corp has unveiled a 50 inch high-definition 3D plasma TV and glasses that make images appear like you can touch them…. Read …

The smart grid will replace the existing electricity network, based on centralized command and control, with an intelligent distributed network that extends from the source of power generation to individual appliances in a customer’s home. …

Globalization has empowered many developing economies, as production shifts from developed countries to other parts of the world. Geopolitical change is also shifting the balance of power between nations — away from a few dominant …

The U.S. Dollar has long been the world’s anchor currency, held by many countries as part of their foreign exchange reserves to facilitate trade. It is also the currency used to price commodities such as …

With real-time Internet and mobile communications, people can now be mobilized very quickly. Flash mobs — forming spontaneously when people are invited to show up at a particular place and time to perform some collective …

Debris has been accumulating in orbit around the Earth since our first ventures into space. As rocket and satellite launches increased, so too did the volume of space junk. The planet is now densely ringed …

The Northwest Passage — blocked by ice and unnavigable to all but heavily reinforced icebreakers — is becoming accessible to commercial shipping as the Earth warms and ice turns to open water. This will shorten …

The United Kingdom took an early lead in labeling products with their carbon footprint — the amount of CO2 generated in creating the product and getting it to the store shelf. Labels on food products …

The concept of virtual water was invented by John Anthony Allan at King’s College London to quantify the volume of water required to create a product. The virtual water content of a cup of coffee …

Rare earths are a particular class of elements in the Periodic Table that were once difficult to extract and purify. They are used in many high-technology applications including magnets, rechargeable batteries, electronic displays, lasers, superconductors, …

As the Earth continues to warm, there is a growing sense among some scientists and analysts that a fallback plan is needed. Seen only a few years ago as impractical and dangerous, geoengineering is now …

Regional climates will change as a result of global warming, and not all regions will be affected in the same way. Rainfall is expected to increase in some areas and decrease in others. Large areas …

Now that " real-time" data has become a Web 2.0 (is it Web Squared now?) mantra, Google’s keen to get  the idea embedded into user’s consciousness. The search giant is including a "HotTrends" data panel …

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has completed construction of a pilot plant to support development and validation of its carbon capture technology. Final commissioning testing prior to plant operation was completed and research and …

Fears about millions of ‘climate refugees’ are unfounded… Read more

The best way to observe objects in solar systems is simply to look — but distortions caused by Earth’s atmosphere drown out much of the spectacle of space. To address this problem, Berkeley astronomer James …

Almost 10 percent of the world’s mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish are in danger of extinction due to climate change and other factors, according to an Australian report…. Read more

Disastrous drought threaten Iraq’s farmlands… Read more

Green energy producer Canadian Hydro Developers Inc. announced plans Monday to acquire what it says will be the largest offshore wind operation in the world. … Read more

Just a few days after India’s space program hit the headlines with the news it helped discover water on the lunar surface, the Chinese space program reminds us that, ahem, there’s another Asian country that …

Rare earths may not be on most investors’ radars, but they are certainly in almost any high-tech item they use — and in the world of rare earths, China is king…. Read more

So far, Germany’s auto industry has escaped massive job losses, but major cuts could soon be on the cards… Read more

While genetic engineering aims to modify the genetic code in living organisms, synthetic biology seeks to create new forms of life that are programmed for a specific purpose. Synthetic cells can be instructed by ‘artificial’ …

World demand for lithium has increased dramatically, driven by the growing use of lithium batteries. If plugin cars are widely adopted as expected, lithium will become an even more strategic element. The largest deposits in …

MP3… What will our cities be like in 10, 20, or 100 years and what role will sustainability play in their design? Krys Boyd talks with Adrian Smith, principal at Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill …

From the "iPhone MMS? Meh." department. Does it seem like iPhone users have been saying "finally" a lot lately? Apple on Monday approved an iPhone application from car-sharing company Zipcar that allows users to find …

Harry Shipman, Annie Jump Cannon Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Delaware, told the audience for his lecture, ‘Seeking New Planets,’ on Saturday evening, Sept. 26, that one of his purposes was …

The global average temperature could rise by 4C (7.2F) as early as 2060, according to a new study by the UK Met Office. … Read more

With a simple press on his shirt insignia, the captain of the Star Ship Enterprise could send and receive messages. Now, thanks to the efforts of a Finnish company, this futuristic communication may not be …

Japanese automaker hopes growth in Chinese market can help offset declines elsewhere… Read more

Privacy fears abound, but LBS in social media could radically transform how we communicate and stay connected with friends, says columnist Max Zeledon… Read more

Flasks, beakers, and hot plates may soon be a thing of the past in medicinal chemistry labs. Instead of handling a few experiments on a benchtop, scientists may simply pop a microchip into a computer …

From snowy mountains and sun-baked deserts to the steamy tropical north, Australia has begun wiring its vast expanse with a high-tech broadband network in a giant project being closely followed abroad…. Read more

The job of managing workplace change can be difficult; managed poorly, the result can be disastrous to the morale and stability of the staff. As veteran business consultant William Bridges explains, successful organizational change takes …

Market-tracker Nielsen reported that the ranks of US online social network users continue to grow, with cyber communities tending to attract people who are affluent and urban…. Read more

U.S. power grid chief Jon Wellinghoff is touting the long-term cost savings of electric cars, saying the vehicles could earn $1,500 a year in paybacks for their owners when their batteries are connected to the …

The ‘Web Squared’ Era — "The Web Squared era is an era of augmented reality, arriving (like the sensor revolution) stealthily, in more pedestrian clothes than we expected," write Tim O’Reilly, CEO and founder of …

The U.S. Defense Department selected energy company Solazyme Inc. to provide the world’s first jet fuel derived from algae for testing by the U.S. Navy…. Read more

European researchers are creating new technology that could, ultimately, make accessible the sum of humankind’s knowledge. Hundreds of organisations and millions of documents are already linked to this "United Nations of knowledge"…. Read more

MP3… Wikipedia’s growth, once exponential, has flattened. In an article for TIME magazine, Farhad Manjoo writes that Wikipedia is just as dysfunctional as other large communities … and its end may be in sight. …

MP3… In Wired magazine, Nicholas Thompson writes about system known as Dead Hand. It was designed by Soviet scientists in the mid 1980s to automatically retaliate against a nuclear strike from the U.S. [Future …

MP3… Imagine a future where computers exceed our own intelligence; where problem solving is no longer limited by human thinking — what then? It’s a moment in technological time some call ‘The Singularity’. But how …

To a robot designer like Sangbae Kim, the animal kingdom is full of inspiration. "I always look at animals and ask why they are the way they are," says Kim, an assistant professor of mechanical …

NASA is looking at a proposal that could someday result in a manned landing on an asteroid…. Read more

Honda’s new "personal mobility" device looks like a unicycle, but all you need to do to zip around on it — sideways as well as forward and back — is lean your weight into the …

The global recession has barely dented the trend to over consumption according to a report out today. … Read more

The Web is gaining ears, eyes and other senses through smart sensors. This will be big…. Read more

Google has gone on trial in Paris over the insistence by French writers and publishers that the company request permission before putting book excerpts online…. Read more

A key part of the Obama Administration’s green-energy policy is the development of a so-called " smart grid ." This is a new electric power system that would coordinate power demand with the fuel supply …

Low-cost expansion is helping McDonald’s vie with Starbucks as the Continent’s No. 1 coffee chain… Read more

Tien Tzuo called on fellow technology entrepreneurs to join him on a quest to rescue newspapers that are dying as their readers get stories free on the Internet…. Read more

The current generation of college students and teachers need to be as culturally fluent with people from different cultures as they are with their own, a soft skill that has become an essential part of …

The day the White House unveiled its Open Government Initiative, it also launched the website data.gov, which put information like Medicare cost reports, residential energy consumption and state-by-state toxicity reports online. Finding new technical means …

Boeing is moving ahead with plans to develop commercial space flight, including transporting astronauts and perhaps tourists into space…. Read more

A manned moon base could become a reality within 20 years after scientists revealed today there are large quantities of water on the Moon’s surface…. Read more

The Government’s minister in charge of the plans has said he is aiming to bring in the new charge in a forthcoming finance bill to finance a new ’superfast’ broadband service…. Read more

Between their crazy schedules and upside-down circadian rhythms, teens always have been somewhat sleep-deprived. Now technology is making it worse. Teens are not just texting, instant-messaging and surfing Facebook all day; they’re sleeping with their …

The effects of climate change are so uncertain and potentially long-lasting that policymakers should begin examining options that include geoengineering, an area that has so far been off-limits, according to a former Harvard researcher who …

The tallest building in the world — Burj Dubai.

A clip from Beyond Tomorrow documenting the Tokyo University of Science robotics projects lead by Dr. Hiroshi Kobayashi. Included are clips on SAYA (robot receptionist), an exoskeleton, an active walker and artificial throat for assisting …

Human activities have already pushed the Earth system beyond three of the planet’s biophysical thresholds, with consequences that are detrimental or even catastrophic for large parts of the world; six others may well be crossed …

A giant cloud of red dust has settled over Australia’s largest city, closing the country’s largest airport and prompting a spike in emergency calls…. Read more

A University of Oregon research team has found that evolution can never go backwards, because the paths to the genes once present in our ancestors are forever blocked. The findings are the result of the …

IT workers are getting smaller raises and staying put as leaders TCS, Infosys, and Wipro face a revenue decline and a bigger fight for deals… Read more

An augmented walking tour of Basel, Switzerland.

A clip from Beyond Tomorrow documenting the Victhom Human Bionics Bionic Leg — the Power Knee. An amputee can use this prosthesis to walk normally.

In this discussion with Computer History Museum Senior Curator Dag Spicer, Ray Kurzweil shares his vision of how technology will re-shape the human body (and culture generally) into one that incorporates advanced technologies into a …

Though reflecting on how today’s conditions become tomorrow’s realities is vital, anticipating what is to come next is not easy. This book is about foresight — that is the principles, methods, and techniques businesses can …

Analysts say China’s emissions reduction announcement has huge implications for international consensus on dealing with global warming…. Read more

A $125 million settlement of a lawsuit that would give Google Inc. the digital rights to millions of out-of-print books will be renegotiated in light of the US Department of Justice’s contention that the deal …

Happiness is contagious. Your future spouse is likely to be your friend’s friend. Your friends’ friends’ friends can make you fat — or thin. These are just a few of the startling findings of internationally …

It is no surprise that many fearful American workers see the call center operator in Bangalore or the factory worker in Guangzhou as a threat to their jobs. The emergence of China and India (along …

You’ve gotten used to managing a diverse workforce. You deal with vendors across the globe. You see people as people, whether they’re Chinese, Indian, Mexican, or American. You know the basic protocols to follow and …

MP3… Bob Garfield, host of NPR’s On the Media and Bill Buzenberg, executive director of The Center for Public Integrity, discuss the future of media and investigative journalism. [WCPN]

MP3… Don’t believe the hype you hear about the decline of America and the dawn of a new Asian age. Host Jean Feraca talks with Minxin Pei, director of the Keck Center for International and …

The BBC’s Digital Planet team head to Nairobi to find out how the newly opened fibre optic cables are affecting the country. Will high-speed internet access improve Kenya’s economy or just deepen the digital divide? …

This book is as close to a crystal ball as you may ever find. It may make the difference between your company s survival and extinction. Reading the future and being able to spot tomorrow …

Antibiotic-resistant microbes infect more than 2 million Americans and kill over 100,000 each year. They spread rapidly, even in such seemingly harmless places as high school locker rooms, where they infect young athletes. And throughout …

At 21, Alana Taylor has already seen her career in journalism transformed and perhaps cut short by the technology reshaping the news business…. Read more

One of the activities that puts a great deal of carbon dioxide into the environment is air travel. Air travel is one of the ways that individuals contribute to an increase in pollution and to …

Despite the fact that the vehicle industry is currently described as an industry in crisis, there are high hopes that the development of future IT services for vehicles will drive development. However, for new technology …

Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words, particularly when the picture is used to illustrate science. Technology is giving us better pictures every day, and one of them is helping a NASA-funded scientist …

In looking forward to the next Green Revolution, researchers have been carefully examining the role of nitrogen fixation in delivering successful crops around the globe. … Read more

The global recession has brought a significant drop in greenhouse gas emissions, says the International Energy Agency. … Read more

MIT researchers have developed designs for a new kind of coal-burning power plant, called a pressurized oxy-fuel combustion system, whose carbon-dioxide emissions are concentrated and pressurized so that they can be injected into deep geological …

The first time Jay Keasling remembers hearing the word “artemisinin,” about a decade ago, he had no idea what it meant. “Not a clue,” Keasling, a professor of biochemical engineering at the University of California …

New research by MIT scientists suggests that carbon nanotubes — tube-shaped molecules of pure carbon — could be formed into tiny springs capable of storing as much energy, pound for pound, as state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries, …

The United States is moving toward enshrining a free and open internet with six proposed rules designed to prevent telecommunications companies from interfering with how people use their connections…. Read more

A few years ago it seemed that quantum computing was about to be unleashed on the world. What happened?… Read more

Until recently, genetic engineering has required the DNA molecule itself to be physically manipulated, a tedious and expensive process. Now, automatic DNA synthesis permits virtually any DNA code to be made from scratch, opening up …

Peter Schwartz, Cofounder and Chairman of Global Business Network, speaks at the National University of Singapore about the ability to imagine futures.

Antibiotic-resistant infections are becoming more common in people…. Read more

UCLA researchers have discovered that a combination of drugs, electrical stimulation and regular exercise can enable paralyzed rats to walk and even run again while supporting their full weight on a treadmill…. Read more

With their advertising revenue drying up, newspaper publishers spent much of the spring and summer debating whether to cut off free online access to some of the material they run in their shrinking print editions…. …

As it marks its 60th birthday, the People’s Republic of China has much to celebrate. But the emerging global power’s journey has barely begun… Read more

The hum of 102 rooftop air conditioners and a chorus of beeping electric carts provide the acoustic backdrop in Amazon.com’s 605,000-square-foot distribution facility on this city’s west side…. Read more

A.G. Lafley, Chairman and CEO, Procter & Gamble, discusses how P&G makes innovation an everyday practice in their organization. Innovation is at the core of P&G’s business strategy — a story described in his book, …

Cost-effective space solar power (SSP) — the beaming abundant high-intensity solar power from space though atmospheric windows at laser or microwave frequencies for electric power at the surface — could be a breakthrough technology for …

The combined forces of globalization and technology have changed aspects of societies across the world in a relatively short period of time. With six teenagers from around the globe, selected through the British Council’s global …

Start-ups often need big money and investors steeped in big science and big government. In what would have been an unaccustomed move for a Silicon Valley venture capitalist not too long ago, Alan Salzman recently …

Which genes make us uniquely human? Scientists are looking at DNA in old bones to find out. The focus now is not so much on our own species, Homo sapiens. Instead, scientists are probing DNA …

MP3… Nora Young interviews Bill Wasik, senior editor at Harper’s magazine, and author of the new book And Then There’s This: How Stories live and Die in Viral Culture. He is the originator of the …

Nandan M. Nilekani, Co-Chairman of Infosys Technologies Ltd , speaks on his new book Imagining India – The Idea of a Renewed Nation.

The future, while always unknown, can be shaped. Learn how humans have done so in the past, and how we can change the course of our future. Ian A. Goldin, Director of the 21st Century …

A low-cost device for attaching audio labels to everyday objects is on show at a technology event for people with impaired vision…. Read more

The top U.S. telecommunications regulator is set to introduce net neutrality rules that will prohibit internet providers from selectively blocking or slowing web traffic, according to a report…. Read more

With travel demand sagging, charges for checked baggage, food, staff assistance, and anything else carriers can think of are becoming key revenue sources… Read more

Scientists at a new interdisciplinary research institute in Austria are working to uncover how life might evolve with "exotic" biochemistry and solvents, such as sulphuric acid instead of water…. Read more

Infosys, Wipro and HCL hope to win some of $2 billion in outsourcing contracts from ten American states… Read more

Ever wondered what your income or taxes or health care or pensions or debt levels might look like in 2050? That’s what Treasury are currently doing, but with spreadsheets and assumptions and lots of fancy …

Mounting evidence indicates that prostate cancer is an infectious disease caused by a recently identified virus…. Read more

Renault has wowed the Frankfurt crowd with a quartet of green vehicles that will all see production by 2012. By Richard Blackburn…. Read more

Researchers from the University of Washington and the University of Florida used gene therapy to cure two squirrel monkeys of color blindness – the most common genetic disorder in people…. Read more

The German government agreed a plan to set aside special zones off its northern coast for a host of wind farms that could provide energy for more than eight million homes…. Read more

The Frankfurt auto show hummed with talk of electric vehicles but experts predict cars will roll on a variety of power sources for a while…. Read more

Consumer spending will lag rather than lead the recovery from the current recession, according to University of Michigan economist Richard Curtin… Read more

In a book that’s one part prophecy, one part thought experiment, one part manifesto, and one part survival manual, internet impresario and blogging pioneer Jeff Jarvis reverse-engineers Google—the fastest-growing company in history—to discover forty clear …

The Japanese are preparing to develop a two trillion yen (approximately $21 billion USD) space solar project that will beam electricity from space in the form of microwaves or lasers to around 300,000 homes in …

Web technology is poised to shake universities, the way it rocked newspapers and the music industry—with convenient, cheaper alternatives… Read more

A communication system from startup Better Place lets drivers know how far their batteries will take them and where to find a fresh charge… Read more

New video footage has been released of a robot that can leap over obstacles more than 7.5m (25ft) high…. Read more

In addition to global warming, carbon dioxide emissions cause another, less well-known but equally serious and worrying phenomenon: ocean acidification. Researchers in the Laboratoire d’Océanographie at Villefranche, France, have just demonstrated that key marine organisms, …

The brains of the snake robots are still no more advanced than that of a one-year-old, but scientists at SINTEF (Norway) want to bring them up to the level of a teenager. At least…. Read …

Scientists from University of Toronto and the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital have discovered a molecular link between intelligence and curiosity, which may lead to the development of drugs to improve learning…. …

One of the biggest complaints that some have about solar power (and other forms of alternative energy) is that it is so much more expensive than the fossil fuels that are more commonly used today. …

Even in the “oldest old,” a little physical activity goes a long way, extending life by at least a few years for people in their mid- to late 80s, Israeli researchers found…. Read more

BG’s Guara oil field in the Santos Basin is estimated to contain up to two billion barrels of recoverable reserves The potential of Brazil to become one of the biggest oil producers in the world …

Two German merchant ships negotiate the North East passage in the Russian Arctic, which was ice-bound until recently…. Read more

In the isolated border lands between Kenya and Somalia, families have always clung to a precarious existence. Now a decade of droughts has tested their endurance… Read more

MRSA and other dangerous staph bacteria discovered on West Coast beaches…. Read more

It’s every violinmaker’s dream to produce an instrument to rival the sound of a Stradivarius but now researchers at The University of Nottingham are trying to do just thatÂ…using acoustic physics and carbon fibre engineering…. …

MP3… Chris Anderson, editor of Wired, on how free can succeed as an online business model, plus we discuss the importance of product design. [Guardian Tech Weekly]

MP3… Ray Kurzweil launched the Singularity University at TED earlier this year. As the first students graduate, Bobbie Johnson visits the campus to speak to Salim Ismail, the executive director of the project, as well …

MP3… Peter Brantley of the Open Book Alliance explains why the Internet Archive, Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon, librarians, writers and publishers are challenging Google’s plans to build a book search. Also, Matt Mason – author of …

MP3… A feature interview with Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. Clay and Nora Young talk about the pros and cons of social media, new online business models, …

Like every new generation, today’s youth are unlike their predecessors, and they are poised to make a significant impact on society and business as they enter the workforce. While this may not seem like a …

Australians have overtaken Americans as the world’s biggest individual producers of carbon dioxide, which is blamed for global warming, a risk consultancy says…. Read more

Reducing Americans’ average intake of sodium to the amount recommended by health officials could save the nation as much as $18 billion annually in avoided health care costs and improve the quality of life for …

A tiny bit of genetic material with no previously known function may hold the key to stopping the spread of cancer, researchers report…. Read more

The UK could face blackouts as green energy is not coming on stream fast enough, the government’s new energy adviser has told the BBC…. Read more

With more than 40,000 direct professional contacts on LinkedIn, Steven Burda wants to ensure he always has up-to-date information to maintain his network. He couldn’t resist signing up for a digital business card, where users’ …

Some of the world’s biggest technology companies say they can help publishers successfully charge readers for news online. If only that were the hard part…. Read more

A team of environmental scientists from Harvard and Tsinghua University demonstrated the enormous potential for wind-generated electricity in China. The researchers estimate that wind alone has the potential to meet the country’s electricity demands projected …

Japan successfully launches its new unmanned cargo craft on a mission vital to the future of the space station…. Read more

Most natural rubber comes from rubber trees in Southeast Asia, but this source is now under threat from a fungus. Researchers have optimized the Russian dandelion to make it suitable for large-scale rubber production…. Read …

The Mountain View company announced that concession after mounting opposition to Google’s 10-month-old settlement with authors and publishers…. Read more

The EU proposes spending billions of dollars to protect poor nations from climate impacts – but campaigners want more…. Read more

France’s President Sarkozy announces plans for a new carbon tax aimed at combating global warming…. Read more

China potentially could be a $500 billion to $1 trillion a year market for environmentally sustainable “green technologies,” a group of businesses and experts said in a report that urges governments to ease the way …

A B.C environmental organization says the low number of salmon returning to the province’s waterways shows that not enough is being done by the government department responsible for the fish’s welfare…. Read more

In late September Social Actions will launch a search interface and open API that aggregates actionable opportunities from 20 social action platforms including DonorsChoose.org, Kiva, Idealist, and Change.org. In anticipation of that launch, and to …

John Hollar, CEO of the Computer History Museum speaks with Judy about her book, Closing the Innovation Gap: Reigniting the Spark of Creativity in a Global Economy. Estrin’s book challenges national, academic and business leaders …

Noted scientist Stephen Wolfram shares his perspective of how the unexpected results of simple computer experiments have forced him to consider a whole new way of looking at processes in our universe.

Publishers, booksellers, and authors are upset at the copyright, privacy, and censorship implications of Google’s plan to digitize millions of books… Read more

Like the robotic rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which wheeled tirelessly across the dusty surface of Mars, a new robot spent most of July traveling across the muddy ocean bottom, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) off …

The brain’s magic is worked by neural circuits, where information is transmitted from one nerve cell to the next. In the heat of the summer, for example, our ability to relish an ice cream is …

An ambitious project was unveiled in Germany to install mini gas-fired power plants in people’s basements and produce as much electricity as two nuclear reactors within a year…. Read more

How surgery could be transformed in the next decade… Read more

BW’s Rob Hof talks with the former head of Google China about his just launched Innovation Works, an incubator of sorts for Chinese tech companies… Read more

By selling an array of virtual products from avatar clothes to e-furniture, Asia’s social networking sites appear to have solved the conundrum of how to leverage big profits from their extensive user bases. It’s simple, …

The UK economy may have to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2050 to make space for aviation growth…. Read more

The days of market exclusivity could soon come to an end for the biotech industry if Congress moves forward with plans to allow generic biologics on the U.S. market. … Read more

Scott Harrison’s new media revolution started by accident. Mr. Harrison is the founder of Charity: Water, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing clean water to impoverished villages in Africa. In January, he got an e-mail from …

A brain-imaging study conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory provides the first definitive evidence that patients suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have lower-than-normal levels of certain proteins essential …

The genomes were delivered to customers that include pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and leading medical research institutes…. Read more

Hairstylists may have a unique opportunity to help steer their elderly clients to needed health services, according to a small, exploratory study…. Read more

US energy group First Solar has signed a preliminary deal to build the world’s biggest solar power plant in China…. Read more

A research group from the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) in Tarragona, Spain, has developed a biosensor that can immediately detect very low levels of Salmonella typhi, the bacteria that causes typhoid fever. The technique …

Cereals able to make their own nitrogen could become a reality after a scientific breakthrough in root nodule research.

World’s first full-size floating wind turbine is unveiled

Symantec is trying to utilize the power of Web users to snare cybercriminals

Justin Rattner, Intel Corporation’s Chief Technology Officer takes a fascinating look at how technology will bring man and machines much closer together. He predicts big changes are ahead in social interactions, robotics and improvements in …

Eric Giler wants to untangle our wired lives with cable-free electric power. Here, he covers what this sci-fi tech offers, and demos MIT’s breakthrough version, WiTricity — a near-to-market invention that may soon recharge your …

Interview and discussion with the Co-Founder of 23andMe, Linda Avey. She talks about the importance of mapping your D.N.A.

Aquaculture, once a fledgling industry, now accounts for 50 percent of the fish consumed globally, according to a new report by an international team of researchers. And while the industry is more efficient than ever, …

Even if global temperatures rise slowly, climate change could slash the yields of some of the world’s most important crops almost in half, according to a new study co-authored by an N.C. State University scientist.

New research at The University of Nottingham could help prevent the harmful blood clots associated with heart disease and stroke, the single greatest cause of disease-related death worldwide.

A model that replicates the functions of the human brain is feasible within 10 years’ time, according to a neuroscientist. “I absolutely believe it is technically and biologically possible. The only uncertainty is financial. It …

China’s top 500 companies outperformed their US counterparts for the first time last year, a survey conducted by a business group has revealed, as the financial crisis wreaked havoc in the United States.

Internet giant Google will remove all books still on sale in Europe from a US online market offering millions of titles that are out of print in the United States, the company said.

A Massachusetts ocean studies institute is building underwater data collection stations to help researchers understand the ocean’s role in climate change.

Solar power manufacturers in the US are cutting prices to shift their stock, the government is chipping in with tax credits, and innovative leasing or financing arrangements spreading payments over up to 20 years are …

Japan dangles the climate carrot – will the US bite?

Multinational corporations, such as Ford Motor Co. and Coca-Cola Co., are beginning to use social media to increase positive sentiment, build customer rapport and correct misinformation.

Bacteria that generate significant amounts of electricity could be used in microbial fuel cells to provide power in remote environments or to convert waste to electricity.

Up to 20 million people in parts of Bangladesh are at risk from rising sea levels in the coming decades, says new research.

From driverless cars to self-flying helicopters

Kai-Fu Lee has confirmed that he’s leaving his post as head of Google China to start something called Innovation Works, a mix between an incubator, a development lab and an angel investing firm. The plan …

Genetic mutations that could account for more than one in five cases of Alzheimer’s disease have been found, in a significant leap forward for dementia research, scientists say.

Daniel Clancy, Engineering Director of Google Books, discusses Google’s historic project to provide greater access to books online. Clancy talks firsthand about the fundamentals of digitizing books, the recent settlement agreement between Google, authors and …

The UK is facing a tipping point over the next few years in its ability to generate enough power to satisfy an ever increasing demand.

In their responses to the current economic crisis, governments paid lip service to global coordination but propelled separate stimulus programs meant to rev up national markets.

McKinsey Global Survey results.

Device employs Shor’s algorithm using four photons

Google’s algorithm for ranking web pages can be adapted to determine critical species in ecoysystems, say researchers.

The stereotypical library is dying — and it’s taking its shushing ladies, dank smell and endless shelves of books with it.

Dutch company Ambient Systems and Information Highway Group (IHG), of Spain, said their third generation active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system uses intelligent tags with an inbuilt shelf-life algorithm that provide detailed data on the …

Researchers have fit some of the laboratory-sized machinery of quantum computing onto a chip the size of a penny.

The future of human computer interaction

The Miller-Urey experiment, conducted by chemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey in 1953, is the classic experiment on the origin of life. It established that the early Earth atmosphere, as they pictured it, was capable …

The Internet, private networks, VPNs, and a host of other technologies are quickly weaving the planet into a single, massively complex "infosphere." These connections cannot be severed without overwhelming damage to companies and even economies.

An obesity “master switch” has been found that makes it possible to feast on junk food without getting fat.

Thousands of newly released images from more than 1,500 telescopic observations by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show a wide range of gullies, dunes, craters, geological layering and other features on the Red Planet.

Two University of California, Berkeley, professors are teaming up with two colleagues to launch "Cyberlaw Cases," a blog covering what they consider the top 10 most important pending U.S. legal cases involving issues that impact …

In spite of rising energy prices, many car drivers in large cities still ride alone. The OpenRide mobile ridesharing service aims to save them money while reducing the amount of traffic and thus the burden …

Google has agreed to draw up a separate privacy policy for its digital library in response to a request from the Federal Trade Commission.

The country’s ‘cash for clunkers’ scheme has been a success, but its closure is sparking fears German carmakers may have to slash jobs

Cities are organized like brains, and the evolution of cities mirrors the evolution of human and animal brains, according to a new study by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The first engineering study of the internal fluid flows of insects, creatures that have evolved efficiently over millions of years, may provide engineers and scientists with new ideas for how to build better artificial tissues …

Industrialization and urbanization across Asia have encouraged the misconception that they are the main gluttons of water. But the dominant force in Asian water consumption is agriculture. Of the estimated 319 billion cubic meters of …

Disregard the myth of the lone professional “superman” and the rest of our culture’s go-it alone mentality. The real path to success in your work and in your life is through creating an inner circle …

Australia records its warmest ever winter – partly caused by climate change – and fears the coming bush fire season.

YouTube, Google Inc.’s online video streaming service, is in talks with Hollywood studios to rent new release movies online, according to people familiar with the talks.

The amount of greenhouse gases India produces will more than triple by 2030 – but per-capita rate will stay low, a report says.

Scientists are beginning a large-scale effort to identify and analyze the vast majority of cells in or on your body that aren’t of human origin.

Bangladesh orders male government employees to stop wearing suits and turn down air conditioning in order to save power.

Since June, a Web site called SharesPost has been helping a small pool of qualified buyers and sellers trade shares in fast-growing startups that have not yet gone public. Now, the private stock exchange is …

Online bookseller Amazon.com Inc. is warning a federal judge that Internet search leader Google Inc. will be able to gouge consumers and stifle competition if it wins court approval to add millions more titles to …

Some computer viruses have a crude but scary ability to spy on people by logging every keystroke they type. Now hackers and potentially law enforcement have another weapon: a virus that can eavesdrop on voice …

It’s 11 p.m. Do you know where your neighbors are? Chances are they’re online. According to a study, North Americans have been staying up late to do their Internet surfing this summer, so late that …

Driving home from a seminar on fuel cell technology, Gerardine Botte was struck with a notion. Her idea was based on water electrolysis, a process used to produce hydrogen energy from water. Botte, an associate …

An injectable biomaterial gel may help brain tissue grow at the site of a traumatic brain injury, according to findings by a Clemson University bioengineer.

Focusing on the economic management of investment and growth from the perspective of both adaptation and migration, Lord Nicholas Stern confronts the most urgent questions facing us now: What is the problem? What are the …

Germany’s cash-for-clunkers program has confounded economists by becoming a success. The idea of offering government cash for people who traded in their jalopies spread around the world and kept …

While it’s not much of a threat to economies in the real world now, online money could translate into numerous issues for countries in the long run

People around the world interact with Alecia Dantico all day. Usually, though, they don’t know whether she’s young or old, male or female.

Google Inc. said its Street View service will blur some pictures from Switzerland even more after a Swiss official said the images were violating the country’s strict privacy laws.

When a river flows into the sea, the location is more than just a haven for water commerce. The mixing of fresh and salt water that occurs at an estuary also dissipates energy, as the …

Just where do inventors get their ideas from?

Interead, a British company that sells the COOL-ER e-book reader, is adding more than 1 million free public-domain books to its online bookstore. The texts are available from Google Inc. through its book-scanning project.

Forbes features Ginkgo BioWorks, a synthetic biology company started by MIT’s Tom Knight and three of his PhD students, including Reshma Shetty . She’s part of their Eight People Inventing the Future , on the …

We all have at least 100 new mutations in our DNA, according to research published in the journal Current Biology.

The World Health Organization predicts in the next 20 years depression will become the most common cause of ill health.

There’s no question that the Internet has changed the way we do business — especially when it comes to marketing. Consumer environments are short on trust and populated by consumers who are cynical, savvy, and …

If the founders of Google, PayPal, or Starbucks had stuck to their original business plans, we’d likely never have heard of them. Instead, they made radical changes to their initial models, became household names, and …

Our flawed approach to cyber security needs a dramatic overhaul — and courts should lead the way to reform, argues Edward Imwinkelried, a professor of law at the University of California, Davis, and one of …

Angola will begin planting sugar cane for the first time in more than 30 years this month as the oil-rich country takes its first step toward biofuels.

Many a historic landmark is defaced with graffiti, but the spray paint can only be removed – if at all – using caustic solutions which risk damaging the underlying surface. A new breathable coating provides …

From Lawrence Berkeley National Labs to Silicon Valley, researchers are manipulating particles at the atomic level, ushering in potential cures for cancer, clothes that don’t stain, and solar panels as thick as a sheet of …

The world’s climate is changing and California is now being affected in both dramatic and subtle ways. Get an in-depth look at the science behind climate change as we explore the environmental changes taking place …

The prolific and controversial web culture of piracy, particularly file sharing, has taken the world by storm, and for more than a decade, we’ve been waging a war in the name of the 20th Century’s …

A new method for "recycling" hydrogen-containing fuel materials could open the door to economically viable hydrogen-based vehicles.

Geo-engineering projects could retard climate change but are no substitute for cutting emissions, a Royal Society report concludes.

The cost of reducing China’s total greenhouse gas emissions is likely to reach $438bn a year within 20 years, and developed economies will have to bear much of that cost, according to a group of …