Article Archive for December 2009
US telecom giant AT&T has asked US regulatory authorities to waive a requirement that it and other carriers maintain costly landline networks. … Read more
Researchers from the Biotechnology Foundation Laboratories at Thomas Jefferson University have identified a way to increase the oil in tobacco plant leaves, which may be the next step in using the plants for biofuel. …
PG&E Corp. (PCG), owner of California’s largest utility, halted meter installations in Bakersfield, north of Los Angeles, after hundreds of customers complained that readings weren’t accurate. The meters, part of a so-called smart-grid initiative billed …
The European Commission Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO) has raised a red flag over the worsening food security situation in the Horn of Africa. Karel De Gucht, European Commissioner in charge of development and humanitarian aid, …
From Copenhagen to Akmal Shaikh’s execution, the west’s failed diplomacy has shown it doesn’t get how politics works in Beijing. … Read more
Jack Dorsey revolutionized online socializing by co-founding Twitter in 2006. Now he wants to transform the way people exchange money. … Read more
In the Japan of 2020 a stressed-out salaryman may unwind from his hectic futuristic lifestyle by time-travelling back a few centuries and taking a virtual stroll through medieval Tokyo. … Read more
For more than 60 years, TV stations have broadcast news, sports, and entertainment for free and made their money by showing commercials. That might not work much longer. … Read more
New research shows nanoparticles could replace gold, platinum, and other expensive metals in important devices, shaving off 90 percent of some costs. … Read more
Wallpaper that glows in the dark could replace conventional light bulbs within a decade, engineers claimed. … Read more
Synthetic biology companies and the US government appear to share many of the same ideas about measures that should be taken to keep potentially dangerous synthesized gene sequences out of the hands of bioterrorists. …
Russia is considering sending a spacecraft to a large asteroid to knock it off its path and prevent a possible collision with Earth, the head of the country’s space agency said. … Read more
A new carbon tax that was supposed to go into effect in France at New Year has been struck down, delivering a blow to President Nicolas Sarkozy. … Read more
At the beginning of this year, analyst firm Gartner released a report that highlights eight up-and-coming mobile technologies which they predict will impact the mobile industry over the course of the next two years. According …
More and more Americans — many of them living far from barns and pastures — are at risk from the widespread practice of feeding livestock antibiotics. These animals grow faster, but they can also develop …
The sight of a cockroach scurrying for cover may be nauseating, but the insect is also a biological and engineering marvel, and is providing researchers at Oregon State University with what they call “bioinspiration” in …
In what has become an annual New Year’s ritual, a dispute with Ukraine over energy transit fees could prompt Russia to cut oil supplies to Eastern Europe. … Read more
Genetics play a pivotal role in shaping how individual’s identify with political parties , according to an article in a recent issue of Political Research Quarterly, the official journal of the Western Political Science Association. …
The government “aims to create a society in which everyone can play a role,” Hatoyama said in a speech to Parliament on Oct. 26. “This will mean promoting gender equality in all aspects of life, …
Guided by DNA “barcoding” experts at The Rockefeller University and the American Museum of Natural History, Grade 12 students Brenda Tan and Matt Cost of Trinity School, Manhattan, also revealed a lot of apparent consumer …
German Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen talks to SPIEGEL about the failure of the Copenhagen climate summit, why neither China nor the US can take the lead in the fight against global warming and Germany’s role …
Over more than a decade, consumers became accustomed to the sweet, steady flow of free news, pictures, videos, and music on the Internet. Paying was for suckers and old fogeys. Content, like wild horses, wanted …
Ben W. Strowbridge, PhD, associate professor of neuroscience and physiology/biophysics, and Phillip Larimer, PhD, a MD/PhD student in the neurosciences graduate program at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, are the first to create …
Forty years ago, the world thought it had conquered TB and any number of other diseases through the new wonder drugs: Antibiotics. U.S. Surgeon General William H. Stewart announced it was “time to close the …
Antibiotic resistance in the natural environment is rising despite tighter controls over our use of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture, Newcastle University scientists have found. … Read more
MP3… The “Do It Yourself” movement works well when you’re talking about making your own music or growing your own vegetables. But some people are starting a DIY-biology movement. They’re studying things like DNA and …
The first detailed search of breast cancer genomes to uncover genomic rearrangements is published today. The team characterised the ways in which the human genome is broken and put back together in 24 cases of …
as globalisation rolled on, and global power of production and consumption changed (whereby the gap between developed countries of the west and Asian giants narrowed), China, whose economy is probably the second largest in the …
It is one thing to have strong growth when everything elsewhere seemed fine, but strength can only really be proven through less favorable external conditions. The recent turmoil certainly qualified as that, and the BRIC …
Faced with water shortages, growing populations and the threat that climate change could make matters worse, governments around the globe have increasingly turned to cloud seeding in an attempt to wring more rain and snow …
Two years of climate change negotiations have now ended in a farce in Copenhagen. Rather than grappling with complex issues, President Barack Obama decided instead to declare victory with a vague statement of principles agreed …
US scientists believe they have uncovered one of the mechanisms that enables the brain to form memories. … Read more
Lake Chad was bigger than Israel less than 50 years ago. Today its surface area is les than a tenth of its earlier size, amid forecasts the lake could disappear altogether within 20 years. …
MP3… The Economist examines international conflicts and attempts to resolve them. [The Economist] (14m 51s)
Smartphones are forcing wireless carriers to meet surging demand for data, creating a huge opportunity for the many companies that help them. … Read more
MP3… In just a couple of months, the Federal Communications Commission will introduce its long-awaited National Broadband Plan. Free Press policy director Ben Scott says that rewiring all of America for high-speed internet may be …
MP3… Dr. J. (James Hughes) chats with Martin Ford, author of The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future. Ford argues that automation and globalization will lead to further …
MP3… Dr. J. (James Hughes) chats with Martin Ford, author of The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future. Ford argues that automation and globalization will lead to further …
MP3… Dr. J. (James Hughes) chats with John Robb, a former USAF pilot in special operations and author of Brave New War. He writes the blog Global Guerrillas at globalguerrillas.typepad.com. [Changesurfer Radio] (29m 46s)
When citizens are empowered to adopt socially beneficial behaviors, such as a low-carbon lifestyle, an opening can occur for traditionally adversarial relationships to establish new arrangements of cooperation and collaboration. When the whole system begins …
Going back for a second dessert after your holiday meal might not be the best strategy for living a long, cancer-free life say researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. … Read more
China will create a reserve for rare earths next year to prevent waste of the exotic metals used in computers and clean-energy products, an official said in comments reported by state media. … Read more
Citizen scientists – or biohackers, as they’re being called – are taking biology out of academia and closed-door laboratories and bringing it into garages and kitchens, studios and warehouses. … Read more
The number of people aged 85 will increase by a third by 2020, putting huge pressure on the NHS and social services, a study has found. … Read more
Mark Gilbert – There’s a theory making the rounds comparing Greece with Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Letting Lehman go broke, the story goes, was the worst policy error of the credit crisis; with that lesson …
Drivers may face limits on the carbon they emit from their cars said The Right Honourable David Miliband MP, Britain’s Secretary of State for the Environment, at a free public lecture at the University of …
Results from the Human Genome Project are enabling scientists to understand how individual cancers form and progress. This information, when combined with newly developed drugs, can optimize the treatment of individual cancers. Joe Gray, director …
Author Malcolm Gladwell talks about his new book What the Dog Saw, a compilation of his stories appearing in The New Yorker magazine.
Toronto is joining 13 of the world’s largest urban centres pledging to make their cities electric car friendly. … Read more
When most of the exhausted delegates at Copenhagen’s Bella Centre finally witnessed a deal, it predictably called for huge investment in clean energy technologies to stop climate change. But the text didn’t specify exactly how …
Physicists theorize that quantum phenomena could provide a major boost to batteries, with the potential to increase energy density up to 10 times that of lithium ion batteries. According to a new proposal, billions …
Social media is changing the way people travel. It’s replacing recommendations from experts and strangers with a targeted selection of information from acquaintances and their networks. … Read more
Facing antitrust scrutiny over its practices in the biotechnology seed business, Monsanto has said it will not stand in the way of farmers eventually using lower cost alternatives to its genetically modified soybeans. … …
Despite fierce resistance to Google’s plans to digitise the world’s books, observers say it is well placed to start scanning Europe’s cultural treasures — beginning in France, where the US giant got a digital foothold …
It is difficult to foresee the order that may result from the chaos of the Copenhagen climate change conference (COP15), but as the dust settles, traces of a path forward are becoming visible. …
Just like our roads, there is a lot of traffic within the cells in our bodies, because cell components, messenger molecules, and enzymes must also be brought to the right places in the cell. One …
Local food businesses play a much more critical role in economic development than commonly thought, a new report shows. … Read more
Frederic Scheer is biding his time, convinced that by 2013 the price of oil will be so high that his bio-plastics, made from vegetables and plants, will be highly marketable. … Read more
“Everybody knows that this is a game changer,” says Aubrey McClendon, chief executive of the $16bn (£10bn) Chesapeake Energy Corporation, the largest independent producer of shale gas in the US. … Read more
Researchers studying a period of high carbon dioxide levels and warm climate several million years ago have concluded that slow changes such as melting ice sheets amplified the initial warming caused by greenhouse gases. …
Scientists have reconstructed the biological history of two types of cancer in a genetic tour de force that promises to transform medical treatment of the disease. The feat, a world first, lays bare every genetic …
MP3… Is Greece the new Dubai? Stacy-Marie Ishmael of The Financial Times, explains what’s behind Greece’s ballooning debt and how the government is trying to address the budget crisis. Plus, we’ll find out how the …
America’s greatest idea factory isn’t Bell Labs, Silicon Valley, or MIT’s Media Lab. It’s the secretive, Pentagon-led agency known as DARPA. Founded by Eisenhower in response to Sputnik and the Soviet space program, DARPA mixes …
The world’s tallest skyscraper will open soon in Dubai, even as the emirate continues to be battered by the financial crisis. Is Burj Dubai an expression of failed megalomania or proof of Dubai leader Mohammed …
Thursday night’s cyber attack against the Twitter microblogging service was no routine assault to bring down a website. It was a sophisticated online blitz –perhaps part of an online Iranian cybercampaign – that could prove …
European leaders expressed widespread disappointment at a deal brokered at the UN climate summit, lamenting that their ambitions for deep emission cuts had not been matched by others. … Read more
A US-led initiative called the Copenhagen Accord has formed the centre-piece of a deal at UN climate talks in Copenhagen, despite some countries’ opposition. … Read more
MP3… Scientists at NASA’s Ames Research Center have developed a prototype device designed to plug into an iPhone, for the purpose of detecting harmful chemicals in the air. The gadget, which will be retrofitted for …
Venessa Miemis – I do think we’re in a very transformative period in history, and we all need to hone our “futures thinking” skills in order to actively participate in the process of shaping our …
Gerd Leonhard – Have you not learned anything from happened in digital music during the past 10 years – where have you been hiding? Let me summarize it for you. … Read more
Robovie-II, a retail-assistant robot designed to help elderly and disabled people shop in supermarkets, is being tested in Kyoto, in Japan. … Read more
Two common forms of cancer have been genetically mapped for the first time, British scientists announced, in a major breakthrough in understanding the diseases. … Read more
Data from a recent Thomson Reuters study show that Chinese research output has increased from just over 20,000 papers in 1998 to nearly 112,000 in 2008. … Read more
US defense contractor Raytheon on Wednesday unveiled the first of what it said will be a series of software applications to make iPhones or iPod touch devices into battlefield tools. … Read more
Molecular computing attempts to use components of organisms (eg genes) to run calculations inside living cells. Currently, most of the work in this area is theoretical or concerned with future applications of the technology, such …
Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a non-volatile memory that has the same basic structure as a flash memory but is made from cheap, flexible, organic materials. … Read more
IBM unveiled a list of innovations that have the potential to change how people live, work and play in cities around the globe over the next five to ten years. … Read more
The deadlock over who should cut carbon emissions and by how much may be dominating the headlines here in Copenhagen but behind the scenes an equally big issue is being thrashed out. It’s a fight …
Imagine flying all the way from coast to coast, completely guilt-free, in an airplane that doesn’t emit a single particle of greenhouse gas or air pollutants. That could happen someday, perhaps brought to reality thanks …
The consortium of French technology companies and government-backed IT research labs says it can provide the know-how needed by Europe’s libraries, universities, publishers and others to scan, catalog and deliver to end users the contents …
With Beijing budgeting $600 billion to upgrade its network, global giants are racing to plug in. … Read more
China has begun constructing a bridge to link southern Guangdong province, China’s main manufacturing hub, with Hong Kong and Macau. … Read more
The award runs for three years and has winners working on ways to improve the inspection and monitoring of civil infrastructure — highways, bridges and dams — using unmanned aerial vehicles. … Read …
U.S. Secretary Tom Vilsack announced an agreement with the American dairy industry to reduce the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2020, mostly by convincing farmers to capture the methane from cow manure that …
New scientific discoveries are moving society toward the era of “personalized solar energy,” in which the focus of electricity production shifts from huge central generating stations to individuals in their own homes and communities. …
While world organizations struggle to find a benchmark and tracking standards for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, NASA has been supporting California’s new carbon emissions inventory report, using its satellite imaging data and computer models of …
A new gold rush in China is actually a green rush — an urgent drive to develop green technologies. One group of Western companies, the Cleantech Initiative, suggests China’s market for renewable energy could eventually …
The number of households with cell phones but no landlines continues to grow, but the recession doesn’t seem to be forcing poor cellular users to abandon their traditional wired phones any faster than higher-income people …
Wageningen geneticists (The Netherlands) are developing a method to replicate the parents of a chosen plant. Known as ‘reverse breeding’, this will have a big impact for the breeding industry. … Read more
Over the next two years, 2,500 charging stations for electric vehicles will be built in the Seattle area as part of a partnership between Nissan North America and the Electric Transportation Engineering Corp., or eTec. …
Ten years ago, we would have been blown away by a cell phone with far more computing power and memory than the average PC had in 1999, along with a built-in camera and programs to …
Bruno Berthon – “What is clear to me after several days here at COP15 is that the focus has moved, from a business standpoint, deliberately towards solutions.” … Read more
Nasa satellites have weighed the water lost by the US State of California’s heartland since 2003. … Read more
MP3… Droughts, floods, and sea level rise caused by climate change could displace millions of people from their land. Where will these climate migrants go? The South Asian nation of Bangladesh is grappling with that …
This may sound impractical, but the number of potential applications is mindboggling. … Read more
China’s massive use of coal is what makes it the world’s biggest emitter of carbon. Coal supplies over two thirds of China’s energy needs. Some 40% of the coal mined on the planet is dug …
This may sound impractical, but the number of potential applications is mindboggling. … Read more
The researchers say that by 2050 Americans may live as much as eight years longer than government forecasts and that spending by Medicare and Social Security could rise by $3.2 trillion to $8.3 trillion above …
Department store competition is fierce in Japan during the winter holidays, with every store trying to come up with the most attention-catching promotional campaign. This year, the department store Sogo & Seibu may top them …
There are an estimated 6,500 languages in the world, with around fifty percent of them endangered and likely to cease to exist by 2100, but efforts are now being made to save them from extinction. …
A technique developed by a Californian company, Simbol Mining, will enable the valuable mineral lithium, widely used in high-density batteries, to be reclaimed from the hot waste water produced by a geothermal power plant in …
Getting artificial intelligence right could lead to a new world of abundance. … Read more
The idea is simple: to produce a huge a and hyper-distributed amount of fast, short – and above all – ultra-cheap content that is a perfect fit with the hottest and most expensive keywords on …
As we approach the end of the first decade of the new millennium, let’s consider what life will be like a decade hence. Changes in our lives from technology are moving faster and faster. …
The United States has begun talks with Russia and a UN arms control committee about strengthening Internet security and limiting military use of cyberspace, The New York Times reported. … Read more
A technique developed at Yale University in the United States allows scientists to “detect tiny amounts of cancer biomarkers in a small volume of whole blood in just 20 minutes,” the journal Nature Nanotechnology reported. …
One morning in January 2008, Peter Fleischer, the chief privacy counsel at Google, was walking to the University of Milan to deliver a speech at a conference when someone shouted his name from behind. Shortly …
In Somalia’s main pirate lair of Haradheere, the sea gangs have set up a cooperative to fund their hijackings offshore, a sort of stock exchange meets criminal syndicate. … Read more
A new study from researchers at Kansas State University has found that cap-and-trade legislation pending in Congress would benefit farmers and ranchers. … Read more
Quantum computing has long dangled the possibility of superfast, super-efficient processing, and now search giant Google has jumped on board that future. … Read more
MP3… Will our love affair with the motor car have to stop to combat climate change? [BBC Science in Action] (27m 6s)
You can expect increased inflation, higher interest rates and tepid home-price gains, but also steady advances in green energy and biotechnology. … Read more
An international scientific effort has revealed the genetics behind Asia’s diversity. … Read more
If Web 1.0 was all about companies selling stuff to you, and Web 2.0 is about information sharing and user-participation, then what’s Web 3.0 going to be? It might be a whole new angle on …
Until now, there have been few ways to control our virtual afterlives, but a Swedish Internet site is launching a new service that offers to manage email and social networking accounts after death. … …
Technology from the Soviet space program adapted by Israeli and German scientists may offer a safe way to deliver the volatile gas to power laptops and cars. … Read more
MP3… The Economist’s deputy editor on ways to address climate change and why it must be dealt with globally or not at all. [The Economist] (21m 18s)
2009 will go down as the year in which the shroud of uncertainty was lifted off of social media and mainstream adoption began at the speed of light. … Read more
Towards the end of an illustrious career in the Malian police force – during which he has battled locust swarms, chased drug traffickers and dabbled in some coup plotting – Col Tidiani Ascofare, bald, burly …
MP3… It’s estimated that the world’s permafrost contains 1,600 billion tons of carbon. As global temperatures rise, there are growing concerns about that all that permafrost could melt, releasing those gasses into the atmosphere. Vladimir …
MP3… Angie Coiro interviews Michael Belfiore, a freelance technical writer whose new book The Department of Mad Scientists: How DARPA Is Remaking Our World, from the Internet to Artificial Limbs is the first book to …
MP3… For philanthropists of the past, charity was often a matter of simply giving money away, but the new generation of billionaires who are reshaping the way they give see charity as more like business. …
Traditional marketing tactics aren’t bringing in customers like they used to, and even today’s most successful businesses are suffering shrinking returns on their advertising and marketing investment. The Digital Handshake explains this phenomenon and reveals …
A powerful state believing itself better-able to adapt to or withstand the effects of global warming might see a persistent advantage to its rivals being hurt by global warming, and slow its decarbonization accordingly. …
Use a mobile phone with a camera to identify objects and match them to search results or online databases, such as maps or e-commerce sites. … Read more
Engineers develop radioisotope MEMS power source for insect spy program. … Read more
Scientists are claiming to have found the “silver bullet” that will enable the cheap, easy printing of electronic components and transform the way we use computers. … Read more
Looking for the right hire? Here are some tips for using the Web and social media to hunt passive candidates. … Read more
MP3… Warren Berger, shares the principles of design that can improve the way we think, work, and live. His book Glimmer: How You Can Transform Your Life, Your Business, and Maybe Even the World shows …
MP3… Nicholas Schmidle is a freelance journalist specializing in international politics. His recent article “The Hostage Business,” published in the The New York Times Magazine, explores a recession-defiant strengthening in the “kidnapping market.” The trend …
Nerve cells transplanted into brain-damaged rats helped them to fully recover their ability to learn and remember, probably by promoting nurturing, protective growth factors, according to a new study. … Read more
In making decisions, when should we go with our gut and when should we try to analyze every option? When should we use our intuition and when should we rely on logic and statistics? Most …
Until a short time ago, being able to tie his shoelaces by himself would have been impossible for Frank Hrabanek, who lost all four fingers on his dominant left hand in an industrial accident. But …
Today’s surgical bots have come a long ways since George Lucas first visualized the medical droids of Star Wars. In May 2006, the first “AI doctor” conducted unassisted surgery on a 34-year old-male to correct …
Dr. Endy’s day job is as an associate professor at Stanford University’s Department of Bioengineering. He’s helping to build a library of standardized biological components for use in genetic research. While his research interests are …
MP3… Dr.Moira Gunn catches up with author, James Workman to talk about his book, Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushman Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought and what many feel …
Five of the nation’s largest publishers of newspapers and magazines plan to challenge Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle electronic-book reader with their own digital format that would display in color and work on a variety of devices. …
The skin is light brown, the meat luscious and yellow: from the outside alone, this new potato looks like any other. But on the inside, it is different. Its cells produce pure amylopectin, a starch …
Batteries made from plain copier paper could make for future energy storage that is truly paper thin. … Read more
MP3… Ever wondered what the world will look like as we enter the 22nd century? Will the US or China dominate? Not many of us will be around to experience it. Forecaster and geo-political analyst, …
Google recently sent out 100,000 stickers to selected US businesses for use on their storefront windows. The stickers have the Google Maps logo and a QR code that can be scanned by smart phone cameras …
Confidence in an endless era of Chinese growth is leading to a dangerous sense of complacency in Asia. … Read more
MP3… For some poor nations, money sent back home from family members working in Western Europe and the U.S. is a lifeline. How has the financial crisis impacted this flow of money? Millions of migrant …
Scientists in Cambridge have discovered that the loss of a key segment of DNA can lead to severe childhood obesity. This is the first study to show that this kind of genetic alteration can cause …
Just three months after the Euro 5 Norm for exhaust emissions went into force for all new car models, researchers at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM, Germany) have demonstrated an engine that is already close …
India’s giant Tata Group on Monday unveiled a new low-cost water purifier, hoping to do for health what it did for motoring and provide affordable, safe drinking water for millions and cut disease. … …
Neuroscientists at the Mayo Clinic campus in Jacksonville, Fla., have demonstrated how brain waves can be used to type alphanumerical characters on a computer screen. By merely focusing on the “q” in a matrix of …
Scientists are to develop a treatment that could spell the end of hair straighteners after identifying the gene which is responsible for making hair curly. The groundbreaking research identified the trichohyalin gene as the one …
The field of artificial-intelligence research (AI), founded more than 50 years ago, seems to many researchers to have spent much of that time wandering in the wilderness, swapping hugely ambitious goals for a relatively modest …
A variety of factors — some transitory, like the spike in food prices, and others intractable, like global population growth and water scarcity — have created a market for farmland, as rich but resource-deprived nations …
With an eye on the readers of the future, US publisher Hearst Corp. announced plans to launch a digital newsstand, advertising service and electronic reader for newspapers and magazines. … Read more
British billionaire Sir Richard Branson will unveil a craft that could soon carry tourists on an out-of-this-world trip into space — for a mere 200,000 dollars. … Read more
We’re still far from the sci-fi dream of having robots whirring about and catering to our every need. But little by little, we’ll be sharing more of our space with robots in the next decade, …
South of Alberta’s Badlands, where rainfall averages are lower than parts of Ethiopia, Nicholas Savidov’s self-contained ecosystem has grown literally tons of fish, vegetables and fruit, for years, all with hardly adding any water. … …
MP3… Barry Clarke of Radio Australia looks at the balance between development and heritage preservation; managing limited resources like water; and — one of the most important issues for city planners — moving people around. …
Real Audio – Windows Media … Financial crisis in Dubai. The United Arab Emirates tries to calm global markets after Dubai’s chief investment arm, Dubai World, asks for a delay in paying on its huge …
Rob Hopkins reminds us that the oil our world depends on is steadily running out. He proposes a unique solution to this problem — the Transition response, where we prepare ourselves for life without oil …
Ray Kurzweil’s opening speech at Singularity University’s inaugural executive program. (41m 39s)
Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School professor, explains how large corporations are doing good to do well. (11m 57s)
Will the printed word become obsolete? Access to information is constantly changing, and the popularity of e-books and online material is on the rise. To survive, publishing companies are trying to adapt to new forms …
Mark Micallef looks at the state of play with US climate change politics ahead of talks on a deal on global warming in Copenhagen next week. … Read more
Google has began weaving an automated language translation feature into its universal search service. A new “translated search” tool lets people direct Google to seek results from Web pages written in an array of languages …
Researchers from Intel Labs demonstrated an experimental, 48-core Intel processor, or “single-chip cloud computer,” that rethinks many of the approaches used in today’s designs for laptops, PCs and servers. … Read more
Bernard Crespi of Simon Fraser University and his colleagues analyzed data on all known genetic variants linked to both conditions. Crespi thinks that autism and schizophrenia are diametric opposites in how they affect gene activity …
While Web innovation is unpredictable, some clear trends are becoming apparent. Expect the following 10 themes to define the Web next year… Read more
A popular weed killer sprayed on cornfields across North America turns male frogs into females even at low levels, Ottawa biologists have found. … Read more
A virus that in nature infects only rabbits could become a cancer-fighting tool for humans. Myxoma virus kills cancerous blood-precursor cells in human bone marrow while sparing normal blood stem cells, a multidisciplinary team at …
With the world losing the battle against global warming so far, experts are warning that humans need to follow nature’s example: Adapt or die. … Read more
Homebuyers looking to buy a property may be able to use Google under radical plans being considered by the world’s most popular website. The American website giant is understood to be planning to launch an …
Their profits have rebounded, but shaky home-equity and credit-card debt—for starters—could change that. … Read more
One of the bright spots at the Copenhagen climate change summit could be the establishment of a scheme to protect forests and their carbon-absorbing capacity. … Read more
Sure, it will pay a hefty price for its debt woes. But the city-state’s open economy has attracted legions of foreign investors and serves as a model for its Gulf neighbors. … Read …
With a giant “People of Earth…” The Cluetrain Manifesto roared into the Web’s consciousness in 1999. Appearing first as a website, quickly followed by the book, the Manifesto proclaimed an “end of business as usual.” …
Professor David Mackay is the author of a book on sustainable energy. He calculates that even if we covered every available plot, offshore location and tidal estuary with wind, wave and tidal power we may …
Authorities were trucking water into drought-hit Australian towns, with supply in some places trickling to as little as eight hours, officials said. … Read more
A group of European scientists announced they successfully connected a robotic hand to a man who had lost an arm in a car accident, allowing him to control the prosthetic with his thoughts and feel …
A technology sea change is afoot at Crescent Girls’ School (CGS). Last year, the school became one of the select few Singapore schools to embark on FutureSchool@Singapore, an initiative by the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) …
Scientists working on mice have highlighted a specific gene that, although carried by both sexes, appears to be active only in males. They believe it allows males to grow bigger bodies – but at the …
Harvard law professor and author Jonathan Zittrain discusses the unusual and distinctive technologies whose power increases in proportion to the people participating in them, contrasted with other technologies that leverage what the few can impose …
Up to now, extreme production temperatures made it impossible to equip metallic components with RFID chips during the operating process. At Euromold in Frankfurt, Fraunhofer researchers present a variation on a process that makes the …
Scientists from Eindhoven University in The Netherlands have for the first time grown pork meat in the laboratory by extracting cells from a live pig and growing them in a petri dish. … Read …
Nanotechnology and exponential manufacturing could help us make whatever humanity needs, atom by atom. Part three in a GOOD miniseries on the singularity by Michael Anissimov and Roko Mijic. … Read more
A biosensor made from a common bacterium that can detect toxic metals in water won the Cornell Genetically Engineered Machines (GEM) student project team a bronze metal at a recent competition. … Read more
Creators of Harvard’s MBA Oath argue it’s an important first step toward a better, more ethical, business world. … Read more
What does the “ClimateGate” affair mean for science? … Read more
Newspaper executives and editors gathered in India from around the world Tuesday heard calls to seek more payment for their content on the Internet as they decried their industry’s sharply falling advertising revenues. … …
The man was arrested by detectives at his home after hijacking hundreds of accounts to get skills, weapons and gain access to the players’ virtual piggy banks in an online game. … Read more
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