In the news this week…

• Information processing in the brain.
• The ghost in the machine.
• Work-life balance… breaking the rules.
• Gen Y… making it on their own.
• Cisco bets on India.
• Climate-proof crops.
• Preserving the human species… in another solar system.

We also highlight…

Mobile Communication and Society: A Global Perspective… Manuel Castels and co-authors take a global look at the impacts of anywhere-to-anywhere/anytime communication on society — including mobile youth culture, flash mobs, and wireless politics.

We include a link to the New Scientist website, where 70 of the world’s most brilliant scientists speculate on the future.

And an audio clip… Thomas Homer-Dixon talks to CBC’s Shelagh Rogers about his new book The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity and the Remaking of Civilization. "If Rome can vanish, we can vanish," Homer-Dixon says. "Our societies can vanish too." There is a parallel, he says, between the energy crisis of the Roman Empire and the impending energy crisis we face today.

David Forrest

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SCIENCE

Top Story: Learning During Sleep? Researchers Investigate Communication Between Memory Areas – [Science Daily] Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg have been investigating how memories might be consolidated. Their new study offers the hitherto strongest proof that new information is transferred between the hippocampus, the short term memory area, and the cerebral cortex during sleep.

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TECHNOLOGY

Top Story: The Seoul of a New Machine – [Wired] The Robot Intelligence Technology, or RIT, lab is famous as the home of the Federation of International Robot-soccer Association, FIRA, the robotic soccer league. But beyond the easy crowd appeal of robotic sport, the researchers here are far more enthusiastic about a different creation — one that lives in the wires and silicon woven throughout the walls of this building: a "software robot" they call Rity. Rity is the ghost in the machine: an autonomous agent that can transfer itself into desktop computers, PDAs, servers and robotic avatars, and adapt and evolve like a genetic organism.

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BUSINESS

Top Story: Smashing The Clock – [Business Week] At most companies, going AWOL during daylight hours would be grounds for a pink slip. Not at Best Buy. The nation’s leading electronics retailer has embarked on a radical — if risky — experiment to transform a culture once known for killer hours and herd-riding bosses. The endeavor, called ROWE, for "results-only work environment," seeks to demolish decades-old business dogma that equates physical presence with productivity. The goal at Best Buy is to judge performance on output instead of hours.

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SOCIETY

Top Story: Gen Y Makes a Mark and their Imprint is Entrepreneurship – [USA Today] They’ve got the smarts and the confidence to get a job, but increasing numbers of the millennial generation — those in their mid-20s and younger — are deciding corporate America just doesn’t fit their needs. So armed with a hefty dose of optimism, moxie and self-esteem, they are becoming entrepreneurs.

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GLOBAL POLITICS

Top Story: Cisco Says India to be Base of Globalisation Drive – [AFP] Global networking giant Cisco Systems has announced plans to make India a base for its globalisation drive as it forecast the country could account for half its future workforce growth.

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ENVIRONMENT

Top Story: New Crops Needed to Avoid Famines – [BBC] The global network of agricultural research centres warns that famines lie ahead unless new crop strains adapted to a warmer future are developed. The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research says yields of existing varieties will fall. New forecasts say warming will shrink South Asia’s wheat area by half. CGIAR is announcing plans to accelerate efforts aimed at developing new strains of staple crops including maize, wheat, rice and sorghum.

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THE FUTURE

Top Story: Move to New Planet, Says Hawking – [BBC] The human race must move to a planet beyond our Solar System to protect the future of the species, physicist Professor Stephen Hawking has warned.

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FEATURED BOOK

Mobile Communication and Society: A Global Perspective

by Manuel Castells, Mireia Fernandez-Ardevol, Jack Linchuan Qiu and Araba Sey

Resource Page

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FEATURED LINK

Brilliant Minds Forecast the Next 50 Years – What will be the biggest breakthrough of the next 50 years? As part of its 50th anniversary celebrations New Scientist asked over 70 of the world’s most brilliant scientists for their ideas.

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AUDIO CLIP

The Upside of Down – [CBC Radio] Shelagh Rogers interviews Thomas Homer-Dixon about his new book The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity and the Renewal of Civilization.