In the news this week…

3D scans of living cells… inorganic particles that imitate life… paper batteries… computers to help us think… generation y turns down middle management jobs… market research with avatars… high-tech surveillance in China… career strategies to avoid offshoring… the destabilizing effect of disparities in India… inequality and instability in Asia… Australia runs short of water… beaming power from satellites in space… the disappearing line between the real and virtual… boutique space hotel plans to open in 2012…

We also feature…

Karma Queens, Geek Gods, Innerpreneurs: Meet the 9 Consumer Types Shaping Today’s Marketplace… Ron Rentel — founder of Consumer Eyes, a New York based marketing firm — gets inside the minds of the people who are setting the trends in art, music, technology, fashion, health, and consumer products and services.

Techdirt… A blog of the Techdirt Insight Community — following trends in technology, communications, media, biotechnology, financial services, retail, and more.

Geo-Engineering, an audio clip from BBC Frontiers… Peter Evans talks to engineers and scientists who propose to re-engineer the Earth to deal with climate change.

David Forrest

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SCIENCE

Top Stories:

MIT Creates 3-D Images of Living Cell – [Physorg] A new imaging technique developed at MIT has allowed scientists to create the first 3D images of a living cell, using a method similar to the X-ray CT scans doctors use to see inside the body.

‘It Might be Life Jim…’, Physicists Discover Inorganic Dust with Life-Like Qualities – [Physorg] Could extraterrestrial life be made of corkscrew-shaped particles of interstellar dust? Intriguing new evidence of life-like structures that form from inorganic substances in space are revealed today in the New Journal of Physics.

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TECHNOLOGY

Top Stories: 

Paper Battery Offers Future Power – [BBC] Flexible paper batteries could meet the energy demands of the next generation of gadgets, says a team of researchers. They have produced a sample slightly larger than a postage stamp that can release about 2.3 volts, enough to illuminate a small light. But the ambition is to produce reams of paper that could one day power a car.

Cognitive Revolution: Integrating Computing, Nanotech, Simulation and You – [Science Daily] Imagine a world where a machine creates a “virtual you” by modeling how you think and your expertise on a subject. Or one where your car’s computer appreciates your driving skills and compensates for your limitations. That’s the world Sandia National Laboratories has entered full throttle through its Cognitive Science and Technology Program.

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BUSINESS

Top Stories: 

Who Wants to Be a Middle Manager? – [USA Today] The love is gone. Middle-management jobs are fast falling out of favor as the brass ring loses its allure. Instead, the jobs are being seen as handcuffs that require long hours with scant reward — a onetime career goal now being shunned in large part by the newer generation of workers now entering the workplace.

Mining Virtual Worlds for Market Research – [Business Week] Imagine asking 42,000 tech-savvy tweens and teenagers around the globe about their buying and spending habits, as well as their brand preferences. How long would it take to conduct such market research? If you wanted to zero in on kids who regularly played online games or engaged in networked communities in Web-based virtual worlds, how would your market-research team target them and then verify their activity in these online parallel universes? Sulake, the Helsinki [Finland] company that created Habbo, a popular eight-year-old virtual world aimed at teens, found a way to survey more than 42,000 such consumers in 22 countries, by soliciting responses to questions about real-world global shopping preferences from Habbo avatars.

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SOCIETY

Top Stories:

China Enacting a High-Tech Plan to Track People – [New York Times] At least 20,000 police surveillance cameras are being installed along streets here in southern China and will soon be guided by sophisticated computer software from an American-financed company to recognize automatically the faces of police suspects and detect unusual activity. Starting this month in a port neighborhood and then spreading across Shenzhen, a city of 12.4 million people, residency cards fitted with powerful computer chips programmed by the same company will be issued to most citizens.

How to Keep Your Job Onshore  – [MSNBC] How do you keep from being Bangalored? Or Shanghaied? That’s the question Valparaiso University freshman Matt Cavin asked himself two years ago when he was in China on a summer study program.

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GLOBAL POLITICS

Top Stories:

Consumerism Amid Poverty Strains India – [New Zealand Herald] Despite India’s booming economy, the gap between rich and poor is wide. Though there has been a decline in poverty overall, it is falling at the rate of 1 per cent, compared with the recent average of 8 per cent economic growth. The 7 per cent shortfall is threatening to produce a social backlash, particularly in the rural areas where more than 65 per cent of Indians live.

Rising Inequality a Danger for Asia – [Reuters] Inequality is rising across most of Asia, darkening growth prospects and increasing the risk of potentially violent social strains, the Asian Development Bank said.

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ENVIRONMENT

Top Stories: 

Australian Cities Face Water Shortage – [Associated Press] Nearly every Australian city will have to find new water supplies over the next decade as climate change and population growth stretch the nation’s already limited water resources, according to a study.

A Renaissance for Space Solar Power? – [The Space Review] For nearly four decades, one concept has tantalized space professionals and enthusiasts alike: space solar power. The ability to collect solar power in space, continuously and in effectively limitless quantities, and then transmit that energy back to Earth, could radically reshape not only the space industry but also society in general.

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THE FUTURE

Top Stories:

Blurring World Boundaries – [BBC] "Cyberspace will be leaking into the real world," said science-fiction visionary Vernor Vinge during a session at the Siggraph conference that discussed whether the rise of user-generated worlds was a fad or the start of something more profound.

Fly Me to the Moon: Space Hotel Sees 2012 Opening – [Reuters] "Galactic Suite", the first hotel planned in space, expects to open for business in 2012 and would allow guests to travel around the world in 80 minutes. Its Barcelona-based architects say the space hotel will be the most expensive in the galaxy, costing $4 million for a three-day stay.

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FEATURED BOOK

Karma Queens, Geek Gods, Innerpreneurs: Meet the 9 Consumer Types Shaping Today’s Marketplace

by Ron Rentel

Resource Page

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FEATURED LINK

Techdirt – Instant insight from a community of expert bloggers. They work in a variety of sectors including technology, communications, media, biotechnology, financial services, retail, automotive and government.

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AUDIO CLIP

Geo-Engineering – [Frontiers] Peter Evans meets the engineers and scientists devising schemes to rebalance the Earth’s climate. Collectively termed ‘geo-engineering’, these ideas range from sending a giant sunshade into space, to making seaclouds shinier.