In the news this week…

hybrid animal-human embryos… creating life from lab chemicals… flying cars… intelligent shopping carts… Googling your genes… the top concerns of American chief executives… the world goes virtual… helicopter parents… declining support for global trade… Asia moves ahead in space… the struggle to keep up with global energy demand… climate change and declining food crops… skyscraper farming… industrial expansion into space…

We also feature…

Microtrends… Mark Penn identifies more than 70 microtrends in religion, leisure, politics, and family life that are changing the way we live. Only one percent of the public, or three million people, is enough to launch a business or social movement.

Idea Wicket… An open innovation portal based in New Delhi, India. invites innovators to submit ideas, product designs, industrial designs, process improvement techniques, service innovations, and business solutions.

Innovating in America Today, an audio clip from On Point… Tom Ashbrook talks to three young American innovators.

David Forrest

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SCIENCE

Top Stories:

Human-Animal Cybrids – [Technology Review] Over the past year, a major ethical debate has raged in the United Kingdom over whether scientists should be allowed to use animal eggs in their attempts to create cloned human embryonic stem cells.

I Am Creating Artificial Life, Declares US Gene Pioneer – [Mail and Guardian] Craig Venter, the controversial DNA researcher involved in the race to decipher the human genetic code, has built a synthetic chromosome out of laboratory chemicals and is poised to announce the creation of the first new artificial life form on Earth.

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TECHNOLOGY

Top Stories: 

Flying Car About to Take Off? – [Technology Review] An aeronautic startup looks to complete a prototype of its roadworthy aircraft within a year.

Shopping Cart Goes High-Tech – [Reuters] Supermarket shoppers may soon be cruising the aisles with "intelligent" shopping carts that warn them if they’re buying too much junk food, technology experts say.

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BUSINESS

Top Stories: 

Why Google Wants Your Genes – [Telegraph] Many people think of Google simply as a really fast search engine, but its stated mission has long been to organise all the information in the world: see David A Vise’s book The Google Story (2005) for more on this. So its interest in the human genome is a natural extension of its original goal, with the extra spice that computing and genetics are both industries growing exponentially.

CEOs Worried By New Generation of Managers – [Management Issues] A shortage of good quality, talented managers is becoming a growing concern for American CEOs, with many particularly worried about who is going to take over from them when it comes to passing on the reins, a new report has suggested.

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SOCIETY

Top Stories:

More Internet Users Getting a Virtual Life – [San Francisco Chronicle] Estimates vary on how popular virtual worlds will become. Technology research firm Gartner forecast this year that by 2011, 80 percent of active Internet users will have a "second life" in some sort of virtual world. Another research company, eMarketer, predicted last month that more than half of U.S. children and teens who use the Internet — about 20 million people — will visit virtual worlds by 2011.

Are You a Helicopter Parent? Get Help! – [MSNBC] The term “helicopter parent” came into vogue a few years ago among college administrators to define the growing trend of parents who seem just a bit too involved in their child’s day-to-day lives at school. It turns out that we overprotective moms and dads come from all walks of life, but we have one thing in common: hovering over our children and being willing to swoop down to intervene at every setback.

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GLOBAL POLITICS

Top Stories:

Survey Finds Erosion of Support for Globalization’s Side Effects – [International Herald Tribune] Both buoyed and battered by globalization, people around the world strongly view international trade as a good thing but harbor growing concerns about its side effects: threats to their cultures, damage to the environment and challenges posed by immigration, according to a new survey.

Asia Could Win Next ‘Space Race’, US Scientists Fear – [Business Week] Fifty years after the launch of Sputnik left the United States scrambling to play catch-up in the first Space Race, US scientists fear history may be repeating itself as Asia emerges as the rising force in space exploration. While the achievements of space programs run by China, Japan and India are modest in comparison to the milestones set by the United States and former Soviet Union, experts at a recent conference in Pasadena believe it is only a matter of time before Asia leads the field.

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ENVIRONMENT

Top Stories: 

Quest for New Energy Supplies is Becoming Tougher – [International Herald Tribune] For a quarter-century, energy executives were tantalized by vast quantities of natural gas in one of the world’s most inhospitable places – off Norway’s northern coast, beneath the Arctic Ocean. Bitter winds and fierce snowstorms lash the region, located 90 miles, or 145 kilometers, from the country’s shoreline. The sun disappears for two months a year. No oil company knew how to operate in such a harsh environment. But Norway has finally solved the problem.

Global Warming Hits Cereal Production – [Rediff India] Global warming is taking a heavy toll on cereal crops. A new study on the impact of global warming on global food production by researchers of a US university says that in 20 years since 1981, there had been an annual loss of about $5 billion for the major cereal crops in the world.

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THE FUTURE

Top Stories:

Could Vertical Farming Be the Future? – [MSNBC] Vertical farms, where staple crops could be grown in environmentally friendly skyscrapers, exist today only in futuristic designs and on optimistic Web sites. Despite concerns over sky-high costs, however, an environmental health expert in New York is convinced the world has the know-how to make the concept a reality — and the imperative to do so quickly.

Could the Exploitation of Space Solve the Earth’s Environmental Crises? – [Science Daily] Political scientist Rasmus Karlsson suggests that space could provide us with a sustainable future not possible from an earthbound only perspective.

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FEATURED BOOK

Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes

by Mark J. Penn and E. Kinney Zalesne

Resource Page

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FEATURED LINK

Idea Wicket – An open innovation portal based in New Delhi, India. Submit ideas, product designs, industrial designs, process improvement techniques, service innovations, and business solutions. Mark content as ‘public’ (visible to all) or ‘private’ (accessible only to the people you choose). Suggest corporations that could benefit from the idea. Share ideas and innovations with friends. Comment on and rank innovations. Network with other site members.

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AUDIO CLIP

Innovating in America Today – [On Point] Tom Ashbrook checks in with three young world-beating American innovators, on the path to breakthroughs right now, about what it takes and how they do it. And a big-view innovation guru, who says we’d better get cracking.