Volume 9, Number 6
04/18/2006
Edited by John L. Petersen
johnp@arlingtoninstitute.org

See past issues in the Archives

In This Issue:

Future Facts - from Think Links
Think Links - The Future in the News…Today
A Final Quote

At The Arlington Institute, we believe that to understand the future, you need to have an open mind and cast a very wide net. To that end, FUTUREdition explores a cross-disciplinary palette of issues, from the frontiers of science and technology to major developments in mass media, geopolitics, the environment, and social perspectives.

FUTURE FACTS - FROM THINK LINKS
DID YOU KNOW THAT...

• Researchers have demonstrated that genetically engineered viruses can assemble active battery materials into battery electrode that stores nearly three times as much energy as those in today's lithium-ion batteries.
• European scientists have developed "neuro-chips" in which living brain cells and silicon circuits are coupled together.
• The Air Force will conduct the first, fully loaded test flight of its Airborne Laser, a jumbo jet packed with gear designed to shoot down enemy missiles half a world away at the speed of light.
• A new technique could speed up DNA sequencing more than 200 times, constructing a human genome in hours, compared with the six months it takes now.

THINK LINKS – THE FUTURE IN THE NEWS...TODAY

INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE

NASA and Google Bring Mars to PCs Everywhere
Suit Raises Copyright Questions

NASA and Google Bring Mars to PCs Everywhere -- (New Scientist -- March 13, 2006)
http://www.newscientistspace.com/article.ns?id=dn8841
With Google's help, web surfers can now navigate from the plains of Meridiani to the Proctor Crater Dunes on Mars as though they were two local destinations. Arizona State University's Mars Space Flight Facility and Google teamed up to produce Google Mars, a mapping tool, which allows users to view and scroll across the surface of the Red Planet, visiting its many landmarks.

Suit Raises Copyright Questions -- (Yahoo -- April 12, 2006)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060412/ap_on_hi_te/internet_archive
An ongoing lawsuit between a company and a popular archive of Web pages raises questions about whether the archive unavoidably violates copyright laws while providing a valuable service, experts say. The nonprofit Internet Archive was created in 1996 to preserve Web pages that will eventually be deleted or changed. More than 55 billion pages are stored there.

NEW REALITIES

Telescope to Get Lobster Vision
Scientists Make Water Run Uphill
Magnetic Moondust
Professor Predicts Human Time Travel This Century
We're Going on a Planet Hunt
New and Improved Antimatter Spaceship for Mars Missions
Jupiter Growing Another Red Spot
Chaos = Order: Physicists Make Baffling Discovery
Three Cosmic Enigmas, One Audacious Answer

Telescope to Get Lobster Vision -- (BBC -- April 5, 2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4880032.stm
The lobster is the inspiration for a new type of European X-ray telescope. The observatory is designed to have an extremely wide field of view - just as the crustacean manages with its vision. The idea of using the lobster-eye design in a telescope to make X-ray surveys was first proposed back in the 1970s, but it has taken almost 30 years to perfect the optics involved.

Scientists Make Water Run Uphill -- (Live Science -- March 29, 2006)
http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/060329_water_uphill.html
Toss water on a hot pan and it sizzles and evaporates. Toss water on a really hot pan, and the water beads up and starts roaming around. Now, turn your hot pan into a hot small staircase and watch the water climb the stairs. Researchers did just that, taking an everyday sighting in the kitchen to a new level in the lab.

Magnetic Moondust -- (NASA -- April 4, 2006)
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/04apr_magneticmoondust.htm?list750202
Thirty-plus years ago on the moon, Apollo astronauts made an important discovery: Moondust can be a major nuisance. The fine powdery grit was everywhere and had a curious way of getting into things. Moondust plugged bolt holes, fouled tools, coated astronauts' visors and abraded their gloves. Dealing with "the dust problem" is going to be a priority for the next generation of NASA explorers. But how? One researcher believes he has an answer: Magnets.

Professor Predicts Human Time Travel This Century -- (PhysOrg -- April 4, 2006)
http://www.physorg.com/news63371210.html
With a brilliant idea and equations based on Einstein's relativity theories, Ronald Mallett from the University of Connecticut has devised an experiment to observe a time traveling neutron in a circulating light beam. While his team still needs funding for the project, Mallett calculates that the possibility of time travel using this method could be verified within a decade.

We're Going on a Planet Hunt -- (EurekAlert -- April 5, 2006)
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-04/ns-wgo040506.php
A fifth terrestrial planet may once have orbited between Mars and Jupiter. Although gravitational disturbances would have sent the planet hurtling into the sun or out into space long ago, traces of this long-gone world may still be visible in part of the asteroid belt today. Recent simulations have suggested that the gas giants of our solar system formed with circular orbits but moved into their more elongated paths about 4 billion years ago - 700 million years after the solar system formed.

New and Improved Antimatter Spaceship for Mars Missions -- (NASA -- April 14, 2006)
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2006/antimatter_spaceship.html
Some antimatter reactions produce blasts of high energy gamma rays. Gamma rays are like X-rays on steroids. They penetrate matter and break apart molecules in cells, so they are not healthy to be around. High-energy gamma rays can also make the engines radioactive by fragmenting atoms of the engine material. Researchers are now working on a new design for an antimatter-powered spaceship that avoids this nasty side effect by producing gamma rays with much lower energy.

Jupiter Growing Another Red Spot -- (BBC -- March 7, 2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4781730.stm
The Great Red Spot that has dominated the planet Jupiter's cloud tops for hundreds of years now has a companion. The gas giant is growing another red spot, which astronomers have nicknamed "Red Jr". Both red spots are actually raging storms in Jupiter's cloud layer, but scientists don't yet know how they get their characteristic brick color.

Chaos = Order: Physicists Make Baffling Discovery -- (Washington University in St. Louis -- April 3, 2006)
http://news-info.wustl.edu/tips/page/normal/6845.html
According to a computational study, one may create order by introducing disorder. While working on a model - a network of interconnected pendulums, or "oscillators" -researchers noticed that when driven by ordered forces the various pendulums behaved chaotically and swung out of sync like a group of intoxicated synchronized swimmers. But when they introduced disorder -forces were applied at random to each oscillator - the system became ordered and synchronized.

Three Cosmic Enigmas, One Audacious Answer -- (New Scientist -- April 6, 2006)
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/fundamentals/mg18925423.600.html
Dark energy and dark matter, two of the greatest mysteries confronting physicists, may be two sides of the same coin. A new and as yet undiscovered kind of star could explain both phenomena and, in turn, remove black holes from the lexicon of cosmology.

GENTICS/HEALTH TECHNOLOGY

MIT Group Develops Mind-Reading Device
Long-Term Cell Use Raises Brain Tumor Risk
New Device Allows Woman to See, Even Without Eyes

MIT Group Develops Mind-Reading Device -- (CNET -- April 4, 2006)
http://news.com.com/MIT+group+develops+mind-reading+device/2100-1008_3-6057638.html
Three researchers at the MIT Media Lab have developed a device that "reads minds" and alerts wearers to the emotional state of the person they're conversing with. The device is called the Emotional Social Intelligence Prosthetic. The research team hopes it will help people with autism learn to better read the social cues of others.

Long-Term Cell Use Raises Brain Tumor Risk -- (ZDNet -- March 31, 2006)
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-6056325.html
The use of mobile phones over a long period of time can raise the risk for brain tumors, a new Swedish study, contradicting the conclusions of other researchers. The new figures meant that heavy users of mobile phones, for instance of who make mobile phone calls for 2,000 hours or more in their life, had a 240 percent increased risk for a malignant tumor on the side of the head the phone is used.

New Device Allows Woman to See, Even Without Eyes -- (Ivanhoe Newswire -- March 31, 2006)
http://rdu.news14.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=82612
More than a million people in the United States are legally blind. Many of them once had vision but tragically lost it. Now a breakthrough device could give them back some of their sight. A camera on the tip of your glasses sends signals to a computer that's strapped around your waist. The computer then stimulates electrodes in the brain through a cord that attaches to the head. Patients see flashes of light and outlines of objects.

NANOTECHNOLOGY

Nanoparticles Effective in Killing Cancer with One-Two Punch of Chemotherapeutics
World's Smallest Car Gets Microscopic Motor
Nanopore Will Make for Speedy DNA Sequencing

Nanoparticles Effective in Killing Cancer with One-Two Punch of Chemotherapeutics -- (PhysOrg -- April 10, 2006)
http://physorg.com/news63902953.html
Research studies demonstrate that biodegradable nano-particles containing two potent cancer-fighting drugs are effective in killing human breast tumors. The new approach "provides a number of advantages over other Trojan horse-style drug delivery system, and should prove a useful tool in fighting a number of diseases" according to one scientist.

World's Smallest Car Gets Microscopic Motor -- (Live Science -- April 13, 2006)
http://www.livescience.com/technology/060413_nanocar_motor.html
Last year scientists announced they had made the smallest car ever, a molecule-sized vehicle that rolled on tiny wheels. But what good is a car without a motor? In another feat in the effort to truly downsize Detroit, the researchers have now installed a miniature, light-powered motor in their diminutive automobile. The nanocar is about as wide as a strand of DNA. Roughly 20,000 of them could park side-by-side in a lot no wider than a human hair.

Nanopore Will Make for Speedy DNA Sequencing -- (New Scientist -- April 10, 2006)
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn8977-nanopore-will-make-for-speedy-dna-sequencing.html
A new technique harnessing a "nanopore" to detect electrical changes as a strand of DNA is passed through it could speed up DNA sequencing more than 200 times. The system could process the human genome in hours, researchers claim, compared with the 6 months it would take in today's best labs.

GLOBAL EPIDEMIC

Supercomputer vs Superflu
Antiviral Coating May Help Fight Epidemics

Supercomputer vs Superflu -- (discover -- April 10, 2006)
http://www.discover.com/web-exclusives/pandemic-model/
Unchecked, an outbreak of avian flu in America might well strike 151 million people, according to a new study, potentially causing thousands or even millions of deaths. But the new research also bears some encouraging news: the nation can keep the flu's fall-out to a tiny fraction of that figure if we use the tools at hand effectively. Researchers made the projections using a detailed simulation run on a Los Alamos supercomputer called Pink.

Antiviral Coating May Help Fight Epidemics -- (New Scientist -- April 14, 2006)
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9003-antiviral-coating-may-help-fight-epidemics.html
Banknotes, vending machines, and photocopiers could help fight off future epidemics if a novel antiviral coating can be made to work safely. Researchers have discovered a raft of metal, metal oxide and ceramic nanoparticles that have strong antiviral properties. They hope to create a face mask impregnated with the particles to destroy certain airborne viruses before people breathe them in.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Software Out There -- (New York Times -- April 5, 2006)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/05/technology/techspecial4/05lego.html?ex=1301
889600&en=9294046d7c3d82ca&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
The Internet is entering its Lego era. Indeed, blocks of interchangeable software components are proliferating on the Web and developers are joining them together to create a potentially infinite array of useful new programs. This new software represents a marked departure from the inflexible, at times unwieldy, programs of the past, which were designed to run on individual computers.

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

World's Largest Rivers Drying Up
Furry Lobster Found in Pacific
Iceland Set to Capture Carbon in its Rocks
Britain's Top Scientist Sees Dangerous Rise in Global Warming
Climate Change Will Cause Mass Extinctions

World's Largest Rivers Drying Up -- (RHC -- March 14, 2006)
http://www.radiohc.cu/ingles/noticias/marzo06/marzo14/noticiasmundo5.htm
United Nations investigation has revealed that half of the planet's 500 biggest rivers are seriously depleted or polluted. The world's great rivers are drying up at an alarming rate, according to the report, with devastating consequences for humanity, animals and the future of the planet.

Furry Lobster Found in Pacific -- (BBC -- April 8, 2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4785482.stm
Marine biologists have discovered a crustacean in the South Pacific that resembles a lobster or crab covered in what looks like silky fur. "Kiwa hirsuta" is so distinct from other species that scientists have created a new taxonomic family for it. A US-led team found the animal last year in waters 2,300m (7,540ft) deep at a site 1,500km (900 miles) south of Easter Island.

Iceland Set to Capture Carbon in its Rocks -- (MSNBC -- April 12, 2006)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12034963/
Iceland is now planning to test a natural resource - basalt rocks - to see if they can be used to safely bury carbon dioxide gas emissions before they harm the atmosphere. And if the experiment works, it could prove useful in much bigger countries that also have basalt, such as the United States, India, Brazil and Russia.

Britain's Top Scientist Sees Dangerous Rise in Global Warming -- (Breitnart -- April 17, 2006)
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/04/14/060414121218.uuewlcue.html
In a grim warning on climate change, the British government's chief scientist said the world must immediately put into place measures to address global warming, even if they take decades to produce results. Sir David King said that, even by the most optimistic forecasts, carbon dioxide levels are set to rise to double what they were at the time of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century.

Climate Change Will Cause Mass Extinctions -- (The Star -- April 11, 2006)
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid
=1144752427557&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home
Climate change will cause the extinction of tens of thousands of species in coming decades, says a new study. The study predicts a disastrous thinning of life in the world's biodiversity "hotspots" - places like the tropical Andes or the Caribbean basin, which contain a disproportionate wealth of species. The authors estimate that 39 to 43 per cent of species in these regions would likely disappear with a doubling of carbon dioxide from pre-industrial levels.

TERRORISM AND THE FUTURE OF WARFARE

Revealed: UK Develops Secret Nuclear Warhead
Are Laser Weapons Ready for Duty?
The Great Weapons Debate
Full-Tilt Flying Machine

Revealed: UK Develops Secret Nuclear Warhead -- (Times Online -- March 12, 2006)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2081800,00.html
Britain has been secretly designing a new nuclear warhead in conjunction with the Americans, provoking a legal row over the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The aim is to produce a simpler device using proven components to avoid breaching the ban on nuclear testing. Known as the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW), it is being designed so that it can be tested in a laboratory rather than by detonation.

Are Laser Weapons Ready for Duty? -- (MSN -- April 11, 2006)
http://msn-cnet.com.com/Are+laser+weapons+ready+for+duty/2008-1008_3-
6059967.html?part=msn-cnet&subj=ns_3-6059967&tag=tg_home
By the end of this year, the Air Force plans to conduct a first, fully loaded test flight of its Airborne Laser, a jumbo jet packed with gear designed to shoot down enemy missiles half a world away, at the speed of light. The ABL also packs a megawatt-class punch--it's not exactly your garden-variety laser pointer. For ground troops and embassy guards, the Active Denial System is being put through its paces. The ADS would provide a non-lethal form of crowd control, using millimeter waves (a cousin of microwaves) to cause an intense burning sensation meant to encourage people to flee.

The Great Weapons Debate -- (Popular Mechanics -- April 11, 2006)
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/defense/2530001.html?page=7&c=y
The Pentagon wants to deploy a host of exotic new weapons systems. Critics say too much of this costly hardware is designed to fight the wrong war. This website shows seven advanced weapons systems and machinery being developed by US military. The usefulness and practicality of them remains to be seen.

Full-Tilt Flying Machine -- (Live Science -- March 31, 2006)
http://www.livescience.com/technology/060331_popsci_osprey.html
Twenty years in development, the new Osprey tilt-rotor flies faster and farther than any helicopter and goes places airplanes never could. As the Osprey lifts off in helicopter mode, the onboard computers, commanded by the pilot, control it by changing the pitch of the rotor blades - the angle at which they bite into the air as they spin around the hub. To accelerate the MV-22 into airplane-like flight, the nacelles rotate forward, and the prop-rotors transition from generating lift and controlling the direction of the aircraft to simply creating forward thrust.

AUGMENTED INTELLIGENCE

Brain Cells Fused with Computer Chip
Speedy Robot Legs it to Break Record

Brain Cells Fused with Computer Chip -- (Live Science -- March 27, 2006)
http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/060327_neuro_chips.html
The line between living organisms and machines has just become a whole lot blurrier. European researchers have developed "neuro-chips" in which living brain cells and silicon circuits are coupled together. The achievement could one day enable the creation of sophisticated neural prostheses to treat neurological disorders or the development of organic computers that crunch numbers using living neurons.

Speedy Robot Legs it to Break Record -- (New Scientist -- April 5, 2006)
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn8957-speedy-robot-legs-it-to-break-record.html
A two-legged robot that walks at record-breaking speed has been developed by researchers from Germany and Scotland. "RunBot" is the fastest robot on two legs for its size. At 30 centimeters high, it can walk at a speedy 3.5 leg-lengths per second. This beats the previous record holder - MIT's "Spring Flamingo" - which is four times as tall but manages just 1.4 leg-lengths per second.

ENERGY REVOLUTION

Forget Computers. Here Comes the Sun.
Quantum Quest Leads to Super-Efficient Lights
Crystal Sponge a Hydrogen Breakthrough?
Virus-Assembled Batteries
Cheaper Fuel Cells
Tiny Generators Could Power Implants Some Day

Forget Computers. Here Comes the Sun. -- (New York Times -- April 14, 2006)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/14/business/14solar.html?ex=1302
667200&en=75fc5adb571c4968&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
Silicon chips, not the kind used for high-speed computing power, but rather for soaking up the sun's rays, are finding a niche in the market these days. The contrast between the two uses of silicon could not be more pronounced. As it turns out, the fledgling solar-cell industry uses just about as many silicon wafers as the chip industry does, but the resemblance ends there.

Quantum Quest Leads to Super-Efficient Lights -- (New Scientist -- April 12, 2006)
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn8992-quantum-quest-leads-to-superefficient-lights.html
A light that lasts 20 times longer than a conventional bulb and is 75% more energy efficient has been developed by researchers. The light is based on organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) that use a novel combination of photon-emitting compounds to convert more energy into light than existing versions.

Crystal Sponge a Hydrogen Breakthrough? -- (MSNBC -- April 13, 2006)
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11761455/
In what could be a breakthrough on the road to a pollution-free hydrogen economy, researchers say they have developed a "crystal sponge" material that can store nearly three times more hydrogen than any other known substance. Test cars that use hydrogen in fuel cells to create an electric propulsion system now get just 150 miles or so on a tank the same size as those in gasoline cars, which can travel 300 or 400 miles on a tank.

Virus-Assembled Batteries -- (Technology Review -- April 7, 2006)
http://www.technologyreview.com/BizTech/wtr_16673,296,p1.html
More than half the weight and size of today's batteries comes from supporting materials that contribute nothing to storing energy. Now researchers have demonstrated that genetically engineered viruses can assemble active battery materials into a compact, regular structure, to make an ultra-thin, transparent battery electrode that stores nearly three times as much energy as those in today's lithium-ion batteries. It is the first step toward high-capacity, self-assembling batteries.

Cheaper Fuel Cells -- (Technology Review -- April 5, 2006)
http://www.technologyreview.com/BizTech/wtr_16665,296,p1.html
Fuel cells still cost too much to be a viable alternative for internal combustion engines in cars -- they require expensive materials and are difficult to make. Now a new, simple-to-produce material boosts the performance of fuel cells many times -- and could be a major step toward making them affordable

Tiny Generators Could Power Implants Some Day -- (CBC News -- April 13, 2006)
http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2006/04/13/nano-generator-20060413.html
Researchers have developed tiny electrical generators that could one day power medical implants without using batteries. The generators use millions of tiny zinc oxide wires, each only 500 billionths of a meter long, to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. The mechanical energy, the researchers say, could come from body movement, muscle stretching or even water flow.

DEMOGRAPHICS AND SOCIAL CHANGE

A Web Site Born in U.S. Finds Fans in Brazil -- (New York Times -- April 10, 2006)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/10/technology/10orkut.html?ex=1302321
600&en=81a68673b731539d&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Ask Internet users here what they think of Orkut, the two-year-old Google social networking service, and you may get a blank stare. But pronounce it "or-KOO-chee," as they do in Portuguese, and watch faces light up. Orkut, the invention of a Turkish-born software engineer named Orkut Buyukkokten, never really caught on in the United States, where MySpace rules teenage cyberspace. But it is nothing short of a cultural phenomenon in Brazil.

A FINAL QUOTE...

Where is all the knowledge we lost with information? --T.S. Elliot

A special thanks to Bernard Calil, Humera Khan, KurzweilAI, Sher Patterson-Black, Diane Peterson, John C. Peterson, the Schwartzreport, Joel Snell, Ken Dabkowski, Hanna Adeyema, Jin Zhu, and Richard May, our contributors to this issue. If you see something we should know about, do send it along - thanks.
johnp@arlingtoninstitute.org