Innovation Watch Newsletter - Issue 11.

09 - May 5, 2012

ISSN: 1712-9834

Selected news items from postings to Innovation Watch in the last two weeks... a new high-speed scientific data network is planned... a sperm alternative opens the door to new ways of genetically modifying animals... Google looks to create Detroit partnerships to develop selfdriving cars... Intel launches a breakthrough computer chip... aging Boomers play a growing role as entrepreneurs... is capitalism changing?... Harvard and MIT join forces to offer free online courses... the City of Detroit cuts 25 percent of its workforce... India's future growth will depend on solving water issues... China builds its own network of global positioning satellites... the Arctic Ocean could open for regular shipping by 2017... China needs to act urgently to cut its greenhouse gas emissions... high-speed travel is envisaged around the world in just 6 hours... a new startup plans to mine resources in space... More great resources ... a new book by Howard Reingold -- Net Smart: How to Thrive Online... a link to the Information is Beautiful website, where ideas, issues, knowledge and data are visualized... the audio clip of a Quirks and Quarks interview with John Long, author of the new book Darwin's Devices: What Evolving Robots Can Teach Us About the History of Life and the Future of Technology... a blog post by Eric Jackson on the uncertain future of Google and Facebook... David Forrest Innovation Watch

David Forrest advises organizations on emerging trends, and helps to develop strategies for a radically different future

SCIENCE
Top Stories: A 100-Gigbit Highway for Science (PhysOrg) - Climate researchers are producing some of the fastest growing datasets in science. Five years ago, the amount of information generated for the Nobel Prize-winning United Nations International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report was 35 terabytes -- equivalent to the amount of text in 35 million books, occupying a bookshelf 248 miles (399 km) long. By 2014, when the next IPCC report is published, experts predict that 2 petabytes of data will have been generated for it -- that's a 580 percent increase in data production. Because thousands of researchers around the world contribute to the generation and analysis of this data, a reliable, high-speed network is needed to transport the torrent of information. Fortunately, the Department of Energy's (DOE) ESnet (Energy Sciences Network) has laid the foundation for such a network -- not just for climate research, but for all data-intensive science. From Embryonic Stem Cells, a Sperm Replacement and Easier Path to Genetic Modification (PhysOrg) - Researchers reporting in the journal Cell have devised a new and improved method for producing genetically modified animals for use in scientific research. The method relies on haploid embryonic stem cells (haESCs) instead of sperm to artificially fertilize immature egg cells. Such stem cells are similar to sperm in that they carry only genetic material from a mouse "dad." Not only will the advance make it easier to produce genetically modified mice, but it may also enable genetic modification of animals that can't be modified by today's means. The technique might ultimately be used in assisted human reproduction for those affected by genetic disease, the researchers suggest. Forward Know someone who might be interested in this newsletter? Forward it Unsubscribe Don't want to receive the newsletter? Unsubscribe

Newsletter Archive

Previous issues

TECHNOLOGY
Top Stories: Google Looks to Detroit to Team on Self-driving Cars (PC World) - Google plans to move ahead with its self-driving car technology and hopes to get a hand from the folks in Detroit. Anthony Levandowski, head of Google's self-driving car project, told an audience at the Society of Automotive Engineers conference last week that the company is looking for partners to help it get autonomous cars on the road within the next decade, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. "We're talking to every car company to see what their level of excitement is," Levandowski said. While noting that the company still needs to do "millions of miles" of testing, he said the technology could be ready well before 2022. "If not, shame on us as engineers," he added. Intel Launches First Chips of New Generation (Boston Globe) The new generation, code-named "Ivy Bridge," is the first to

be made with a 3-D structure. Miniature fins jut out of the plane of the chip, letting Intel cram more features into the same space. That means the chips can be faster while consuming less power. Analysts have called it one of the most significant developments in silicon transistor design since the integrated circuit was invented in the 1950s. In terms of manufacturing technology, it puts Intel two to three years ahead of the competition, said Romit Shah at Nomura Securities.

BUSINESS
Top Stories: Older Entrepreneurs Start Companies Too (Businessweek) America is aging. The leading edge of the baby boom generation is already eligible for Social Security and Medicare. Gloomy prognosticators fear the aging population will exert a dampening influence on the economy. The popular image of older folks is hardly as stalwarts of entrepreneurial ambition and energy. They have a reputation for being set in their ways, unwilling to challenge the established order, showing little interest in the latest technologies and organizational ideas, thinking more about retirement than launching a new venture. Think again. Although new business formation by the 55 to 64-year-old age group declined in 2011, its share of entrepreneurs is up sharply over the past 15 years -- from 14.3 percent in 1996 to 20.9 percent in 2011. Innovation Ecosystem: A Global Shift in Capitalism? (Huffington Post) - Adam Marsh - "On global and local scales, there is a large shift in how novel ideas and discoveries can quickly establish market relevance and commercial significance. The acquisition of Instagram by Facebook for US$ 1B may seem aberrant, but it clearly marks recent trend boundaries. As a co-founder of a small biotech, informatics based, academic startup company, this has led me to wonder how a young company like Instagram could have achieved such stunning success so quickly."

SOCIETY
Top Stories: Harvard, MIT Offering Free Online Courses (CBC) - Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have joined forces to offer free online courses to anyone with an internet connection. MIT has had a program called OpenCourseWare that makes materials from more than 2,000 classes available free online. In December, it announced it also would begin offering a special credential, known as MITx, for people who complete the online version of certain courses. The new

partnership with Harvard will be called "edX." Detroit Budget: Mayor Dave Bing's Plan Cuts 2,500 Jobs, $250 Million (Huffington Post) The city of Detroit is set to lose a quarter of its personnel under the latest budget proposal from Mayor Dave Bing's office. The massive layoffs are part of an overall austerity plan to balance a general fund budget that will be reduced by 10 percent for the next fiscal year. "We have to improve the process to become more efficient," Deputy Mayor Kirk Lewis said last week. Efficiency, Lewis said, includes dramatically reducing the city's 10,000plus-person workforce. "We will be able to eliminate the need for as many people to do things. ... Once you fix some of those things, you'll be able to say, 'I have more people than I need.'"

GLOBAL POLITICS
Top Stories: Solve Water Problems or Forget Growth, India Told (Reuters) - India's economic growth and political stability are at stake in coming years if it does not change its approach to water management, a member of its natural resources planning commission told Reuters. Mihir Shah, who has been asked by India's government to come up with a new water resource strategy, said the sector needed to become more sustainable, efficient and focused on how water is used and how it reaches people. "If this is not attended to, India's growth story will completely go off the rails," Shah said during an interview at the Global Water Summit 2012 conference in Rome. "There will be water conflicts, conflicts between users, across regions, they will become very serious and a threat to the democratic fabric itself," he said, adding that neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh faced similar challenges. China Building Global Alternative to GPS (International Business Times) - Western powers that led the space race for the past 55 years now face stiff competition from China. A Chinese Long March 3B rocket successfully lifted off to carry the country's 12th and 13th global navigation satellites into orbit. As a result, China is well on its way to assembling its own alternative to the U.S. Global Positioning System. China is in the process of deploying a new satellite-based navigation system called Beidou II or the "Big Dipper II" system. Like GPS in the U.S., Russia's GLONASS, and Europe's Galileo systems, Beidou II would be offered to both civilian and military customers, providing accurate time and geographic positioning information on land, at sea, and in the air. Beidou came into operation for the East Asian region last December and is scheduled to be available across the world by 2020.

ENVIRONMENT
Top Stories: Arctic Ocean May Open to Regular Shipping by 2017 (CBC) The Arctic Ocean could open for regular commercial shipping within the next five to 10 years, according to a Canadian polar scientist who conducted research for the International Polar Year Conference. But while that may sound like welcome news for intercontinental commerce, the changing ice conditions could bring new hazards to ships plying the polar seas. "Just because you're reducing the ice like that, one of the things we found was that you increase the speed at which this ice moves," said Dr. David Barber, the lead scientist on the Circumpolar Flaw Lead (CFL) System Study. China Must Act Urgently to Curb City Emissions: World Bank (Reuters) - China must act urgently on multiple fronts if it is to cut greenhouse gas emissions from its rapidly expanding cities and hit government targets for curbing carbon intensity, a new report from the World Bank said. Cities generate an estimated 70 percent of energy-related greenhouse gases and with China set to increase its number of urban residents by 350 million over the next 20 years, the Bank says the case for urgent action is strong.

THE FUTURE
Top Stories: Futurama in Real Life? High Speed Tube Transport Concept Can Take You from New York to China in Two Hours (Digital Trends) - The worst part of traveling is getting stuck on a massively lengthy flight, especially if youre in a window seat next to a crying baby, a snorer, or that anxious passenger who wont stop shaking his nervous leg. With this Evacuated Tube Transport (ETT) concept, the fuss of long distance travel could be eliminated altogether by significantly reducing travel time during this incredibly high speed transportation tube. Seating a maximum of six passengers per tube plus a baggage compartment, the ETT can travel at a speed of approximately 4,000 miles per hour while remaining airless and frictionless. Thanks to magnetic levitation, the vacuum speed means you can go from New York to Los Angeles in a mere 45 minutes, New York to Beijing in two hours, or around the world in only six hours. Would You Support a Resource Mining Industry in Space? (CBC) - Planetary Resources, a new startup staffed by selfdescribed "commercial space pioneers" may be looking to extract raw resources in space. A sparsely-detailed press release hinted at the company's mission. "The company will overlay two critical sectors -- space exploration and natural resources -- to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP. This innovative start-up will create a new industry and a new

definition of 'natural resources'," read the document. What has been revealed though, is that the company has several high-profile investors, including Canadian filmmaker James Cameron and Google power brokers Larry Page, Eric Schmidt and K. Ram Shriram.

Just in from the publisher...

Net Smart: How to Thrive Online

By Howard Reingold
Read more...

A Web Resource... Information Is Beautiful - Ideas, issues, knowledge, data -visualized! The website of David McCandless, a London-based author, data journalist and information designer.

Multimedia... John Long: What Evolving Robots Can Teach Us About the History of Life and the Future of Technology (Quirks and Quarks) - One of the important differences between animals and robots is that animals are the product of evolution -- a couple of billion years of mutation, variation and selection. Robots, on the other hand, are designed -- a product of engineering drawings, computer programs and sophisticated manufacturing. Dr. John Long, a professor of Biology and Cognitive Neuroscience at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, has been working to change that. Dr. Long's work is in evolving robots. He's not trying to create a new breed of robots that will take over the world. He's attempting to model the early evolution of vertebrates by duplicating that process in simple robots. His new book is Darwin's Devices: What Evolving Robots Can Teach Us About the History of Life and the Future of Technology. (15m 26s) [Quirks and Quarks]

The Blogosphere... Here's Why Google and Facebook Might Completely Disappear in the Next 5 Years (Forbes) Eric Jackson We think of Google and Facebook as Web gorillas. They'll be around forever. Yet, with the rate that the tech world is moving these days, there are good reasons to think both might be gone completely in 5-8 years. Not bankrupt gone, but MySpace gone. And there's some academic theory to back up that view, along with casual observations from recent history."

Email: future@innovationwatch.com