Tag: Fall2016

The global trend toward decentralization is opening government and the political process at every level. From registering to vote at the Department of Motor Vehicles to using a city’s smartphone app to report potholes, political leaders are finding their work is easier, more effective and more satisfying the more that individuals are involved.

Scientists in Singapore have grown a tiny version of a portion of the human brain. These “organoids,” grown from human tissue and small enough to fit several on a fingernail, replicate functions of the human mid-brain. The mid-brain is an information-transfer hub that controls the senses, physical movement and produces dopamine, a key to fluid...

The confluence of technologies such as CRISPR-cas 9 gene editing and 3-D printing allows science to build living-organ models not only to replace failing original equipment, but also to study disease and treatments on human organs without risking human lives. While this promises to extend humans’ health span, the danger of rogue uses will grow.

Among the jobs being eliminated by advances in information technology are jobs in – information technology. In September, 142,000 low-level, front-line IT jobs disappeared. These tended to be in call centers, product manufacturing and similar jobs that don’t require a high level of creativity or judgment. Software and systems design are still growth areas, as...

Artificial intelligence is squeezing the job market from both ends. Routine work is being automated among clerical and warehouse workers, but also for lawyers, accountants and pharmacists. The safest jobs will be those requiring creativity and problem-solving. Hands-on services such as plumbing, hairdressing and yoga teaching also will be refuges for employment.

Businesses that specialize in healthy living, green building, ecotourism and natural products are the new takeover targets. This year, about 7 percent of those companies have been in the gunsights of corporate giants seeking a piece of the US’ $290 billion annual market for things eco-friendly. Unilever, the European consumer-products conglomerate, just paid more than...

Big corporations have been late to the booming market for environmentally oriented products, for which consumers have shown a willingness to pay a 20 percent premium. Buying green companies lets major corporations outsource risk and still harvest the rewards while also putting a green tinge on their brands. The pace of acquisitions will remain steady,...

Scientists in Spain and the UK have combined two effective influenza vaccines to create a new formula that should be effective against more than 90 percent of present and future flu strains. One vaccine has been effective against 88 percent of flu viruses known globally; the other works against 95 percent of flu strains that...

Flu kills as many as 500,000 people annually worldwide. New generations of emerging superbugs have led researchers to forecast new flu pandemics, similar to that of 1918 that killed as many as 50 million. This simple discovery could avoid those pandemics and render flu as a manageable public-health concern.

Mushrooms – or, at least, the mycelium that makes up the network of fibers that supports and nourishes them – may be the new all-purpose material. MycoWorks, a young San Francisco company, has created a process to turn mushroom fibers into tables, rafts, bricks and construction tiles. The mycelium is cast into molds where fibers...