Innovation Watch Newsletter - Issue 10.

16 - July 30, 2011

ISSN: 1712-9834

Selected news items from postings to Innovation Watch in the last two weeks... scientists secretly create human-animal hybrids... researchers produce a modified genetic alphabet... algorithm developer an emerging new profession... scientists create artificial intelligence in a test tube... Google buys up patents in self-defense... Amazon challenges online sales taxes in California... just 10 percent of the population creates a tipping point for the spread of ideas... the middle class is a problem for both China and the United States... a European buying opportunity for China... foreign money floods into Mongolia... radiation spread in Japan's food chain... carbon capture and storage efforts are in retreat... technology startup Recorded Future automates foresight analytics... the old order is in crisis and we need to move forward... More great resources ... a new book on innovation -- The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators, by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen and Clayton Christensen... the website of Architecture for Humanity... a video on Pranav Mistry's sixth-sense technology launched by Microsoft as a vision of the future... a post by John Havens on the new currency of social accountability... David Forrest Innovation Watch

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

SCIENCE
Top Stories: Forward

150 Human Animal Hybrids Grown in UK Labs: Embryos Have Been Produced Secretively for the Past Three Years (Daily Mail) - Figures seen by the Daily Mail show that 155 'admixed' embryos, containing both human and animal genetic material, have been created since the introduction of the 2008 Human Fertilisation Embryology Act. This legalised the creation of a variety of hybrids, including an animal egg fertilised by a human sperm; 'cybrids,' in which a human nucleus is implanted into an animal cell; and 'chimeras,' in which human cells are mixed with animal embryos. Modified Genetic Alphabet: Chemical Evolution Generates Bacterial Strain With Artificial Nucleotide in its Genome (PhysOrg) - Evolution is based on heredity, changes to the genetic material (mutation), and the natural selection of those organisms that are best suited to the given environmental conditions. An international team led by Rupert Mutzel at the Freie Universitat of Berlin has now successfully emulated one particular evolutionary process in the laboratory. As the researchers report in the journal Angewandte Chemie, they were able to generate a bacterial strain whose genetic material contains an artificial building block in place of a natural one. Their success results from a special automated cultivation technique.

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TECHNOLOGY
Top Stories: Prof Says Tech Entering the Age of the Algorithm (PhysOrg) Software professionals may soon have a whole new category of colleagues: algorithm developers. That's the conclusion of a UT Dallas researcher who speculates that as algorithms increasingly become the differentiator in software, algorithm developer jobs and algorithm engineering degrees may not be far behind. Netflix paid $1 million two years ago for an algorithm -- one of the basic building blocks of software programs -- that would more accurately predict which films a customer would like. And with a California physicians network now staging a $3 million contest for a healthcare-related algorithm, "We may be witnessing the emergence of a new historic trend," said Dr. Andras Farago, a computer science professor in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. End of the Silicon Age? Researchers Create the First Artificial Neural Network Out of DNA (Daily Mail) - Scientists have taken a major step toward the creation of artificial intelligence -- not in a robot or a silicon chip, but in a test tube. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have created a circuit of interacting molecules that can recall memories based on incomplete DNA patterns, just like the human brain. "The brain is incredible," says Lulu Qian, a Caltech senior postdoctoral scholar in bioengineering. "It allows us to recognize patterns of events, form memories, make decisions, and take actions."

BUSINESS
Top Stories: Google Lawyer Says Patents Are 'Gumming Up' Innovation (Businessweek) Google Inc. General Counsel Kent Walker said the smartphone industry is in an arms race for patents that is hurting consumers and leaving the company to "sort through the mess" of litigation. "It's hard to find what's the best path -- there's so much litigation," Walker said in an interview. "We're exploring a variety of different things." Google, whose Android mobile operating system has been targeted in at least six legal complaints, is seeking to buy intellectual property that could be used as a defense against litigation. Amazon Says Gets OK for California Sales Tax Referendum (Boston Globe) - Amazon.com Inc. says the California Attorney General's Office has approved its petition for a referendum that would let voters decide whether to overturn a new law that forces online retailers to collect sales taxes in the state. The law makes online retailers collect California sales taxes by expanding what it means to have a physical presence in the state. The requirement now kicks in if an online retailer has a related company, such as a marketing arm, or affiliates in California.

SOCIETY
Top Stories: Minority Rules: Scientists Discover Tipping Point for the Spread of Ideas (PhysOrg) Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found that when just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of the society. The scientists, who are members of the Social Cognitive Networks Academic Research Center at Rensselaer, used computational and analytical methods to discover the tipping point where a minority belief becomes the majority opinion. The finding has implications for the study and influence of societal interactions ranging from the spread of innovations to the movement of political ideals. Why The Middle Class Matters in Both the US and China (Forbes) - In the United States and China at the moment, the middle class is under threat -- and it's a major problem to both countries for different reasons. In China, there is increasing concern about the growing gap between the very rich and the very poor. The Chinese government has stated its intention to drive the economy to be centrally based on domestic consumption rather than export-driven, in order to

grow the size and wealth of the middle class and ensure better social harmony. For most American middle class, their hope is that the housing market comes back and makes them richer. If it doesn't, they'll hope to keep their jobs and survive to stay in the middle class.

GLOBAL POLITICS
Top Stories: China's European Shopping Spree? (Foreign Affairs) - When Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was on a tour of European capitals last month, he stressed two things at each stop: that a stable eurozone is vital to China and that China is Europe's friend. Indeed, from Beijing's perspective, when it comes to Europe, self-interest and altruism neatly coincide. If China were to buy only half of all outstanding Greek sovereign debt (a bargain at around $220 billion, a fraction of China's dollar assets), it would not only resolve the eurozone crisis and add to Chinese prestige but it would help give Beijing the sort of reserve asset that it needs to diversify its holdings out of dollars. Foreign Money Invades Mongolia (Businessweek) - Miners such as Anglo-Australian giant Rio Tinto and the Chinesebacked Shenhua Group compete for the right to extract coal, copper, gold, molybdenum, and uranium. It is a resource play that is expected to bring a flood of money into the impoverished country over the next decade, centered around huge mining projects such as the Shivee Ovoo and Tavan Tolgoi coal reserves, estimated to be worth $300 billion and $400 billion, respectively, and the copper and gold mine Oyu Tolgoi, worth some $300 billion, according to Quam Asset Management in Hong Kong, which runs a Mongolia-focused investment fund.

ENVIRONMENT
Top Stories: Japan's Food Chain Threat Multiplies as Radiation Spreads (Buinessweek) - Radiation fallout from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant poses a growing threat to Japan's food chain as unsafe levels of cesium found in beef on supermarket shelves were also detected in more vegetables and the ocean. More than 2,600 cattle have been contaminated, Kyodo News reported July 23, after the Miyagi local government said 1,183 cattle at 58 farms were fed hay containing radioactive cesium before being shipped to meat markets. What's Killing Carbon Capture? (Businessweek) - The future of CCS is in jeopardy. AEP pulled the plug on its CCS efforts,

citing a weak economy and the "uncertain status of U.S. climate policy." CEO Morris said AEP and its partners "have advanced CCS technology more than any other power generator with our successful two-year project to validate the technology. But at this time it doesn't make economic sense to continue." The dimming of CCS's promise reflects a broader national retreat from the goal of reversing climate change. In private and, to some degree, in public, the company and its executives express frustration that they tried to do the right thing -- only to end up burned.

THE FUTURE
Top Stories: Is Pre-Cognition Possible and Can It Beat Twitter on Breaking News? (Read Write Web) - Marshall Kirkpatrick "Recorded Future is a startup technology company that described itself as a 'temporal analytics engine.' It tries to uncover and analyze very faint signals, basically in order to predict the future. It's backed by Google Ventures and the data-loving VC firm IA Ventures. Recorded Future articulated its vision of the future of news. By news they don't just mean what's broadcast on TV at 5 and 11, they mean current events of interest to people seeking actionable information." We As a Nation Cling to Past for Fear of Future (Denver Post) - Robert J. Samuelson "We are now witnessing 'the crisis of the old order.' The phrase, coined by the late historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. to describe the failure of unfettered capitalism in the late 1920s, also applies to the present, despite different circumstances. Everywhere, advanced nations face similar problems: overcommitted welfare states, aging populations, flagging economic expansion. These conditions define the global crisis and explain why it's struck the United States, Europe and Japan simultaneously. We need to move beyond daily headlines to understand this larger predicament."

Just in from the publisher...

The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators

by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen and Clayton M. Christensen
Read more...

A Web Resource... Architecture for Humanity - Building a more sustainable future using the power of design. Through a global network of building professionals, Architecture

for Humanity brings design, construction and development services to communities in need.

Multimedia... Pranav Mistry's Sixth-Sense and Microsoft's Productivity Future Vision -- The Sixth-Sense Technology of Pranav Mistry, a wearable device that enables new interactions between the real world and the world of data. The video was launched by Microsoft as a vision of the future. (5m 49s)

The Blogosphere... Why Social Accountability Will Be the New Currency of the Web (Mashable) - John Havens -- "Were in an era in which the bias of social media, valueadded content broadcast via the Internet, has created a glut of data attached to identity largely through the medium of words versus action. So like the citizens of Worgl, we need to ask ourselves -- how can we evolve the notion of online economy based on influence? How can we find a language of currency for the Internet?"

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