Innovation Watch Newsletter - Issue 11.

13 - June 30, 2012

ISSN: 1712-9834

Highlights from the last two weeks...

scientists create small capsules that manufacture drugs inside the body... a retired chemist funds a challenge to determine the origin of life... a new Wi-Fi standard will tripple data speeds to 1.3 gigabytes per second... engineers create a 50 gigapixel camera five times more powerful than 20/20 vision... state capitalism is replacing the free market in many developing countries... US companies have lost more than $13 billion to economic espionage this year... the Great Recession has had a sudden and devastating impact on America's middle class... talk of drone aircraft patrols of US skies is causing rising concern... China makes currency swaps to strengthen the yuan as an international standard... China's middle class has multiplied its earnings tenfold since 1980... oil production is expected to grow 20 percent by 2020... pests are adapting to genetically modified crops in unexpected ways... Intel imagines the world that will host its future technologies... a dramatic increase in retirement age is predicted, from 66 to 70 or even 80 years old...

David Forrest helps communities come together to take on a shared challenge. The Integral Strategy process he developed has been widely used to catalyze collaboration, build social capital, deepen commitment to action, and develop creative, purposedriven strategies for complex challenges in energy, environment, healthcare, research, education, innovation, transportation, economic development, community development, and community service.

More resources ...

a new book by Scott Patterson -- Dark Pools: High-Speed Traders, A.I. Bandits, and the Threat to the Global Financial System... a link to Kevin Kelly's Screen Publishing blog, providing tips, tools and news for independent publishing on screens... a PBS video on man vs. machine, the future of human workers... a blog post by Shaun Rein, author of The End of Cheap China, on why China needs American education... David Forrest Innovation Watch

SCIENCE
Top Stories: A Step Toward Minute Factories that Produce Medicine Inside the Body (PhysOrg) - Scientists are reporting an advance toward treating disease with minute capsules containing not drugs -- but the DNA and other biological machinery for making the drug. In an article in ACS' journal Nano Letters, they describe engineering micro- and nano-sized capsules that contain the genetically coded instructions, plus the read-out gear and assembly line for protein synthesis that can be switched on with an external signal. Daniel Anderson and colleagues explain that development of nanoscale production units for protein-based drugs in the human body may provide a new approach for treating disease. These production units could be turned on when needed, producing medicines that cannot be taken orally or are toxic and would harm other parts of the body. The Origin of Life Challenge: Searching for How Life Began (PhysOrg) - In 2011, retired chemist and entrepreneur Harry Lonsdale announced his plans to fund research on how life originally formed. Of the 76 proposals submitted to his Origin of Life Challenge, Lonsdale and his team of experts selected three to fund for at least the next year, with the potential to continue financial support in the future. How life first developed is a poorlyunderstood process. Even today, scientists have attempted to determine its origins using a variety of methods. NASA astrobiologist Chris McKay, who served as a referee to help sort through the proposals, pointed out that the submitted proposals spanned a wide variety of potential research. "The scientific study of the origin of life is still early enough that there's not even a consensus on how to approach the problem," McKay said. "That's kind of exciting, but also kind of intimidating, because we don't know what's going to be the right answer."

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Newsletter Archive

Previous issues

TECHNOLOGY
Top Stories: New Wi-Fi Standard Will Speed Up Video Streaming (PhysOrg) - As the number of wireless devices increases in homes -- multiple TVs, smartphones, tablets, laptops -- networks are getting bogged down. But help is on the way. A new Wi-Fi protocol -- dubbed 802.11ac -- will increase data speeds by as much as three times over the most recent standard to 1.3 gigabytes per second. It is also six times more power-efficient and

will provide faster and more reliable Wi-Fi coverage throughout the home. Engineers Build 50 Gigapixel Camera (PhysOrg) - By synchronizing 98 tiny cameras in a single device, electrical engineers from Duke University and the University of Arizona have developed a prototype camera that can create images with unprecedented detail. The camera's resolution is five times better than 20/20 human vision over a 120 degree horizontal field. The new camera has the potential to capture up to 50 gigapixels of data, which is 50,000 megapixels. By comparison, most consumer cameras are capable of taking photographs with sizes ranging from 8 to 40 megapixels. The researchers believe that within five years, as the electronic components of the cameras become miniaturized and more efficient, the next generation of gigapixel cameras should be available to the general public.

BUSINESS
Top Stories: The Rise of Innovative State Capitalism (Businessweek) Over the past five years, as much of the developed world has staggered through crisis, a new type of capitalism has emerged as a challenger to laissez-faire economics. Across much of the developing world, state capitalism -- in which the state either owns companies or plays a major role in supporting or directing them -- is replacing the free market. By 2015 state-owned wealth funds will control some $12 trillion in assets, far outpacing private investors. From 2004 through 2009, 120 state-owned companies made their debut on the Forbes list of the world's largest corporations, while 250 private companies fell off it. State companies now control about 90 percent of the world's oil and large percentages of other resources -- a far cry from the past, when BP and ExxonMobil could dictate terms to the world. Even as state capitalism has risen, some writers, business leaders, and politicians contend that such systems fail to encourage innovation, the key to long-term growth and economic wealth. Foreign Spying Against US Companies on the Rise, FBI Says (PhysOrg) - Driven in part by the global financial crisis, foreign intelligence services, corporations and computer hackers have stepped up efforts to steal technology and trade secrets from American companies, the FBI's top spy hunter told Congress. A related threat -- illegal sales of U.S. technology -- was highlighted when a major military contractor, United Technologies Corp., and two subsidiary units agreed in federal court to pay a $75 million fine for illegally selling embargoed software and components to China that the country used to build a sophisticated attack helicopter called the Z-10. Foreign efforts to obtain U.S. technology in violation of U.S. law are not new, but the cost is

rising and is a threat to national security, said C. Frank Figliuzzi, who heads the FBI's counterintelligence division. He said U.S. companies have suffered more than $13 billion in losses from economic espionage in the current fiscal year.

SOCIETY
Top Stories: The Sharp, Sudden Decline of America's Middle Class (Rolling Stone) - Every night around nine, Janis Adkins falls asleep in the back of her Toyota Sienna van in a church parking lot at the edge of Santa Barbara, California. On the van's roof is a black Yakima SpaceBooster, full of previous-life belongings like a snorkel and fins and camping gear. Adkins, who is 56 years old, parks the van at the lot's remotest corner, aligning its side with a row of dense, shading avocado trees. The trees provide privacy, but they are also useful because she can pick their fallen fruit, and she doesn't always have enough to eat. Despite a continuous, two-year job search, she remains without dependable work. Prior to the Great Recession, Adkins owned and ran a successful plant nursery in Moab, Utah. At its peak, it was grossing $300,000 a year. Talk of Drones Patrolling U.S. Skies Spawns Anxiety (Mercury News) The prospect that thousands of drones could be patrolling U.S. skies by the end of this decade is raising the specter of a Big Brother government that peers into backyards and bedrooms. The worries began mostly on the political margins, but there are signs that ordinary people are starting to fret that unmanned aircraft could soon be circling overhead. Jeff Landry, a freshman Republican congressman from Louisiana's coastal bayou country, said constituents have stopped him while shopping at Walmart to talk about it.

GLOBAL POLITICS
Top Stories: China Busy Signing Currency Deals (Forbes) - China took one more step towards internationalizing the yuan, ultimately leading to the day when the Chinese currency will be a substitute for the U.S. dollar in all of China's trade with other countries. China and Brazil agreed on a currency swap deal that will allow the central banks of each country to exchange local currencies worth up to 60 billion reals, or 190 billion yuan ($30 billion). The amount can be used to shore up reserves in times of crisis or to boost bilateral

trade. China is Brazil's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade of approximately $100 billion. China's currency deal with Brazil follows a similar deal with Australia that was struck in March and allows for an exchange of local currencies between the Australian and Chinese central banks, worth up to 30 billion Australian dollars ($31 billion) over three years. Chinas Middle-Class Boom (CNN) - As China's economy has exploded over the last 30 years, so too have the incomes and living standards of average Chinese people. The average disposable income of urban Chinese households rose to around $3,000 per capita in 2010, according to an analysis of official government statistics by China Market Research Group. That means a typical family of three earns around $9,000 a year. While that might not sound like a lot by U.S. standards, it's a boon for Chinese residents, who have seen their yearly earnings multiply tenfold since 1980. Over the past 10 years alone, incomes have quadrupled. In 2000, the average income was just $760 per person.

ENVIRONMENT
Top Stories: New Study Forecasts Sharp Increase in World Oil Production Capacity, and Risk of Price Collapse (PhysOrg) Oil production capacity is surging in the United States and several other countries at such a fast pace that global oil output capacity is likely to grow by nearly 20 percent by 2020, which could prompt a plunge or even a collapse in oil prices, according to a new study by a researcher at the Harvard Kennedy School. The findings by Leonardo Maugeri, a former oil industry executive who is now a fellow in the Geopolitics of Energy Project in the Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, are based on an original field-by-field analysis of the world's major oil formations and exploration projects. Trouble On the Horizon for Genetically Modified Crops? (Science Daily) - Pests are adapting to genetically modified crops in unexpected ways, researchers have discovered. The findings underscore the importance of closely monitoring and countering pest resistance to biotech crops. Over time, scientists have learned, initially rare genetic mutations that confer resistance to Bt toxins are becoming more common as a growing number of pest populations adapt to Bt crops. In the first study to compare how pests evolve resistance to Bt crops in the laboratory vs. the field, researchers discovered that while some the of the lab-selected mutations do occur in the wild populations, some mutations that differ markedly from those seen in the lab are important in the field. Bruce Tabashnik, head of the department of entomology at the University of Arizona College of Agriculture and

Life Sciences, who co-authored the study, considers the findings an early warning to farmers, regulatory agencies and the biotech industry.

THE FUTURE
Top Stories: Your Life in 2020 According to Intel (TG Daily) - The present is heavily defined by iPhones and iPads. Simply put, Apple benefits from this reality because Cupertino helped anticipate the future it created. In short, it is relatively easy to predict the future when your actions play a significant part in defining it. Another major technology player who believes and helps shape the future is Intel. Indeed, Santa Clara is one of the only technology companies that employs both an ethnologist (Dr. Genevieve Bell), and a futurist (Brian David Johnson). This makes Intel unique, because the corporation doesn't just think up technology, but rather, attempts to imagine the potential world that will host its future tech. What Will The Maximum Retirement Age Be? (Investopedia) People will have to work longer than they used to. It might not come as a shock to most Americans that this is the case, but for younger workers the question isn't if they'll have to work longer, it's how much longer will they have to work than their parents and grandparents did? Currently, the early retirement age for Americans is 62; full retirement starts at 66. The government plans to raise the retirement age incrementally. By 2022 this age will reach 67, but some experts are expecting a much more dramatic increase in the retirement age than most have anticipated previously. Robert Benmosche, Chairman of American International Group (AIG), recently said the retirement age will "have to move to 70, 80 years old," according to an article on Bloomberg. He was speaking generally about Western countries in light of the economic problems Greece and the rest of Europe are facing.

Just in from the publisher...

Dark Pools: High-Speed Traders, A.I. Bandits, and the Threat to the Global Financial System
By Scott Patterson Read more...

A Web Resource... Kevin Kelly: Screen Publishing - Tips, tools and news for independent publishing on screens. Kevin Kelly explores the options for creating ebooks. It's still an evolving field! Multimedia... Man vs. Machine: Will Human Workers Become Obsolete? (PBS) - Paul Solman has been showcasing the future of technology from a recent conference run by a California think tank, the Singularity Institute -- things such as 3-D printing of prosthetic legs and iPhone heart tests. But the conference also resurfaced an age-old question about the future of human workers. (10m 26s) The Blogosphere... China Needs American Education. Heres How to Bring It There (Forbes) Shaun Rein - "China's education system has serious weaknesses, and the Chinese are well aware of them. As I argue in my recently released book, The End of Cheap China, Chinese parents are acutely aware that the Chinese educational system focuses too much on rote memorization and doesn't give students enough training in morality and extracurricular activity. Prepping students to get high test scores does not translate into teaching them to think critically. That is why Chinese students have flocked to overseas universities to earn bachelor's and graduate degrees. According to the Institute of International Education and the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Chinese enrollment in U.S. universities rose 23% to 157,558 students during the 2010-2011 academic year, making China by far the biggest foreign presence, ahead of India (103,895) and South Korea (73,351)."

Email: future@innovationwatch.com