GLIMPSES OF THE FUTURE
A monthly digest of technologies, developments and trends that will shape our lives. (If you would prefer not to receive these digests, flip back 'NO THANKS' and you will be removed from the list).

Mobile Masts Will Monitor African Weather

A new partnership has been announced that will place weather monitoring stations on up to 5,000 mobile phone towers operated by mobile network providers, across the African continent.

The initiative is being backed by the Global Humanitarian Forum, Ericsson, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

Africa has a network eight times below the WMO minimum recommended standard, and less than 200 weather stations that meet WMO observation requirements, compared to several thousand each in Europe, North America, and parts of Asia. The 5,000 weather stations will be installed at new and existing mobile network sites throughout the continent over coming years.

American Robot Missiles Improved To Reduce 'Collateral Damage'

American military scientists are now engineering a new generation of robotic missiles which will be far more accurate in targeting only the bad guys.

The new armoury includes flying multi-missile hitmen, floating multi-target guidance systems, flapping suicide bombers, swarms of bird-size bots shadowing targets and new unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) capable of launching mini-missiles at multiple targets at once.

Scientists have unveiled a new way of altering the genetic sequence of a crop to produce a desired trait without needing to introduce foreign genes.

The technique could be less controversial than conventional genetic modification because it does not involve transferring a gene from another species.

Scientists at the University of Minnesota Center for Genome Engineering used a set of enzymes to 'subtly change' a tobacco plant's DNA to make it herbicide resistant.

The researchers say that the technique requires only standard molecular biology laboratories and competence in introducing DNA into plants - resources that are available in many parts of the developing world.

Why tobacco plants? Why not wheat?

'Re-Engineering' The Earth

I pointed out the madness of the concept of climate geo-engineering in my 2005 novel 'Extinction' (the clue is in the title), but President Obama’s science adviser, John Holdren, has now said that he thought the administration would consider geo-engineering, 'if we get desperate enough'.

Away from fiction, some scientists see geo-engineering as a last-ditch option to prevent us from cooking the planet to death. Others rightly fear that it could have unforeseen - and possibly catastrophic - consequences.

What many scientists agree on, however, is that the technology necessary to reshape the climate is so powerful, and so easily implemented, that the world must decide how to govern its use before the wrong nation - or even the wrong individual - starts to change the climate all on its own.

High Kites Could Power New York

A fleet of kites could harvest enough energy from high-altitude winds to power New York, suggest researchers from the Carnegie Institution and California State University.

The scientists compiled the first global survey of wind energy available at high altitudes in the atmosphere. They found that the regions best suited for harvesting this energy align with population centres in the eastern U.S. and East Asia, although they note that 'fluctuating wind strength still presents a challenge for exploiting this energy source on a large scale'.

Browser Can Turn Every Computer Into A Server

Sometimes it is the simplest ideas which have the most far-reaching effects.

A Norwegian firm has created a technology that allows a Web browser to also function as a Web server, allowing individuals to share their files or communicate with others directly from their own computers.

Opera Software's new technology is available as part of a beta for its browser, Opera 10. The feature, called Opera Unite, enables users to push content and establish communications without the need for third-party companies, such as Facebook, AOL or Flickr.

If this takes off, the impact could be huge.

Mercedes Shows Future Safety Features For Cars

Thirty years ago Mercedes introduced a concept car with features such as air bags, head restraints and seat-belt tensioners - all now standard in automobiles.

Now the same company has shown a new concept vehicle which features high-beam multi-zone headlights that intelligently dip only the LEDs shining directly at oncoming cars. Also included is an inflatable metal structure that pops up for extra strength in a crash and a huge inflatable braking airbag that pops out under the car to provide a massive high-traction contact patch with the road and doubles a car's braking power before an imminent crash.

Another feature uses the car's collision detection system to report an incident to all other road users.

A new study from researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, compares the 'full life-cycle' emissions generated by 11 different modes of transportation.

Unlike previous studies on transport emissions, the researchers looked beyond what is emitted by different types of car, train, bus or plane while their engines are running and included emissions from building and maintaining the vehicles and their infrastructure, as well as generating the fuel to run them.

Including these additional sources of pollution more than doubles the greenhouse gas emissions of train travel. The emissions generated by car travel increase by nearly one third when manufacturing and infrastructure are taken into account. In comparison to cars on roads and trains on tracks, air travel requires little infrastructure.

Stem Cell Therapy For Blindness

An experimental therapy using human embryonic stem cells to treat degenerative eye diseases has proved safe and effective in animal studies, and may begin early human trials in the next few months if it receives approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

If granted approval, the therapy will be the second embryonic-stem-cell-based treatment to progress to human trials, and it will provide a test case for further applications of stem cells.

This latest treatment for eye disease, developed by Advanced Cell Technology (ACT), based in Worcester, Massachusetts, uses human embryonic stem cells to re-create a type of cell in the retina that supports the photoreceptors needed for vision.

Human Tissue Could Replace Lab Rats

'Microlungs' grown from human tissue might one day help to replace the vast numbers of rats used to check the safety of drugs, cosmetics and other chemicals. The work is part of a growing drive to develop toxicology tests based on human cells as a replacement for animal testing.

Cell biologist Kelly BéruBé at the University of Cardiff, UK, has managed to grow human lung cells into flat differentiated layers that resemble the inner lining of the lungs. Her method is already being used for drug testing by companies such as Unilever and AstraZeneca.

Testing the effects of inhaling a single dose of a particular chemical today typically requires more than 200 rats, while testing the chronic effects of breathing it in over time can take more than 3000 rodents. Tissue engineering is the answer.

Effortless Fat Burning - Sounds Too Good To Be True!

Can burning excess fat be as easy as exhaling? That's the finding of a provocative new study by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, who transplanted a fat-burning pathway used by bacteria and plants into mice. The genetic alterations enabled the animals to convert fat into carbon dioxide and remain lean while eating the equivalent of a fast-food diet.

The research introduces a new approach to combating the growing obesity problem in humans. Although the proof-of-concept study is far from being tested in humans, it may point to new strategies for borrowing biological functions from bacteria and other species to improve human health.

The researchers introduced modified genes into the livers of mice. While normal mice gain weight when put on a high-fat diet the engineered mice remained skinny despite the fact that they ate about the same and produced the same waste and were as active as their unmodified counterparts. They also had lower fat levels in the liver and lower cholesterol levels.

The engineered mice did not convert the fat into sugar, which could have the dangerous side effect of promoting high blood sugar and diabetes. Instead, the scientists found a measured increase in their carbon dioxide output; the excess fat was literally released into thin air.

www.rayhammond.com

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