ECONOMIST TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY 24 MAR 01:-Each Quarterly article is listed by full title; then to ensure summaries reflect articles both as accurately and briefly as possible, key introduction sentences and sometimes others are taken almost verbatim, but without surplus words or detailed punctuation. OPINION: “Innovation at the Edge”: Technology has done U-turn, dispersing control of large networks from hub to edge. Development of personal computer, and introduction of client-server style of computing in 1980s, freed people to use their own initiative, and built upon centrifugal opportunities presented by deregulation and privatization. Other areas influenced by centrifugal force are those of energy and“remaking of the telephone system in the image of Internet”. MONITOR:“The Power Industry’s Quest for High Nines”: Innovations are improving quality of electrical power, so computer networks can run for not just 99.9% of time, but for 99.9999% that e-commerce demands. “Talking Heads”: Since online retailers want customer-personalized websites, much progress has been made in creating friendly, animated, lifelike talking heads that are well-informed about regular customers, and even resemble them.“Designer Enzymes”: Enzymes are special proteins which act as catalysts, accelerating(10,000-1m times)important chemical reactions in living cells. In manufacturing new drugs, it would save much time and money (and lives?)if exactly right new or modified enzyme could be found with characteristics needed to speed up specific reaction. However, exact combination of factors must be found among many candidates, say 20¹⁰⁰. Researchers have used computers(and brains)to make search manageable.“Through a Glass Brightly”:“Optical fibres guide light over hundreds of kilometres by exploiting differences in the refractive index to bend a light beam. Their core is made of glass that has a high refractive index, bending light strongly, while outer cladding has lower refractive index and thus bends light less. Net effect is to make light signals bounce along core as though they were in a pipe with mirror-like finish. New approach is“crystal fibres”which have bundles of microscopic pipes along length of fibre. Advantages: avoid needing two types of glass, use much narrower core, and get effect of using two types of glass. Extremely narrow cores also enable more effective use of bandwidths or more even light-spread.“Biochips Down on the Farm”: Quick/accurate tests whether food(ingredient)contains genetically modified(GM)material(s) are important if it is prohibited by buyer or must be labelled. Such test is under development in form of electronic biochip called“eSensor”consisting of small circuit-board laced with up to 36 gold electrodes. Each of these is linked to more than a billion identical single-stranded DNA molecules, and each DNA strand is attached to kind of electrically conductive carbon compound. When matching DNA molecules are found, signal is created.“Smart Tyres”: New tyre-wear/grip monitoring system avoids bumpy lives by being divided into two. Sturdy parts located in tyres consist of crystals that produce minute electrical current when deformed by pressure or road-grip. Radar-like probe, safely in body of vehicle, detects and interprets these deformations and notifies either driver or an automatic safety mechanism, say to avoid skidding. Other types of sensors(radar/laser)are already being used to determine and maintain safe distance from car ahead when on cruise-control. Under development are sensors designed to assist in steering/braking if accident is imminent.“Virtual Hype, Real Products”: In most fields“virtual reality”(interaction with artificial environment)has not met expectations of early 1990s, but has remained in laboratories. Practical applications/funding are now being found. Systems exist to scan large structures, or locate exact position of people, specialty tools, or robots’ arms. One VR product manipulates microscopic objects, even molecules.“Son of Paperclip”: “Paperclip”is over-enthusiastic spontaneous advice-giving tool built into Microsoft’s Office. “Son”in question is Mobile Manager which evaluates incoming e-mails on a user’s PC and decides which are important enough to forward to pager, mobile phone or other e-mail address, i.e. distinguish junk mail from important messages. It learns with experience user’s relative priorities and is not intrusive. “Making Materials Atom by Atom”: In searching for better materials scientists are designing multitudes of new ‘‘virtual”materials atom by atom on computers; they determine each variation’s properties until they find right structure. Variations are effectively infinite.“Magic Bullet for Pain-Killers”: Most pain medicines are imprecise: large doses provide little relief, often with side effects. Innovation concentrates directly and only on nerves causing pain; tiny quantities give long-term relief and may be used for muscle spasms/nervous-system diseases. TEAM SPIRIT:“Have Legs, Will Run”: Many breakthroughs now are products of research teams. IBM Research Laboratory, Zurich has created ingenious memory device. “Millipede” - which looks like a brush - uses 1,000 microscopic pointed levers that record information by making minute marks on plastic. Product of experts in several different fields cooperating closely. REPORTS: “The Shape of Phones to Come”Telecommunications: Starting as hobbyist movement 5 years ago,“Voice over Internet Protocol”[VOIP] is remaking telephone systems worldwide. It is one of biggest overhauls in decades, but not last by long way. Essay explains current technological war between telephone companies and those, represented by VOIP, enabling use of Internet for(free)long-distance calls. It has brought enormous improvements in service by both systems, and increasing similarity in technology. It is certain that today’s Internet will not be up to demands about to be made on it. A wholly new, far bigger, packet-switched network, combining scalability of Internet with quality and global reach of telephone system, will have to be built from scratch: network that connects everything to everything.“Power to the Telephone Masses”“Session Initiation Protocol”(SIP): emerging as favoured standard for setting up, modifying and terminating telephone calls over Internet. Advantages are simplicity and independence; users can handle various communications very easily.“Upgrading the Internet”Data Networks: Internet needs to be upgraded, but if done badly, its ability to support innovative, as-yet-unimagined applications could be in jeopardy. Two immediate problems are growing shortage of addresses and need to“scale up”network to cope with faster connections in efficient manner. Both should be done without threatening net’s original”end-to-end”freedom to send anything to anybody, which is vital to innovation. “The Fuel Cell’s Bumpy Ride”Energy: Car companies are betting heavily on fuel cells as engines for tomorrow’s cleaner cars. But how to make and store hydrogen fuel? Considerable detail about why direct hydrogen fuel-cell-only engine is likely to beat hybrids or methanol-powered engines since it is best long-term solution in terms of efficiency, quietness, running costs, low maintenance, power-source for other purposes, constant torque, and of course total lack of emissions other than water. Problems of safety, storage, and supply can be surmounted, particularly if governments give hydrogen strong regulatory support.“The Cutting Edge of Virtual Reality”Medical Technology: Tomorrow’s medicine is about robotics, augmented vision and creating VR images of the body. Descriptions of computer-based tools for medical diagnosis, training, telemedicine, image-guided and minimally invasive surgery. Robotics is set to push forward frontiers of what is humanly possible, even under a microscope, while extremely precise surgery, even on beating hearts, is within reach. Of particular value to Third World, isolated, and those involved in disasters, is imminent provision of many forms of expert health care by(long-distance) electronic contact. Trend is towards global access to medical data/expertise.“The Solid Future of Rapid Prototyping”Manufacturing: RP for “printing”3D model engineering parts direct from designs on computer screen depends on being able to turn out real components made of real materials instead of plastic look-alikes. Instant one-step manufacturing is goal. Describes both(rapidly-moving)leading edge of technology in this field, and major breakthroughs that seem about to create a world in which complex one-off products can be produced quickly and cheaply, and assembly-line’s advantage is put in question. Since cost of making tools no longer figures in equation, economics of mass production will give way to mass customisation. Parts will be made in production runs not of 1m or even a few thousand, but of one.“Machines with Minds of Their Own”Evolvable Hardware: Left to evolve on their own, certain machines can learn to be smarter, surpassing even humans in some of most intellectually demanding tasks. Advances in“evolvable hardware”(EHW): computer/device is given ability:(1)to reconfigure itself(or elements of problem to be solved); and(2)to mimic natural selection(genetic algorithm)by instantaneously testing millions of options(mutations)and selecting best(through one/many cycles -i.e. generations), until it achieves optimum level of performance. Already possible to contain entire genetic algorithm within single microchip, and run thousands of evolutionary trials in fraction of a second. Main use of EHW so far been in designing analogue circuits, since humans have not learned to think, talk, see, etc. digitally. LAST WORD: “Rethinking Machines”: Danny Hillis, computing pioneer and inventor of 10,000-Year Clock, has distinctive perspective on relationship between humanity and technology. Thinks about machines that change way people think about machines. Particularly concerned that:”We are educating people today in the same way we did when there was 1% as much knowledge”; and pitfalls of engineering are becoming apparent:”Engineered systems are brittle, frail and liable to fail in unexpected ways”.

ECONOMIST TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY 23 JUN 01:-Each Quarterly article is listed by full title; then to ensure summaries reflect articles both as accurately and briefly as possible, key introduction sentences and sometimes others are taken almost verbatim, but without surplus words or detailed punctuation. OPINION: “Invention is the Easy Bit”: Beware of new ideas. They can be 25 years ahead of their time, and however good their concept, they may not catch on - or find a profitable demand/use. Example given is peer-to-peer(P2P)Internet, which was understood and theoretically available in 1970s but, without sufficiently powerful computers and fast communication links, could not take off. Articles investigate whether P2P and Grid are now going to do so. MONITOR: “Reality Check for Video-On-Demand”: Unlike television broadcasting, streaming video over Internet gets more uneconomic the bigger the audience. It is estimated that demand for streaming video will rise by 175% a year between now and 2005, when it will account for 45% of all content on Internet, but economics still has to be worked out. Vision of instant access, via Internet, to massive amounts of entertainment is uncertain.“The Smaller the Better”: Practical definition of nanotechnology is anything precisely fabricated with dimensions of less than 100 nanometres, which is millionth of millimetre. Investors have suddenly started taking nanotechnology seriously; whether they have patience to hang around for pay-off is uncertain.“Speed Reading”: New gene-sequencing technique could decode a person’s genome in hours instead of years. Detector would work by running single strand of DNA through tiny hole, and reading off sequence of four nucleotides as they pass through. “Spotting the Potholes”: Video-taping road surfaces to identify subsidence/holes for repair is slow since only single, bulky tape is produced for analysis. Van has been equipped with digital cameras that not only collect more accurate data, but high-definition images are sent directly to engineers’ computers and can be accessed by anyone on network. Automatic system also detects and classifies cracks in road to assist preventive maintenance.“Put On a Coat”: One of problems of transplanting“foreign”but healing cells to help cure a disease(e.g. diabetes)is that body will normally reject them as alien. Second is that polymer coatings applied to cells to enable them to avoid this immune response must be exactly right thickness(which protects but does not interfere)for cells to be effective. Ingenious method of“shrink-wrapping”cells both dodges immune system and produces an exactly-equal coating. “Powered Paper”: Firm has invented battery no thicker than band-aid that can be printed onto paper or packages. It uses well-known and conventional “silk-screen” process. Paper could then play audio clips from CD in its package or display moving images on flexible screen. Linking battery-powered paper to equally-thin temperature sensor could monitor exactly progressive temperatures of wrapped products that could go bad.“The Sound of Shuffling”: Perhaps this is joke, but AT&T claims to be able to reproduce exact sounds - and therefore atmosphere - of live concert or sports event on recording that can be played in home equipped with five speakers. “Extreme Measures”: Thanks to lithography using extreme ultraviolet light, i.e. changing printing process of chips rather than material, chip manufacturers are using EUV lithography to print circuits as thin as 0.03 microns. That would allow building 10-gigahertz microprocessors by 2005 compared with 1.5 gigahertz devices today.“Marching On Its Stomach”: Fed with sugar cubes, gastrobots - robots with stomachs(microbial fuel cells) - make their own energy on the go, allowing them to wander freely. Being free of power socket or of having to carry heavy - and time-limited - power supply, makes it first robot ever to be powered by food alone. Work has begun on robot gathering soil data in orange groves; operates by extracting juice from fallen fruit. TEAM SPIRIT: “Of High Priests and Pragmatists”: In series on managing innovation, essay looks at ways of getting disparate groups to work together more effectively. One group developing environment-friendly solvents found that adding social scientist to team speeded up innovation. REPORTS: “Computing Power on Tap”Computer Networks: Essay argues that after Internet comes Grid. It looks at most ambitious attempt yet to combine millions of computers seamlessly around world in order to make processing power available on demand anywhere, rather like electrical power.“Profit From Peer-To-Peer” Computer Networks: Despite Napster’s continuing travails, number of fledgling firms are out to sell idea of peer-to-peer computing to large enterprises. Essay also looks at risks associated with P2P - not a single concept, but array of technologies.“Batteries Not Included”Portable Power: Weekly has shown special interest in fuel cells for vehicles. This reports that miniature fuel cells, refilled like cigarette lighters, could soon be replacing batteries in mobile phones, laptops and other gizmos.“Beyond Cruise Control”Transport: Automated driving aids, soon fitted to cars, will warn drivers of possible accidents. May even help them actively to avoid crashes. Main problem is that all systems under development are based on simple highway environment; none is yet suited for use on complex urban roads.“Sleeping Policemen”: Intelligent speed adaptation(ISA) - technology for forcing driver to observe speed limit - works by building into car a digital map marked with local speed restrictions. Main justification is high cost of speeding; ISA could reduce accidents by 40% and fatal ones by nearly 60%.“Look, No Hands”: Fully automated rail systems are feasible, and forms already exist. Automated road vehicles would need their own lanes and some kind of infrastructure for guidance. Current trials include stretches of highway with instruments embedded in their surface to guide vehicles via sensors to on-board autopilots.“The New Organ-Grinders”Bio-Engineering: With genetic cures for killer diseases still years away, bio-engineers are developing range of mechanical organs to replace worn-out parts of human body. Treating people with heart disease, liver complaints or diabetes could soon become like repairing a car, while avoiding political/scientific challenges posed by cloning. Companies are substituting blood and tissue with metals, chemicals and plastics. Every part of body is being studied to see how it can be replicated artificially or augmented in some way.“Patently Absurd?”Intellectual Property: Patents that protect not only inventions but also ways of distributing and selling them are causing an uproar. Essay probes whether more traditional patents - granted for novel, non-obvious and useful - are any better at promoting innovation, and concludes they do not in cases of complex, patent-loaded industries. Recommends patent authorities find greater variety of tools for protecting intellectual property than at present.LAST WORD:“Godfather of the Pill”Carl Djerassi: 50 years since [he] invented contraceptive pill, and changed human behaviour for good. Not stood still since, scientifically or socially. Latest work - a play:”Oxygen”- examines nature of achievements and accolades, but his invention has pushed him to ponder social and ethical aspects of technology.

ECONOMIST TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY 22 SEP 01:-Each Quarterly article is listed by full title; then to ensure summaries reflect articles both as accurately and briefly as possible, key introduction sentences and sometimes others are taken almost verbatim, but without surplus words or detailed punctuation. OPINION:“The Crashing of Gears”:For two centuries, each new surge of economic activity has come in three distinct phases. First phase was heady upswing as successful participants enjoyed fat margins, set standards, killed off weaker rivals and established themselves as leaders of pack. Then came second phase as market matured and dominant firms hunkered down for slower growth. Final phase, short and sharp decline, occurred when whole new set of technologies started jostling for attention of investors. World economy has just come to end of first phase of present cycle, and is now starting slower second phase. MONITOR:“Tapping the Ether”:Wireless networking may be fast, cheap and convenient, but is wide open to anybody who wants to eavesdrop.“How to See Through Walls”: Transparent concrete is encouraging architects to rethink how they design buildings. Article describes both advantages and disadvantages.“Visionary Implant”: Although still early days, first attempts to make an artificial retina - to restore sight to blind - look remarkably promising. Number of groups trying to perfect an‘electric retina’.“Seeing is Believing”: By doubling resolution of existing liquid-crystal displays(LCDs) IBM has created monitor which, when viewed from 18 inches away or farther, shows images that human eye finds indistinguishable from real thing. Article suggests that hospitals and engineers will benefit most since able to extract more accurate data.“‘Instant-on’ Magnetically”: Race is on to build non-volatile high-speed memories that will allow computers to be turned on and off like televisions. Magnetic RAM(MRAM)seems poised to become non-volatile technology of choice.“More Than Skin Deep”: Absorbing drugs gently through skin beats injecting, swallowing or sniffing them.“Transdermal” technology or“the patch”offers several advantages described, and is growing rapidly in popularity(e.g. to limit tobacco consumption).“Safe Keeping”: Digital archival repositories(DARS)as way of protecting digital information from corruption or destruction would involve widely distributed network of independent repositories, connected via Internet, that can make copies of each digital object stored in one another’s archive and then spread them around Napster-style to ensure they are preserved”.“No Hiding Place for Anyone”: Embedded in bank notes or designer labels, Hitachi’s ‘mu-chip’ can beep out owner’s location and details to marketers and thieves alike. Critics argue it may constitute direct infringement of personal privacy. TEAM SPIRIT:“Agility Counts”:In series on managing innovation, essay looks at agile programming: culmination of many faddish ideas for producing software more efficiently. Most popular methodology uses techniques such as pair programming, in which one person programs while partner checks result for bugs and makes sure only essential code is produced. REPORTS: “A Lingua Franca for the Internet”Programming: Far from producing universal programming language, Internet is encouraging proliferation of new ones. Whichever language, Java or C#, wins battle for hearts and minds of programmers, business of writing software is becoming steadily easier. On horizon, programming languages face daunting challenge of helping to turn Internet into more intelligent place with opportunity for languages designed with artificial intelligence specifically in mind. “A Bigger Role for Small Satellites”Space Technology: Certain types of satellites have started to shrink in size, cost and development time, making it possible for communities, companies, schools, hospitals -and, perhaps one day, even individuals - to have own satellite.“Skyscrapers in the Sky”: Communications satellites will continue to get bigger in order to generate more electrical power on board to transmit an ever-increasing number of communications and broadcasting channels and increase signal strength on ground. Geo-synchronous orbits are scarce and expensive, so geo-synchronous satellites are also going to carry ever more components.“To Infinity and Beyond”: Because they cannot afford own rockets, small satellites have to hitch ride on commercial launchers. Suitably packed together using standardised racking system, bunches of small satellites might even begin to seem attractive primary payloads. “Machines With a Human Touch”Artificial Intelligence: Instead of using ones and zeros of digital electronics to simulate way brain functions, ‘neuromorphic’ engineering relies on nature’s biological short-cuts to make robots that are smaller, smarter and vastly more energy-efficient. Engineers look at brain structures such as retina and cortex, and then devise chips that contain neurons and primitive rendition of brain chemistry. “Short-cuts”reflect fact that over time evolution allowed nature to come up with some extremely efficient ways of extracting information from environment. “List Makers Take Control” Software: Essay looks at how/why electronic directories are essential for keeping and sharing information. Directories are basis of Internet and of such popular online services as auctions, file swapping and instant messaging. Now Microsoft is working on mother of all directories: its Passport online authentication utility and Hailstorm services. These could become master list of identities of most net users, as well as repository of all kinds of personal information. Privacy advocates complain that Microsoft is trying to put itself in middle of all transactions on Internet. “Drugs Ex Machina”Pharmaceuticals: Thanks to automation, miniaturisation and information technology, drugs companies are at last preparing to reap rewards of genomics, result of sequencing human genome(i.e. to work out protein blueprint for building human being). Unfortunately, deluge of data has yet to spur any dramatic increase in number of new drugs discovered. Chemists still need detailed information on how protein in question interacts with compound under study. Gathering this information is goal that large pharmaceutical laboratories around world have now set themselves. To reap rewards of genomics, pharmaceutical firms are having to computerise and automate process of drug discovery. LAST WORD:“An Incurable Itch”: Carver Mead led to invention of new electronic devices, novel approaches to circuit design/systems in mimic of variety of biological functions. Pushed electronics industry towards miniaturisation. Some call him one of founding fathers of information technology.

ECONOMIST TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY 08 DEC 01:-Each Quarterly article is listed by full title; then to ensure summaries reflect articles both as accurately and briefly as possible, key introduction sentences and sometimes others are taken almost verbatim, but without surplus words or detailed punctuation. OPINION: “The Loss of Diversity”: The broad diversity of technological design appears to be narrowing. Is innovation running out of big ideas to exploit? Discuss. MONITOR: "No Laughing Matter" Are the new crop of game consoles more - or, indeed, a good deal less - than they are made out to be? “Unzipping the Server”: A new standard called Infifiband promises to clear the communication bottleneck among servers. Will it catch on fast enough to save computer makers that are slugging it out at the lower end of the market? “Quiet Revolution on the Track”: Designing F1 racing cars has little to offer makers of family saloons. But it is helping to create a whole new approach to solving problems in engineering design. “Machines That Answer Back”: Software for analysing e-mail inquiries from customers and replying automatically is doing a surprisingly good job. “Sound Waves Beat the Knife”: Internal bleeding is dangerous and difficult to treat. A new ultrasound technique promises not only to solve such problems, but also to reduce the need for invasive surgery when treating tumours. “Turn the Handle and Talk”: Wind-up chargers are not only for sub-Saharan villages.Mobile-phone users in California could find them useful too.DIALOGUE:“The Same - Only More So?”: In the last issue, we asked readers what technologies they thought would propel the next big surge in economic activity. The most popular view was that they will still be IT-based. REPORTS: “Just Talk to Me”Speech Recognition: At long last, speech is becoming an important interface between man and machine. In the process, it is helping to slash costs in business, create new services on the Internet, and make cars a lot safer and easier to drive. "Without speech recognition, people are going to have a hard time coping with the demands that the information society is placing on them'. 'Over the next few years, it is in the motor car, not on the telephone, that speech recognition may make its biggest impact'.“Learning the Meaning”: Ability to generate realistic speech from text stored in a computer will be crucial.“Into Deeper Water”Oil Exploitation: The world's apparently unquenchable thirst for oil is fuelling a boom in exotic kinds of exploration technology for use in much deeper waters. 'On one recent day, the crew drilled an elaborate multi-directional well that twisted and turned its way to a giant pocket of oil 28,000 feet away'. 'Thanks largely to technological advances, the average "finding and development" cost of oil has fallen to a third of the $20 a barrel it was'. CASE HISTORY:“The Art of the Quantum Leap”Magnetic Storage: The innovation of the 'giant magneto-resistive' head - the breakthrough that boosted the capacity of hard-drives from a few gigabytes to 100 gigabytes and more - came from chance observation, basic research and a vast, painstaking search for the right materials. This case history points to the need for companies to build close ties between their research laboratories and product development divisions. 'The GMR head required an innovative application of innovative science to make a device that overcame the limits of an existing technology'. REPORTS:“The Heart of the Matter”In Silico Biology: Better tools, and more data, mean that creating virtual organs by computer is no longer a pipe-dream. How will this help the drug industry? 'Computer modelling may be standard practice in designing an aircraft or studying planetary motion, but it is only now taking off in physiology'. 'Though a mammoth task, many of the mathematical tools, modelling tricks and instruments used for the virtual heart can be used on other organs'. “Mightier Than the Pen?”Data Input: With 5,000 years of continuous development and billions of satisfied customers to its credit, the pen may not seem like a product in need of radical improvement. Yet plans are afoot to overhaul the humble writing instrument completely. 'Many believe the pen is a reactionary holdout and needs to be networked if it is to serve any useful purpose in today's interconnected world'. “Designer Plastics” Catalysts: After years of development, a new breed of catalysts called metallocenes is shaking up the plastics business, rapidly penetrating commodity markets and promising a new age of cheap designed plastics. Are they the revolution proponents claim? 'Plastics companies have begun licensing the technology en masse, with plans to begin producing metallocene-based plastics on a larger scale'. 'Metallocene-based packaging can be tailored to breathe at a rate to match the respiration of the food it is storing, with increased strength to boot'. LAST WORD:“Grassroots Innovator”: Richard Jefferson wants to change the face of agriculture, by putting innovation back into the hands of farmers. 'Apomixis technology could save cassava and potato growers as much as $3.2 billion a year'.

ECONOMIST TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY 16 MAR 02:-Each Quarterly article is listed by full title; then to ensure summaries reflect articles both as accurately and briefly as possible, key introduction sentences and sometimes others are taken almost verbatim, but without surplus words or detailed punctuation. OPINION:“A Lemon Law for Software”: If Microsoft made cars instead of computer programs, product-liability suits might by now have driven it out of business. Should software makers be made more accountable for damage caused by faulty programs? MONITOR:“Sun Stroke”: Sun Microsystems - the largest maker of servers for computer networks - is about to turn its mantra, 'The Network is the Computer', inside out. Will the new vision relegate centralised servers to the scrap heap? "Power Play Over Fuel Cells": Government and industry have joined forces in California to thrust stationary fuel cells into the public eye and onto the grid. “Plug and Play at Home”: Having learned from their previous mistakes, firms making computer networks that piggy-back on a building's electrical wiring are due to re-enter the home networking business with a vengeance. “Soft as Silk, Strong as Steel”: Spider silk is a far better engineering material than conventional silk, but harvesting it commercially has been a problem until now.“Chips that See in Colour”: A new kind of optical chip that detects colours directly is set to transform the digital camera business. “Flap Over Hot Chips”: Piezoelectric fans could play an important role in cooling future generations of laptops, mobile phones and other gizmos. DIALOGUE:“Cassandras Not Needed”: In the previous issue, readers were asked whether technology was losing its flair for diversity of design. The majority expressed no such qualms. REPORTS: "Heavenly Music" Digital Radio: A handful of satellite start-ups are hoping to deliver global digital audio to the last analogue holdout: radio. Meanwhile, conventional AM and FM broadcasters are responding with their own digital scheme. 'Two companies with a little imagination and a lot of cash snapped up chunks of the spectrum in the newly available S-band'. 'Operators of traditional radio stations in US claim not to be worried about the satellite invasion, saying there is plenty of advertising to go round'. 'To station owners, the advantage of IBOC is that it does not require new transmitters or additional licences. Stations can switch in three days". "AI By Another Name" Computing: After years in the wilderness, the term 'artificial intelligence' seems poised to make a comeback. 'HAL encapsulated the optimism of the 1960s that intelligent computers would be widespread by 2001'. CASE HISTORY: "Accuracy is Addictive" Global Positioning: The invention of GPS married ideas from quantum mechanics and relativity with the need to track Russian satellites. Most remarkable of all, the concept - now the basis of a $12 billion industry - was put yogether over a single weekend. 'Remarkably, GPS calls into play Einstein's theories of special and general relativity - among the most esoteric theories of physics'. REPORTS: "Tongues of the WEB" Machine Translation: With its proliferating number of tongues, the Internet is giving MT - the use of computers to translate languages - a much needed shot in the arm. 'The Internet changes the game for machine translation: users want speed, rather than quality, and are more likely to accept poor results'. 'Rather than seeing MT as a product they can simply buy off the shelf, large firms are now realising that MT systems must be customised'. "The Engines of Lilliput" Micromachines: Miniature engines and electricity generators are being carved out of silicon with the help of chip-making tools. Far from being toys, these micromachines have real work to do in industry and defence. 'There is no escaping the fact that, ultimately, micromachines will have to have microengines to drive them'. LAST WORD: "Mach 1 at Microsoft": Times are not good for industrial research centres, especially in computing and telecoms. Rick Rashid runs one of the few corporate laboratories that is still expanding. But despite its money, talent and experience, can Microsoft Research live up to expectations? 'In the early days, luring talented researchers to Microsoft was unquestionably a challenge'.

ECONOMIST TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY 22 JUN 02:-Each Quarterly article is listed by full title; then to ensure summaries reflect articles both as accurately and briefly as possible, key introduction sentences and sometimes others are taken almost verbatim, but without surplus words or detailed punctuation. OPINION: "Picking Winners": Your suggestions, please, for recent innovations that are changing the world. On 18 Sep 02, The Economist will launch its own Innovation Awards scheme with a ceremony... to announce the winners in each of five categories: bioscience, communications, computing, energy and environment, and nanotechnology. MONITOR: "Instant Messaging Joins the Firm": With the immediacy of the telephone and the written record of e-mail, instant messaging is no longer just a handy way of chatting online. It is fast becoming a secure and flexible tool for business. "Solar Cells Go Organic": Although they are not particularly efficient, plastic cells that are flexible enough to be sprayed on roofs or printed on clothes look like being remarkably cheap. "Nature's Way of Plating": Some obscure thin-film chemistry from the 1960s is making a comeback as a way of putting pure coats of practically anything on to anything. "Making the Connection": As the voltage used in modern chips falls and the power they consume soars, getting large currents on and off devices is becoming a headache. "Quantum Leap for Medicine": Quantum effects used in devices called SQUIDS are providing a powerful new tool for diagnosing ailments from the faint magnetic signatures they create. "More Power to the Thumb": There has to be a better way of typing text mesages on cell phones. There is, but mobile operators are reluctant to introduce it. "ARMs Around the World": One of the most ubiquitous microprocessor designs is also one of the least well-known - but not for much longer. DIALOGUE: "Buggy Whipped": In previous issue, readers were asked whether a 'lemon law' was needed for software. Most agreed that commercial software was far too buggy, but that product-liability laws were not the answer. REPORTS: "Watch This Airspace" Wireless Telecoms: Four disruptive technologies are emerging that promise to render not only the next wave of so-called 3G wireless networks irrelevant, but possibly even their 4G successors. 'Compared with 3G, Mark Goldburg of ArrayComm, a smart-antenna maker in San Diego, California, reckons its i-Burst is about 40 times more efficient'. 'SkyPilot's rooftop units use smart antennas to beam data back and forth, enabling frequencies to be reused more efficiently and increasing capacity'. 'Network operators will still be needed to carry long-haul traffic, but their role could become less (rather than more) important in the future'. "A Match For Flash?" Memory Chips: Four new storage technologies promise cheaper and better alternatives to the pricey memory chips used in most gizmos today. But old memories, especially embedded ones, tend to linger on. 'Where most forms of flash memory can be read from or written to only 1m or so times, ovonics memory can be addressed up to 10 trillion times'. CASE HISTORY: "Hooked On Lithium": Without the lithium-ion battery, introduced a decade ago, portable gadgets - from mobile phones and video cameras to laptops and palmtops - would have remained brick-like objects best left on the desk or at home. But the innovation would have floundered had electro-chemists in US not teamed up with a Japanese firm. REPORTS: "Relishing the Flavour" Food Technology: Researchers are finally solving the mystery of how the brain perceives flavour. The insights are helping food companies predict - and design - new products that people will find hard to resist. 'The liking for sweet and salty substances reflects the wise choises that humanity's ancestors made in a hostile environment'. "Inoculating the Network" Network Security: Keeping networks secure from intruders is becoming one of the hottest bits of the computer business. As companies begin to realise how vulnerable they are, intrusion-detection firms are honing a new set of security tools that mimic the body's immune system. 'Far from being fortresses, most companies today are more like airports, allowing a steady flow of information into and out of the network'. LAST WORD: "Tinkerers' Champion": It is not just libertarians who are concerned about the restrictions caused by US's latest copyright law. Edward Felten, a professor at Princeton University, argues that the 'freedom to ttinker' - the right to understand, repair and modify one's own equipment - is crucial to innovation, and as valuable to society as the freedom of speech. 'We construct the world by interacting with it, not by letting things control us'.

ECONOMIST TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY 21 SEP 02:-Each Quarterly article is listed by full title; then to ensure summaries reflect articles both as accurately and briefly as possible, key introduction sentences and sometimes others are taken almost verbatim, but without surplus words or detailed punctuation. OPINION: "Comeback Kid?": As the locus of innovation moves on to other fields, can information technology ever regain its pre-eminence? MONITOR: "Clean Coal's Uphill Haul": A flurry of activity is reviving clean coal technology. After two decades of unfulfilled promises, will coal come clean this time? "Cutting the Ties That Bind": Better than Bluetooth or WiFi, a robust new wireless scheme promises to deliver multimedia around the office and home without cables or fuss. "Microchips in the Blood": Many of the promised genomic drugs will be impossible to swallow as pills. Instead, they will have to be injected in minute quantities at precise intervals for months at a time. Just syringe-on-a-chip. "Hanging Bytes, Pregnant Bits": Electronic voting has been getting a lot of attention since the Florida recount debacle. But doing away with a paper-based record may not be such a good idea. "Telling Right From Left": Many man-made drugs, unlike natural ones, come in right-handed and left-handed versions. Separating them has been a huge problem - but not for much longer. "Web of Trust": If you like surfing the web, it is probably because you believe people are basically good. "Music to Their Ears": With compact-disc sales plummeting, record companies are rethinking how to distribute copyright music online. This time, the technology for managing digital rights could actually be smart enough to do the job. DIALOGUE: "Thanksgiving For Innovation": Governments worship at the altar of innovation for good reason: it now accounts for more than half of economic growth. In recognition, The Economist has inaugurated a series of Innovation Awards. Winners identified/described in: Bioscience; Computing; Energy and Environment; Nanotechnology; Telecons; and Blue Lasers. REPORTS: "Goodbye to the Video Store": Streaming Video: For too long, 'video-on-demand' has promised more than it could deliver. But new ways are emerging for shrink-wrapping massive video files for delivery over the Internet. 'The consumer-electronics makers cannot afford to lose the battle for the set-top box'. 'Others are counting on MPEG LA's licensing rules to steer content creators towards other codecs'. 'When Napster went down, Morpheus, LimeWire and Audiogalaxy quickly filled its shoes'. CASE HISTORY: "Spitting Image": Engineering insight, dogged determination and a dash of serendipity have made the lowly inkjet imaging device the king of computer printers. 'The race to develop the inkjet printer had a profound cultural impact on both companies'. REPORTS: "Desperately Seeking Lightness" Composites: As they struggle for market leadership, Boeing and Airbus are having to rethink how they make aircraft, and what materials they use. Airbus is taking the bigger gamble, with its new super-jumbo, the 550-seat A380. 'The real pay-off is when the design is rethought to take full advantage of the composite's properties - not just its strength-to-weight superiority'. 'The question now is whether Airbus's technological assertiveness will win it the lion's share of that $1.2 trillion feast'. "Computers That Run Themselves" Computing: For decades, scientists have concentrated on making computers more powerful. Now they want to build systems that are smart enough to look after themselves. 'The complexity of today's computing will, in the not too distant future, outgrow the human ability to manage it'. LAST WORD: "The Other Bill": For a quarter of a century, Bill Joy - 'Edison of the Internet' - has envisaged a world in which countless devices are wired together. Now he is trying to turn that vision into a reality, but not without warning of the risks to society. 'As technology becomes ever more accessible to ever more people, they become ever more reliant upon it'.

ECONOMIST TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY 14 DEC 02:-Each Quarterly article is listed by full title; then to ensure summaries reflect articles both as accurately and briefly as possible, key introduction sentences and sometimes others are taken almost verbatim, but without surplus words or detailed punctuation. OPINION: "Innovations's Golden Goose": The reforms that unleashed US innovation in the 1980s, and were emulated widely around the world, are under attack at home.[Relevant legislation unlocked all the inventions and discoveries that had been made in US laboratories with the help of taxpayers' money.] MONITOR: "Brave New World of Farmaceuticals": A flood of new medicines will hit the market if producing biopharmaceuticals in animals rather than reaction vessels can be made to work better. "Through a Glass Deeply": Cheap 3D displays will be coming to a computer near you next year. Unfortunately, little software will be available to take full advantage of their stunning depth of field. "Symphony For Local Radio": Listeners could be receiving AM and FM radio with CD-quality sound sooner than even most broadcasters had expected. "Uncommon Protection": How to license Internet copying. "Images From a Blurred World": Wavefront coding produces pin-sharp images of microscopic objects, where slightest variation in focus creates only a blur. "Unretouched By Human Hand": The need to protect photographic images from being tampered with is finally being acknowledged. "Battle of the Blues": As if there were not enough recordable DVD standards, two new ones, based on the blue laser, offer as big an increase in storage as the DVD did over the CD. "A Quart into a Pint Pot": With its tiny screen, surfing the web with a mobile phone has been maddening. A clever new web browser could change all that."Shaken Not Stirred": The merits of passive exercise[-lying on a special motion platform.] "Dotty Idea For Telecoms?": Quantum-dot lasers could have a bright future in optical networks - once the global glut of unused fibre is finally illuminated. DIALOGUE: "Gridlock On the Superhighway": By choosing the wrong technology, the new local carriers that piled into the telecoms business after deregulation skewered themselves, and set universal broadband access to the Internet back by years. REPORTS: "The Race to Computerise Biology" Bioinformatics: In life-sciences establishments around the world, the laboratory rat is giving way to the computer mouse - as computing joins forces with biology to create a bioinformatics market that is expected to be worth nearly $40 billion within three years. 'In just a few years, gene chips have gone from experimental novelties to tools of the trade'. 'A big risk of computer modelling and other tools is to rely too much on them'. "Move Over, Silicon" Semiconductors: Chip makers are looking for ways to make electronic devices out of cheap plastic instead of pricey silicon. Success could lead to a new market for flexible displays and memories that can be printed on anything - ushering in an age of disposable computing. 'If scaled up, a square centimetre of such material could store a staggering 6.4 gigabits'. CASE HISTORY: "Trapeze Artists": Intelligent design and clever marketing have made Adobe the king of online documents. But mistakes made along the way were just as important. 'The key was to separate Acrobat Reader from the full version of Acrobat - and to give it away'. REPORTS: "The Power of Voice" Telecoms: Despite telecoms' current woes, innovation has not stopped. Ironically, it could be developments in telephone services - dismissed by broadband newcomers as a loss-leader - that revitalises the struggling industry. 'This time, the voice applications are radically different from those dismissed a few years ago'. "Bespoke Chips for the Common Man" Semiconductors: Using custom chips that do one or two things spectacularly, rather than lots of things averagely, has been a luxury for those needing performance at any price. Now chips that can be rewired in an instant promise to bring the benefits of customisation to the mass market. 'Making a mistake in a custom chip's design may mean missing a market opportunity'. LAST WORD: "A Drug of One's Own": For three decades, Ronald Levy has been seeking ways to use the body's immune system to fight cancer - much as it does the common cold. His goal has been to create 'personalised drugs', first in the form of antibodies and now as vaccines, capable of destroying a patient's actual malignancy. 'Dr Lavy proved that his antibodies worked, but the cost of making them was prohibitive'.

ECONOMIST TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY 15 MAR 03:-Each Quarterly article is listed by full title; then to ensure summaries reflect articles both as accurately and briefly as possible, key introduction sentences and sometimes others are taken almost verbatim, but without surplus words or detailed punctuation. OPINION: "Launching Telecoms II": New wireless technologies that render bandwidth irrelevant could kick-start a revolution in communications bigger than the internet. MONITOR: "Unfixing Fixed Wireless": New wireless technologies for delivering broadband to homes are about to challenge DSL and cable. "Turnaround for Wind Power": For wind power to become a significant source of energy, it must be able to generate electricity at a cost that is competitive. One way to do this is to make cheaper windmills with the fan placed downwind from the support pole. "Flu Shots for Computers": How to make computers fight worms and viruses as humans do - by relying on their immune systems. "Will Parallel Chips Pay Off?": With more transistors on a chip than they know what to do with, some semiconductor firms are adopting the parallel-processing approach of supercomputers. "A Bug's Life for Robots": Creepie-crawlie robots are learning to venture where wheeled machines stumble and humans fear to tread. "Waste Not, Want Not": It is economics, not technology, that is holding back the recycling of electronic waste. The European Union has a plan to change that. REPORTS: "The Quest for the Protein Chip" Biotechnology: Despite their complexity, can protein biochips do for proteomics what DNA microarrays did for genetics? "Array designers are now turning out chips that are capable of profiling thousands of proteins at a time'. 'The pay-off will be huge. Protein microarrays should be 10 to 100 times more useful than gene chips'. "The Revenge of Geography" The Internet: It was naive to imagine that the global reach of the internet would make geography irrelevant. Wireline and wireless technologies have bound the virtual and physical worlds closer than ever. 'While the notion of war-chalking has gained much attention, hardly anybody actually does it'. 'A mobile device linking the real and virtual worlds could change your perception of your surroundings'. CASE HISTORY: "Beyond the Nanohype": Nanotechnology is still buoyed more by hype than actual pay-off. Two big issues need to be addressed before nanotech - like biotech a couple of decades before - can really begin to earn its keep. REPORTS: "Bugs as Catalysts" Chemical Engineering: Industry is having a hard time finding new catalysts to supercharge many of today's complex reactions. So researchers are scouring the world for bacteria and fungi that can do the job biologically. 'Although several thousand enzymes are known, the number industry has to work with is not that large'. "Feeling the Heat" Semiconductors: Thermal problems caused by the latest chipmaking processes could seriously limit the pace of development of the semiconductor industry itself. 'The semiconductor industry is too big - and too smart - to let such problems get in its way'. "Little Squirt": To stop chips from frying themselves, inkjet heads - borrowed from printers and plotters - squirt cooling fluid directly on to the chip's surface. LAST WORD: "The Wizard of Small Things": Richard Smalley is on a (some say hopeless) mission to harness nanotechnology to solve the world's energy problem.

ECONOMIST TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY 21 JUN 03:-Each Quarterly article is listed by full title; then to ensure summaries reflect articles both as accurately and briefly as possible, key introduction sentences and sometimes others are taken almost verbatim, but without surplus words or detailed punctuation. OPINION: "Innovation By Numbers": Suggestions requested for innovations that have propelled enterprises to the forefront of their fields over the past decade (four categories: biotech, computing, energy/environment, and telecoms). MONITOR: "Coming Soon to a Laptop Near You": After years of patient development, light-emitting diodes made from plastics rather than semiconductors are poised to take on the venerable liquid-crystal display. "Feeling the Danger": Coatings made from a new class of nanomaterials can detect when their underlying structures are about to fail and cause an accident. "Storing e-Text for Centuries": Digital preservation means a whole lot more than merely making lots of back-up copies. "Bite Out of Breast Cancer": A probe based on technology developed for the Mars mission promises to be the biggest boon yet in checking for breast cancer. "The Smoother, the Faster": By tweaking the internet's software foundations, data-transmission speeds for demanding users have been boosted threefold."Bulk Chemicals by the Drop": Bigger does not always mean better in chemical plant. Doing chemistry on a microscale can be quicker, cheaper and safer. "Speed Reading the Book of Life": An electronic prism for sorting segments of DNA does in seconds what used to take days. "Getting Cars to Talk Back": Remote diagnostics allow service centre to phone or e-mail to tell owner whether problem(s) serious enough to need immediate attention. "More Hit, Less Miss for Biotech": Can biotech be made as predictable as physics? A unique modelling tool is bringing some sorely needed discipline to the business. "Defining Nanotubes": Searching for a standard way to characterise the electrical conductivity of carbon nanotubes - microscopic, superstrong cylinders of carbon atoms which might one day replace the silicon in semiconductors. REPORTS: "Building a Better Bug-Trap" Software: People who write it are human first and programmers only second - in short, they make mistakes, lots of them. Can software help them write better software? 'It takes a whole page of algebra to prove that a three-line program works properly'. 'Expecting programmers to change their behaviour overnight is unrealistic'. "Spare Parts for the Brain" Bioengineering: Plugging microchips directly into the brain is no longer science fiction. The technology promises treatments for numerous brain disorders, including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases as well as epilepsy. 'In the future, robots with simulated brain circuits might help us to identify and simulate new forms of treatment for damaged brains'. CASE HISTORY: "Spread Betting": How code-division multiple access (CDMA) technology emerged as the world standard for mobile phones. 'What seems impossibly complex today may well seem simple tomorrow - thanks to the relentless advance of Moore's law'. "Player-Piano Pioneer": Hedy Lamarr, Hollywood actress, also played an unlikely off-screen role as a technological pioneer, co-inventing in the 1940s an early incarnation of spread-spectrum wireless technology. REPORTS: "Grokking the Infoviz" Software: Information visualisation is about to go mainstream. While it may not be the killer application some expect 'infoviz' is going to help users to manipulate data in wholly new ways. 'Users often react enthusiastically when they first see new visualisation tools, but then turn wary'. "The Sentient Office Is Coming" Computing: Though still in their infancy, sentient computing systems are likely to be everywhere within five years - listening and watching, and ready to anticipate their users' every need. 'Like it or not, the future is Big Brother - so let's talk about it'. LAST WORD: "Alchemist at Large": People poke fun at alchemists. 'They're underrated', says Marvin Cohen. Easy for him to say so - he just might be the real McCoy. 'Because the idea sounded so outrageous, no-one was interested in testing it'.

ECONOMIST TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY 06 SEP 03:-Each Quarterly article is listed by full title; then to ensure summaries reflect articles both as accurately and briefly as possible, key introduction sentences and sometimes others are taken almost verbatim, but without surplus words or detailed punctuation. OPINION: "Expect the Unexpected": Innovators who keep their eyes open for unexpected results - and quickly take advantage of them - reap the biggest awards. MONITOR: "Supercharging the Grid": One of the bright spots on US's creaky old power grid is an experimental section in upstate New York, where some superconducting cables are about to be tested commercially. "Voltage Ahoy": Superconducting power systems are still about five times too weak to generate the 25,000-50,000hp required to run a ship. An all-electric ship would be built around the concept of 'power electronic building blocks' - effectively, a semi-conductor-based power controller that is programable. "Falling, Flailing, Virtual Doll": Unlike the rag dolls thrown lifelessly from windows on film sets, virtual stuntmen flail and stagger just like real people. "Solar Cells Come Down To Earth": Solar cells are still ten times too expensive for use in housing. Recently developed nanorod composites could change that. "Ups and Downs of Chip Design": Wiring chips on the diagonal would remove many of the up and down detours that connections have to make today. "Nanomaterials Move Up a Notch": Novel materials, made by coaxing nanoparticles to assemble themselves into three-dimensional patterns, offer intruguing magnetic and optical properties. "Soul of a Newer Machine": The first of IBM's 'Blue Gene' supercomputers is finally taking shape. "A Web Address for Every Car?": Will the car - that mainstay of the industrial age - become a vehicle for the information age as well? "Fountain of Truth?": An ambitious new text-analysis system mines the web for hidden trends. "Who Watches the Watchers?": With more and more video cameras remotely watching public and private spaces, clever automation is needed to keep an eye on things. "Uncrackable Beams of Light": Quantum cryptography - hailed by theoreticians as the ultimate of uncrackable codes - is finally going commercial. "More Light Than Heat": Need glass that lets in light but keeps out heat. Developed is a sheet of plastic sandwiched between plates of glass and doped with nanoparticles of lanthanum hexaboride. REPORTS: "Banking On the Technology Cycle" Information Technology: Once the most aggressive users of IT, financial institutions have learned to make do with less. But few can go on cost-cutting indefinitely. Computer- and telecoms-makers could soon be feasting again. 'US financial services firms are no longer the innovators they once were'. 'Few things in technology have promised so much and delivered so little as CRM software'. "Battle for the Big Screen" Flat Panel Displays: Innovations in design and manufacture of liquid-crystal displays have increased screen sizes and reduced costs dramatically. Now the LCD is poised to challenge the king of the big screens, the plasma display. 'Since 1994, engineers have pushed the limit of LCD substrates to more than six feet'. CASE HISTORY: "Out of the Ether": An unfinished doctoral thesis and a chance encounter with an engineering intern gave Ethernet's inventor the inspiration for the popular computer network. But a lot of lobbying, brainstorming and clever marketing were needed to turn it into a global standard. 'The PC's explosive growth during the 1980s dragged Ethernet along with it'. REPORTS: "We Are What We Eat" Nutrition: Studies linking how genes and diet interact are helping food companies design products capable of protecting people prone to certain diseases. 'Some healthy people may increase their risk of heart disease with an extremely low fat/high carbohydrate diet'. "Reinventing Europe" Innovation: With so much of its industrial base ageing and resistant to change, how can Europe close the research and development gap with US? 'Companies need to separate their perception of the value of an idea from the way it is presented'. 'Some universities are more interested in making it easy to get their own IP into the marketplace'. LAST WORD: "Embryonic Man": Irving Weissman believes embryonic stem cells will usher in a second biotech revolution, offering a whole new armoury of medicines - just as equally controversial recombinant DNA did when it sparked the first biotech revolution a couple of decades ago. 'Who do we care about more - a speck of cells or a grown human being suffering from a life-threatening or debilitating illness?'

ECONOMIST TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY 06 DEC 03:-Each Quarterly article is listed by full title; then to ensure summaries reflect articles both as accurately and briefly as possible, key introduction sentences and sometimes others are taken almost verbatim, but without surplus words or detailed punctuation. MONITOR: "Open Source's Local Heroes" Software: If the commercial sort does not speak your language, open-source software may well do so instead. "A Squirt in the Eye" Retinal Implants: Technology borrowed from inkjet printing could help people blinded by retina-wasting diseases. "Computers that Read Your Mind" Computing: Researchers have developed a promising new way to control computers by thought alone. "The Internet, On Wheels" Networking: New initiatives are extending the range of the internet in an unusual way - by road. "Thigh, Robot" Medical Devices: Today's mobility aid could soon be replaced by smarter, more active ones. "How To Bake the Perfect Chip" Semiconductors: A new rack for baking silicon chips keeps them clean and improves productivity. "Measuring the Data Mountain": Almost all new information (92%) is stored on magnetic media, primarily hard disks. Overall, the amount of information being produced is growing by 30% a year. "Not To Be Sniffed At" Chemical Sensors: When it comes to detecting chemical weapons, chopping molecules up with a laser may make them easier to find. "Windows With a Grand Vision" Telecommunications: An Austrian firm has a wacky plan to install pan-European virtual reality. "A Kinder, Gentler Frankenfood" Genetic Modification: Might a clever technological twist help to make GM foods more widely acceptable? "Out of Sight" Materials: A transparent magnet could be used to make new kinds of computer memories and displays. "And the Winners Were..." Innovation Awards: Annual Economist prizes recognise innovators in technology categories. Year's winners: Bioscience: Raymond Damadian - nuclear magnetic resonance. Computing: Tim Berners-Lee - world wide web. Telecoms: Paul Baran - packet switching. Energy: Geoffrey Ballard - fuel cells. No Boundaries: Ronald Coase - private property rights over spectrum. RATIONAL CONSUMER: "Changing the Game" Consumer Electronics: Economist's new column on the business and technology of consumer devices looks at the changing dynamics of the video-gaming industry. REPORTS: "Prepare to be Scanned" Biometrics: High-tech security systems that rely on detailed measurements of the human body, known as biometrics, are taking off. But should they be? 'Biometrics still do not work well enough for many applications in which they are being deployed'. "Predicting the Micro-Weather" Weather Forecasting: High-resolution weather forecasting is becoming increasingly sophisticated. 'Unlike the government weather services, private firms can concentrate on particular areas - such as cities, ski resorts or oil fields - in finer detail'. CASE HISTORY: "MRI's Inside Story" Medical Imaging: Magnetic-resonance imaging, which provides detailed pictures of people's insides, has proved to be an invaluable medical tool. But exactly who should take credit for its invention is deeply controversial. This case history explains how scientific rivalry and engineering cunning drove the development of a life-saving technology that is now used to perform over 1m scans a week. 'Since the Nobel committee rewards scientific achievement, not good manners, it would have been fairer to include Dr Damadian in the prize'. REPORTS: "How the Radio Changed Its Spots" Smart Radios: Radios capable of switching from one wireless standard to another, with nothing more than a dose of new software, are at last emerging from the laboratory. 'Smart radios could promote innovation by allowing new wireless standards to flourish, while concealing the underlying complexity from users'. "Hard Disks Go Home" Consumer Electronics: Hard disks are starting to appear in household devices, from televisions to stereos, adding novel features and making possible new products. 'Unlike the tapes used in video-recorders, hard disks are "random-access" devices which allow instant jumps from one place to another'. LAST WORD: "The Father of Fractals": Benoit Mandelbrot's unusual multidisciplinary approach led him to an extraordinary discovery. He worries that modern science is now becoming too specialised. 'Science is like a professional sport - an athlete is assessed solely within a narrowly defined event'.

ECONOMIST TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY 13 MAR 04:-Each Quarterly article is listed by full title; then to ensure summaries reflect articles both as accurately and briefly as possible, key introduction sentences and sometimes others are taken almost verbatim, but without surplus words or detailed punctuation. MONITOR: "Robots, Start Your Engines" Innovation: Could a robot race funded by a military-research organisation help to advance the development of autonomous fighting vehicles? "Drivers Wanted" Motoring: It is already possible to build driverless cars, trucks and buses. But practical problems and safety concerns mean they may never be allowed on the roads. "Off With the Pith Helmets" Management: The use of anthropologists in technology firms, once a novelty, has now become commonplace. What changed? "Beyond the Digital Divide" Development: Amid much worthy talk of 'bridging the digital divide', technology firms have realised that fostering the adoption of information technology in the developing world would not just benefit locals, but is in vendors' best interests as well. "Cows Go Wireless" Wireless Technology: The use of electronic tags to track cattle and monitor their health is likely to accelerate following US's first case of mad-cow disease. "Return of the Homebrew Coder" Software: Most modern software is written by huge teams of programers. But there is still room for homebrew coders, at least in some unusual niches. "The Car That Screens Your Calls" Motoring: In-car systems that monitor driver activity, and then screen out unwelcome technological distractions such as phone calls, could improve road safety. "Pressing Pause, Nature's Way" Biotechnology: A trick borrowed from an obscure bacterium could provide a new way to preserve human tissue without refrigeration. "Heart of Glass" Avionics: Computerised instrument panels, already widely used in military aircraft and large passenger jets, are coming to small planes too. "Blogging Goes To Work" Software: Blogging brings to mind self-absorbed teenagers posting their daily musings online. Might the technology be useful in business? RATIONAL CONSUMER: "Digital Cameras Zoom In" Consumer Electronics: Freed by digital technology from te constraints of film, the camera business is being transformed. REPORTS: "Building the Energy Internet" Energy: More and bigger blackouts lie ahead, unless today's dumb electricity grid can be transformed into a smart, responsive and self-healing digital network - in short, an 'energy internet'. 'The technology exists to enable a radical overhaul of the energy industry. Its effects could mirror the internet's impact on communications'. "The Gentle Rise of the Machines" Robotics: The science-fiction dream that robots would one day become a part of everyday life was absurd. Or was it? 'We may be surrounded by more robots than we realise - just not of the type that Hollywood, or robot researchers, led us to expect'. CASE HISTORY: "DNA's Detective Story": The analysis of genetic material, to create DNA fingerprints and profiles, has revolutionised forensic science. But, as this case history explains, having overcome initial doubts over its accuracy, the proponents of DNA analysis now face new and more challenging ethical questions. 'It is more difficult to criticise innovations that have legitimate uses in fighting crime. But such technologies deserve special public scrutiny'. 'While critics succeeded in making it clear that DNA testing was not foolproof, such scrutiny improved it by helping to define much-needed standards'. REPORTS: "Fixing the Drugs Pipeline" Drug Design: The more pharmaceutical companies spend on research and development, the less they have to show for it. What has gone wrong - and how can it be fixed? 'Rather than abandoning established practices for new-fangled techniques, these novel approaches to drug discovery combine the best of both'. "Why Speed Isn't Everything" Semiconductors: When it comes to designing chips, making them go faster is no longer the most significant challenge. Is Moore's Law dead? LAST WORD: "Nanotechnology's Unhappy Father": Eric Drexler invented nanotechnology. But what he thought he had invented is not what has come to pass. 'Nanotechnology now refers to something much closer to traditional chemistry than to the Drexleresque world of molecular manufacturing'.

ECONOMIST TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY 12 JUN 04:-Each Quarterly article is listed by full title; then to ensure summaries reflect articles both as accurately and briefly as possible, key introduction sentences and sometimes others are taken almost verbatim, but without surplus words or detailed punctuation. MONITOR:“Shape of Phones To Come”Innovation: What is best shape for mobile handset - and what will devices of future look like? “The End of Your Tether?”Wireless Recharging: Even whizziest mobile phone or laptop needs one last, solitary wire - to recharge its batteries. Or does it? “Background Illumination” Consumer Electronics: Could everyday household furnishings be unobtrusive information-display devices of the future?“Once Again, With Feeling”Sensory Feedback: Adding sense of touch to artificial limbs could improve dexterity and make them feel more like part of the user’s body. “Press ‘Print’ For Body Parts”Rapid Prototyping: Advances in three-dimensional printing are opening up number of new medical applications for technology.“In Dust We Trust”Sensor Networks: They have generated a lot of hype. But might sensor networks, also known as ‘smart dust’, actually be useful?“Inside the Mind of the Consumer”Neuro-Marketing: Could brain-scanning technology provide accurate way to assess appeal of new products and effectiveness of advertising?“A Long Road Ahead of It”Transport It was supposed to revolutionise transport and change world. How is Segway doing?“A Sandwich That Packs a Punch”Materials: Novel manufacturing technique has produced metal with flexibility of rubber, which could have wide range of uses.“From Genetic Code To Security Code”Security Technology: Tiny DNA fragments can function as invisible embedded security tags. RATIONAL CONSUMER:“The Meaning of iPod”Consumer Electronics: How Apple’s iPod music-player and its imitators are changing way music is consumed. REPORTS:“An Open-Source Shot in the Arm”Medicine: The open-source model is good way to produce software, as example of Linux shows. Could same collaborative approach now revitalise medical research too? “We are so used to patents that we forgot ways to discover drugs in public domain, and we need to rediscover them”. What does it mean to apply term ‘open source’ in fields outside software development, which do not use ‘source code’ as term of art?“A Golden Vein”Computing: Analysis of customer information, better known as ‘data mining’, is finally delivering on its promises - and expanding into some promising new areas. As cost of storage plummets and power of analytic tools improves, there is little likelihood that enthusiasm for data mining will diminish. CASE HISTORY:“A Brief History of Wi-Fi”Wireless Networking: Few people have kind word to say about telecoms regulators. But success of Wi-Fi shows what can be achieved when regulators and technologists work together. Wi-Fi’s ultimate significance may be that it provides glimpse of what will be possible with future wireless technologies. REPORTS:“The Road Tolls For Thee”Transport: As road tolls become ever more widespread, technology used to collect them is becoming increasingly complex - and could ultimately shape future of motoring. Tolls force today’s users, not future generations, to pay for infrastructure, and could be more equitable and efficient way to manage traffic. Electronic toll-collection schemes and their underlying technologies will probably become platform for all kinds of attractive new services.“Going With the Flow”Materials: Smart-fluid technology is moving from laboratory curiosity to commercial possibility, and is being put to use in cars, bridges and even digital cameras. Using small fluid in place of mechanical parts enhanses control and increases robustness by reducing number of bits that can break. BRAIN SCAN:“Unix’s Founding Fathers”Dennis Ritchie invented C and was one of key members of team behind Unix - two developments that underpin much modern software. It is that interplay between technical and social that gives both C and Unix legendary status.

ECONOMIST TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY 18 SEP 04:-Each Quarterly article is listed by full title; then to ensure summaries reflect articles both as accurately and briefly as possible, key introduction sentences and sometimes others are taken almost verbatim, but without surplus words or detailed punctuation. MONITOR:“Deus ex Machinima?”Computer Graphics: Hollywood movies increasingly resemble computer games. Now a growing band of enthusiasts is using games to make films.“Science Fiction? Not Any More”Communications: Taking its cue from “Star Trek”,an American company has devised a clever new form of voice-driven wireless communicator.“Home Is Where the Future Is”Consumer Electronics: What ever happened to the dream of the smart home - and might it finally have taken a step closer to reality?“Pictures As Passwords”Computer Security: Passwords are a cheap, cheerful and ancient security measure. But might it make more sense to use pictures instead?“Gadgets With a Sporting Chance”Consumer Electronics: New sports equipment, from tennis rackets to running shoes, uses processing power to enhance performance. Is that fair?“Data You Can Virtually Touch”Computer Interfaces: Is haptic technology, which allows users to”feel”virtual objects, finally ready to come out of the laboratory?“Last Gasp of the Fax Machine”Office Technology: That most exasperating piece of equipment, the fax machine, is on its way out. But it will take a very long time to die. “And the Winners Are...”Innovation Awards: Our annual prizes recognize innovators in six technology categories. Here are this year’s winners. The six fields(and the winning activities): bioscience(gene cloning); communications(Wi-Fi); computing(Linux); energy(Prius hybrid car); social and economic innovation(Grameen micro-credit); and special“no boundaries”category(scanning-tunnelling microscope). RATIONAL CONSUMER:“Televisions Go Flat”Consumer Electronics: TVs based on bulky cathode-ray tubes are giving way to flat-panel models. How will the Market evolve? REPORTS:“You’re Hired”Computing: By unloading work on to their customers, firms can grant them more control - and save money in the process.“Supercharging the Brain”Biotechnology: New drugs promise to improve memory and sharpen mental response. Who should be allowed to take them?