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The Galaxy Realtime!

Don't miss our new streaming news feature on the discoveries, people, ideas and events changing the planet. Starting today, we deliver breaking, realtime news and commentary on the environment, space, science, technology and more from Twitter and the web's top sources.

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Your Galaxy team.

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This Week's Sci-Fi Worthy Parasite: The Phorid
Flies

Ah, there's nothing that makes a good horror movie or sci-fi flick like the living dead. So it's no wonder that this little fly makes it on my list of sci-fi-worthy parasites. It's claim to fame is that it eats the brains of ants while turning them into living zombies for a bit before decaptating the unfortunate insect and moving onward. Yeah, they're pretty bad ass. These flies, from the...

[...]

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Help plan an eco village in SW London! Sat 24th
May.

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http://climatechangeaction.blogspot.com/2009/05/help-plan-eco-village-in-sw-londo
n-sat.html

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U.S.A. Still the "800 lb " Innovation Leader

Though global competition is increasing, the United States remains an unmatched leader in innovation across technology sectors, from software to clean tech, according to a survey of worldwide venture capitalists.

The shift in global big power is described in ?ThePost-American World,? by Fareed Zakaria, the editor of NewsweekInternational, who writes that while the U.S. still has many uniqueassets, ?the rise of the rest? ? the Chinas, the India's, the Brazil'sand even smaller nonstate actors ? is creating a world where many othercountries are slowly moving up to America?s level of economic clout andself-assertion, in every realm.

Zakaria zeroes in on Asia, especially India and China, which he usesasproxies for "the rest." "For the first time ever, we are witnessinggenuinely global growth"-China's economy has doubled everyeight years ((did you know that China now exports more goods andservices in a single day than it did in all of 1978?) and India mayhave the world's third largest economy by2040.

?Today, India has 18 all-news channels of its own,? notes Zakaria.?And the perspectives they provide are very different from those youwill get in the Western media. The rest now has the confidence topresent its own narrative, where it is at the center.?

Europe is gaining ground in the fields of life sciences and cleantechnology, while Asia is flexing its muscles in informationtechnology, according to the 2008 Global Venture Capital Survey, whichtapped the opinions of nearly 400 VCs.

But the United States is still considered No. 1, the fourth annual survey found.

"The United States is still the center of innovation," said MarkJensen, national managing partner of consultant Deloitte's VentureCapital Services. "I don't believe we are even close to losing thatstature."

Signaling the "rise of the rest," U.S. venture capitalists areincreasingly backing technology development on foreign soil. Five yearsago, about 25 percent of VCs in the United States said they fundedoverseas ventures, said Jensen, who is based in San Jose. Now 57percent report supporting foreign ventures. However, he believes thatnumber may be low.

"There is a lot of venture capital going to U.S. enterprises that iswinding up in R&D labs in foreign countries, whether that'ssoftware in India or life sciences in China," Jensen said. Sixtypercent of those surveyed ranked China as a challenging country inwhich to do business, and 51 percent said South Korea has a difficultbusiness environment for foreign

Three major factors contribute to the spreading of innovation aroundthe globe: the free flow of ideas across the Internet, the willingnessof U.S. industries to outsource higher value work overseas, fromsemiconductor manufacturing in Taiwan to software development in India,and aggressive policies by foreign governments to encourageentrepreneurship.

"Here, people are confident they can build a company," Jensen said."And that confidence is spreading around the world. They are becomingas confident as we are."

In China, a popular tech business model has been to copy successfulideas in the West and redeploy them for the Chinese market. "That'sgoing to run out of gas," Jensen told the San Jose Mercury News. "Butthey've created these entrepreneurs. They have a significantentrepreneurial community now. I think we are going to see some majorchanges in the kinds of companies we are getting out of China."

Posted by Casey Kazan.

Source links:

http://news.cnet.com/newsblog/?categoryId=9909511

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_9462676

http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_9462676?nclick_check=1

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDailyGalaxyNewsFromPlanetEarthBeyond/~3/FAfcEM5
FuHg/us-the-800-lb-r.html

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U.S.A. Still the "800 lb" Innovation Leader

Though global competition is increasing, the United States remains an unmatched leader in innovation across technology sectors, from software to clean tech, according to a survey of worldwide venture capitalists.

The shift in global big power is described in ?ThePost-American World,? by Fareed Zakaria, the editor of NewsweekInternational, who writes that while the U.S. still has many uniqueassets, ?the rise of the rest? ? the Chinas, the India's, the Brazil'sand even smaller nonstate actors ? is creating a world where many othercountries are slowly moving up to America?s level of economic clout andself-assertion, in every realm.

Zakaria zeroes in on Asia, especially India and China, which he usesasproxies for "the rest." "For the first time ever, we are witnessinggenuinely global growth"-China's economy has doubled everyeight years ((did you know that China now exports more goods andservices in a single day than it did in all of 1978?) and India mayhave the world's third largest economy by2040.

?Today, India has 18 all-news channels of its own,? notes Zakaria.?And the perspectives they provide are very different from those youwill get in the Western media. The rest now has the confidence topresent its own narrative, where it is at the center.?

Europe is gaining ground in the fields of life sciences and cleantechnology, while Asia is flexing its muscles in informationtechnology, according to the 2008 Global Venture Capital Survey, whichtapped the opinions of nearly 400 VCs.

But the United States is still considered No. 1, the fourth annual survey found.

"The United States is still the center of innovation," said MarkJensen, national managing partner of consultant Deloitte's VentureCapital Services. "I don't believe we are even close to losing thatstature."

Signaling the "rise of the rest," U.S. venture capitalists areincreasingly backing technology development on foreign soil. Five yearsago, about 25 percent of VCs in the United States said they fundedoverseas ventures, said Jensen, who is based in San Jose. Now 57percent report supporting foreign ventures. However, he believes thatnumber may be low.

"There is a lot of venture capital going to U.S. enterprises that iswinding up in R&D labs in foreign countries, whether that'ssoftware in India or life sciences in China," Jensen said. Sixtypercent of those surveyed ranked China as a challenging country inwhich to do business, and 51 percent said South Korea has a difficultbusiness environment for foreign

Three major factors contribute to the spreading of innovation aroundthe globe: the free flow of ideas across the Internet, the willingnessof U.S. industries to outsource higher value work overseas, fromsemiconductor manufacturing in Taiwan to software development in India,and aggressive policies by foreign governments to encourageentrepreneurship.

"Here, people are confident they can build a company," Jensen said."And that confidence is spreading around the world. They are becomingas confident as we are."

In China, a popular tech business model has been to copy successfulideas in the West and redeploy them for the Chinese market. "That'sgoing to run out of gas," Jensen told the San Jose Mercury News. "Butthey've created these entrepreneurs. They have a significantentrepreneurial community now. I think we are going to see some majorchanges in the kinds of companies we are getting out of China."

Posted by Casey Kazan.

Source links:

http://news.cnet.com/newsblog/?categoryId=9909511

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_9462676

http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_9462676?nclick_check=1

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDailyGalaxyNewsFromPlanetEarthBeyond/~3/FAfcEM5
FuHg/us-the-800-lb-r.html

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This Week's Sci-Fi Worthy Parasite

Ah, there's nothing that makes a good horror movie or sci-fi flick like the living dead. So it's no wonder that this little fly makes it on my list of sci-fi-worthy parasites. It's claim to fame is that it eats the brains of ants while turning them into living zombies for a bit before decaptating its host and moving onward. Yeah, they're pretty bad ass. These flies, from the genus...

[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/observationsofanerd/~3/4oHOF42z8mk/this-weeks-sci-
fi-worthy-parasite_19.html

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Electronic Evolution: Research Show Robots
Forming Human-like Societies

A lone group of Swiss scientists have been using scattered LEDs, neural circuity, and an army of miniature robots to explore the very basis of good and evil.  No, you aren't reading the back cover of a DVD in the "one dollar each, please get this trash out of our store" bin of your local blockbuster -this research is very real and very, very awesome.

Dario Floreano and his team at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems inthe Swiss Federal Institute of Technology built a swarm of mobilerobots, outfitted with light bulbs and photodetectors.  These were setloose in a zone with illuminated "food" and "poison" zones whichcharged or depleted their batteries.  Their programming was initiallyrandom, so the first generation staggered around the place like bunchof concussed puppies.

At intervals, the robots were shut down and those that had the mostcharge left in their batteries were chosen as "successful", and theirneural programming was combined to produce the next generation of therobots.  These offspring are downloaded into the same mechanical bodiestheir parents inhabited, forming an closed-circuit Buddhist systemwhich might be an extremely efficient method of maintaining a stablepopulation, but will provide a serious headache for any robotphilosophers who might turn up.

Which could happen before long.  Within fifty generations of thiselectronic evolution, co-operative societies of robots had formed -helping each other to find food and avoid poison.  Even more amazing isthe emergence of cheats and martyrs.  Transistorized traitors emergedwhich wrongly identified poison zone as food, luring their trustingbrethren to their doom before scooting off to silently charge in a foodzone - presumably while using a mechanical claw to twirl a siliconcarving of a handlebar moustache.

You might be upset by this result, scientific proof that those who say"Evil is utterly fundamental to human nature" actually understates thescope of the problem, there were also silicon souls on the side of theangels.  Some robots advanced fearlessly into poison zones, flashingwarning lights to keep other robots out of harms way.

At this rate of evolution, how long before we start to see otherbehaviors?  Maybe polarized priests, warning other robots not to eatany food so that they may receive infinite food after they're switchedoff.  Or actorbots, given huge quantities of food because they canpretend to be turned off by poison really well?

Posted by Luke McKinney.

Related Galaxy posts:

Robots Rising -Scientists are Worried

DepthX -Thinking Robot to Explore Jupiter's Moon Europa

'Curious' Robots -the Next Big Thing in Interplanetary Exploration

What do Robots Dream Of?

10 Weird & Amazing Robot Facts

'Curious' Robots -the Next Big Thing in Interplanetary Exploration

Source:

Evolving robot societies

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What's Inside WD-40 Superlube's Secret
Sauce

From Wired Discoveries: The recipe for this superlube has long been a closely guarded trade secret—until now. Wired sent a can to the lab and got the ingredients. Read the whole article

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Cancer Monitoring Implant Could Put Lab Inside
the Patient

From gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine: A new implantable device that monitors a tumor for weeks, or months, could offer a simpler, less intrusive alternative to taking biopsies, which are traditionally used to diagnose the presence of cancer - and one that potentially offers a g

Read The Full Article:
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