A magazine of forecasts

A magazine of forecasts, trends, and ideas about the future
January-February 2008 Vol. 42, No. 1

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The Art of the Cyber-Interview
If most of your work will be done in cyberspace, it makes sense that your job interview should also be conducted online, thus giving your prospective employers a better view of how you present yourself—and other things—in the virtual world. A new technology called Synthetic Interviews has been developed by researchers at Harrisburg University and Carnegie Mellon University, allowing job and internship candidates to showcase their projects, models, games, and other work online. Job seekers record their answers to common interview questions, and when the recruiter asks the virtual candidate a question, the technology searches the database to play back the appropriate response.

Source: Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, 304 Market Street, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17101. Web site www.harrisburgu.net.

Self-Repairing Spacecraft
A composite "healing" material that deploys itself when a spacecraft's skin is damaged offers hope for longer space missions and longer-lasting craft. Inspired by the way that human blood forms protective scabs over cut skin, researchers at Bristol University developed a composite material containing glass filaments, half filled with an epoxy polymer to fill in cracks and half filled with a chemical agent to harden the epoxy. When the spacecraft skin is damaged, the glass filaments break, releasing the crack-filling and hardening chemicals to repair the wound. With more-durable craft, the lifetime of space missions could be doubled, and their costs cut in half, according to the researchers.

Source: University of Bristol, Press Office, Senate House, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TH, United Kingdom. Web site www.bristol.ac.uk.

Smoking and Alzheimer's Disease
Current smokers are about 50% more likely to develop dementia than former smokers or those who never smoked, according to a study published by the American Academy of Neurology. Among the possible reasons are that smoking contributes to risk of cerebovascular disease, which is associated with dementia, and it can damage cells in blood vessels through oxidative stress—the surplus of free radicals, or waste products of the body's chemical reactions. Smoking also poses risks for acquiring Alzheimer's disease. Although it does not appear to increase the risks for those already possessing the Alzheimer's risk gene (apolipoprotein E4), smoking increases the risk of Alzheimer's by 70% among those without the gene.

Source: American Academy of Neurology, 1080 Montreal Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota 55116. Web site www.aan.com.

Safeguarding the Future of Plant Species

The United Kingdom's Millennium Seed Bank Project has collected its billionth seed in a major project to protect the world's wild plant life against natural devastation. "We are losing species 1,000 times faster than the natural rate of extinction," says project head Paul Smith, who likens the project to a Noah's Ark for plants. The seeds are cleaned and stored in pickling jars, their details recorded in adatabase, and placed in an underground seed store. For species that become extinct or are nearly extinct, scientists can regerminate the seeds and recreate habitats. The project hopes to store seeds from 25% of the world's plant species by 2020.

Source: Millennium Seed Bank, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London TW9 3AB, United Kingdom. Web site www.kew.org/msbp.

Alternatives to Antibiotics
Antibiotics have saved many lives, but the bacteria they fight are fighting back harder, with new, more drug-resistant strains. The growing pressure to avoid overprescribing antibiotics is leading doctors to seek safe and effective alternatives. Long-term courses of antibiotics for acne, one of the most-common skin diseases, may be a thing of the past with such innovations as a new antibacterial gel developed by a U.K. company, Syntopix. The company also hopes to develop antibacterial agents to fight Staph infections such as those caused by MRSA—a growing problem in hospitals.

Source: Syntopix Group, Institute of Pharmaceutical Innovation, University of Bradford, Bradford, Yorkshire BD7 1DP, United Kingdom. Web site www.syntopix.com.

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