By Cynthia G. Wagner

High-Tech Cowboys

Cattle ranching may not be the first occupation you’d think of as a candidate for telecommuting, butthanks to new technologies such as Wi-Fi and GPS, the day of remote roundups might soon be here. Not only are cattle being outfitted with tracking devices, but now they are being given earpieces that receive wireless commands to control their movements across a landscape. Combined with “virtual fencing” technologies the devices would give the cattle sensory cues to move them right or left. The goal, according to “cow whisperer” Dean Anderson of the U.S. Agricultural Research Service, is not to replace cowboys but to help them protect their herds more cost effectively and efficiently.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, George Washington Carver Center, 5601 Sunnyside Avenue, Beltsville, Maryland 20705.

The Market for Artists

Artists represent only a slightly smaller segment of the U.S. workforce than the military. Their numbers more than doubled between 1970 and 1990, though their growth rate slowed to 16% between 1990 and 2005, the same as the overall workforce. “Artists now play a huge but mostly unrecognized role in the new American economy of the 21st century,” says Dana Gioia, chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, whose new report “Artists in the Workforce” is the first nationwide look at the demographic and employment patterns of working artists. Artists are highly educated and more entrepreneurial than the average U.S. worker, but generally earn less than workers with similar education levels. Gender disparities include a preponderance of men in such occupations as architecture, production, and photography and of women in dance, design, and writing.

Source: National Endowment for the Arts, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20506-0001. Web site.

Religion in China Expected to Grow

Economic growth may have an unexpected consequence in China: a growth in religion. As change accelerates in so many aspects of life, including not only economic advancement, but also urbanization and democratization, more Chinese may turn to religion to help find stabilizing influences, suggests Fenggang Yang, an associate professor of sociology at Purdue University.

“People have a spiritual need that the government cannot fulfill,” he notes. Yang believes that Christianity is the fastest-growing religion in China, but estimates of its size vary widely, from 23 million to 130 million adherents. Islam has an estimated 22 million believers. The Chinese government currently recognizes just five religions: Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, Catholicism, and Protestantism.

Source: Purdue University, News Service, 400 Centennial Mall Drive, Room 324, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907. Web site.

Predicting Jellyfish Population Growth

Increases in water temperature are not the only factor influencing spikes in jellyfish population growth, according to research by Oregon State University. In a study of the relationship between climate change and jellyfish in the Bering Sea and the western coast of the United States, OSU oceanographer Lorenzo Ciannelli and colleagues found that population growth indeed accelerates with rising water temperatures. But as jellyfish numbers overwhelm their food sources, they begin to decline. After peaking in 2000, jellyfish populations subsided even as water temperatures increased dramatically. Jellyfish are a scourge to commercial fishing, as they gum up nets and either consume young fish or spoil their value by stinging them.

Source: Oregon State University, News and Communications, 416 Kerr Administration Building, Corvallis, Oregon 97331. Web site .

Cars May Run on Air

Go-karts sporting air-powered engines whizzed around a racetrack recently in a test of mechanical engineering students’ prowess at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. With support from Shell and inspiration from air-powered car concepts in Europe, the project aimed to develop a compressed air engine that would power a vehicle: Like gas-powered engines, the trick is to produce force on turbines, but to do so without creating emissions. Though the go-karts could go 200 mph, they ran out of air quickly (and compressing the air in the first place requires energy that may not necessarily be “green”), so refinements will be needed before we could all be riding on air.

Source: Dalhousie University, Communications and Marketing, Henry Hicks Academic Administration Building, Second Floor, Room 218, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 3J5, Canada. Web site.