News & Previews from the World Future Society
July 2005 (Vol. 6, No. 7)

In This Issue:
•  NASA Spacecraft to Intersect with Comet
•  E-Shoppers Fear Identity Theft
•  Water Technology Research Center
•  Stem Cells from Skin
•  Antarctic Car
•  Click of the Month: Infonation

NASA SPACECRAFT TO INTERSECT WITH COMET

Some collisions are meant to be: On July 4 at 1:52 a.m. EDT, NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft will send its impacting device to collide with the comet Tempel 1 at some 23,000 miles per hour.

This cosmic crash will create a crater as wide as a football stadium in the comet, which is about the size of Manhattan. The material released by the impact will give scientists a better understanding of how the solar system was formed.

"The last 24 hours of the impactor’s life should provide the most spectacular data in the history of cometary science," says Michael A’Hearn of the University of Maryland. "With the information we receive after the impact, it will be a whole new ballgame. We know so little about the structure of cometary nuclei that almost every moment we expect to learn something new."

SOURCE: NASA, http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html

 E-SHOPPERS FEAR IDENTITY THEFT

Online businesses may feel the bite of identity theft as shoppers shun clicks for bricks, warns a new report from The Conference Board.

More than 13% of Internet users report that they or someone in their household has been a victim of identity theft, and new reports of information-security breaches at Citigroup, Bank of America, Wachovia, and elsewhere create anxiety in consumers' minds.

Among the things computer users are doing to protect themselves are installing additional security software on their PCs, opting-out of special offers, reading privacy statements, and setting up multiple e-mail addresses. More than 40% say they are making fewer online purchases.

"Consumers have taken steps to be more cautious, which is a good thing," says The Conference Board's Lynn Franco. "The downside is the negative impact to online retailers that may slow the growth of e-commerce."

SOURCE: The Conference Board, http://www.conference-board.org/economics/consumerBarometer.cfm

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FACULTY POSITION OPEN: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Assistant or Associate Professor: Public Administration Program and Department of Political Science's Hawai'i Research Center for Futures Studies, University of Hawai'i.

Nine-month appointment, permanent, full-time, tenure track, to begin 01/01/06 or 08/01/06. Tenurable in Public Administration. For full ad, see http://workatuh.hawaii.edu/zoom_job.php?4233

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WATER TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH CENTER

A new center to explore technologies for increasing and improving the water supply has been formed at the University of California, Los Angeles, Samueli School of Engineering.

Researchers will study ways to turn brackish or seawater into fresh water, as well as develop methods to integrate desalination efforts with innovative energy-generation technologies that reduce costs.

Saline and brackish waters constitute more than 97% of the water in the world. As human population grows, the demand for water will inevitably increase. Current desalination methods, such as reverse osmosis, are plagued with problems such as membranes becoming fouled by bacteria, organic matter, or mineral salts.

"As finite water sources are depleted, we must look at new ways to address the serious water problems that confront us," says desalination expert Yoram Cohen, who will head the new Water Technology Research Center, or WaTeR. "We must innovate our way to clean, affordable water independence."

SOURCE: University of California, Los Angeles: http://newsroom.ucla.edu/page.asp?RelNum=6268

STEM CELLS FROM SKIN

Fat, muscle, and bone cells have been successfully coaxed from stem cells isolated from human skin. The experiment performed at Wake Forest University School of Medicine was one of the first to demonstrate the ability of a single adult stem cell to become multiple tissue types, reports the journal Stem Cells and Development.

Most scientists believe that embryonic stem cells are the most versatile, but the ability to use adult stem cells would reduce ethical concerns. Adult cells have been collected from bone marrow, blood, and the brain, but the skin is clearly more accessible.

The researchers isolated the cells in culture dishes and used hormones and growth factors to coax them into becoming fat, muscle, and bone cells. Implanted in mice, the cells maintained features consistent with those specific tissues.

The ability to develop specialized, self-replicating cells offers hope for repairing damaged cells in patients with spinal cord injuries, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, stroke, burns, and other maladies.

SOURCE: Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center,
http://www1.wfubmc.edu/news/NewsArticle.htm?Articleid=1626

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LAST CHANCE FOR DISCOUNT REGISTRATION!

June 30 is the deadline to save $50 for WorldFuture 2005: Foresight, Innovation, and Strategy.

The conference, to be held July 29-31 at Chicago Hilton and Towers, will feature exciting sessions on the major forces altering our future and on how we can direct these forces to create better futures for ourselves, our families, our organizations, and the world.

REGISTRATION NOW:  https://www.wfs.org/2005regfrm.htm
RESERVE HOTEL ROOM: Hotel rooms are filling fast also, so book now! http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/groups/private_groups/chich_wfs/index.jhtml
SEE PRELIMINARY PROGRAM: http://www.wfs.org/WF2005_preliminary.pdf
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ANTARCTIC CAR

A new concept car for traversing the icy terrain of Antarctica has been unveiled by the British Antarctic Survey.

The compact, eco-friendly vehicle, called "Ninety Degrees South," combines tracks and wheels to allow it to operate over hard ground, snow, or ice surfaces with dangerous crevasses. The vehicle uses ground-penetrating radar to assess the risk of crevasses, which allows the driver to detect and avoid the dangerous spots faster.

The versatile icy-terrain vehicle could potentially be entirely automated and used for expeditions not only in the Antarctic, but also on other planets, designer James Moon believes.

SOURCE: British Antarctic Survey, http://www.antarctica.ac.uk
http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/News_and_Information/Press_Releases/story.php?id=173

 CLICK OF THE MONTH: INFONATION
http://cyberschoolbus.un.org/infonation3/basic.asp

Did you know that Zimbabwe spends more proportionally on education than does Finland? Or that Hungarians have more cars than Bolivians?

Compare country statistics side-by-side with the UN's Cyberschoolbus Web site tool, Infonation. Search for statistics on health, education, economics, technology, and more to find out how the nations of the world compare.

The Cyberschoolbus site also offers curricula on hunger, poverty, cities, women's rights, indigenous peoples, space, oceans, peace, and saving tomorrow's world.

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SNEAK PREVIEW OF CONFERENCE VOLUME

Executive summaries of the essays included in FORESIGHT, INNOVATION, AND STRATEGY, the World Future Society's 2005 conference volume, can now be viewed online, along with the preface and contributors' list.

The Society's conference volumes have a long history of serving as a textual "companion" for attendees, as well as an overview of the state of futures thought.

The volume is distributed free to all conference goers and is a benefit of the Society's Institutional and Comprehensive Professional Membership programs. After the conference, the volume is available for public sale. (A discount is now being offered on preorders.)

PREVIEW THE VOLUME: http://www.wfs.org/vol2005.htm

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