July 2010, Vol. 11, No. 7

In This Issue:
Supercenentarians: Why 110 Is the New 100
Synthetic Antibodies Fight Bee Stings
Knowledge Sharing among U.S. Diplomats
Economics and Politics of Well-Being
Click of the Month: Nourishing the Planet
News for the Futurist Community

SUPERCENTENARIANS: WHY 110 IS THE NEW 100

A global team of demographers has identified at least 600 individuals who have reached the age of 110 and earned the title of “supercentenarians.” Of these 600, 20 were more than 115 years old.

More than half (341) of the supercentenarians discovered are in the United States, where women in the cohort outnumbered men by nearly 10 to 1. (These numbers may have been a factor of better record keeping in the United States compared with other countries, the researchers note.)

The work, coordinated by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Germany, aims to create a database that would provide a reliable, international record of scientifically verified data on human longevity.

The effort may yield important clues about why and how some individuals are able to live such a long time, some even surviving major surgery in their 110s. For instance, as the U.S. example illustrates, being born female has its advantages for longevity, whereas socioeconomic differences and the longevity of one’s ancestors seem to have little impact on the likelihood of supercentenarianism.

The researchers observed that many of the supercentenarians had been able to avoid dementia. This suggests that efforts to prevent, diagnose, and treat Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia may also contribute to longevity.

SOURCES: Max Planck Institute

International Database on Longevity

SYNTHETIC ANTIBODIES FIGHT BEE STINGS

Synthetically produced antibodies injected into mice have successfully blocked bee venom, report researchers at the University of California, Irvine.

The “plastic antibodies” are tiny particles created through molecular imprinting and designed to match and encase the melittin peptide in bee venom that causes cells to rupture, leading to organ failure and death.

“Never before have synthetic antibodies been shown to effectively function in the bloodstream of living animals,” says UCI chemistry professor Kenneth Shea. “This technique could be utilized to make plastic nanoparticles designed to fight more lethal toxins and pathogens.”

SOURCE: University of California, Irvine

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OXFORD SCENARIOS PROGRAMME

http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/execed/strategy/scenarios

6 - 10 September 2010, £4,750 (ex VAT) all-inclusive

Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

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For details contact mailto:caroline.williams@sbs.ox.ac.uk

To join this programme we welcome your Online Application: https://app.hobsons.co.uk/?id=ox-sbsee

KNOWLEDGE SHARING AMONG U.S. DIPLOMATS

A Rice University study of the U.S. State Department’s Wikipedia style knowledge-sharing platform suggests that such tools could improve information management in other areas of government.

Dubbed Diplopedia, the open-source platform for the U.S. diplomatic corps allows a registered user to post articles and edit other pages, will all contributions directly traced to that user.

In three years, the site has grown to more than 11,000 articles, creating a knowledge base of expertise for working diplomats.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of State

A draft of the Diplopedia study (PDF document), prepared by the State Department’s Office of eDiplomacy and Rice University, is available here.

ECONOMICS AND POLITICS OF WELL-BEING

A new survey will examine the need to look “Beyond GDP” in determining national well-being. The survey, conducted by GlobeScan, will be funded by Ethical Markets Media (USA and Brazil), according to president Hazel Henderson, and will be similar to one that group produced in 2007 for the European Parliament (see http://www.beyond-gdp.eu ).

GDP--gross domestic product--is the key measure of progress used by traditional economists (and institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund), but critics argue that this measure does not take into account the social and environmental costs of certain economic activity that may degrade overall quality of life. Henderson has long “urged the retraining of economists beyond their narrow money-focused view of wealth.”

Despite the development of alternative measures, such as the Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators, Henderson charges that economists simple don’t want to change.

“They fear losing their data series, their intellectual superiority, [and] their dominance of national policy making and international bodies,” Henderson wrote in an e-mail to FUTURIST UPDATE. “The economics profession (it was never a science) would be in for a necessary downsizing, just as their clients in bloated financial firms must be downsized as well.”

Henderson also expresses concern about popular acceptance of “happiness” measures as an alternative to GDP, because these, too, can become politicized. Among the pitfalls of “Gross National Happiness” types of indicators is the inherent subjectivity of happiness.

“Just one or two examples suffice,” says Henderson. “A population surveyed may report high levels of happiness for many reasons. Some cultures seem to produce happier people than other cultures. [And] a community can report high levels of happiness while in danger from undiscovered contaminants in their water supply or radiation levels in their homes due to spent wastes mixed with cement in their construction.”

SOURCE: Hazel Henderson, Ethical Markets Media, LLC

http://www.ethicalmarkets.com

A WORLD OF IDEAS AT WORLDFUTURE 2010!

SEE YOU IN BOSTON FOR WORLDFUTURE 2010, JULY 7-11

WorldFuture 2010: Sustainable Futures, Strategies, and Technologies will bring together a thousand futurists from around the world to the Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel in Boston, July 8-10. Come early (July 7-8) for preconference courses, the MIT Media Lab tour, and the Education Summit, and stay late (July 11) for the Professional Members’ Forum.

The conference program boasts an outstanding lineup of speakers, such as business futurists Edie Weiner and Arnold Brown, inventors Ray Kurzweil and Stephen Thaler, and representatives from global organizations such as UNESCO, the Japan Institute of Negotiation, and the European Futures Observatory.

HOTEL INFORMATION: The Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel, 425 Summer Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02210, USA. Telephone 617-532-4600, Web site http://bit.ly/aHnaVe

CLICK OF THE MONTH: NOURISHING THE PLANET

http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/

A blog from the Worldwatch Institute’s Sustainable Agriculture Program offers news, activities, and ideas for sustainable development around the world.

Recent posts include “Innovation of the Week: Locally Produced Crops for Locally Consumed Products,” “‘Endangered Species’ Means More Than Animals,” and “Tapping Local Ingenuity to Raise Fish and Livestock.”

According to the site, the “Sustainable Agriculture Program highlights the benefits to farmers, consumers, and ecosystems that can flow from food systems that are flexible enough to deal with shifting weather patterns, productive enough to meet the needs of expanding populations, and accessible enough to support rural communities.”

BONUS CLICK: Worldwatch Institute

NEWS FOR THE FUTURIST COMMUNITY

* DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE OPPORTUNITY: The World Future Society’s development committee is seeking volunteers interested in exploring new ways to make foresight useful to communities such as youth. The committee specifically seeks committed individuals with experience in grant writing, fundraising, youth program development, and sponsor recruitment. Meetings are held in the Washington, D.C., area but may be attended by teleconference or Internet if needed. CONTACT: WFS President Tim Mack mailto:tmack@wfs.org or 301-656-8274.

* FUTURE DIRECTIONS IN SPACE PROPULSION: The Space, Propulsion, and Energy Sciences International Forum, to be held March 15-17, 2011, at the University of Maryland, has issued a call for papers on propulsion science, astrosociology, high-frequency gravitational waves, and future directions in space science and technology. Initial abstracts are due August 15, 2010. DETAILS: Institute for Advanced Studies in the Space, Propulsion and Energy Sciences http://www.ias-spes.org/SPESIF.html

* INVESTING IN THE PUBLIC GOOD: The Tomorrow Project has published a new report, “Investing for Public Good,” to illustrate how governments can save money via Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) and tackle social problems at their roots. “Without doubt SIBs offer a real opportunity to support the most disadvantaged, the most vulnerable, and those who are so often forgotten about or left behind by more traditionally structured interventions,” says Gavin Poole, managing director of the Centre for Social Justice. “SIBs offer these people a real chance to transform their lives and provide an opportunity that if not present would end in further neglect.” DETAILS: Richard Worsley, the Tomorrow Project http://www.tomorrowproject.net

FUTURIST UPDATE: News & Previews from the World Future Society is an e-mail newsletter published monthly as a supplement to THE FUTURIST magazine. Copyright © 2010, World Future Society, 7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 450, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA. Telephone 1-301-656-8274; e-mail mailto:info@wfs.org Web site http://www.wfs.org

Editor: Cindy Wagner, mailto:cwagner@wfs.org
Senior Editor: Patrick Tucker, mailto:ptucker@wfs.org
Network Administrator: Jeff Cornish, mailto:jcornish@wfs.org