Contents of the Current Issue

Back Issues

Online Indexes:
Author Index A-L
Author Index M-Z
Index of News Articles

Reprints/ Permissions

Writer's Guidelines

Send a Letter to the Editor

Top 10 Forecasts From Outlook 2005 Report

Tomorrow in Brief
edited by Cindy Wagner 

Biodegradable Cell Phones Discarded cell phones are a growing environmental problem. So British researchers have devised new, biodegradable polymer casings for cell phones that can simply be tossed into a compost heap for fertilizing flowers. Better still, the casing contains a seed that will begin germinating after the phone is recycled, blossoming into the flower of your choice. The research is being conducted by engineers and agricultural specialists at the University of Warwick and PVAXX Research and Development Ltd. Source: University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom. Web site:www.warwick.ac.uk

UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK Dwarf sunflowers blossom from recycled cell phones in project led by University of Warwick researcher Kerry Kirwan. The phones will be sold with built-in seeds visible through a tiny window.

AIDS Imperils the African Labor Force
The workforce in sub-Saharan Africa will shrink by 9% in the next five years due to the impacts of HIV/AIDS. In the hardest-hit countries, these losses could reach 20% by 2010 and up to 40% by 2015, warns the UN Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa. In a recent workshop in Accra, Ghana, the Commission called for greater public and private sector cooperation to address the lack of access to treatment and care. Multinational corporations such as Coca-Cola may find themselves at the forefront of combating AIDS in order to protect their employees--and their self-interest. Says one Coke representative: "As one of the largest employers in Africa, we feel we have to do our part to combat HIV/AIDS. We offer our employees 100% coverage for ARV [antiretroviral] treatment and extend our support programs to the communities they live in."
Source: United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, P.O. Box 3001, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Web site www.uneca.org

Lighting the World
By 2025, 90% of the world's lighting will be provided by efficient, sunlight-simulating light-emitting diodes (LEDs), predicts a team of lighting researchers at the University of Bath. The team has developed LEDs that use the full spectrum of colors rather than only red light, which is unsuitable for illuminating rooms. The use of gallium nitride rather than sapphire cuts the costs of the new LEDs in half. Because LEDs last 20 times as long as ordinary light bulbs, they could also cut in half the costs of lighting homes and offices.
Source: University of Bath, Public Relations Office, Bath BA2 7AY, United Kingdom. Web site www.bath.ac.uk.

Guided Bullets
Future soldiers may be able to intercept rockets and mortars by firing guided bullets at them. A new guidance system called LP4 comprises internal sensors, communications, guidance controls, and a power supply system, improvng accuracy of current Army weapons. Designed by students at University of Alabama in Huntsville, LP4 was developed for a U.S. Army competition for an Enhanced Counter Air Projectile weapons system to protect future troops on the battlefield. LP4 achieved a greater than 90% probability of hitting a target traveling up to 1,00 kilometers per hour in gusty winds in a range of 500 to 2,000 meters.
Source: University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, Alabama 35899. Web site uahnews.uah.edu/.

Smoking and African Americans
Young African Americans who start smoking now are less likely than their white counterparts to ever quit. The reasons are largely socioeconomic rather than biological or genetic, according to Gary King, associate professor of biobehavioral health at Pennsylvania State University. King's research team analyzed data from the National Health Interview Surveys of African Americans and whites aged 18 to 64. Between 1990 and 2000, African Americans reported a lower percentage of quitters than did whites. One reason may be the lack of availability and high cost of cessation aids such as nicotine-replacement therapies. King also found a higher percentage of blacks (59.4%) than whites (48.7%) reported never taking up smoking, so prevention programs may be more effective than cessation programs in reducing tobacco use among African Americans. "The higher percentage of lifelong nonsmokers among blacks can be attributed largely to parental prohibitions and various social norms that have curtailed tendencies toward smoking among African American teenagers and women," according to King.
Source: Pennsylvania State University, News Bureau, 312 Old Main, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802. Web site www.psu.edu.

To order the print edition of the March-April   2005 issue of THE FUTURIST ($4.95 plus $3 postage and handling) or to become a member of the World Future Society ($45 per year).

COPYRIGHT © 2005 WORLD FUTURE SOCIETY, 7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 450, Bethesda, Maryland 20814. Tel. 301-656-8274. E-mail info@wfs.org. Send comments about our web pages to: webmaster@wfs.org. All rights reserved.