A Question of Scale, by Tamas Vicsek, Nature, May 24, 2001

Collective Behavior: The way in which an individual unit's activity is dominated by its neighbors so that all units simultaneously alter their behavior to a common pattern.

http://www.nature.com/nature (subscription required - see note)

Keywords: complexity, complex adaptive systems, collective, flocking rules

As Others Abandon Plains, Indians and Bison Come Back, by Timothy Egan, New York Times, May 27, 2001

In writing the obituary of the Great Plains, social historians have looked out at the abandoned ranches, collapsed homesteads and dying towns huddled against the wind in a sea of grass and seen an epic failure.

But something else is under way from the Badlands of the Dakotas to the tallgrass fields of Oklahoma: a restoration of lost landscape and forgotten people, suggesting that European agricultural settlement of big parts of the prairie may have been an accident of history, or perhaps only a chapter.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/27/national/27FRON.html

Keywords: prairie, environment, land use, development

Bush Could Boost Green Power With Buying Power, by Ronald Brownstein, Los Angeles Times, May 28, 2001

The Sun Wall stands as a riveting symbol of Washington's potential to advance the development of renewable energy through a tool that's received almost no attention in the energy debate: the purchasing power of the federal government itself. Through all its departments and agencies, the federal government spends about $8 billion a year on energy--probably more than any other single consumer in the world. That buying power gives the government enormous leverage to speed the growth of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal and biomass.

http://www.latimes.com/business/reports/power/lat_outlook010528.htm

Keywords: energy, renewables, green, solar, economics

Claude Shannon (1916-2001), by Robert Calderbank and Neil J. A. Sloane, Nature, April 12, 2001

Inventor, Mathematician and leader of the digital revolution.

http://www.nature.com/nature (subscription required - see note)

Keywords: computing, information theory, noise, digital, communication, cybernetics

Computing 2010: From Black Holes to Biology, by Declan Butler, Nature, December 2, 1999

By 2010, a click on the PC on your desktop will suffice to call up instantly all the computing power you need from what by then will be the world's largest supercomputer, the Internet itself. Supercomputing for the masses will trigger a revolution in the complexity of problems that are tackled, whole disciplines will go digital and, rather than spending time collecting their own data, scientists will organize themselves around shared data sets.

http://www.nature.com/nature (subscription required - see note)

Keywords: virtual science, computing, database

Fossil Findings May Force Revisions in the History of Life, by Carol Kaesuk Yoon, New York Times, May 22, 2001

In the first results from a huge new database of fossil records being assembled on the World Wide Web by an international team of scientists, researchers report findings that suggest there may have been no such relentless increase in diversity. In fact, the new results suggest the possibility that diversity levels quickly hit a plateau and stayed put and that the real peak of life's diversity may have come and gone more than 400 million years ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/22/science/22SPEC.html

Keywords: biodiversity, database, paleontology, virtual science

Four Firms Share Space Creatively, by Morris Newman, Los Angeles Times, May 29, 2001

The open floor plan is conducive to exchanging knowledge and business referrals.

http://www.latimes.com/business/20010529/t000044851.html

Keywords: design, architecture, environment

Get Ready for Your Nano Future, by Alan Leo, Technology Review, May 4, 2001

We know that nanotech will change the world --it's time to think about how.

http://www.technologyreview.com/web/leo/leo050401.asp

Keywords: nanotechnology, nanotubes

Hewlett-Packard Puts Out the Blue Box, by Heidi A Schuessler, New York Times, May 24, 2001

One of the biggest obstacles to disposing of old computers is finding a way to get them out of closets and attics and to a recycler. On Monday, Hewlett-Packard announced a program to help individuals and small businesses do just that.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/24/technology/24BRIT.html

Keywords: recycling, computers, Hewlett-Packard, economics

How Polluted We Are, by J. R., Science News, April 7, 2001

Though toxic compounds pervade the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the foods we eat, they only pose risks if they enter our bodies in biologically active quantities. Recently released findings show that most people carry traces of toxic pollutants.

Keywords: environment, global commons

Innovation: Buckyball Cures, by Erika Jonietz, Technology Review, June 2001

In 1985 chemists discovered a soccer-ball-shaped molecule made of 60 carbon atoms and called it buckminsterfullerene --buckyball for short. Researchers have imagined using the molecule for everything from rocket fuels to lubricants, but real-world applications have yet to materialize. That could soon change.

http://www.technologyreview.com/magazine/jun01/innovation4.asp

Keywords: health, buckyballs, C Sixty

Living Dead, by Duncan Graham-Rowe, New Scientist, May 16, 2001

Ants and infertile humans are not alive, but parasitic DNA is, according to a new, universal definition of life.

http://www.newscientist.com/dailynews/news.jsp?id=ns9999748

Keywords: living systems, metaphors, cybernetics, feedback

Lord of the Dance, by Duncan Graham-Rowe, New Scientist, May 26, 2001

Meet the tiny robot that can bounce, walk and run, and could one day be studying your DNA.

http://www.newscientist.com/newsletter/news.jsp?id=ns229235

Keywords: robots, nanotechnology

Open-Source Biology and Its Impact on Industry, by Robert Carlson, IEEE Spectrum, May 2001

In 50 years, you may be reading IEEE Spectrum on a leaf. The page will not actually look like a leaf, but it will be grown like a leaf. It will be designed for its function, and it will be alive. The leaf will be the product of intentional biological design and manufacturing.

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/resource/may01/spea.html

Keywords: metaphor, biology, ecosystem, biomimicry, economics, IP, virtual science, genome

Power to the People, by Peter Fairley, Technology Review, May 2001

Fuel cells and microturbines could turn everybody into a power producer, easing blackouts, lowering prices and bringing electricity to the powerless.

http://www.technologyreview.com/magazine/may01/fairley.asp

Keywords: fuel cells, microturbines, power, electricity

Science’s New Social Contract With Society, by Michael Gibbons, Nature, December 2, 1999

Under the prevailing contract between science and society, science has been expected to produce 'reliable' knowledge, provided merely that it communicates its discoveries to society. A new contract must now ensure that scientific knowledge is 'socially robust', and that its production is seen by society to be both transparent and participative.

http://www.nature.com/nature (subscription required - see note)

Keywords: science, society, policy

Sticking Things to Carbon Nanotubes, by Ron Dagani, C&E News, May 7, 2001

Progress reported in using molecular ‘sticky labels’ and polymer ribbons.

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/topstory/7919/7919notw9.html

Keywords: nanotechnology, nanotubes, materials science, sensors, molecular computing

Transitions Still To Be Made, by Philip Ball, Nature, December 2, 1999

A collection of many particles all interacting according to simple, local rules can show behaviour that is anything but simple or predictable. Yet such systems constitute most of the tangible Universe, and the theories that describe them continue to represent one of the most useful contributions of physics.

http://www.nature.com/nature (subscription required - see note)

Keywords: complexity, self-organizing systems, flocking rules

Web Archive Opens a New Realm of Research, by James Glanz, New York Times, May 1, 2001

A Web-based archive centered at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is transforming the quality of scientific research at institutions that are geographically isolated and, in many cases, small and financially precarious. It nurtures top-flight research in countries as disparate as Bulgaria, Colombia, Cuba, Ukraine, Iran, India, Romania, Russia, Israel, the Czech Republic and Zambia.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/01/science/01ARCH.html

Keywords: virtual science, database, publishing, Internet, digital divide