Janal Kalis' Radio Weblog

Wed, 30 Jun 2004 12:27:43 GMT

Wed, 30 Jun 2004 02:34:34 GMT

Seeing Double: Spitzer Captures Our Galaxy's Twin

06.28.04

What would our Milky Way galaxy look like if we could travel outside it and snap a picture? It might look a lot like a new image by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope of a spiral galaxy called NGC 7331 -- a virtual twin of our Milky Way.

Image above: NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope captured these infrared images of a nearby spiral galaxy that resembles our own Milky Way. The galaxy, known as NGC 7331 and sometimes referred to as our galaxy's twin, is found in the constellation Pegasus at a distance of 50 million light-years. + Click for full image Image coutesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI.

The picture, which can be viewed at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06322 , shows our twin as never before. Its swirling arms spin outward from a central bulge of light, which is outlined by a ring of actively forming stars.

"Being inside our galaxy makes it difficult to see what's going on in the center," said Dr. J.D. Smith, a member of the team that observed NGC 7331, and an astronomer at the University of Arizona, Tucson. "By looking at a very similar galaxy, we gain a bird's eye-view of what the entire Milky Way might look like."

Such an outside perspective will teach astronomers how our own galaxy, as well as others like it, might have formed and evolved.

The latest observations are the first in a large-scale effort to observe 75 nearby galaxies with Spitzer's highly sensitive infrared eyes. Called Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey, the program will combine Spitzer data with that from other ground- and space-based telescopes operating at wavelengths ranging from ultraviolet to radio to create a comprehensive map of the selected galaxies.

The program's first target, NGC 7331, was chosen in part for its striking similarities to the Milky Way. While these so- called twin galaxies do not share the same parents, they have many features in common, including number of stars, mass, spiral arm pattern and star-formation rate of a few stars per year. Whether the Milky Way has an inner star- forming ring like that of NGC 7331 is not known. NGC 7331 is located about 50 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus.

The new Spitzer image demonstrates the power of the telescope's infrared eyes to dissect galaxies into their various parts. Taken by the telescope's infrared array camera, the false-colored picture readily distinguishes NGC 7331's arms (brownish red), central bulge (blue) and star- forming ring (yellow). The composition of materials making up these regions was also revealed by the Spitzer observations: the central bulge consists primarily of older stars; the ring possesses a large amount of gas and dusty organic molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which typically glow when illuminated by newborn stars; and the arms contain these same dust grains to a lesser degree. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are also found on Earth, on burnt toast and in car exhaust among other places.

Data from Spitzer's infrared spectrograph instrument were also used to show that the center of NGC 7331 harbors either an unusually high concentration of massive stars, or a moderately active black hole about the same size as the one lurking at the core of our galaxy.

These findings will appear in two papers in the September issue of a special supplement to the Astrophysical Journal. Dr. Michael W. Regan of the Space Telescope Institute, Baltimore, Md., is lead author of a paper detailing observations from the infrared array camera, and Smith is lead author of a paper on the infrared spectrograph results. The Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey project is conducted by a team of about 25 scientists from 12 institutions, and is led by principal investigator Dr. Robert C. Kennicutt of the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Wed, 30 Jun 2004 02:16:45 GMT

Tue, 29 Jun 2004 03:28:20 GMT

Tue, 29 Jun 2004 03:26:42 GMT

Tue, 29 Jun 2004 02:48:21 GMT

Colorado River Delta, Baja California

Click here to view full image (381 kb)

The Colorado River is the largest watershed in the southwestern US, emptying into the Salton Trough before reaching the Sea of Cortez. Over the past 2-3 million years, river sediments built a delta that extends from the US-Mexico border for a distance of 87 miles (140 km). However, today the Colorado River delta is undergoing significant erosion and diminishing in size due to the lack of sediment replenishment from upstream sources.

This image highlights the generally arid setting of the Colorada River delta estuary at its terminus and at low tide. The Desierto de Altar occupies the right portion of the image. The extensive white salt flats to the southeast of the Cienega (wetland) de Santa Clara are clearly visible. This brackish wetland is a major stopover point for Pacific shore bird migrations and is maintained by groundwater pumped from the southwestern USA.The channel extending from the large island in the center of the image (Isla Montague) to the northwest is an inlet from the Gulf of California which formed after the Colorado River receded due to impoundment of water by Hoover (1935) and Glen Canyon (1964) dams. It crosses floodplain sediments (gray to dark brown) left by the original river. Gray-brown linear streaks extending southeast from Isla Montague into the Gulf are floodplain sediments mobilized by tidal surges and wave action rather than fluvial processes. Dark green areas bordering the channel, shoreline, and Isla Montague are riparian and estuarine vegetation.

Prior to impoundment of water from upstream dams the delta provided habitat for a wide variety of species including shrimp, corvina fish, and vaquita porpoise. Replacement of water into the delta from groundwater and upstream releases have helped to revive some of the preexisting habitat. This reinvigorated habitat also supports a local ecotourism industry within the delta region. Continuing drought conditions affecting the southwestern USA may decrease water delivery to the delta with significant impacts on both the ecologic and economic health of the region.

The ISS-9 Space Station crew obtained this high-resolution image of the Colorado River Delta on June 2, 2004, allowing for detailed observations of the delta and adjacent regions.

Tue, 29 Jun 2004 02:41:35 GMT

THIS IS SCARY:

PATENT LAWYER SUSPENDED FOR POOR OVERSIGHT OF AN ASSOCIATE

(From Hal Wegner:)

A sensational article earlier this month in LEGAL TIMES suggests that a
partner in a law firm may be suspended from practice for ethical lapses
of an unsupervised associate in his practice at the United States Patent
and Trademark Office. The now departed partner from one of the larger
general practice law firms was suspended from the practice of law in
the District of Columbia for thirty days based upon his activity as the
then-senior partner of the boutique intellectual property law firm Wigman,
Cohen, Leitner & Myers (formerly Wigman & Cohen). See In re Cohen,
847 A.2d 1162 (D.C. Ct. App. 2004), earlier proceedings, In re Herbert
Cohen, Bar Docket 280-97 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals Board
on Professional Responsibility 2002)(Report and Recommendation of the
Board on Professional Responsibility)
http://www.dcbar.org/bprReports/reports/cohen.pdf ("Board Recommendation").

Tue, 29 Jun 2004 02:21:53 GMT

Tue, 29 Jun 2004 02:19:19 GMT

Mon, 28 Jun 2004 02:26:50 GMT

Mars Rover Surprises Continue; Spirit, Too, Finds Hematite

06.25.04

On challenging slopes that NASA's Mars rovers began exploring this month, both Spirit and Opportunity have found new surprises for the folks back home.

Image above: This close-up image taken by Spirit highlights the nodular nuggets that cover the rock dubbed "Pot of Gold." These enigmatic features appear to stand on the end of stalk-like projections. Data from the rover's scientific instruments has shown that Pot of Gold contains the mineral hematite, which can be formed with or without water. Scientists are planning further observations of that and other rocks in the area to determine this mineral's origin. + Click for full image. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/USGS.

Spirit rolled up to a knobby rock just past where the "Columbia Hills" start to rise from the surrounding plain. It touched the rock with a mineral-identifying instrument at the tip of its robotic arm and detected hematite. Hematite identified from orbit was NASA's key reason for choosing Opportunity's landing site halfway around Mars from these hills within Gusev Crater.

Opportunity, continuing its descent into "Endurance Crater," has found unexpected similarities between lower layers of rock it is examining for the first time and an overlying layer at "Eagle Crater" where, months ago, the rover discovered evidence that water once soaked the area.

"It's gratifying how well these machines keep performing, considering they've now nearly doubled their original three-month missions on Mars," said Chris Voorhees, rover mechanical systems engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. By the end of next week, Spirit will have worked on Mars for half a year. It has driven more than three times the design requirement of one kilometer (0.6 mile). The only symptom of wear or aging on either rover so far is increased friction in one wheel on Spirit. The rover team at JPL is beginning to consider good sites for the solar-powered robots to spend the period of martian winter when reduced daily sunshine cuts power supply to a minimum. In the nearer term, though, team members are eager to follow through on the new scientific findings.

Spirit's hematite finding is in a rock dubbed "Pot of Gold," about the size of a softball. "This rock has a shape as if somebody took a potato and stuck toothpicks in it, then put jelly beans on the ends of the toothpicks," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the rovers' science instruments. "How it got this crazy shape is anyone's guess. I haven't even heard a good theory yet."

Dr. Doug Ming, a rover science-team member from NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, said, "There's apparently some type of weathering, a removal of material, but we're still trying to determine whether it's by chemical or mechanical processes."

Further study of Pot of Gold could also help scientists assess what the hematite in it tells about past environmental onditions. "Hematite can form in a few different ways. Most of them require water, but it can also result from a dry, thermal oxidation process," Ming said. "It was hematite identified from orbit that made Meridiani Planum a compelling place to send Opportunity. There, we've learned that the hematite is indeed part of a water story. At Gusev we're just at the starting stage."

After examining Pot of Gold with the microscopic imager and two spectrometers on Spirit's arm, the rover backed away from the rock to re-approach at a better angle for using its rock abrasion tool to expose the rock's interior. In the rough and slippery terrain, that maneuver took several days. The Other nearby rocks may also be inspected before Spirit resumes longer drives exploring the Columbia Hills area. Also, engineers are planning an attempt to redistribute lubricant in Spirit's balky right front wheel before the rover leaves its current vicinity.

Image above: Opportunity is currently investigating the distinct layers of rockt hat make up this region in "Endurance Crater." + Click for full image. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell.

Team members presented both rovers' status at a press conference at JPL today. Opportunity has driven far enough into the stadium-sized Endurance Crater to put it within arm's reach of three layers of rock beneath a sulfate-rich layer. That area is similar to what Opportunity first examined in the shallower "Eagle Crater," where it landed in January. "We're trying to systematically characterize the stratigraphy of the crater as we drive down, analyzing each unit chemically and mineralogically with all the instruments available," said Nicholas Tosca, a science-team affiliate from the State University of New York, Stony Brook. The first two newly accessed layers resemble the upper layer in having sulfate salts and spherical concretions; both are signs of formation of the rocks under wet conditions.

Squyres said, "I had thought we might see just basalt below the top salty layer, but instead it's salty as far as we've been able to see so far. Every time we see more sulfates as we work down this stack, it adds to the amount of water that was necessary to make this happen."

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Images and additional information about the project are available from JPL at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and from Cornell University, at http://athena.cornell.edu.

Guy Webster
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Dwayne Brown
NASA Headquarters

Mon, 28 Jun 2004 02:15:38 GMT

U.S. Loses First Place
As Biggest Recipient
Of Global Investment

By MICHAEL R. SESIT
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
June 28, 2004

PARIS -- China last year for the first time eclipsed the U.S. as the biggest recipient of foreign direct investment, part of a huge increase in such investment by multinational companies in the world's underdeveloped, fast-growing economies, according to a new OECD report.

The report by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the 30 member nations of which include the world's most highly industrialized, showed that net foreign direct investment, known as FDI, to emerging economies from the 30 OECD countries rose about sixfold in 2003 to a record $192 billion, or €158 billion, up from $31.7 billion in 2002.

Of that, China attracted $53 billion, slightly less than the year before, compared with $40 billion for the U.S. U.S. FDI was down from $72 billion in 2002 and $167 billion in 2001.

FDI mostly involves the purchase of physical assets, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, investments in plants and equipment, the buying of property and capital transfers to foreign-owned enterprises. It doesn't include portfolio investment. In relatively poor or unsophisticated economies, FDI also can include benefits besides funding, such as managerial expertise, technological skills and access to the global network of the investing company.

"FDI flows can serve as an indicator of the attractiveness of the business climates of competing economies," said Hans Christiansen, a senior OECD economist and one of the study's authors.

Meanwhile, FDI into the 30 OECD member nations fell 28% to $384 billion last year from $535 billion in 2002, according to the study, which is scheduled to be released today. It was the third consecutive year of declines, down from a peak of $1.3 trillion in 2000.

The OECD sees FDI recovering in its member countries in the near to medium term. Its economists predict a rise in European and Japanese growth and continued strong growth in the U.S. over the next two years. "This, together with the recovery in stock prices in 2003, should result in higher direct investment flows," Mr. Christiansen said.

China's appeal reflects its fast growth, its status as the world's biggest market in terms of population and a continued venue for low-cost production. Still, Mr. Christiansen said that lately, FDI was largely motivated by a desire to produce consumer goods for the domestic Chinese market.

Investors haven't found India, which last year received $4 billion in FDI, as attractive. Nonetheless, Mr. Christiansen said that it is the world's second-most-populous country, that growth is picking up and that the government has become more accommodating to foreign investment. "If that trend continues, there can be little doubt that the outlook is for much higher FDI flows to India," he said.

For the time being, Russia's prospects aren't as bright. In 2003, the country attracted only $1 billion in FDI, the lowest amount since the mid-1990s. Most of the investment Russia does get goes to the energy sector, and the OECD said the country could bring in more if it made further broad-based institutional changes.

Although the U.S. experienced the biggest FDI decline in dollar terms, it had plenty of company in the industrialized world. For instance, FDI flows to Canada in 2003 were off 69%, while those to European countries fell 23%, including a 64% decline in flows to Germany and a 47% drop in flows to the U.K.

An exception was France, which attracted $47 billion, marginally less than the $48.9 billion the country drew in 2002 and roughly three times the sums invested in either Germany or Britain. In contrast to many other countries, France experienced some large-scale acquisitions, such as the takeover of aluminum company Pechiney SA by Canada's Alcan Inc. Secondly, despite French politicians' stated intention to create "national champion" industries that can compete with global rivals, "most of the French business sector is open to foreign purchases," Mr. Christiansen said. Lastly, he said France is a prime location for second homes in Europe.

The OECD blames the fall in direct investment to industrial countries on "the sluggish macroeconomic performance of many of the larger OECD economies, not the least in Europe." It also cites many companies' need to integrate past, high-price acquisitions -- made during the heyday of the New Economy boom of the 1990s -- instead of embarking on new ones.

Mon, 28 Jun 2004 02:13:12 GMT

Outsourcing Storm Favors India

U.S. Criticism Publicizes
Low-Cost Labor, Expertise;
Lots of 'Free Advertising'

By JAY SOLOMON
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
June 28, 2004

BANGALORE, India -- The pace of outsourcing work to India is picking up, in part because the controversy in the U.S. over the trend has publicized India's low costs and expertise.

In the high-technology hub of Bangalore, two to three Western companies are opening operations in the city every week, say officials at Software Technology Parks of India. More companies are turning to India to do everything from software development to back-office work.

Revenues for call-center businesses grew by 46% to nearly $4 billion, or about €3.3 billion, during the year ended March 31. And the number of workers in India's technology sector is projected to have jumped by 23% to more than 800,000 in the period, according to the National Association of Software and Service Companies, or Nasscom, the Indian technology industry's trade body. Nasscom expects India's exports of software and services to jump more than 30% to $16 billion in the current year ending next March, about the same growth rate as last year.

UNDERSTANDING OUTSOURCING

See complete coverage of the outsourcing debate, including news and interactive graphics.

Many Indian and American executives say the U.S. criticism of outsourcing is generating important buzz for Indian technology companies, highlighting their low costs and expertise. "During the last six to nine months, we've received hundreds of millions of dollars of free advertising," said Vikram Talwar, chief executive officer of Exlservice Inc., a New York company that processes financial claims for U.S. banks and insurance companies in India.

Companies such as Accenture Ltd., Unisys Corp., Trilogy Inc. and Google Ltd. are significantly expanding back-office, call-center and research-and-development operations here.

Accenture is more than doubling its Indian work force to 10,000 people by the end of the year, the company said, dividing the staff between the Indian cities of Bangalore, Hyderabad and Bombay. Accenture officials say the workers will support the company's consulting business and its back-office operations and provide technical support to clients.

The company stresses, however, that most of the jobs in India are new, rather than headcount transfers from the U.S. or other countries. A spokesman said that even as it expands in India, Accenture plans to add 8,000 employees in the U.S. this year and 11,000 in Europe.

Recent reports in the U.S., too, have argued that the number of jobs being lost to new operations abroad is relatively small. A U.S. Labor Department survey released this month said 4,633 jobs were moved overseas in the first three months of this year. The number represents less than 2% of the total 239,361 layoffs for the quarter, the report said. Critics charged the report picked up only a fraction of the total number of jobs lost to outsourcing, and the issue could well remain contentious as the U.S. presidential campaign heats up this fall. But such findings -- combined with a pickup in job growth in the U.S. -- have in recent months blunted concerns in Washington to some degree.

Some of the concerns that could have derailed investment in Indian operations appear to be easing. In India, national elections in May brought to power the left-leaning Congress Party, initially raising fears that technology companies could face new taxes or regulations. But the party appointed an experienced economic manager as prime minister, and no such measures have been proposed. Executives now say that with the Indian technology industry building up so much critical mass, it is too lucrative for domestic politicians to stop.

There are signs that the outsourcing trend is broadening. U.S. companies continue to make up roughly 80% of the companies outsourcing work to India. But now, Chinese, Japanese and a number of European firms are opening offices in Bangalore and other cities. Companies like Chinese telecommunications-equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co. and Switzerland's STMicroelectronics NV are using India's English-speaking engineers and designers to expand into new markets and create new products. And a growing roster of smaller companies are beginning to outsource work to India.

"Every company in the services sector now knows you have to have a low-cost delivery base," said Mukul Agrawal, the managing director for Unisys's Indian operations. "It's a competitive necessity...and India's the No. 1 destination."

Unisys' business is emblematic too of a wider trend: foreign companies establishing their own operations in India. For five years, the Blue Bell, Pa., software and consulting firm simply contracted with Indian firms to provide back-office support and software development.

Mr. Agrawal said that with the work done in India becoming increasingly complex, Unisys' clients now demand that the company directly oversee it. Unisys' own executives also have concluded that the company needs an Indian presence to protect intellectual property and other strategic assets.

Unisys opened its Bangalore offices in April and is planning to hire 1,000 Indian staff over the next 18 months, Mr. Agrawal said. The workers will focus on software development, financial-claims processing and providing online technical help for Unisys customers. The company plans eventually to hire another 1,000 workers.

While many Indian software firms started by offering basic software code-writing skills, they are now doing research and development for semiconductor makers like Intel Corp. and hardware producers like GE Medical Systems.

Geneva-based chip maker STMicroelectronics has had operations in India since 1987, but for the first years largely just used its Indian engineers for software development, the company said. Today, STMicroelectronics has 1,500 workers engaged in chip design and research for developing wireless technologies.

The company expects to increase its Indian staff to 3,000 during the next few years with its research center near New Delhi becoming a central cog in its global business model. STMicroeletronics' India offices have produced more than 100 patents in the past three years. "A lot [for the company] will depend on the results coming out of India," said Carmelo Papa, a corporate vice president.

The growth is presenting India with new challenges. Cities like Bangalore are facing choking traffic and other infrastructure bottlenecks as they make way for scores of new companies and workers. Even connectivity can be a problem, and mobile-phone networks are often jammed.

Indian executives also say their companies are under pressure from U.S. clients to ensure that they are providing data security and sufficiently skilled workers. India produces 300,000 engineers a year, and local colleges train millions of English-speaking graduates. But one in six call-center workers usually quits his or her job within one year, according to industry executives. Qualified staff are also susceptible to being poached by higher-paying rivals.

Sat, 26 Jun 2004 02:48:16 GMT

Dust and Smoke off Africa

animations:
small ( 6.7 MB Quicktime)
large (22.3 MB Quicktime)

Numerous times between January and mid-June 2004 the skies over the Atlantic Ocean were filled with a river of particles flowing from Africa (right) to South America (left). Both particle pollution from smoke (red, indicationg small particles) and dust (gold, indicating large particles) were regular trans-Atlantic travelers during the first half of the year. Light gray indicates areas of missing data over the Sahara and other deserts. This image shows the region on June 6, 2004.

Sat, 26 Jun 2004 02:45:44 GMT

Cast, Crew Of Troy Begin Disastrous 10-Year Journey Back to Hollywood

Sat, 26 Jun 2004 02:44:00 GMT

Sat, 26 Jun 2004 02:41:02 GMT

BE CAREFUL OUT THERE:

Net Virus May Be Aimed
At Stealing Financial Data

Associated Press
June 25, 2004 4:54 p.m.

NEW YORK -- A mysterious Internet virus being spread Friday by hundreds and possibly thousands of infected Web sites may be aimed at stealing credit card and other valuable information, security experts warned.

The infection appears to take advantage of three separate flaws with Microsoft Corp. products. Microsoft said software updates to fix two of them had been released in April, but the third flaw was newly discovered and had no patch to fix it yet.

VIRUSES: SPREADING TROUBLE

• Guide: How to protect your computer.

• See more coverage and related information on computer viruses at wsj.com/virus.

Experts said the infection, detected by Microsoft on Thursday, was unusually broad but wasn't substantially interfering with Internet traffic. (Read Microsoft's security bulletin.)

Security experts at Microsoft and elsewhere worked Friday to pin down how the infection spreads across Web sites. It appears to target at least one recent version of Microsoft software for operating Web sites -- called Internet Information Server.

The infection makes subtle changes to the Web site so visitors get a piece of code that's designed to retrieve from a Russian Web site software that records a person's keystrokes and can send data back, experts say. Such software "Trojan horses" are routinely used to fish for credit-card numbers, bank accounts, passwords and the like.

Now that the code is out, other hackers are likely to adapt it to distribute software for spamming and for launching broad Internet attacks against popular Web sites, said Alfred Huger, senior director of engineering at security company Symantec Corp.

"Users should be aware that any Web site, even those that may be trusted by the user, may be affected by this activity and thus contain potentially malicious code," the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team warned in an Internet alert.

Stephen Toulouse, a security program manager at Microsoft, recommended that computer owners obtain the latest security updates for Microsoft products and their antivirus and firewall programs.

Because one flaw has yet to be fixed, he said, users should also turn up security settings on Microsoft's Internet Explorer browsers to the highest levels.

Security experts noted that users can avoid the exploit by using alternative browsers such as Mozilla and Opera. Users could also turn off the "Javascript" feature on their Microsoft browsers, though doing so cripple functions on some sites.

The infection doesn't affect Macintosh versions of Internet Explorer.

How to Protect Yourself

• Patch your system: Visit the Windows Update site at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com and click "scan for updates" to download and install the latest patches. However, there is a patch available only for one of the two vulnerabilities this virus exploits.

• Increase security level: In Internet Explorer, click on Tools in the menu bar at the top of the screen, then click on Internet Options. Click on the Security tab and turn to security to High; this could make browsing certain sites difficult but, at least as a temporary measure, should help protect your system.

• Search for the virus: Click on the Start menu, then click on Search. Click "all files or folders." Under "all or part of the file name," enter the following text to search for both of these files: Kk32.dll and Surf.dat

• Destroy it: If you find one of these files on your system, download updates from antivirus vendors including those listed below. Run the antivirus software and eliminate the virus.
Symantec http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/js.scob.trojan.html
F-Secure
http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/scob.shtml
Cmputer Associates http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/virus.aspx?id=39438

• Consider unaffected browsers: To avoid reinfection, you could download and use alternative Web browsers like Mozilla and Opera, which seem to be unaffected. Or borrow a Macintosh; computers running the Apple Computer Inc. operating system are safe from the virus.

Sources: Microsoft, Dow Jones Newswires. More information about the attack is available at www.microsoft.com/security/incident/download_ject.mspx

Sat, 26 Jun 2004 02:38:19 GMT

Biotechs Mine Bacteria for Industrial Use

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 12:06 p.m. ET

PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) -- The creatures are known as ``extremophiles,'' and they earn the name: They live in toxic Superfund cleanup sites, boiling deep-sea rift vents, volcanic craters and polar glaciers -- some of the planet's harshest environments.

These single-celled creatures owe their hardiness to genes, and that has drawn the attention of a few biotech companies. The companies train the genes to mass produce industrial-strength enzymes for such products as better detergents, cleaner chemicals and more effective DNA fingerprints.

Such ``bio-prospecting'' efforts have huge potential for good. They just might make hazardous waste cleanup more affordable, reduce pollution and make better medicines if the microbes' genetic durability can be exploited and controlled.

But tough questions are being raised as well -- about the morality of allowing private companies to patent and profit from Mother Nature.

The extremophile candidates are numerous. There's Deinoccus radiodurans, dubbed Conan the Bacterium by its legions of fans because it withstands 10,000 times the amount of radiation that would kill a human. Found on radiated food, it has a unique ability to repair broken DNA.

In Chile's moonlike Atacama desert -- one of Earth's driest spots -- lives another extremophile scientists say could give them clues to what life might look like on Mars.

And the Pentagon's research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is sponsoring experiments on genetically engineering extremophiles to extend the shelf life of blood-clotting platelets in extreme conditions. The idea is to help treat battlefield wounds.

Objections to such work often come from activists who complain that Third World countries aren't properly compensated for microbes extracted from their deserts, mountains and sea shores.

``The concern with bio-prospecting is that the people who consider themselves to be the stewards of the biodioversity in a region often aren't consulted or are ignored,'' said Beth Burrows of the Edmonds Institute, a environmental nonprofit based in Edmonds, Wash.

Native Hawaiians are angry over a deal between the University of Hawaii and a biotechnology company to share in potential profits gleaned from lava sludge. Now the Hawaiian Legislature is considering a moratorium on the transfer or sale of extremophiles found on public lands so environmental and profit-sharing issues can be worked out.

Antarctica is governed by an international treaty that vows to keep the continent open and free to scientists dedicated to peaceful pursuits. But some 92 patents have been filed in the United States and another 62 in Europe that claim ownership of biological property found there.

While such patent applications appear to be legal, ``some scientists active in Antarctica worry about whether outright commercial exploitation and patents are within the spirit of the treaty,'' said Sam Johnston, who co-wrote a report on the subject for the United Nations this year.

The Edmonds Institute sued the National Park Service in 1997 after it gave San Diego-based Diversa Corp. commercial rights to prospect for extremophiles in the fabled hot springs of Yellowstone National Park. The prospecting, involving fees and royalties paid to the government, was ultimately approved by a judge on the condition that an extensive environmental review be completed.

The park service has defended the deal -- which remains on hold pending the review -- as a way for it to profit on scientific research without disrupting the park's environment. Four decades ago, the park service wasn't so financially savvy when a University of Wisconsin researcher discovered the extremophile Thermus aquaticus in a Yellowstone hotspring.

Today, that bacterium provides a key enzyme -- polymerase -- used for polymerase chain reaction, better known as PCR, a Noble Prize-winning DNA fingerprinting technique used widely by crime labs, hospitals and university researchers.

Yellowstone doesn't receive any income from sales of the PCR enzyme, now a key tool in the $300 million-a-year DNA fingerprinting business.

The companies involved say that without the ability to patent extremophiles, they can't make good on the many promises of this area of biotechnology.

David Estell, a researcher at Genencor International Inc., said bio-prospecting requires the collecting of just a few samples, which hardly disturbs the environment.

Genencor is one of the few profitable biotechnology companies in existence, earning $13 million in the first quarter of 2004 on $94 million in revenue.

Genencor has the genetic material of 15,000 strains of microbes stored in deep-freeze in Palo Alto and the Netherlands. It already has 11 industrial products on the market, and is using living material -- enzymes and proteins, rather than fossil fuels -- to develop cleaner and cheaper ways of making industrial chemicals.

For instance, Genencor takes a gene that gives a microbe alkaline resistance and uses it to create enzymes for laundry detergent. One enzyme is used in Tide detergent, another is used to give jeans a faded look.

Both are produced by extremophiles found thriving in highly alkaline lakes in East Africa and Kenya. The extremophile genes responsible for making these enzymes are genetically engineered into commonplace bacteria, which are then coaxed to grow by the trillions in giant brewers' vats at Genencor's nine factories around the world.

``The goal,'' Estell said, ``is make proteins do something they've never done before.''

^------

Sat, 26 Jun 2004 02:35:03 GMT

Fri, 25 Jun 2004 02:58:19 GMT

Fri, 25 Jun 2004 02:54:42 GMT

Wi-Fi finds the way when GPS can't

19:00 23 June 04

Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.

In the concrete canyons of city centres, GPS satellite positioning systems often fail because high buildings block the signals they rely on. But an unlikely back-up for GPS is emerging: Wi-Fi.

A Wi-Fi based positioning system developed in the US and the UK works best where GPS fails: in cities and inside cavernous complexes like shopping malls. And because cheap Wi-Fi technology is already appearing on a raft of gadgets like PDAs, cellphones and laptops faster than more expensive GPS receivers are, the developers predict that Wi-Fi could become central to new location-based applications. They say emergency services in particular could find the system an essential back-up.

Wi-Fi allows people to connect devices wirelessly to the internet. Base stations are springing up in coffee bars, libraries, universities, airports, phone booths and other public places. Each base station broadcasts a radio signal to announce its presence to devices within a range of around 100 metres. This signal incorporates a unique network address code that identifies the base station.

Anthony LaMarca of the University of Washington in Seattle, and colleagues at Intel's research labs in both the US and the UK, have developed software that constantly records the radio signal strengths from nearby base stations.

It can identify the origin of the signal from a database giving the location of 26,000 Wi-Fi base stations in the US and the UK. Using the signal strength from at least three base stations, it can then triangulate the user's location. "This is a poor man's GPS," says team member Bill Schilit of Intel Research in Santa Clara, California.

Improved algorithms

At the moment, the new system, called Place Lab, is not as precise as GPS. It can provide accuracy to within 20 to 30 metres, whereas the GPS average is 8 to 10 metres.

But with improved algorithms that take into account, say, the height of the base station above the ground, or the building materials in the vicinity, LaMarca says "we could get on a par with GPS" in an area as densely served with Wi-Fi as downtown Seattle. The growth of Wi-Fi means all urban areas should one day have similar blanket coverage.

Once a user has Wi-Fi they will not have to buy extra hardware to use Place Lab, and the software can be downloaded for free from www.placelab.org. Increasingly, laptops, cellphones and PDAs are being sold with Wi-Fi capability already installed for around an extra $30. "This is not the case with GPS," LaMarca points out.

Researchers at the University of Glasgow in the UK are planning to test Place Lab's positioning ability on volunteers equipped with Wi-Fi enabled PDAs during 2004's Edinburgh Festival in August - despite the city's patchy Wi-Fi coverage. And in 2005, new software for the PDAs will help people find their way around Edinburgh and keep track of their friends.

Location aware

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Hi-flying Wi-Fi debuts on transatlantic flight
17 May 2004

Europe's largest Wi-Fi hotspot goes live
16 June 2003

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Weblinks

Place Lab

Anthony LaMarca, University of Washington

Jason Hong, University of California, Berkeley

Place Lab is not the first software to use Wi-Fi for positioning but - belying its name - it is the first to bring the idea out of the lab and into the real world.

"Microsoft once set up arrays of access points in a lab, but we are using the existing Wi-Fi infrastructure," LaMarca says. Place Lab has already been tested in Berkeley, San Diego, Seattle, Manhattan and Cambridge in the UK, among other cities.

The Place Lab team have other applications in the works. Jason Hong, a computer scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, is developing a "location-aware" version of Microsoft's Instant Messenger software. This will allow users to transmit their Place Lab data so that "buddy lists" will not only reveal when friends are online, but also where they are.

It could also be used to direct a user to the nearest petrol station or coffee bar, remind them their books are overdue as they pass the library, or warn them of traffic congestion ahead.

Celeste Biever, Boston

Fri, 25 Jun 2004 02:50:07 GMT

Be Careful out There:

Mysterious Virus-Like Infection
Attacks Thousands of Web Sites

Associated Press
June 24, 2004 10:36 p.m.

CHICAGO -- Government and industry experts warned late Thursday of a mysterious, large-scale Internet attack against thousands of popular Web sites. The virus-like infection tries to implant hacker software onto the computers of all Web site visitors.

Industry experts and the Homeland Security Department were studying the infection to determine how it spreads across Web sites and find adequate defenses against it.

"Users should be aware that any Web site, even those that may be trusted by the user, may be affected by this activity and thus contain potentially malicious code," the government warned in one Internet alert.

The mysterious infection appeared to target at least one recent version of software by Microsoft Corp. to operate Web sites, called its Internet Information Server, popular among businesses and organizations.

A spokesman for Microsoft declined to comment immediately.

Experts said the attack's effects were unusually broad but weren't substantially interfering with Internet traffic.

"While this is significant, it has no impact on the operation of the Internet," said Marcus Sachs, who helps run the industry's Internet Storm Center in Bethesda, Md.

Experts urgently recommended consumers and corporate employees to update the antivirus software on their computers, since the latest versions can immunize visitors to infected Web sites.

The infected Web sites attempt to implant on visitors' computers hacker software that allows others to use their computers to surreptitiously route Internet spam e-mails.

Fri, 25 Jun 2004 02:44:33 GMT

From Lawtalkers.com:

Holy crap

Post #2271

I'm sure you've read the reports of the kid that has tons of muscles, but the picture is great. Cute kid too.

__________________
I'm going to become rich and famous after I invent a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the internet.

Thu, 24 Jun 2004 03:13:22 GMT

Thu, 24 Jun 2004 03:03:22 GMT

Skeks in the city
I am beyond a rank!

Thu, 24 Jun 2004 03:01:35 GMT

Microsoft patents body power

Matt Loney, Special to CNET News.com

Microsoft has been awarded a patent for using human skin as a power conduit and data bus.

Patent No. 6,754,472, which was published Tuesday, describes a method for transmitting power and data to devices worn on the body and for communication of data between those devices.

In its filing, Microsoft cites the proliferation of wearable electronic devices, such as wristwatches, pagers, PDAs (worn on people's belts) and small displays that can now be mounted on headgear.

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"As a result of carrying multiple portable electronic devices, there is often a significant amount of redundancy in terms of input/output devices included in the portable devices used by a single person," says the filing. "For example, a watch, pager, PDA and radio may all include a speaker."

To reduce the redundancy of input/output devices, Microsoft's patent proposes a personal area network that allows a single data input or output device to be used by multiple portable devices.

Personal area networks, or PANs, are nothing new. Some, such as Bluetooth, use radio signals, while others use infrared. Some work has been done on near-field intrabody communications--most notably by IBM's Almaden Research Labs, which at Comdex 1996 demonstrated a prototype device, which was about the size of a pack of playing cards, that let two people exchange electronic business cards by shaking hands.

In its filing, Microsoft says its work addresses wearable devices that are too small to have any kind of interface or even a battery, such as earrings. The company proposes using pulsed AC or DC signals to power the devices. A 100Hz signal could be used to power one device, while a 150Hz signal could be used to power another, the company said, and data signals can be modulated on top of these power signals.

Furthermore, Microsoft said, the physical resistance offered by the human body could be used to create a virtual keyboard on a patch of skin. And just to make sure it has covered all its bases, the filing concludes with a reference for Fido.

"It will be apparent," it says, "that the body may be that of a wide variety of living animals and need not be limited to being a body of a human being."

The new patent is just one of many for the software giant. Since last year, Microsoft has been on a campaign to generate more money from its intellectual property, and in recent weeks the company has obtained patents for double-clicking, XML-scripting methods and a system for generating a to-do list from source code.

Matt Loney of ZDNet UK reported from London.