http://www.futurepundit.com/ Future technological trends and their likely effects on human society, politics and evolution. en-us 2009-11-21T09:40:52-08:00 2009-11-21T10:35:09-08:00 Using nanocrystal-based inks printed onto metal foil photovoltaics start-up Solexant claims it can get its costs under those of low cost leader First Solar. Making the entire cell using a roll-to-roll process gives the company an advantage over other thin-film photovoltaic companies that print on glass, which is heavier and limited to smaller areas, says Solexant CEO Damoder Reddy. "The cost benefit is dramatic, allowing us to produce cells for 50 cents a watt," he says. First Solar, a thin-film company that uses vacuum deposition to print its cells onto glass, has manufacturing costs of 85 cents per watt. Nanosolar, another company making nanocrystal solar cells, uses a different semiconductor that requires chemical reactions to take place during printing, which... http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/006731.html An MIT press release about the use of nanoparticles to deliver gene therapy contains an interesting statistic about the size of the overall effort to develop clinically useful gene therapies: In the United States alone almost 1000 gene therapy clinical trials are underway. That's a surprisingly large number. Is it true? Seems too high to be possible. There are nearly 1,000 clinical trials under way in the United States involving gene therapy, for diseases including cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurological disorders. However, no gene therapy treatments have been approved in the United States. This is an example of why it is hard to predict the future. It is hard to predict the success rate of those many attempts. Once some... http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/006730.html The direction of causation is not clear but a little bit of anxiety might be good for your health. Depressed smokers must have terrible life expectancy. A study by researchers at the University of Bergen, Norway, and the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King's College London has found that depression is as much of a risk factor for mortality as smoking. Utilising a unique link between a survey of over 60,000 people and a comprehensive mortality database, the researchers found that over the four years following the survey, the mortality risk was increased to a similar extent in people who were depressed as in people who were smokers. Dr Robert Stewart, who led the research team at the IoP, explains... http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/006726.html Fracturing rocks deep underground so that water can be heated up doesn't work well for generating geothermal energy. The US Department of Energy has decided to fund some national labs to develop an approach for geothermal energy capture involving carbon dioxide as a substitute for water. The approach offers the additional benefit of sequestering CO2. In 2000, Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist Donald Brown proposed replacing water with supercritical carbon dioxide, a pressurized form that is part gas, part liquid. Supercritical CO2 is less viscous than water and thus should flow more freely through rock. Brown noted that a siphoning effect should help cycle the carbon dioxide, thanks to the density difference between the supercritical CO2 pumped down and the... http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/006725.html Babies less prone to feel fear are more likely to commit crimes. Even at the tender age of 3, children who will go on to be convicted of a crime are less likely to learn to link fear with a certain noise than those who don't. This may mean that an insensitivity to fear could be a driving force behind criminal behaviour. Adult criminals tend to be fearless, but whether this characteristic emerges before or after they commit a crime wasn't clear, says Adrian Raine, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Will people choosing genetic alleles for their genetically engineered children make them more or less predisposed to feel fear than the average human today? The answer... http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/006724.html A vitamin boosts cancer risk? Patients with heart disease in Norway, a country with no fortification of foods with folic acid, had an associated increased risk of cancer and death from any cause if they had received treatment with folic acid and vitamin B12, according to a study in the November 18 issue of JAMA. Most epidemiological studies have found inverse associations between folate (a B vitamin) intake and risk of colorectal cancer, although such associations have been inconsistent or absent for other cancers, according to background information in the article. “Experimental evidence suggests that folate deficiency may promote initial stages of carcinogenesis, whereas high doses of folic acid may enhance growth of cancer cells. Since 1998, many countries, including... http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/006723.html People work harder on their current task when they have a tougher task coming up. Consumers will work harder on a task if they're expecting to have to do something difficult at a later time, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. In today's fast-paced world, consumers frequently undertake unrelated tasks in a sequence. An individual might make a grocery list, decide whether to take out a home improvement loan, search the Internet for a vacation spot, and choose a dinner location—all before preparing lunch. "It seems reasonable to expect that when consumers know that they will have to work hard on a future task, they will devote less effort to the current task, in order... http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/006722.html In a sample of 200 students those with two copies of a particular allele of an oxytocin receptor appear to be better at reading emotional state in others. CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers have discovered a genetic variation that may contribute to how empathetic a human is, and how that person reacts to stress. In the first study of its kind, a variation in the hormone/neurotransmitter oxytocin's receptor was linked to a person's ability to infer the mental state of others. Interestingly, this same genetic variation also related to stress reactivity. These findings could have a significant impact in adding to the body of knowledge about the importance of oxytocin, and its link to conditions such as autism and unhealthy levels... http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/006720.html Okay, weeks have gone by without a vitamin D post. Well, with big turkeys on the horizon it is time to think about heart health. Patients over 50 years old with the lowest vitamin D levels died at higher rates. MURRAY, UT – While mothers have known that feeding their kids milk builds strong bones, a new study by researchers at the Heart Institute at Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City suggests that Vitamin D contributes to a strong and healthy heart as well – and that inadequate levels of the vitamin may significantly increase a person's risk of stroke, heart disease, and death, even among people who've never had heart disease. For more than a year, the Intermountain... http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/006719.html Out of the 60,000 vertebrate species still in existence an international group of scientists wants to sequence 10,000 of them. Scientists have an ambitious new strategy for untangling the evolutionary history of humans and their biological relatives: a genetic menagerie made of the DNA of more than 10,000 vertebrate species. The plan, proposed by an international consortium of scientists, is to obtain, preserve, and sequence the DNA of approximately one species for each genus of living mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. A bigger effort is needed to collect samples from many individual animals of each species so that their genetic diversity can be preserved in the face of declining numbers. Habitat loss is cutting into the numbers of many... http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/006718.html http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/006717.html Gina Kolata, writing in the New York Times talks to a lot of top medical researchers and reports on cancer-preventing drugs that go unused and the many disappointing diet and vitamin interventions for cancer prevention. Many Americans do not think twice about taking medicines to prevent heart disease and stroke. But cancer is different. Much of what Americans do in the name of warding off cancer has not been shown to matter, and some things are actually harmful. Yet the few medicines proved to deter cancer are widely ignored. The article does an excellent job of reviewing assorted great hopes for reduced cancer risk via diet and vitamins and how many of these approaches failed in large scale intervention trials.... http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/006714.html Eating chocolate might be good for people whose metabolisms show up as stressed in blood tests. Though I have to wonder whether attacking the underlying causes of high stress hormones would be more likely to deliver a real benefit. The "chocolate cure" for emotional stress is getting new support from a clinical trial published online in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research. It found that eating about an ounce and a half of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduced levels of stress hormones in the bodies of people feeling highly stressed. Everyone's favorite treat also partially corrected other stress-related biochemical imbalances. One big problem with research on benefits of food on health: research that turns up a positive result... http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/006712.html William Patterson of the University of Saskatchewan, says the Younger Dryas mini Ice Age came on in a matter of months. JUST months - that's how long it took for Europe to be engulfed by an ice age. The scenario, which comes straight out of Hollywood blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow, was revealed by the most precise record of the climate from palaeohistory ever generated. Around 12,800 years ago the northern hemisphere was hit by the Younger Dryas mini ice age, or "Big Freeze". It was triggered by the slowdown of the Gulf Stream, led to the decline of the Clovis culture in North America, and lasted around 1300 years. Can our climate suddenly change drastically? Yes. We can't be... http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/006711.html At least in the United States people in their 60s have more of several types of disabilities than the previous cohort of people in their 60s. In a development that could have significant ramifications for the nation's health care system, Baby Boomers may well be entering their 60s suffering far more disabilities than their counterparts did in previous generations, according to a new UCLA study. The findings, researchers say, may be due in part to changing American demographics. Have more obesity, less exercise, and other changes in diet and lifestyle begun to cut into life expectancies? In the study, which will be published in the January 2010 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, researchers from the division of... http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/006709.html