In The News

Train Makers Rail Against China's High-Speed Designs

Norihiko Shirouzu December 2, 2010
China does not let the grass grow under its feet in studying and adapting high-value technology, then mastering and distributing the same. Such is the case with the high-speed rails pioneered by Japanese and European firms, with China now supplying similar technology to Saudi Arabia, the US and Brazil. Foreign makers of any product eye China’s massive market, but can expect competition to emerge...

Long Live the Web: A Call for Continued Open Standards and Neutrality

Tim Berners-Lee November 26, 2010
In just 20 years, the world has come to take the instant connections of the worldwide web for granted. The web’s creator – Tim Berners-Lee – lists emerging threats to the vast store of linked data in an essay for Scientific American, including fragmentation, exclusivity by social networking sites like Facebook, slowing traffic to non-customers and monitoring individual online habits. The essay is...

Qualms Arise Over Outsourcing Of Electronic Medical Records

Amol Sharma, Ben Worthen November 8, 2010
Digitizing health records improves care, reduces errors and saves money in redundant testing or treatment. In an effort to reduce costs, the US health care reform law includes incentives, with billions in government funding, for providers and hospitals to rely on electronic medical records. Only 20 percent of US hospitals now rely on electronic records. Analysts anticipate that hospitals will not...

The Perils of American Stupidity

John Berthelsen November 3, 2010
Science and education deliver prosperity. Yet some populist US politicians denounce education as elitism, a stance that invites comparisons with the Cambodia's Khmer Rouge and its vilification of intellectuals. John Berthelsen rejects the comparison in the Asia Sentinel, yet expresses alarm: “[T]he impulse to banish knowledge as a means of securing political power is a dangerous strategy...

The Third Revolution

Nayan Chanda November 1, 2010
US citizens are angry about high unemployment rates, and candidates for political office rail about outsourcing to China or India. But blaming Asia is shortsighted, explains Nayan Chanda, YaleGlobal editor in his column for Businessworld, and can't ease consumers' desire for inexpensive products. A third industrial revolution is underway, as digital technology allows companies to easily...

All Eyes on France as Officials Enforce New Antipiracy Law

Max Colchester October 29, 2010
The French are cracking down on illegal online sharing of protected materials. Authorities monitor downloads, and send warning letters to internet users who download a copyrighted text, song or film. Third-time offenders can lose internet privileges for one year, reports Max Colchester for the New York Times. A private firm, paid for by trade associations representing creative interests, monitors...

China Set to Claim Supercomputing Crown

Joseph Milton October 28, 2010
For solving the world's biggest problems in defense, energy, finance or physics, China could have a new edge. The nation is poised to take the world's top spot in supercomputers, bypassing the United States. The Tianhe-A1 computer – developed by the Chinese National University of Defense Technology – is 2.5 petaflops, significantly faster than the fastest US computer with 2.3 petaflops...