At the start of 2010 this is one perspective on what to be watching and perhaps working on in 2010. Prepared for a team workshop at Netskills, UK, January 2010, to kick the new year and decade off with some thought.
2. 2010 What's happening that's new and big? What is relevant to me and why? Are there implications for my work?
3. 2010 What's happening that's new and big? What is relevant to me and why? Are there implications for my work? 1 Internetting on steroids 2 Information discovery and retrieval challenges 3 Building blocks for the next version of the web 4 The role of social media
Two boys with X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy, a disease that ravages the brain, are doing well after French doctors gave them a gene that helps to maintain the delicate myelin coating on their nerve cells. A woman with Pachyonychia Congenita, a painful skin condition, watched one of her sores fade after doctors switched off the offending protein with a newer kind of gene therapy called RNA interference. Twelve patients who were blinded by Leberís congenital amaurosis showed signs of recovery after getting a genetic treatment in one of their eyes. Italian researchers announced that most of the†10 patients who received gene therapy for severe combined immunodeficiency, or ìbubble boy disease,î are doing very well eight years after the procedure that repaired their defenses against infection.Also this year, researchers at the University of Washington cured two adult monkeys of colorblindness by giving them injections of a gene that produces pigments necessary for color vision. After the treatment, the animals scored higher on a computerized color blindness test.In the coming years, gene therapy will be tested as a remedy for all sorts of inherited diseases, cancer, viral infections and even high cholesterol.
Two boys with X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy, a disease that ravages the brain, are doing well after French doctors gave them a gene that helps to maintain the delicate myelin coating on their nerve cells. A woman with Pachyonychia Congenita, a painful skin condition, watched one of her sores fade after doctors switched off the offending protein with a newer kind of gene therapy called RNA interference. Twelve patients who were blinded by Leberís congenital amaurosis showed signs of recovery after getting a genetic treatment in one of their eyes. Italian researchers announced that most of the†10 patients who received gene therapy for severe combined immunodeficiency, or ìbubble boy disease,î are doing very well eight years after the procedure that repaired their defenses against infection.Also this year, researchers at the University of Washington cured two adult monkeys of colorblindness by giving them injections of a gene that produces pigments necessary for color vision. After the treatment, the animals scored higher on a computerized color blindness test.In the coming years, gene therapy will be tested as a remedy for all sorts of inherited diseases, cancer, viral infections and even high cholesterol.
Two boys with X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy, a disease that ravages the brain, are doing well after French doctors gave them a gene that helps to maintain the delicate myelin coating on their nerve cells. A woman with Pachyonychia Congenita, a painful skin condition, watched one of her sores fade after doctors switched off the offending protein with a newer kind of gene therapy called RNA interference. Twelve patients who were blinded by Leberís congenital amaurosis showed signs of recovery after getting a genetic treatment in one of their eyes. Italian researchers announced that most of the†10 patients who received gene therapy for severe combined immunodeficiency, or ìbubble boy disease,î are doing very well eight years after the procedure that repaired their defenses against infection.Also this year, researchers at the University of Washington cured two adult monkeys of colorblindness by giving them injections of a gene that produces pigments necessary for color vision. After the treatment, the animals scored higher on a computerized color blindness test.In the coming years, gene therapy will be tested as a remedy for all sorts of inherited diseases, cancer, viral infections and even high cholesterol.
The researchers, who built their work on previous studies of information consumption, found that Americans take in data through various channels, including the television, radio, the Web, text messages and video games. Most of this time is spent in front of screens watching TV-related content, averaging nearly five hours of daily consumption. Second is radio, which the average American listens to for about 2.2 hours a day. The computer comes in third, at just under two hours a day. Video games take up about an hour, and reading takes up 36 minutes. Most of these experiences happen simultaneously, like talking on the phone while checking e-mail, or instant messaging while watching TV. Overall, information consumption is increasing at about 6 percent a year, the report estimated. “Gaming saw the biggest leap in the number of bytes we consume,” accounting for about 55 percent of the total, said Roger Bohn, a professor of technology management and co-author of the study, which is the first to consider video games part of overall data consumption. Consumption of print media has declined consistently, Professor Bohn said. “But if you add up the amount of time people spend surfing the Web, they are actually reading more than ever,” he added. Collectively, American households consumed 3.6 zettabytes of information of all kinds in 2008, the researchers estimated. A zettabyte is equal to one billion trillion bytes: a 1 with 21 zeros at the end. A single zettabyte is equivalent to 100 billion copies of all the books in the Library of Congress , or as the report says, seven layers of textbooks covering the continental United States and Alaska.