The observations of Albert-Laszlo Barabasi about networks have broad applications in business. In an interview, he explained a few of the implications.

How One Decision Affects Many Players

This conclusion, described in Professor Barabasi's new book, "Linked: The New Science of Networks", could alter the way we think about all the networks that affect our lives.

I've already recommended this book, but today's NYT interview provides some additional background in case you haven't already bought the book.

Lessons From Networks, Online and Other

"When Charles Darwin introduced the theory of evolution through natural selection 143 years ago, the scientists of the day argued over it fiercely, but the massing evidence from paleontology, genetics, zoology, molecular biology and other fields gradually established evolution's truth beyond reasonable doubt. Today that battle has been won everywhere--except in the public imagination."

Scientific American: 15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense

Abstract: The idea that people are connected through just "six degrees of separation," based on Stanley Milgram's "small world study," has become part of the intellectual furniture of educated people. New evidence discovered in the Milgram papers in the Yale archives, together with a review of the literature on the "small world problem," reveals that this widely-accepted idea rests on scanty evidence. Indeed, the empirical evidence suggests that we actually live in a world deeply divided by social barriers such as race and class. An explosion of interest is occurring in the small world problem because mathematicians have developed computer models of how the small world phenomenon could logically work. But mathematical modeling is not a substitute for empirical evidence. At the core of the small world problem are fascinating psychological mysteries.

Could It Be A Big World After All?

"Can you imagine having Stephen Jay Gould as a babysitter?"

Gould's Serious Fun

... Fukuyama told Salon why he thinks that the right to be cloned and to tinker with our offspring's genes aren't liberties that we should all enjoy, and what should be done to restrain the onrush of biotechnology.

This appears to be more oriented toward concerns about actions rather then concerns about thoughts. Therefore I find it more reasonable.

Salon.com Technology | Clone free

Gould died of cancer at his home in New York City.

It is a sad day for science. And given his failing health, I am all the more impressed with his recent publication of a mammoth 1464 page treatise on evolutionary theory.

washingtonpost.com: Famed Harvard Biologist Stephen Jay Gould Dies

Researchers Use Gene Therapy to Destroy HIV Virus

Interesting approach here... Hurry up and wait 3 years for trials/maturity...

AIDS cured?

Impressive and very cool application of biotech. Which sometimes appears somewhat creepy to me; however, this kind of application is why we should continue (carefully) to continue this important research.

Stem Cell Research Yeilds Cure for 'Bubble Boy' Disease

This post is a little rambly... Basically you can get a standard DNA paternity test and then line it up with databases that are developing on the net... if everyone got a paternity test done you could track your genetic degrees of separation from anyone else. If you're one of those people who has no idea where the hell your ancestors lived you might get a good general idea through this database. (I had the good fortune of having a cousin who became obsessed with geneology in retirement and figured out exactly where my ancestors lived and all kinds of other neat information about them... ) I'm glad we're fairly well along the way toward seperating the concept of blood heredity and legal power prior to the invention of this sort of technology, but I agree with the poster that this sort of thing is going to cause some static in some of the older cultures.

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