] In the coming decades, a radical upgrading of our body's
] physical and mental systems, already underway, will use
] nanobots to augment and ultimately replace our organs. We
] already know how to prevent most degenerative disease
] through nutrition and supplementation; this will be a
] bridge to the emerging biotechnology revolution, which in
] turn will be a bridge to the nanotechnology revolution.
] By 2030, reverse-engineering of the human brain will have
] been completed and nonbiological intelligence will merge
] with our biological brains.

KurzweilAI.net

] Scientists have developed a more effective way to carry
] out gene therapy without the risks of current methods

Whoa....I have never heard of this microbubble technology before. Sounds really interesting. If anyone else knows of any good links to info about this, let me know.

BBC NEWS | Health | Gene therapy breakthrough

] Napster, the pioneering online music file swapping
] service, will be relaunched by the end of the year by its
] new owner as a legal subscription service.

Although this is the new, legal form, I can't help but to think that Napster will never be the same. This company should have come up with a new name for its service.

BBC NEWS | Business | Napster gets a new lease of life

Israeli scientists have devised a computer that can perform 330 trillion operations per second, more than 100,000 times the speed of the fastest PC. The secret: It runs on DNA.

A year ago, researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, unveiled a programmable molecular computing machine composed of enzymes and DNA molecules instead of silicon microchips. Now the team has gone one step further. In the new device, the single DNA molecule that provides the computer with the input data also provides all the necessary fuel.

Computer Made from DNA and Enzymes

quoted (use cpunk@cpunk.com as email address for login) :
===
Systems biologists envision a hulking database where all biological knowledge can be stored, freely accessed, and designed to interact. From it, researchers could easily extract data to construct virtual molecular pathway models working in their respective networks and in dynamic contexts of time, space, and various environmental cues. Hypotheses could be plucked like apples from the electronic tree of knowledge, and drug targets would fall like leaves. Some want to play out this tremendous vision, but they know it cannot be done at a single lab, by a single investigator. Members of Alliance for Cellular Signaling (AfCS), call for a new scientific world order--a shift toward socialist science.
====

I don't know if I'd go so far as to call it socialist science! However, this sort of information system sounds extremely powerful.

[well, it would be social science in that with that system, all of the scientists who used that system would be "collaborating". It may help in progressing science at a fast rate...I don't know. But with "drug targets falling like leaves", I think it would make competition stiffer, which would lead to more secrecy of drug companies, make people file for patents earlier than ever before, etc, etc. Hmm.
On a lighter note, you should check out this site just to see the image they have that I guess is supposed to symbolize socialist science. A big red hand in a fist holding a pipetman. I would *kill* to have that in poster size. - Nano]

The Scientist :: The People's Biology, Feb. 24, 2003

Rudy Rucker rules!

[I dig Rudy Rucker. I recommend reading "The Fourth Dimension"...it was so intense, I actually had several dreams about the fourth dimension. Definitly rad. - Nanochick]

The Infinite Matrix | Rudy Rucker and Rudy Rucker, Jr. | Jenna and Me

] Academics do need to pay more attention to the role of
] religious belief in American public life, not only in the
] past, but also today. Without close attention to the
] prophetic scenario embraced by millions of American
] citizens, the current political climate in the United
] States cannot be fully understood.
]
] Leaders have always invoked God's blessing on their wars,
] and, in this respect, the Bush administration is simply
] carrying on a familiar tradition. But when our born-again
] president describes the nation's foreign-policy objective
] in theological terms as a global struggle against
] "evildoers," and when, in his recent State of the Union
] address, he casts Saddam Hussein as a demonic,
] quasi-supernatural figure who could unleash "a day of
] horror like none we have ever known," he is not only
] playing upon our still-raw memories of 9/11. He is also
] invoking a powerful and ancient apocalyptic vocabulary
] that for millions of prophecy believers conveys a
] specific and thrilling message of an approaching end - not
] just of Saddam, but of human history as we know it.

Quick! Take a drug, get laied, go skydiving, drive your car real fast, write a novel, climb Mt. Everest, learn to swim, code that program, ask her out, run a marathon, get that peircing, write that song, go to that club, move to a city, move to the woods, eat sushi, do whatever the hell you gotta do, because the end times are here and George Bush is driving..

Umm.. Yeah.

AlterNet: When U.S. Foreign Policy Meets Biblical Prophecy

] Dolly's birth six-and-a-half years' ago caused a
] sensation around the world. But as many sheep live to
] twice this age, her death will refuel the intense debate
] over the health and life expectancy of cloned animals.

I think its interesting that Dolly died at age six. I wonder if that correlates at all to the fact that she was cloned from a cell taken from a six-year old sheep.

New Scientist

] Someday soon North American telephone numbers might add
] up to 12 digits, including area code, instead of the
] current 10.

Wired News: Out of Phone Numbers? Add Digits

] Cleveland said Google's acquisition of Pyra would, quite
] simply, help Google create a more accurate search engine
] by adding rich new sources of data gleaned from weblogs.
]
] The secret, Cleveland said, is in the scores of links
] webloggers create every day to content on the Web.

Wired News: Why Did Google Want Blogger?