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Top Ten Advances in 2004

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the blinded-me-with-science dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Technology Research News has released it's top ten picks for advances of 2004. Something for everyone here including notable advances in biotechnology, communications, computing, engineering, energy, security, nanotechnology, applied physics and the Internet."

22 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. Ha! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    They forgot Poland!

  2. Where the heck by Sergeant+Beavis · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Is Space Ship One?

    --
    There is nothing inherently safe about liberty. That's why so many people died protecting it.
    1. Re:Where the heck by F34nor · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Space Ship One did is 50 years out of date. Nothing new just a shift from public to private sector. Plus its a rip off of a luftwaffe design.

    2. Re:Where the heck by bc90021 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There's a difference between a thing that hasn't been done before (ie, sending an encryption key via quantum entanglement), and something that's been done before but was then done by private enterprise.

      That is, Space Flight, while new to the private sector, is not new in general.

      --
      libertarianswag.com
  3. Hey! by albn · · Score: 3, Interesting

    China's implimentation of IPV6 was pretty cool...

    --
    Some call me Howie Feltersnatch
    1. Re:Hey! by PoopJuggler · · Score: 3, Funny

      China's implementation of Broccoli With Beef is pretty cool too.

  4. eye-dee-ten-tee by zmilo · · Score: 4, Funny

    However much they make computers better, they still haven't solved the classic PEBKAC problem...

  5. Quantum Teleportation by Chembryl · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I can't think of anything better than this:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3576594. stm

    --
    - This and all my posts are public domain. I am a Physicist. I am not your Physicist. This is not Physically advice
  6. A year is much too short by nodehopper · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The really big advances can't be put into a list spanning a year. Propably the biggest acheivement is the mapping of the Genome, which took years and is still being added to and made more complete. Not to mention the foundation of scientific advances that the project built itself on. I am sure there are a few "Eureka!" moments in science, but really this can't be looked at with an "MTV" short attention span perspective. It makes an end of year list but that is realy all that it is.

    --
    "We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. " Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
  7. Missing Category: Ethics by Marge+N.+Lacoste · · Score: 4, Insightful
    1945 was a great year for technology-- not so great for ethics. Just ask Oppenheimer.

    There are real ethical issues that don't get discussed in the popular press; these are just in the biotech field:

    Placebos in clinical trials
    Genetic mapping and privacy
    Patents on gene sequences/organisms
    Cloning

    The genie does not go back in the bottle. Let's get it right the first time.

    1. Re:Missing Category: Ethics by reverseengineer · · Score: 3, Informative
      Generally when new drugs meant to treat life-threatening are tested in clinical trials, the procedure is to test against the accepted treatment if one exists rather than against a true placebo. For example, a new cancer drug would be matched against a more traditional course of therapy. This has the advantage not only of ensuring that both the experimental and control groups get treated, but also provides a head-to-head test of the new drug and the old drug. No one is doing a Tuskegee Experiment-type trial now where mortally sick people are left untreated in the interests of science. Primum no nocere is supposed to be the guiding principle, after all. What good would having a sugar pill control do in a trial for an AIDS or cancer drug anyway? Of course a new antiretroviral is going to outperform dextrose in prolonging life and health in an AIDS patient. No useful science is produced in finding out the placebo group has a 100% mortality rate. What matters is whether the new drug has demonstrable advantages over the old drugs, be it as more efficacy, fewer side effects, fewer doses, etc.

      Now, in the case of less serious conditions, yes, sometimes sugar pills are handed out to study volunteers. But what alternative is there in many cases? The placebo (and for that matter, the nocebo) effect is quite real, and should be accounted for. Those crazy side effects you hear about in prescription medication commercials? While of course some of those are from the medication itself, there are always people who report effects like headache, fatigue, dry mouth, and nausea- in both the experimental and placebo groups. It's worthwhile knowing whether it's the medication which causes these symptoms, or rather just the anxiety that comes naturally from taking a strange new pill.

      By the same token, drugs shouldn't be on the market if they can't beat Placebex (R) in efficacy- and that can be surprisingly difficult to establish. From personal experience, I've noticed minor aches and pains tend to clear up when I take an OTC pain reliever- but I often start to feel better before the drug has had time to take effect. It's as though the action itself of doing something about that nagging headache induces my body to help out in doing something about that nagging headache. That sort of thing needs to be sorted out in order to know what a drug really does and how well it does it, and double blind studies with placebo are the only certain way to do that.

      --
      "FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."
  8. China's Pebble Bed Reactor Plan by Kobun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd put in for China's plan to expand their energy generation. It would be awesome to see Pebble Bed reactors get some decent coverage mainstream to their stability and safety. If china leads here, I can only hope we play follow the leader. Rolling blackouts, caused by deadly waves of stupid, are just embarrassing. wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_bed_reactor

  9. Premature by SlayerofGods · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hey! I've still got 1 more day to invent cold fusion.

    --

    Technology, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems.
  10. Re:Nothing about space here? by bc90021 · · Score: 3, Informative

    None of that is NEW, just better (or differently funded) implentations of stuff that's been around for forty years.

    This list is made up of NEW things.

    --
    libertarianswag.com
  11. Speaking Silently? by scooteratl · · Score: 4, Funny

    "And scientists from the NASA Ames Research Center developed speech recognition technology that allows users to speak silently. The scheme uses throat nerve activity rather than acoustics to glean information about what a person is saying. "

    It'd be better if the device could make people -think- before speaking (silently or otherwise). Lincoln noted "Better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt".

    Now doubt can be removed without opening of a mouth!!

    <SILENT>hehehehehe - the fools!!</SILENT>

    --
    He's just zis guy, you know?
  12. "its" versus "it's" by NaruVonWilkins · · Score: 3, Funny

    When making "it" possessive, the correct form is "its." When joining "it" and "is," the correct form is "it's." This is a common error, but it's an eyesore.

  13. Re:sigh.... by rainman_bc · · Score: 3, Informative

    Let's hope we have enough oil to last 50 to 100 years... If things are the same we'll see economic chaos before then.

    Read up on Hubert's peak... Scary shit.... Don't mean to act like Chicken Little and claim the scy is falling, but still...

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    09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
  14. Top invention of the year by gmuslera · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The Get the Facts campaign from Microsoft. Maybe is not an advance that help humanity, but is a clear demostration to how far into the insanity realm could be reached just playing with numbers.

  15. I'd pick MPAA and RIAA improvements to P2P by faramir_fr · · Score: 5, Funny

    MPAA and RIAA makes the P2P community evolve at a geometric rate... enjoy EXEEM folks.

    --
    Home of Faramir Paint Shop Pro scripts
  16. Great Advances of 2004 by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Funny

    The balance on my credit card :-(

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  17. Re:Really? by crmartin · · Score: 3, Informative

    It does look a good bit like an ME-163, although the 163 was ground launched.

    With Isp in the neighborhood of 200, though (see the "hot engine"), an air launched 163 would have been quite similar to SS1.

  18. It's NOT dead, Jim... by Kaemaril · · Score: 3, Funny

    An array of small pressure sensors on a flexible sheet from University of Tokyo researchers promises to lead to smart rugs and robot skin.

    I bet Bill Shatner's salivating at that one :)