Biotrends 2011: Introduction and Index

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October 7, 2010
Updated October 13, 2010

In December, articles on the visions of the future pop up like May flowers, while January articles tend to retrospectives, "a review of the past year." Or maybe it's the other way around. Or a little of both.

Whatever the case, I thought it might be fun to avoid the year-end rush -- well before the annual orange-black-white costume party known as Halloween -- and suggest the following list of "a double dozen plus three" trends in the life sciences for your consideration.

But what's the use of a mere list?

Glad you asked.

We're all immersed in a sound-byte and word-byte world, right? And some of the 27 brief titles I've listed might spark ideas for your own list of where we're heading. We've got about 12 weeks until the end of the year, plenty of time for a double dozen plus three observations to pop up. Links to each of the items below will become live in green as the articles are posted (um, after being written of course, in no particular order).

Introduction

The Human Condition
.....This is Your Brain on ...
..........Music
..........Food
..........Gardening
.....Aging Population
..........Youthful Aging
.....Human Nature - so What's New?
.....The Past In/Is Our Future

New Human Realities
.....Health Awareness
.....Multi-tasking and "Always-on"
.....Science & Education
.....Complexifying Simplicity
.....Globalization
.....Economic Influences & Consequences
.....New Controversies & Dilemmas
.....Privacy Issues

Actions Speak Louder …
.....The New Philanthropy
.....Cooperation Rising
.....Funding, IPOs, IP

Tech Tools
.....E-books & E-learning
..........Why Print Won't Die
.....Simplifying Complexity
.....The Cloud (Computing)
.....At the Speed of … a Tweet

Eco-Smart
.....Appropriate & Sustainable Tech
.....Ag-Bio - Green Superpower
.....Going Green
..........Home Solar
..........Business
.....Future Transport

Some Bio-Picks (no "movie" pun intended)
.....Biomimicry
.....Disappearing Biodiversity
..........Impact of Monoculture and Locavorism
.....All Kinds of Omics
.....All things Nano