The great DNA letdown

A decade ago, scientists promised a revolution in drug development as they mapped the human genome. What went wrong?

By David Ewing Duncan, contributor

This is science as a biopic: the stars are four regular guys named A, T, C, and G. Like the mop-top Beatles who came from Liverpool nearly 50 years ago, this Fab Four are the superstars of our era, which has been dubbed the Age of Genomics.

Since scientists MORE

Meet the Google iPad

No matter what sleek device Apple designs, it's Google that will win the data war.

By Jeff Jarvis, contributor

Apple and Google, until recently friends and allies, are now fighting for the future of the Internet. They won't occupy the same territory exactly: Apple will still design hardware; Google will still organize information and sell advertising. They have been complementary. But now they are competing to be our constant companion.

The two giants MORE

Is the DNA patent dead?

Biotech companies argue that a judge's ruling against DNA patents will slow their life-saving work. Instead they should move quickly to come up with a better, more collaborative way to protect and share findings. Time to get creative.

By David Ewing Duncan, contributor

Who owns our DNA -- those long sequences of As, Gs, Ts, and Cs that make us who we are and contain hidden clues to diseases MORE

Electronic Arts reboots

The video game stock has been a laggard - but fund managers and analysts say it will bounce back soon.

By Mina Kimes, writer

Once a blazing hot tech stock, Electronic Arts (ERTS), the maker of "Madden" and "Rock Band," is badly in need of a restart. The video game company's shares have sunk 63% over the last three years while the NASDAQ has been flat. Sales growth slowed after EA failed MORE

Blogging for bankers

To take on their toughest critics, big banks are playing as visitors on social media's turf. Can they keep up, much less win?

By Nin-Hai Tseng, contributor

Five days a week, and sometimes weekends, Larry Rubinoff pounds away on his laptop with a mission: Expose what he believes to be the truth about the big banks' roles in the global financial meltdown.

For this semi-retired mortgage professional turned blogger, running Goldmansachs666.com isn't MORE

Nukes in my backyard

They're lean, clean, power-generating machines. But would a town really bury a mini nuclear reactor under its streets?

By Brian Dumaine, assistant managing editor

Long left for dead, the U.S. nuclear power industry appears poised for a comeback.

President Barack Obama earlier this year announced an $8.3 billion loan guarantee to help the Georgia utility Southern Co. build two large reactors, and he wants to triple the amount of federal loan guarantees for MORE

For Google, provoking ISPs is the only way to build the Internet

By Paul Smalera, contributor

Google's recent push to provide ultra-high-speed Internet is more about injecting competition in the dysfunctional Internet business than about creating a new revenue stream.

It's the 21st century equivalent of the Oklahoma land rush: Just days after Google announced it was seeking some trial areas in which to deploy its new ultra-high-speed fiber network, cities and towns began throwing themselves at the Internet giant. And why shouldn't they? MORE

Cheap bandwidth, hardware and programmers: Entrepreneurial crack?

By Theo Schlossnagle, CEO, OmniTI

In an era of cheap bandwidth, hardware, and programmers, executives have forgotten -- to their detriment -- how to prepare for the consequences of website failures.

Popular opinion holds that Web 2.0 is a surge of innovation heretofore unseen on the Internet.  Many, like Marc Andressen, argue that one of, if not the most, important contributors to this innovation is access to cheap bandwidth, programmers, hardware and MORE

World's greenest skyscraper

By Brian Dumaine, assistant managing editor

Architecture firm SOM rises to the challenge of designing the most energy-efficient tower, a 71-story building in China.

The Holy Grail of modern architecture is to design a zero-energy building, or ZEB. ZEBs use solar, wind, and geothermal systems to produce at least as much energy as they tap from the grid. In some cases, a building's owner can sell the excess electricity generated by the structure MORE

In Obama's budget, it's techies vs. taxes

By Jia Lynn Yang, writer

There's a frequent line in President Obama's speeches that makes every U.S. tech executive cringe: his vow to cut tax breaks for "companies that ship our jobs overseas."

Obama's brushing over some details here. The U.S. tax code does not literally give a company a tax break every time it moves a job offshore. But it does allow companies to defer paying taxes on their overseas profits, MORE