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LY BD © oF VEN? A NEW AGE OF NEURAL IMPLANTS of about 1,000 feet or better. » While such phones could be life- savers in an emergency, the order from the Federal Communications Commission has raised serious ques- tions about invasion of privacy. Making mobile phones capable of tracking users’ locations will involve planting GPS chips in the handsets or installing new infrastructure in cell sites. Cellular providers plan commer- cial uses for the technology, such as getting directions if someone is lost, finding nearby restaurants or locating family members and friends who have become separated in a crowd. "Wireless operators already know where consumers are by virtue of the fact that the phone is on," pointed out Ken Arneson, the chief strategy officer at Telecommunication Systems, a provider of the location-tracking technolo- gy. "What's different here is that now car- riers are looking to commercialise that and need to do that to offset the cost of putting this technology in place." He estimated that it could cost billions of dollars to outfit the 110 million cell- phones in the United States with the track- ing mechanism. (Source: Foxnews, 23 April 2001, http://foxnews.com) | I ave we entered the age of neur- ee al implants? Research in the field is booming. Medtronic, Inc. of Minneapolis, USA, has developed a device called a "deep brain stimula- tor", based on an electrode inserted in the brain. A tiny generator implanted in the chest cavity sends signals to the electrode which stim- ulates the brain, supposedly reduc- ing neuromuscular tremors associ- ated with Parkinson's disease. Philip Kennedy and Dr Roy Bakay at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, have used implants to help speech-impaired patients communicate through a computer. And researchers at the University of Southern California are developing microelectromechanical systems that bind to and wirelessly moni- tor individual neurons—devices they hope one day will reconnect the severed bridge between a paralytic's mind and muscle. Using very large scale integrated circuit technology, or VLSI, scientists can build millions of transistors on a single wafer, creating circuits that mimic basic neural operations in mammals. A Los Angeles team at the University of Southern California, for example, has mathematically modelled neural circuitry and recreated it on silicon-based integrated circuits small enough to be implanted in the brain. Those circuits, if firmly affixed to groups of neurons, could theoretically recouple neuronal connections destroyed by disease or accident. (Source: By Kelly Hearn, United Press International, 9 May 2001) CELLPHONES TO HAVE LOCATION-TRACKING BY 2005 y 2005, the government will be able to track you down through your cell- phone. Cellphone manufacturers in the USA are under a federal mandate to equip mobiles with location-tracking technology beginning this October. By 2005, 95 per cent of all cellphones must be able to be traced with an accuracy BIZARRE CHEMICALS FORMED IN IRRADIATED FOOD CAN DAMAGE DNA [: a rare opportunity to speak publicly about food irradiation before a captive audience of government officials and food industry executives, Public Citizen has released the English translation of a recent German study revealing that a chemical formed in irradiated food can damage DNA. The study confirms what safe-food advocates and many pioneering researchers have known for more than 30 years: that exposing food to ionising radi- ation can lead to the formation of bizarre new chemicals called "unique radiolytic products" that can cause serious health problems. One such chemical, known as 2-DCB, caused "significant DNA damage" in the colons of rats that ate the substance. The chemical—which, ironically, is a well- known "marker" for determining whether food has been irradiated—has never been OK, DUDE, TLC DESIGN Your WEBSITE FOR YOU BUT CAT GUARANTEE Fred ING ~ SERVER WHO'LL DO AN ETERNITY PACKAGE.. Ly Sarma lhe 6 = NEXUS JUNE — JULY 2001 www.nexusmagazine.com