Green technology industry safe

Analysts say high energy prices, concerns about global warming, and an influx of venture capital are helping to insulate the growing green technology sector from many of the forces battering the financial world, reports Boston.com.

The National Venture Capital Association, a trade group, and the accounting firm Ernst & Young say venture capital investment in clean technology has grown rapidly in the last several years.

A recent Ernst & Young report on global venture capital investments found that $2.2 billion was invested in the clean-tech sector in the first six months of this year.

Scientists studying the mobile Web are seeding Apple's iPhone Applications Store with research projects, such as an experimental text-input system and an application to sync multiple devices, in a bid to see how users in the real world take to them, says Wired.com.

IBM researchers are thinking broadly about how to redesign user experiences for common applications like e-mail and calendar for desktops, laptops and smartphones.

Though IBM has alphaWorks, a Web site to offer access to emerging technologies from its stable and other open source sites to make its projects available, the App Store offers a unique way to reach potential users.

A research study released by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN) finds about 50% of adults are too unsure about nanotechnology to make an initial judgment on the possible tradeoffs between benefits and risks, says EurekAlert.

Public policy experts are concerned that the federal government has failed to engage citizens on the potential benefits and risks posed by technologies that could have a significant impact on society.

"Scientists are expected to take the next major step toward the creation of synthetic forms of life. Yet the results from the first US telephone poll about synthetic biology show that most adults have heard little or nothing at all about it," says PEN director David Rejeski.