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Reports on companies that are pioneering technologies for electronic paper and have prototypes at various stages of development in fall 2000. Details of the rigid indoor display board called Immedia by E Ink Corporation; History of electronic paper; Invention of Nick Sheridon of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC) in California called Gyricon; Research at Kent Displays in Ohio on cholesteric liquid crystals; Outlook.

The article reports that researchers at the New University of Lisbon have discovered a way to make paper into a transistor. Details about the research, conducted by professors Elvira Fortunato and Rodrigo Martins, among others, are presented. The important role that transistors play in electronics is also explored.

Describes a battery created by Power Paper that is thin enough to be printed onto paper or packages using the conventional silkscreen process. Features of the battery, which uses layers of zinc and magnesium dioxide to produce a current strong enough to run microelectronic devices; Planned use of Power Paper batteries in International Paper's packaging; Other possible applications.

Discusses progress towards the development of electronic paper. Study in which a flexible electronic page made of Mylar that used pentacene as a semiconductor, gold as wiring, and dielectric as an insulator; How this meets the challenge of cheap, flexible electronic components for electronic paper; Role of microcontact printing lithography; Outlook for this technology.

The article examines a competition held by the trade association Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) for technological innovations to reduce the industry's carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption. Proposals in the competition to use eutectic solvents, an organic substance to dissolve wood and to reduce water use in the industry are discussed. The competition is considered as an indication technological innovations can address greenhouse gas mitigation.

Discusses efforts to develop and implement electronic paper. Research and development efforts by a number of corporations; 1999 announcements of technological developments by Xerox, 3M, E Ink and Lucent; Two different technologies developed and their use of tiny plastic beads or capsules which are black on one side and white on the other; Benefits and drawbacks to both technologies; Uses for the technologies.

The article discusses the airline industry's decision to discontinue the issuance of paper tickets. The article describes how electronic travel passes (e-tickets) are replacing paper tickets due to the economic benefits. The article explains how a task force sponsored by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) managed the conversion. Details are provided regarding the ability of e-tickets to be stored in mobile phones.

Discusses the role and management strategy of Paul Allaire during his second round as chief executive of Xerox. Difficulties that the company is facing with financial losses in the third quarter 2000; Drop in share prices; Idea that Xerox's centralized copying is losing ground to distributed printing; Effect of Rick Thoman's management on the company in 1999; View that without reorganization Xerox is vulnerable to a takeover bid.

The article reports that the Chinese University of Hong Kong tried to explain the country's distinctive pace and pattern of development. Topics include examines the title was as well received as the argument, echoed in a variety of papers such as "Innovating like China", "Investing like China" and "Internationalizing like China".

The article examines the commonality between the 1990s and the current period in terms of share price and productivity. Topics discussed include a 2013 paper by William Bernstein which suggested that periods of technological change have not been very good for stockholders, the link between the value of a share and discounted cashflows, and the connection between high asset prices and slow growth.

The article focuses on advancements in life-like prosthesis in 2014 discussed in a paper by researchers including Daniel Tan, published in the periodical "Science Translational Medicine." Topics include sensory restoration after the loss of a limb, the use of electrical signals to control prosthetic limbs, and how prosthesis can eliminate 'phantom limbs,' which is when the amputee's feeling in the limb remains after removal.

The article discusses the companies that have been working towards making better and longer-lasting inks. The use of a gel-based pigment ink by Newell Rubbermaid, which is an office-and home-supplies company in Atlanta, Georgia, in its Uniball pens has resulted in a 25% increase in annual sales. The brand Noodler's Ink, which uses ink relying on dyes that react with the surface of the paper's cellulose fibers, is explored. Pigment inks and dye inks are discussed.

The article discusses how countries such as India and China have shown they can move beyond western imitation to homegrown innovation in certain fields, such as telecommunications and information technology. The same is increasingly true of biotechnology, argues a report just published in Nature Biotechnology by a group at the University of Toronto. The study looks at the state of medical biotechnology in six developing countries--Brazil, China, Cuba, Egypt, India and South Africa--and one recently industrialised one, South Korea, to understand what it takes to build a healthy biotech sector. Many of the countries studied, which began investing in biotech in the 1980s, are starting to see the fruits of their labour. The number of scientific papers on health biotechnology published by researchers in Brazil and Cuba, for example, more than tripled between 1991 and 2002. Much of the biotech industry in the developing world is based on copying western innovation. But such generic manufacturing can be a springboard to more innovative activities. India's pharmaceutical firms are playing an important role in the global fight against AIDS by selling generic versions of anti-retroviral drugs at a fraction of the price charged by their western inventors in the rich world. There are plenty of other hurdles that the countries studied in the report need to tackle before their biotech blossoms fully. Brazil needs better links between academia and industry. Egypt's budding biotechnologists are short of cash from both government and private sources. India's regulatory system is slowing down product development. South Africa needs to do more to reverse its brain drain, and train more researchers to boost their ranks.

The article focuses on the persistence of older technologies such as carbon paper and vinyl records, commenting that nostalgia helps to preserve older technologies, and mentions that due to the nature of digital technologies, older digital technologies can be erased by newer technologies.

In this editorial the author comments on a decline in paper use by office workers in the United States, a trend that began in 2001. This development is taken as an indication that discarded technological ideas, in this case the notion of a "paperless office," can be reconstituted and put to use if influenced by sociological and research and development factors.

The Economist recognises talented people through our annual Innovation Awards, presented in five fields of technological endeavour: bioscience, computing, telecoms, energy and a special "no boundaries" category. This year's awards were presented at a ceremony in San Francisco on September 23rd. Raymond Damadian, president and chairman of FONAR, who first proposed the idea of using the principle of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) as an "external probe for the detection of internal cancer". Tim Berners-Lee, director of the World Wide Web Consortium, who proposed a scheme to enable electronic documents to link to other documents stored on other computers, an idea that grew into the world wide web. Paul Baran, co-founder, the Institute for the Future, who proposed a system called "distributed adaptive message block switching", known today as packet switching. Geoffrey Ballard, chairman, General Hydrogen, who began research into fuel cells as a means of addressing the problem of smog in large cities. Ronald Coase, professor emeritus of economics, University of Chicago Law School, who published papers asking why valuable radio spectrum was going to waste and suggesting the problem was the lack of private property rights over spectrum, which prevented the formation of a market to allocate spectrum efficiently.

A Spanish research team headed by Martí Gich of the Barcelona Institute of Materials Science is now taking the first steps towards a transparent computer memory. Dr Gich and his team announced their results in a recent paper in Applied Physics Letters. Technically, they have succeeded in creating the first transparent magnetic aerogel with "high coercivity". Aerogels are among the lightest solids in existence, while coercivity is a measure of how strong the magnetisation of a magnet is--a magnet with low coercivity easily flips polarity, and so would not be useful in a memory or a display. But a crystal-clear laptop remains far off. Dr Gich's aerogels currently exist only in test tubes. They may be transparent, but when or indeed if they will make it to the marketplace is rather less clear.

Offers a look at computer products designed to reduce paper use. Microsoft Corp.'s Tablet PC, a computer capable of recognizing handwriting; Adobe's plans to release a set of programs that allow for the replacement of conventional documents with electronic ones; Possibility that such products will be attractive to governments and highly regulated industries.

Addresses the concerns facing electronic-money, as discussed in a paper by economist Benjamin Friedman of Harvard University. Reason provided by Friedman towards Central banks controlling of short-term interests; Argument provided by the economist Charles Goodhart on e-money; Information on real challenges to central bankers in an e-money world

Reports on miniaturization efforts in the field of photonics, which develops and utilizes light to transmit information. Paper published in the May, 2000 edition of 'Applied Physics Letters' which refers to microlasers; Research done by physicist Hui Cao of Northwestern University in Illinois; Possibilities raised by the microlasers.

Tells how in 1964, researchers at Xerox came up with an alternative to traditional photographic film--Xerox Dry Microfilm, a selenium film that needs no processing. How the project has limped along on small grants from the government and money from a series of ill-fated joint ventures; How Roger Levien of Xerox brought about a model for the technology's commercialization; Verde, the new name; How it is made.