Cody Taylor

On CNet.com, Brooke Crowthers has a review of some flops in the chip-making world — from IBM, Intel, and AMD — and the hype that surrounded them, which is arguably as interesting as the chips’ failures. “First, I have to revisit Intel’s Itanium. Simply because it’s still around and still missing production target dates. The hype: ‘This design philosophy will one day replace RISC and CISC. It is a gateway into the 64-bit future.’ … The reality: Yes, Itanium is still warm, still breathing in the rarefied very-high-end server market — where it does have a limited role. But… it certainly hasn’t remade the computer industry.”

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A story from a week or so back in Technology Review describes research coming to the surprising conclusion that Jean-Baptiste Lamarck may have been right — that acquired characteristics can be passed on to offspring, at least in rodents. Lamarck’s ideas have been controversial for 200 years, and dismissed in mainstream scientific thinking for nearly that long. “In Feig’s study, mice genetically engineered to have memory problems were raised in an enriched environment — given toys, exercise, and social interaction — for two weeks during adolescence. The animals’ memory improved… The mice were then returned to normal conditions, where they grew up and had offspring. This next generation of mice also had better memory, despite having the genetic defect and never having been exposed to the enriched environment.”

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