In the fascinating maelstrom that is Google in China, one thing is clear: this affects all of us. It’s not about whether Google’s decision to draw a line in the sand is based on ideals versus profits. It’s not about whether the Chinese government will open up its Internet policies and play ball with the rest of the world. It’s about the future of every company on the Web—including Microsoft, Amazon, RealNetworks, and all the smaller companies out there.

In case you haven’t been following every twist and turn, earlier this week Google said it might pull out of China following its investigation of a cyber attack that it says originated in China, targeting at least 20 large companies (including Google). One apparent goal of the attacks was to access the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Google said it is “no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.”

Google’s statement is very carefully worded. It doesn’t explicitly accuse Chinese officials of any wrongdoing. But the reactions of a lot of people, from the media to tech-business leaders to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have helped portray the situation as a cut and dried “Google (and freedom of information) vs. China (and censorship)” issue.

I want to tackle one piece of this sprawling puzzle. And that is the huge, ongoing cultural challenge that Google, Microsoft, and other western companies face in setting up business operations in China. No, this is not a new issue. But one part of the Google announcement was particularly telling: “We want to make clear that this move was driven by our executives in the United States, without the knowledge or involvement of our employees in China who have worked incredibly hard to make Google.cn the success it is today.”

Google has now been up and running in China for four years. That is not a lot of time to build deep relationships. And it certainly doesn’t help that Google’s biggest competitor in China, Baidu, is backed by the Chinese government.

Heading up Google’s China effort until recently was Kai-Fu Lee, the controversial ex-Microsoft vice president who founded Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing in 1998. Lee, a Chinese high-tech celebrity and education leader, was head of Google China from 2006 until last September, when he left the company to create an incubator in Beijing for Chinese high-tech startups.

In my view, it may not be a coincidence that the current situation has come about so soon after Lee’s departure. Frankly, I’m surprised this all didn’t come to a head much sooner for Google. But perhaps it was through Lee’s efforts that it didn’t—or maybe, conversely, it’s part of why Lee left Google. (I’ve pinged him for comment, but haven’t heard back on this topic.)

Which brings me to some analysis. Back in 2003, while he was at Microsoft, … Next Page »

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It’s hard to believe Leroy Hood—a guy busy enough to employ not one, but two full-time executive assistants—is turning 70 today. But it’s true.

This milestone seemed to be as good a reason as any to catch up with the biotechnology pioneer. So I stopped by his office at the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) along North Lake Union in Seattle for a 45-minute interview last month. I gathered some revealing insights into his life, and walked away thinking that while business executives his age are usually put out to pasture, Hood has more fire in the belly than ever.

“I’m doing the most ambitious things, by far, that I’ve ever done in my career. Right now,” Hood says.

For those who don’t already know, Hood is recognized around the world for leading the team at Caltech in the 1980s that invented the high-speed DNA sequencing machines that made the Human Genome Project possible. Hood has won some of the world’s highest honors for invention, like the Lemelson-MIT Prize, Kyoto Prize, and Lasker Award. He’s also co-founded 13 companies by his count in a recent essay, including Amgen, Applied Biosystems, and Rosetta Inpharmatics.

To celebrate his life, and to dream of what’s still to come, about 300 friends are gathering in Seattle tonight for an invitation-only gala dinner at the W Hotel downtown. Some of biology’s biggest names, like Harvard’s George Church and Stanford’s Irving Weissman, are scheduled to be there. There will also be a 10-minute video tribute to Hood’s life, featuring interviews with his family, colleagues, and a video appearance from Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, who recruited Hood to the University of Washington from Caltech in 1992.

This will not be about a bunch of graybeards telling old war stories (although I do hope to hear a few good ones when I stop by there tonight.) Much of the discussion will revolve around ideas being pursued at Hood’s ISB, a nonprofit research center he co-founded in 2000 with Alan Aderem and Reudi Aebersold. It’s designed to be a hothouse for cross-disciplinary scientists trying to push the frontiers of biomedical research, largely by using computers to sort through vast amounts of genomic data. Hood has been busy forming all sorts of collaborations this year with partners who have a need for ISB’s skills.

Just in the last few weeks, ISB has formed a partnership with Swedish Neuroscience Institute in Seattle to study the genomes of brain tumor samples, and has made a deal to fully sequence more than 100 human genomes in 2009 with Mountain View, CA-based Complete Genomics. Hood has unveiled plans to Xconomy for a new company called Integrated Diagnostics which will spot tiny cancers in the blood while they are at their most treatable stage. And just yesterday, ISB announced another big deal, a $14 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to study how the immune system interacts with dangerous pathogens like H5N1 bird flu.

Like the voter in New Hampshire who famously asked Hillary Clinton about how she holds up on the campaign trail, I wanted to know how Hood does it, at age 70. … Next Page »

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Political Blogging is Free Speech, FEC Rules

A blogger can tout a particular political candidate, even coordinating with the campaign, without being subject to campaign finance restrictions, the Federal Elections Commission has ruled. A Hillary Clinton supported had alleged that Gordon Fischer, the former chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, had coordinated his criticism of Clinton with Barack Obama’s campaign, reports Online Media Daily. The FEC said even if he had, which it did not believe, Fischer’s comments are protected by the First Amendment.

Palm Scans Come to the U.S.

Infrared scans that verify identity by making a map of the veins in a person’s palm will be required for all people taking the Graduate Management Admissions Test next year. Discovery News says this is the first use of this technology in the United States, although ATMs in Japan have been using it for about five years. A palm scan is considered more secure than a fingerprint, because it can’t be lifted from an object as easily as a fingerprint and it requires a live hand with active blood flow.

New Optical Cables Predict Economic Boom

Undersea optical cables being planned to increase bandwidth in connections to China and India could be the harbingers of a new economic boom, predicts Om Malik of GigaOm. He says the trend is similar to that in the 1990s, when lots of capacity was created linking North America, Europe, and Japan, leading to economic growth, though overbuilding eventually turned that into a bust. He says new cables are like new roads or sea lanes, an indicator of growing economic activity.

Google Pushing for Approval of White Space

The Federal Communications Commission is considering making unused portions of the broadcast spectrum reserved for television available to unlicensed users, and Google is trying to rally public support for the proposal. Google wants that so-called white space to be used for the next generation of WiFi, according to TechCrunch. Critics worry new mobile devices will lead to interference, however.

Intel to Discuss Power-Saving Chip

Intel will be explaining its upcoming processor chip, known as Nehalem, at this week’s Intel Developer Forum. As CNET News explains, the details of the chip’s architecture may be too esoteric for most people, but they’re expected to lead to efficiencies that lower the chip’s demand for power, thus extending battery life. Also on the agenda is Atom, a mobile chip that will draw 2.5 watts of power, down from the 35 watts in most of Intel’s mobile processors.

Open Source Companies Having a Tough Time

Open source software has led to better, cheaper applications. But the major providers of open source, such as Red Hat and Novell, have not profited much from such innovations, reports BusinessWeek. Instead, it’s the tech giants such as IBM, HP, and Oracle that are making all the money.

Wastewater Technique Makes Ethanol Cheaper

By borrowing a technique used in wastewater treatment plants, scientists from Washington University say they can make ethanol production more efficient. The technique involves mixing waste from the ethanol plant into an oxygen-free vat of bacteria, which digest the waste and produce methane gas, according to Technology Review. Capturing the methane and burning it as fuel could allow the production facility to cut its use of natural gas in half.

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