Smithies

It doesn't happen very often that two Nobel laureates who research the inner workings of cells speak back-to-back about their work within a few miles of each other.

Ten years ago, business and science reporters wrote a lot about Y2K, which was basically the concern that the date change from 1999 to 2000 would shut down the Internet. Instead, the Internet blossomed. A decade later, we're just beginning to grasp what we should have really been worried about when we entered the 21st century: The Internet's effects on the flow and distribution of information.

Today, the marketplace of ideas is virtual. It has no borders. Everybody can participate and be a publisher. And the number of channels to distribute the information is increasing.

At the same time, ever smaller and more specialized bits of information are spread on YouTube, blogs and Twitter and it is becoming more difficult to figure out which information is accurate, which information serves a hidden special interest and how different bits of information relate to each other.