entire Web this site home > current tech-news tech-news archive Tech-news: Latest from the world of gadgetry and technology HAL's bells: IBM makes 'thinking computer' breakthrough (Nov 19, 2009) Scientists say they've made a breakthrough in their pursuit of computers that "think" like a living thing's brain – an effort that tests the limits of technology. This week researchers from IBM are reporting that they've simulated a cat's cerebral cortex, the thinking part of the brain, using a massive supercomputer. Read more. Source: The Independent Lab worms are stunned by 'phaser' (Nov 19, 2009) Scientists have shown off an effect not unlike that of the "phasers" in the show Star Trek – but it only works on tiny worms called nematodes. They used a special molecule that, when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light, changes its shape. When the worms were fed this molecule and then exposed to UV light, they exhibited paralysis. Read more. Source: BBC China joins supercomputer elite (Nov 16, 2009) China has become one of a handful of nations to own one of the top five supercomputers in the world. Its Tianhe-1 computer, housed at the National Super Computer Center in Tianjin was ranked fifth on the biannual Top 500 supercomputer list. The machine packs more than 70,000 chips and can compute 563 trillion calculations per second (teraflops). Read more. Source: BBC First universal programmable quantum computer unveiled (Nov 16, 2009) The world's first universal programmable quantum computer has been put through its paces. But the test program revealed significant hurdles that must be overcome before the device is ready for real work. Earlier in the year, a team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, built a quantum computer capable of processing two quantum bits, or qubits. Read more. Source: New Scientist Contact lenses to get built-in virtual graphics (Nov 12, 2009) A contact lens that harvests radio waves to power an LED is paving the way for a new kind of display. The lens is a prototype of a device that could display information beamed from a mobile device. Read more. Source: New Scientist Light down a wire for solar power (Nov 5, 2009) Solar power could be produced cheaply in specially designed optical fibres, say researchers. The work, published in the journal Angewandte Chemie, makes use of nanometre-scale wires built around optical fibres like bristles. Those wires give the light much more surface area to interact with, leading to higher overall efficiencies. Read more. Source: BBC Crystals hold super computer key (Oct 21, 2009) Tiny crystals could hold the key to creating computers with massive storage capacity, scientists believe. The crystals could be used as storage devices for desktop computers capable of holding 100-times more data than current systems. Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have been using low-energy lasers to make salt crystals in gel. Read more. Source: BBC Tiny 'nuclear batteries' unveiled (Oct 15, 2009) Researchers have demonstrated a penny-sized "nuclear battery" that produces energy from the decay of radioisotopes. As radioactive substances decay, they release charged particles that when properly harvested can create an electrical current. Nuclear batteries have been in use for military and aerospace applications, but are typically far larger. Read more. Source: BBC Neutrinos could encode messages to submarines (Oct 6, 2009) Earth-penetrating neutrinos might one day be used to send messages to lurking submarines. The scheme could provide one-way communication with subs without requiring them to surface. Neutrinos are particles that interact so weakly with matter that they can pass through the planet like light through glass. In 1977, physicists proposed that they might be used to send messages around, or through, the globe. Read more. Source: New Scientist 'Time telescope' could boost web (Oct 2, 2009) Researchers have demonstrated a "time telescope" that could squeeze much more information into the data packets sent around the internet. Rather than focusing information-carrying light pulses in space, like a normal lens, it focuses them in time. The telescope comprises laser beams that combine in a tiny silicon structure to compress the pulses. Read more. Source: BBC Google invites users to join Wave (Sep 30, 2009) Google Wave, which combines email, instant messaging and wiki-style editing will go on public trial today. The search giant hopes the tool, described as "how e-mail would look if it were invented today", will transform how people communicate online. It will be open to 100,000 invitees from 1600BST, each of whom can nominate five further people to "join the Wave". Read more. Source: BBC Code-breaking quantum algorithm run on a silicon chip (Sep 4, 2009) A quantum calculation able to crack one of the most common forms of data encryption has been performed on a silicon chip for the first time. The study demonstrates that complex quantum circuits can be built relatively easily out of silicon and silica – a significant milestone on the road to full-blown quantum computing. Read more. Source: New Scientist Reboot for UK's 'oldest' computer (Sep 4, 2009) Britain's oldest original computer, the Harwell, is being sent to the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley where it is to be restored to working order. The computer, which was designed in 1949, first ran in 1951 and was designed to perform mathematical calculations; it lasted until 1973. When first built the 2.4m × 5m computer was state-of-the-art, although it was superseded by transistor-based systems. Read more. Source: BBC Nanolasers offer super-tight focus (Aug 31, 2009) Laser beams are about to get a whole lot more precise. Independent teams have found ways to shrink lasers to nanoscale dimensions in two radically different ways; one creating a spherical laser device 44 nanometres in diameter, while the other can concentrate laser light into a gap just 5 nm across. Read more. Source: New Scientist Brighter idea for bendy displays (Aug 21, 2009) The technology behind giant video billboards can now be made into flexible and even transparent displays. These could be used to create brakelights that fit the curves of a car or medical diagnostics that envelop a patient like a blanket. It has been made possible by a new technique, outlined in Science, for manufacturing so-called inorganic LEDs. Read more. Source: BBC World's smallest laser unveiled (Aug 17, 2009) The world's smallest laser, contained in a silica sphere just 44 nanometres across, has been unveiled. At about 10 times smaller than the wavelength of light, however, this is no ordinary laser, it is the first ever 'spaser'. Whereas a laser amplifies light, using a mirrored cavity to intensify it, a spaser amplifies surface plasmons — tiny oscillations in the density of free electrons on the surface of metals, which, in turn, produce light waves. Read more. Source: Nature Ditching binary will make quantum computers more powerful (Aug 11, 2009) Memo to the developers of superfast quantum computers: give up on the familiar 1s-and-0s binary system used in conventional computers. By switching to a novel five-state system, you will find it easier to build the staggeringly powerful machines. So claim Matthew Neeley and colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Read more. Source: New Scientist Bacteria make computers look like pocket calculators (Jul 28, 2009) Computers are evolving – literally. While the tech world argues netbooks vs notebooks, synthetic biologists are leaving traditional computers behind altogether. A team of US scientists have engineered bacteria that could solve complex mathematical problems faster than anything made from silicon. Read more. Source: The Guardian Artificial brain '10 years away' (Jul 23, 2009) A detailed, functional artificial human brain can be built within the next 10 years, a leading scientist has claimed. Henry Markram, director of the Blue Brain Project, has already simulated elements of a rat brain. He told the TED Global conference in Oxford that a synthetic human brain would be of particular use finding treatments for mental illnesses. Read more. Source: BBC Apps 'to be as big as internet' (Jul 21, 2009) The market for mobile applications, or apps, will become "as big as the internet", peaking at 10 million apps in 2020, a leading online store says. However, GetJar say, the developer community will decline drastically as each developer makes less money. According to the Symbian Foundation, newly in the developer market, apps will become more personal and practical as their numbers grow. Read more. Source: BBC Google's new platform Chrome aims to show Microsoft's Windows the door (Jul 9, 2009) It is the technology industry's equivalent of the irresistible force meeting the immovable object. Google, the web upstart founded 11 years ago, has announced it will go head-to-head with Microsoft with an operating system (OS) – the programs that make a computer work – for machines ranging from handhelds up to desktop computers. Read more. Source: The Guardian Laser light switch could leave transistors in the shade (Jul 2, 2009) An optical transistor that uses one laser beam to control another could form the heart of a future generation of ultrafast light-based computers, say Swiss researchers. Conventional computers are based on transistors, which allow one electrode to control the current moving through the device and are combined to form logic gates and processors. The new component achieves the same thing, but for laser beams, not electric currents. Read more. Source: New Scientist Behind Microsoft's full-body gaming interface (Jun 6, 2009) At the E3 2009 gaming conference in Los Angeles, California, this week, Microsoft unveiled a new hands-free, full-body-control system for its Xbox 360 console, codenamed Natal. Using it, players can interact with games simply by talking and moving their body. Microsoft also claims that it can recognise emotions, and Natal has impressed game players, developers and movie mogul Steven Spielberg alike. Read more. Source: New Scientist Behind Microsoft's full-body gaming interface (Jun 6, 2009) Scientists have "entangled" the motions of pairs of atoms for the first time. Entanglement is an effect in quantum mechanics, a relatively new branch of physics that is based more in probability than in classical laws. It describes how properties of two or more objects can be inextricably linked over "vast" distances. Read more. Source: BBC How to fit 300 DVDs on one disc (May 21, 2009) A new optical recording method could pave the way for data discs with 300 times the storage capacity of standard DVDs, Nature journal reports. The researchers say this could see a whopping 1.6 terabytes of information fit on a DVD-sized disc. They describe their method as "five-dimensional" optical recording and say it could be commercialised. Read more. Source: BBC Flat-screen light bulbs switch on (May 19, 2009) Researchers have demonstrated white, organic light-emitting diode (OLED) sources with the same efficiency as fluorescent light bulbs. The result brings closer the prospect that OLEDs will be the flat-screen light sources of choice in the future. The limited lifetime of the blue-emitting part of the devices means they survive for just hours, but new blue-emitting materials are on the horizon. Read more. Source: BBC Google's power-hungry data centers (May 6, 2009) Few places throw the internet's rapacious appetite for energy into relief more sharply than a remote 30-acre patch of scrubland in northern Oregon owned by Google. The site, on the fringes of the city of The Dalles on the banks of the Columbia river, is home to one of the world's largest and most powerful data centers. Read more. Source: The Guardian Invisibility cloak edges closer (Apr 30, 2009) Scientists have rendered objects invisible to near-infrared light. Unlike previous such "cloaks", the new work does not employ metals, which introduce losses of light and result in imperfect cloaking. Because the approach can be scaled down further in size, researchers say this is a major step towards a cloak that would work for visible light. Read more. Source: BBC Optical disk offers 500GB storage (Apr 28, 2009) A disk that can store 500 gigabytes (GB) of data, equivalent to 100 DVDs, has been unveiled by General Electric. The micro-holographic disk, which is the same size as existing DVD disks, is aimed at the archive industry. But the company believes it can eventually be used in the consumer market place and home players. Read more. Source: BBC Spies 'infiltrate US power grid' (Apr 8, 2009) The US government has admitted the nation's power grid is vulnerable to cyber attack, following reports it has been infiltrated by foreign spies. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) newspaper reported that Chinese and Russian spies were behind this "pervasive" breach. It said software had been left behind that could shut down the electric grid. Read more. Source: BBC Thin speaker offers 'crisp sound' (Apr 2, 2009) Anyone who has struggled to understand speaker announcements at train stations will be heartened by work initially done at Warwick University in the UK. Engineers claim their new ultra-thin speakers, as well as looking good and being easy to conceal, will also deliver clearer, crisper sound. The loudspeakers could replace public address systems in passenger terminals and shopping centers. Read more. Source: BBC A gaming world without consoles? (Mar 25, 2009) A new online video game distribution network hopes to revolutionise the way people play games and re-write the economics of the industry. OnLive, to be launched at the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco, aims to let players stream on-demand games at the highest quality level. The service could signal the end for Playstation, Xbox, and the Wii. Read more. Source: BBC Major leap for faster computers (Mar 22, 2009) Super-fast quantum computers are now a step closer to becoming a reality, thanks to a breakthrough by scientists. Edinburgh and Manchester University researchers have created a molecular device which could act as a building block for super-fast computers. They have created components that could be used to develop quantum computers, which can make intricate calculations faster than conventional machines. Read more. Source: BBC Scientists able to read people's minds (Mar 14, 2009) Having the ability to read someone's mind with a "thought machine" has come a step closer after scientists showed that they could guess a person's memory simply by looking at the electrical activity of their brain. Scientists have found that spatial memories can be "read" by a brain scanner so that it is possible to predict automatically where someone imagines themselves to be (the exact location in a maze, for instance) without actually asking them. Read more. Source: The Independent BACK TO TOP

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