Northwestern University researchers report that by combining organic and inorganic materials they have produced transparent, high-performance transistors that can be assembled inexpensively on both glass and plastics. Researchers have long worked on developing new types of displays powered by electronics without visible wires. But, until now, no one was able to develop materials for transistors that could be invisible
while still maintaining a high level of performance
Millions of rockhopper penguins are disappearing in a sinister and astonishing
phenomenon that is baffling biologists. In just six years their numbers have fallen from 600,000 to 420,000 in the Falkland Islands — one of its few remaining strongholds — according to the latest survey by Falklands Conservation. The decline equates to a drop of about 30 per cent, although the Falklands population is thought to have dipped by about 85 per cent since 1932, when there were more than 1.5 million birds
A new extension to USB that will enable sharing of various USB peripherals between computers will be available early in 2007. The new MultiSwitch hub technology, developed by SMSC, allows the sharing of information and content from devices such as DVD players, cameras, printers, and scanners, and between laptops and desktops using a simple USB cable. Future hubs may also allow wireless sharing of peripherals
Siemens engineers have reached 107 Gbps data transmission record over a fibre optic cable and expect the technology to be on the market within a few years. The test, 2.5 times faster than a previous maximum transmission performance per channel, was done in cooperation with Germany’s Micram Microelectronic, the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications and Eindhoven Technical University of the Netherlands
It is nothing new to see technology from military and governmental endeavors change daily life profoundly. One only has to look at the fruits of the space programme; from computers to microwave ovens to Tang. New military gear is on the horizon that promises to do the same, including biosensors, bandages that clot blood using soundwaves, and the ubiquitous Swiss Army Pen
As VHS tapes and VCRs head the way of Betamax and phonographs, commentator Bill Hammack warns that the right to fair use is in danger of disappearing right along with them
Around the time that the great pyramids were built in Egypt and Stonehenge was erected in England, a young woman living in what is now Iran lost an eye and was fitted with a prosthetic device. The find supports speculation that such prosthetics were available to a fortunate few in the ancient world. The newly found eye looked like the real thing
Azureus, the BitTorrent client software developer, has announced its first content distribution partnership. BBC television shows and original productions will be distributed to users of Azureus’ new Zudeo file-sharing service in the United States. Azureus mentions these BBC titles in its press release: Red Dwarf, Strange, Invasion Earth, Little Britain, Doctor Who, Fawlty Towers, Coupling, Keeping Up Appearances, League of Gentlemen and Ideal. No word on the full line-up just yet
A study by a team of neuroscientists and engineers has demonstrated that humans can follow a scent trail — an ability that most had assumed only animals possessed. Furthermore, the study demonstrated for the first time that humans make use of differential information from the two nostrils. The researchers blindfolded college students who crawled through grass to sniff out a chocolate-scented trail
The DMCA-like amendments to the New Zealand Copyright Act passed their first hurdle in parliament, with an overwhelming 113 to 6 vote to pass the Bill to the Commerce Select Committee for further discussion. The detail-oriented can read the full debate (or rather lack of debate), and one enterprising New Zealand legal blogger has an excellent series of posts on the Bill, its background, and its implications. New Zealanders interested in fighting this legislation have until the 16th of February 2007 to make submissions to the Select Committee, before the committee makes its recommendations and sends the Bill back for a second reading — via Slashdot
Following the lead of Mozilla and Microsoft, Opera Software has incorporated a new phishing filter into its Opera Web browser to block sites bent on stealing financial information
In a new pact with NASA, Google will help to develop new search capabilities, imaging systems, and other technologies to help make space exploration more appealing to Internet users
The UK government has just given the go ahead to two large offshore wind-farm projects. Between them the schemes would produce enough renewable electricity to power about one million households. The larger London Array project covers 232km² between Margate in Kent and Clacton, Essex and will be the world’s biggest when it is completed. The £1.5bn scheme will have 341 turbines rising from the sea about 20km off the Kent and Essex coasts, as well as five offshore substations and four meteorological masts
Organic — or carbon-based — transistors are not new and can be used to design flexible computer displays, RFID tags and sensors. However, these organic single crystals could not be mass-produced because they needed to be individually handpicked. But now, researchers at Stanford University and the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) have developed a new method for building flexible organic transistor arrays. Even if the researchers have reached a density of 13 million crystals per square inch (or 2 million per square centimetre), there are still several issues to solve before this method can be used for commercial applications of these fast transistors
Panasonic said it has developed a lithium-ion battery that won’t overheat even if a short circuit occurs. The new battery includes a heat-resistive insulator inside the battery cell, next to an existing separator that insulates the anode and cathode. If that separator is punctured a short circuit occurs that typically causes the battery to overheat and in some circumstances catch fire. Panasonic said its insulation layer ensures that the battery won’t overheat even in the event of a short circuit
The Tasmanian government hopes it can drive down the cost of broadband in the state after a strong response to calls for companies to help manage fibre optic cables
CSIRO has won another small battle in its long fight against the globe’s technology giants over wireless LAN royalty payments. The court cases brought against CSIRO over its 1996 patent have been moved from California to Texas, where the science agency recently won a case on the same issue
Microsoft has quietly released an update for Internet Explorer that fixes a problem with the browser’s phishing shield. The feature that protects against fraudulent Web sites, new in IE7, in some cases could bog down computers running Windows, according to an article on Microsoft’s support site published last week. This could happen when a Web page contains many frames or when a user browses many frames in a short time
An article at the Radar lists the ten most dangerous toys of all time, those treasured playthings that drew blood, chewed digits, took out eyes, and, in one case, actually irradiated. To keep things interesting, the editors excluded BB guns, slingshots, throwing stars and anything else actually intended to inflict harm
Researchers at a Toronto hospital have stumbled upon a dramatic treatment for mouse diabetes, with large implications for the treatment of diabetes in humans. The islet inflammation cleared up and the diabetes was gone. Some have remained in that state for as long as four months, with just one injection. They also discovered that their treatments curbed the insulin resistance that is the hallmark of Type 2 diabetes, and that insulin resistance is a major factor in Type 1 diabetes, suggesting the two illnesses are quite similar
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