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Dario Borghino
Music is the engine of new lab-on-a-chip device
17:55 August 2, 2009 PDT
Researchers at the University of Michigan have succeeded in developing a chip used to conduct experiments on fluids which is driven by sound rather than electromechanical valves. This approach to controlling "lab-on-a-chip" devices could be a big step forward in reducing costs and complexity in areas ranging from chemical analysis to environmental monitoring, potentially leading to innovations like handheld devices you could sneeze onto to find out if you have the flu. Read More
Reconfigurable supercomputer aims for best of both worlds
17:51 July 28, 2009 PDT
Today's computers can carry on a wide range of tasks thanks to a general architecture that allows for great flexibility at the cost of a non-optimal performance; on the other end, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) can carry on a very specific task with great speed and energy efficiency, but are very inflexible. Now Novo-G, a reconfigurable supercomputer developed at the University of Florida that's described as the most powerful of its kind, is attempting to take the best from both worlds by being able to effectively change its hardware configuration as needed to compute with the greatest possible speed and efficiency. Read More
MIT team develops hi-fi quantum memory
20:27 July 21, 2009 PDT
Scientists are rapidly achieving important breakthroughs in quantum computing, from obtaining precise manipulation of four photons at the same time to the very first quantum processors. But just like in traditional electronics, a quantum computer can't be realized with information processing alone — we need a reliable way to store and retrieve quantum information too. A new breakthrough by MIT researchers represents a step forward in acheiving this goal of high-fidelity quantum memory. Read More
Invisibility cloaking creeps closer to reality
18:28 July 18, 2009 PDT
Researchers at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona have recently designed a peculiar material — called a dc metamaterial — that has the property of making objects wrapped in it undetectable to magnetic and very low-frequency electromagnetic fields. The breakthrough brings the dream of "invisibility cloaking" closer to reality and could have important repercussions in both the military and medical fields. Read More
Carefully choosing colors in OLED displays can prolong battery life
18:26 July 9, 2009 PDT
Researchers from the Simon Fraser University in Canada have developed two different color maps for organic LEDs that, thanks to an appropriate choice of colors and by exploiting characteristics of human perception, can consume up to 40 percent less power and could be used to increase battery life for a wide range of portable devices. Read More
Using mobile phone towers to help predict the next big flood
17:06 July 8, 2009 PDT
Atmospheric humidity can strongly influence radio signals by scattering them in all directions, weakening and making it much harder to detect on the receiving end. A team of researchers from the University of Tel Aviv has now found a new, promising way of exploiting this phenomenon to accurately predict the intensity of imminent floods and other natural catastrophes. Read More
Quantum computer closer: Optical transistor made from single molecule
23:51 July 6, 2009 PDT
Quantum photonics is a particularly attractive field to scientists and engineers alike in that it could, once some core issues have been resolved, allow for the production of integrated circuits that operate on the basis of photons instead of electrons, which would in turn enable considerably higher data transfer rates as well as dramatically reduced heat dissipation. Now in yet another important achievement on the road to quantum computing, researchers from ETH Zurich have managed to create an optical transistor from a single molecule. Read More
Printable batteries to make light work of embedded electronics
18:44 July 6, 2009 PDT
The main problems with today's battery technology is that, despite gradual advancements in recent years, cells are still too big, heavy and expensive, making them impractical for the many applications in which weight or price play an essential role. Researchers at the Fraunhofer research facility in Germany, however, have taken a radically different approach towards the building process and have developed an incredibly light, thin and inexpensive battery that could - if such a thing is possible - end up bringing even more electronics into our everyday life. Read More
First electronic quantum processor points to new era in computing
16:32 July 1, 2009 PDT
A team of researchers at Yale University has managed to create a rudimentary all-electronic quantum processor that can perform simple algorithms, in what many see as an important step towards making quantum computing a reality. The processor can perform a few simple tasks, which have been demonstrated before with single nuclei, atoms and even photons, but this is the first time that such tasks have been performed in an all-electronic device that looks and feels much like a regular microprocessor. Read More
Sound laser could be the key to manipulating nanoparticles
19:04 June 23, 2009 PDT
A team of researchers has managed to build the first "saser" or sound laser, a device capable of generating a highly concentrated beam of sound waves at terahertz frequency that, while built out of simple scientific curiosity, could have important repercussions on nanoscale microchips' performance. Read More
Stickers may lead to stretchable electronics
17:08 June 19, 2009 PDT
Wrinkling, blisters and delamination on stickers applied to curved or bendable surfaces are usually an annoyance, but examining this phenomena has led researchers to a new, powerful approach to fabricating stretchable electronics that could pave the way to the production of components with very high mechanical resistance. Read More
Long sought-after material could revolutionize electronics
20:29 June 16, 2009 PDT
How often do you find yourself with a portable computer burning up on your lap with strange noises coming from your fan? Thanks to a recent research conducted at Stanford University, bismuth telluride — a new, easy-to-manipulate material with unique electrical properties — could make computer fans a distant memory while allowing for much faster and power-efficient devices. Move over electronics - here comes spintronics. Read More
Human ear inspires 'super-radio' design
18:36 June 15, 2009 PDT
The human body is a fascinating, well-oiled machine forged and perfected by hundreds of millions of years of evolution. So, when two MIT researchers were looking for a highly efficient design for a spectrum analysis chip, they turned to one of the most efficient designs in nature — the human inner ear — with outstanding results that will bring us 'smart radios' and transmitters capable of adaptively maximizing bandwidth and data transmission rates across all fields of communication. Read More
Manipulating light on a chip for quantum computing
19:47 June 12, 2009 PDT
Achieving quantum computing is not just a sheer matter of improving computational speed: it is a radically different paradigm that has attracted physicists and engineers for decades with its potential to solve problems across a number of domains — from database searches to prime number factorization and artificial intelligence. Now in a major breakthrough, a research team from the University of Bristol has achieved highly precise control of up to four photons on a silicon chip for the very first time. Read More
Lithium-sulfur batteries could store triple the power of lithium-ion
06:11 June 10, 2009 PDT
A Canadian research team led by Dr. Linda Nazar has synthesized a prototype of a lithium-sulphur rechargeable battery that, thanks to its peculiar nanoscale structure, can store three times the power of a conventional lithium-ion battery in the same volume while being significantly lighter and potentially cheaper to manufacture. Read More
USB 3.0 explained: How the next-generation USB will reach speeds of 4.8 Gbit/s
23:53 June 9, 2009 PDT
Scheduled to hit the consumer market in 2010, USB 3.0 — also known as SuperSpeed USB — will deliver a tenfold improvement in data transfer rates while retaining backward compatibility with previous versions and adding new features that will make this communication standard all the more essential to the average consumer. But, speed aside, what changes is the next version of this popular standard going to bring? Read More
Mass production of flexible electronics inches closer to reality
23:36 June 4, 2009 PDT
Researchers at Stanford University have discovered a more reliable way of printing semiconducting organic compounds which also delivers improved performance - a breakthrough which could finally pave the way for the mass production of plastic electronics. Read More
John Wassner
- November 27, 2009 @ 01:40 UTC
