Light

15:10 September 7, 2009 PDT

The upright riding position allows the rider to see more and be better seen by others

So what do you do when you challenge yourself to come up with a design to make traveling around busy, congested cities as easy and stress-free as possible? According to the folks behind the YikeBike - which was officially launched at Eurobike 2009 trade fair in Friedrichshafen Germany this month - you start with a blank sheet of paper, throw a good-sized front wheel in for stability, swap pedals for a brushless electric motor and abandon the familiar forward-leaning riding position of the bicycle altogether. Read More

Nanoscale lasers continue to shrink, heralding new era in optical science

20:28 August 31, 2009 PDT

Schematic of light being compressed and sustained in the 5 nanometer gap (left) and an ele...

Breakthroughs are coming thick and fast – or should that be thin and fast – in the field of nanoscale lasers. It wasn’t even a month ago that we reported on the development of a laser emitting 'metal-semiconductor-metal sandwich', made up of a semiconductor as thin as 80 nanometers laying between 20-nanometer dielectric layers. But now researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have reached a new milestone in laser physics by creating the world's smallest semiconductor laser, capable of generating visible light in a space smaller than a single protein molecule. Read More

Tunable electromagnetic 'invisible gateway' brings science closer to fiction

17:30 August 26, 2009 PDT

The structure of the invisible electromagnetic gateway is comprised of two perfect electri...

Harnessing the unique properties of metamaterials, researchers in China have recently published a work detailing the implementation of a thin air, broadband and remotely controllable 'invisible gateway' that is able to shield all types of electromagnetic waves while letting through all other physical objects. Read More

Newly theorized active cloaking could achieve broadband invisibility

18:41 August 24, 2009 PDT

With active cloaking, three devices placed around an object neutralize and later rebuild t...

Mathematicians at the University of Utah have recently announced they have elaborated an innovative way to shield two-dimensional objects from all types of waves, from electromagnetic to those caused by natural events like earthquakes and tsunamis, leading the way to a completely new approach to achieving invisibility. Read More

ECOGIZMO

Arty sunflowers look good and provide power, too

17:38 August 24, 2009 PDT

By day the sunflowers collect the sun's energy to provide power for the LEDs after dark

A boring and unattractive loading area at the rear of a retail development in Austin, Texas is now hidden from view by a collection of 15 huge blue sunflowers, the petals of which collect energy from the sun to power the artwork's LED lighting and generate funds to help towards costs. Whether driving past or walking through the Electric Garden, onlookers will be treated to an awe-inspiring panorama where art meets functionality. Read More

URBAN TRANSPORT

Spooklight signals your cycling intentions with a wireless indicator and brake light

22:20 August 13, 2009 PDT

The Spooklight wireless indicator and brake light

City cycling is an activity fraught with danger but cyclists’ safety can be enhanced by increasing their visibility and also by signaling their movements to fellow road-users. Options such as the Safe Turn Indicator help in that department but now there’s a new product called the Spooklight that could achieve the same feat without the need to strap LED lights to your wrists. Read More

ECOGIZMO

Off the grid street lighting: coming soon to a street near you

23:12 July 21, 2009 PDT

A rendering showing what the street lights might look like in a typical urban street. With...

It provides light where there is darkness, it gives a sense of safety and security, but it's also a power leech. The humble street light. Thankfully, the move away from the grid is already well underway with companies like Urban Green Energy busy transforming these familiar towers of light into self sufficient beacons that harness the power of the elements - in this case, it's a hybrid solution that uses both the wind and the sun. Read More

MIT team develops hi-fi quantum memory

20:27 July 21, 2009 PDT

Timing of the optical writing, write and read signals. (Photo: Haruka Tanji, Saikat Ghosh,...

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

AROUND THE HOME

Eternaleds' liquid-cooled LED light bulb

18:10 July 21, 2009 PDT

The Eternaleds HydraLux-4 liquid-cooled LED bulb

Liquid-cooled PCs are a mainstay for PC enthusiasts looking to eek every last bit of performance from their beloved machines and now it seems this approach has reached the world of the LED light bulb. A company called Eternaleds has introduced the HydraLux-4 LED Bulb, the world’s first LED light bulb to use "liquid-cooling technology" to give a true 360-degree light like a regular incandescent light bulb. Read More

ECOGIZMO

Incandescent light bulbs may have a bright future after all

By Alan Brandon

21:47 July 15, 2009 PDT

Traditional incandescent bulb (left) and one using Deposition Sciences technology (right)...

In the face of legislation being enacted around the world, the future of the trusty incandescent light bulb has been looking dim. Ireland has banned the sale of incandescent bulbs, and the United States is set to phase them out by 2012. And it’s no wonder - the apple of Thomas Edison’s eye is something of an energy hog, especially when compared with modern bulbs such as compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs and LED-based lights. But now a new technology from Deposition Sciences Inc of Santa Rosa, California, is promising a brighter future for the venerable incandescent. Read More

Converting light into energy with ‘artificial leaf’ one step closer

By Michael Mulcahy

22:15 July 1, 2009 PDT

Science imitating Nature: researchers at Leiden University are a step closer to producing ...

As an efficient, natural means of capturing solar energy, photosynthesis is hard to beat. But it’s also proving extremely difficult to duplicate. That’s why researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands are very excited at having built a light-harvesting antenna using the chlorophyll of the alga Spirulina: they’re now halfway towards the artificial leaf. Read More

ELECTRONICS

Light Tape: bending light... and other applications

By Jeff Salton

19:48 June 30, 2009 PDT

Light Tape works beautifully to highlight a pool area

Think of a light bulb you can wrap around your finger or roll-out to create a display that would rival the Griswalds' efforts in Christmas Vacation. Light Tape is an extremely flexible lighting strip that has seemingly more applications than LED or neon lighting systems. Thinner than a credit card, and with a bend radius of 2mm, Light Tape can go just about anywhere – indoors and outdoors. It’s even wearable. Read More

PERSONAL COMPUTING

Wetsuit not supplied: Stealth WPC-500F waterproof PC

01:16 June 25, 2009 PDT

In for a good soaking - new Stealth WPC-500F waterproof PC

It's absolutely vital for all life on the planet yet it can kill a computer with relative ease. Water, moisture, fluid, liquid - whichever way you look at it computers and wet stuff are not on friendly terms. Stealth Computers begs to differ however, and has recently announced the release of a completely waterproof PC. Incorporating a whole host of tough tech, the rugged new unit promises reliability and performance whatever you throw at it and whatever conditions you might find yourself in. Read More

WEARABLE ELECTRONICS

Solar powered LED Cap brims with light

23:58 June 24, 2009 PDT

The Solar Light Cap won't let you get caught in the dark

New Zealand-based company 2C is selling a range of solar powered LED caps that charge up during the day to provide light at night. All the energy gathering, light-emitting technology is located in the semi-flexible pre-bent beak of the caps including the solar panel and the NiMH battery used to store it. Read More

AROUND THE HOME

illumi-knob helps you find doors in the dark

By Michael Mulcahy

00:56 June 24, 2009 PDT

The illumi-knob not only senses motion to provide a light at night, its ergonomic design a...

If you’ve ever stumbled around a room at night trying to find the door, the illumi-knob will strike you as simply brilliant. Designed to fit over most door handles, the device uses a passive infra-red sensor to detect any movement within 10 feet and then turn on two gentle LED light rings. It’s not bright enough to wake anyone, but more than enough to get you safely to - and through - the door. Read More

HEALTH AND WELLBEING

Using math to combat jet lag

00:14 June 24, 2009 PDT

Jet lag is one of the major downsides of air travel (Photo: Noel McKeegan/Gizmag)

Research has established that exposure to light is the key to resetting the body’s internal clock to overcome the effects of jetlag. We’ve seen a number of devices that utilize this knowledge such as the Litebook and LED light glasses. Now researchers have developed a software program that could increase the effectiveness of such devices by prescribing a regimen for timed light exposure. Read More

Astronomers discover new way to search for life elsewhere

22:27 June 17, 2009 PDT

Artist’s concept of sunlight glowing through Earth's atmosphere
Pic Credit:Gabriel ...

Directly observing planets outside our solar system - called exoplanets - is almost impossible because they are washed out by the glare of the parent star. For this reason astronomers have largely relied on indirect methods that observe the effects of the planets on their parent stars instead of the planets themselves. Such indirect detection methods have helped take the number of exoplanets discovered so far to more than 350, but determining whether signs of life exist on a planet that can’t actually be seen presents a problem. Astronomers from the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) have found a solution. Read More

Manipulating light on a chip for quantum computing

19:47 June 12, 2009 PDT

Manipulating photonic entangled states on a chip, artist's impression (Credit: Will Amery,...

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

New OLED lamp shines on … and on