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News:
Technology
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December 2003
December 21
Secret
of 'strained silicon' chips revealed
Intel has taken the wraps off a secret technique it is using to increase
the speed of its Pentium and Centrino chips.
December 14
NEC Develops
World's Smallest Transistor. Tokyo (AFP) - Dec 09, 2003
Japan's computer giant NEC Corp. has developed the world's smallest transistor
in a breakthrough which could lead to the production of a supercomputer
the size of a desktop PC, a report said.
E-Mail "Cluster
Bombs" A Disaster Waiting To Happen. Bloomington - Dec 11, 2003
Internet users can be blind-sided by e-mail "cluster bombs" that
inundate their inboxes with hundreds or thousands of messages in a short
period of time, thereby paralyzing the users' online activities, according
to a new report by researchers at Indiana University Bloomington and RSA
Laboratories in Bedford, Mass.
Beetle's
jet may inspire new engines
The beetle can bombard enemies with 500 chemical squirts a second, an efficiency
that would delight aircraft engine designers.
December 7
Breaking Into
The Third Dimension Of Computer Chip Design. Brussels - Nov 27, 2003
Despite continuous technical advances in the semiconductor industry, microchips
are still composed of laterally-arranged (side-by-side) transistors on a
silicon substrate. EUREKA project E! 2259 VSI developed new ways to break
through this two dimensional approach and the restrictions it imposes by
designing 3-D chips or Vertical System Integration (VSI).
November 2003
November 30
The best of what's new in technology in 2003.
October 2003
October 26
Putting Liquids
on "Pause" Huntsville - Oct 17, 2003
High-performance golf clubs. Ultra-sharp knives. Superior fiber optics for
telecommunications. Tough, lightweight materials for future spacecraft.
What do all these things have in common? They can all be made using "undercooled"
liquids: molten materials that are cooled below the normal freezing point
yet, through special handling, are kept in a liquid state.
Scientists
Seize Golden Business Opportunity: New Material Could Save Electronics Industry
Millions (October 23, 2003)
Scientists have created a new material which could save the electronics
industry millions of pounds each year and could also be more effective.
Several attempts have been made over the last twenty years to make gold
nitride but now a researcher at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne has
solved the puzzle.
Let
Water Power Your Cell Phone? University Of Alberta Engineering Researchers
Discover New Source Of Electricity (October 20, 2003)
A team of researchers in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of
Alberta (U of A) has discovered a new way of generating electricity from
flowing water. It may soon be possible to never have to charge up a cellular
phone again instead, the phone could be fitted with a battery that uses
pressurized water.
October 5
Advanced
chip opens door to software choice
A computer chip designed to run more than one operating system at a time
could break Microsoft's stranglehold on PC software.
Lasers
Create New Possibilities For Biological Technology
A team of researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder has taken
another step in the quest to build a compact, tabletop x-ray microscope
that could be used for biological imaging at super-high resolution.
Hot Crystal: Lightbulbs
and a radiation law may never be the same.
In seeming violation of one of the laws of physics, a new type of metal
microstructure promises to lead to far more efficient incandescent light
bulbs and also to boost the development of light-based microcircuits and
heat-to-electricity generators.
September 2003
September 28
First
power station to harness moon opens
The first commercial subsea station to capture the energy of the tides has
opened in Norway.
September 21
Buckyball Carbon
Brings Light Into Line. Toronto - Sep 15, 2003
Using molecules resembling 60-sided soccer balls, a joint team of researchers
from the University of Toronto and Carleton University has created a new
material for processing information using light.
September 14
Nanotubes Surprise
Again As Ideal Photon Emitter. Rochester - Sep 09, 2003
Carbon nanotubes, recently created cylinders of tightly bonded carbon atoms,
have dazzled scientists and engineers with their seemingly endless list
of special abilities--from incredible tensile strength to revolutionizing
computer chips. In today's issue of Science, two University of Rochester
researchers add another feat to the nanotubes' list: ideal photon emission.
New
Technique Could Lead To Widespread Use Of Solar Power; Researchers Envision
Mass-produced Rolls Of Material That Converts Sunlight To Electricity
Princeton electrical engineers have invented a technique for making solar
cells that, when combined with other recent advances, could yield a highly
economical source of energy.
Say
Goodbye To Your Mouse, Keyboard And Phone Number - Voice Control Is Finally
Taking Over
Using phone numbers, remote controls and computer keyboards will likely
seem quaint within a decade as new capability to turn human speech into
accurate, efficient computer code radically changes the ways we live and
work.
August 2003
No Technology articles in August
July 2003
July 6
Harvesting Hydrogen Fuel from Plants Gets Cheaper. A major roadblock to widespread use of hydrogen-powered electric vehicles, which emit water vapor as a byproduct and could cut greenhouse gas emissions substantially, is the cost and trouble associated with producing a suitable supply of hydrogen. Last year scientists reported having developed a technique to harness the fuel from biomass, but the catalyst required for the reaction was too expensive to be commercially viable. The same researchers have now discovered a different catalyst that works just as well--at a fraction of the cost. See http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=00070192-5939-16A80A84189EEDF
June 2003
June 8
Packet
tracking promises ultrafast internet
Fast TCP can run on existing infrastructure, but would allow a whole movie
to be downloaded in just five second. See
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993799
Gecko tape will stick you to ceiling
A new material covered with nanoscopic hairs mimicking those found on geckos'
feet promise some gravity-defying feats. See
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993785
May 2003
May 11
House Approves Nanotechnology Bill. Washington - May 08, 2003 - The House of Representatives made a large commitment May 8 to a tiny technology that could have a big impact in Silicon Valley and throughout the U.S. economy in years to come. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nanotech-03za.html
April 2003
April 6
Engineers Create World's First Transparent Transistor: Corvallis - Mar 26, 2003 - Engineers at Oregon State University have created the world's first transparent transistor, a see-through electronics component that could open the door to many new products. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/space-electronics-03c.html
March 2003
No Technology articles in March
February 2003
February 23
Tiny Nanotrains Could Power Big Changes In The Future: Seattle - Feb 17, 2003 - For Viola Vogel, thinking big naturally comes coupled with the smallest objects imaginable. According to Vogel, director of the University of Washington's Center for Nanotechnology, understanding how nature does things at the molecular level and adapting those techniques into the synthetic world could drastically alter just about every aspect of our lives. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nanotech-03m.html
February 16
Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography Reaches Commercial Sector: Livermore - Feb 12, 2003 - The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer has granted the Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUVL) project an Excellency in Technology Transfer award for technology that will lead to microprocessors that are tens of times faster than today's most powerful chips. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/chip-tech-03d.html
Can Sentient Machines Evolve: Ann Arbor - Feb 12, 2003 - It's coming, but when? From Garry Kasparov to Michael Crichton, both fact and fiction are converging on a showdown between man and machine. But what does a leading artificial intelligence expert--the world's first computer science PhD--think about the future of machine intelligence? Will computers ever gain consciousness and take over the world? See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/robot-03b.html
January 2003
No Technology articles in January