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Quantum computing could head to 'the cloud',
study says
(Jan 20, 2011)
A novel high-speed, high-security computing technology will be compatible
with the "cloud computing" approach popular on the web, a study suggests.
Quantum computing will use the inherent uncertainties in quantum physics
to carry out fast, complex computations. A report in Science shows
the trick can extend to "cloud" services such as Google Docs without
loss of security.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Ultracold science finds new method to get
even colder
(Dec 22, 2011)
Researchers have developed a clever way to achieve the lowest temperatures
ever recorded on Earth. Achieving such temperatures is necessary to
study fundamental properties of matter and the strange effects caused
by quantum mechanics. The new method relies on "optical lattices"
of atoms from which only the hottest atoms are selectively removed.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
MIT's trillion frames per second light-tracking
camera
(Dec 15, 2011)
A camera capable of visualizing the movement of light has been unveiled
by a team of scientists in the US. The equipment captures images at
a rate of roughly a trillion frames per second – or about 40
billion times faster than a UK television camera. Direct recording
of light is impossible at that speed, so the camera takes millions
of repeated scans to recreate each image.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Silicon rival MoS2 promises small, low-energy
chips
(Nov 18, 2011)
The first computer chip made out of a substance described as a "promising"
alternative to silicon has been tested by researchers. The Switzerland-based
team used molybdenite (MoS2) – a dark-colored, naturally
occurring mineral. The group said the substance could be used in thinner
layers than silicon, which is currently the most commonly used component
in electronics.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Scientists at MIT replicate brain activity
with chip
(Nov 18, 2011)
Scientists are getting closer to the dream of creating computer systems
that can replicate the brain. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology have designed a computer chip that mimics how the brain's
neurons adapt in response to new information. Such chips could eventually
enable communication between artificially created body parts and the
brain.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Apple and Microsoft file patents for touchless
controls
(Oct 30, 2011)
Apple and Microsoft are involved in a new patent race over touchless
gesture-controls. Recently released patent filings reveal new ways
to control devices that do not involve physical contact. Microsoft
describes waving one's hands to "draw" three-dimensional objects on
a computer, while Apple's designs involve allowing users to "throw"
content from one device to another.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Future computers could rewire themselves
(Oct 25, 2011)
Future microchips may have only one type of component, capable of
rewiring itself to do different jobs. Researchers from Northwestern
University in the US have developed a material that can radically
change its electronic properties. A resistor made from it could become
a transistor or a diode, according to the report in the journal Nature
Nanotechnology.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Monkeys use mind control to move a virtual
arm and experience touch
(Oct 6, 2011)
A brain implant that allows monkeys to move an avatar's arm and feel
objects in a virtual world has been demonstrated for the first time.
The animals used the device to control the arm by thought alone, and
feel the texture of the objects it touched through electrical signals
sent directly to their brains.
Read
more. Source: The Guardian |
The future of the silicon chip
(Sep 27, 2011)
For more than 40 years, the processing power of the silicon chip has
grown in line with a prediction made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore
in 1965. Moore's Law states that the number of transistors that can
be placed on a chip for the same cost will double roughly every two
years. But researchers know that, at some point, Moore's Law will
halt because transistors can get no smaller, so they are looking to
nanotechnology to go far beyond the tiny dimensions in current chips.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Electric motor made from a single molecule
(Sep 5, 2011)
Researchers have created the smallest electric motor ever devised.
The motor, made from a single molecule just a billionth of a metre
across, is reported in Nature Nanotechnology. The minuscule
motor could have applications in both nanotechnology and in medicine,
where tiny amounts of work can be put to efficient use.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
IBM produces first 'brain chips'
(Aug 17, 2011)
IBM has developed a microprocessor which it claims comes closer than
ever to replicating the human brain. The system is capable of "rewiring"
its connections as it encounters new information, similar to the way
biological synapses work. Researchers believe that that by replicating
that feature, the technology could start to learn.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Tricking the perfect code machine
(Aug 15, 2011)
Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology
and the National University of Singapore have used a device called
Eve, made from electronic and optical components, to crack a type
of coded communication thought to have been impossible to break –
quantum key distribution (QKD). QKD is not an encryption algorithm
itself, but a means of securely sharing the cryptographic keys used
by sender and recipient to encode and decode messages.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Graphene discovery may lead to faster computers
(Jul 25, 2011)
Electronic devices, from mobile phones to computers, could work much
faster if they were made from the thinnest substance in the world,
scientists from Manchester University have discovered. Studies on
graphene, a revolutionary material made of a single layer of carbon
atoms, have revealed that electrons – subatomic particles that
result in electricity – travel many times faster than in silicon.
Read
more. Source: The Independent |
Internet's memory effects quantified in
computer study
(Jul 21, 2011)
Computers and the internet are changing the nature of our memory,
research in the journal Science suggests. Psychology experiments showed
that people presented with difficult questions began to think of computers.
When participants knew that facts would be available on a computer
later, they had poor recall of answers but enhanced recall of where
they were stored.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Acoustic cloaks shields out sound
(Jun 25, 2011)
Technologies for light-cloaking devices have been much in vogue recently,
making a little less fanciful the cloaked starships of Star Trek and
the invisibility cloaks of the Harry Potter universe. Now the prospects
for an acoustic cloak, using approaches similar to those pf light
cloaks, have brightened. Researchers have demonstrated a way of shielding
an object from sound using plastic sheets with arrays of holes, which
eventually could be used to make ships invisible to sonar or in the
acoustic design of concert halls.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Laser light from a living cell
(Jun 17, 2011)
Scientists have for the first time created laser light using living
biological material: a single human cell and some jellyfish protein.
The team engineered human embryonic kidney cells to produce a fluorescent
protein, then placed a single cell between two mirrors to make an
optical cavity 20 micrometers across. When the cell was fed pulses
of blue light, it emitted a directional laser beam visible with the
naked eye.
Read
more. Source: Nature |
Computer based on DNA can figure out square
roots
(Jun 3, 2011)
Scientists have demonstrated a computer based on DNA
that can work out square roots. Biochemical computing has been a dream
of researchers ever since Leon Adelman first proposed the idea in
1994. The new device uses 130 strands of DNA each of which acts as
a binary digit, or "bit".
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Laser smashes data transfer record
(May 24, 2011)
A world record has been set for transferring data using a single laser:
26 trillion bits a second (26 terabits). The technique, devised by
Wolfgang Freude and colleagues at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
uses pulses of a number of discrete colors of light in what is known
as a "frequency comb".
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Calculations with 14 quantum bits
(Apr 7, 2011)
Physicists at the University of Innsbruck have set another world record:
They have achieved controlled entanglement of 14 quantum bits (qubits)
and, thus, realized the largest quantum register that has ever been
produced. The experiment brings closer the realization of a quantum
computer and gives one of the best demonstrations yet of the quantum
mechanical phenomenon of entanglement.
Read
more. Source: University of Innsbruck |
Under the hood with Nintendo's 3D baby
(Mar 25, 2011)
Today sees the UK launch of the Nintendo 3DS, the world's first video
game console capable of glasses-free 3D. Will this new display technology
add some depth to gaming, or is it just another gimmick? New Scientist
has been testing the device to find out.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Quantum computing device hints at powerful
future
(Mar 22, 2011)
One of the most complex efforts toward a quantum computer has been
shown off at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas in the
US. It uses the strange "quantum states" of matter to perform calculations
in a way that, if scaled up, could vastly outperform conventional
computers. The 6cm-by-6cm chip holds nine quantum devices, among them
four "quantum bits" that do the calculations.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Kinect hacks: Surgery, subways and solid
blocks
(Feb 22, 2011)
Microsoft claim that their Kinect accessory is the fastest-selling
consumer electronics device in history. It's also probably one of
the most hacked – since its launch hundreds of researchers,
artists, and tech-heads have taken advantage of Kinect's cheap depth-sensing
abilities.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Computer finishes off human opponents on
'Jeopardy!'
(Feb 17, 2011)
Start the "computers are conquering the world" jokes now. "Jeopardy!"
master Ken Jennings already has. The IBM supercomputer Watson won
its second "Jeopardy!" game in Wednesday's edition of the TV show,
completing a sweep of its two human opponents, including Jennings,
who acknowledged mankind's trivia inferiority before the match was
even over.
Read
more. Source: CNN |
Nanowire processor signals route to ever-smaller
chips
(Feb 11, 2011)
Engineers have developed a computer chip made of tiny "nanowires"
whose computing functions can be changed by applying small electric
currents. These "programmable logic tiles" may represent the building
blocks of a new generation of ever-smaller computers. Instead of etching
chips down from chunks of material, the nanoprocessors can be built
up from minuscule parts.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Invisibility cloaking benefits from crystal-clear
idea
(Feb 2, 2011)
Researchers have demonstrated an idea for an invisibility cloak using
calcite, a common crystalline material. Cloaking relies on guiding
light waves such that waves from a hidden object do not reach the
eye. Calcite accomplishes this by sending the two polarizations of
light – directions in which the light waves oscillate –
in different directions.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Ethereal quantum state stored in solid crystal
(Jan 13, 2011)
Quantum entanglement has been captured in solid crystals, showing
that it is more robust than once assumed. These entanglement traps
could make quantum computing and communication more practical.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Thought-controlled iPad app gets in your
head
(Jan 5, 2011)
The future may lie in thought-controlled interfaces. At least that's
what InteraXon, a tiny Toronto startup, is hoping to convince attendees
of at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. One of its prototypes
is a modified version of Zenbound, an iPad game that requires players
to wrap a rope around wooden models by tilting and moving the device.
InteraXon has partnered with designer Secret Exit to produce a demo-only
version where movements are instead controlled by wearing a pair of
headphones.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
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