By the end of the decade, U.S. manufacturers could make solar panels that are less than half as expensive as the ones they make now.

At 52 cents per watt, that would be cheap enough for solar power to compete with electricity from fossil fuels, according to a new study by MIT researchers in Energy… [ Technology Review ]

A new study says “flash crash” events happen routinely, at speeds so fast they don’t register on regular market records, with potentially troubling consequences for market stability.

The analysis involved five years of stock market trading data gathered between 2006 and 2011 and sorted in fine-grained, millisecond-by-millisecond detail.

Below the 950-millisecond level, where computerized… [ Wired ]

The smartphone will be a sensor that will help people take better control of their health by tracking it with increasing precision, says Dr. Eric Topol in a new book, The Creative Destruction of Medicine.

The are running common medical tests, skipping office visits and sharing their data with people other than their… [ New York Times ]

The transparency grenade allows you to leak information from anywhere just by pulling a pin. The device is essentially a small computer with a powerful wireless antenna and a microphone.

It intercepts local network traffic and captures audio data, then the data is streamed anonymously to a dedicated server where it is mined for… [ gizmag ]

It is possible to inhibit the activity of pain-sensitive neurons using an agent that acts as a photosensitive switch, chemists at LMU Munich, in collaboration with colleagues in Berkeley and Bordeaux, have found.

The switch is a chemical compound they call QAQ. Irradiation with light of a specific wavelength causes the molecule…

Electrical engineer Ada Poon has developed a tiny, wirelessly powered, self-propelled medical device capable of controlled motion through the bloodstream.

Poon, an assistant professor at the Stanford School of Engineering, is developing a new class of medical devices that can be implanted or injected into the human body and powered wirelessly using…

As Alan Turing’s centenary year opens, Nature hails him as one of the top scientific minds of all time in a special issue that sweeps through Turing’s innumerable achievements — wartime code-breaker and founder of computer science — to his lesser known interests of botany, neural nets, unorganized machines, quantum physics and, well, ghosts.

Beneath it all, Turing… [ Nature News ]

Henry Markram’s controversial proposal for the Human Brain Project (HBP) — an effort to build a supercomputer simulation that integrates everything known about the human brain, from the structures of ion channels in neural cell membranes up to mechanisms behind conscious decision-making — may soon fulfill his ambition.

The project is one of six finalists… [ Nature News ]

In Living Architecture, author Rachel Armstrong imagines a future with building materials that function as part of living systems, New Scientist Culture Lab reports.

“I have been looking at applying synthetic biology to environmental problems,” she says. “There are two ways of doing this. One is to modify existing biology, such as algae, using extreme environmental…

A secret network of 20 roadside listening stations across the UK has confirmed that criminals are attempting to jam GPS signals on a regular basis, according to New Scientist One Per Cent blog.

Jammers seem to be being used by truckers to prevent their journeys being tracked by their bosses, or by…

Finally, a contender for the elusive fountain of youth: SIRT6, an enzyme found in humans appears to lengthen the life of mice, Bar-Ilan University have found.

They compared mice genetically engineered to have increased levels of SIRT6 with normal mice. Male mice lived 15 per cent longer than normal mice or females. Older modified male mice metabolized sugar… [ New Scientist ]

It appears that the faster-than-light neutrino results, announced last September by the OPERA collaboration in Italy, was due to a mistake after all. A bad connection between a GPS unit and a computer may be to blame.

After tightening the connection and then measuring the time it takes data to travel the length… [ Science Insider ]

The gradual yellowing of the lens and the narrowing of the pupil that occur with age disturb the body’s circadian rhythm, contributing to a range of health problems, these studies suggest. As the eyes age, less and less sunlight gets through the lens to reach key cells in the retina that regulate the body’s circadian… [ New York Times ]

The European Commission last week said it is doubling its investment in the push for exascale computing from [Euro]630 million to [Euro]1.2 billion (or the equivalent of $1.58 billion).

The Europeans announced the plan the same week the White House released its fiscal year 2013 budget, which envisions a third year of anemic funding… [ Computerworld ]

Yeah, you knew that already. How else to explain the zombies who text while driving or randomly jaywalking in traffic, AGNWE*?

But now there’s a reason: they have a tiny vocabulary.

Textisms

Or so says says University of Calgary linguistics researcher Joan Lee, who interviewed texters in research for her…

Bitcasa has created a new cloud service that promises “infinite storage” in the cloud for Windows and Mac.

Once you install Bitcasa it prompts you to choose which of your folders to “cloudify.” Cloudified folders are uploaded to Bitcasa’s cloud right away and get a Bitcasa logo added to…

For me, the best part of the Grammys Sunday night wasn’t on the telecast. It was the three pre-awards to the amazing dubstep artist Skrillex: Best Dance Recording and Best Dance/Electronica Album (both for “Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites”) and Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical (for “Cinema” remix track from Electroman).

“Bass riffs that sound…

I’m sick of hearing about how we need to cave in to repressive governments and throttle back Google, Twitter, Facebook, and other information services and accept Web censorship and limits on free expression. Get the hell off my cloud.

“If a full-surveillance world prevents us from speaking, then we need to make…

Move over Siri, Evi is the new kid in town.

It’s no Watson, but Evi, created by True Knowledge, a Cambridge, U.K.-based semantic technology startup, like Siri, can answer questions posed by voice (using Nuance software) in a conversational manner or by typing.

But unlike Siri (only available on iPhone 4S),…

If you’re driving on the Autobahn right now, I advise you keep an eye out for this guy, who is apparently praying his driverless BMW doesn’t crash into something (note: this is a highway without speed limits — not reassuring).

(Videos here.)

Hey, BMW: why not toss in a…

Stoner alert: psilocybin (the active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms) messes with your brain.

OK, not exactly a news flash. But that’s what researchers in the U.K. and Denmark found when they scanned the brains of 30 people tripping on psilocybin.

But here’s what’s interesting: the researchers did two different types of functional MRI (fMRI) brain…

It’s not just that workers are cheaper abroad, according to an important article in The New York Times Saturday. Most of the components of cellphones, computers, and other electronic products are now manufactured in China (and European and other East-Asia countries), so assembling the device half-a-world away would create huge logistical challenges, the…

We received an interesting email from sustainability expert/Singularity University grad Eric Ezechieli:
On January 27, I will be delivering a TEDx Trieste presentation, and I will speak in ‘”Exponentialish.” In exponential times, half a gallon of brain does not suffice to keep up with what is going on, and in any…

“Better the government shut down than Wikipedia go on strike. That would be like part of my mind going on strike. Just give them [Wikipedia] whatever they want — we don’t even need to hear what it is.” — Ray Kurzweil

What? You thought distracted drivers texting on cell phones and swerving erratically is a problem? That’s so 2011.

Imagine a future in which icons flash on your car windshield, hologram-style, as your car approaches restaurants, stores, historic landmarks or the homes of friends, effuses CNN.

Simply point your hand at them,…

The 1961 classic science-fiction movie Fantastic Voyage movie is about a team of scientists who are shrunk down and sent in a miniature submarine inside the body to repair a blood clot in an ailing colleague’s brain. How far have today’s scientists come in exploring inside the body?

Pretty far. We’ve reported…

China Telecom is reportedly launching mobile services in the U.K., the first time a Chinese telecom operator has launched MVNO services outside China (an MVNO is a mobile operator that sells services directly to its customers but does not own any of the infrastructure), according to China Tech News.

The service will…

“We are creating systems of comprehensive surveillance in which a billion people are involved and those people’s lives are being lived under a kind of scrutiny which no secret police service is the 20th century could ever have aspired to achieve,” claims militant digital privacy advocate Eben Moglen, Betabeat reports.

“And all…

Could this be the “Limitless” breakthrough we’ve been looking for?

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine  (BCM) have discovered that when the activity of PKR — a molecule normally elevated during viral infections — is inhibited in the brain, mice learn and remember dramatically better.

“The molecule…