The new “SuperSpeed” USB spec will provide a 10X boost in transfer rate (from 480-Mbits/s in USB 2.0 to 4.8 Gbits/s in USB 3.0), while dramatically lowering power consumption, with broad deployment by 2010.
One example of their speed goals is to transfer a 27GB HD movie to a portable device in 70 seconds. The same thing would take 15 minutes or more with HighSpeed USB (2.0).
University of Southern California engineers are developing a scale-up of the rapid prototyping machines now widely used in industry to allow Caterpillar to “print out” concrete houses.
The “Contour Crafting” automated construction system may one day be able to build full-scale houses in hours.
Some doctors are welcoming VeriChip technology as an exciting innovation that will speed care and prevent errors.
Emergency-room doctors could scan unconscious or incoherent patients to quickly check their blood type and find out if they are taking any medications or have allergies or other medical conditions. Nurses could identify family members and determine whether patients are organ donors or have living wills. Surgeons could scan patients on the… read more
A newly discovered bacterium that infests the mitochondria of tick ova has been named Midichloria mitochondrii, in honor of George Lucas’ invention for his Star Wars movies.
According to Lucas, the mysterious intracellular organisms apparently reside within the cells of almost all living things and communicate with the Force.
MIT researchers have used optical tweezers (light beams) to achieve a precise measurement of the strength of bonds between two protein molecules important in cell machinery.
They focused on proteins that bind to actin filaments, an important component of the cytoskeleton that provide structural support, help the cell crawl across a surface or sustain a load (in muscle cells).
They found the force holding the proteins together is… read more
Red slime mat made up of an extremophile bacteria in hot springs in Mono Lake, California use arsenic rather than water to carry energy during photosynthesis, U.S. Geological Survey researchers have found.
By analyzing the genetic material of the microbe, the researchers have determined that this is a primitive process, going back at least three billion years. That could mean that arsenic-based photosynthesis predates the oxygen-producing variety that enables… read more
A humanoid robot designed to teach autistic children social skills has begun testing in British schools.
Known as KASPAR (Kinesics and Synchronisation in Personal Assistant Robotics), the $4.33 million bot smiles, simulates surprise and sadness, gesticulates and, the researchers hope, will encourage social interaction among autistic children.
Scientists from Berkeley Lab and the National University of Singapore have developed a way to manipulate nanoparticles using an electron beam.
They used an electron beam from a transmission electron microscope to trap gold nanoparticles and direct their movement, and to assemble several nanoparticles into a tight cluster.
They also imaged the nanoparticles as they manipulated them.
Based on their results, the scientists… read more
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML in Dortmund, Germany plan to use “swarm intelligence” for materials handling. Their Multishuttle Moves — swarms of autonomous transport shuttles — could provide an alternative to traditional systems.
The scientists have assembled a testing facility with a swarm of 50 autonomous devices. “In the future, transport systems should be able to perform all of these tasks autonomously,… read more
Astronomers at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics have developed an AI algorithm to help them chart and explain the distribution of dark matter with unprecedented accuracy.
The algorithm starts with the fluctuations in the density of the universe seen in the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR), then models the way matter collapses into today’s galaxies over the subsequent 13 billion years. The results of the algorithm are… read more
A study by physicists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has shown how nanotubes can store information in the form of vibrations.
Using quantum mechanical phenomena, computers could be much more powerful than their classical digital predecessors.
Up to now, researchers have experimented primarily with electrically charged particles. But because nanomechanical devices are not charged, they are much less sensitive to electrical interference.… read more
Academics at the University of Oxford have developed a design protocol for inserting filled molecules of Buckminsterfullerene (“Buckyballs”) into carbon, and other types of nanotubes.
The Buckyballs are themselves filled with molecules that have either an electronic or structural property that can be used to represent a quantum bit (Qubit) of information and can be associated with other adjacent Qubits. The improved stability of the system now allows several… read more
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute researchers have developed a new way to seek out specific proteins, including dangerous proteins such as anthrax toxin, and render them harmless using nothing but light.
Ravi S. Kane, professor of chemical and biological engineering, described the research: “By attaching peptides to carbon nanotubes, we gave them the ability to selectively recognize a protein of interest — in this case anthrax toxin — from a mixture… read more
MIT researchers have found that cells’ chemical signaling mechanisms can tell whether their signals are being received, and then adjust the volume of their messages as needed.
Cells use these chemical signaling systems to control many basic functions. For example, signaling can control how genes are turned on and off in response to external or internal cues, how cells grow and organize their internal structures, and even… read more
Uing DNA, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory are studying how to control both the speed of nanoparticle assembly and the structure of its resulting nanoclusters.
The synthetic DNA used in the laboratory is capped onto individual gold nanoparticles and customized to recognize and bind to complementary DNA located on other particles. This process forms clusters containing multiple particles.
The research could… read more