Moore’s law will likely begin to slow down to a three-year cycle in the next decade and require companies to adopt alternative technologies.
Some say the ability to shrink transistors will start to become problematic by around 2010. Others, such as Intel’s director of technology strategy, Paolo Gargini, paint a more gradual picture. Around 2015, they say, manufacturers will start to move toward hybrid chips, which combine elements of… read more
A computer chip implanted near the eye’s retina is may offer some restored vision to people blinded by eye diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related degeneration of the eye.
To capture images, an external camera mounted in an eyeglass frame captures the image and converts it into an electrical signal that is then electronically transmitted to a flexible silicon biochip surgically attached near the retina. The chip electronically stimulates… read more
If we really want to end scarcity, we will have to build institutions that promote knowledge-sharing, while at the same time ensuring that there are incentives for creative and technical minds to contribute.
Wikipedia and Google’s book-scanning projects are examples of such institutions.
The Naval Surface Warfare Center has fired the most powerful electromagnetic railgun, sending a seven-pound bullet out at seven times the speed of sound with 10.6 megajoules of kinetic energy.
The device is part of the U.S. navy’s railgun development program. A railgun could eventually send a 40-pound slug 200 miles in six minutes–10 times the range of the navy’s current primary surface support gun, the MK45.
Measuring the elasticity of cells using a new laser technique promises to pinpoint human stem cells in blood and distinguish cancerous cells from benign ones, say researchers.
Bionic limb replacements that look and work exactly like the real thing could be realized within a decade, thanks to fast advances in human-to-machine communication and miniaturization.
Writing in Science, Feb. 8, Rutgers biomedical engineer and inventor William Craelius, whose Dextra artificial hand is the first to let a person use existing nerve pathways to control individual computer-driven mechanical fingers, says “bionic technologies can be adapted for restoring some… read more
Health, medicine, and biology is now an information technology, in sharp contrast to the linear growth of hit or miss approaches that have characterized medicine up until recently, and these exponential technologies will be a million times more powerful in 20 years, allowing us to intervene in the aging process, says Ray Kurzweil.
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have developed a novel technology to precisely modulate individual neurons in rats, allowing the molecular, neuronal, and circuit functions to be analyzed with unprecedented precision.
The researchers demonstrated a novel way of loading specific drugs onto an array of electrodes and triggering their release into cultured rat neurons, allowing for more precise insight into the cellular mechanisms of neuronal… read more
Columbia University researchers say they have determined why muscles get tired: their tiny channels start leaking calcium, and that weakens contractions. At the same time, the leaked calcium stimulates an enzyme that eats into muscle fibers, contributing to the muscle exhaustion.
They have devised an experimental drug that can eliminate fatigue. Drugs that stop calcium leaks may also help patients with congestive heart failure.
Ohio State University scientists have taken a step toward the development of quantum computers by making tiny holes in an egg carton-shaped surface of laser light that could one day cradle atoms.
They’ve been able to form about a billion gaseous rubidium atoms into a pea-sized cloud with magnetic fields. Now they are working to move that cloud into position above a chip supporting an optical lattice formed where… read more
MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) of Richmond, British Columbia is developing a robotic arm that will enable surgeons to perform more precise brain surgery.
The robot will perform a variety of procedures, including placing biopsy needles into the brain and dissecting blood vessel abnormalities during micro-surgery. It consists of two robotic arms and a two cameras, providing 3-D stereoscopic views for the surgeon.
The company is also working with… read more
myExperiment, the social networking site for scientists, has set out to challenge traditional ideas of academic publishing as it enters a new phase of funding.
The first self-replicating, scalable robot, designed by Cornell University scientists, uses small mechanical building blocks that can attach themselves to one another using electromagnets, all equipped with an identical set of instructions.
It could herald a fundamental rethink of how robots are used in remote environments where repairing them is difficult.