National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Elias Zerhouni has unveiled a “roadmap” for the future of the biomedical research giant. The plan aims at moving discoveries to the clinic more quickly by giving bench scientists more tools, encouraging cross-disciplinary teams, and overhauling the infrastructure for clinical trials.
IBM researchers have developed a new semiconductor design for wireless-communications devices that processes data at four times the speed that had been achieved in previous experiments while consuming one-fourth the power.
They also achieved integration of bipolar technology with traditional CMOS technology on a single wafer, allowing for advanced “mixed-signal” chips that support both computing applications as well as high-frequency communications applications.
IBM is offering a “utility computing” scheme that lets customers use the Internet to access servers that run a variety of operating systems and pay only for the amount they consume.
Businesses could cut their costs 30 percent by using the service rather than installing an in-house computing system, according to IBM.
Scientists have described a scheme for achieving quantum superposition of states in an object with around a hundred trillion atoms. This is about a billion times larger than anything demonstrated previously.
In the proposed experiment, a photon effectively follows both paths at once, using mirrors.
Virtual hurricanes have appeared in computer models of the Earth’s climate for the first time.
The Earth Simulator in Yokohama, Japan, the world’s fastest supercomputer, can run models with cells as small as 10 kilometers, allowing for study of detailed features of the weather, such as tropical storms.
The first global virtual supercomputer network, the LHC Computing Grid, has been launched at CERN, the world’s largest particle physics lab, in Geneva.
The Grid will tap into the processing power of computers worldwide–initially in 12 countries–to handle the 12 to 14 petabytes of data generated annually by the Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator in testing the Big Bang theory, starting in 2007.
Analyzing… read more
Medications such as therapeutic DNA, insulin and human growth hormone must enter the body through painful injections, but a Johns Hopkins researcher wamts to deliver them by packing the drugs inside microscopic plastic spheres that can be inhaled painlessly.
Inside the lungs, the particles will dissolve harmlessly, releasing the medicine at a predetermined pace.
Five technologies that could change the world are three-D printing to allow designers and engineers to get new products to market faster, biosimulation to speed development of more effective new drugs, autonomic computing (computers smart enough to configure themselves), Internet-like “distributed generation” power networks placed closer to where the power is actually being used, and smart tags to allow products to be tracked through the distribution network.
A silicon chip that mimics the structure and functionality of an octopus retina has been created by Albert Titus, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at the University at Buffalo.
The “o-retina” chip can process images just like an octopus eye does. It could give sight to rescue or research robots, allowing them to see more clearly than human eyes.
His ultimate goal: build a complete artificial vision… read more
Tags equipped with microchips and tiny antennas should make it cheaper and more efficient to track goods but they raise privacy issues.
The Telefonica Foundation in Madrid has announced the fifth competition on “art and artificial life.”
They are looking for outstanding electronic art projects employing techniques such as digital genetics, autonomous robotics, recursive chaotic algorithms, knowbots, computer viruses, embodied artificial intelligence, avatars, evolving behaviours and virtual ecosystems.
Duke University researchers have used self-assembling DNA molecules as molecular building blocks called “tiles” that could lead to programmable construction of nanoscale protein-bearing scaffolds and metallized wires for nanoelectronics devices.
Because DNA strands naturally but selectively stick together, the Duke team reported that they could make the strands arrange themselves into cross shaped “tiles” capable of forming molecular bonds on all four ends of the cross arms. As a… read more
A prototype pair of sunglasses with a camera built in to them has been created by Hewlett Packard researchers.
It allows for an unnoticeable wearable camera that can take pictures while being involved in events.
Philips Research scientists have developed a way to display high-definition moving pictures on flexible electronic paper.
The “electrowetting” process allows pixels to switch states in around 10 milliseconds — fast enough to generate 100 new images a second. And the high reflectivity and contrast of the wetting displays make them four times as bright as LCDs.
Prototype microsensor arrays connected to artificial neural networks can reliably identify trace amounts of toxic gas, such as mustard gas and nerve agents (Tabun and Sarin) at levels below one part per million. They will make a significant difference in military strategy as they increase in reliability.