Ants inspire military strategy software

Ant colonies aren’t called superorganisms for nothing. In some species, millions of individuals can act as a single entity to protect and feed the colony. This behavior has led to over 200 different species being called “Army Ants”, so in a way it’s no surprise that these mechanisms have been used for the basis of [...]

Sony Ericsson details its first Android phone

Sony Ericsson has released details of its upcoming Xperia X10 smartphone based on Google’s Android operating system.
The X10, which had been code-named Rachel, has a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, which should make this one of the fastest Android phones yet. The phone will sport version 1.6 of Android–aka Donut–and it will run applications from the Android Market [...]

World’s faster supercomputer models origins of the unseen universe

Scientists have for some time postulated that “dark matter” could partially account for evidence of missing mass in the universe, while the hypothetical form of energy known as “dark energy” is the most popular way to explain recent observations that the universe appears to be expanding at an accelerating rate and accounts for 74 percent [...]

EU launches free EGNOS satnav system

The European Commission has announced the official start of operations of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), a satellite based augmentation system (SBAS) that improves the accuracy of the current US Global Positioning System (GPS) and Russian GLONASS system signals from about ten meters to two meters. Like the U.S. GPS, the EGNOS Open [...]

First look: Nokia’s Booklet 3G

Recently at Nokia’s NokiaWorld 09 event, the company unveiled what appears to be the first in a line of netbook devices, the Booklet 3G. Dave Weinstein was there to get a first hand look at the device.
The Nokia Booklet 3G is sleek, thin, well designed, and generally feels like a high quality device. Key feel [...]

Brain-to-brain communication over the Internet

Brain-Computer Interfacing (BCI) is a hot area of research. In the past year alone we’ve looked at a system to allow people to control a robotic arm and another that enables users to control an ASIMO robot with nothing but the power of thought. Such systems rely on the use of [...]

NASA live broadcast of LCROSS impact

NASA’s Lunar Prospector first detected some hydrogen signatures in craters on the dark side of the moon in 1999. Ever since, researchers have been keen to confirm the presence of water on the moon. The Lunar CRater Observing and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) is tasked with crashing through the mists of speculation and conjecture and discover [...]

Microsoft Windows 7 released

After much anticipation and speculation, Microsoft has finally released its long awaited Windows 7 operating system. Aiming to make it easier for users to “do the things they want to do on a PC”, Microsoft’s successor to the largely ill-conceived Vista brings a host of new features to the table. Among the changes are a [...]

Magnetic nanotags detect cancer much earlier than current methods

Extremely sensitive nanosensor chips are being developed by Stanford University researchers in an attempt to detect the early signs of cancer, called biomarkers, in humans. The researchers say their sensor is around 1,000 times more sensitive than current technology and is accurate regardless of which bodily fluid is being analyzed. It [...]

First look: Nokia’s Booklet 3G

Recently at Nokia’s NokiaWorld 09 event, the company unveiled what appears to be the first in a line of netbook devices, the Booklet 3G. Dave Weinstein was there to get a first hand look at the device.
The Nokia Booklet 3G is sleek, thin, well designed, and generally feels like a high quality device. Key feel [...]

Populous unveils stunning design for 2014 Winter Olympic Stadium

Global design company Populous has been selected to design the main stadium for the 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games to be held in Sochi, Russia. It will seat up to 40,000 people and is expected to incorporate a number of eco-friendly features. The exterior of the stadium will be sheathed in a crystalline skin [...]

A microchip that detects the type and severity of cancer in just half an hour

Because the signature biomarkers that indicate the presence of cancer at the cellular level are generally present only at low levels in biological samples, detecting them is a procedure that usually takes days and involves a room filled with computers. Now researchers have used nanomaterials to develop a microchip small enough to fit in a [...]

The New maXTouch chip from Atmel

Atmel has just announced that its highly anticipated maXTouch mXT224 capacitive touchscreen controller chip is now ready for production release. Atmel representatives are positively bubbling with excitement about this product, which supports an unlimited number of simultaneous screen touches, looks out for unintentional touches and delivers smooth visuals with refresh rates of up to 250Hz [...]

Really green power – running an electric circuit from trees

Researchers at the University of Washington (UW) have taken the term ‘green power’ literally by running an electric circuit from the power generated by trees. Sure, there isn’t much electrical power to harness, but the researchers say it should be enough to run wireless sensors that could be used to detect environmental conditions or forest [...]

Arty sunflowers look good and provide power, too

A boring and unattractive loading area at the rear of a retail development in Austin, Texas is now hidden from view by a collection of 15 huge blue sunflowers, the petals of which collect energy from the sun to power the artwork’s LED lighting and generate funds to help towards costs. Whether driving past or [...]

X-ray telescope to shed light on dark energy

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Russia’s Roskosmos space agency are joining forces to try and shed some light on the poorly understood phenomenon referred to as ‘dark energy’. In 2012 the German extended Roentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array (eROSITA) X-ray telescope will be taken into orbit on board the Russian Spektrum Roentgen [...]

Keeping supersonic transport quiet

Supersonic business jets have traditionally got a bad rap when it comes to practicality and the environment, with high costs, loud noises and short range far outweighing the benefits of speed. The future of air travel will therefore be subject to stringent criteria to ensure that economy and eco-credentials, particularly noise pollution, don’t take a [...]

Canadian startup proposes nuclear fusion power plant at a bargain price

Nuclear fusion offers a completely clean method of producing vast amounts of energy. So far the major stumbling block for scientists has been creating a controllable fusion reaction that achieves “net gain”, meaning it gives off more energy than is needed to trigger it. But Canadian startup, General Fusion, is claiming it can build a [...]

Amphibious hybrid concept car – street machine to mean marine

Despite the fact that very few make it off the drawing board to prototype stage, ‘go anywhere’ concept cars are an ever popular subject for budding auto designers and car lovers alike. And why not – they allow us to forget about the pesky practicalities of design and tiresome economics and imagine what could be. [...]

New barcode system could see the end of ugly stripes

I remember encountering the ugly black-and-white stripes of a barcode for the first time – defacing the front of my favorite magazine. Of course, Mad found a way of dealing with the UPC code by making jokes at its expense. But now, some ground-breaking work at MIT could see the visual blight of barcodes replaced [...]

New Ion Engine could reach Mars in 39 days

Last week, as the world celebrated the first lunar landing, Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins both called for NASA to make Mars its next goal. But the chemical propulsion system that took them to the moon would take six months, at least, to get a man to Mars and cost hundreds of [...]

Biodiesel goes to the birds

Scientists in Nevada have found a new and environmentally friendly source of biodiesel – “chicken feather meal”, a delightful material that consists of chicken feathers, blood, and innards made from the 11 billion pounds of poultry industry waste that accumulates annually in the US alone. Currently feather meal is used as animal feed and fertilizer because [...]

First Look: Microsoft Office 2010

The next version of Microsoft’s Office suite is due for availability in early 2010, as its name suggests, but the software giant recently made available a technical preview to a limited number of testers.
We looked at the preview and found that most of the common applications show few significant differences over their counterparts in the [...]

Kingston DT300: the first 256GB USB Flash drive

Remember those halcyon days when the whole world tingled with excitement as the first 8MB USB Flash drives were made commercially available? And what a price we all paid for them. Things have certainly moved on at an incredible pace in the few short years since then, only last month Kingston announced the world’s first [...]

MIT team develops hi-fi quantum memory

Scientists are rapidly achieving important breakthroughs in quantum photonics, from obtaining precise manipulation of four photons at the same time to the very first quantum processors. But just like in traditional electronics, a quantum computer can’t be achieved with information processing alone — we need a reliable way to store and retrieve quantum information, too.
A [...]

TecH: IBM unveils data-masking technology

Masking Gateway for Enterprises (Magen), unveiled last week, is designed to catch protected data before it reaches users’ screens, IBM said. The technology, which runs on a server installed alongside existing server and client applications, was developed at IBM’s Haifa research laboratory and takes its name from the Hebrew word for “protection” or “shield.”
Magen treats [...]

London’s new hybrid buses…Green from inside

There’s no better way to test the realities of hybrid technology than with public transport, where significant reductions in fuel consumption and emissions are not just desirable, but a commercial necessity. London got a little greener this week with the delivery of six new Volvo B5L hybrid double-decker buses to Arriva London. The new buses [...]

Making Cars a bit more efficient by turning urine into hydrogen?

No-one should ever drink and drive, but there may soon be a good reason to drink a lot before you fill up your car – researchers at Ohio University have worked out a way to efficiently extract hydrogen from urine. It could provide a cheap, renewable fuel source for vehicles and, finally, a good use [...]

Optical transistor made from single molecule

Quantum computer closer: Optical transistor made from single molecule

Researchers from ETH Zurich have recently managed to create an optical transistor from a single molecule in what is yet another important achievement on the road to quantum computing.Quantum photonics is a particularly attractive field to scientists and engineers alike in that it could, once some core [...]

TecH: Orange announces touch-screen watch phone

Come on, be honest – wouldn’t you love to make some of those childish dreams of secret agent covert ops finally come true? Because Orange has just announced that, from next month, they’re making available the ultimate gadget: the world’s first touch-screen watch phone. The LG GD910 is 3G and video-calling capable, with in-built speaker, [...]