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Issue no. 2, 2006 Published: Jan 13, 2006
Toshiba claims entangled photon breakthrough
UN to hold consultations on new internet governance body
European tech giants craft search engine
Study: US teens optimistic about innovation
The future of transparent digital displays
'Doomsday' seed bank to be built
Live cells jetted with electric fields
Sensor sees spark of life
Car that drives itself
New software cleans up illegible scrawl

Toshiba claims entangled photon breakthrough
A simple semiconductor chip has been used to generate pairs of entangled photons, a vital step towards making quantum computers a reality. Entanglement is the mysterious phenomenon of quantum particles whereby two particles such as photons behave as one regardless of how far apart they are. It is widely regarded as essential to the development of quantum computers and quantum cryptography. To generate entangled photons, researchers at Toshiba in Cambridge, UK, and colleagues from TREL and the University of Cambridge manufactured a silicon chip containing a nanometre-sized quantum dot. A quantum dot is a semiconductor crystal that has discrete energy states like an atom and can be optically triggered to generate photons. The team found that the precise shape of the dot dictates whether the emitted photons are entangled or not, and the shape can be controlled by how the quantum dot is grown or by applying an external magnetic field.
New Scientist / Nature (vol 439, p 179) Jan 11, 2006	back to top

UN to hold consultations on new internet governance body
The United Nations will launch the first round of consultations next month on creating a new internet governance body, as agreed by delegates attending the global Net summit in Tunis last year. The UN, which hosted the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in November, is welcoming all stakeholders to attend the consultations, which will take place in Geneva on February 16-17. The consultations will focus on developing a common understanding among all stakeholders on the nature and character of the proposed Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and to prepare for the first meeting of the new body, to take place in Athens, Greece, before the end of this year. Internet governance was, arguably, the most controversial issue at WSIS, threatening to undermine the entire summit. To defuse the heated war for political control of the internet, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan proposed a temporary ceasefire of sorts by offering to create IGF. Although the forum itself will have no oversight or decision-making function, some governments view it as an opportunity to sow the seed for a new internet governance regime. Additional information about the forum is available at: http://www.intgovforum.org.
Infoworld Jan 12, 2006	back to top

European tech giants craft search engine
A new search engine, called Quaero, is billed as Europe's answer to Google. Quaero - 'to search' in Latin - is unlikely to flash across computer screens anytime soon. So far Quaero is just a scattering of top tech minds in labs across France and Germany, working on what they hope will be the world's most advanced multimedia search engine. Designers insist that Quaero will not just be a search engine but a set of tools for translating, identifying and indexing images, sound and text. The technology would work with all platforms computer desktops, mobile devices and even televisions and be sold to television companies, filmmakers, post-production facilities and anyone who creates or uses audiovisual content, according to France's electronics giant Thomson. Quaero is the latest in a string of largely French-led efforts to compete with US dominance of the global marketplace. French broadcasters are planning an international television network aimed at presenting a more French view of world events. Europe launched a satellite last month aimed at rivalling the US GPS. France has also launched an effort to put libraries online, a response to Google's book-scanning project.
ABC News / AP Jan 11, 2006	back to top

Study: US teens optimistic about innovation
Teenagers have some seemingly high expectations about what technology might bring over the next decade, according to a new MIT study. For example, 33 per cent of teens predicted that gasoline-powered cars will go the way of the horse and buggy by 2015. Just 16 percent of adults agreed. Meanwhile, 22 per cent of teenagers predicted desktop computers will become obsolete a decade from now, while only 10 per cent of adults agreed. Adults, on the other hand, were far more certain about the demise of the landline telephone by 2015 (45 per cent made that prediction) than teenagers (17 per cent). The teens queried also said new inventions can eventually solve such global problems as unclean water (91 per cent), hunger (89 per cent), disease (88 per cent) and pollution (84 per cent). Adults were less optimistic about hunger, with 77 per cent saying technology will play an important role. The Lemelson-MIT programme, which focuses on encouraging young people to pursue innovation, commissioned its 'invention index' in November, interviewing 500 teens and 1,030 adults nationwide.
CNN / AP Jan 12, 2006	back to top

The future of transparent digital displays
Windshields and windows that can be transformed into digital displays without blocking out the light have long been desired by architects and car designers. Existing display technologies appear opaque even when switched off. But now researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research in Potsdam, Germany, have developed a transparent polymer that emits light when a current is applied to it. The polymer is a type of organic light-emitting diode, and at just 1 millimetre thick is around half the thickness of standard light-emitting materials. By applying the polymer to windows, buildings could be converted into giant displays, visible from the outside but not bright enough to be visible inside. And drivers could view information such as the speedometer reading directly on the windscreen without having to take their eyes off the road.
New Scientist Jan 13, 2006	back to top

'Doomsday' seed bank to be built
Norway is planning to build a 'doomsday vault' inside a mountain on an Arctic island to hold a seed bank of all known varieties of the world's crops. The Norwegian government will hollow out a cave on the ice-bound island of Spitsbergen to hold the seed bank. It will be designed to withstand global catastrophes such as nuclear war or natural disasters that would destroy the planet's sources of food. There are currently about 1,400 seed banks around the world, but a large number of these are located in countries that are either politically unstable or that face threats from the natural environment. The Norwegian government is due to start work on the seed vault next year. Permafrost will keep the vault below freezing point and the seeds will further be protected by metre-thick walls of reinforced concrete, two airlocks and high security blast-proof doors.
BBC News Jan 12, 2006	back to top

Live cells jetted with electric fields
A team of biophysicists at University College London and Kings College London has used a form of ink-jet printing to create 'jets' of living cells for the first time. The researchers say their technique, which does not destroy the cells, could be used to grow biological tissue or even human organs. The technique involves jetting biological cells from a needle at fields of up to 30 kilovolts. The new technique is known as 'electrohydrodynamic jetting', which involves passing a liquid suspension of live human cells through a stainless-steel needle with a diameter of 500 microns at a controlled flow rate. A voltage of up to 30kV is applied between the needle and an electrode, which charges the liquid. After leaving the needle, the external electric field turns the liquid into a jet that becomes unstable and disperses into a myriad of droplets. The advantage of this method is that it can create droplets as small as just a few microns across from needles with diameters of hundreds of microns. The technique may have huge potential for patterning predetermined 2D and 3D biological architectures, such as tissues and organs, at the micron and nanometre scales.
Physicsweb / Biotechnology Journal 1 86 Jan 11, 2006	back to top

Sensor sees spark of life
Increasingly, and in many ways, computer chip technology is proving invaluable to the life sciences. Researchers from the University of Manchester, UK, and the Institute for Microelectronics Technology in Russia have made an electric field sensor that detects the electric charge of a single electron, and does so at room temperature rather than less practical cryogenic temperatures. The sensor is a semiconductor device that can measure electric fields in spaces as small as 100 nanometres, which is about one tenth the size of an E. coli bacterium. The researchers used the sensor to measure the electrical responses of individual yeast cells to changes in their environment. The sensor could be used in biochips and laboratory equipment that monitors biological activity.
Technology Research News / Applied Physics Letters Jan 09, 2006	back to top

Car that drives itself
A car that drives itself has been launched. The Honda Accord ADAS automatically speeds up and slows down - and even steers around bends. All the driver has to do is gently nudge the wheel every 10 seconds reports the Mirror. The Advanced Driver Assist System (ADAS) does not replace the driver. But it keeps the car in the lane and at a safe speed on motorways. It makes long journeys much less tiring and will prevent some accidents by reducing driver error, according to Honda, praising ADAS as 'the biggest step forward in safety since the airbag'. ADAS only works on motorways and dual carriageways, but Honda hopes that future models could drive on any road. The car works by using two main components. The Adaptive Cruise Control is a radar sensor behind the Honda badge in the front of the car that scans ahead for other vehicles. It then speeds up or slows down accordingly. It also has a Lane Keep Assist System (LKAS) - a camera next to the rear-view mirror which watches the white lines and controls steering.
Ananova / Daily Mirror Jan 12, 2006	back to top

New software cleans up illegible scrawl
If you get annoyed when people write circles or hearts above the letters i and j, instead of a dot, spare a thought for the developers of the handwriting recognition systems used in pen-based gadgets. Such habits can often leave their software floundering. Now Microsoft's Beijing research lab has developed an artificial intelligence tool to cope with slapdash handwriting. One of the biggest problems is 'overtracing', the reiteration of a single stroke, like the stalk of an h. This can look like multiple characters, but Microsoft's new system can average out these strokes into a single character. And as well as correcting circles that should be dots, it looks for and corrects dots or crosses that are not above the right letter. So far, the software only works with English text.
New Scientist Jan 07, 2006	back to top