Issue no. 15, 2006
Published: Apr 21, 2006 |
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 OECD urges more international cooperation on spam |
| Organic LEDs use fluorescence to pump up efficiency |
| Philips launches electrowetting display startup |
| Philips device could force TV viewers to watch ads |
| Bacterium makes nature's strongest glue |
| Two telescopes join hunt for ET |
| Faces in a crowd offer alternative to passwords |
| Tiny reactor could boost biodiesel production |
| Superconducting memory flip-flops in an instant |
| Paint-on lasers promise faster chip future |
| Microwavable packaging |
| Scientists develop fat-busting laser |
| Mamma mia! Eurovision voting scandal uncovered |
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| OECD urges more international cooperation on spam |
Governments need to pass more antispam laws, give law enforcement
agencies more resources and work better across borders to combat
unsolicited e-mail clogging up inboxes, according to the Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The OECD also called on private industry to cooperate with government
spam-fighting efforts and to help governments establish nationwide spam
education campaigns. In addition, countries need to pass laws that
provide 'clear directions' on rules regarding spam, the group said.
The OECD's report calls on countries to more readily share information
during spam investigations and to routinely provide investigative
assistance. Countries should also establish a single point of contact
where other governments can direct their spam-fighting requests. The
group also recommends that governments provide training about spam and
internet security in schools. Senior citizens should also have spam
awareness training available to them, the group said. OECD's antispam
toolkit is available at http://www.oecd-antispam.org/ |
| Infoworlds
Apr 19, 2006 |
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| Organic LEDs use fluorescence to pump up efficiency |
The traditional light bulb's days could be numbered, according to
scientists at Princeton University, who have taken an important step
towards making white organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) commercially
viable. They expect that it could be just a few years before rooms are
lit by gently glowing thin panels. The lights should be ultra efficient,
saving on energy bills and helping to lower energy consumption.
LEDs are typically made of a mix of phosphorescent materials that spit
out blue, red and green light - together, these combine to form white
light. But the phosphors that produce blue light are not ideal. These
materials tend to degrade relatively quickly, shortening a device's
lifetime and making its light more yellow as the LED ages.
The researchers turned instead to a long-lived fluorescent material that
churns out blue light. The blue fluorescent compounds used in Forrest's
device last for around 10,000 hours. That is still not as good as the
red and green phosphors but leagues ahead of blue phosphors. A
conventional bulb lasts around 1,000 hours, and a fluorescent lamp
around 20,000 hours. |
| Nature
Apr 12, 2006 |
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| Philips launches electrowetting display startup |
Dutch electronics giant Koninklijke Philips Electronics and New Venture
Partners have formed a new company, Liquavista, to commercialise
electrowetting display technology, the companies said Wednesday.
Electrowetting technology can be used to make displays that are
extremely bright and energy-efficient - two critical features for
portable devices, such as mobile phones, MP3 players and cameras.
It uses electronic currents to manipulate collared oil and water in a
tiny cell to create full-colour displays that are six times brighter than
an LCD. The technology's manufacturing processes are highly compatible
with those of LCD, enabling Liquavista to bring its products to market
quickly, the companies said. |
| Infoworld
Apr 19, 2006 |
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| Philips device could force TV viewers to watch ads |
An invention from Royal Philips Electronics prevents TV viewers from
switching the channel during commercials or fast-forwarding past
commercials when watching DVR content. Viewers would be released from
the freeze only after paying a fee to the broadcaster.
The freeze would be implemented on a program-by-program basis, giving
viewers a choice at the start of each one. The apparatus can work inside
a set-top box and uses the standard Multimedia Home Platform to receive
a first control signal and then respond by taking control of the TV. The
MHP is also be capable of sending the payment information that would
lift the freeze, as it does when authorising pay-per-view content.
If implemented, the invention would have a significant impact on
television culture. The proposed apparatus would also aggravate children
who use DVRs to zip through commercials to maximize their weekly
TV-watching limits, set by parents. |
| ZDNet / CNET News
Apr 19, 2006 |
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| Bacterium makes nature's strongest glue |
Physicists have found the stickiest customer in all of biology - an
unassuming bacterium that lives anywhere wet. So secure is the adhesive
made by Caulobacter crescentus that the bacterium can cling to a surface
even when subjected to a force equivalent to four cars balanced on a
coin. By copying its feat of strength, material scientists might create
new surgical glues.
Nobody knew just how strong the bacterium was, until a team of
physicists devised a way to measure the strength of its glue, which is
made out of long sugar-based molecules called polysaccharides. The
researchers grew individual bacterial cells on the tip of a flexible
pipette and used a second pipette to suck the cell from its mooring. By
examining the flexible pipette's deflection, they gauged the force
needed to dislodge the bacterium's tail-like anchor from the surface.
The researchers worked out that the average C. crescentus requires
around 70 newtons per square millimetre to rip it from a surface.
Commercial 'super' glue gives up at about 25 newtons per square
millimetre. Because the bacterial glue works in the wet, it might find a
use as a surgical adhesive. |
| Nature
Apr 10, 2006 |
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| Two telescopes join hunt for ET |
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) will ramp up in
coming months as two dedicated facilities come online - one to look, the
other to listen.
A team led by Harvard University has begun scanning the skies for
flashes of light from alien civilizations. Most SETI searches have been
at radio wavelengths, but theorists surmise that extraterrestrials might
also shine laser beacons visible from thousands of light years away.
This will be the first optical SETI project to scan the entire sky, or
at least all that can be seen from the Oak Ridge Observatory in Harvard,
Massachusetts, where a 180-centimetre telescope has been installed. The
instrument will record flashes briefer than a nanosecond. No known
natural process causes such flashes.
Meanwhile, at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory in northern California,
the first ten dishes of the privately funded Allen Telescope Array are
due to be demonstrated later this month. The SETI Institute in Mountain
View, California, working with Berkeley, is building an array of 350
six-metre radio dishes dedicated to SETI. The entire array will
eavesdrop on nearly a million stars for hints of intelligence. |
| Nature
Apr 12, 2006 |
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| Faces in a crowd offer alternative to passwords |
Familiar faces could take the place of complex and hard-to-remember
computer passwords, if a security system developed in the US takes off.
Instead of requiring users to remember a string of letters and numbers
before granting access to a computer, the new system asks them to pick
out a pre-agreed set of faces from several grids of other faces.
The system has been developed by a company called Passfaces, based in
Maryland, US. A Passfaces authentication system that asks a user to pick
out five faces from five different grids of nine faces is roughly
equivalent to a random seven-character password.
The Passfaces system can be used to control access to any system that
can display images - websites and handheld devices, as well as desktop
machines. But it may not be suitable in every situation as it takes
between 5 and 10 seconds on average to authenticate a person. |
| New Scientist
Apr 19, 2006 |
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| Tiny reactor could boost biodiesel production |
A tiny chemical reactor developed at Oregon State University can convert
vegetable oil directly into biodiesel. It could help farmers turn some
of their crops into homegrown fuel to operate agricultural equipment
instead of relying on costly imported oil.
The device - about the size of a credit card - pumps vegetable oil and
alcohol through tiny parallel channels, each smaller than a human hair,
to convert the oil into biodiesel almost instantly. By comparison, it
takes more than a day to produce biodiesel with current technology. The
device can be stacked in banks to increase production levels to the
volume required for commercial use.
Biodiesel production on the farm also could reduce distribution costs by
eliminating the need for tanker truck fuel delivery, part of the growing
effort to meet fuel demand locally - instead of relying on distant
refineries and tanker transport. |
| MSNBC / AP
Apr 19, 2006 |
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| Superconducting memory flip-flops in an instant |
An exotic form of electronic memory made using superconductors could
someday be used to make computers that work at unprecedented speeds.
The memory cell stores binary data using the direction of an
electrically generated magnetic field, representing either a '1' or '0'.
But superconducting materials experience no electrical resistance,
meaning the cell can work with extraordinary efficiency, unlike
conventional electronic circuits.
The cell was developed by a team from the University of Technology
Ilmenau in Germany and the University of Twente in the Netherlands. It
uses two superconducting materials that have different quantum
properties. These materials are connected to form two segments of a
loop, which produces a magnetic flux running in one direction through
its centre. Applying second magnetic field to one of the materials then
reverses this flux, instantly flipping the memory to its opposite state. |
| New Scientist
Apr 20, 2006 |
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| Paint-on lasers promise faster chip future |
Researchers at the University of Toronto have produced a new form of
laser that can be made by painting surfaces with a liquid. The
researchers say the development could lead to very fast chip
interconnections.
Electrical interconnects suffer from various physical problems of mutual
interference and increasing resistance that get worse as the devices get
smaller and faster. Lasers have the potential to work much faster with
fewer problems, provided they can be integrated effectively with the
electronics of the silicon chip.
The new laser uses nanoparticles which are tiny motes of dust that are
akin to customised atoms and that can be suspended in a liquid like
particles in paint. Like the constituents of paint, they can be made to
be particularly active at certain colours, with the electronic
configuration of the particles additionally set up to absorb and emit
photons in a way capable of supporting laser light production. Once
painted onto the right structure, the dots form a device that will emit
laser light if pulsed with ordinary light in the right way. |
| ZDNet / CNET News
Apr 19, 2006 |
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| Microwavable packaging |
The UK's Ministry of Defence spin-off company, Qinetiq, has cooked up an
interesting idea - a metal wrapping that helps keeps food cold but can
also be used in a microwave without sparking and damaging the machine,
as ordinary metal foil does.
The secret is to make the wrapping from thin polyester and cover it with
tiny squares of aluminium, the Qinetiq patent reveals. The company has
found that aluminium squares 300 micrometres wide, and spaced apart by
100-micrometre tracks of clear plastic, make the perfect
heatwave-frequency filter.
Microwaves at the standard frequency and wavelength ignore the grid of
squares and can cook the food as normal. But normal heat is reflected,
to help keep the food cool. Enough light passes through the polyester
for a cook to see through the packaging and stored food will also stay
fresh longer because the polyester is air-tight. |
| New Scientist
Apr 11, 2006 |
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| Scientists develop fat-busting laser |
Scientists at the Massachusetts General Hospital in the US are
developing a laser that melts fat and could be used to treat obesity. It
could also blast away cellulite and acne and could even be used to
prevent heart attacks.
The laser is able for the first time to heat up fat in the body without
harming the overlying skin. The free-electron laser heats up the fat
which is then broken down and excreted by the body. |
| Ananova / The Independent
Apr 10, 2006 |
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| Mamma mia! Eurovision voting scandal uncovered |
ABBA, the Swedish pop phenomenon of the 1970s and 1980s, found fame by
winning the cheesy Eurovision Song Contest. Now, shockingly, it seems
that the voting on this cherished European institution is subject to
collusion that can skew the results.
Eurovision is an annual contest in which European countries elect a
national song and award scores to others in the final. Some people
suspect conspiracy in the voting. So Derek Gatherer, a computer
programmer from Glasgow, UK, ran computer simulations to find the
possible range of results if countries voted without bias between 1975
and 2005, and compared that to the real results.
Sure enough, conspiracy was afoot. In the early years, collusive
partnerships between countries came and went. Since the mid-1990s when
public telephone voting was introduced, however, a large 'Balkan bloc'
centred on Croatia has emerged to battle with a mighty 'Viking empire'
of Scandinavian and Baltic states. The copycat voting is now powerful
enough to determine the contest's outcome.
Gatherer thinks the collusion has become part of the fun and he does not
plan to warn the contest organisers. His tip to win the contest in May?
Bosnia-Herzegovina. |
| New Scientists / Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation
Apr 13, 2006 |
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