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Issue no. 20, 2006 Published: Jun 09, 2006
Error-check breakthrough in quantum computing
EU plans cross-border spectrum sales
Portugal starts huge solar plant
Robot device mimics human touch
Physicists create great balls of fire
Worm-inspired robot crawls through intestines
Invention: Origami gadgets
Google researchers propose TV eavesdropping

Error-check breakthrough in quantum computing
Physicists at the University of California have discovered a new way to check how much the information stored inside a quantum computer has decayed. This is an impressive feat since measuring the state of a qubit normally destroys its quantum properties. The method could prove crucial to the development of a practical quantum computer. In their set-up, a qubit is created using two superconducting metals separated by an insulating barrier. Passing a current through this component produces a qubit in the form of two energy levels in superposition, or both states simultaneously. Reducing the energy barrier used to maintain this state of superposition 'collapses its quantum waveform' into one of the two energy levels. But the team has found it can lower the energy barrier to a point just above the highest of the two energy levels, only partially collapsing the waveform. This is called a partial measurement. Scanning the qubit using microwave radiation then reveals its state of superposition without making it collapse. In a functional quantum computer this could be used to confirm that a qubit can still be used for a quantum computation.
New Scientist / Science Jun 08, 2006	back to top

EU plans cross-border spectrum sales
The EU has announced plans to create a combined market for TV, radio and internet spectrum auctions that could see one country's airwaves being bought and sold by companies in a different territory. Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, will present the plans on 28 June as part of a wider report into the Europe's communications industries. The proposed initiatives could also regulate the way that spectrum is used, and standardise the system across all countries. Currently, technology from one region does not always work in another because different parts of the spectrum are used to transmit different services. Any standardisation is likely to be greeted with approval by manufacturers, which could produce a single device that works across a number of countries. However, the plan could be upset by EU member states that want to retain control of the airwaves rather than hand them over to the EU. Each country currently auctions off its own spectrum in sales that have the potential to raise huge amounts of money.
VNUnet UK Jun 05, 2006	back to top

Portugal starts huge solar plant
Construction work has begun in southern Portugal on what is set to be the world's largest solar power station. The EUR 58m euro plant near Serpa, 200km south of Lisbon, will produce enough electricity for 8,000 homes when it starts next January. The 11-megawatt solar power plant, to be made up of 52,000 photovoltaic modules, will cover a 60-hectare southern-facing hillside. The project in the sunny Alentejo region has been developed by Portuguese renewable energy company Catavento, in conjunction with solar polar provider Powerlight and funded by General Electric Energy Financial Services. The plant will use PowerLight's PowerTracker technology which follows the sun as it moves across the sky throughout the day. The firm say this generates more electricity than conventional fixed-mount systems.
BBC News Jun 06, 2006	back to top

Robot device mimics human touch
Scientists at the University of Nebraska have created a sensor that can 'feel' the texture of objects to the same degree of sensitivity as a human fingertip. The team says the tactile sensor could, in the future, aid minimally invasive surgical techniques by giving surgeons a 'touch-sensation'. The researchers created a very thin film made up of layers of metal and semiconducting nanoparticles flanked at the top and bottom by electrodes. When the film touches a surface any pressure or stress squeezes the layers of particles together. This causes the current in the film to change and light is emitted from the particles, an effect known as 'electroluminescence'. The visible light is then detected by a camera. The film is robust enough to be used repeatedly. To demonstrate the high sensitivity of the device, the scientists pressed a US one cent coin against it. The sensor revealed the wrinkles in President Lincoln's clothing and the letters TY in liberty.
BBC News / Science Jun 08, 2006	back to top

Physicists create great balls of fire
Ball lightning – the mysterious slow-moving spheres of light occasionally seen during thunderstorms – has been created in the lab by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics and the Humboldt University, both in Berlin. The scientists used a short, high-voltage discharge of 5000 volts to vaporise some of the water in a glass tank to create the plasma ball. The tank contains two electrodes, one of which is insulated from the surrounding water by a clay tube. The high voltage causes enormous currents of up to 60 amps – over 200 times those needed to cause death – to flow through the water for a fraction of a second. These enter the clay tube, causing the water there to evaporate and a luminous plasma ball - consisting of ionised water molecules - to rise from the surface. The balls survive up to 0.3 seconds after the current is switched off. Normal plasmas usually decay away within milliseconds of the power being switched off. The researchers hope that these artificial entities will help them understand the phenomenon and perhaps even provide insights into the hot plasmas needed for fusion power plants.
New Scientist Jun 07, 2006	back to top

Worm-inspired robot crawls through intestines
A robot designed to crawl through the human gut by mimicking the wriggling motion of an undersea worm has been developed by European scientists. It could one day help doctors diagnose disease by carrying tiny cameras through patients' bodies. The team behind the robot includes scientists from Italy, Germany, Greece and the UK. They modelled it on polychaetes, or 'paddle worms', which use tiny paddles on their body segments to push through sand, mud or water. The team studied the way real worms use their paddles to crawl and developed computer models to simulate the motion. The Italian scientists then put together two prototype robots that move in the same way. Next, the researchers plan to develop a robot equipped with a camera and light source that can capture video footage as it travels.
New Scientist Jun 06, 2006	back to top

Invention: Origami gadgets
The boffins at Sony’s Tokyo labs are working on a clever way to get bulky electronic devices into small pockets. Their plan is to create handheld computers, phones and portable games consoles that fold up for carrying and then become rigid for use. The body and screen of folding gadgets would be made from a flexible polymer containing conductive rubber bracing struts filled with a gel of aluminosilicate particles suspended in silicone oil. When a current is passed through the struts, the particles clump together and harden the gel, making the gadget solid enough to use. Sony has found that it would take very little power to make such a folding device harden, so the drain on its battery should be low. The company's patent adds that the transition from soft to hard takes just milliseconds. It suggests that the same technique could even be used in a video game controller to make it jolt or change shape in response to on-screen action.
New Scientist Jun 06, 2006	back to top

Google researchers propose TV eavesdropping
Google research scientists want your computer to watch television with you so it can deliver personalised internet content at the same time. In their paper Google researchers Michele Covell and Shumeet Baluja propose using ambient-audio identification technology to capture TV sound with a laptop PC to identify the show that is the source of the sound and to use that information to immediately return personalised internet content to the PC. The scheme is described as mass personalisation. With such a system, Google could extend its online dominance into television, and presumably radio, by offering advertisers unparalleled insight into the mass media audience. The paper specifically contemplates the proposed system's potential as an advertising tool. A similar procedure to Google's online keyword bidding process could be adapted to mass-personalisation applications. Content providers or advertisers might bid for specific television segments, the papers says. Those appalled by the prospect of Google tapping your television take heart: The proposal suggests user privacy would be respected.
Information Week Jun 07, 2006	back to top