UNU-MERIT: I&T Weekly

	Search \| Sitemap \| Intranet \| PhD Intranet

Subscribe to I&T Weekly A free e-zine about Innovation & Technology developments

text html Please type the above code:
	RSS feed

Previous Issues I&T Weekly

>> back to archive

Previous issues of I&T Weekly:

2013: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]

2012: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37]

2011: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44]

2010: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42]

2009: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42]

2008: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41]

2007: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40]

2006: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44]

2005: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40]

2004: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43]

2003: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47]

2002: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47]

2001: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19]

Issue no. 5, 2007 Published: Feb 09, 2007
MIT researchers claim optical breakthrough
Turning light into matter
Fridges could save power for a rainy day
'Doomsday' vault design unveiled
Software patch could improve car engine efficiency
Bubble-powered 'computer' may improve chemical testing
Action computer games can sharpen eyesight
Bot claims to crack malware in minutes
On-road warning signs
Crystals 'helped Viking sailors'

MIT researchers claim optical breakthrough
Researchers at MIT have a made a breakthrough in the production of 'optical chips' which they believe could revolutionise telecoms and computing. The team has succeeded in integrating photonic circuitry on a silicon chip, effectively adding the power and speed of light waves to traditional electronics. According to the MIT team, the breakthrough will enable such integrated devices to be mass-manufactured for the first time. The new technology will also enable supercomputers on a chip with unique high-speed capabilities for signal processing, spectroscopy and remote testing, among other fields. Central to the breakthrough is microphotonics technology that 'moulds' the flow of light. By using two different materials that refract light differently, such as silicon and its oxides, photons can be trapped within a minuscule 'hall of mirrors' giving them unique properties. The innovative technique centres on splitting the light emanating from an optic fibre into two arms - one with horizontally polarised beams and one with vertically polarised beams - in an integrated on-chip fashion.
VNUnet UK Feb 06, 2007	back to top

Turning light into matter
It sounds like a conjuring trick. You shine a light into a gas, and the light gets swallowed. Then you pump the gas into another container, and the light comes out again. The trick, demonstrated by researchers at Harvard University in Cambridge, harnesses the strangeness of quantum mechanics. First, the researchers slowed a light pulse to a crawl by beaming it into an ultracold cloud of about two million sodium atoms. Then they destroyed the light beam entirely, but imprinted a memory of it in the sodium. They shunted some of these atoms into a second cloud, and tickled them with another laser beam. This triggered their 'memory' of the original pulse, which emerged, much weaker but otherwise unchanged, from the second cloud. The 'messenger' atoms that move between clouds are basically a 'matter copy' of the original light pulse. This process could be used for manipulating information in quantum computers, which would be potentially much more powerful than conventional devices. It might also prove useful in conventional optical telecommunications, for example for storing information held in light beams.
Nature Feb 07, 2007	back to top

Fridges could save power for a rainy day
Refrigerated warehouses might soon be used to store not just food, but gigawatts of electricity. A plan dreamt up in the Netherlands could see the giant fridges acting as massive batteries. They would buffer swings in supply and demand from electricity created from renewable sources. The idea seems simple. Say you lowered the temperature of all large coldstores in Europe by just 1°C during the night when electricity demand is low, then let it rise 1°C by switching them off during the day when demand is at peak. The net effect would be that the warehouses would act as batteries - potentially storing 50,000 megawatt-hours of energy - and the food would not melt. A team at the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) has launched a research project called 'Night Wind', to try to put the idea into practice. Together with energy research groups and suppliers in Spain, Bulgaria, and Denmark, they are looking at coldstores as a potential solution to managing the intermittent and unpredictable flow of renewable energy sources, such as wind power.
Nature Feb 07, 2007	back to top

'Doomsday' vault design unveiled
The final design for a 'doomsday' vault that will house seeds from all known varieties of food crops has been unveiled by the Norwegian government. The vault aims to safeguard the world's agriculture from future catastrophes, such as nuclear war, asteroid strikes and climate change. The Svalbard International Seed Vault will be built 120m into a mountainside on the remote island of Spitsbergen near the North Pole. Construction begins in March, and the seed bank is scheduled to open in 2008. The Norwegian government is paying the construction costs of the vault, which will have enough space to house three million seed samples. Svalbard was chosen as the location for the vault because it is very remote and it also offers the level of stability required for the long-term project. By building the vault deep inside the mountain, the surrounding permafrost will continue to provide natural refrigeration if the mechanical system fails. Once inside the vault, the samples will be stored at -18C (0F). The length of time that seeds kept in a frozen state maintain their ability to germinate depends on the species.
BBC News Feb 09, 2007	back to top

Software patch could improve car engine efficiency
Many modern cars could reduce fuel consumption by 2.6% simply by uploading new software to the engine's computer, a Dutch scientist claims. John Kessels at the University of Eindhoven developed software to improve engine performance together with US car company Ford. Kessels' software dynamically switches the dynamo, which charges the car battery, on and off. The software deactivates the dynamo when it is particularly inefficient for the engine to power it, thus improving the overall efficiency of the engine. The software is not proprietary to Ford and can be used in any vehicle with an engine computer, which includes the vast majority of cars sold today. A more significant fuel saving of 5% to 6% could be achieved if the car engine itself were to be rapidly switched on and off, but this would mean serious adjustments to the engine, including the addition of a powerful starter motor to ensure the car gets going quickly after each engine shutdown.
New Scientist Feb 08, 2007	back to top

Bubble-powered 'computer' may improve chemical testing
A computer that carries out calculations using tiny bubbles instead of electricity has been developed by US researchers. The 'microfluidic' computer performs calculation by squeezing bubbles through tiny channels etched into a chip. It can perform all of the logical operations needed to make a general-purpose computer. In practise, such a computer would be much bigger than a PC and about a thousand times slower. Nevertheless, the bubble-based computer could lead to improved microfluidic technology for chemical analysis, say its designers at the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms in Massachusetts, US. They created the devices by etching channels about 1 micron wide into silicon. They used nitrogen bubbles contained in water to represent bits of information flowing through these channels. The channels are designed to carry out basic Boolean logic functions. The channels can also store binary information in the form of bubbles trapped in one of two connected cavities. The same principles are used to process complex information in electronic circuits.
New Scientist / Science Feb 08, 2007	back to top

Action computer games can sharpen eyesight
A study by scientists at the University of Rochester shows that people who play action video games for a few hours each day over the course of a month can improve their performance in eye examinations by about 20%. The researchers tested college students who had played very few, if any, video games in the preceding year. Test subjects were given an eye test similar to one used at regular eye clinics. Participants were then divided into two groups. One played the 'shoot-em-up' action game Unreal Tournament for an hour a day while the other played the less visually complex computer game Tetris for the same amount of time. After 30 hours of gaming, both groups had their vision tested again. Those who played Tetris saw no improvement in their test score. However, the group that played Unreal Tournament scored 20% better in the eye test on average. The researchers say their findings could help patients with certain visual defects such as amblyopia, or 'lazy eye'. Such people might perhaps benefit from using specially designed training software.
New Scientist / Psychological Science Feb 07, 2007	back to top

Bot claims to crack malware in minutes
Security software company PC Tools announced it has developed an automated bot, called Threat Expert, which enables content sharing businesses to analyse and decode online threats in a matter of minutes. Users of the automated service can send suspected threats to PC Tools through a web portal where Threat Expert will provide a detailed report which can then be used to create the patch to eliminate these threats. Threat Expert can detect behaviour ranging from spyware to keylogging, rootkits, malware, adware, dialers, downloaders, worms and viruses, according to the company. New threats identified by an organisation traditionally require a thorough evaluation to determine whether they pose a real threat to users. Once a threat is identified, it can take hours, or even days, to reverse engineer and eventually produce a report and finally a solution. Threat Expert claims to offer a threat analysis in a matter of minutes.
VNUnet UK Feb 05, 2007	back to top

On-road warning signs
Could real-time traffic information be projected directly onto the road ahead? Dutch electronics firm Philips proposes attaching laser projectors, each with a rapidly-moving mirror that deflects its beam, to ordinary lampposts. These would be used to project images and words onto the road just ahead of approaching cars. The solution would be cheaper than installing a large video display and safer too, since drivers would not need to take their eyes off the road. Also, a warning about ice or danger on the road ahead would not need a full colour screen, so the projector could use just a single-colour laser. Each lamppost would have its own IP address and would connect wirelessly, or via a cable, to a central traffic control centre. The projectors could also tap into the power already used to illuminate streetlamps. As well as providing warning signs, the laser projectors could paint temporary lanes onto the road, steering traffic round an obstruction, or away from the main highway and onto a side road.
New Scientist Feb 05, 2007	back to top

Crystals 'helped Viking sailors'
Vikings may have used a special crystal called a sunstone to help navigate the seas even when the sun was obscured by fog or cloud, a study has suggested. Researchers from Eotvos University in Budapest, Hungary, ran a test with sunstones in the Arctic ocean, and found that the crystals can reveal the sun's position even in bad weather. This would have allowed the Vikings to navigate successfully, they say. The sunstone theory has been around for 40 years, but some academics have treated it with extreme scepticism. The Budapest team spent a month recording polarisation - how rays of light display different properties in different directions - in the Arctic. Polarisation cannot be seen with the naked eye, but it can be viewed with what are known as birefringent crystals, or sunstones. Birefringence, or double refraction, is the splitting of a light wave into two different components - an ordinary and an extraordinary ray. The researchers found that the crystals could be used to find out where the sun was in the sky in certain foggy or cloudy conditions.
BBC News Feb 07, 2007	back to top