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] [18] [19] [20]

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. 8, 2007 Published: Mar 02, 2007
Scientists offer climate plan to UN
'Crush and zap' recycles circuit boards more cleanly
Scientists create world's thinnest material
The more, the wikier
US researchers show off real-life tricorder
Koreans sniff out web-scent technology
Chinese researchers develop remote control pigeons
Invention: YouTube watermarks

Scientists offer climate plan to UN
To head off the worst of climate change, governments must pour tens of billions of dollars more than they are into clean-energy research and enforce sharp rollbacks in fossil-fuel emissions, an expert scientific panel reported to the United Nations on Tuesday. The UN itself must better prepare to help tens of millions of 'environmental refugees', the group said, and authorities should discourage new building on land less than one metre above sea level. The 166-page report, written by a by a panel of 18 scientists from 11 nations, forecasts a turbulent 21st century of rising seas, spreading drought and disease, weather extremes, and damage to farming, forests, fisheries and other economic areas. Among its wide-ranging list of recommendations about what to do to mitigate and adapt to global warming, the report also called on UN agencies to study the need for an internationally accepted definition of 'environmental refugee', since treaties recognise only political refugees as eligible for aid from the UN refugee agency.
LiveScience / AP Feb 27, 2007	back to top

'Crush and zap' recycles circuit boards more cleanly
Electronic circuits in discarded devices could be recycled less harmfully using a technique developed by researchers in China. Unlike current methods, it can be used to reclaim valuable metals such as copper without releasing toxic fumes into the air. The method, developed by researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, involves crushing boards and using a high-voltage electric field to separate metallic and non-metallic materials. The metals can then be reclaimed by distilling in a vacuum while the non-metal components can be compacted into plates for use as building materials. The researchers experimented with 400 kilograms of waste printed circuit boards (PCB). A machine with rotating cutters crushed the boards and a hammer grinder pulverised them into pieces smaller than 1 millimetre in diameter. This process detached the metallic and non-metallic components from the boards. The large difference in their electrical conductivity meant they could then be separated using a high-voltage electric field.
New Scientist Feb 27, 2007	back to top

Scientists create world's thinnest material
Researchers at the University of Manchester, UK and The Max-Planck Institute in Germany have created the world's thinnest sheet - a single atom thick - and used it to create the world's smallest transistor, marking a breakthrough that could spark the development of super-fast computer chips. The innovation will allow ultra-small electronics to take over when the current silicon-based technology reaches its limitations, according to the researchers. They used graphite to find the real-world equivalent of a material that for the past half-century has been known only to theoreticians: a two-dimensional crystal - a single sheet of atoms. So called 'graphene' consists of a gauze of carbon atoms resembling chicken wire. Graphene behaves as if the electrical current is not carried by normal electrons but by charged particles with no mass at all - when at rest akin to photons of light but which carry electric charge. The material brings scientists close to creating what are known as ballistic transistors, which would be faster than any currently available technology.
Daily Telegraph Mar 01, 2007	back to top

The more, the wikier
Wikipedia, the free online encyclopaedia offers a better standard of information than many would have expected from a resource that absolutely anyone can write and edit. Researchers at Hewlett Packard, claim to have untangled the process by which many Wikipedia entries achieve their impressive accuracy. Right now there are around 6.4m articles on Wikipedia, generated by over 250m edits from 5.8m contributors. The researchers have studied the editing statistics and found that they do not simply follow the statistical pattern expected from a random process in which each edit is made independently of the others. Instead, there is an abnormally high number of very highly edited entries. The researchers say this is just what is expected if the number of new edits to an article is proportional to the number of previous edits. In other words, edits attract more edits. The disproportionately highly edited articles are those that deal with very topical issues. The main lesson for tapping effectively into the 'wisdom of crowds', is that the crowd should be diverse. Problem-solving teams selected at random from a diverse collection of individuals will usually perform better than a team made up of those who individually perform best - because the latter tend to be too similar, and so draw on too narrow a range of options. For crowds, wisdom depends on variety.
Nature Feb 27, 2007	back to top

US researchers show off real-life tricorder
Researchers at Purdue University in the US have invented a prototype 'tricorder' similar to the fictional device featured on Star Trek. The handheld device is a miniature mass spectrometer combined with a technique called desorption electrospray ionization, or DESI, that can perform on-the-spot chemical analysis to test foods for dangerous bacterial contaminants. Conventional mass spectrometers analyse samples that are specially prepared and placed in a vacuum chamber. The key DESI innovation is performing the ionisation step in the air or directly on surfaces outside the mass spectrometer's vacuum chamber. Unlike conventional mass spectrometers, which can weigh more than 140kg, the new device weighs less than 9kg and can be used in the field. The research team has used it to analyse clothes, foods and tablets, and to identify cocaine on USD 50 bills in less than one second.
VNUnet UK Mar 01, 2007	back to top

Koreans sniff out web-scent technology
An internet which can deliver smells, a mobile phone battery that lasts two months, and micro-robot surgeons are only a decade away, according to a South Korean government report released Wednesday. The information and communication ministry, in the report based on interviews with 3,500 local technology experts, forecasts that internet users will be able to deliver and sense smells by 2015. Each scent will be defined as digital data concerning aromatic compounds and how to combine them. The data will travel through the internet and activate a fragrance cartridge, it predicted. The report also predicts mobile handsets that can work for two months without recharging by 2012 and surgeon robots by 2018. It says the micro robots, small enough to travel through human blood vessels, could discover, analyze, or heal health problems. The report also forecasts that by 2015, soldiers will be offered bulletproof and waterproof uniforms which, chameleon-like, will change camouflage patterns according to the environment.
Middle East Times / AFP Feb 28, 2007	back to top

Chinese researchers develop remote control pigeons
Scientists in China have found a way to control pigeons remotely by implanting minute electrodes in their brains. Researchers at the Robot Engineering Technology Research Center at China's Shandong University of Science and Technology have developed a computer system which allows them to tell the birds to fly left, right, up or down. Chief scientist Su Xuecheng told Chinese state media that the experiments mark the first successful attempt to control a pigeon's flight. Similar experiments on mice had been carried out by the team two years ago. The technique has a variety of practical uses, such as helping amputees to use mechanical limbs and controlling animals fitted with cameras to search large areas or disaster zones.
VNUnet UK Feb 27, 2007	back to top

Invention: YouTube watermarks
Some of the material on video sites like YouTube is 're-purposed', which is a polite way of saying it was uploaded without the copyright holder's permission. Now, US company Digimarc, which specialises in image recognition and watermarking, has been granted a patent for a novel way of tackling the problem. Instead of preventing copyright infringement altogether, it would turn it into a commercial advantage. A TV station or movie studio embeds an invisible watermark in whatever it broadcasts. This is done by producing a copy of the original material but with key areas of the image imperceptibly distorted in shape, colour or brightness. The difference between the original and the copy is expressed as a digital code which identifies the copyright owner. The slightly distorted copy is released for TV while the pure original is kept in the owner's vault. When the clip then reappears on the web, its owner can automatically be identified and viewers can be targeted with adverts that generate revenue for the original copyright owner.
New Scientist Feb 26, 2007	back to top