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Issue no. 38, 2007 Published: Nov 30, 2007
Google pushes 'green' power initiative
Carbon dioxide could be injected into earth: study
Slowing light heralds ultra-fast computers
Remote-controlled pill
Laser-powered motor turns light into motion
Fabric displays

Google pushes 'green' power initiative
Google is expanding into alternative energy in its most ambitious effort yet to ease the environmental strain caused by the company's voracious appetite for power to run its massive computing centers. Google hopes to harvest cleaner-burning electricity to meet its own needs and sell power to other users. As part of the project dubbed 'Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal', Google will pour hundreds of millions of dollars into a quest to lower the cost of producing electricity from renewable energy sources such as wind and the sun. If Google realises its goal, the cost of solar power should fall by 25 to 50%. Google intends to spend at least USD 20m next year to finance renewable energy research and hire more experts in the field. At least 20 to 30 new employees will participate in the project next year, Page said, though he hopes the number will be larger than that.
CNN / AP Nov 28, 2007	back to top

Carbon dioxide could be injected into earth: study
Researchers at the University of Leeds have a potential solution to the world's climate change problem: pump all that harmful carbon dioxide being produced down into the earth. A university study in the December issue of the periodical Geology showed porous sandstone that has been drained of oil by energy companies could act as a safe reservoir for excess carbon dioxide. The sandstone reacts with injected fluids more quickly than had previously been predicted, the researchers said, which means it can capture the CO2 and prevent it from leaking back to the surface. In studying the Miller oilfield in the North Sea, the researchers examined the seawater that BP PLC had been pumping over a seven-year period into reservoirs to speed the flow of oil. They found that the extracted seawater, when compared to the water that was there before, was rich in silicates, which had dissolved into the injection in less than a year. That is the type of reaction that would be needed to make carbon dioxide stable in the rock, the researchers said. The research also gave a clear indication that CO2 planted deep underground could react and become quickly assimilated with ordinary rocks, they added. The study suggests a possible long-term solution to safely storing CO2.
CBC News Nov 26, 2007	back to top

Slowing light heralds ultra-fast computers
Scientists at the University of Surrey in Britain say they are able to slow and then stop a squirt of light in a key step toward the future of ultra-fast computing. The technique, called 'trapped rainbow', would help optical data storage, with light replacing electrons to store information. Controlling light would also help engineers control major nodes where billions of optical data 'packets' arrive at the same time. By slowing some packets to let others through, rather like a traffic congestion scheme, the flow of data can be boosted. The research is based on the so-called 'negative refractive index' of metamaterials. The researchers created a prism 'sandwich' - a tapered layer of glass, surrounded by two layers of negative refractive index metamaterials. A packet of white light injected into the glass from the wide end of the prism slows as it travels down the taper and eventually comes to a standstill. The description of it as a 'trapped rainbow' derives from the fact that the constituent frequencies of white light are the colours of the rainbow - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Each individual frequency is stopped at a different point down the taper, until finally the light is stopped.
Middle East Times / Nature Nov 27, 2007	back to top

Remote-controlled pill
Pharmacists use various mechanisms to control the release of drugs from a pill. For example, the pill may have a coating that is designed to be dissolved in a particular part of the digestive tract or after a certain amount of time. But this does not always work since the rate of passage through the body can vary, and some individuals have higher levels of digestive enzymes than others. So the electronics company Philips has come up with a remote-controlled pill with a cavity for carrying a drug which can be opened by a remote signal. The passage of the pill can be followed by MRI or ultrasound and the drug dispensed with an electronic trigger at the appropriate location. The drug can also be released according to other external factors. For example, if atmospheric pollen reaches a certain level or the patient's blood pressure hits a predetermined number. Philips hopes the pills can be made cheaply enough to be disposable, so they need not be collected and recycled after use.
New Scientist Nov 19, 2007	back to top

Laser-powered motor turns light into motion
A laser-driven motor has been demonstrated by Japanese researchers at the International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan. Future versions could provide pinpoint mechanical control in places that electric motors cannot normally go, they say. The motor consists of a copper disc with a hole at its centre. Green laser light - with a wavelength of 532 nanometres - causes the metal to get hot and expand, an effect that produces tiny fast-moving elastic waves on its surface. These waves move in a circular motion around the centre of the ring. When the ring touches another surface, this motion causes it to move, and when the disc is mounted on a spindle, the movement becomes rotational. Laser tweezers are only about 0.000000001% efficient. It could, however, be useful in environments with strong magnetic fields, since unlike conventional electric motors, the laser motor is unaffected by strong electromagnetism. This could include inside MRI scanners or other scientific instruments. The laser can also be controlled very accurately, because laser beams can be fired in extremely short pulses.
New Scientist / SPIE Nov 27, 2007	back to top

Fabric displays
Wearable displays have long interested electronics company Philips. They could be used to display useful information or as a fashion statement. But one problem is that the liquid crystals normally used in flexible displays usually exist in a glass-like state, which ultimately limits the extent to which they can be bent. Now Philips says it may be possible to build much more flexible liquid crystal displays by imprinting a cell-like structure onto an ordinary fabric using a stretchy elastomeric material such as silicone to create each pixel. The pixels can be filled with a flexible electro-optical material such as a non-glassy liquid crystal, or a plasma. Conducting fibres within the material then make each pixel addressable. The result is a display that has the same material properties as a fabric.
New Scientist Nov 26, 2007	back to top