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. 33, 2008 Published: Oct 24, 2008
Computer circuit built from brain cells
Linux code worth USD 10.8bn
Scotch tape's surprising power: X-rays
Keyboard sniffers to steal data
Magnetic brain therapy gets US green light
Revolutionary paper is stronger than steel
Eels' shocking secrets could power devices

Computer circuit built from brain cells
For all its sophistication and power, the human brain is built from unreliable components - one neuron can successfully provoke a signal in another only 40% of the time. This lack of efficiency frustrates neuroengineers trying to build networks of brain cells to interface with electronics or repair damaged nervous systems. The brains combines neurons into heavily connected groups to unite their 40% reliability into a much more reliable whole. Now engineers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have achieved the same trick: building reliable digital logic gates that perform like those inside electronics. They have developed a way to control the growth pattern of neurons to build reliable circuits that use neurons rather than wires. Like a natural system, the device transcends the performance of individual neurons - achieving 95% reliability from a collection of 40% reliable components. The researchers think that brain-cell logic circuits could serve as intermediaries between computers and the nervous system.
New Scientist / Nature Physics Oct 23, 2008	back to top

Linux code worth USD 10.8bn
The most recent version of Fedora would have cost a conventional software company USD 10.8bn to develop, according to the Linux Foundation. The act of simply writing the Linux kernel alone would run up to USD 1.4bn in development costs, the Foundation claimed. The open source nature of the operating system has allowed some 1,000 developers at 100 different companies to contribute to every kernel update. In the past two years alone, the Foundation estimates that 3,200 developers and 200 companies have contributed to the Linux kernel. 'Companies participating in the Linux economy share research and development costs with their partners and competitors,' read the report. 'This spreading of development burden among individuals and companies has resulted in a large and efficient ecosystem and unheralded software innovation.' The study is an update of a 2002 report which at the time placed the development costs of a Linux distribution at USD 1.2bn based on the per-line of code cost model. The updated report calculated the cost for developing the 204,500,046 lines of code for Fedora 9 on the average US programmer's salary of USD 75,662.
VNUnet UK Oct 23, 2008	back to top

Scotch tape's surprising power: X-rays
It turns out that if you peel the popular adhesive tape off its roll in a vacuum chamber, it emits X-rays, according to researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles. They even made an X-ray image of one of their fingers. More than 50 years ago, some Russian scientists reported evidence of X-rays from peeling sticky tape off glass. But the new work demonstrates that you can get a lot of X-rays. The process might be harnessed for making inexpensive X-ray machines for paramedics or for places where electricity is expensive or hard to get, the researchers say. In the new work, a machine peeled ordinary Scotch tape off a roll in a vacuum chamber at about three centimetres per second. Rapid pulses of X-rays, each about a billionth of a second long, emerged from very close to where the tape was coming off the roll. That is where electrons jumped from the roll to the sticky underside of the tape that was being pulled away. When those electrons struck the sticky side they slowed down, and that slowing made them emit X-rays.
CNN /AP / Nature Oct 22, 2008	back to top

Keyboard sniffers to steal data
Computer criminals could soon be eavesdropping on what you type by analysing the electromagnetic signals produced by every key press. By analysing the signals produced by keystrokes, researchers at the Swiss Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) have reproduced what a target typed. They have developed four attacks that work on a wide variety of computer keyboards. The results led the researchers to declare keyboards were not safe to transmit sensitive information. The researchers tested 11 different keyboard models that connected to a computer via either a USB or a PS/2 socket. The attacks they developed also worked with keyboards embedded in laptops. Every keyboard tested was vulnerable to at least one of the four attacks the researchers used. One attack was shown to work over a distance of 20 metres. In their work the researchers used a radio antenna to fully or partially recover keystrokes by spotting the electromagnetic radiation emitted when keys were pressed. The research builds on earlier work done by University of Cambridge computer scientist Markus Kuhn who looked at ways to use electromagnetic emanations to eavesdrop and steal useful information.
BBC News Oct 01, 2008	back to top

Magnetic brain therapy gets US green light
It has been touted as a possible treatment for migraine, depression, and stroke, and is even said to have roused a patient from a coma. Now transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has received its first stamp of approval as a therapy by the US Food and Drugs Administration, which says TMS can be used to treat depression in adults who do not respond to anti-depressant drugs. TMS involves holding an electromagnetic coil over the head and using it to stimulate the underlying brain tissue. Rapidly changing magnetic fields induce weak electric currents in brain tissue, either exciting or inhibiting brain cells, and making it easier or harder for them to communicate with one another. Several large trials have suggested TMS can be useful in treating depression, where it is used to excite cells in the areas of the brain involved in mood regulation. In the latest trial, submitted to the FDA by Neuronetics of Malvern, Pennsylvania, which develops TMS devices, more than half of depressed patients showed an improvement in symptoms after receiving five 40-minute TMS sessions per week for four to six weeks. The FDA's approval may also open the floodgates for medical devices companies hoping to get TMS approved in other countries.
New Scientist Oct 21, 2008	back to top

Revolutionary paper is stronger than steel
It is called 'buckypaper' and looks a lot like ordinary carbon paper, but it could revolutionize the way everything from airplanes to TVs are made. Buckypaper is 10 times lighter but potentially 500 times stronger than steel when sheets of it are stacked and pressed together to form a composite. Unlike conventional composite materials it conducts electricity like copper and disperses heat like steel or brass. Researchers at Florida State University made the paper from tube-shaped carbon molecules. So far, buckypaper can be made at only a fraction of its potential strength, in small quantities and at a high price. The researchers are developing manufacturing techniques that soon may make it competitive with the best composite materials now available. Buckypaper now is being made only in the laboratory, but Florida State is in the early stages of spinning out a company to make commercial buckypaper. The researchers expect buckypaper's first uses will be for electromagnetic interference shielding and lightning-strike protection on aircraft. The long-range goal is to build planes, automobiles and other things with buckypaper composites. The US military also is looking at it for use in armour plating and stealth technology.
CNN / AP Oct 20, 2008	back to top

Eels' shocking secrets could power devices
The same cells electric eels use to shock predators and prey can be engineered to power implanted biomedical devices, say researchers from Yale University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Natural electric eel cells generate and release electric pulses of more than 500 volts with eight different channels and pumps. By pumping positively charged potassium and sodium ions out of the cell, the number of negatively charged ions inside the cells rises. Opening certain channels causes electrons to flood out of the cell, producing enough electricity to stun the eel's victim. Using computer models, the scientists experimented with different combinations of those eight pumps and channels. Surprisingly, by eliminating one pump and adjusting the ratio of the other pumps and channels, the scientists designed a cell that was both powerful and energy efficient. Like human cells the pumps and channels are powered by ATP. Stripping off one phosphate group drives cellular activities and in the process turns ATP into ADP. Sugar helps recycle ADP back into ATP. Scientists would divert the sugar naturally produced in the body into the implanted electrical generator. Each individual cell would produce an estimate 150 millivolts. Lining up those cells a four-millimetre cube could produce three volts of electricity, enough to power a retinal implants, for example.
MSNBC Oct 21, 2008	back to top