Hasta La Gadget!

Don’t take it personally, Blu-ray — we still love you and all, but there’s just something dreamy about baking 1.6TB of information onto a blank piece of optical media we can actually afford. According to a new report, a crew of researchers at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia have exploited the properties of a certain gold nano-rod that will theoretically enable them to shove 300 DVDs worth of data onto a single disc. Calling the method “five-dimensional optical recording,” the technique “employs nanometer-scale particles of gold as a recording medium,” and according to developers, it’s primed for commercialization. Essentially, these gurus have figured out how to add a spectral and polarization dimension, giving them the ability to record information “in a range of different color wavelengths on the same physical disc.” As for the chances this actually makes it out of the laboratory and into the lives of real humans? Slim, Jim.

[Thanks, Sam]

Filed under: Storage, Science

Aussie whiz-kids can cram 1.6TB on a DVD-sized disc, go Outback tonight originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 May 2009 06:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Electrical engineering researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a flexible, stretchable OLED that acts something like rubber, and does not tear or break when stretched. The material is produced by spraying a layer of carbon nanotubes with a fluoro-rubber compound, creating a rubbery, conducive material. The current, monochrome display prototype has a resolution of just 256 pixels, is 10-centimeters square, and can apparently be folded about 1,000 times with out falling apart, tearing, or imploding. The team is presenting its findings in the British science journal Nature Materials this month.

[Via Slashgear]

Filed under: Displays, Science

Flexible, stretchable, rubbery OLED prototype shown off in Tokyo originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 May 2009 11:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At the Fraunhofer Institute in Bremen, Germany, a group of researchers, in conjunction with the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence DFKI, is developing an underwater robot with a sense of touch. The octopus-esque robot is equipped with a strain gauge which triggers electrical resistance changes when an an obstacle is encountered. The strain gauges — which are printed onto the robot — which are ten micrometers wide (about half the width of a human hair), are made up of atomized nanoparticles, and are extremely sensitive. The researchers intend for the robot to be able to distinguish between actual obstacles and water currents. The robot’s first stop will be a public trade show at the end of May in Nuremberg, after which it will presumably make it’s way to the dark depths of the sea to meet up with Captain Nemo and the giant squid.

Filed under: Robots

Underwater robot has sense of touch, class and style originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 May 2009 10:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Cornell University have banded together and formed what they’re touting is the first nanoscale fluidic device with a complex three-dimensional surface. The staircase-shaped prototype is 10nm at its tiniest and 620nm at its tallest — all smaller than the average bacterium, and a departure from the usual flat, rectangular-shaped fare. According to the press release, it can manipulate nanoparticles by size, similar to how coin sorters separate your pocket change. Potential uses includes helping to measure nanoparticle mixtures for drug delivery or gene therapy, or the isolation / confinement of individual DNA strands. Don your science caps and hit up the read link for the more technical details

[Via PhysOrg]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Scientists develop ‘coin sorter’ for nanoparticles, first-ever nanofluidic device with complex 3D surface originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Apr 2009 14:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know what’ll be awesome? Actual end products resulting from this presumably nonstop research on piezoelectric nanowires. Yet again we’re hearing of a new group of researchers that have figured out a way to harness electricity from life’s simplest things: walking, a heart beating or even the flowing of blood. Put simply, the gurus have discovered how to use zinc oxide nanowires in order to generate an electric current when “subjected to mechanical stress.” The difference here, however, is that these critters could actually be implanted under the skin, though the scientists have made quite clear that there isn’t a timetable for commercial production. In other words: yawn.

[Via textually, image courtesy of NSF]

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video, Science

Piezoelectric nanowires could lead to blood-powered iPods, cellphones originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 Mar 2009 11:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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