Hasta La Gadget!

The path to exascale computing is a long and windy one, and it’s dangerously close to slipping into our shunned bucket of “awesome things that’ll never happen.” But we’ll hand it to IBM — those guys and gals are working to create a smarter planet, and against our better judgment, we actually think they’re onto something here. Scientists at the outfit recently revealed “a new chip technology that integrates electrical and optical devices on the same piece of silicon, enabling computer chips to communicate using pulses of light (instead of electrical signals), resulting in smaller, faster and more power-efficient chips than is possible with conventional technologies.” The new tech is labeled CMOS Integrated Silicon Nanophotonics, and if executed properly, it could lead to exaflop-level computing, or computers that could handle one million trillion calculations per second. In other words, your average exascale computer would operate around one thousand times faster than the fastest machine today, and would almost certainly give Garry Kasparov all he could stand. When asked to comment on the advancement, Dr. Yurii A. Vlasov, Manager of the Silicon Nanophotonics Department at IBM Research, nodded and uttered the following quip: “I’m am IBMer, and exascale tomfoolery is what I’m working on.”*

*Not really, but you believed it, didn’t you?

IBM breakthrough brings us one step closer to exascale computing, even more intense chess opponents originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 22:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nearly one billion people live without access to clean drinking water. But if one South Africa research team’s work pans out, this may be a concern of the past.

Researchers are conducting a final round of tests on a new nanotech-based filter that can make nearly any water source safe for humans to drink. And best of all, these filters cost only pennies to produce, bringing access to clean drinking water to the poorest of the poor.

The teabag-like filters are filled with active carbon granules made from nanofibers treated with biocide, which will kill waterborne bacteria, rather than just filtering it out.  Each filter can clean up to a liter of the most polluted water and make it drinkable.

The filters were designed by Eugen Cloete, the chair of Stellenbosch University’s Water Institute. Originally, the filters were designed for use on large-scale projects. However, researchers have since shifted their attention to the creation of smaller, easy-to-use filters that could be used in conjunction with something as simple as a plastic bottle. Small, portable filters are a far more efficient (and affordable) method of providing clean drinking water to rural and undeveloped areas than large-scale infrastructure projects.

The filter is currently undergoing testing by the South African Bureau of Standards. If all goes well, Cloete and his team hope to start production by the end of the year in conjunction with the UN and various NGOs who have shown interest in the project. 

Remember that time when you sipped some herbal tea and thought, “I really want a pink gold ring?” Yeah, that was some good tea alright, but the brainiacs at the University of Southampton have actually found a way to achieve this potential fashion trendsetter. The idea is simple: rather than coating metals — especially naturally colored ones like gold and copper — with paint, these folks alter their color by using an ion beam to carve fine patterns that are smaller than visible light’s wavelength. The resultant metamaterial dramatically boosts the metals’ light absorption efficiency, thus reflecting a different color depending on the pattern’s radius and etch depth. So for instance, gold can reflect colors ranging from orange to red to green to brown with its ring pattern etch depth ranging from 85nm to 205nm, respectively. See? We told you it’s simple, but there’s also some visual aid after the break to wrap up this science lesson.

Continue reading Scientists put color on your bling with micro carvings, gangsters pacified

Scientists put color on your bling with micro carvings, gangsters pacified originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Nov 2010 09:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In conjunction with the Air Force, nanotech researchers at the University of Michigan have created a new super-efficient ultra-thin display technology. The new “plasmonic” technology is far more versatile than any currently available display technology and will allow for the projection of high quality images and video the size of a stamp.

The Air Force is interested in utilizing the tech to project virtual displays onto pilots’ windshields. For us civilians, the tech could also be incorporated into clothing to create wearable computer screens–your shirt could be your smart phone. It will also allow for very tiny displays. If people are still sending letters in 10 years, it may be possible that the post office could create a commemorative stamp for the 10-year anniversary of Avatar that will actually show Avatar.

And the displays will be very high quality. The tech uses pixels 10 times smaller than those of your average
desktop and more than eight times smaller than displays currently
available on most smart phones.

What makes the tech so versatile is its efficient use of light. The new technology quite handy at trapping and transmitting light–they make the current technology seem sloppy. For
example, in current LCD displays, only about five percent of the
backlighting makes it through to the viewer. The rest is lost in the process.

The nerdly whats and hows are a little
complicated, but for those who are interested, the deets are available over at Physorg.

Solar farms are swell and all, but they aren’t exactly fit for laboratories or studio apartments. Thanks to new discoveries by gurus at the University of Birmingham, though, we could be on our way to a far more diminutive method of creating clean energy. As the story goes, we could soon be using microbes to transform wastes in metals into energy. The team managed to pinpoint Hydrogenase enzymes and BioPd in their research, which they believe can be used as catalysts for the treatment of persistent pollutants. The overriding goal, however, is to “develop a one-step technology that allows for the conversion of metallic wastes into high value catalysts for green chemistry and clean energy generation,” but it’s difficult to say at this point how close they are to realizing it. The best news? This is bound to start a new rash of Cash 4 Gold commercials.

Scientists using metallic wastes to generate clean energy originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Sep 2010 09:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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