Logging The Cyber World

Tags: atomic laser, powerful beam, SLAC, two million degree, x-ray laser

An x-ray laser fired at a sample of aluminum has generated temperatures of 3.6 million degrees Fahrenheit — hotter than the sun’s corona.

Scientists achieved the sizzling temperatures using a powerful x-ray laser at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. By focusing rapid-fire pulses from the beam on a piece of aluminum foil thinner than spider’s silk, they were able to create a material known as hot dense matter.

The advancement represents the first time researchers have been able to produce such plasmas in a controlled way. The findings appear Jan. 25 in Nature.

More on Wired

Tags: computer chips, hard drives, IBM, memory chips, nanotech

Computer and memory chips usually tend to get smaller over time, but a paper published Thursday in Science, IBM details how it’s building memory chips that would be 100 times more dense than today’s hard drives by starting with the smallest building blocks: atoms. Big Blue’s prototype chip is only 12 atoms across (click here for an awesome visualization of how small an atom is. No really, click it!) but is another way of thinking about ways to get beyond the limits of building ever-smaller chips keeping Moore’s Law on track.

Andreas Heinrich, the project lead for IBMs efforts, explained in an interview that this tech may never be realized in part because it requires an entirely new type of manufacturing equipment to be built. However, IBM is learning how to manipulate atoms for storing bits and identified a new type of magnetism that could one day be used. Unlike the type of magnetism that keeps your magnets stuck to your fridge, IBM is looking at the reverse of those properties to make this highly dense type of memory.

More at GigaOM

Tags: contact lenses, inorganic materials, terminator vision, washington university

A new generation of contact lenses that project images in front of the eyes is a step closer after successful animal trials, say scientists.

The technology could allow wearers to read floating texts and emails or augment their sight with computer-generated images, Terminator-syle. Researchers at Washington University who are working on the device say early tests show it is safe and feasible. But there are still wrinkles to iron out, like finding a good power source. Currently, their crude prototype device can only work if it is within centimetres of the wireless battery.

More on BBC

Tags: HRL Lab, microlattice, nano, Nano-fabrication, super-light lattice

Researchers at HRL Laboratories and University of Southern California’s Composites Center have created what they say is the lowest-density material, a lattice of hollow tubes of the metal nickel.

Its volume is 99.99 percent air, and its density is 0.9 milligrams per cubic centimeter–not including the air in or between its tubes. That density is less than a thousandth that of water.

The researchers made it by fabricating structures with features whose dimensions range from millimeters to a ten-thousandth of that. They described their methods in a paper published yesterday in the journal Science.

“The trick is to fabricate a lattice of interconnected hollow tubes with a wall thickness of 100 nanometers, 1,000 times thinner than a human hair,” said Tobias Schaedler, the HRL researcher who’s lead author of the paper. Another HRL author, Bill Carter, likened the design to a small-scale version of the Eiffel Tower: strong, but mostly air.

More on Cnet

Tags: google 1000 new patents, google patents, IBM, purchased patents, trademark office

Google Inc. said Friday that it has purchased technology patents from International Business Machines Corp. as the Web-search giant stocks up on intellectual property to defend itself against lawsuits.

“Like many tech companies, at times we’ll acquire patents that are relevant to our business,” a Google spokesman said in a statement.

The purchase was reported earlier by the blog SEO by the Sea, which said Google in mid-July recorded the acquisition of more than 1,000 patents with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The patents involve the “fabrication and architecture of memory and microprocessing chips,” computer architecture including servers and routers and online search engines, among other things. SEO stands for search engine optimization, or the practice of structuring websites and content so they rank well on search engines like Google.

More on Wall Street Journal

Tags: at&t, gadget, genius phone, satellite-enabled gadget, terreStar

AT&T Inc. has weathered plenty of complaints about spotty cell phone coverage. On Tuesday, it began selling its first phone that includes a backstop for AT&T’s own network, over a satellite. That means blanket coverage of the U.S., even in the wilderness or hundreds of miles offshore.

The new phone, the TerreStar Genus, could be an important tool for boaters, fishermen, forest rangers, emergency crews and others who go outside regular cellular coverage.

There are a number of caveats, though. To use the phone, it has to have a clear view of the southern sky, where the satellite hovers, with no intervening trees, buildings or hills. That restricts its use to the outdoors. The satellite is aimed at the U.S. and doesn’t provide global coverage in the same way Iridium Communications Inc.’s satellite constellation does.

More on Yahoo News

Tags: geneva auto show, hybrid cars, porsche 918, spyder hybrid, v-8

Porsche brought its 918 Spyder supercar to America last night, showing off the amazing car under the glare of bright lights in a hanger at the airport in Monterey, Calif. Today, the 918 is going to run up and down roads around here just to show off its performance, and an amazing throaty purr from its V-8 engine with those side-pipe exhaust tips.

More on USAToday

Tags: alien, astronomer, Earth-like, planets, space telescope, stargazer, WFIRST

A $1.6 billion space telescope that could reveal the nature of dark energy and identify Earth-like planets should be the top priority for astronomers and astrophysicists, according to a long-awaited report that lays out the pressing needs for the next 10 years of space science.

The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) would launch in 2020 as one of the next generation of telescopes that should target the early universe, search for nearby habitable planets and test the boundaries of fundamental physics, according to the Astro2010 Decadal Survey by the National Academy of Sciences.

“During the last Decadal Survey, exoplanets weren’t a big element, and dark energy wasn’t really a big deal,” said Claire Max, an astronomer at the University of California in Santa Cruz and member of the Decadal Survey committee. “There are a whole lot of things that are really new.”

Read the complete article

Tags: anti-missile, futuristic, israeli tank, tank, trophy tank

HAIFA, Israel – On a dusty, wind-swept field overlooking the Mediterranean, a small team of researchers is putting the final touches on what Israel says is a major game changer in tank defense: a miniature anti-missile system that detects incoming projectiles and shoots them down before they reach the armored vehicles.

If successful, the “Trophy” system could radically alter the balance of power if the country goes to war again against Hezbollah guerrillas in neighboring Lebanon or Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. Its performance could also have much wider implications as American troops and their Western allies battle insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Read more here.

Tags: Google, google tv, intel tv, internet tv, sony tv

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) — Google is working with Intel and Sony to develop a new class of internet-enabled televisions and set-top boxes, according to the New York Times.

The effort, known as Google TV, has been under way for several months and is based on Google’s Android software which is currently available in certain smartphones, the Times, citing people with knowledge of the project, reported on Wednesday.

Logitech International is also involved and is developing peripheral devices, such as a tiny keyboard.

“The partners envision technology that will make it as easy for TV users to navigate Web applications, like the Twitter social network and the Picasa photo site, as it is to change the channel,” the Times reports.

Full details at Wired.com