Sourcery's Noteworthy Sci/Tech News Roundup

Various sources | 2005-05-19 | sourcery

[sourcery]

I think that seeing some of the significant sci/tech developments over the past few months all in one listing gives one a better perspective on the accelerating rate of progress:

• New laser technique that strips hydrogen from silicon surfaces
• Clocking events at the nanoscale
• Electric field can align silver nanowires
• Nanotube bundles could be used as motors for nanodevices
• Scientist Revs Up The Power Of Microbial Fuel Cells In Unexpected Ways
• Researchers Look Beyond the Birth of the Universe
• Biological motors sort molecules one by one on a chip
• Light's Most Exotic Trick Yet: So Fast it Goes ... Backwards?
• 12-qubits reached in quantum information quest
• One Big Bang, or were there many?
• Learning The Language Of DNA
• Engineers announce breakthrough in nanoscale semiconductor spin wave research
• Incredibly short light pulses capture our microscopic world
• IBM Researchers Demonstrate New Method for Rapid Molecule Sorting and Delivery
• Nano World: Roadmap for nano-imprinting
• Your Thoughts Are Your Password
• Water, nanoelectronics will mix to create ultra-dense memory storage
• MIT Chemist Discovers Secret Behind Nature's Medicines
• Our Universe: A Quantum Loop
• Nano machine switches between biological and silicon worlds
• Code for 'Unbreakable' Quantum Encryption Generated at Record Speed over Fiber
• Simulation Breakthrough: When Black Holes Collide
• Rice scientists attach motor to single-molecule car
• Big breakthrough for tiny particles from PhysOrg.com
• Nanopore Method Could Revolutionize Genome Sequencing
• Chaos=Order: Physicists make baffling discovery
• Device Only Atoms Across May Allow Infinitesimal But Powerful Computers
• Scientists demonstrate quantum nature of entanglement swapping
• New String-Theory Notion Redefines the Big Bang
• IBM Scientists Develop New Way To Explore And Control Atom-scale Magnetism
• Towards a new test of general relativity?
• Nanotechnologists demonstrate artificial muscles powered by highly energetic fuels
• Scientists develop better method for converting sounds to electronic signals
• Computer chips can get smaller, cheaper than first thought: IBM researchers
• Quantum telecloning: Captain Kirk's clone and the eavesdropper
• Einstein Equations
• Quantum computer solves problem, without running
• New material means 'x-ray specs' no longer required
• Physicist to Present New Exact Solution of Einstein's Gravitational Field Equation
• Towards Molecular Electronics: New Way of Making Molecular Transistors
• Quantum electronics: Two photons and chips
• IBM Strives For "Superhuman" Speech Tech
• Gravity theory dispenses with dark matter
• The Closest Look Ever At The Cell's Machines

[sourcery]

Ping

[FairOpinion]

Thanks for collecting the link and the ping.

[FairOpinion]

Thanks for collecting the link and the ping.

[Vince Ferrer]

The article on microbial fuel cells was very promising. This may end up being a good way to process coal, tar sands, and oil shale.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks S. I'd better take a look to see if any potential GGG topics are in there.

[underbyte]

The Singularity is Near

[AntiGuv]

I'd gladly ping my list except I'm travelling on business and don't have the list with me. I'll do it on Monday though.

[Erasmus]

The Singularity is Near

The only question is how God will handle it when the divide-by-zero exception occurs.

< ]B^)

[sourcery]

Acceleration Watch

[Mojave]

Nice collection.

[Thumper1960]

bump 4 later

[sourcery]

The above link to the story "Computer chips can get smaller, cheaper than first thought: IBM researchers" is broken. However, I've found the original IBM press release, which is at the following link: Computer chips can get smaller, cheaper than first thought: IBM researchers

[thegreatbeast]

bttt

[sourcery]

Let's try that link again: IBM Research demonstrates path for extending current chip-making technique

[underbyte]

He will just add 42 :)

[AntiGuv]

FutureTechPing!

An emergent technologies list covering biomedical research, fusion power, nanotech, AI robotics, and other related fields. FReepmail to join or drop.

[strategofr]

"Until now, it was not known if the industry could continue to adapt this optical immersion technique to produce sharp features smaller than 32 nanometers. New materials required to make such small features were thought to be incompatible with each other or capable of yielding only indistinct, blurred patterns. As a result, in recent years contingency plans are being explored for switching sometime in the future to a radically different but much more expensive – and still unproven -- manufacturing method that uses soft-x-rays (also known as EUV, for extreme ultraviolet light)"

Interestingly, in the book by the guy who used to be the CEO of Intel (Moore, I think) he described an incident decades ago now (I believe it was that long ago) when the claim was being made that photolithography had reached its limit and it would be necessary to switch to X-rays to keep making chips smaller.

There was no sure answer to the question one way or the other. If this idea was right, and Intel's stuck with photolithography, they could be caught in a technological squeeze, a little like Kodak was. The problem was, making the shift to X-rays would have been incredibly expensive. If the idea was wrong, Intel might be destroyed due to wasting such a large amount of money.

In the event, Moore decided not to switch to X-ray technology. He guessed right.

[strategofr]

thanks.

[phantomworker]

Thanks for the links!