IBM keeps light pulse bandwagon rolling, uses ‘em for chip-to-chip communication

Lenovo loves its red mousing nipple, Apple digs its aluminum and IBM adores those light pulses. Nearly two full years after we heard this very company touting breakthroughs in science thanks to a nanophotonic switch , in flies a similar technique from Yorktown Heights that could “greatly further energy efficient computing.” As the story goes, gurus at IBM have figured out how to replace electrical signals that communicate via copper wires between computer chips with tiny silicon circuits that chat using pulses of light. The device is called a nanophotonic avalanche photodetector, and according to Dr.

Scientists to bring piezoelectrics and rubber together to form flexible, wearable energy harvester

Piezoelectrics are nothing new — though most applications, they’ve proven to be far more theoretically useful than practical. Still, the technology is starting to move in a direction that could prove more applicable to everyday situations — and a new piezo material recently developed could really get the ball moving.

Facebook app now available for Zune HD

You’ve been up nights, we know, and now Microsoft has finally ended your torment: the long-promised Facebook application is now available for download to the Zune HD.

Sony’s Rocket Project helps students reach the stratosphere, unloads some Vaios in the process (video)

We’ve seen plenty of cockamamie rocket stunts in our day, but there are still few things cooler than an amateur project that reaches for the stars.

Sony’s Rocket Project helps students reach the stratosphere, unloads some Vaios in the process (video)

We’ve seen plenty of cockamamie rocket stunts in our day, but there are still few things cooler than an amateur project that reaches for the stars. To this end (and for some free advertising) Sony’s announced the imaginatively named Rocket Project, wherein eight high school science students will be selected to receive Vaio CW-series laptops which they’ll then use to design and build a twenty-five feet tall, 500 pound rocket capable of reaching the stratosphere (at least theoretically)

DARPA longs for magnetic body healers, crazy respawn camps

Even DARPA understands that its futuristic bubble shield can be penetrated given the right circumstances, and when it does, the soldier behind it is going to need some serious healing.

Thought-control research brings mental channel changing ever closer

Pinky and the Brain don’t get nearly the respect they deserve, but then again, neither do the lab coat-wearing boffins who make great strides behind sterilized doors to bring us one step closer to mass laziness . The latest development in the everlasting brain control saga takes us to the University of Washington, where a team of researchers are carefully studying the differences between doing an action and simply imagining the action. So far, they’ve discovered that interacting with brain-computer interfaces enables patients to create “super-active populations of brain cells.” Naturally, this finding holds promise for rehabilitating patients after stroke or other neurological damage, but it also suggests that “a human brain could quickly become adept at manipulating an external device such as a computer interface or a prosthetic limb.” Or a remote control, or a Segway , or a railgun

Thought-control research brings mental channel changing ever closer

Pinky and the Brain don’t get nearly the respect they deserve, but then again, neither do the lab coat-wearing boffins who make great strides behind sterilized doors to bring us one step closer to mass laziness . The latest development in the everlasting brain control saga takes us to the University of Washington, where a team of researchers are carefully studying the differences between doing an action and simply imagining the action

Artificial nose becomes coffee analyzer, sniffs out KIRF Starbucks venues

Artificial schnozzes have been sniffing foreign objects for years now , but rarely are they engineered to sniff out specific things. A team of researchers from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign have done just that, though, with a new snout that acts as a coffee analyzer.

UMich gurus greatly reduce gadget energy consumption (at the expense of awesomeness)

Mama always told us that there’d be trade-offs in life, but we aren’t so sure we’re kosher with this one.

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