Science

IBM's latest work, the Chocolate Genome Project, isn't a wacky codename for a new game: it's a genuine attempt to uncover the DNA of the cocoa bean. The firm is teaming up with confectionary giant Mars and the US Department of Agriculture to track ... the genetic coding which makes up the bean used for chocolate production. The idea is to learn enough to isolate variants of the bean which can survive the growing problems of dry climates, fungi and insect attacks which have driven prices up by half in the past year, threatening many farmers' livelihoods. Around 6.5 million farmers depend on cocoa ... (view more)

The competition between microprocessing developers has reached new heights, as each attempt to cram the most power into the tiniest possible space. IBM is looking to cool down their vertically-stacked chips by using one of the most abundant and ... natural sources on earth: water. The company is certain that water would be a much more efficient source than air at absorbing heat, even if the amount of water being used is minute. One potential danger associated with downsizing chips is that the circuits in these processors, although miniature in size, still generate a considerable amount of heat. ... (view more)

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have taught two monkeys how to feed themselves with a human-like robotic arm using only signals from their brains. The rate at which technology improves has continued to break down the ... walls of the impossible on a daily basis. Ideas that were once reserved only for futuristic television shows like The Jetsons and Futurama have slowly crept into the realm of possibility. Sitting in front of your computer screen in North America and sifting through the pages of Le Monde from Paris does not seem to impress us anymore. Typing out a ... (view more)

As the population gets older, new applications begin to reflect that shift. Many are assistive devices to help older persons cope with their aging; in fact, there is such a plethora of new technology applications that it deserves a category of its ... own: call it: "geron-technology". It's no surprise this type of technology is emerging. The market is growing. The CDC estimates that the number of persons older than 65 will increase from 35 million in the year 2000 to more than 70 million by 2030. In Europe by 2030, the largest single age group will be over age 65 and the average age is expected ... (view more)

Last week, I wrote about environmental watchdog Climate Counts' criticism of Apple's sustainability policy. On the heels of that report comes a new initiative by Hewlett-Packard to create a 'green printer'. According to the Climate Counts study, HP ... scored 68% success, putting it in the "striding" category, as opposed to companies "stuck", like Apple, or just "starting", like Dell and Nokia. (Source: climatecounts.org ) Since, 1992, HP has been intent on improving its environmental record. The company's website claims that it has endeavoured to use recycled materials, minimize containers and ... (view more)

If you went out and saw the recently released "Iron Man" movie, chances are that at some point during the film you envisioned what life would be like to own a suit that gave you superhuman abilities. What would you do if your strength was amplified ... 5 times? 10 times? 20 times its current capability? A robotics technician in Salt Lake City has developed an actual "Iron Man" suit that, when worn, increases human strength by 20 times its current capability. The robotics firm, Sarcos, now holds a lucrative contract with the United States Army to develop the 150-pound "Iron Man" suit to be used by ... (view more)

With the number of jobs in North America spiraling and the price of gas skyrocketing, consumers were recently given more bad news when it was announced that droughts in Asia would eventually lead to a universal increase in the cost of rice. So what ... can we Westerners do to help? Log onto a computer and join the crusade! While not a crucial commodity here in North America, rice has become a staple food for more than half of the global population. In Asia alone, more than 2 billion people receive up to 70% of their dietary energy from rice. In response to the shortage, some national governments ... (view more)

Microsoft's new WorldWide Telescope (WWT) uses Microsoft's Virtual Experience Engine to combine images from various telescopes and observatories into a seamless panorama of the night sky. Launched Monday, the brainchild of Microsoft's research ... department is a downloadable desktop application that brings the universe to your home computer. (Source microsoft.com ) Forget Google Earth, the WWT combines images from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and the Two Micron All Sky Survey. Users can investigate the night sky in several different ... (view more)

Microsoft is launching an online service giving users access to images from space telescopes. It could mean yet another battle with Google, which has its own service, Google Sky. Bill Gates says the WorldWide Telescope project should be online by ... the end of the month. The free service is based on Microsoft's Visual Experience Engine, the same technology which runs the Microsoft Virtual Earth mapping software. By combining this software with thousands of images taken from space cameras, the service effectively acts as an interactive telescope. Where appropriate there will also be links to ... (view more)

For more than half a century, digital electronic devices have been based on a binary paradigm -- that is, electronic switching of a signal either 'on' (1) or 'off' (0). Everything we know about computing is based on this simple concept. Now that's ... about to change. As first reported this week by our own John Lister , scientists at Hewlett-Packard's Information and Quantum Systems Lab have discovered a new type of electrical resistor: one that has memory properties. The so-called "memristor" exploits the curious memory-like properties of a thin coat of titanium dioxide when a current is passed ... (view more)