Technology

Scientists are about to go ahead with the launch of a major physics experiment despite death threats from people convinced it will doom Earth to a black hole. Confused? The Large Hadron Collider, based near the border of France and Switzerland, is a ... cylinder that measures 27 kilometres around. When switched on this week, it will house two beams of protons which will collide at a speed just a millionth of one percent less than the speed of light. This will create up to 600 million particle collisions a second, allowing scientists to test theories about what makes up dark matter and why gravity ... (view more)

The next few years in the auto industry may bring about some interesting changes in the world of hybrid energy. Rather than worry about making gas-guzzling standard SUVs cheaper to operate, industry powerhouse Honda will seek an edge in the hybrid ... market by focusing exclusively on compact and subcompact hybrid vehicles. While competitors are trying to lure customers by making their desired large sedans and SUV's hybrid, Honda has decided to ignore that part of the hybrid market. The reason: Honda believes hybrid compacts and subcompacts are where the real energy savings are. By comparison, ... (view more)

Some of the top laptop manufacturers in the world have created a system that allows certain models to run frequently-used software in a matter of seconds. The specialized feature, called "Splashtop," does away with lengthy start-up times by avoiding ... Microsoft Windows in favor of a Linux-based "mini-operating system". For example: when a friend challenged me to a game of FIFA Soccer 2008 for the PlayStation 3, I was amazed to find that a new feature had been added that allowed users to practice perfecting their penalty shots while the game was busy loading the next page. Using this ... (view more)

It has always been assumed that the modern conveniences associated with the tech-revolution are something that everyone can enjoy. However, very rarely are the sacred teachings of some religious groups taken into consideration as technology ... continues to improve itself. Often times, people must alter the ways in which they manipulate certain products or refrain from using these products altogether to abide by their religious standards. Among the most prolific religions to voice their concern over the uses of some modern products is the Jewish faith. Many would be surprised to learn that a ... (view more)

The United States has long been considered an "innovation nation". But last year, John Kao, an accomplished jazz keyboard player, Yale philosopher, Medical School graduate, and an MBA from Harvard Business school sounded the alarm: America was ... losing its innovative touch. In his book, prepared for the 2008 presidential election candidates (inspired by Hillary Clinton), Kao points out that innovation drives geopolitical position and America is losing it. (Source: businessweek.com ) The main justifications for his position come from the globalization phenomena. He cited several observations in ... (view more)

Japanese mobile phones consistently deliver high-speed connections, digital television broadcasts and super-fast video downloads. It's not that Japan is hoarding the technology; the country is very willing to share their innovations with the global ... market. Still, some Japanese products (despite their efficiency) continue to fair poorly in North America. A number of Japanese manufacturers are once again venturing westward in the hopes of financial success. Their North American promotional tour will be headlined by the "wallet phone". Don't let the name fool you. The "wallet" tagline does not ... (view more)

They're the stuff of Disney fantasy and childhood dreams, but invisibility cloaks are something University of California scientists stay they are one step closer to developing. The scientists at the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, lead by ... Xiang Zhang, are creeping closer to perfecting 'metamaterials', artificially engineered structures that have properties not seen in nature, such as negative refractive index. These metamaterials have recently undergone successful tests allowing scientists to cloak 3-D objects. The technology works when the metamaterials scatter the light that ... (view more)

The Olympics are not the only thing rocking Asia this past few weeks. In South Korea, Samsung is set to reveal their latest entry in the field of environmentally conscious mobile phones, known throughout the industry as "eco-phones". The Samsung ... E200 Eco contains parts that are made from bioplastics, that is, materials extracted from corn. Amazingly, it is not the first mobile phone to contain such materials. It is the first, however, in which the entire phone casing is made from bioplastic materials. (Source: reghardware.co.uk ) But what features does a phone made from corn have to offer? In ... (view more)

Grameen Solutions, an affiliate of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh has teamed with Obopay, a mobile payment company based in California, to provide banking to a billion people using cellphones. The service targets customers who wish to send money to ... friends and family, charging 10 cents for every transaction. Obopay is already very active in the United States. Once an account has been opened, the user can transfer money between bank accounts, credit cards and even other mobile phones via text messages. When we really think about it, we are lucky to be living in a part of the world that offers ... (view more)

CSI cast members take note, a new technology called DESI (desorption electrospray ionisation) can tell much more from fingerprints than someone's identity. The system, pioneered by chemists at Purdue University in Indiana, "involves spraying a tiny ... (0.15x0.15mm) area of a fingerprint with an electrically charged mixture of methanol and water. When these charged droplets come into contact with the surface of the print they collect any substances deposited on it, creating a thin liquid film. As more drops are sprayed on the same spot, some of this film is scattered and sucked into a mass ... (view more)