Tech
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Tech
Technique puts more data into airwaves
A new approach that exploits the orientations of the electric and magnetic fields in radio waves may increase data flows to and from cell phones and other wireless devices by up to a factor of six.
- Tech
Current may flow free and cheap
Wires that carry electricity without resistance at relatively high temperatures--and are inexpensive--moved a large step closer to reality as a 100-fold speed-up in depositing a key material wiped out a major obstacle to making those wires.
- Tech
From silicon seeds, laser might sprout
The achievement of light amplification in a layer of tiny nuggets of silicon called quantum dots raises the possibility that long-desired silicon lasers are on the way.
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- Tech
Ink-jet dots form transistor spots
A new technique makes ink-jet printing of transistor circuits possible from conductive polymer inks.
- Tech
Tiny tubes could ease eavesdropping
A team of researchers is developing highly sensitive acoustic sensors using ordered arrays of carbon nanotubes, which act much like the rodlike stereocilia of the inner ear.
- Tech
When the Chips are Down
Scientists seek alternatives to a computer technology nearing its limits.
- Tech
Novel sensing system catches the dud spud
A new device can detect a single potato that's infected with bacterial soft rot while buried deep in a storage crate with hundreds of healthy tubers.
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- Tech
Chair becomes personalized posture coach
Pressure imprints made by a person in a chair provide a new type of computer input useful for tracking posture or, perhaps, other clues to someone's activities and state of mind.
- Tech
Pores of glass skin shrink from light
Ultraviolet light can fine-tune the properties of intricately structured, porous films of glass that, among other uses, may make possible the long-sought direct extraction of oxygen and nitrogen gases from air.
- Tech
Pile-o’-polymers breaks up on command
Stacks of polymers designed to break apart in acid solution or at a certain voltage may prove useful for releasing drugs, pesticides, or other compounds where and when needed.
