Tech
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Tech
Is Anybody out There?
To speed the search for extraterrestrial life, researchers are using extreme conditions on Earth to develop a flotilla of detection devices to tease out signs of life in unlikely places.
- Tech
Transistors sprout inner forests
By combining nanowires and conventional transistor structures, researchers are creating novel transistors with improved performance and the potential to be easily manufactured.
- Tech
Hearing implant knows where it goes
A new type of cochlear implant includes sensors whose signals may help surgeons insert the device more deeply into the inner ear and so provide better hearing.
- Tech
Facing a hairy electronics problem
Investigating why kinky metal filaments sprout spontaneously on electronic- circuit cards, researchers have found that the way metal films have been electroplated onto the surface in the first place plays a lingering role.
- Tech
Narrow Escape: Sharp nanogutters hustle out wetness
Nanochannels with sharply tapered edges can dramatically boost fluid flow rates and potentially play a role in improved microchip cooling, fabrics to wick away perspiration, and other uses.
- Tech
Nanotubes spring eternal
Researchers have discovered that forests of carbon nanotubes squish and expand like foams, but with extraordinary resilience.
- Computing
The Risky Business of Spreadsheet Errors
Faulty spreadsheets and poor software practices can put businesses at risk.
- Tech
Reaction in Hand: Microreactor produces radioactive probe in a jiffy
A miniature chemical reactor that whips up a diagnostic tool could widen the availability of positron-emission tomography (PET) scans.
- Tech
Sweets spur biodiesel reaction
A Japanese research team has made an environmentally friendly biodiesel catalyst from charred sugars.
- Computing
Network Inoculation: Antivirus shield would outrace cyber infections
As a new way to protect a computer network from viruses, an epidemic of antiviral protection could theoretically propagate faster through the network than the virus itself, thanks to a novel topological twist.
- Tech
Hidden in Disorder: Chaos-encrypted information goes the distance
Scientists have demonstrated that a message encrypted in a chaotic laser signal can be transmitted more than 100 kilometers through a commercial optical-fiber network.
- Tech
Muck Tech: Natural enzyme displaces precious metal in fuel cell
A prototype fuel cell uses an enzyme from a soil microbe to generate electricity from hydrogen rather than from rare and expensive metal catalysts such as platinum.
