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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
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TechFrankenstein’s Chips
As evidence mounts that drug-safety trials can miss dangerous effects, scientists are building living, miniature models of animals and people to enhance drug and chemical tests.
By Peter Weiss -
TechMicroscope goes mini
The atomic force microscope has been shrunk to the size of a microchip.
By Peter Weiss -
TechMagnetic Bit Boost: Quantum rewiring for computer memories
A quantum-mechanical memory component that might replace electronic computer memories has come closer to practicality.
By Peter Weiss -
TechInk-jet dots form transistor spots
A new technique makes ink-jet printing of transistor circuits possible from conductive polymer inks.
By Peter Weiss -
TechLighthearted Transistor: Electronic workhorse moonlights as laser
A versatile new transistor amplifies electricity and emits a laser beam.
By Peter Weiss -
TechSmashing the Microscope: Tiny crashes harnessed for nanoconstruction
A new technique supplies loose atoms for nanoscale experiments by using the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope to gouge out craters from a surface.
By David Shiga -
TechLaser Landmark: Silicon device spans technology gap
By coaxing a silicon microstructure into acting as a laser, engineers have achieved a long-sought and important step toward microchips capable of simultaneously manipulating electrons and light.
By Peter Weiss -
TechWee wires that can crawl
Self-propelled strands of a muscle protein coated with gold offer a way to arrange and control the nanoworld.
By Peter Weiss -
TechTracing the origin of Genesis’ crash
The upside-down installation of four switches intended to signal the Genesis spacecraft to open its parachutes is the likely cause of the craft's crash in the Utah desert on Sept. 8.
By Ron Cowen -
TechTiny 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.
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ComputingNet History
Nethistory.info is a new Web site devoted to the history of the Internet. Its aim is to provide material documenting the applications and platforms that came together to create the early Internet, including protocols, personal computers, e-mail, the World Wide Web, networks, and much more. You can sign up for a free monthly newsletter and […]
By Science News -
TechCramming bits into pits
By skewing the alignment of pits on an optical disk's surface, disk makers might store much more than one bit per pit.
By Peter Weiss