Science Technology Society

ScienceDaily (Feb. 11, 2011) - Think you're overloaded with information? Not even close.

Jesse Sullivan, the man in this video, is using one of the most high-tech prosthetic arms available. But what's truly impressive about it isn't visible to the eye: instead of using a motor, he's controlling the arm with his thoughts. After an amputation, the nerves in a stump remain healthy, at least for a while, and now scientists are making use of this fact to create highly dexterous, thought-controlled prosthetics.

Our brain is the most complex object in the known universe - so we'll need to map it in formidable detail to track down memory, thought and identity

Apparently, if Facebook wanted to repair its reputation, all it had to do was seem like it was helping to topple an authoritarian regime. Now that the U.S. media is loudly pushing the idea that social media can change Egypt-and next, the world!-it makes Mark Zuckerberg's tendency to monetize every aspect of our online lives seem less important.

Motion controllers used in gaming systems like the Nintendo Wii revolutionised how video games are played. But now a similar device that's more precise - and even works when an object is in its way - will let you try something more futuristic: making movies in virtual environments. Matt Bett and his team from Abertay University in the UK developed the new motion controller that uses electromagnetic sensors to track its 3D position. The location is then mapped in real time to a virtual video camera on a screen (see video above). By moving the controller around, the camera moves around the scene like a real camera on a rig or it can be fixed to a virtual tripod.

(PhysOrg.com) -- New research has shown that it is possible and affordable for the world to achieve 100 percent renewable energy by 2030, if there is the political will to strive for this goal.

In a step toward a generation of ultrafast computers, physicists have used bursts of radio waves to briefly create 10 billion quantum-entangled pairs of subatomic particles in silicon. The research offers a glimpse of a future computing world in which individual atomic nuclei store and retrieve data and single electrons shuttle it back and forth.

The new device would also allow "power proportional computing." For example, Web server farms, such as those used by Google, consume an enormous amount of power - even when there are low levels of user activity - in part because the server farms can't turn off the power without affecting their main memory.

Superconductivity describes the phenomenon where an electric current is able to travel through a material without any resistance - the material is a perfect electrical conductor without any energy loss.

There are differences between the group's demonstrations. For crystals, Tittel's group used thulium-doped lithium niobate, whereas Gisin's group opted for neodymium-doped yttrium silicate. In addition, a different type of laser set-up has favoured Gisin's group, which reports a maximum storage time of some 200 ns at an efficiency of more than 20%; Tittel's group reports a storage time of 7 ns at an efficiency of 2%. On the other hand, the quantum memory of Tittel's group functions at a bandwidth of 5 GHz - some 40 times greater than Gisin's group - which means, potentially, far more information could be sent in the same time.