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IBM Chip Processes Data Similar to the Way Your Brain Does

A chip that uses a million digital neurons and 256 million synapses may signal the beginning of a new era of more intelligent computers.A new kind of computer chip, unveiled by IBM today, takes design cues from the wrinkled outer layer of the human brain. Though it is no match for a conventional microprocessor at crunching numbers, the chip consumes significantly less power, and is vastly better...


WEDNESDAY 6. AUGUST 2014


Stacking Cells Could Make Solar as Cheap as Natural Gas

A novel manufacturing method could make it practical to stack solar cells and convert more of the energy in sunlight into electricity.When experts talk about future solar cells, they usually bring up exotic materials and physical phenomena. In the short term, however, a much simpler approach—stacking different semiconducting materials that collect different frequencies of light—could provide...

Challenges Remain for Technologies to Fight Ebola

Efforts to contain Ebola in West Africa suffer from a lack of effective tools to treat and prevent the disease, although several are in development.As of last week, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has claimed the lives of 88 percent of the more than 1,000 confirmed cases. While several technologies for controlling the spread of the disease are under development, deploying them will not be...


TUESDAY 5. AUGUST 2014



MONDAY 4. AUGUST 2014


A Room Where Executives Go to Get Help from IBM’s Watson

Researchers at IBM are testing a version of Watson designed to listen and contribute to business meetings.Photocopiers, PCs, and video conferencing rooms all rose from being technological novelties to standard tools of corporate life. Researchers at IBM are experimenting with an idea for another: a room where executives can go to talk over business problems with a version of Watson, the computer...


SUNDAY 3. AUGUST 2014



FRIDAY 1. AUGUST 2014


Mobile Gadgets That Connect to Wi-Fi without a Battery

Simple devices that can link up via Wi-Fi but don’t need batteries could make it easier to spread computing throughout your home.A new breed of mobile wireless device lacks a battery or other energy storage, but it can still send data over Wi-Fi. These prototype gadgets, developed by researchers at the University of Washington, get all the power they need by making use of the Wi-Fi, TV, radio,...


THURSDAY 31. JULY 2014


Panasonic Agrees to Help Tesla Build Its Gigafactory

Panasonic support is crucial if Tesla is to make the world’s largest factory for making electric car batteries.Tesla Motors says it has reached an agreement with Panasonic, a major lithium-ion battery supplier based in Japan, to help the electric car maker build a previously announced massive battery factory. The factory, which Tesla calls a gigafactory, is expected to be able to produce more...

Chinese GMO Research Outpaces Approvals

The fact that China hasn’t approved of any commercial GMO planting since 2009 reflects public fears.Despite recent research advances, such as a new strain of wheat that resists destructive mildew (see “Chinese Researchers Stop Wheat Disease with Gene Editing”), commercial planting of genetically modified food crops has stalled in China, the world’s most populous nation and one with a...


WEDNESDAY 30. JULY 2014


The Curious Evolution of Artificial Life

When it comes to research into Artficial Life, commercial projects have begun to outpace academic ones.The term “Artificial Life” emerged in 1986 when the American computer scientist Christopher Langton coined it while organizing the first “Workshop on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems.” Since then the idea of artificial life has spread through computer science into gaming,...

A Batteryless Sensor Chip for the Internet of Things

A prototype sensor saves power by using transistors that never fully turn “on.”The promise of the Internet of things is, in a sense, passivity. Our homes and offices will monitor us, and respond to our needs without instruction. But for tiny wireless sensors all over us and our things to really be feasible, we’ll have to replace today’s power-needy devices with more self-sufficient...


TUESDAY 29. JULY 2014


Software That Can See Will Change Privacy Forever

Advances in machine vision will let employers, governments, and advertisers spot you in photos and know exactly what you’re doing in them.When I was an undergraduate 20 years ago, I was so excited about computer vision that I chose to implement a cutting-edge paper on recognizing machine parts as my final-year project. Even though those parts were simple silhouettes of basic shapes like...