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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
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Nanotech Facts
The National Nanotechnology Initiative has a Web site devoted to “Nanotech Facts.” It provides an introduction to nanotechnology and a brief description of its many applications and potential societal implications. Go to: http://www.nano.gov/html/facts/home_facts.html
By Science News - Tech
Outsmarting the Electronic Gatekeeper: Code breakers beat security scheme of car locks, gas pumps
Because designers flouted a well-known rule for making cryptographic systems impenetrable, automakers and other businesses have embraced a wireless security technology that's vulnerable to attack.
By Peter Weiss - Tech
Detecting life on Mars
A new device could look for life on Mars by analyzing the geometric traits of amino acids in soil.
- Tech
Congealing useful oddballs
A device for manipulating liquid droplets turns out to have the unexpected ability to fabricate tiny, solid balls with unusual, and potentially useful, patterned structures inside.
By Peter Weiss - Tech
Thrifty trucks go with the flow
Forcing air through strategically placed slits on a tractor trailer results in a major boost in fuel economy.
By Peter Weiss - Tech
Matrix Realized
Devices called brain-computer interfaces could give paralyzed patients the ability to flex mechanical limbs, steer a motorized wheelchair, or operate robots through sheer brainpower.
- Tech
Micro Musclebot: Wee walker moves by heart cells’ beats
A new breed of mobile micromachine made of living heart tissue, gold, and silicon takes a step with each rhythmic contraction of its muscle cells.
By Peter Weiss - Tech
Frankenstein’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 - Tech
Microscope goes mini
The atomic force microscope has been shrunk to the size of a microchip.
By Peter Weiss - Tech
Magnetic 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 - Tech
Ink-jet dots form transistor spots
A new technique makes ink-jet printing of transistor circuits possible from conductive polymer inks.
By Peter Weiss - Tech
Lighthearted Transistor: Electronic workhorse moonlights as laser
A versatile new transistor amplifies electricity and emits a laser beam.
By Peter Weiss