Scientists working with electrical components called memristors have found that the components function similarly to brain cells and so the goal of building a computer that works like a human brain appears to be one step closer. With the help of memristors, computers can be developed in a way that they can independently deviate from…
Big defense budgets during the aughts financed the deployment of thousands of robots, including unmanned aerial and underwater vehicles, to Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pentagon’s fascination with robots hasn’t slackened even in these more austere times. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is funding Boston Dynamics’ development of a prototype robot called the Cheetah….
Predicting the future is notoriously difficult, but uncovering the past can be just as tricky. Now researchers have developed a method that looks backward and may reveal where a widespread phenomenon originated, be it the outbreak of a disease or a new technology. The new method relies on distance, but is not constrained by geography….
A team of religion scholars ignited a firestorm of controversy with the release of a documentary film and book claiming to shed light on the burial practices of 1st-century Christians living near Jerusalem. Although there’s a good deal of debate over what the researchers have actually discovered, it’s interesting to note that this debate has…
BM has announced a breakthrough that could lead to quantum computers within 15 years. Researchers presented results of successful experiments at the American Physical Society in Boston that could go a long way to solving some of the critical problems for quantum computing to become a reality, including increasing the lifetime of quantum informational bits….
Department Of Energy chief Steven Chu says research will reshape the future of energy, enabling electricity grids that run on renewable energy and batteries and vehicles that are both more efficient and powerful.
IBM scientists were able to measure for the first time how charge is distributed within a single molecule. This achievement will enable fundamental scientific insights into single-molecule switching and bond formation between atoms and molecules. Furthermore, it introduces the possibility of imaging the charge distribution within functional molecular structures, which hold great promise for future…
A U.K.-based research team has created a fuel cell that can power a lightbulb, with the aid of a high flying bacteria found in the Earth’s atmosphere. Bacterially-run fuel cells may provide a cheap, portable source of energy for villages without electricity and they’re a potential source of green, nearly emissions-free energy for the future….
Scientists have taken a first early step toward escaping the limits of a technological principle called Moore’s Law by creating a working transistor using a single phosphorus atom. The atom was etched into a silicon bed with “gates” to control electrical flow and metallic contacts to apply voltage, researchers reported in the journal Nature Nanotechnology….
The tidy Swiss want to clean up space. Swiss scientists plan to launch a “janitor satellite” — a 10-million-franc ($11-million) satellite called CleanSpace One — specially designed to get rid of space junk, the orbiting debris that can do serious and costly damage to valuable satellites or even manned space ships. Its launch would come…