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A new method for making hydrogen directly from plants could be an inexpensive way to generate fuel for alternative vehicles, perhaps paving the way for hydrogen refueling stations that rely on agricultural waste. For several years, Percival Zhang, a professor of biological systems engineering at Virginia Tech, has been developing an enzymatic method to break complex sugars—like those found in plant material—into their component parts. Zhang’s process is “cell-free,” meaning it does not require microörganisms like those used in fermentation. Now he’s shown that it can be used to efficiently turn corn stover, the most abundant agricultural waste product in the United States, into hydrogen fuel.
An Efficient Way to Convert Plants Directly into Hydrogen Fuel | MIT Technology Review
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And yet, in the midst of this potentially existential crisis, HP Enterprise is working on a risky research project in hopes of driving a remarkable comeback. Nearly three-quarters of the people in HP’s research division are now dedicated to a single project: a powerful new kind of computer known as “the Machine.” It would fundamentally redesign the way computers function, making them simpler and more powerful. If it works, the project could dramatically upgrade everything from servers to smartphones—and save HP itself.
HP’s Audacious Idea for Reinventing Computers | MIT Technology Review
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"We're just on the cusp of chips coming out where a $300 chip can power an entire cell tower. When you get that far, it's not that much further to a scenario where when you're finished with your cellphone, you can hang it on the wall and it adds to the cellular network," Papa said... Qualcomm is already experimenting with technology that allows smartphones to communicate with other mobile devices up to a range of 500 meters, bypassing cell towers altogether. Called LTE Direct, it uses licensed spectrum without draining a phone's battery life and will become commercially available in 2016, Qualcomm said.
Will cell towers soon become obsolete?
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Now researchers at Cornell University have made a discovery that could finally turn the dream into a reality. A team lead by post doctoral associate John Heron, professor Darrell Schlom and professor Dan Ralph has found data can be stored in memory made of bismuth ferrite without constant application of current. Bismuth ferrite, in case you’re wondering, is a chemical compound with an unusual property; it’s multiferroic. This means it has its own, permanent magnetic field and is always electrically polarized. The application of an electric field can change the polarization, and once changed it remains in its new state permanently until a jolt is applied again. The polarization can be read as a bit value, which makes the invention usable as memory. This means power is required only to change the polarization, but not to maintain it, cutting both power consumption and the heat that results dramatically. And unlike previous similar devices, which worked only at extremely cool temperatures, the bismuth ferrite device functions in a normal ambient environment.
Researchers at Cornell invent new low-energy PC memory | Digital Trends
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Founded in 2013, Bristol-based startup Ultrahaptics relies on a compact array of ultrasound transducers to send inaudible sound waves through the air, using phase-shift techniques to precisely control the focus and intensity of the acoustic radiation pressure into something tangible. Page 1 of 2 While the ultrasound transducers lay flat in what could look like a thick mouse mat, the air pressure differences created at the focus points (where all sound waves meet at the same time thanks to the phase delays) can be felt like invisible contours projected into the air. What's more, different textures can be created by varying the modulation frequency or pulsing the feedback effect on the skin. To make things even more interesting, the company can combine these haptic effects with real-time video tracking of a users fingers, so as to follow the users gestures with a consistent feel, for example progressively defining and unveiling the contour of a large virtual object as the user swipes his fingers across it.
UltraHaptics promises airborne tactile interfaces - Electronics Eetimes
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Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have recently developed a device that can turn any smartphone into a DNA-scanning fluorescent microscope. The implications for medical diagnostics are profound and show once again how the smartphone can be leveraged to bring down the costs of healthcare as well as bring cutting edge diagnostics to the developing world.
Smartphone plug-in microscope can image and size DNA molecules - Electronics Eetimes
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Boosters of Bitcoin commonly call the digital currency the future of money. But even if it doesn’t turn out to be, a growing group of investors and entrepreneurs is convinced that the idea at the center of Bitcoin could revolutionize industries that rely on digital record keeping. It might replace conventional methods of keeping track of valuable information like contracts, intellectual-property rights, and even online voting results.
The Most Valuable Aspect of Bitcoin: Its Versatile Ledger Technology | MIT Technology Review
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Memristors, exotic electronic devices only confirmed to exist in 2008, have been used to create a chip that borrows design points from the brain. The prototype chip did not learn to do anything more difficult than recognize extremely simple black-and-white patterns. But larger, more complex versions might make computers better at understanding speech, images, and the world around them.
Memristors Used to Make a Neural-Network Chip | MIT Technology Review
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Researchers at the Nanoelectronic Devices Laboratory at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland have developed a sensor for real-time scanning of liquids such as perspiration to provide accurate real time monitoring of a person's level of hydration, stress or fatigue.
Nano-transistor helps monitor health via sweat sensor - Electronics Eetimes
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Many gadgets will be able to understand images and video thanks to chips designed to run powerful artificial-intelligence algorithms.
Chips With Deep Learning Built In Will Make Phones, Cars, Cameras, and Robots Smarter | MIT Technology Review
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