Researchers from IBM’s Zurich Research Lab and Switzerland’s ETH Zurich science and technology university today announced the development of a dramatic new printing process that can manipulate nanosize particles to create larger images. The new technology promises to allow scientists, medical professionals and technologists to for the first time place particles smaller than 100 nanometers precisely where they are needed.

The process, which likely will not be commercially available for several years, is expected to have the most dramatic impact in the fields of biomedicine, electronics and information technology. It will help advance the development of nanoscale biosensors and ultratiny lenses that can bend light inside future optical chips as well as the fabrication of nanowires that could be used to build more advanced computer chips, researchers report in Nature Nanotechnology.

“This process is more reliable than any process before it at depositing particles,” says Heiko Wolf, a researcher in nanopatterning at IBM’s Zurich Research Lab who worked on this project with five other IBM and ETH Zurich colleagues.

Click HERE to see the photo gallery timeline.

WASHINGTON – The government plans to begin collecting DNA samples from anyone arrested by a federal law enforcement agency — a move intended to prevent violent crime but which also is raising concerns about the privacy of innocent people.

Using authority granted by Congress, the government also plans to collect DNA samples from foreigners who are detained, whether they have been charged or not. The DNA would be collected through a cheek swab, Justice Department spokesman Erik Ablin said Wednesday. That would be a departure from current practice, which limits DNA collection to convicted felons.

Expanding the DNA database, known as CODIS, raises civil liberties questions about the potential for misuse of such personal information, such as family ties and genetic conditions. more>>>

Today’s computers use pulses of electricity and flipping magnets to manipulate and store data. But information can be processed in many other, weirder, ways…
1. Optical computing

2. Quantum computing

3. DNA computing

more>>>

Even you old farts out there can enjoy this!

Click on link to view Microsofts report on human computer interaction in 2020:

Being Human: Human Computer Interaction in 2020

15:59 03 April 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Colin Barras

Are supercomputers on the verge of creating Matrix-style simulated realities? Michael McGuigan at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, thinks so. He says that virtual worlds realistic enough to be mistaken for the real thing are just a few years away.

In 1950, Alan Turing, the father of modern computer science, proposed the ultimate test of artificial intelligence – a human judge engaging in a three-way conversation with a machine and another human should be unable to reliably distinguish man from machine.

A variant on this “Turing Test” is the “Graphics Turing Test”, the twist being that a human judge viewing and interacting with an artificially generated world should be unable to reliably distinguish it from reality.

“By interaction we mean you could control an object – rotate it, for example – and it would render in real-time,” McGuigan says. more>>>

We created two simple “demo worlds” to provide a live demonstration of the Multiverse platform: Times Square, primarly a demonstration of graphics capabilites that is purely for socializing, and a the Demo Fantasy World, that includes some simple gameplay elements.

The demo worlds are not full-featured games, but they provide examples of the capabilities of the Multiverse platform that we created in a just few weeks using the Multiverse developer tools. Of course, your worlds can use far better models and effects to look as good as you like, and have all your custom code for sophisticated behavior and gameplay.

To experience the demo worlds, just follow the easy steps in Getting Started.

So…the Desktop will FINALLY be the top of a desk again?

The way that humans interface with computers is changing. Technologies such as the Wii and Surface are moving us in a more engaging and intimate direction.

No, Microsoft hasn’t suddenly transformed its 30-inch, multi-touch Surface into a big-ass cellphone. It has, however, chosen AT&T to launch the world’s first Surface into retail. Shoppers in New York, Atlanta, San Antonio, and San Francisco will be treated to what amounts to the novelty (at least initially) of learning about a device (Samsung BlackJack II, pictured) by simply placing it atop the Surface. They’ll also have the ability to explore interactive coverage maps. Later, users will be able to drag ringtones, graphics and video and drop it into “the phones.” Note their use of “the” and not “your” phone in the press release. Nevertheless, we’re happy to see Microsoft get the technology out the door on its long march towards consumerdom.

Surface to hit consumerdom in 2011, maybe sooner

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/