New Method Of Self-assembling Nanoscale Elements Could Transform Data Storage Industry

New Method Of Self-assembling Nanoscale Elements Could Transform Data Storage Industry: "'The density achievable with the technology we've developed could potentially enable the contents of 250 DVDs to fit onto a surface the size of a quarter,' said Xu, who is also a faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory."

"An innovative and easily implemented technique in which nanoscale elements precisely assemble themselves over large surfaces could soon open doors to dramatic improvements in the data storage capacity of electronic media, according to scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst).

Siftables - the smart blocks

Video on TED.com David Merrill demos Siftables, the smart blocks A very cool application of manipulatives in computing...

Revolutionary Chip uses 30 times less electricity

Rice National Media Site Revolutionary Chip uses 30 times less electricity: "In the first real-world test of a revolutionary type of computing that thrives on random errors, scientists have created a microchip that uses 30 times less electricity while running seven times faster than today's best technology. The U.S.-Singapore team developing the technology, dubbed PCMOS [pronounced 'pee-cee-moss'], revealed the results here today at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), the world's premier forum for engineers working at the cutting edge of integrated-circuit design.

Conceived by Rice University Professor Krishna Palem, PCMOS piggybacks on the 'complementary metal-oxide semiconductor' technology, or CMOS, that chipmakers already use. That means chipmakers won't have to buy new equipment to support PCMOS, or 'probabilistic' CMOS. Although PCMOS runs on standard silicon, it breaks with computing's past by abandoning the set of mathematical rules -- called Boolean logic -- that have thus far been used in all digital computers. PCMOS instead uses probabilistic logic, a new form of logic developed by Palem and his doctoral student, Lakshmi Chakrapani."

Semantic Web to contribute to Sustainability?

ICT Results Semantic web promises a smarter electricity grid: "Working in the EU-funded S-TEN project, the team developed a generic framework for novel ICT architectures and applied semantic web technologies to make networks ‘self-describing’ so that each component – be it a volt meter on a wind turbine or a thermometer on a weather station – autonomously publishes information about what it is, where it is, and what it does.

Because semantic data can be understood by machines as well as humans, the approach should lead to more efficient automated grid management and better decision-support for human operators. Smart power grids, efficiently supplying a town or city from locally generated electricity and then feeding it into a wider supply network, could therefore be more easily and cost-effectively set up.

“Instead of storing information in a centralised database, the S-TEN approach is for each node, each sensor or device connected to the network, to have its own intelligence,” Schowe-von der Brelie says."

Google Earth to include Oceans, Historical Imagery

Google Earth Goes Deep With Ocean Simulations NYTimes.com "Two and a half years ago, the software engineers behind Google Earth, the searchable online replica of the planet, were poised to fill an enormous data gap, adding the two-thirds of the globe that is covered by water in reality and was blue, and blank, online.

But until then all of the existing features on Google Earth — mountains, valleys, cities, plains, ice sheets — were built through programming from an elevation of zero up.

“We had this arbitrary distinction that if it was below sea level it didn’t count,” recalled John Hanke, the Internet entrepreneur who co-created the progenitor of Google Earth, called Keyhole, and moved to Google when the company bought his company in 2004.

Singularity University

Leading futurists, thinkers to launch Silicon Valley university Cutting Edge - CNET News "Starting this summer, some of the world's leading thinkers in exponentially growing technologies will be gathering annually at NASA Ames Research Center, in the heart of Silicon Valley, for 10 weeks of discussions on how to change the future. And you could join them.

The gatherings will be part of what is known as Singularity University, a brand-new academic institution co-founded by inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, X Prize chairman and CEO Peter Diamandis, and former Yahoo Brickhouse head Salim Ismail, and anyone can apply."

Tech is a safe career choice

Tech is a safe career choice today Tom Kaneshige | InfoWorld "Salaries among tech workers remain surprisingly strong. A survey of 19,000 tech workers conducted by Dice, a career site for technology and engineering professionals, showed a spike in salaries late last year with the recession in full throttle: a 4.6 percent increase in average pay from the previous year to $78,035. (However, a recent survey of 22,550 IT professionals by Foote Partners found IT skills pay slipped for the first time since 2004.)

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The salary news is good for college grads, too. The National Association of Colleges and Employers found that the average salary offer made to computer and information sciences graduates was up from $51,992 for the class of 2007 to $58,677 for the class of 2008, a 12.9 percent increase. The average salary for computer engineering graduates increased 7.8 percent to $60,280."

Data mining promises to dig up new drugs

Data mining promises to dig up new drugs ICT Results "A robot scientist that can make informed guesses about how effective different chemical compounds will be at fighting different diseases could revolutionise the pharmaceutical industry by developing more effective treatments more cheaply and quickly than current methods.

The robot, known as Eve, uses advanced artificial intelligence combined with innovative data mining and knowledge discovery techniques to analyse the results of pharmacological experiments it conducts itself.

By relating the chemical structure of different compounds to their pharmacological activity, Eve is able to learn which chemical compounds should be tested next, bringing a degree of predictability to drug screening procedures that, until now, have tended to be a bit hit and miss."