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POPS Invisibility cloaks could take sting out of tsunamis "I think that this is a great idea with much potential," says Ulf Leonhardt at the University of St Andrews, UK. "One could really imagine protecting coastlines by arrays of cleverly designed concrete poles." Such structures act like metamaterials, materials whose properties result from their structure not composition, and can be used to make invisibility cloaks for light, he says. But Guenneau cautions that large structures like islands and coastlines are unlikely to become invisible anytime soon, because building the many small islands needed to protect one is such a big job. "It's crazy – maybe only people in Dubai could do this," he adds, referring to the spectacular artificial islands built there. Smaller structures such as offshore oil platforms would be easier to protect, he says.
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POPSMIT Team Use Viruses to Build Nex-Gen Batteries Bio-battery technology could open up a whole new field of science with exotic new applications. The study was partly funded by the Army Research Office Institute of Collaborative Biotechnologies, and the Army Research Office Institute of Soldier Nanotechnologies, which suggests that the Army has some interest in this type of research. One can only imagine the strange and/or nefarious possibilities of fusing batteries into living organisms. However, Belcher diffuses any excitement over possible cyborg applications.
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POPSEnergy at your feet Finally, unlike roof-top solar arrays, which some find unattractive, the solar collectors in roads and parking lots would be invisible.” In the lab, small slabs were exposed to halogen lamps, simulating sunlight. Larger slabs were set up outdoors and exposed to more realistic environmental conditions, including direct sunlight and wind. The tests showed that asphalt absorbs a considerable amount of heat and that the highest temperatures are found a few centimeters below the surface. This is where a heat exchanger would be located to extract the maximum amount of energy. Experimenting with various asphalt compositions, they found that the addition of highly conductive aggregates, like quartzite, can significantly increase heat absorption, as can the application of a special paint that reduces reflection.
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POPSMicroscope On A Chip Researchers at Caltech, recently developed the revolutionary new type of microscope without lenses. The devices could be mass-produced at a cost of $10 each and incorporated into large arrays, enabling high-throughput imaging in biology labs. The device is also compact enough to be put in a cell phone and it can use just sunlight for illumination. This makes it very appealing for Third-World applications,
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POPSText Message To Capture Team, "I am with KSM" His cooperation came in fits and starts, and interrogators said they believed at times that he gave them disinformation. But he talked most freely to Martinez. The intelligence riches ultimately gleaned mount to a detailed history of Mohammed's initiation into terrorism along with his nephew, Yousef; his plotting of mayhem from Bosnia to the Philippines and his alliance with Osama bin Laden. Mohammed also claimed a role in a long list of completed and thwarted attacks, including the beheading of Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter Martinez told colleagues that Mohammed volunteered out of the blue that he was the man who killed Pearl. Intelligence analysts eventually were convinced because Mohammed pointed out to Martinez details of the hand and arm of the masked killer in a videotape of the murder that appeared to show it was him. For now, Deuce Martinez teaches other CIA analysts the arcane art of tracking terrorists.
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POPSNo Rescue Unit Things are looking rather gloomy for the Hubble Telescope repair mission. If the darn thing can be fixed in a matter of two hours why do we have to wait two months to get it up and going? Ah yes; American ingenuity. Oh yes, because of the character limitations of "Clipmarks", I was unable to include text concerning the actual repairs. Side A failed completely, and side B han't been tested since 1990. picture of unit is clipped.
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POPSWindpower: An Environment-friendly Alternative The energy arena of old was local and incremental. The new one is global and all-out. With Earth's climate, and the world as we know and love it, now imperiled, topping off the regional grid pales in comparison to the task at hand. In the new, ineluctable struggle to rescue the climate from fossil fuels, efficiency and "renewables" (solar and biomass as well as wind) must all be pushed to the max.
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POPSMolecular Memory The HP patent describes a memory device built from crossbar arrays of nano-wires sandwiching molecules that act as on/off switches. In writing a bit, one voltage decreases the electrical resistance through the molecules, turning the switch "on"; at another voltage, the molecules are turned "off." One advantage of the technology, says Kuekes, is that hardware engineers will be familiar with the design; except for the remarkable fact that it utilizes organic molecules, not silicon or magnetic particles, the technology resembles electronic memories used in PCs. The HP patent is one of the first to issue that covers a molecular electronic device. While it's too early to predict the winner of this race to build and commercialize molecular electronics, those following the field say these initial patents could be critical.
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