Technology

HOLOGRAMS can now be erased

and rewritten, paving the way for

3D television and extending their

usefulness in data storage.

Not only do holograms display

images in 3D, they can also store

digital information that way.

Instead of recording bumps on the

surface of a disc, they embed the

data throughout its thickness, so

they can cram a huge amount into

a very small space – 300 gigabytes

on a CD-sized disc.

Until now the information

was stored as chemical changes

to a polymer coating , which is

irreversible. Researchers at the

University of Arizona, Tucson,

have now stored it as a build-up

of charge in a photo-refractive

polymer, so it can easily be wiped

with a laser and rewritten (Nature,

vol 451, p 694). If the process can

be speeded up, 3D could soon be

coming to a TV screen near you.

WILL Microsoft’s attempt to

acquire Yahoo help or harm

competition on the web?

With only 3.4 per cent of

internet searches going through

Microsoft, compared with 77 per

cent through Google and 12 per

cent through Yahoo, Microsoft

says that the acquisition is

the only way to establish “a

compelling number two” and

15seconds. The frequency with which the location of your pizza is updated on Papa John’s online TrackMyPizza feature

Detecting breast cancer from changes

in the structure of hair could cut down

false alarms from mammograms.

The test bombards strands of hair

with X-rays from a synchrotron particle

accelerator . In hair from healthy people,

the pattern produced by the X-rays is a

series of arcs, while in people with

breast cancer a distinctive ring is

superimposed on top of the arcs.

Though the test first showed

promise in 1999 (Nature, vol 398, p 33),

other researchers failed to repeat the

results. Now Peter French and Gary

Corino of the company Fermiscan in

Sydney, Australia, say this is because

hair is damaged by products such as

dyes, by stretching as it is held in the

X-ray beam, or because it is wrongly

aligned in the beam. Their device holds

hair in the correct position, does not

stretch it and tests only the untreated

hair a few millimetres from the scalp.

So far, they have correctly identified

12 out of 15 women already diagnosed

with breast cancer (International

Journal of Cancer, vol 122, p 847).

Although the test generates a high rate

of false positives, incorrectly identifying

2 out of every 10 women as having

breast cancer, Fermiscan says it is useful.

In an ongoing trial , the people it has

flagged as false positives tend not to

be the same ones incorrectly flagged by

mammograms, suggesting that together

the two tests could reduce the overall

false positive rate.

No one is sure what causes the

signature ring. One suggestion is that

proteins released by cancer cells alter

the hair follicle to produce hair with

a different structure.

HAIR TEST CUTS CANCER ERRORS

promote healthy competition.

Meanwhile Google is warning

that a deal would allow Microsoft

to “exert the same sort of

inappropriate and illegal influence

over the internet that it did with the

PC” and hand it an “overwhelming

share” of the webmail and instant

messenger markets.

The bid is likely to be closely

scrutinised by the US Department

of Justice. There are also signs of a

consumer revolt from members

of Yahoo’s photo site Flickr, who

are posting anti-Microsoft images .

Imagine if taking the pulse of somebody thousands of miles away felt as if you were

touching their wrist. Engineers at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, are

publishing a paper in Mechatronics describing a piezoelectric membrane that attaches

to a patient’s wrist to let you do just that. Each pulse distorts the membrane,

generating a voltage that is sent to a device on a surgeon’s fingertip, which pulses in

response. The system could be used by surgeons using robotic tools to operate remotely .

Around 100 students are planning to drive aimlessly up and down a California freeway

on 8 February. Nokia and the University of California, Berkeley, will be using data sent

from the students’ GPS-equipped cellphones to track traffic jams and see if municipal

authorities could save on traffic cameras by polling drivers’ phones for data instead.

GIZMO

iPhone

11.6mm

MacBook

27.5mm

MacBook Air 19.4mm

ACTUAL SIZE

SHRINKING APPLES

A thin battery and hard drive and an LED-lit

display help to slim down Apple’s new laptop

Journalist Noam Cohen on the contrast between the Democratic presidential candidates’ websites. Obama’s site is harmonious, with plenty of white space,

soft blues and seamlessly integrated features. Clinton sticks to more traditional colours, and sharp lines divide her content (The New York Times, 4 February)

“Barack Obama is a Mac, and Hillary Clinton is a PC”

–Change is in the hair–

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The memory that

learned to forget

Titanic battle over

Yahoo acquisition

www.newscientist.com 9 February 2008 | NewScientist | 27

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