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–
SCOT
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: IN
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WEE
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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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