Subscribe to New Scientist

Tech

Feeds
LATEST NEWS

Cool your brain, save your mind

FEATURE:  18:00 07 January 2009  | 1 comment

Techniques that rapidly chill the brain could prevent damage and even aid resuscitation after a heart attack

Quantum lubricant could keep nanomachines rolling

18:00 07 January 2009

Scientists have managed to measure a quantum buoyancy effect that could one day be harnessed to stop tiny devices gumming up

World's smallest fuel cell promises greener gadgets

The new micro fuel cell is just 3 mm by 3 mm (Image: Saeed Moghaddam)

11:42 07 January 2009  | 5 comments

Portable devices could be hydrogen powered if fuel cell technology could be made smaller – a design 3 mm across might do the trick

We have the technology to rebuild ourselves

FEATURE:  11:28 07 January 2009  | 8 comments

With better, stronger and faster components, the bionic age has finally arrived, says Julian Smith

Nanobot lets DNA legs do the walking

FEATURE:  10:48 06 January 2009  | 5 comments

A two-legged molecular machine that is designed to walk unaided along a single strand of DNA could soon carry cargo and may one day deliver drugs inside cells

Invention: Exoskeleton power steering

13:18 05 January 2009  | 9 comments

Borrowing a trick used to steer cars without effort could make robotic exoskeletons more reliable and easier to use, a patent application claims

Desktop atom smashers could replace LHC

Super-powerful lasers could soon compete with the LHC (Image: LBNL)

FEATURE:  10:50 05 January 2009  | 18 comments

The next generation of particle smashers might be considerably smaller than the Large Hadron Collider – and made almost literally out of thin air

Implants for babies could help deaf learn to speak

IN BRIEF:  11:00 04 January 2009  | 11 comments

Brain activity that is "scrambled" in deaf cats develops normally if they are fitted with a cochlear implant shortly after birth, say researchers

US investigation into gravity weapons 'nonsense'

Even the gravity waves produced by circling pairs of superdense neutron stars can only be detected indirectly (Image: Mark Galick/SPL)

Physicists are surprised to find that military intelligence investigated whether elusive gravitational waves could threaten US security

One Laptop Per Child ready for version 2.0

Children in Nigeria using the cheap laptop developed by the One Laptop Per Child project (Image: OLPC)

The founder of the ambitious project tells Paul Marks how its cheap, robust laptop is spreading rapidly across globe's poorest areas

FROM THE BLOG

Could your social networks spill your secrets?

17:16 07 January 2009

In an article at the end of last year we looked at some of the ways data-mining techniques are being used by marketeers and security services to extract sometimes private information by assembling huge amounts of data from web visits,...

Space elevators needed for space solar power?

19:49 05 January 2009

Could space elevators one day be used to save the planet?

Artificial butterfly flaps like a pro

16:12 05 January 2009

Flying insects continue to inspire roboticists. Early in 2008, US researchers added an artificial control system to the brain of moths, effectively creating remote controlled cyborg insects. Meanwhile, others are busy creating winged robots that flap around like real insects.A...

VIDEO

Fat fingers no problem for 'transparent' touchscreen

A touch gagdet with the interface on the back provides a new way to interact

Even the tiniest gadgets are easy to use if they have a touch interface on the back

VIDEO

Rolling robot can hop

This spherical robot can jump over obstacles (Image: University of Bath)

A new design allows a spherical robot to either jump or roll over obstacles

ADVERTISEMENT

VIDEO

Chameleon-like 'opal' copies any colour

A new material that flits to any colour in the spectrum at the flick of a switch could revolutionise electronic paper

Stock crash chart (Image: svilen001, via stock.xchng)

How 'rocket science' failed the banks

Over just a few weeks, the supposedly precision-engineered global financial system failed spectacularly – and the modellers employed by banks to forecast risk didn't see it coming

INVENTION COLUMN

Gizmo

GIZMO:  00:00 07 January 2009

Invention: Exoskeleton power steering

13:18 05 January 2009  | 9 comments

Borrowing a trick used to steer cars without effort could make robotic exoskeletons more reliable and easier to use, a patent application claims

Invention: Software research assistant

07:00 02 January 2009  | 8 comments

Need to appear knowledgeable on something you know nothing about? Software that does the hard work for you is the answer, a new patent application claims

This week's issue

Subscribe

Cover of latest issue of New Scientist magazine

For exclusive news and expert analysis every week subscribe to New Scientist print Edition

10 January 2009

ADVERTISEMENT

Subscribe to New Scientist
Partners

We are partnered with Approved Index. Visit the site to get free quotes from website designers and a range of web, IT and marketing services in the UK.

EXPLORE FURTHER

Login for full access