N Y B B L E M O N T H L Y N E W S L E T T E R
A Free Ezine about Anything Tech and Everything Else
2010.06.10 Issue No. 220
I was at a children's party the other day and was watching the kids play during the kiddie games. Very interesting to see how kids deal with different situations. First up is a game of musical chairs. With every round, a child was struck out. Most kids would just stand around the sidelines and watch. This particular little girl who was outed, slowly walked to her sister and started crying. Next is a game of "pass the parcel". The parcel has gone a few rounds already, and a few kids have already claimed their prize. This time the parcel stopped with the little girl, but unfortunately no prize was in sight. You can see from her face that she's really dejected. Next time the parcel got to her hands, she simply held on to it. The girl beside her had to take the parcel from her to get the game going. Funny enough, this happens every round. Coincidentally, the music ceased and the parcel stopped with the kid beside the little girl. This kid has noticed how sad the little girl was, so she dropped the parcel into her lap. Ah, kids.
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_________TABLE OF CONTENTS_________
* Ultrasound as a Male Contraceptive
* Paper Solar Cells
* 1000x More Storage Than DVD
* Hair-Thin OLED Screen
* 4Tb Storage Chip
* 7-Atom Transistor
* Likeable Links
* Questionable Question
* Quotable Quote
* Trivial Trivia
* Laughable Laugh
_________ULTRASOUND AS MALE CONTRACEPTIVE_________
Guess what, it might just work. Scientists at the University of North Carolina are beginning tests to see if ultrasound can be used as a reversible contraceptive for men. Experts believe a blast of ultrasound to the testes can safely stop sperm production for six months. Ouch. Once the testis has stopped producing sperm and all "sperm reserves" have been depleted, the man will be temporarily infertile.
The long-term goal is to use ultrasound from therapeutic instruments that are commonly found in sports medicine or physical therapy clinics as an inexpensive, long-term, reversible male contraceptive suitable for use in developing to first world countries. The researchers ultimately hope it could offer a new birth control option to couples throughout the world.
_________PAPER SOLAR CELLS_________
Need more power? Print your own solar cells! Hiring a professional installation team too expensive? Just staple the paper solar cells to your house yourself!
MIT researchers have figured out a way to print thin film solar cells on paper featuring carbon-based dyes using a process that resembles a standard inkjet printer. At the moment, MIT’s new semiconductor-coated paper has an efficiency of 1.5 to 2 percent. That’s not incredibly efficient, but the convenience factor makes up for it. In the future, the same process used in the paper solar cells could be used to print cells on metal foil or even plastic. And if they’re able to gear efficiencies up to scale, the development could revolutionize the production and installation of solar panels.
MIT researchers say that the technology is still in the research phase and it could take years before being commercialized.
_________1000x MORE STORAGE THAN DVD________
Scientists at University of Tokyo have discovered a material that could be used to make a lower-price super disc with data storage capacity thousands of times greater than a DVD. According to Shin-ichi Ohkoshi, chemistry professor at the University of Tokyo, the material transforms from a black-color metal state that conducts electricity into a brown semiconductor when hit by light.
The material can switch back and forth between the metal and semiconductor states at room temperature when exposed to light, creating an effective on-off function for data storage. The material is made from a new crystal form of titanium oxide. So far, Ohkoshi's team has successfully created the material in particles measuring five-to-20 nanometers in diameter. If the smallest particles are used, the next-generation optical disc could hold over 1,000 times as much information as a Blu-ray disc. A single-layer Blu-ray disc holds as much as fives times the amount of data on a conventional DVD.
It's also worthy to note that titanium oxide's market price is about one-hundreths of the rare element that is currently used in rewritable Blu-ray discs and DVDs.
_________HAIR-THIN OLED SCREEN_________
Sony recently unveiled an ultra-thin OLED screen - just 80µm, which is thinner than a human hair. The new prototype is a huge step up from their last iteration, which Gizmodo reported to be only slightly bendy. This new display is so bendy that it can be wrapped around a pencil.
The new screen contains innovative organic thin-film transistors that are used to make the driver circuitry to run the display. These transistors are capable of being produced directly on a flexible substrate, eliminating the need for rigid driver chips that would prevent the screen from being bent. Samsung and HP are also active in the flexible display market. However, Samsung doesn’t have their control circuits flexing with the screen, and HP’s displays break after rolling it up a half dozen times.
The new OLED prototype measures 4.1-inches wide with a contrast ratio of under 1,000:1 and a resolution of 432 x 240 pixels. According to Sony, this new OLED panel can continue streaming video while rolled up or stretched.
_________4Tb STORAGE CHIP_________
Dr. Jay Narayan of North Carolina State University has developed a technology that allows one billion pages of information to be stored in a chip that is one square inch. This feat is done using magnetic nanodots, or quantum dots; tiny structures that can measure just 6nm in diameter. Dr Narayan explained that "one terabit can store 250 million pages." At 10nm per bit, 1cm square stores one terabit. As such, the billion pages would be made up of four square centimetres of silicon, providing four terabits of storage. That's basically 512GB in just one small chip, and you could squeeze in much more data than that if the dots had a diameter of just 6nm.
The university explains that the nanodots are “made of single, defect-free crystals, creating magnetic sensors that are integrated directly into a silicon electronic chip.” The nanodots are all positioned uniformly with strict precision, ensuring that they can be read and written to reliably.
In theory, the chips shouldn’t be too expensive to make, and the university says that they can be “manufactured cost-effectively.” However, this is still a really early technology, and developments still need to be made.
_________7-ATOM TRANSISTOR_________
Australian researchers have now created the world's smallest transistor, consisting of only seven atoms arranged into a single silicon crystal. It is fully functional and can regulate and control the flow of electrical current, despite being only 4nm across.
The research was primarily conducted at the University of New South Wales' Centre for Quantum Computer Technology (CQCT) in Sydney, with the assistance of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The atoms were placed using a scanning tunneling microscope, which operates on the concept of quantum tunneling. Although it was first developed in 1981, it uses extremely challenging techniques that require highly clean and stable surfaces, exceptional vibration control, and sophisticated electronics.
The Australian researchers are now using those techniques towards their first quantum computer.
_________LIKEABLE LINKS_________
Recuva File Recovery
BlueScreenView
View BSOD (blue screen) crash information stored in dump files.
VideoInspector
_________QUESTIONABLE QUESTION_________
What's going on during that period in the middle of the washing machine cycle when the machine just seems to stop for a minute and does nothing before starting up again?
_________QUOTABLE QUOTE_________
Happy marriages begin when we marry the ones we love, and they blossom when we love the ones we marry.
~ Tom Mullen
_________TRIVIAL TRIVIA_________
What's so special about 'uncopyrightable?'
The only 15-letter word in the English language that can be written without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable."
Source: Arcamax Trivia
_________LAUGHABLE LAUGH_________
Chinese guy goes into a bar, walks up to the black bartender and says, "Scotch. Make it a jigger, nigger!"
Bartender says, "What the...? How dare you!?"
"C'mon man," says the customer, "just gimme a jigger, nigger!"
Bartender is hopping mad. "Do you have any idea how it feels to have someone talk to you like that? DO YOU?"
"No. Now where's my jigger, nigger?"
Bartender stands his ground. "How would you like to trade places and see what it's like? HUH?"
"OK", says the chinaman, and he walks behind the bar.
Black guy approaches and says, "Gimme a drink, chink!"
Chinese guy replies, "Sorry, we don't serve niggers here."
That's all for this week. Nybble is and will always be a work in progress. Please do send me your comments and suggestions on how to improve Nybble. Just hit the reply button to you know, reply.
Baby Aidan was supposed to make his appearance two weeks later, but he just can't wait. The warm bath in the bathtub pacified him for a bit, but by midnight, he's at it again. At the Canterbury Hospital, Mau was taken to the birthing room and put on the laughing gas. The jokes must be lame because I don't hear her laughing. It did make her forget about her contractions until we were able to find an anesthesiologist awake enough to give her an epidural.
