The quantum computer is still ranking pretty high up there on the vaporware charts, somewhere between Duke Nukem Forever and a Steorn in-home power generator. Eventually we’ll get there, and theoretical physicists at the University of Bristol are helping with a quantum cooling system. It is effectively a means for two qubits to cool a third, with the outer two cooled by lasers and absorbing energy from the third, which is heated to its excited state

Go here to read the rest:
Quantum refrigerator could cool your quantum computer, allow for quantum overclocking
-
Under :
1, engadget
-
Tags: aol, engadget, engadget show, entertainment, japanese, mobile, podcasts, quantum computing, quantumcomputer, quantumcomputing, qubit, research, science, universityofbristol
For as spectacular as hydrogen fuel cells are on paper, they haven’t been able to replace combustion engines in vehicles. Or much of anything else, really. But thanks to Signe Kjelstrup at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in Oslo, the tried-and-true fuel cell is getting a serious boost.

More:
Lung-inspired hydrogen fuel cell skimps on platinum, sees efficiency boost
Sure, it’s just boring ol’ component news but you can guarantee that this advance will affect the appearance of Sony (and Sony Ericsson) products some time soon.

More:
Sony replacing handset wiring with a single copper cable
Silk: it’s stronger than Kevlar, thinner than a human hair, it’s biocompatible (it doesn’t trigger human immune system response), and it’s produced by insects (although some new-fangled metabolically engineered bacteria seem to be up to the task). Researchers at Tufts University have created a silk and gold biosensor that can be implanted in the body to keep tabs on proteins and chemicals

Read more here:
Implantable antenna designed using silk and gold
Here’s an interesting one. Just years after a researcher in Japan realized that lasers could stimulate nerves, a professor of biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt University along with cohorts from Case Western Reserve have found that the same is true with the heart . By using an Infrared laser on an early embryonic heart, tests were able to show that the muscle was “in lockstep with the laser pulse rate.” The crew also found no signs of laser damage after a few hours of experimenting, though obviously more extensive research would be required before any medical agency allowed such a device to be beamed underneath a human chest.

Original post:
Infrared laser shown to quicken heart rate, gives hope for ultra-small pacemakers
The first prototype of a Nao robot that can develop emotions as it interacts with a human caregiver has been completed.

Read more here:
Prototype of robot that develops emotions on interacting with humans officially complete
Micro electromechanical systems, or MEMS , aren’t anything new. But Purdue University’s Jason Vaughn Clark has ideas that are far grander than those we’ve seen already. Mr

View original post here:
Purdue’s ’self-calibrating’ MEMS could produce the most accurate sensors yet
Scientists at the University of Calgary have teamed up with the National Research Council Canada to put a network of human brain cells on a microchip — in effect creating a (tiny) brain on a chip. Until now, when scientists wanted to monitor brain cells, they could only monitor one or two simultaneously, but with this new neurochip , large groups of cells can be placed on the chip and observed in detail, as they go about their business “networking and performing automatic, large-scale drug screening for various brain dysfunctions,” according to PhysOrg

Originally posted here:
University of Calgary succeeds in building a neurochip out of silicon, human brain cells
The fabled cloak of invincibility was once considered impossible for modern science, chilling out with perpetual motion up in the clouds, but these days scientists are tilting at blurry windmills with a modicum of success several times a year. The latest advance in theory comes to us from Michigan Tech, which says it can now cloak objects in the infrared spectrum

View original here:
Invisibility cloak upgraded to bend infrared light, not to mention our minds
Who knew HP was such a big player in the display business? Just days after announcing that a flexible display from Mars may very well hit the market out of Hewlett-Packard’s own laboratories, a fresh report has surfaced over at Technology Review surrounding yet another display tech that the company is feverishly working on. It’s bruited that the outfit is “developing new materials for brighter low-power displays” — think E Ink, but with color..

View original post here:
HP developing materials for reflective color e-paper displays