GEN-ERIC News

Researchers at IBM will have two papers published in the journal Science this week detailing how it may be possible to use individual atoms, or groups of atoms, to store data or act as a transistor. The work revolves around harnessing magnetic anisotropy, a property of atoms. Something is anisotrophic if it has different values when it faces in different directions. If a substance is anisotrophic and the orientation of the substance can be controlled, then the orientation–the theory goes–of the atom can come to represent the 1s and 0s of digital computing. Potentially, atomic-level storage or switching could result in incredibly tiny computers. With atomic storage, you could fit a 1,000 trillion bits of information in an iPod, according to IBM estimates.

Economics is known as an imprecise science and one might need look no further than the business of calling recessions to see that. Unlike the weather, recessions arrive before you know it and depart under the same circumstances. The National Bureau of Economic Research, or NBER, is considered the official arbiter of recessions, but it doesn’t define a recessions by the school book measure of two or more consecutive quarters of economic contraction as measured by GDP. It states that “a recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months. This article lists all the recessions in the last 100 years.

According to a recent Synovate/Marketing Daily survey, 8 out of 10 Americans know what a blog is and almost half have visited blogs. The study, conducted online with 1,000 adults in the US using Synovate eNation from July 30 to August 1, shows that blogging has entered the mainstream. “Eight percent of Americans currently have their own blog,” said Tom Mularz, senior vice president at Synovate. “This is surprising given that a few years ago hardly anyone knew what a blog was.” Loyalty to specific blogs is also fairly strong with 46% of blog readers saying that they visit the same blogs regularly versus 54% who instead usually surf for new and different ones. Awareness and usage of blogs, along with people penning their own, strongly correlates to age, with younger people being much more active. Nearly 90% of those aged 25 to 34 know what a blog is, compared to just 65% of those aged 65 and over. Also, more women than men are bloggers, with 20% of American women who have visited blogs having their own versus 14 % of men.

Researchers at Purdue University have further developed a technology that could represent a pollution-free energy source for a range of potential applications, from golf carts to submarines and cars to emergency portable generators. The technology produces hydrogen by adding water to an alloy of aluminum and gallium. When water is added to the alloy, the aluminum splits water by attracting oxygen, liberating hydrogen in the process. The Purdue researchers are developing a method to create particles of the alloy that could be placed in a tank to react with water and produce hydrogen on demand. The gallium is a critical component because it hinders the formation of an aluminum oxide skin normally created on aluminum’s surface after bonding with oxygen, a process called oxidation. This skin usually acts as a barrier and prevents oxygen from reacting with aluminum. Reducing the skin’s protective properties allows the reaction to continue until all of the aluminum is used to generate hydrogen, said Jerry Woodall, a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue who invented the process.

An artificial arm that uses rocket propellant to power motorized muscles is being touted by its developers as the closest thing yet to a bionic limb. Weighing in at about 4 pounds and able to move in 21 directions, the Vanderbilt Arm works remarkably similar to a human arm, which weighs about 7 pounds and can move in 26 directions. The idea is to eventually hardwire the prosthetic to a person’s nervous system for thought-controlled motion. “As far as the user is concerned, it would almost be no different than the native limb,” said Michael Goldfarb, professor of mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

A recent Gallup Panel survey finds that American consumers are deeply suspicious of Chinese-made goods following a string of recalls of potentially unsafe products made in China, and that Americans could move away from buying Chinese products if they follow through on their stated intentions to adjust their purchasing habits. According to the survey, a solid majority of Americans report paying more attention to which countries produce the products they buy, say they are making an effort to avoid buying products made in China, and express a willingness to pay higher prices for similar goods made in the United States. The Aug. 23-26 survey of 1,001 nationally representative Gallup Panel members finds 72% of Americans saying they are now paying more attention to which country produces the products they buy. Gallup asked this question prior to any explicit mention in the survey of the recent reports of safety problems with Chinese-made products. But, the responses are likely a reflection of such reports, since 45% of respondents later said they were following news about unsafe Chinese products “very closely,” with an additional 40% following it “somewhat closely” – an overall high level of attention.

A once drug-addled elephant fed heroin-laced bananas by illegal traders will soon return to the wild after being weaned off his addiction through methadone and round-the-clock care. “Big Brother", a bull elephant that once “lived peacefully” with his herd near the China-Myanmar border in Yunnan province, was caught by traders in 2005, the China Daily said on Thursday. “To control it so that it could lead the herd to where they wanted, the traders kept feeding it bananas laced with drugs,” the paper said. The traders, however, were caught trying to sell Big Brother and his herd after a tip-off to forest police. By that time Big Brother had developed a raging heroin addiction and posed a danger to people if denied its fix, the paper said, citing police.

Industrial Nanotech, Inc., an emerging global leader in nanotechnology, has announced that it is now in the development stage of creating a thermal insulation material that will generate electricity. The company says it is now designing the first prototype material and filing the patents necessary. According to Stuart Burchill, CEO of Industrial Nanotech, Inc.: “The benefit of a thin sheet of thermal insulation that could be used in the walls of commercial buildings and in walls and attics of houses, instead of just helping conserve energy could create energy, is incalculable. The fact that there is almost always, day or night and anywhere in the world, a difference between the temperature inside a building and outside a building gives us an almost constant source of energy generation to tap into.”

August 30, 1885: Gottlieb Daimler patents what is generally considered to be the first true motorcycle. Daimler, the automotive pioneer usually associated with building the world’s first successful internal combustion engine (and, subsequently, the first automobile), staked his claim of priority in the two-wheeler world a year before developing his famous auto. However, the idea of a motor-driven, two-wheeled vehicle did not originate with Daimler, nor was his the first such contraption to see the road. Sylvester Roper, who spent the U.S. Civil War working in a Union armory, built a primitive “motorcycle” as early as 1867. Roper’s supporters – and he has more than a few – argue that he should be credited with building the world’s first motorcycle. What gives credibility to Daimler’s claim of developing the first “true” motorcycle is the fact that it was gasoline-driven. Roper’s post-Civil War hog, with a tiny two-cylinder engine, was powered by steam.

“Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.”