Technology Reviews

For years, claims have circulated that red rain which fell in India in 2001, contained cells unlike any found on Earth. Now new evidence that these cells can reproduce is about to set the debate alive

Panspermia is the idea that life exists throughout the universe in comets, asteroids and interstellar dust clouds and that life of Earth was seeded from one or more of these sources. Panspermia holds that we are all extraterrestrials.

Researchers inject quantum dots into the skin using plastic microneedles, potentially providing a way to diagnose and treat diseases.

Using a novel laser-based technique, researchers at North Carolina State University have made arrays of tiny, hollow plastic needles that they used to insert fluorescent quantum-dot dyes into skin. Biomedical engineering professor Roger Narayan, who leads the research, says the microneedles and quantum dots, which have been tested on pigs, could be used to diagnose and treat skin cancer and other chronic diseases.

"Dustcart" finished a test run in Italy, successfully making house calls to collect garbage.

In the Italian town of Peccioli the streets are too old and narrow for garbage trucks to navigate, so residents have had to manage their own trash collection. That is, until the appearance of this summer of "Dustcart", a Segway-wheeled, sensor-equipped robot, that responds to house calls to collect garbage.

Music-focused social network is linked to iTunes, and TV shows will rent for 99 cents.

Products featuring memristors could appear in 2013.

An electronic component that offers a new way to squeeze more data into computers and portable gadgets is set to go into production in just a couple of years. Hewlett-Packard announced today that it has entered an agreement with the Korean electronics manufacturer Hynix Semiconductor to make the components, called "memristors," starting in 2013. Storage devices made of memristors will allow PCs, cellphones, and servers to store more and switch on instantly.

Climate models are built by scientists, not software engineers.

The fusion of Web and TV is changing how we consume video on all platforms.

A new technique for studying the relationship between bacteria and protozoans could boost our understanding of how these organisms spread disease

In 1980, Tim Rowbotham, a microbiologist at the University of Bradford, made an extraordinary discovery about a tiny single-celled protozoa called Acanthamoeba. These organisms are ubiquitous, turning up almost anywhere there is liquid water. Since the 1950s they have been known to cause a number of rare diseases, mainly in humans with impaired immune systems.

Online music streaming services are altering the way people find, buy, and share songs--when will iTunes join the fun?

Dozens of startups now offer Internet-based music streaming technology, making millions of songs instantly accessible from almost any device. But the biggest digital music platform of all--Apple's iTunes--hasn't yet moved over to the Web.

App pinpoints people inside shops without requiring them to "check in."

Walk into the Best Buy on San Francisco's Harrison Street, and the consumer electronics giant knows a potential customer has arrived: at least if you're using the ShopKick iPhone app that launched earlier this month.

Senator Reid hopes to garner votes for a limited energy bill after the elections. But cap and trade is out of the picture.

When the Senate comes back from its summer recess on September 11th, the energy bill that was dropped before vacation will still be dead in the water.

The new labels will help consumers, but as designed now, they could be misleading.

Yesterday the Environmental Protection Agency released a pair of proposed fuel economy labels, which could replace the miles-per-gallon stickers now required on new cars. The stickers are needed because miles per gallon isn't a useful measurement for vehicles that run on electricity part of the time or all of the time, and several such vehicles--electric cars and plug-in hybrids--are due to hit showrooms starting at the end of this year.

Can community-minded Web developers fix scientific publishing?

No one goes into science in order to spend every waking hour thinking about how to squeeze as many publications out of every experimental result as possible, rather than doing actual research, but that's the game they're forced to play.

The US comes second in a new quality of life index designed to be mathematically objective

Here's a thorny problem: to develop an objective way to rank countries according to the quality of life they offer their citizens.

The new approach wastes far less light, saving energy.

A new type of color filter could significantly increase the energy efficiency of liquid-crystal displays (LCDs), which dominate the market in everything from televisions to cell phones.

Once again, federal funding restrictions cast uncertainty over the field.

It was just 18 months ago that U.S. scientists studying embryonic stem cells thought their nearly decade-long battle for federal funding was finally won. President Obama had signed an executive order ending a restrictive policy enacted in 2001 by President Bush. That policy had blocked federal funds from being used to study most human embryonic stem cells. But a surprise ruling by a lower court last week left the stem-cell community stunned. A federal judge issued an injunction, blocking federal funding for any research involving embryonic stem cells.

The federal agency makes an unprecedented decision in response to last week's federal injunction.

The National Institutes of Health, the nation's largest biomedical funding agency, halted all ongoing research at the agency that involves human embryonic stem cells. The order comes in response to a federal injunction issued last week blocking use of federal funding for the research. (See my story, New Court Ruling Could Cripple Stem-Cell Research, for more details.)

The best of the rest from the Physics arXiv this week:

Lunar Palaeoregolith Deposits as Recorders of the Galactic Environment of the Solar System and Implications for Astrobiology

A long-standing puzzle over the craftsmanship behind Viking bracelets and necklaces has finally been solved--mathematically.

The beautiful bracelets and necklaces made by Viking artisans leave archaeologists with something of a conundrum. These objects are made from rods of gold and silver which have twisted together into double helices. The puzzle is the regularity of these helices, which are remarkably similar in jewelry found in places as diverse as Ireland, Scotland, the Orkney Islands and Scandinavia.

Microbes may have eaten away at BP's oil in deep water; now the marshland needs help.

Microbes may become the heroes of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill by gobbling up oil more rapidly than anyone expected. Now some experts suggest we ought to artificially stimulate such microbes in stricken marshland areas to aid their cleanup.