Feature Channels: Technology

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This month IEEE Spectrum reviews the most important innovations that came of age in the past 10 years, based on their influence, usefulness, and sheer technical coolness.

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Using unique equipment developed by the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at The Florida State University, an international team of researchers has used the spin of atomic nuclei in silicon to store information for longer than a minute and a half. More remarkable still, the team showed that the information can be read out electronically — a key step toward the development of faster conventional computers and superfast “quantum” computers.

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University of Utah physicists stored data for 112 seconds in what may become the tiniest computer memory: “spins” in the atomic nuclei. Then they read the data electrically – a step toward using spin memory for faster conventional and superfast “quantum” computers.

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The University of Delaware is now one of only a handful of universities with a microscope so powerful that researchers can measure a single molecule within a cell.

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A survey conducted by the University of Arkansas shows that the health care industry is making significant gains toward adopting global data standards for the health care supply chain, but nearly a third of respondents have not started preparations for adopting the standards.

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Computer scientists within the Tetherless World Research Constellation at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed an application to help solve the problem. A collaboration with scientific publisher Elsevier, the application utilizes the U.S. government data warehouse, Data.gov, to provide scientists with easy and direct access to government data sets relevant to their research.

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A quicker and cheaper technique to scan molecular databases developed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory could put scientists on the fast track to developing new drug treatments.

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Physicists have discovered that tiny defects inside a computer chip can be used to tune the properties of key atoms in the chip.

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New research finds that owning a DVR does not influence the demand for advertised products despite its ad-skipping feature. In fact, only a small percentage of ads were fast-forwarded by DVR users who participated in the study, and even that did not have an adverse effect on sales.

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Comparing the locations of photos posted on the Internet with social network contacts, Cornell University computer scientists have found that as few as three “co-locations” for images at different times and places could predict with high probability that two people posting photos were socially connected.

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Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP) will explore these questions related to Tata Motors' revolutionary new Tata Nano, in an exhibition at the university’s Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. "Unpacking the Nano," runs from Jan. 15 through March 27, 2011.

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Nationwide Children’s Hospital announced today the introduction of a new pediatric diagnostic tool that assesses developmental milestones in early childhood while helping identify problems so that treatments for various conditions or disorders can begin sooner.

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A brand-new bacterial species has been found aboard the RMS Titanic, which is contributing to its deterioration. The discovery by a team led by researchers at Dalhousie University reveals a potential new microbial threat to the exterior of ships and underwater metal structures such as oil rigs.

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The Broselow Pediatric Emergency Tape – otherwise known as the Broselow Tape -- has been a staple of ERs and child trauma units for nearly three decades. Using a color coded-format, it provides specific medical instructions to medical caregivers based on the height and then subsequent weight of the child. This information now will be displayed on a large LCD monitor within emergency rooms, for all personnel to see.

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A mathematical model based on psychology theory allows computers to mimic human creative problem-solving, and provides a new roadmap to architects of artificial intelligence.

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A five-year project led by the Georgia Institute of Technology has developed a novel approach to space electronics that could change how space vehicles and instruments are designed. The new capabilities are based on silicon-germanium (SiGe) technology.

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Researchers in Germany have successfully fabricated a rudimentary quantum computing hybrid system using electronic excitations in nano-diamonds as qubits and optical nanostructures, so-called photonic crystals with tailored optical properties. This architecture may allow integration of multi-qubit systems on a single micrometer-sized chip for future quantum computers.

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Playing online can mean more than killing time, thanks to a new game developed by a team of bioinformaticians at McGill University. Now, players can contribute in a fun way to genetic research.

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3-D displays are trying to shed their spectacles.

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To researchers at the California Institute of Technology, the undulations of the simple invertebrate jellyfish hold secrets that may make possible a new generation of tiny pumps for medical applications and soft robotics -- work described today at the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics (DFD) meeting in Long Beach, CA.

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To avoid some of the design challenges involved in creating micro-scale air vehicles that mimic the flapping of winged insects or birds, Georgia Tech researchers propose using flexible wings that are driven by a simple sinusoidal flapping motion.

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Computer scientists have invented a technique that automatically creates 3-D models of landmarks and geographical locations, using ordinary two-dimensional pictures available through Internet photo sharing sites like Flickr.

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Engineers at Princeton University have built a robotic jump rope device and used it to study the underlying physics of jumping rope, which they describe today at the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics meeting in Long Beach, CA.

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Mobile Voices/Voces Móviles, the microblogging project designed in collaboration with USC Annenberg and the Institute of Popular Education of Southern California, or IDEPSCA, has won a United Nations-sponsored World Summit Award for innovative mobile applications.

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Accelerator-based supercomputers hold eight of the top 10 spots on the Green500 list. Green500 has ranked the energy efficiency of the world’s 500 fastest supercomputers since its debut in 2007, serving as a complement to the well-known supercomputer industry marker TOP500.

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Nine supercomputers have been tested, validated and ranked by the new “Graph500” challenge, first introduced this week by an international team led by Sandia National Laboratories. The list of submitters and the order of their finish was released Nov. 17 at the supercomputing conference SC10 meeting in New Orleans.

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The Globus team is pleased to announce the general availability of Globus Online, a cloud-hosted high-performance, secure file transfer service. Globus Online makes the grid easy to use by eliminating the need for complex, custom IT infrastructure to manage large-scale data movement tasks.

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A better understanding of how we use acoustic cues to stress new information and put old information in the background may help computer programmers produce more realistic-sounding speech. Dr. Michael Wagner, a researcher in McGill’s Department of Linguistics, has compared the way French- and English-speakers evaluate poetry, as a way of finding evidence for a systematic difference in how the two languages use these cues.

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Georgia Tech researchers have created a machine-learning model that enables the sites, like WebMD, to “learn” dialect and other medical vernacular, thereby improving their performance for users who use such language themselves.

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A How-To Primer from Rensselaer Polytechnic institute on "mashing-up" the treasure trove of government web data.

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In a move that holds great significance for the semiconductor industry, a team of researchers in Arizona has created an alternative to conventional logic gates, demonstrated them in silicon, and dubbed them "chaogates," which are described in the journal CHAOS.

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Chemists at the University of South Carolina have developed a camera with the ability to see the invisible and more.

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A new supercomputer rating system will be released at Supercomputing Conference 2010 on Nov. 17 by an international team led by Sandia National Laboratories. The rating system, Graph500, tests supercomputer ability to analyze large, graph-based structures that link the huge number of data points present in biological, social and security problems. The intent is to influence computer makers to build computers with the architecture to deal with these increasingly complex problems.

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Inside a non-descript, soundproof building on the south side of town, researchers from Missouri University of Science of Technology are building an audio battlefield, complete with the sounds of tanks, ordinance, gunfire, shouting and helicopters.

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More accurate simulations could lead to “break-even” fusion in foreseeable future

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Using a neutron beam as a probe, researchers working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have begun to reveal the crystal structure of a compound essential to technologies ranging from sonar to computer memory.

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NIST researchers have developed new certified reference materials for measuring amounts of organic acids in dietary supplements formulated with Vaccinium berries—cranberries, blueberries and bilberries. Manufacturers and researchers can use this new suite of standard reference materials (SRMs) as quality assurance tools.

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Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have released an updated version of a computer system testing tool that can cut costs by more efficiently finding flaws.

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To keep soldiers in the battlefield healthy, the U.S. Army is exploring new ways to detect harmful bacteria in water.

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Paul Montgomery, a graduate student at Pennsylvania State University, is helping design a better cook stove for people in developing countries.

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Researchers in Japan have developed a new technique for monitoring the heart rate and other vital signs by using microwaves. The work, which could lead to the development of non-invasive, real-time stress sensing in a variety of environments, is described in a recent issue of the journal Review of Scientific Instruments.

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Physicians, nurses and other health care providers can have some of the most up-to-date information on the growing diabetes epidemic at their fingertips, thanks to the release of a new Johns Hopkins guide to the disease now available on all smart phone devices.

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Georgia Tech researchers are participating in a $100 million DARPA program to fit a high performance petaflop computer into a single rack just 24 inches wide and powered by a fraction of the electricity consumed by comparable current machines.

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Mobile Health Expert and mHealth Summit Panelist, Dr. Richard Migliori of UnitedHealth Group, Available for Interview.

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New research suggests that the addition of ultraviolet light to the brushing and suction of a vacuum cleaner can almost double the removal of potentially infectious microorganisms from a carpet’s surface when compared to vacuuming alone.

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The highest-quality research data available suggests that long-term exposure to microwaves from cellular phones may lead to an increased risk of brain tumors, reports a paper in the November/December issue of Journal of Computer Assisted Tomography.

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One of the serious threats to a user’s computer is a software program that might cause unwanted keystroke sequences to occur in order to hack someone’s identity. An authentication framework called “Telling Human and Bot Apart” has been developed to combat such attacks.

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What makes semiconductor company Marvell, and its founder, Sehat Sutardja, tick?

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University of Utah computer scientists developed software that quickly edits huge photographs. Until now, it took hours to process these “gigapixel” images. The new software needs only seconds to produce preview images useful to doctors, intelligence analysts, photographers, engineers and others.

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The products are highlighted in short vignettes on Cotton Incorporated’s Cotton Today website.