From KurzweilAI.net — 3D imagery without the need for special glasses, printing molecules with a nanotech electron turbine, and recreating what is beleived to be the first living cell on Earth.
3-D Viewing without Goofy Glasses Technology Review, June 12, 2008Philips’ WOWvx displays–which allow viewers to perceive high-quality 3-D images without the need for special glasses–are now beginning to appear in shopping malls, movie-theater lobbies, and theme parks worldwide.
Artist rendition of WOWvx 3-D screens (Phillips)The technology uses image-processing software, plus display hardware that includes sheets of tiny lenses atop LCD screens. The lenses project slightly different images to viewers’ left and right eyes, which the brain translates into a perception of depth.
‘Electron turbine’ could print designer molecules New Scientist news service, June 11, 2008Lancaster University scientists have developed a conceptual design for a carbon-nanotube-based motor that spins in a current of electrons (like a wind turbine).
(C. Lambert)The device could be made by suspending a carbon nanotube between two nanotubes and running an electric current through it, causing it to spin and function like a pump or printer.
By pumping atoms into the motor, it could assemble molecules (become the world’s smallest molecular printer), or shrink computer memory or processors 10 times smaller than existing devices by using an array of motors shuttling atoms between the 1 and 0 ends of the middle tube to store or process information.
Scientists Close to Reconstructing First Living Cell ScientificAmerican.com, June 10, 2008Harvard Medical School researchers have built a model of what they believe in the first living cell on Earth (3.5 to 4 billion years ago), containing a strip of genetic material surrounded by a fatty membrane and capable of replicating.
(Janet Iwasa)
David Kirkpatrick 