Spread
it on a surface, shine tiny spots of ultraviolet
light on it, and voila, a certain type of
plastic turns into a full-color, high-resolution,
flexible flat screen display. The simple process
could make computer screens much cheaper. Full
story
Infrared
headset nixes radiation
Many cell-phone users have taken to using hands-free
headsets to avoid the microwave radiation the devices
emit, but the electrical wires that connect the
headsets to the phones can also act as antennas
for microwaves. A headset that connects a cell phone
via infrared light waves sidesteps the radiation
problem.
Fiber
loop makes quantum memory
Trapping light in a fiber-optic loop seems like
an obvious way to store photons for optical quantum
computing, but preserving a stored photon's fragile
quantum information is challenging. One device works,
albeit briefly, by splitting the photon.
Glowing
beads make tiny bar codes
Microscopic glass beads with stripes that glow different
colors are the latest entrants in the field of micro
barcodes, which can be used to tag ink, document
fibers, and biological materials like DNA. The beads
even glow at wavelengths that don't interfere with
DNA experiments.
