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Getting
over the language barrier usually requires
the services of a human translator, but handheld
computers are getting powerful enough, and
speech recognition software accurate enough,
that travelers, soldiers and aid workers in
foreign countries could soon have automatic
speech translation in hand. A prototype Arabic-English
medical translator is a significant milestone
on the long road to universal translation.
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Device
guards Net against viruses
Ordinary computers have no chance of being able
to monitor the huge volumes of traffic flowing through
the Internet. Specialized hardware, however, can.
A device that can be reconfigured in minutes is
poised to serve as a network sentry, scanning the
full contents of every packet on high-speed backbone
links for signs of viruses and the like.
Body
handles nanofiber
The human body doesn't care for artificial materials,
and responds to invasions by building scar tissue
around foreign objects. While this is often a good
thing, it makes replacement hips and the like more
difficult to design and use. A study shows that
scar tissue formation might have more to do with
the surface features of the intrusion than material
it is made from.
Microfluidics
make flat screens
A new method for making big, cheap flat screen displays
is a bit like making muffins. Pour liquid polymer
into microfluidic channels aligned above an array
of electrodes, let cure, and you have organic thin
film transistors. The process requires the construction
of the equivalent of muffin tins, but it's still
easier than the semiconductor manufacturing processes
used to make today's flat screens.
Briefs
Chemists
grow nano menagerie... Solid
fuel cell works in heat... Hybrid
crypto secures images... Chip
uses oil to move droplets... Light
spots sort particles... Organic
transistors get small.
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