Severely disabled people who cannot operate a motorised wheelchair may one day get their independence, thanks to a system that lets them steer a wheelchair using only their thoughts.
Unlike previous thought-communication devices, the system does not use surgical implants. Instead a skullcap peppered with electrodes monitors the electrical activity of its wearer’s brain. Early trials [...]

A lot of people seem to be in a rush to blame the spam deluge on the lack of authentication provided by the venerable Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) standard. The truth is, existence of SMTP authentication would, by itself, do almost nothing to alleviate the spam problem. It’s important to understand what SMTP authentication [...]

Surprising new PET and MRI images show deaf people process sign language in the brain regions that for 125 years were regarded as sound centres, such as the superior temporal gyrus. “Regardless of whether we speak American Sign Language or French or English, the human brain processes the information in the identical way,” says Laura [...]

Scientists are wrestling with individual atoms to develop molecule-sized computers, tiny cancer-fighting robots that travel the bloodstream … and stain-resistant trousers.
Nanotechnology — the science of manipulating materials billionths of a meter wide — has emerged as a promising new field that could lead to stunning advances in years to come.
Boosters claim that nanotech-derived [...]

A US patent has been awarded for a tiny wireless gripper that can manipulate microscopic objects such as proteins and genetic components, a step towards nanoscale robots that can do such things as clean your arteries and eradicate tumors.
The US Patent and Trademark Office awarded the “Wireless Techniques for Microactivation” patent to Technology Innovations of [...]

A senior US government official has laid out detailed plans for the timing and form of US government issued biometric passports.
Frank Moss, deputy assistant secretary for Passport Services, presented his organisation’s plans to evolve to a new, more secure “intelligent document” from today’s paper-based passports at the Smart Card Alliance’s Government Conference and Expo [...]

With the supply of IP addresses expected to run out by 2005 due to the popularity explosion of the Internet and the expectation that everything from your phone to your washing machine will soon have its own IP address, Alex Lightman, CEO of Charmed Technology and chairman of last month’s North American IPv6 Global Summit [...]

With so many hotels now promoting high-speed Internet access, you might think downloading e-mail messages in your room would be as easy as ordering a cheeseburger from room service — and twice as quick.
But analysts and business travelers offer something of a reality check on the message of faster connectivity that is being pushed by [...]

The world’s first human tongue transplant has been successfully carried out by doctors in Austria.
Surgeons at Vienna’s General Hospital carried out the 14-hour operation on a 42-year-old patient on Saturday. The patient had a malignant tumour in his mouth that meant his tongue had to be removed. The patient is doing well, confirmed the doctors [...]

While the dosage and duration are still unclear, an analysis of studies covering nearly 15,000 people has confirmed suggestions that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin offer some protection against Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disorder that greatly compromises a person’s ability to carry out daily activities.
Alzheimer’s affects the part of the brain [...]

A breakthrough haptic technology has allowed the sensation of touch to be transmitted over the Internet.
Within five years, people may use the technology, developed by engineers from the University of Buffalo, to “feel” what it is like to be a sports star, a surgeon or a musician.
The technology — known as a “haptic” interface [...]

The New York Times is running a story about a new development at Amazon – they plan to assemble “a searchable online archive with the texts of tens of thousands of books of nonfiction.” Users would only be able to read a certain portion of the text from any one book, but it sounds promising [...]

Carl Amos, an inventor in Atlanta, anticipates a return to the cash economy but without the computer-generated visual effects. Mr. Amos recently patented a way to pay for online transactions with bills and coins rather than credit or banking cards.
“In upwards of three-quarters of the world, most money transactions are cash only,” said Mr. Amos, [...]

The arrival of Google five years ago served as a kind of upgrade for the entire Web. Searching for information went from a sluggish, unreliable process to something you could do with genuine confidence. If it was online somewhere, Google and its ingenious PageRank system would find what you were looking for—and more often than [...]

Southeast Airlines said it plans to install digital video cameras throughout the cabins of its planes to record the faces and activities of its passengers at all times, as a precaution against terrorism and other safety threats.
In addition, the charter airline, based in Largo, Florida, will store the digitized video for up to 10 [...]

For some it is a miracle tree, a source of many different medicines. But extracts from the Indian neem tree have now been shown to damage the DNA of sperm when fed to mice.
The researchers who made the discovery think that neem could be a “long-term genetic hazard”, and have called for further investigation [...]

A fully-computerised Hindu crematorium has sprung up in the western Indian state of Gujarat, boasting of having live internet broadcasts of funerals through cameras.
Muktidham crematorium’s managers told AFP the facility was set up to enable friends and relations of the deceased in far off places to take part in the ceremony if they were unable [...]

Takara Co. of Japan will launch a device that translates cats’ meows into human speech in November after the smash-hit dog-language electronic interpreter Bowlingual, a spokesperson said on Wednesday.
Meowlingual shows “translations” of cat language on its liquid crystal display when held close to the animals, the spokesperson said.
The device will be priced at ¥8800 [...]

On the screen, an animated figure takes a step forward and tries to walk. Instead it collapses immediately, falls on its back, and flails its legs helplessly. Then it reappears at the left of the screen, takes a few delicate baby steps, and falls again. Returning to the screen, it raises its knees, takes six [...]

A chocolate-scented mousetrap has been developed by UK scientists to catch the pests without the need for bait.
Contrary to popular belief, mice are more attracted to the scent of chocolate than the more traditional mouse-bait cheese, or other aromas like vanilla essence, according to Sorex Ltd, a manufacturer of rodent control products based in Cheshire, [...]

Advanced scanning technology makes it possible to reconstruct documents previously thought safe from prying eyes, sometimes even pages that have been ripped into confetti-size pieces. And although a great deal of sensitive information is stored digitally these days, recent corporate scandals have shown that the paper shredder is still very much in use.
“People perceive [...]

While some might assume this idea to be an absurd one, we were willing to check it out (even the “nondeadly atomic bomb” part). And lo, it turns out that researchers are currently hard at work devising ways to control the weather—particularly disastrous weather systems like tornados and hurricanes—and hope to put their ideas to [...]

Satellite radio, perhaps the coolest new technology introduced so far in the 21st century, is finally ready to hit the road this summer.
XM Satellite Radio (www.xmradio.com), launched in November 2001, and Sirius (www.sirius.com), launched in July 2002, both were initially hobbled by receivers that were too expensive and inflexible.
No more.
The price of XM and Sirius [...]

3D Atomic Holographic Storage
Fremont, Ca. – Colossal Storage Corporation has dominant patents the first patents issued in any field that details a totally new concept for a Ultra-Violet/Deep Blue Laser integrated semiconductor R/W Head used for non-contact rewritable data to a ferroelectric optical holographic removable storage product.
Colossal Storage wants its Rewritable 3D Volume Atomic Holographic [...]

Soon kids may be able to inhale their smallpox vaccines instead of getting a shot and a lollipop. We may breathe in our antibiotics instead of popping pills. And in the oldest of traditions, some might puff on opiates at home to ease the pain of cancer. Legal and medicinal puffs, of course.
Inhalable drugs [...]