Thursday, April 21, 2011

VALE the Flip - does anyone understand this move?

VALE the Flip - does anyone understand this move?: "ne of the most astonishing bits of news we've seen in a long time, the iconic Flip video camera was officially pronounced dead earlier this week. Cisco, which paid US$590 million for the business from Pure Digital just two years ago, has decided to kill the entire company."

New coatings could protect jet engines from volcanic ash

New coatings could protect jet engines from volcanic ash: "Following last April's historic eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland, commercial flights were cancelled within most of Europe for several days – it was the largest disruption of air travel since the Second World War. Well, while no one is suggesting that airliners could now merrily fly right through clouds of ash, researchers from Ohio State University (OSU) have developed a coating that they say could allow jet engines to better withstand small amounts of volcanic ash that are ingested over time."

Discovery paves way for “optical battery” to generate solar power without solar cells

Discovery paves way for “optical battery” to generate solar power without solar cells: "It has long been thought that, even though light has electric and magnetic components, the effects of the magnetic field are so weak that they could effectively be ignored. Now researchers at the University of Michigan (U-M) have discovered that under the right conditions, a light field can generate magnetic effects that are 100 million times stronger than previously expected."

Inexpensive plastic developed that indicates freshness of food

Inexpensive plastic developed that indicates freshness of food: "When it comes to buying packaged meat and fish, consumers usually just have to go by the 'best before' label to know that it hasn't begun to spoil. Needless to say, the dates on those labels are just estimates and certainly won't tell you if the product has sat through a lengthy power failure, or been left out of the cooler for several hours."

Cheaper, more efficient OLEDs - just add chlorine

Cheaper, more efficient OLEDs - just add chlorine: "A team of researchers from the University of Toronto has developed a new technique to produce OLED devices that they say will accelerate the adoption of OLED technology into mainstream flat-panel displays and other lighting technologies."