Cybernetics Update

The first generation of technological telekinesis comes of age:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/22/AR2009042204036_pf.html

Robotics Update

Robotic penguins swim--and fly!--as gracefully as real penguins:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16996-bionic-penguins-take-to-the-water--and-the-skies.html

Alternative Energies Update

Researchers genetically engineer yeast and bacteria to produce gasoline cheaper than with oil:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16989-yeast-and-bacterium-turned-into-gasoline-factory.html

I'm not sure we want to develop cheaper ways for creating gasoline, considering the environmental cost, but at least the option is available.

Nanotechnology Update

Researchers have found a new way to make transistors smaller and faster using self-assembled, self-aligned, and defect-free nanowire channels made of gallium arsenide:

http://www.physorg.com/news159453806.html

Robotics Update

Several new robots to be used in ordinary businesses:

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/23396/

Computing Update

Using ultraviolet light to trim edges of circuitry to greatly reduce the size of transistors:

http://www.physorg.com/news159100452.html

Nanotechnology Update

(Could also be Computer Update)

"Unzipped" carbon nanotubes create "nanoribbons" which could lead to much faster computers:

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/22503/?a=f

It seems like they're coming up with more and more configurations for carbon at the nanoscale: buckyballs, nanotubes, nanosheets and now nanoribbons.

Robotics Update

Researchers develop first flying micro-robot:

http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/designengineering/news/headlinenews/article.jsp?content=20090413_092316_10180

Nanotechnology Update

Using DNA to efficiently manufacture nanotubes:

http://www.physorg.com/news158858442.html

Alternative Energies Update

Carbon nanotubes are used to create direct and efficient solar propulsion for water vehicles:

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/22423/

"When light is focused onto it, a boat about a centimeter long can travel as fast as eight centimeters per second. The second machine is a simple rotor with one nanotube strip on one side of each of its four fins. When exposed to direct sunlight, it spins at about 70 rotations per minute."

Alternative Energies Update

Incorporating diatoms into thin film solar cells makes them three times as energy efficient:

http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=216500176

Nanotechnology Update

A new $750 thermoplastic extruding 3D printer allows you to make 3D objects on your desktop:

http://singularityhub.com/2009/04/09/3d-printing-and-self-replicating-machines-in-your-living-room-seriously/

This is an early ancestor of the holy grail of nanotechnology: a desktop factory, which will allow us to manufacture anything we want in our own homes. No need to buy products anymore!

Alternative Energies Update

A helpful animation showing how a fusion reactor will amplify the power of lasers to achieve fusion:

http://www.livescience.com/common/media/video/player.php?videoRef=LS_090408_RideBeam

Alternative Energies Update

Merging genetic engineering with nanotechnology, researchers use a virus to create a battery for them:

http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/2660/80/

Robotics Update

The new $30 Sentience Driving Software is one step away from fully roboticized driving...and saves 5-24% on fuel consumption:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/04/sentience-driving-software-can-reduce.html

Robotics Update

"In recent decades, robots have replaced millions of manual laborers; now they're moving in on scientists, too. A fully automated robotic laboratory can design its own molecular biology experiments and has even made its first discoveries":

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/402/1

Alternative Energies Update

Researchers discover how to use iron instead of platinum to create practical catalysts for fuel cells, which should dramatically reduce the cost of fuel cells:

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/22386/?a=f

Alternative Energies Update

Researchers combine nanotechnology with genetically engineered viruses to build batteries to eventually power hybrid cars and cell phones:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9130968&intsrc=news_ts_head

Robotics Update

A humanoid robot will help researchers learn how the human brain interacts with the world:

http://www.physorg.com/news157734593.html

Artificial Intelligence Update

Researchers bring the ability to map the brain down to the expense and time frame of desktop computers:

http://www.physorg.com/news157733857.html

"Mapping the billions of connections in the brain is a grand challenge in neuroscience. The current method for mapping interconnected brain cells involves the use of room-size microscopes known as transmission electron microscopes (TEMs). Until now the process of mapping even small areas of the brain using these massive machines would have required several decades. In this week's open-access journal PLoS Biology, research teams at the University of Utah John A. Moran Eye Center and the University of Colorado at Boulder report technical advances that have reduced the time it takes to process high-speed "color" ultrastructure mapping of brain regions down to a few months."

Artificial Intelligence Update

Another step forward in the reverse engineering of the human brain?

http://www.physorg.com/news157717611.html

"Thirty-seven scientists from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and 20 other major research institutions in the U.S. and Europe have issued a major challenge to the neuroscience community. At long last, the time has come, they argue in a just-published paper, to assemble a comprehensive map of the major neural circuits in the mammalian brain."