Tech: Perpetual motion? Probably not.

A machine that generates perpetual energy, but not, according to Thane Heins, the Ottawa-based inventor, a perpetual motion machine. He refuses to use the term because there are negative associations attached to it. But this inventor believes he has designed a device that draws energy from both braking an acceleration, resulting in very little energy loss. At least that is the claim, and Dr. Riadh Habash of the University of Ottawa was unable to explain what is, in fact happening. As a result, the inventor was asked to demonstrate his device to Dr. Markus Zahn of MIT, who was impressed the the potential of the device, but unable to figure out what is, in fact, happening to generate the observed effect. While the Toronto Star article focused (understandably) on the inventor, PhysOrg focused on the technology. If you look at the picture of his experimental setup, the disks on the wheel are magnets and the device behind it is an induction motor. The motor was overcharged which results in a back-EMF in a wire coil (I assume the red object to the left of the wheel) which in turn generates a large electromagnetic field. The magnets pass though the field resulting in, one would expect, a retarding force as the magnets push though the field, eventually slowing the motor down. What has been observed to occur is that the field in the coil induces the flywheel to spin faster, increasing the back-EMF which in turn increases the field strength. To the average observer it might appear that energy is being generated for nothing, but what it may, in fact, be doing is increasing the overall motor efficiency by making better use of the electromotive forces. And it is this increase in motor efficiency that has people at UofO and MIT interested.

Assorted articles and more on the cable break

The whole Internet on one computer - IBM is working on a 67.1 million core computer, large enough to "... host the Internet as an application." as part of their Blue Gene project, codenamed "Kittyhawk".

Using electricity for gene injection - Engineers have developed a novel approach to placing genetic material into a cell. Tiny electrodes are used to burn a tiny hole in a cell, after which genetic material attached to the tip of the electrode enter the cell, which eventually heals.

More on those cables - Wired Magazine provides an update on the cable situation. It seems that only three cables were cut, one had a power failure, and the fifth cut cable had, in fact, happened several weeks before. They report that cable cuts happen once every three days on average, and that most of the connectivity issues were a result of the first two cables being down. Meanwhile a Globe and Mail article reports that the original break was a result of an abandoned 5.5 ton anchor, found near the FLAG cable in the Persian Gulf. A second FLAG cable off the coast of Egypt is currently under repair, but they don't yet know what caused the break. 

Tech: Knee brace can power prosthetics

Thanks to lyanna_beth for pointing out this article. Researches at Simon Fraser University have developed a knee brace that generates electricity from the swing in your step. The device could provide power to anything from prosthetics to cell phones, but doesn't appear t increase walking effort greatly. Clicking on the photo takes you to the New Scientist article where you can see a video of the device in action. You can also check out this BBC new article for additional information.

Tech: New material makes holographic read-write possible

A new type of holographic display material has been developed that can be refreshed in minutes. The developers hope to be able to reduce the refresh rate to the 30 frames-per-second required for video. If they achieve this goal, holography could become a viable alternative to current 3D displays that often require the use of special glasses. LCD displays have also been developed to display video  information in 3D (there was one on display at the Electronic Imaging conference I attended last week... very cool but the image was distorted from some viewpoints). Moreover, they claim that the material can also be used storing large amounts of information. They use a photoreactive polymer to which they apply a 9000 volt charge during the writing process. Once the information is written, a 4000 volt charge is required to maintain the image.

News: Lunary eclipse on 20 February

On 20 February, those watching the sky will be treated to a lunar eclipse. It will begin at 10:01 pm EST and will last for approximately 51 minutes.