Have your bottle and eat it too – edible containers could be on the way

Created by the same man who came up with Le Whif (inhalable chocolate) andAeroshot (aerosol caffeine boost), portable containers for food and drinks could soon be available in a novel edible form. The project emerged out of an idea put forth by Dr. David Edwards from Harvard University's Wyss Institute. The plastic-free products would be a useful alternative to take-away containers, lunch boxes, and drink bottles, while reducing the environmental concerns often associated with plastic production and recycling.

The base ingredients of this revolutionary packaging system are called WikiCells, and they consist of a natural food membrane that is held together by electrostatic forces. Forming a biodegradable shell that can be used as a portable container, the membrane is also is safe to consume. Furthermore, the WikiCells membranes are significantly resistant to water, and adjoined shells could conceivably take the form of a bottle or other liquid container over long periods of time.

To date the Harvard research team have created an orange-flavored membrane for storing orange juice, a tomato-flavored gazpacho container and a grape flavored package for wine. While they have yet to construct a bottle with the WikiCells technology, a prototype is hoped to be developed in the near future.

Farther down the road, Edwards envisions a commercially-available WikiCell Machine, that would allow consumers to create edible membranes using foods and drinks of their choice.

Source: Harvard University via The Daily Mail

Adobe unveils Photoshop Touch for the iPad 2

Adobe Photoshop Touch is now available for the iPad 2. Adobe made the image-editing app official at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and the app is already available to be downloaded from Apple's App Store.

The photo editing app contains some of Photoshop's core features, as well as a few unique features designed for creating content and sharing it from a tablet. As you might expect, users can apply effects to photos they have taken, touch up photos, as well as combine several photos into a layered image.

A "Scribble Selection Tool" within the app also allows users to erase objects with a scribbling gesture, exploiting Photoshop's "Refine Edge technology" to identify fiddly areas of images. The app also has both Facebook and Google image search, to help users find images quickly and share images they create with others.

In addition to Photoshop Touch, Adobe expects to release several other touch apps for the iPad in the coming months: Adobe Collage for mood boards, Adobe Debut for presenting and reviewing creative work, Adobe Ideas for sketching, Adobe Kuler for exploring color themes, and Adobe Proto for website and mobile app prototyping.

Adobe Photoshop Touch is available now from the App Store for US$9.99. Adobe has also made available a number of tutorials for the app to help you get started editing on your tablet.

Source: Adobe Photoshop Touch

Nokia 808 PureView packs a 41-megapixel camera

At this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia announced the 808 PureView, a smartphone with an astounding 41-megapixel image sensor. The Nokia 808 will be the first smartphone by Nokia to include its new PureView imaging technology, which combines a high-resolution sensor with Carl Zeiss optics and Nokia-developed algorithms.

Typically you might want a high megapixel camera in order to take photos that can be printed larger - what makes the Nokia 808 PureView special, however, it what it does with those pixels. The 808 uses a new pixel oversampling technology, that captures seven pixels of information and then condenses those into one single pixel. This reportedly results in an exceptionally sharp photo, and the ability to zoom in on any portion of a 5-megapixel picture without losing clarity in the image.

The technology also works on video, so you can shoot a full HD video at 30fps and 4x zoom. Nokia has made some untouched images taken with the camera available online (as a sizable download) so you can get a feel for the quality.

In addition to offering a decent lens and large image sensor, the camera also has a few other notable features. It can capture photos quickly (in less than a second), has a Xenon flash as well as an LED video light for shooting in dark places, and offers integration with services such as GetMe Rated (for having other people rate your photos) and Vimeo, for sharing your videos with the world. Nokia claims the phone can capture audio at CD-like quality, and the handset is also the first smartphone with built-in Dolby Headphone technology, so you can listen to tunes (or your videos) in Dolby Surround sound using any set of stereo headphones.

Besides the camera and sound, the rest of the specs for the handset are actually on the low end of things. The Nokia Belle phone has a 4-inch screen with a 640 x 360 resolution, a 1.3Ghz single-core processor, and 512Mb of RAM. The handset comes with 16GB of storage space, but supports microSD expansion up to 32GB.

The Nokia 808 PureView is expected to roll out in May for around US$605.

Source: Nokia

Samsung shows off latest Galaxy Beam projector phone

Samsung has officially unveiled an updated version of the Galaxy Beam, a smartphone with its own built-in pico projector. The biggest feature of the phone as you might guess is its ability to project pictures, video, and other media onto walls, ceilings or any other flat surface via a 15 lumens projector that Samsung says can display images up to 50-inches wide.

Samsung originally showed off the Galaxy Beam at Mobile World Congress in 2010. At the time, the Android handset was only slated to make an appearance in Singapore. This year's announcement brings an updated version of the handset sporting Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and while release details have yet to be announced, the phone will likely be available in a few additional countries.

The 2010 version of the Beam came running Android v2.1, had a 3.7-inch screen, and a 9 lumens projector. The updated 2012 version shown off at Mobile World Congress 2011 comes running Android v2.3, has a 4-inch screen, and comes rocking a much more powerful 15 lumens projector.

The projector is the stand-out feature of the phone. Beyond that, you're looking at your standard run-of-the-mill Android handset. The phone has a 5-megapixel built-in camera, and has a 1GHz dual-core processor, 8GB of internal memory, and a 2000mAh battery.

Samsung has yet to announce pricing or availability for the 2012 Galaxy Beam.

Google invents original search gestures

It looks like Google has plans for changing the way we search using our mobile devices. The search engine giant was recently reported to have invented a new gesture for pulling off searches on future Android devices. Instead of users having to waste time selecting words  the traditional way, it will allow them to simply use “continuous gestures” to get the job done. Well how does it work?

In the example given in the patent, users draw the letter “g” on the screen, and continue drawing the tail around (like an “o”) the word they would like to search for. Once they lift their finger from the display, a search is automatically initiated for the circled word. If users want to use another search i.e. Wikipedia or Yahoo!, they can perform the same gesture, but start with the letter “s” instead of “g”. A context menu will pop up instead, giving users the option to select their search engine of choice.

A pretty cool idea if you ask me, and it’s something that will definitely make searching on mobile devices easier and more efficient. No word on when these gestures will be implemented (or if they will even be used) but it’s definitely something to look forward to.

Google glasses coming to stores this year?

A number of anonymous Google employees are reporting that the company is currently developing Android-powered glasses that can provide a heads-up display to the wearer and connect over wireless data services. The glasses will purportedly work like a wearable version of theGoogle Goggles app, providing real time information on a user's location via GPS and motion sensors. Even more surprising, the same sources are saying these "Google glasses" could be available to the public by the end of this year.

The Google glasses have apparently been in production for quite some time at Google's secretive Project X lab, where the company designs its more outlandish projects, such as robots, space elevators, and the like. Anonymous employees have indicated that this is strictly an experimental program from Google, though it may look into future business applications depending on how successful the product is.

Aside from a few buttons on the side, the glasses are said to resemble a regular pair of eyeglasses with a design similar to the Oakley Thumps(pictured below). The glasses will feature a low-resolution camera on the front for gathering information to relay to a small screen built into one side of the lenses. The screen will not be transparent, but will be located to the side of the frame, so as not to obscure a person's view but still give an augmented reality feel. The camera will also be able to take pictures, and have a built-in flash.

Using either WiFi or a 3G/4G connections, the device will tap into Google's cloud and relay information to the user on their environment, including locations or friends nearby and objects that they look at. The glasses will also work as a smartphone, allowing users to make calls, use certain apps, and connect with friends.

Actually controlling the glasses will be a bit unique, as reading through information on the display will require a user to tilt their head to scroll and click. Sources at Google have noted that this function is actually a lot easier to use than it sounds, and will not be noticeable to others.

Unnamed employees told the New York Times that the new Google glasses are expected to be priced much like a current smartphone (in the US$250 to $600 range) and are aimed for a 2012 release date.

Source: New York Times, 9to5Google

Researchers track mobile phone locations with cheap hardware and open-source software

While cop shows have shown us that it's easy for service providers to track a person's location via their mobile phone, researchers at the University of Minnesota have revealed it's also an easy task for hackers. Using a cheap phone and open source software, the researchers were able to track the location of mobile phone users without their knowledge on the GSM network, which is estimated to serve 80 percent of the global mobile market.

According to the new research by computer scientists in the University of Minnesota's College of Science and Engineering, a third party could easily track the location of a mobile phone user without their knowledge because cellular mobile phone networks "leak" the locations of mobile phone users.

"Cell phone towers have to track cell phone subscribers to provide service efficiently," Foo Kune explained. "For example, an incoming voice call requires the network to locate that device so it can allocate the appropriate resources to handle the call. Your cell phone network has to at least loosely track your phone within large regions in order to make it easy to find it."

To do this, mobile phone towers will broadcast a page to a user's phone and wait for the phone to respond when they get a call. Hackers would be able to ascertain the general location of the user by forcing those pages to go out and hanging up before the phone rings.

Although the GSM standard assigns a phone a temporary ID to disguise its identity, it is possible to map the phone number to its temporary ID. Just by looking at the broadcast messages sent by the network, the researchers say it is possible to locate the device within an area of 100 square km (38 square miles). But by testing for a user on a single tower allows a user to be tracked to within a geographic area of 1 square km (0.38 square miles) or less.

"It has a low entry barrier," Foo Kune said. "Being attainable through open source projects running on commodity software."

In a field test using an inexpensive mobile phone and open source software and with no direct help from the service provider, the researchers were able to track the location of a test subject within a 10-block area as they traveled across an area of Minneapolis at walking pace.

In their Paper, which was presented at the 19th Annual Network & Distributed System Security Symposium in San Diego, California, the researchers highlight some possible personal safety issues arising from their discovery.

"For example, agents from an oppressive regime may no longer require cooperation from reluctant service providers to determine if dissidents are at a protest location. A second example could be the location test of a prominent figure by a group of insurgents with the intent to cause physical harm for political gain. Yet another example could be thieves testing if a user's cell phone is absent from a specific area and therefore deduce the risk level associated with a physical break-in of the victim's residence."

But it's not all bad news. Foo Kune and his group have identified low-cost techniques to plug the leaks that could be implemented without changing the hardware. They have contacted AT&T and Nokia to inform them of these techniques and are also in the process of drafting responsible disclosure statements for mobile service operators.

Source: University of Minnesota

World Economic Forum lists top 10 emerging technologies for 2012

Our goal here is to cover innovation and emerging technologies in all fields of human endeavor, and while almost all of the ideas that grace our pages have the potential to enhance some of our lives in one way or another, at the core are those technologies that will have profound implications for everyone on the planet. For those looking to shape political, business, and academic agendas, predicting how and when these types of technologies will effect us all is critical. Recognizing this, the World Economic Forum's (WEF's) Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies has compiled a list of the top 10 emerging technologies it believes will have the greatest impact on the state of the world in 2012.

Betting on the right technologies can allow schools to produce graduates better qualified to deal with a rapidly changing world, governments to more efficiently meet the needs of the populace, business to generate profits, and scientists to better allocate resources.

The list draws on some of the brainpower residing within the entire GAC Network, covering the top ten technological trends that the Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies believes will have the biggest social, economic and environmental impacts this year.

Here's the list as presented on the World Economic Forum Blog in order from lowest to highest in terms of the potential to provide solutions to global challenges.

• 1. Informatics for adding value to information
The quantity of information now available to individuals and organizations is unprecedented in human history, and the rate of information generation continues to grow exponentially. Yet, the sheer volume of information is in danger of creating more noise than value, and as a result limiting its effective use. Innovations in how information is organized, mined and processed hold the key to filtering out the noise and using the growing wealth of global information to address emerging challenges.
• 2. Synthetic biology and metabolic engineering
The natural world is a testament to the vast potential inherent in the genetic code at the core of all living organisms. Rapid advances insynthetic biology and metabolic engineering are allowing biologists and engineers to tap into this potential in unprecedented ways, enabling the development of new biological processes and organisms that are designed to serve specific purposes - whether converting biomass to chemicals, fuels and materials, producing new therapeutic drugs or protecting the body against harm.
• 3. Green Revolution 2.0 - technologies for increased food and biomass
Artificial fertilizers are one of the main achievements of modern chemistry, enabling unprecedented increases in crop production yield. Yet, the growing global demand for healthy and nutritious food is threatening to outstrip energy, water and land resources. By integrating advances across the biological and physical sciences, the new green revolution holds the promise of further increasing crop production yields, minimizing environmental impact, reducing energy and water dependence, and decreasing the carbon footprint.
• 4. Nanoscale design of materials
The increasing demand on natural resources requires unprecedented gains in efficiency. Nanostructured materials with tailored properties, designed and engineered at the molecular scale, are already showing novel and unique features that will usher in the next clean energy revolution, reduce our dependence on depleting natural resources, and increase atom-efficiency manufacturing and processing.
• 5. Systems biology and computational modelling/simulation of chemical and biological systems
For improved healthcare and bio-based manufacturing, it is essential to understand how biology and chemistry work together. Systems biology and computational modeling and simulation are playing increasingly important roles in designing therapeutics, materials and processes that are highly efficient in achieving their design goals, while minimally impacting on human health and the environment.
• 6. Utilization of carbon dioxide as a resource
Carbon is at the heart of all life on earth. Yet, managing carbon dioxide releases is one of the greatest social, political and economic challenges of our time. An emerging innovative approach to carbon dioxide management involves transforming it from a liability to a resource. Novel catalysts, based on nanostructured materials, can potentially transform carbon dioxide to high value hydrocarbons and other carbon-containing molecules, which could be used as new building blocks for the chemical industry as cleaner and more sustainable alternatives to petrochemicals.
• 7. Wireless power
Society is deeply reliant on electrically powered devices. Yet, a significant limitation in their continued development and utility is the need to be attached to the electricity grid by wire - either permanently or through frequent battery recharging. Emerging approaches towireless power transmission will free electrical devices from having to be physically plugged in, and are poised to have as significant an impact on personal electronics as Wi-Fi had on Internet use.
• 8. High energy density power systems
Better batteries are essential if the next generation of clean energy technologies are to be realized. A number of emerging technologies are coming together to lay the foundation for advanced electrical energy storage and use, including the development of nanostructured electrodes, solid electrolysis and rapid-power delivery from novelsupercapacitors based on carbon-based nanomaterials. These technologies will provide the energy density and power needed to supercharge the next generation of clean energy technologies.
• 9. Personalized medicine, nutrition and disease prevention
As the global population exceeds 7 billion people - all hoping for a long and healthy life - conventional approaches to ensuring good health are becoming less and less tenable, spurred on by growing demands, dwindling resources and increasing costs. Advances in areas such as genomics, proteomics and metabolomics are now opening up the possibility of tailoring medicine, nutrition and disease prevention to the individual. Together with emerging technologies like synthetic biology and nanotechnology, they are laying the foundation for a revolution in healthcare and well-being that will be less resource intensive and more targeted to individual needs.
• 10. Enhanced education technology
New approaches are needed to meet the challenge of educating a growing young population and providing the skills that are essential to the knowledge economy. This is especially the case in today's rapidly evolving and hyperconnected globalized society. PersonalizedIT-based approaches to education are emerging that allow learner-centerd education, critical thinking development and creativity. Rapid developments in social media, open courseware and ubiquitous access to the Internet are facilitating outside classroom and continuous education.

We know there's nothing like a list of predictions to provoke some healthy debate, so let us know what you think of the GAC on Emerging Technologies' effort in the comments. Is there anything you think they've overlooked, or maybe something they've included that shouldn't be there?

Source: World Economic Forum Blog

Spray-on antennas could replace traditional towers

Soon, you may be able to correct your cell phone's signal problems by spraying on an antenna. Researchers at the military technology firm Chamtech have developed a special aerosol spray that can essentially add an antenna to whatever it's sprayed on and improve the network coverage in the area.

The spray essentially covers a surface with thousands of nanocapacitors. Those nanocapacitors align themselves on the surface, and create a wireless antenna for the devices located in the area. The idea is essentially the nanocapactitors take care of all of the hard work involved in finding a wireless signal, making it easier for your phone or tablet to get connected and stay connected to a network.

The solution could be used on things like buildings and trees to boost the signal for a specific area, or could be sprayed directly on the antenna of a cell phone, a move ChamTech claims would boost the phone's signal by 10 percent.

The company ultimately sees the technology replacing some traditional antennas, eliminating the need for some of the often unsightly towers we use today. Initial tests have the spray-on technology often providing even better signal results than those traditional antennas, often making the spray-on option dramatically more efficient.

You can order a Spray on Antenna Kit now from ChamTech, although the company requires you call for specific pricing for the kit.

Source: ChamTech via The Verge

App removes wandering people from photos

It's kind of a funny thing, when you think about it ... even though it's normal to see other people milling about in public places, when we take photos of those places, we often don't want any of those people in our pictures. Ordinarily, this means standing around and waiting, then blasting off a shot in the split second when no one is within your frame - except perhaps the person you're taking a photo of. Swedish photography company Scalado, however, has now developed an alternative for use with mobile devices. It's called Remove, and appropriately enough, it removes those pesky "other people" from your photographs.

Remove works by initially taking a burst of shots in succession. By comparing those shots with one another, it is then able to identify which objects are stationary (the scenery, and/or your posing subject) and which ones are moving (those dang people). It then highlights the moving objects on a preview screen, and allows you to select which ones to remove. The end product is a composite photo, with the offending humans taken out.

Although a certain unwanted person may be blocking the background in one shot, that same bit of background will be visible in another shot - this little fact allows the app to fill in the background when it removes the person. Needless to say, Remove can't help you with bystanders who are standing still ... perhaps if it had a feature that used your device's speaker to yell "Hey buddy, get outta my shot!"

The app is presently still in the prototype stage, but a full version should be ready for a demonstration later this month, at the 2012 Mobile World Conference in Barcelona. It is reminiscent of a system being developed at the University of California, San Diego, that is able to remove pedestriansfrom Google Street View images.

Liquid crystal antenna promises faster, cheaper tracking of satellites

Vehicles such as cars, ships and aircraft need to stay in stable contact with earth-orbiting satellites, in order for on-board functions like GPS, internet access and satellite television reception to work properly. As the vehicles move, their orientation to those satellites changes, so electronically-redirectable phased-array antennas are typically required. According to scientists at Germany's Technische Universität Darmstadt, however, these are "either very expensive or only sluggishly redirectable." That's why doctoral candidate Onur Hamza Karabey is working on a low-cost, fast-performing alternative - a liquid crystal antenna.

Karabey's current prototype incorporates four LCD cells. By varying the voltage applied to each of those cells, he has been able to selectively amplify radio signals coming from specific directions.

Because the antenna has no moving parts, it can align itself with a satellite within milliseconds. Karabey hopes that a commercial version could be manufactured using a process similar to that used for existing LCD monitors, which should help to keep costs down - he expects the device to sell for no more than 600 euro (US$790).

At about five millimeters in thickness, such antennas could also be fairly unobtrusively built into car roofs. It might also be possible to make them partially transparent, further opening up the potential applications.

Karabey and a research partner are now working on a 16 x 16-cell advanced prototype. He is also putting together a consortium of industry partners, to produce a commercial product.

Source: Technische Universität Darmstadt

LG Optimus 3D 2 leaked ahead of launch?

LG showed off its first 3D phone, the Optimus 3Dat MWC last year and it looks like it’ll be doing the same thing this year again. An image and some details of the phone have surfaced today, revealing the phone ahead of its purported launch date. The LG Optimus 3D 2 is said to have a higher resolution IPS display (most probably the HD AH-IPS display on the LG Optimus LTE), and is said to be slimmer at 9.8mm and 20g lighter than its predecessor; and of course, glasses-free 3D capability. If you’re keen on finding out more, stick around until the end of the month, where we’ll be at MWC 2012 and to keep you updated on whether the leaked specs turn out to be true.

What do you think of the Optimus 3D? Does LG need to release another 3D phone?

Samsung O table concept

Now here is a rather weird looking portable hob that would find a place in any kitchen that hails from the future, thanks to the imagination of the designers over at Samsung. Known as the Samsung O table concept, this portable kitchen hob will come in multiple colors to suit just about any fancy, and in fact, it has also picked up an IF design award along the way, thanks to its dashing good looks. Granted, a kitchen appliance would definitely have a hard time making its way to our hallowed pages, but we will make an exception for the Samsung O table concept.

Samsung intends for the O table to be controlled via a ‘groove touch pad’, where you draw a circle on to control the thermal output of the hob – making cooking seem more and more like a game. I think that old school kitchen hands would find this to be rather disconcerting, and they would most probably prefer to stick to the tried-and-tested physical knobs. No idea on pricing, but this concept has already made its way into production, so it should be out soon.

Photovoltaic nanoshell "whispering galleries" trap light for more efficient solar cells

A scanning electron microscope image of a single layer of the nanocrystalline-silicon nanoshells

For those unfamiliar with the term, a "whispering gallery" is a round room designed in such a way that sound is carried around its perimeter - this allows a person standing on one side to hear words whispered by a person on the other. Now, scientists from Stanford University have developed a new type of photovoltaic material, that essentially does for sunlight what whispering galleries do for sound. Not only does the material have a structure that circulates light entering it, but it could also result in cheaper, less fragile, and less angle-sensitive solar panels.

The new material consists of tiny hollow spheres, made out of nanocrystalline-silicon. While nanocrystalline-silicon has good electrical efficiency and is able to stand up to the damaging effects of sunlight, is isn't particularly good at absorbing light - in past attempts at using it for photovoltaics, it has had to be thickly layered, which has in turn resulted in long manufacturing times. That's where the spheres - known as nanoshells - come into play.

To make the nanoshells, the scientists coated individual balls of silica with silicon, then used hydrofluoric acid to etch away the silica in the center. This left them with the hollow transparent nanoshells.

When sunlight enters one of them, instead of passing straight through, it gets trapped and is circulated several times within the nanoshell. This is a good thing, as the longer the light stays in contact with the nanocrystalline-silicon, the more energy the material can absorb.

This image from a computer simulation shows how waves of light (in red/orange, traveling from the top of image to the bottom) strike a layer of nanoshells and how the light resonates within the shell structure (in red)

In a side-by-side comparison with a flat layer of silicon, a layer of the nanoshells showed "significantly more absorption over a broader spectrum of light." When the nanoshells were subsequently stacked three layers deep, that improvement went up to 75 percent for certain important ranges of the solar spectrum.

Not only are they more efficient than nanocrystalline-silicon film, but they are easier to make - according to team member Yan Yao, "A micron-thick flat film of solid nanocrystalline-silicon can take a few hours to deposit, while nanoshells achieving similar light absorption take just minutes." They also require only about one-twentieth the amount of material, which translates into one-twentieth the cost and weight, too. This point could be particularly significant if the technology were used with other, rarer substances, such as tellurium or indium.

Additionally, the efficiency of the nanoshells isn't greatly affected by their angle to the Sun, so they could be used in locations where an optimal angle isn't always possible. Finally, layers of them are thin enough that they can stand up to twisting and bending, so they could possibly even be built into items such as sails or clothing.

A paper on the research was recently published in the journal Nature Communications.

Source: Stanford University

Further evidence that Mars once had oceans emerges

The European Space Agency (ESA) has provided more evidence that suggests the surface of Mars was once home to an ocean. Featuring ground-penetrating radar capabilities, the MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding) radar aboard the ESA's Mars Express spacecraft has detected sediments like that seen on an ocean floor.

In 1877, with the aid of a 22 cm (8.6 in) telescope, Italian astronomerGiovanni Sciaparelli produced the first detailed map of Mars, which featured what he called canali. Although canali actually means "channels" in English, it was popularly mistranslated as "canals," which, along with books by Percival Lowell, helped foster the popular notion of water and life - including Martians - on the Red Planet's surface. Although these "canals" were later proven to be an optical illusion, these myths weren't dispelled until NASA's Mariner missions in the 1960's.

Yet more recent mapping efforts still point to there being liquid water on the planet's surface at some point in its history. It is within the boundaries of features tentatively identified in images from various spacecraft as shorelines that MARSIS detected sedimentary deposits reminiscent of an ocean floor.

"MARSIS penetrates deep into the ground, revealing the first 60 - 80 meters (197 - 262 ft) of the planet's subsurface," says Wlodek Kofman, leader of the radar team at the Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG). "Throughout all of this depth, we see the evidence for sedimentary material and ice."

The sediments detected by MARSIS are areas of low radar reflectivity, which typically indicates low-density granular materials that have been eroded away by water and carried to their final resting place.

"We interpret these as sedimentary deposits, maybe ice-rich. It is a strong new indication that there was once an ocean here," says Jérémie Mouginot, from IPAG and the University of California, Irvine.

Two oceans at different times in Mars' history have been proposed - one 4 billion years ago when warmer conditions prevailed, and one 3 billion years ago when geothermal activity may have caused subsurface ice to melt and flow into areas of low elevation.

Dr Mouginot estimates that this latter ocean would have lasted only a million years or less, with the water either being frozen in place underground again, or turned into vapor and released into the atmosphere.

"I don't think it could have stayed as an ocean long enough for life to form," he says, suggesting astrobiologists would have to look further back into Mars' history when liquid water existed for much longer periods.

But the ESA says the MARSIS findings provide some of the best evidence yet that large bodies of water once existed on the surface of Mars and that liquid water played a role in martian geological history.

"Previous Mars Express results about water on Mars came from the study of images and mineralogical data, as well as atmospheric measurements. Now we have the view from the subsurface radar," says Olivier Witasse, ESA's Mars Express Project Scientist. "This adds new pieces of information to the puzzle but the question remains: where did all the water go?"

The ESA says the Mars Express spacecraft, which was launched in 2003 and has been granted five mission extensions - the latest until 2014 - will continue its investigations with the hope of providing an answer.

Source: ESA

Experimental optical fibers utilize built-in electronics instead of separate chips

When data is transmitted as pulses of light along a fiber optic cable, chips at either end of that cable must convert the data from and back into an electronic signal - this is what allows an outgoing video image to be converted into light pulses, then back into video at the receiving end, for instance. There are a number of technical challenges in coupling chips to fibers, however. Now, an international team of scientists are developing an alternative ... fiber optics with the electronics built right into the fiber.

The main challenge regarding chips and optical fibers is a mechanical one - it's just plain difficult getting a round fiber to securely connect to a flat chip. It can also be quite a task making sure that all of the data gets from one to the other. An optical fiber is one-tenth the width of a human hair, while the light-guiding pathways on chips are even smaller, so getting everything lined up is a very fiddly business.

For the research project, the team deposited semiconducting materials within tiny holes at either end of optical fibers, to create high-speed electronic junction points - these would ordinarily be located where the fiber meets the chip. The scientists used high-pressure chemistry techniques to deposit the materials directly, layer by layer. Not only does this eliminate the need for an entire chip in the finished product, but the process can also be carried out with simple inexpensive equipment, as opposed to the clean-room facilities required for chip manufacturing.

"If the signal never leaves the fiber, then it is a faster, cheaper, and more efficient technology," said team co-leader Pier J. A. Sazio, of the University of Southampton. "Moving technology off the chip and directly onto the fiber, which is the more-natural place for light, opens up the potential for embedded semiconductors to carry optoelectronic applications to the next level. At present, you still have electrical switching at both ends of the optical fiber. If we can actually generate signals inside a fiber, a whole range of optoelectronic applications becomes possible."

Some of these applications could include improved telecommunications, laser technology, and remote-sensing devices. It would be interesting to see if the new fiber could be incorporated into the hybrid cable being developed by Sandia National Laboratories, which is capable of transmitting both data and power.

The electronic fiber project was initiated and is being led by Pennsylvania State University, and was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council of the United Kingdom.

Source: Penn State