New Magnetic Devices Could Make Computers More Powerful

Researchers have created novel 'spintronic' devices that could point the way for the next generation of more powerful and permanent data storage chips in computers.Physicist at the Universities of Bath, Bristol and Leeds have discovered a way to precisely control the pattern of magnetic fields in thin magnetic films, which can be used to store information.The discovery has important consequences for the IT industry, as current technology memory storage has limited scope for develop further.

The density with which information can be stored magnetically in permanent memory - hard drives - is reaching a natural limit correlation to the size of the magnetic particles used. The much faster silicon-chip based random access memory - RAM - in computers loses the information stored when the power is switched off.The key advance of the recent research has been in developing ways to use high energy beams of gallium ions to artificially control the direction of the magnetic field in regions of cobalt films just a few atoms thick.The direction of the field can be used to store information: in this case "up" or "down" correspond to the "1" or "0" that form the basis of binary information storage in computers.Further, the physicists have demonstrated that the direction of these magnetic areas can be "read" by measuring their electrical resistance. This can be done much faster than the system for reading information on current hard drives. They propose that the magnetic state can be switched from "up" to "down" with a short pulse of electrical current, thereby fulfilling all the requirements for a fast magnetic memory cell.........

Crystal printing promises flexible electronics

A method for growing organic semiconducting crystals onto a surface could lead to better flexible electronic devices and video displays, researchers claim.

Transistors made from thin films of organic semiconductor crystals are crucial to flat panel displays, as well as prototype flexible electronics.
The new "block printing" technique can grow individual crystals on top of a surface previously patterned with metal electrodes. This provides a cheaper and simpler way to create circuitry on a surface, the technique's creators say.
Until now, the only practical way to add electronic components to a surface has involved completely covering it with a semiconducting material onto which these features have previously been added. This is inefficient as the components are often widely dispersed across the surface

Robotic hand has a built-in 'slip sense'

An artificial hand built in the UK has fingertip sensors that let it grasp delicate objects without crushing or dropping them.
A previous prototype has proved itself capable of grappling with door keys and twisting the lid off a jar (see New robot hand is even more human). The latest incarnation not only moves more like a real hand but also has improved sense of touch (990KB, Windows Media Player format).
"We've added new arrays of sensors that allow it to sense temperature, grip-force and whether an object is slipping," says Neil White, an electronic engineer at Southampton University who developed the hand with colleagues Paul Chappell, Andy Cranny and Darryl Cotton.

Its developers hope that the robotic hand could eventually give amputees greater dexterity and deftness of touch via a prosthetic limb. Like some existing mechanical prosthetics, it could be controlled by connecting its motors to nerves in an amputee's arm, shoulder or chest.

A "Molecular Condom" against HIV

As part of a worldwide project to dramatically curtail the spread of AIDS, researchers have developed a vaginal gel designed to liquefy and release an antiviral drug when exposed to semen. Creators of the "molecular condom," still in very early testing, say the temperature- and pH-sensitive polymer could prove a more efficient way to deliver an anti-HIV drug than normal gels and creams.
"What we hope is that by attacking the virus in semen, we can inactivate it before it has any chance of permeating the tissue," says bioengineer Patrick Kiser of the University of Utah.

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