Emerging Technologies - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• NASA astronauts use robot to inspect shuttle

  Astronauts on NASA's space shuttle Endeavour are using the spacecraft's robotic arm to inspect the shuttle's heat shield for damage today.

• NASA's Endeavour lifts off on final voyage

  NASA's space shuttle Endeavour lifted off this morning on its final space flight.

• Robotic exoskeleton helps paralyzed student walk

  Thanks to university researchers and a metal robotic exoskeleton, a paralyzed student at UC Berkeley was able to walk across the stage to receive his diploma over the weekend.

• Samsung now producing DDR 2.0 NAND flash, touts 3X performance gain

  Samsung Electronics announced that it is now producing high-performance DDR 2.0 multi-level-cell (MLC) memory chips based on its smallest 20-nanometer (nm) circuitry. The chips boast a performance improvement of three times over the company's current chip technology and have 64 gigabits of capacity, twice what Samsung had been producing with DDR 1.0 technology.

• EMC to sell PCIe SSD cards for server acceleration

  LAS VEGAS -- As part of its strategy to touch just about every part of the private and public cloud infrastructure, EMC said today it will begin selling PCIe flash cards for servers to accelerate I/O to backend storage systems.

• Intel's 3D transistor fuels tablet fight with ARM

  Intel's new 3D transistor technology should position the chip maker to grab hold of a piece of the burgeoning tablet market that it's been missing out on.

• NASA says Endeavour won't launch before May 8

  After calling off last Friday's planned final launch of the space shuttle Endeavour, NASA now says the earliest it might lift off is May 8.

• Programmer-turned-astronaut to lift off on NASA's Endeavour

  Mission Specialist Gregory Chamitoff settles in aboard the space shuttle Endeavour during the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test on Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Photo courtesy of NASA) One of the six men lifting off onboard NASA's space shuttle Endeavour Friday is a computer programmer who built software for spacecraft before becoming an astronaut.

• IBM's Watson not as smart as you think

  CAMBRIDGE, MASS. -- As smart as IBM's Watson supercomputer may have seemed while defeating two former Jeopardy champions , it wouldn't be able to hold a conversation with or speak intelligently to the attendees at its own conference, according to artificial intelligence (A.I.) experts who spoke at MIT Monday.

• Marking milestones in space flight, space shuttle program

  This is a big day for NASA and space buffs around the world, who are clebrating two major anniversaries.

• NASA's Messenger grabs historic image of Mercury

  This photo taken by the Messenger spacecraft from Mercury's orbit shows an area near the planet's south pole. (Image: NASA) NASA spacecraft Messenger delivered its first photograph of Mercury -- the first image of the planet taken from its own orbit.

• NASA scraps plan for 3D camera on Mars Rover

  NASA has given up on the hope to build a 3D camera for the next robotic rover that the space agency will send to Mars.

• Remote-controlled nanoparticles target cancer

  Researchers at a Canadian university are using nanotechnology and a tiny remote-controlled magnetic sphere to deliver cancer-fighting drugs directly to where they need to go.

• Four red-hot display technologies to watch in 2011

  The apps on your smartphone might be brilliant, but what about the display? Emerging technologies could soon deliver the richer, Wizard of Oz Technicolor experience you crave while performing like a Maserati.

• Tsunami warnings now faster, more accurate

  As the deadly tsunami generated by Friday's massive earthquake off the coast of Japan headed toward the United States, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Center for Tsunami Research tracked its progress in real-time.