Lifeboat Foundation

Scientists from the NTU Singapore and the Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMM) have developed a technique to create a highly uniform and scalable semiconductor wafer, paving the way to higher chip yield and more cost-efficient semiconductors.

Left: Image of a six-inch silicon wafer with printed metal layers and its top-view scanning electron microscope image. Right: Image of the six-inch silicon wafer with nanowires and its cross-sectional scanning electron microscope image. (Image: NTU Singpore)

Semiconductor chips commonly found in smart phones and computers are difficult and complex to make, requiring highly advanced machines and special environments to manufacture.

Ever since last year’s annual American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) meeting, Volastra’s phone has been “ringing off the hook,” according to CEO Charles Hugh-Jones, M.D. | Two years since its inception, Volastra Therapeutics is partnering with Bristol Myers Squibb for up to three oncology targets focused on chromosomal instability, a deal that could exceed $1.1 billion should the assets hit milestones.

The vulnerability could provide hackers with an easy method to take over your phone.

And going forward, we’ll do this with far more knowledge of what we’re doing, and more control over the genes of our progeny. We can already screen ourselves and embryos for genetic diseases. We could potentially choose embryos for desirable genes, as we do with crops. Direct editing of the DNA of a human embryo has been proven to be possible — but seems morally abhorrent, effectively turning children into subjects of medical experimentation. And yet, if such technologies were proven safe, I could imagine a future where you’d be a bad parent not to give your children the best genes possible.

Computers also provide an entirely new selective pressure. As more and more matches are made on smartphones, we are delegating decisions about what the next generation looks like to computer algorithms, who recommend our potential matches. Digital code now helps choose what genetic code passed on to future generations, just like it shapes what you stream or buy online. This might sound like dark science fiction, but it’s already happening. Our genes are being curated by computer, just like our playlists. It’s hard to know where this leads, but I wonder if it’s entirely wise to turn over the future of our species to iPhones, the internet and the companies behind them.

Discussions of human evolution are usually backward looking, as if the greatest triumphs and challenges were in the distant past. But as technology and culture enter a period of accelerating change, our genes will too. Arguably, the most interesting parts of evolution aren’t life’s origins, dinosaurs, or Neanderthals, but what’s happening right now, our present – and our future.

Over the past decades, engineers have created increasingly advanced and highly performing integrated circuits (ICs). The rising performance of these circuits in turn increased the speed and efficiency of the technology we use every day, including computers, smartphones and other smart devices.

To continue to improve the performance of integrated circuits in the future, engineers will need to create thinner transistors with shorter channels. Down-scaling existing silicon-based devices or creating smaller devices using alternative semiconducting materials that are compatible with existing fabrication processes, however, has proved to be challenging.

Researchers at Purdue University have recently developed new transistors based on indium oxide, a semiconductor that is often used to create touch screens, flatscreen TVs and solar panels. These transistors, introduced in a paper published in Nature Electronics, were fabricated using atomic layer deposition, a process that is often employed by transistor and electronics manufacturers.

The NVIDIA hackers have now targeted Samsung. Here’s what Galaxy smartphone owners need to know.

InWith Corporation says it’s created the world’s first soft electronic contact lens that could work with smartphones or other external devices to show its wearer augmented reality.

Andy on Twitter : @theandyaltman.

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Watch the special Apple Event to learn about the all-new Mac Studio and Studio Display, new iPad Air, new iPhone SE, and iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 in two new shades of green.

To watch the event interpreted in American Sign Language (ASL), please click here: https://youtu.be/qO-1dCry0-I

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Technology could make it possible to use radio emissions from cell phone networks to wirelessly power sensors and LEDs.

Researchers have developed a new metasurface-based antenna that represents an important step toward making it practical to harvest energy from radio waves, such as the ones used in cell phone networks or Bluetooth connections. This technology could potentially provide wireless power to sensors, LEDs and other simple devices with low energy requirements.

“By eliminating wired connections and batteries, these antennas could help reduce costs, improve reliability and make some electrical systems more efficient,” said research team leader Jiangfeng Zhou from the University of South Florida. “This would be useful for powering smart home sensors such as those used for temperature, lighting and motion or sensors used to monitor the structure of buildings or bridges, where replacing a battery might be difficult or impossible.”