Power/Performance Bits: March 7


Supercapacitor plants Scientists at Linköping University in Sweden developed a method for transforming roses into supercapacitors that can be charged and discharged hundreds of times. The team created a solution that, when fed through the cut end of the stem, polymerizes inside the rose's vascular system with the plant's own biochemical response mechanism acting as catalyst, creating lon... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: July 5


More storage with electromagnetic switch Scientists at Hokkaido University designed a device that employs both magnetic and electronic signals, potentially doubling the storage capacity of conventional memory devices. In addition to the binary 0/1 method of storing information, this would add an A/B store for the information as well. To do this would require finding a material that can switc... » read more

System Bits: May 10


Topological insulators In a finding that could open up a new pathway to advanced electronic devices and even robust quantum computer architecture, researchers from MIT; Oak Ridge, and Argonne National Laboratories; the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Bochum, Germany; the Institute for Theoretical Solid State Physics in Dresden; the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris; and the Institute of N... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: April 12


Digital storage in DNA Computer scientists and electrical engineers from University of Washington and Microsoft detailed one of the first complete systems to encode, store and retrieve digital data using DNA molecules, which can store information millions of times more compactly than current archival technologies. Progress in DNA storage has been rapid: in 1999, the state-of-the-art in DN... » read more