Tech & Science

In a special media event, Apple Computer reveiled a new wave of media products. The new products include: a revamped iPod nano in assorted colors, a new iTunes that offers movie and game downloads, a new 5th generation iPod that has had a price reduction, and iTV that is set to come out 1st quarter of 2007 which will wirelessly link iTunes to your TV. There was no mention of the rumored iPhone or the 6th generation iPod.

MIT's Technology Review magazine has announced the top 35 innovators under 35, the TR35, who are to be honored at the sixth annual Emerging Technologies Conference on September 27 and 28, 2006. The conference will also feature well-known inventors and entrepreneurs and showcase this year's emerging technologies. Web 2.0 companies are well-represented, as Joshua Schachter, founder of Del.icio.us, has been selected as "Innovator of the Year", and search engine Jatalla chosen as an emerging technology. Christina Galitsky, of the Lawrence Berkele

Space Shuttle Atlantis successfully launched this morning after 4 years of inactivity. Liftoff, from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center occurred at 15:14:55 GMT, with the spacecraft reaching orbit about 8 1/2 minutes later. Television coverage included a live camera on the external fuel tank that remained on after separation. Early indications suggest that there was no serious damage caused by foam debris, which was responsible for the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia in February 2003. The mission marks the resumption of the Int

Six Apart, the owners of the blogging software Movable Type and TypePad, have acquired the RSS reader Rojo, for an undisclosed amount, rumoured to be less than US$5,000,000. Six Apart does not plan to continue development of Rojo, and "intends to sell a majority interest in Rojo's newsreader services in the coming months", making them a minority stockholder. Rojo founder and CEO Chris Alden and CTO Aaron Emigh will join Six Apart's executive team. Rojo was founded in June 2003, and launched in October 2004. Rojo had a promising start and its

__NOTOC__ "Our closest neighbour remains an enigma," writes The Times Science Editor, Mark Henderson, "It is the celestial object that lies closest to us... ...yet, despite the proximity we, there is still uncertainty about what it is made from and where it comes from." Common theory is that the Moon was created after a large asteroid hit the Earth four and a half billion years ago breaking of large chunks which later formed the Moon. Evidence for this would be provided if the Lunar chemical structure closely matches that of ancient earth. Th

Results of gene therapy trials at the US National Cancer Institute, Bethesda to fight cancer published online yesterday by the scientific journal Science show some levels of success. However experts have warned that despite the promise more work is needed for this to become a viable cure. Dr Stephen Rosenberg, who lead the research team, said "It's important to emphasize this is a highly experimental treatment that's still in the course of development." The team treated 17 terminal skin cancer patients with modified cells from their immune sy

The software watchdog group StopBadware.org, run by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society of Harvard Law School and the Oxford Internet Institute, has opened a dialogue with AOL about concerns over the presence of badware, also known as malware, in the now-free AOL 9.0 software. Badware refers to software applications that try to download additional software with very little or no explanation. StopBadware.org decided to investigate after their users have sent in complaints regarding the operation of the software. According to the "open inq

On August 16, 2006 NASA announced its official search. "The original tapes may be at the Goddard Space Flight Centre … or at another location within the NASA archiving system. NASA engineers are hopeful that when the tapes are found they can use today's digital technology to provide a version of the moonwalk that is much better quality than what we have today." The news that the tapes were missing broke to the public on August 5, 2006 when the printed and online versions of The Sydney Morning Herald published the story with the title One gian

According to published reports and information posted to the Writely.com website and blog, the service has re-opened its Writely account beta program. The Writely beta was launched in August 2005, and Google acquired the Writely technology on March 9, 2006. The core Writely service provides a free online collaborative word processor which is widely viewed as an alternative and potential competitor to more traditional locally-run word processing software. The service has claimed that thousands of people had previously registered for the servic

Irish firm Steorn has placed an advertisement in The Economist magazine asking for 12 scientists to test their "free energy" invention. The Dublin based firm, founded in 2000, says it has developed technology that takes a small amount of mechanical energy and returns a bigger amount, using magnetic fields. The company's Chief Executive, Sean McCarthy, said that they discovered the technology whilst working on generators for wind turbines used to power CCTV cameras. The company has asked for 12 physicists to help them rigorously test their in

Earlier today, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, and other projects hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation suffered downtime due to network issues. Thanks to the efforts of Wikimedia staff and volunteers, service was restored relatively quickly. The downtime lasted from about 17:20 UTC to 20:00 UTC, according to Wikimedia's Chief Technology Officer, Brion Vibber. According to Vibber, Cogent Communications readvertised routing to Wikimedia's primary IP address block, rendering the site unreachable to most visitors. The reason behind Cogent's actio

Solar Systems Pty Ltd, Hawthorn, Victoria, have announced an agreement with Boeing Australia Ltd for supply of Spectrolab solar cells. The agreement will result in the supply of 500,000 cells, capable of generating 11MW of electricity. Spectrolab produces multi-junction solar cells, originally designed for powering satellites. The solar cells are three times more efficient than the cells used in typical domestic solar panels, and are capable of converting light energy to electrical energy with up to 34% efficiency according to NREL's National