Gizmag News - The 'mother of all demos' debuted the computer mouse, hyperlinks, and more

Welcome to the newsletter for gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine. These are the headlines for December the 8th, 2010. The 'mother of all demos' debuted the computer mouse, hyperlinks, and more Dr. Douglas Engelbart is perhaps best known as the inventor of the computer mouse, but when he unveiled that device at a computer conference in 1968 he also introduced additional technology that would profoundly affect computer-human interaction as much as the mouse has. During the "mother of all demos" at the Fall Joint Computer Conference held at the Convention Center in San Francisco, Engelbart and his team of researchers from the Augmentation Research Center at Stanford Research Institute gave a live demonstration of hyperlinks, remote collaboration software, on-screen windows, and even video conferencing. Read More World's first hydrogen powered hybrid ferry combines hydrogen, solar, wind and diesel power Hybrid vehicles are becoming more and more commonplace on our roads and now the world's first hydrogen powered hybrid ferry is set to take to the water off New York. Following on from the 2008 launch of the San Francisco Hornblower Hybrid that runs on a combination of solar, wind and diesel power, the new 1,400-hp New York Hornblower Hybrid adds another energy source to the mix with hydrogen fuel cells to complement its clean Tier 2 diesel engines, solar panels and wind turbines. Read More Boeing X-37B unmanned spacecraft successfully completes first flight Until now the only space vehicle capable of returning to Earth - in a controlled manner anyway - was the Space Shuttle. With that craft scheduled to be retired from service next year the U.S. Air Force's Boeing X-37 program is focused on demonstrating a next generation unmanned reusable spaceplane. On April 22 this year the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. On December 3, after an experimental test mission lasting over 220 days, the craft successfully de-orbited and landed safely at Vandenberg Air Force Base, making it the United States' first unmanned vehicle to return from space and land on its own. Read More Engineers create new nano-fiber tougher than Kevlar A new high performance fiber that is better at absorbing energy without breaking than Kevlar has been created by the U.S Department of Defence. While still under development, the material could be used in bulletproof vests, parachutes, or in composite materials for vehicles, airplanes and satellites in the future. The fiber has been engineered from carbon nanotubes spun into a yarn and held together using a polymer. The resultant material is tough and strong while still remaining flexible. Read More Sonic screwdriver may become fact rather than fiction The sonic screwdriver has proven an indispensable piece of equipment for Doctor Who when battling Daleks, Cybermen and the Master. The fictional tool is capable of opening just about any lock known to man - or alien - and can fix a damaged TARDIS in a matter of seconds. Now engineers at Bristol University say a real-life version of the sci-fi screwdriver could be created that would use sonic technology to open locks and undo screws ... just don't expect to see one under the Christmas tree this year. Read More Study finds electronic cigarettes can cause health problems too Researchers from the University of California, Riverside, have some bad news for smokers looking to put a halt to the filthy habit by using electronic quitting aids. After examining various aspects of a handful of commercially-available electronic nicotine delivery systems, the team concluded that so-called e-cigarettes are unsafe and pose a health risk. They are now calling for such devices to be withdrawn from sale pending a rigid safety evaluation. Read More iPhone imitator Meizu to rebound with M9 and M9II on Android Chinese manufacturer Meizu, which had to halt production of the (in)famous M8 iPhone clone back in October, isn't giving up the fight to become China's favorite homegrown smartphone. The company's CEO J Wong has indicated that he hopes the M8's successor, the M9, will be out by Christmas. The phone is reportedly now available for pre-order at retail stores in China. Read More Researchers develop genuine 3D camera Cameras that can shoot 3D images are nothing new, but they don't really capture three dimensional moments at all - they actually record images in stereoscopic format, using two 2D images to create the illusion of depth. These photos and videos certainly offer a departure from their conventional two dimensional counterparts, but if you shift your view point, the picture remains the same. Researchers from Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) hope to change all that with the development of a strange-looking camera that snaps 360 degrees of simultaneous images and then reconstructs the images in 3D. Read More New medical imaging technique delivers streaming video at molecular level Scientists and MDs have a wide range of technologies available for the imaging of live tissue, but each of these comes with its own limitations - be it poor contrast, low resolution, long response times or the viewing process damaging the tissue being observed. A team of Harvard researchers has developed a new type of optical biomedical imaging that promises to overcome these obstacles and is so fast and high-resolution that it can capture live video of cells and molecules. Read More If you would like to refer this newsletter to a friend or colleague, please point them at our free subscription page. 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