As much as people love wireless technology, current systems such as WLAN or Bluetooth have their limits: They transmit the data with clock rates in the gigahertz range at most, a billion vibrations per second.

In order to increase the quantity of transmitted data, especially for things like high-definition wireless video, clock rates need to become much higher.

Terahertz waves (1000 billion vibrations per second) look like the successor to Bluetooth; for short distances, like within rooms. Transmitting power has been an obtsacle to go beyond that.

Scientists have developed a new form of stretchable silicon integrated circuit that can wrap around complex shapes such as spheres, body parts and aircraft wings, and can operate during stretching, compressing, folding and other types of extreme mechanical deformations, without a reduction in electrical performance.

“The notion that silicon cannot be used in such applications because it is intrinsically brittle and rigid has been tossed out the window,” said John Rogers, a Founder Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois.

“Through carefully optimized mechanical layouts and structural configurations, we can use silicon in integrated circuits that are fully foldable and stretchable,” said Rogers.

Garments that can measure a wearer's body temperature or trace their heart activity are on the market but the European project BIOTEX has taken it a step further - they have developed miniaturised biosensors in a textile patch that can analyze body fluids, even a tiny drop of sweat, and provide a much better assessment of health.

A cluster of EU research projects (SFIT Group) is supporting this burgeoning field of smart fabrics, interactive textiles and flexible wearable systems. Jean Luprano, a researcher at the Swiss Centre for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM), coordinates the BIOTEX project.

Northwestern University researchers have discovered a new and unexpected mode of self-assembly involving a polymer (hyaluronic acid) and a small molecule (peptide amphiphiles).

When brought together, the two instantly assemble into a flexible but strong sac in which the researchers can grow human stem cells, creating a sort of miniature laboratory. The sacs can survive for weeks in culture, and their membranes are permeable to proteins. The method also can produce thin films whose size and shape can be tailored.

The methodology behind constructing a quantum channel between Space and Earth got a big boost as a research team, led by Paolo Villoresi and Cesare Barbieri from Padova University, have been able to identify individual returning photons after firing and reflecting them off of a space satellite in orbit almost 1,500 kilometres above the earth.

They say their work improves the feasibility of building a completely secure channel for global communication, via satellites in space, using quantum mechanics.

The research team fired photons directly at the Japanese Ajisai Satellite and have been able to prove that the photons received back at the Matera ground-based station, in southern Italy, are the same as those originally emitted.

For the first time scientists have mapped the layers of once molten rock that lie beneath the edges of the Atlantic Ocean and measure over eight miles thick in some locations.

The research gives us a better understanding of what may have happened during the break up of continents to form new mid-ocean ridges. The same volcanic activity in the North Atlantic may also have caused the subsequent release of massive volumes of greenhouse gases which led to a spike in global temperatures 55 million years ago.

LONDON, March 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Imposing a carbon tax on Chinese imports may be the only way developed nations will be able to achieve real cuts in global greenhouse gases, finds a new report from CIBC World Markets.

The research report notes that while governments in developed nations are taking painful steps to cut greenhouse gases, carbon emissions from developing nations - in particular China - have skyrocketed in recent years. Since 2000, total emissions have climbed by more than 6,000 million metric tonnes (mmt) - with 90 per cent of that coming from China and other developing nations. China is now the single largest carbon emitter country in the world, producing more than 21 per cent of the global total.

COLOGNE, Germany, March 27 /PRNewswire/ --

- "After the Record-Breaking Year 2007 Growth and Sustainability are Our Goals for the Future"

Interseroh AG finished the business year 2007 with a turnover and profit record. Posting a turnover of approximately 1.75 billion euros and a profit of 55.4 million euros before taxes, the Interseroh Group grew considerably in the past year.

LONDON, March 27 /PRNewswire/ --

- It Could Damage Your Health

People illegally selling copied software via Internet auction sites have been warned that the net is closing in on them.

The Federation Against Software Theft (The Federation) is determined to act against individuals profiting by breaching the copyright of its members.

This activity follows on from an announcement by the Software and Information Industry Association in the US that it had launched 17 auction piracy actions against individuals selling counterfeit software via eBay.

European Association of Urology (EAU), MILAN, March 27 /PRNewswire/ --

- Pivotal Efficacy Data Reinforced by Female Partners; Robust Safety Data Presented

New data presented for the first time today at EAU demonstrate the benefits for men with premature ejaculation (PE) and their partners when treated with dapoxetine, the first oral pharmaceutical treatment to be developed specifically for PE(1).