New materials could boost computer memory

Scientists have discovered a new class of materials that could lead to improvements in computer memory.

Computing using water droplets

Forget optical computing or quantum computing: researchers at Aalto University have successfully used water droplets as bits of digital information.

'Solid smoke' is world's lightest material


Quantum processor factors prime number


Genetics book encoded in DNA

To demonstrate that DNA's suitable for use as a large-scale data storage medium, a team of scientists has encoded a 5.27MB book using DNA microchips, and then read it back again.

Swarms of micro-robots could one day carry cargo

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have worked out how to create tiny robots, just a few microns long, that can swim through liquids such as water and could one day be used for everything from drug delivery to construction.

USC wants to 3D-print a house


New windows could generate electricity

UCLA researchers have developed a new transparent solar cell that could allow windows to generate electricity.

Robots scan ships' hulls for mines


Spintronic LED is brighter and cheaper


Robotic legs move just like yours


Robot eye moves like the real thing


Room temperature quantum bit created


Meter-long nanotubes on the cards

Researchers have calculated that it should be perfectly possible to grow a perfect, meter-long single-walled carbon nanotube 50,000 times thinner than a human hair.

Robot baby learns first words

The best way for robots to learn language could be the same way small children do - through interaction with adults.

Nanomagnets could revolutionize data storage

Scientists have demonstrated that it's possible to store information in individual molecules, potentially paving the way for storage devices that could be thousands of times smaller than today.

Shrimp inspires lightweight body armor


Atom split with quantum mechanics, then put together again


Open-source 3D printer is a mass Kickstarter success

The future of 3D printing is very much here and now.

Who'd want a sarcastic Siri?

Computers could become sarcastic or exaggerate for effect, say two Stanford researchers, who have developed a mathematical model aimed at improving natural language processing.