Humans

At CES, scientific-equipment giant Life Technologies unveiled a DNA sequencer designed to decode an entire human genome in a day for $1,000 by the end of 2012.

The Ion Proton Sequencer, priced at $149,000, isn't your typical hot commodity on the show floor. But the benchtop sequencer costs far less than its bulkier, slower predecessors (typically in the $500,000 to $750,000 range), and the $1,000 price tag--once costs fall to that level--could put personal gene sequencing directly into the hands of the masses.

"This is such an amazing moment in history," said … Read more

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--With the Nokia Research Center leading the way, the Finnish handset manufacturer could be headed down one twisted road--and we mean that in a good way.

Since its founding in 1986, the NRC has been charged with developing mobile technology through the exploration of science. The center recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, and to commemorate the milestone, Nokia hosted various events around the world. CNET got to take part in the U.S. celebrations at Nokia's Sunnyvale, Calif., headquarters yesterday, where we got to check out some of the latest innovations from the NRC. … Read more

There seems to be a big brainstorm at the Nokia Research Center lately. It recently showed off the all-touch-screen Gem concept and a mind-bending flexible device interface.

One of its latest innovations is a radical new piece of concept hardware called HumanForm.

This fish-shaped concept is a departure from the rectangular devices we gawk over these days, and gives us an peek at a future where smartphone design has evolved beyond limitation. The soul of HumanForm contains part nanotechnology, a flexible display, and kinetic interaction. … Read more

What does it take to make it to 100 years old? The Archon Genomics X Prize hopes to find out.

As I've researched "extreme" aging in recent years--that is, the genes and lifestyles of centenarians (100 and older) and supercentenarians (110 and older)--a common refrain I hear from my younger peers is, "I don't want to get that old. It sounds miserable."

Whether or not that's true is something most of us will never find out. The reality is that those who make it past 100 are an exceedingly rare breed of … Read more

Nearly seven years after its founding, YouTube employees still fiercely debate where to draw the line between titillating content that may or may not be acceptable.

Including videos of man boobs.

"Recently we had the issue of man boobs--do man boobs need to be age-restricted or not?" Victoria Grand, YouTube's director for global communications and policy, said today, referring to that unfortunate medical condition caused by abnormal development of male mammary glands.

Man boobs, also known as gynecomastia, is an unlikely but popular category on YouTube, in part because mischievous uploaders may imply the exposed bosoms are … Read more

Technology projects that range from delivering clean drinking water to implementing a cheaper bank infrastructure in developing countries were honored last night at the Tech Awards in San Jose, Calif.

Five of the 15 projects honored also received $50,000 each for developing technology that benefits humanity and supports sustainability.

The Tech Awards, sponsored by The Tech Museum in San Jose, were established in 2001, to recognize 15 projects annually in five categories: environment, education, equality, health, and economic development.

"The tens of thousands of people who didn't have clean water to cook or bathe in Honduras now … Read more

As I sorted through several dozen newly arrived e-mails this morning I noticed one from "Provider Inc." with "Order Sales Order" in the subject line. "Damn phishers," I thought as I prepared to send the message to the digital Dumpster.

On second thought, I wondered what would make someone fall for a message that appeared to me like an obvious phishing attempt. Well, people respond to sales receipts even if they haven't bought anything online recently--nobody wants to be charged for something they didn't buy.

So "Sales Order" was the … Read more

The airflow of a typical human breath travels at less than 2 meters per second. Instead of lamenting its weakness, engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison decided to try to make a material that could react to this airflow in such a way as to convert it to electrical energy.

So they turned to polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), a material in which an electrical charge can build up in response to applied mechanical stress. (There's even a name for this: the piezoelectric effect.) The trick, then, was to get this material thin enough to be sufficiently stressed by human breath.

"We calculated that if we could make this material thin enough, small vibrations could produce a microwatt of electrical energy that could be useful for sensors or other devices implanted in the face," says Xudong Wang, a materials science and engineering assistant professor who reports on these findings in the journal Energy & Environmental Science.

Wang's team had go about thinning this material very carefully, so as to preserve its piezoelectric properties. They used an ion-etching process that, with some improvements, might eventually enable them to control thickness to the submicron level.

The obvious benefits of using respiration to power biomedical devices (think blood glucose monitors or pacemakers) are that the source is local and it is consistent.… Read more

Update: Joystiq reports that GameStop is now offering a $50 store credit and a two-for-one used game offer for customers affected by the Deus Ex: Human Revolution coupon controversy.

Before this week, if you mentioned OnLive's cloud-gaming service to dedicated gamers, you'd hear lots of skepticism. Whether it's doubts about OnLive's responsiveness or reservations about the absence of a local copy of games that have been paid for, OnLive has met with plenty of consumer resistance (although we like it) since it emerged in 2009.

This past week, though, OnLive seems to have earned itself some good will. At the start of the week, gamers discovered a coupon for a free OnLive version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution in their boxed copies of the game's PC version. Putting the service, and a copy of a well-received fan favorite game, in the hands of gamers who risk nothing by giving OnLive a spin can only help win fans.

Then, a few days into the week, news broke that retailer GameStop was pulling the OnLive coupon from its Deus Ex copies on the grounds that OnLive is a competitor to GameStop's own forthcoming streaming service, due to hit beta later this year. That move, of course, met with outrage from the gaming community.… Read more