News.com Extra

(Credit: VisBox)

It used to be that if you wanted to get a good look at microscopic bits of matter, you had to have to use, well, a microscope. You'd smoosh a drop of liquid between two small glass plates, slip them under the lens, and then fiddle with the focus until the mitochondria -- hopefully -- came into view. At least, that's how it was in my high school biology class way back when (and never mind those film strips).

Things are different if you're a scientific researcher at a 21st-century institution of higher learning. Take the Tufts University School of Engineering, which has the luxury of a $350,000 scientific display device called the VisWall, from company called VisBox, that casts molecules and more into eye-popping 3D relief on an 8-by-14-foot screen. In flat-screen mode, it's said to be twice as sharp as an HDTV--just the thing for studying the inner workings of the colon, apparently.

Read more from The Boston Globe: "Plasma TV has nothing on this visionary virtual device"

It's not exactly Gershwin's "An American in Paris," but there is one thing very significant about an archaic 10-second recording discovered earlier this month in the City of Lights by a group of American audio historians: it is the earliest known sound recording. The phonoautograph of the folk song "Au Clair de la Lune" was made in 1860, some 17 years before the advent of Thomas Edison's phonograph. And get this: it was a visual tool, not an audio one. Still, scientists figured out how to make it play.

Read more at The New York Times: "Researchers Play Tune Recorded Before Edison"

It's as much a part of the school experience as homework, cliques, and senioritis: the fund-raiser. In the Internet era, however, things aren't what they used to be: the quest for funds to supplement the never-quite-enough out of state and city coffers is no longer limited to car washes and bake sales. Nowadays, booster groups and administrators are turning to online auctions--$275 for a private pole-dancing lesson, anyone?--with the potential to rake in more than ever before and to avoid too-blatant competition among neighbors.

Read more at The Boston Globe: "Boosters turning to online auctions"

Outside China, where it has home field advantage, Lenovo is in no rush to sell volumes of low-end PCs. For its export markets, the company plans to concentrate for some time to come on hawking its high-end models like the newly introduced, and roughly MacBook Air-skinny, X300 notebook--those products that it says show "the spirit of innovation." That thinking will also determine how and when Lenovo might come out with a laptop based on Intel's Atom processor.

Read more at InfoWorld: "Q&A: Lenovo takes the high-end road"

(Credit: U.S. Air Force)

It's arguably the biggest technology success for the Pentagon during the Iraq War era: the deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles for surveillance and reconnaissance missions. But could that very success could prove the undoing of the UAV corps?

The U.S. Army wants more of the aerial drones patrolling the skies, and it has the backing of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who has ordered the Air Force to dramatically boost the number of Predator aircraft on the front lines (at the moment, there are 22). The Air Force in turn is pushing back, arguing that the scramble could put a severe strain on Predator teams--even up to the point where they break down completely.

To read more about the UAV mission and the interservice bickering between the Army and the Air Force, see this story in the Los Angeles Times: "Pentagon battle breaks out over a spy plane.

In its heyday some years back, Polaroid was one of the crown jewels of the Boston area business scene, a luminescent union of art and technology. But that was then. Today, post-bankruptcy proceedings and in the hands of new owners, it exists as little more than a brand name. Last month came the end-of-an-era announcement that it would no longer make its trademark instant film.

On Sunday, The Boston Globe ran a pair of articles in separate sections looking at the Polaroid mystique. Mark Feeney's piece, "Instant karma," pairs the Polaroid Swinger camera with the Ford Mustang as "embodiments of '60s affluence and liberation." Feeney reminisces about Polaroid's role in pop culture, from ads featuring Ali McGraw to its cameo in Madonna's hands in Desperately Seeking Susan and the oversize portraits by photographer Elsa Dorfman.

Business writer Scott Kirsner, meanwhile, catches up in "Polaroid's entrepreneurial legacy" with company alumni now plying their cutting-edge skills at tech endeavors ranging from printing spin-off Zink Imaging to display specialist E Ink and solar cell maker Konarka Technologies.

Plus, see: "Old and outrageous Polaroids from Boston.com readers"

When Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax died last week, Wired was at work on a package of stories about the man and about a forthcoming revision of the legendary game. It has now published the portrait of Gygax, with the additional stories to follow later this month.

In the magazine-length biography, Wired delivers a richly detailed portrait of a man fascinated by the rolling of dice who "forged an industry around D&D and made a small fortune in the process," and in so doing, laid the "the cornerstone of geek culture."

Read more: "Dungeon Master: The Life and Legacy of Gary Gygax"

We take it for granted, mostly, that the water that comes into our homes is safe to consume. Sure, we may run the tap for 30 seconds or so to clear out rusty sediment or traces of lead, and every once in a while there's an E. coli scare. Many of us, too, filter the water, either at the tap or in a container for the fridge.

But now there's something new to worry about. After an in-depth, five-month investigation, the Associated Press is reporting that the supply of drinking water in many U.S. metropolitan areas--accessible to at least 41 million Americans--might be a cocktail of pharmaceuticals. Trace elements of the drugs, to be sure, but scientists say that there may nonetheless be reason to worry about the long-term effect on individuals and whole communities. Depending on where the tests were done, the substances found in the drinking water included antianxiety medications, pain killers, antibiotics, and even a sex hormone.

Read more from the AP: "AP Probe Finds Drugs in Drinking Water"

Three decades ago, Douglas Adams' sci-fi phenomenon The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy got its start as a serial on BBC Radio. In a story on BBC News on Friday, author Mark Vernon delves into some of the enduring themes and mysteries of Adams' cosmological saga.

Read more, including readers' responses, at BBC News: What on earth is 42?

You're watching TV and a product in a commercial or sitcom catches your eye, or a song makes you sit up and listen. You want to learn more about the product or the tune, or even buy it--but not right this second. If that's the case, Mr. Couch Potato, a Massachusetts company called Backchannelmedia may have just the thing for you. In conjunction with Boston's WCVB-TV Channel 5, this spring it plans to launch a yearlong trial of a service that will let you use your remote control to bookmark the relevant Web site.

Read more from The Boston Globe: "New job for your remote: Download to your computer"