Weekly Tech Summary

Big news:

FCC opens unused part of TV spectrum for broadband
This is some of the spectrum that was freed by changing TV signals from analog to digital. It’s the first time a major chunk of spectrum was made free for unlicensed use in about 20 years. It should lead to WiFi that can penetrate barriers more easily.

Researchers report:

Study finds 200 genes might make kids smart
Data was used from 4000 British kids. The effect size wasn’t mentioned, but they say any individual genetic difference doesn’t have a very large impact.

New technique can allow 750TB in CD form factor
Writing speed is a significant problem to overcome before disks this dense can be practical. Researchers have now shown that a new technique combining strong magnetic fields and lasers can write information as fast as one billion bits a second.

New sensor to detect small amounts of proteins
Nanotubes coated with protein-recognizing polymer have been shown to be effective in detecting the presence of specific proteins and discriminating between similar variants. These should be able to improve diagnosis for cancer and other illnesses.

Industry reports:

Experimental micro-projector can now do VGA resolution
The projector works by quickly scanning red, green and blue laser beams across a surface. It doesn’t use much power, and could eventually be used in cellphones.

Kawada Industries shows off ‘low cost’ humanoid robot in Japan
It will sell for $300K, and was demonstrated to be able to obey simple voice commands, stand on one foot, and of course walk autonomously. It should be available in January 2011 to industries and research institutes.

Biotech firm demonstrates cheap way to make acrylic acid using bacteria
Acrylic acid is used paints, diapers and adhesives. The new process should be cheaper and produce 75% less CO2 than current methods.

On the horizon:

Raman spectroscopy could be applied to disease diagnosis in a few years
The technique involves shining lasers through skin or enamel and analyzing the reflections from different kinds of tissues. This has already been experimentally applied to analysis of bones and teeth, giving more information on chemical composition than current x-ray methods.

Skylon spaceplane could carry people and payload into space in a decade
A UK team of engineers is developing a spaceplane that should be able to take off and land from a normal airport, and transport a 12 ton payload (or passengers) into space. They’re still far from building the actual plane, but they’ve made some fancy tech and still seem to be going strong, maybe getting government funding soon.