News Revisited

I just saw an impressive video.  Andrew Jones, Ian McDowall, Hideshi Yamada, Mark Bolas, and Paul Debevec of the University of Southern California, Fakespace Labs, and Sony Corporation have created a device capable of displaying autostereoscopic (3D) still images and video to multiple viewers from multiple viewpoints at the same time.  This video shows various examples of this device as the camera moves around it.  It is quite impressive.  Their paper describes the details.

Hong Liu, Yanzhen Fan, and Hongqiang Hu of Oregon State University have authored an article claiming to have achieved 1,500 watts of electricity from a 1 cubic meter microbial fuel cell reports ScienceDaily.  These fuel cells use bacteria to break down waste water pollutants and generate electricity and clean water in the process.  This is about 10 times the power of previous air cathode microbial fuel cells.  About 5% of electricity generated in the US is used by water and waste water treatment plants so this could be a significant development if it can be scaled up.  The current thought is that smaller systems for use by individual houses will be ready for use sooner.

Researchers at the University of Toronto have created a full spectrum, even including infrared and ultraviolet, display using photonic crystals reports NewScientist.  Instead of the usual method of passing light through filters to isolate colors, this display works by reflecting ambient light of a specific wavelength.  It is constructed of tiny silica microspheres arranged in a 3D pattern on top of an