SCIENCE IN THE NEWS WEEKLY
Quantum Dots Control Brain Cells
Tiny particles called quantum dots have been used to control brain cells for the first time in an unlikely marriage of quantum physics and neuroscience. Having such control over the brain could one day provide a non-invasive treatment for such conditions as Alzheimer's disease, depression and epilepsy.
In other technology news, scientists at the Large Hadron Collider plan to increase the energies of the subatomic particles called protons that it smashes together. They say the boost should improve the collider's chances of discovering "new physics" and definitively confirming or denying the existence of the Higgs boson particle.
A consortium of American utilities has won government approval to construct two new atomic energy reactors at an estimated cost of $14 billion, the strongest indication yet that the three-decade hiatus of nuclear plant construction is finally ending.
The Economist looked at Kinect, Microsoft's remote game console that registers a user's intentions by his gestures. Some researchers think Kinect's basic principles could be extended into a technological panopticon that monitors people's movements and provides them with what they want, wherever they want it.
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