Milestones : Eyes, LEDs and E-Bombs.

That was the week that was etc, with couple of things bubbling to race-towards-the-singularity surface. The usual mixture of good, bad, ugly – or in this case fantastic, beautiful, scary.

I think I’ll do periodic roundups of things that have occurred that are… well, milestones.

Not in any particular order:

1) Multi-coloured LEDs

The LED-C material is designed to be durable as well. The polymer has a projected lifespan of up to 100,000 hours – well beyond the life of most LEDs. And embedding the solid-state LED in the material creates what the manufacturer calls a “monolithic component” that can completely fill any gap in the LED light spectrum.

(from www.light-beam.net: via ledlightreviews.net)

2) Stem-Cell Eye Repair

BRITISH scientists have developed the world’s first stem cell therapy to cure the most common cause of blindness. Surgeons predict it will become a routine, one-hour procedure that will be generally available in six or seven years’ time.

The treatment involves replacing a layer of degenerated cells with new ones created from embryonic stem cells.

(from www.timesonline.co.uk)

When I was a kid (about 5 or 6) I would fantasize about curing blindness. I kid you not – that’s what happens when you don’t have television, you think about other things.

3) E-Bombs slouching one step closer

This is bad. This is potentially, catastrophically bad – a weapon that destroys microchips with a massive electromagnetic pulse has taken a step towards being bombified.

This week at an arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., defense researchers are testing a new high-power microwave (HPM) bomb—one that creates an electromagnetic pulse capable of disabling electronics, vehicles, guided missiles, and communications while leaving people and structures unharmed. The tests mark the first time such a device has been shrunk to dimensions that could make it portable enough to fit in a missile or carried in a Humvee or unmanned aerial vehicle.

(from spectrum.ieee.org)

Asymmetrical Warfare getting even more asymmetrical?

Sorry, anything that threatens The Internet is now the enemy. The threat isn’t from other countries, it’s from our own governments.