Semiconductor circuits are pretty versatile, but you can’t bend the ones in your computer without having to place an expensive parts order with your favourite tech supplier afterwards. Chips are set to become far more flexible in future, however, in both senses of the word – a team of engineers have discovered a way to remove the circuitry from a rigid substrate and place it on a pliable material. Flexible computing could revolutionise a number of technology spheres, medical apps and solar cells for instance.

Technology giant Philips have announced a new prototype gadget – an ultrasound ‘cuff’ that will diagnose and treat internal bleeding in human limbs. Predictably in this time of global unrest, the stated scenario is that of the injured soldier in the heat of battle, who needs a quick fix and can’t make it to medical facilities in time, but this would surely be just as useful to A&E teams and other civiliand outfits too. Philips hopes for proof-of-concept in the next twelve months.

Michael Griffin, head honcho of NASA, wants to start a posse. Speaking at the Farnborough Air Show here in the UK, he claimed that the ISS will be a wasted project unless more countries sign up for missions with greater scope, like exploring the Moon and Mars. An ESA spokesman replied that collaboration is trickier than just signing bits of paper, but accepted that partnerships are necessary. But if Griffin is desperate to get some people on board, maybe he should chat to the Chinese…they seem pretty keen on a Mars mission.

The thing is, planetary rovers are pretty cumbersome. There’s a lot of places they can’t get to very easily. So in place of one large exploration device, MIT techies propose sending a swarm of baseball-sized miniature probes to Mars instead, where they could roll and bounce around the surface, gathering data and exploring in great detail. It would mean a lot less worries over attrition rates, for starters.

Whoa, stop the press! Sandia National Labs have had a great idea. It’s called energy surety – basically, you supply power to, say, a military base, not from one centralised power station, but from a distributed network of generation technologies! Huh? Someone thought of it before? Well, maybe Sandia will actually get the US military to buy into the idea…you never know your luck.