The chip manufacturers are high on the hog this year, churning out the product for a hungry market. But if there’s an economic cool-off next year, as some analysts seem to think likely, that could mean a glut of silicon that no-one wants to buy. Bad news for the makers, but it might be a real boon for the consumer, who may benefit from falling prices and increasing innovation and efficiency.

We’ve heard plenty of news about nanoscale science revolutionising electronics, medicine, computing, aeronautics and all the rest. But tiny tech can be useful for more everyday stuff, too – in fact, almost all the things that petroleum is used to make (besides fuels) could be replaced by nanoparticles of sugar and starch from crops. Think inks, think plastics, think adhesives, think paper coatings…think nano!

Knife crime is endemic in the UK, at least according to our media. Scotland has a particular problem with this, which is why the police there are field-testing kevlar-armoured metal-detecting gloves. The idea being that they can be used to scan a suspect for concealed knives without the need for a separate gadget, and protect the wearer should a knife be present (and its bearer willing to use it). Fellow body-piercing afficionados may want to get their disclaimers prepared in advance…

Galileo is Europe’s answer to the US tax-funded GPS system. GPS is free to use to anyone with a receiver – but Galileo needs to reimburse its investors somehow. Because they share bandwidth, there was a deal that said some of the codes for Galileo had to be put in the public domain. When this failed to occur, a team of Cornell University researchers reverse-engineered the signals and cracked the codes anyway. Information wants to be free, but sometimes it needs a little help, I guess.

Computers are getting everywhere these days, and thanks to Icelandic prosthetic maker Ossur the latest place it has turned up is in an artifical knee joint in a ‘bionic leg’. The joint is loaded with sensors, a processor and some memory, and its software allows it to ‘learn’ how to move more effectively with the gait of the wearer. Newer models incorporate motors to do the work the missing muscles would have performed.