A research team in Toronto has created a material that when painted on glass capillaries emits coherent light. This material could be used to form tiny optical switches in optical computers.

Add to the list of territorial disputes that seem rather silly to an outsider this one: South Korea has threatened a “physical clash” if Japan continues a sea-floor survey near the disputed islands of Dokdo/Takeshima. Note that these islands are so small they can only be visited when the seas are low.

The current high oil prices do not seem to be a result of supply constraints, but instead are driven by investments in the oil sector. In other words, there’s a big demand for oil futures not because there’s not enough supply of oil to supply future demands, but because investors think supply constraints and demand growth will make the price of oil higher in the future. It’s a beautiful self-fulfilling prophecy.

Gannon Technologies is developing a technology that can determine whether multiple handwriting samples were penned by the same hand with very high accuracy.

George Musser at Scientific American makes the point that uncertainty about the accuracy of climate modeling means things could be worse as easily as better than expected. Specifically, he presents summaries of studies that suggest that carbon dioxide-induced global warming could happen much more quickly than models suggest.