Superconductive power cables allow the transmission of power with half as much loss to heat, meaning a superconductive grid wastes a lot less electricity. A Japanese company expects to start installing superconductive cables at the end of 2006.

Share Your OPML looks to be a primitive delicious for XML feeds.

Twelve measly bits? Small beer in the world of traditional semiconductor logic, I’ll grant you. But the successful decohering of a twelve-bit quantum register is a big step forward in quantum computing.

Robotic limbs based on the ‘opposable thumb’ design tend to damage delicate stuff. So researchers have turned to the sea for inspiration, and are basing robotic limbs on octopus tentacles – ideal for probing into awkward and narrow spaces as well as picking up fragile things.

Pete Worden has been the director of NASA Ames for two days, but he’s already making a big noise. Over at the International Space Development Conference, he’s been plugging not just private sector involvement in lunar missions, but also ‘robots that build robots’ for constructing habitats on the Moon. A von Neumann fan in a position of power – that’s music to my ears.