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.

Don’t pair SeisMac with SmackBook Pro, even though they both use the built in accelerometers to do neat things with your PowerBook. A seismograph on a machine that gets slapped around would be pretty useless.

The next housing trend: dorms for adults. Overheated housing markets like that in the Bay Area or (in the case of the linked article, New York) are naturals for more formal (and less labor-intensive) housing arrangements for young urban professionals.