Technology New search engine trawls through podcasts If someone mentioned your name in a podcast, would you ever know? Not unless you had time to listen to them all. But San Francisco-based search engine Blinkx is changing that by indexing the content of podcasts. Podcasts are audio files posted online, designed to be automatically downloaded to a PC and played back on … 51¶¯Âþ
Space Cosmos 1: A noble effort FAREWELL, then, Cosmos 1, the world's first spacecraft designed to sail on light beams alone. After years of planning, the craft was lost soon after launch last week when the rocket taking it into orbit crashed into the ocean. Heroic failure or amateurish incompetence? The question is especially pertinent since Cosmos 1 was conceived by … Opinion
Technology Small wonders, sculpted by laser IT COULD be the world's smallest fence: a chain of five crude, squarish links is strung between posts just 40 micrometres apart. This microscopic barrier marks the threshold of a new world of fabrication. The interlocking links of the chain would be impossible to make using conventional microfabrication techniques. Instead, they were conjured into existence … Features
Physics The word: White holes WE'RE all familiar with black holes, those exotic beasts that we believe populate the universe, lurking in the hot cores of galaxies and sucking in everything that gets too close. Black holes emerge from Einstein's theory of general relativity; they are the graves of stars, places where space-time becomes curved beyond recognition. But an even … Regulars
Feedback Remote chicken stroking PEOPLE who are both fond of animals and allergic to them can shout "Hallelujah!". Adrian David Cheok and colleagues at the National University of Singapore have developed the Touchy Internet system. It connects users to a real chicken via a chicken-shaped doll, an array of sensors and a webcam link. The idea … Regulars