Science & Technology

By CATHERINE CLABBY
Monday, November 13, 2006
Duke University scientists have taken a concrete step toward creating the invisibility cloak they said was theoretically possible back in May. But don't expect to start slipping around unseen a la Harry Potter.

By LEE BOWMAN
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
If life can make it here, it can make it most anywhere.

At least, that's what scientists are saying about a colony of bacteria they found thriving in fractured rock two miles below Earth's surface off a shaft of a South African gold mine.

The bacteria appear to exist completely independently of any support from the surface, relying on the radioactive decay of uranium and other elements in the rock to convert water molecules to usable energy.

By TOM ABATE
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
While microprocessors have long hogged the computing limelight, a rival chip has moved up hard and fast on the inside in recent years to boost the power and burnish the visual appeal of PCs.

By KATHERINE HARDING
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
They blew by the millions into the dense forests surrounding this thriving northwestern Alberta community on a strong wind in July.

There were so many that a dairy farmer thought he was hearing rain tapping on his barn's tin roof.

Instead, it was an invasion of hungry mountain pine beetles, black grain-sized insects that have already devoured billions of mature lodgepole pine trees in British Columbia's forests.

"We just had this massive blow-over from the Prince George area.

By MIKE BERMAN
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
A tip of my cap to the folks at Ziff-Davis Media for having the guts to bring a consumer-oriented tech show to Manhattan.

Now in its third year, DigitalLife rekindles memories of an era when tech shows were fun to attend and you'd gawk in amazement at all the new goodies awaiting the common, everyday computer geek.

The show, admittedly not a Goliath and geared to gamers, has grown steadily during the past three years and hopefully will continue to attract the thundering herds of savvy consumers needing their yearly tech fix.

Add to this press-only events from Pepcom and Showstoppers showing off even more tech toys and cake to celebrate Sonic the Hedgehog's 15th birthday, and you have the recipe for five days of digital delights.

AMD and Intel showed off their new processors to a crowd that was hungry for more computing power (especially for games), with AMD hitting the road running with a new 4x4 processor set nicknamed The Quadfather that provides twice as much computing output of the new Intel Dual Core 2 processors.

By JAMES DERK
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Microsoft, a company that rarely blinks, did the blinking in a battle with anti-virus vendors over Windows Vista the next version of Windows.

This was a battle you may not have been paying attention to but one that I found pretty fascinating.

By KATHERINE HARDING
Thursday, November 02, 2006
It was a prehistoric jigsaw puzzle that had stumped paleontologists at the University of Alberta for close to 30 years.

For years, researchers at the Edmonton-based school kept finding tall, sharply pointed teeth _ some the shape of an hourglass _ and jaw fragments along the banks of the Blindman River in central Alberta.

By DAVID PERLMAN
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Slowly, slowly, the Big Island of Hawaii is sinking toward its doom. From its palm-fringed beaches to the summit of Mauna Kea, nothing will remain of that volcanic island but a small, stony lump on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in the far northwest, thousands of miles from where it stands today.

By CHUCK SQUATRIGLIA
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Male tarantulas are skittering all over Mount Diablo in the San Francisco Bay Area as quickly as their eight legs will carry them, trying to mate as often as they can before starving to death, falling apart or being eaten by a hungry mate.

They've been biding their time underground for seven long, lonely years, awaiting puberty and their one chance to propagate a species that has survived for millions of years and changed very little in all that time.

With mating season here, Mount Diablo State Park and other dry, inland areas are awash in amorous arachnids searching for love, or what passes for it among spiders.

"It's a pretty good year," said Ken Lavin, who has led "tarantula hikes" on Mount Diablo each fall for 20 years.

By SUE VORENBERG
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
A gigantic, pumpkin-shaped balloon floats alone over the red, rocky landscape, scanning the surface for geology, water and signs of life.

It's not a new Halloween special shape at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.