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Digital Planet: 21/02/2012

Factual: Science & Nature

21/02/2012

BBC World Service - Digital Planet, 21/02/2012

A report on the next stage in the development of a single-atom transistor.

News on the next stage in the development of a single-atom transistor; A Kenyan Chief uses Twitter to bring down the levels of crime in his area; A report on computer controlled sexual aids.

Researchers have developed an atom-sized transistor bringing quantum computing a step nearer.  Professor Gerhard Klimeck, one of the co-authors of the paper, A Single-Atom Transistor, explains how the tiny transistor was made.  He also discusses why it might speed the development of super fast quantum computing.


A Kenyan Chief has used Twitter to bring down the levels of violence and other crimes in his area.   Chief Francis Kariuki, who is from Lanet Umoja location, a semi-urban area in the Rift Valley Province of Kenya, first began tweeting last May when a local IT expert created a Twitter account for him.  Click's Michael Kaloki reports that since then the Chief has used Twitter to rescue people and to alert locals about crimes. 


Ted Nelson is known for foreseeing the notion of linked documents through hypertext, and many other aspects of modern technology.  But he is perhaps most associated with his pioneering work on teledildonics – computer controlled sexual aids, and the question: "how far should computers and the virtual world invade the real world of love and sex?"  Nelson has been interested in this field for decades.  Click's Tracey Logan caught up with Ted Nelson recently to discuss the reality of teledildonics.

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