I have a confession to make -- I never learned to sew.  Perhaps I can blame this on growing up during the 50s and 60s before gender-based roles loosened up.  At least this sounds like a good excuse. Despite this basic lack of training, there periodically appear situations in which,... Read More

In an experimental tour de force that could assist in the development of highly sensitive sensors for electric and magnetic fields with frequencies ranging from direct current (DC) to the high terahertz (THz) region, as well as fast quantum computers, a University of Michigan group led by Georg Raithel has... Read More

The tools and techniques which will eventually bring quantum computing within our grasp are undergoing fast and furious development – so much so that it is unusual to hear of a completely new approach. Just before Christmas, however, came a report of a new line of attack toward making optical... Read More

On Dec 19, 2011, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled in Apple v HTC.  In the original complaint, Apple had claimed that HTC (currently the largest vendor of smartphones in the US market) was infringing 10 Apple patents with their imports of Android-based smartphones.  This summer, the ITC issued... Read More

The horrors of Alzheimer’s disease are well known, and the specter of this disease will fall over most of us in one way or another.  Enormous quantities of resources are currently being spent on seeking cures or ameliorative treatments, with very little success or progress.   A common thread of... Read More