GIANT EYE: The Giant Magellan Telescope will be situated high in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile in 2020 when it's finished. The telescope will have seven mirrors, each 8.4 metres in diameter, arranged as segments of a single mirror 24.5 metres in diameter. The spun glass has to be polished to an optical surface accuracy within about 25 nanometers. The GMT will be able to acquire images 10 times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope. It should be a whole lot easier and cheaper to maintain and repair too. More details here.
PAINLESS EYE: After some eye surgeries patients must use anaesthetic eye drops at regular intervals over several days. Researchers at the University of Florida have found a way to use Vitamin E to load topical anaesthetics into silicone contact lenses so that they release slowly over one to seven days. What other substances could be added to contact lenses for slow release? MedGadget has more.
ROBOTS INSIDE: Researchers from Israel and the USA collaborated to create a robot that will be able to swim through the intestines and send back images. The microswimmer is the size of a large pill. This is different from current similar devices because its movements can be controlled so it can be directed to where it's most useful. Its copper and flexible polymer tail vibrates in response to the magnetic field created by an MRI scan and propels the device. Next on the list is presumably a handheld device to create the required magnetic field. Details at Singularity Hub.
HEART OF STEEL: Our societies run on solid copper wire, so it's not actually terribly funny when people steal it then communications go down. With the price of copper still rising, in some places telecom cable theft is epidemic. The GroundSmart Copper Clad Steel cable hopes to deter theft, simply by being equally effective but less valuable. It uses a thin layer of copper casing around a steel core. Take that,
copper thieves. More at PC World.
SPIRALLING POWER: A concentrated solar power plant has a central tower that receives sunshine reflected from mirrors all around it. The tower then generates power. Now researchers at MIT and Aachen University in Germany have found that arranging the mirrors in the same kind of spiral pattern as seen in sunflowers can reduce the footprint by 20% and increase the power. The Fermat spiral pattern is more compact, and reduces shading and blocking by neighbouring mirrors. The mantra
should always be: follow what nature does. ScienceDaily.com has more