Tech Universe: Tuesday 31 May

Hasselblad's impressive H4D-200MS. Photo / Supplied

BIG SHOTS: The Hasselblad H4D-200MS DSLR isn't your everyday digital camera, unless you need 200 megapixels, that is. The camera actually uses a 50 megapixel sensor, mounted on a frame which moves the sensor 1.5 pixels at a time while 6 shots are captured. The 6 shots are then combined into a single image. The sensor holds more and larger pixels than a standard 35mm DSLR. The camera also includes other high-end features you'd expect for this kind of device. All the detail you could ever want - at Hasselblad.

A PERFECT SPHERE: Scientists at Imperial College London spent the last decade studying the shape of Ytterbium Fluoride electrons. It turns out they're spherical - perfectly spherical. The researcherssay: "if the electron was magnified to the size of the solar system, it would still appear spherical to within the width of a human hair." They figured this out by using very precise lasers to measure the motion of the electrons. Results will help them work out the differences between matter and antimatter. Yes, antimatter matters. Details here.

ROCK GRAB: In 2016 NASA's OSIRIS-REx programme - the Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer - will launch. In 2020 it will approach the primitive, near Earth asteroid 1999 RQ36 and begin my mapping its surface. A robotic arm will grab samples of asteroid RQ36, then return the samples to Earth. The samples should arrive back by 2023. Scientists want to see if organic molecules are present on the asteroid. The expedition will also measure how much sunlight 'pushes' the asteroid and changes its orbit. That's a long mission to get some dust. More at Discovery.

CODE BREAKER: The Tunny machine was used in World War II at Bletchley Park to break German codes by turning encrypted messages into cleartext. Three people spent three years building it but after the war it was broken up and the original circuit diagrams were destroyed or hidden. Now it's been rebuilt from remaining scraps of the plans and from recollections of the people originally involved. The rebuilt machine is housed at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park. Now that's dedication. Details at zdnet.co.uk.

SOLAR SAILOR: The Turanor Planetsolar is sailing around the world and has now arrived in Brisbane. The boat is driven by a silent, pollution-free electrical engine powered exclusively by solar energy.
537 square metres of solar panels cover the boat, providing 93.5 kW of power, of which the engines use 20 kW on average. 6 crew work the 31 metre long vessel, though 40 can go aboard. It's a shame it's not
stopping here on its world tour. More info Planetsolar.org and video here.

- Miraz Jordan knowit.co.nz