Filed under: Peripherals

Not only are specialized products with anti-microbial stuff on ‘em coming out left and right, but some gadgets will protect you even when you didn’t know about it. For example, you know that Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 3200 Laser keyboard and mouse combo that you just dropped $100 on? Well, we just found out today that it packs AgION’s silver-based anti-microbial protection as a hidden feature — so if you already have one you just scored yourself some awesome protection against germs, microorganisms and also discoloration to boot. Now of course, you could just wash your hands every time you start or stop using your keyboard and mouse, but we all know that geeks are pretty lazy — so the obvious solution is to just buy one of these keyboards and mice. So, we’re totally ditching our bacteria-infested keyboards for this one right this very second, because that whole hand-washing thing is so 20th century.

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Filed under: Storage

We know that it shouldn’t come as a shock anymore when researchers announce new storage technologies that promise to hold tantalizingly large amounts of data, but we were still pretty stoked to learn that a recent breakthrough at Harvard Medical School may eventually lead to DVD-size discs whose capacities approach an eye-popping 50TB. Unlike traditional optical or magnetic solutions, the disc developed by Professor V Renugopalakrishnan and his colleagues is coated with thousands of light-activated proteins called bacteriorhodopsin which are found in the membrane of a particular salt marsh microbe — and which temporarily convert to a series of intermediate molecules when exposed to sunlight. That property allows the proteins to act as individual bits in a binary system, but since they have a tendency to return to their grounded state after mere hours or days, Renugopalakrishnan and his team modified the requisite microbes’ DNA to produce proteins capable of maintaining that intermediary state for several years. Unfortunately we won’t see this technology come to market anytime soon, and even when it does, 50TB capacities will still be a ways off, so it looks like we’ll have to settle for those disappointing 200GB Blu-ray discs for the foreseeable future.

[Via Gotakon]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We assume that, off in some lab, down in a petri dish, there’s a serious grudge match going on. How else to explain the fact that, mere weeks after we first heard that scientists were training viruses to create electricity, there’s an announcement that another lab-coated team is coaxing microbes to produce power as well? This time, the action is at Ghent University in Belgium, where researchers have found that certain microbes are able to break down organic matter in water and produce electricity in the process. One species in particular, Brevibacillus agri, turned out to be particularly adept at turning sludge into juice, and may someday form the basis of organic fuel cells. If the virii don’t get there first, that is.

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