AaronW writes “Scientists and engineers at the US DOE SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have developed an advanced accelerator technology smaller than a grain of rice. It is currently accelerating electrons at 300 million volts per meter with a goal of achieving 1 billion EV per meter. It could do in 100 feet what the SLAC linear accelerator does in two miles and could achieve a million more electron pulses per second. This could lead to more compact accelerators and X-ray devices.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Originally posted here:
3mm Inexpensive Chip Revolutionizes Electron Accelerators
We’ve seen real laser guns before, pulling off tricks like starting small fires, or popping black balloons . That’s cool, sure, but it’s got nothing—and I mean nothing —on this crazy handheld laser rifle that eats metal for breakfast. Read more… 
When you think about it, keeping a fridge full of drinks perpetually cold at a store is a tremendous waste of energy given the product may not be sold for days. But the only alternate solution is to somehow chill drinks at the time of purchase, which is exactly what a new refrigeration technology called V-Tex does—without the need for gallons of liquid nitrogen. Read more… 
NOVA’s Tim De Chant posted this awesome photo of the Kilby Solid Circuit, the first working example of a miniaturized electric circuit that combined all the necessary structures onto a single chip. 
According to Forbes , Microsoft will be giving away 200 bucks of in-store credit to anyone who trades in a used iPhone 4S or iPhone 5. Microsoft already has a standing trade-in offer for the iPad , so it’s pretty obvious that Microsoft is willing to throw money at you to get you to switch from Apple. Read more… 