If you’re not familiar with the Optimus keyboard, each key is programmable and is made up of LEDs. You can easily change the QWERTY layout to suit your needs, can quickly change from english characters to any other language since the keys are simply LEDs and just standalone displays.

Anyway, this thing has been piquing my interest most of the year and now we learn that that pre-orders will be taken on Dec 12. I’ll get one only if there’s a ‘natural-style’ layout ergonomic version, I spend most of my day typing already and much prefer it to the standard style KBs.

View many more pics and some additional information about the Optimus 103 KB at the developer’s site here.

 

[See Engadget for more details]

University of Washington physicist John Cramer is experimenting with splitting photons in such a way that he hopes to find evidence of a photon going backward in time.   ”It probably won’t work,” he says.

“But even if it doesn’t work, we should be able to learn something new about quantum mechanics by trying it.”

Time travel?  Well, it may not be theoretically possible, but I’ve got to give this guy kudos for “Fluxing his Capacitor”!  I, for one, will look out for this scientist’s future work.

[Found via The Seattle PI]

Will we meet extraterrestrials?  Is A.I. going to control our everyday activities?  Will geneticists discover a way to eradicate terminal ailments?

These questions, and a great deal more are discussed in several expert’s opinions in depth.

I’m surprised by the gloom some of these expert’s predict.  So much for a bright future, eh?

[Found via NewsScientists.Com]

While covering the Iraq war, BBC producer Stuart Hughes lost his leg. His new prosthetic foot is so advanced, it may even allow amputee soldiers back into battle. A few weeks ago, he became one of the first people in the UK to be fitted with the world’s first “intelligent” prosthetic foot.

Some researchers believe the current generation of bionic limbs is just the beginning. They are working towards the day when man and machine are seamlessly integrated.

Regardless of the good intentions this technology implies, I can’t help but think how “Cyborgs” would effect our society.  I would be interested in hearing your opinion!

[Found via BBC News]

Ipod down to its last few minutes of power?  Laptop die during your latest Battlefield 2142 clan match?  These things will soon be a thing of the past, claims Marin Soljacic of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Soljacic and his colleagues propose introducing a short gap in a metal loop and attaching two small disks at each end. When electrified, such an object has a natural, or resonant, frequency that results from current flowing back and forth along the loop from one disk to the other.  More here.

“The results are strongly encouraging but the real test of the thing will be experiments, which we are working on now.”

I know I could find a handful of uses for this technology right now.  If it does come to light, it will certainly revolutionize portable device usage.  Time will tell!

[Found via Scientific American]