Genetic roots of synaesthesia unearthed: The regions of our DNA that wire some people to "see" sounds have been discovered. So far, only the general regions within chromosomes have been identified, rather than specific genes, but the work could eventually lead to a genetic test to diagnose the condition before it interferes with a child's education.

Doctors test latest attempt at artificial liver:
The ELAD from Vital Therapies Inc. and powered by human liver cells, "comes closer to replacing the amount of liver" people need, says Dr. Robert Brown of New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University.

NASA fashions mountain climbing robot:
NASA researchers have built and tested a robot that can rappel off cliffs, travel over steep and rocky terrain, and explore deep craters.

Unnatural selection: Robots start to evolve: Researchers at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, UK have created a robot that adapts to such changes by mimicking biological evolution, using an incremental evolutionary algorithm (IEA) capable of adding new parts to its robot brain over time.

Intel's New Breed of Chips: Intel has long dominated the market for personal-computer and server chips, but as sales of these components decline, the Santa Clara, CA, company is hoping to get a better toehold in new markets, particularly those for smart phones, netbooks, and other mobile Internet devices. To do this, Intel is exploring system-on-chip (SoC) designs--complex microchips that perform specialized tasks on top of general-purpose computations.

Single Atom Quantum Dots Bring Real Devices Closer: Single atom quantum dots created by researchers at Canada’s National Institute for Nanotechnology and the University of Alberta make possible a new level of control over individual electrons, a development that suddenly brings quantum dot-based devices within reach. Composed of a single atom of silicon and measuring less than one nanometre in diameter, these are the smallest quantum dots ever created.

Managing Energy with Swarm Logic: REGEN Energy has has come up with a way to reduce energy use by mimicking the self-organizing behavior of bees.

Teleporter sends ions on long-distance journey: University of Maryland researchers have built a teleporter capable of sending the state of ytterbium ions from one side of the lab to the other; something that until now had only been possible with photons.

Innovation: Speech prediction software:
The software could make speech-rocognition software more powerful by increasing the speed and accuracy with which you can dictate long and difficult words and common phrases.

Microscopic bio-robot slaves:Shrinking robots allows them to carry out ever more delicate tasks. But even the smallest built so far are too big to be able to, say, imprint microscopic, or even nanoscale, patterns onto microchips.

Video: Revealing the technology of invisibility:If your superpower of choice would be to make things disappear, you may be surprised to see how close researchers are to making it come true.

IBM Building Next Generation of BlueGene Supercomputers:
IBM and the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have signed a new contract to build the next generation of IBM’s BlueGene supercomputers at the famed DOE facility. The first IBM BlueGene supercomputer, called “Dawn,” will have a top processing speed of 500 teraflops. The second IBM system, dubbed “Sequoia,” will offer 20 petaflops of performance and surpass the records Big Blue set when it installed the massive Roadrunner system for the DOE in 2008.

Neurobiologist proposes 'The end of sex as we once knew it':
Differences in the hormones of men and women make it likely that drugs and other treatments for some disorders should be tailored differently for the two sexes, says Rockefeller University's Bruce S. McEwen.

The cockpit of the future:Research scientists have developed a novel car dashboard that functions as a 3-D display and shows velocities, engine speeds or warnings in three dimensions. The display’s design can be chosen individually by the driver.

Super-resolution microscopy takes on a third dimension:
Howard Hughes Medical Institute scientists have developed a new interferometry-based imaging technology that produces the best three-dimensional resolution ever seen with an optical microscope, pinpointing fluorescent labels in their images to within 10-20 nanometers.

SKorea to build top-speed information highway: South Korea will install a nationwide 1 Gbps super-broadband infrastructure by 2013 that would enable downloading a feature film in one to two seconds, according to the state-run National Information Society Agency.

India's $10 Laptop to be revealed Feb. 3: On February 3, the Indian government will display a prototype of the Rs 500, a $10 laptop that will hopefully give more young people the opportunity to learn and help increase the country's school enrollment.
Engineers develop novel method for accelerated bone growth: vEngineers at the University of California at San Diego have come up with a way to help accelerate bone growth through the use of nanotubes and stem cells. This new finding could lead to quicker and better recovery, for example, for patients who undergo orthopedic surgery.

Targeted nanospheres find, penetrate, then fuel burning of melanoma: Hollow gold nanospheres equipped with a targeting peptide find melanoma cells, penetrate them deeply, and then cook the tumor when bathed with near-infrared light, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center researchers have shown.

Autonomous Robots Invade Retail Warehouses: Warehouses run by Gap, as well as Zappos and Staples now use autonomous robots to pluck products from their shelves and send them to you.

Efficient Ethanol Fuel Cells:Portable fuel cells powered directly by ethanol could soon be practical, thanks to a new catalyst that breaks a strong bond at the heart of ethanol molecules, freeing electrons and generating electricity. Such fuel cells could replace batteries in laptops and cell phones, and could eventually be used to power electric vehicles.

This part covers the metaphysical consequences of the new technological revolution. On the one hand scientist start to use metaphysical concepts to describe the impact of their research, on the other hand, a surprisingly large number of scientific projects is inspired by religious aspirations and more and more theologians from any religious or spiritual belief are getting interested in these aspirations of new technology, making the discussion inextricable complex.