Implantable devices work in diabetic pigs for over a year--human tests could be next.

Researchers have successfully tested a fully implantable glucose-monitoring device in pigs for nearly two years, according to new research published today in Science Translational Medicine. Scientists plan to file for approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin human tests. Eventually, researchers aim to couple this kind of device with one that would automatically deliver insulin in response to changing blood-sugar levels.

A computer security researcher demonstrates attacks on cash machines.

Yesterday, during a flashy presentation at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, a computer security expert showed several ways to break into ATMs.

Creating single photons is becoming straightforward. Now engineers have worked out how to steer the photons they produce with the flick of a switch.

Photon guns are important tools for engineers attempting to build the next generation of quantum communications gear.

A report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance details international government energy spending on biofuels and renewable energy.

Fossil fuels are the backbone of economies worldwide, so governments spend a lot to support them. A new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance says altogether governments spent between $43 anf $46 billion on renewable energy and biofuels last year, not including indirect support, such as subsidies to corn farmers that help ethanol production. Direct subsidies of fossil fuels came to $557 billion, the report says.

Digital encoding could catch future informants.

Attorney General Eric Holder's new probe into Wikileaks's posting of 91,000 war documents will likely find that tracing the path of the documents back through the Internet is next to impossible. But watermarks--if they were embedded in the files--could reveal the whistle-blower.

Wireless chargers are more convenient, but less efficient.

GM and Nissan will have to overcome many consumer concerns as they bring mass-market plug-in hybrid and electric cars to market this winter. One aspect that might make potential buyers hesitate is a fear that they'll forget to plug in their cars when they get home, and thus won't have a charged-up car in the morning.

Microsoft's new toy allows for a more seamless walk down an online avenue.

New street-level imaging software developed by Microsoft could help people find locations more quickly on the Web. The software could also leave new space for online advertising.

Electric cars could benefit from a new manufacturing method.

A new chemical trick for making nanostructured materials could help increase the range and reliability of electric cars and lead to better batteries that could help stabilize the power grid.

A startup is developing sequencing-based tests that could detect infections within 24 hours.

Current methods of diagnosing an infectious disease can take days to weeks. Now a Cambridge, MA-based startup called Pathogenica is developing a way to do it within a day--by reading the DNA sequence of pathogens.

A long standing problem of why sperm swim towards surfaces appears to have finally been solved

In 1963, the zoologist Lord Rothschild found that sperm cells in a drop of bull semen tended to distribute themselves in a specific non random way. For some reason, they were much more likely to be near the surface of the drop than near its centre.

Diverse technologies, missing or secret documentation, and hostile copyright laws threaten video-game preservation.

An experimental new game controller adds the sensation of hot and cold to users' experience of a simulated environment

A new touchscreen charging station is programmable and can use input from both users and utilities to get better electricity prices.

Yesterday at the Plug In conference in San Jose, CA, technology company Ecotality and design firm Frog Design announced a new line of electric-vehicle chargers. The chargers, which will be rolled out in demonstration projects in 16 states with funding from the US Department of Energy, have a color touchscreen and are connected to the internet. A user can program the chargers to charge a vehicle by a certain time and when prices reach a certain level; the connectivity will also allow utilities to display messages and provide data to the charger about fluctuating electricity prices.

The DOE funds a research center aimed at making artificial photosynthesis practical.

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $122 million to establish a research center in California to develop ways of generating fuel made from sunlight. The project will be led by researchers at Caltech and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and will include researchers at various other California institutions, including Stanford University, the University of California, Irvine, and the University of California, Berkeley.

Tools that find serious bugs automatically could lead to safer, more stable software.

Several talks at the Black Hat security conference this week in Las Vegas will focus on tools that could make software safer by automatically searching for bugs--and pinpointing the ones that could be most dangerous.

Reduced government funding could scuttle some projects.

A key element of the White House's revised direction for NASA is turning over the transportation of astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit to the private sector.

A new cosmology successfully explains the accelerating expansion of the universe without dark energy; but only if the universe has no beginning and no end.

As one of the few astrophysical events that most people are familiar with, the Big Bang has a special place in our culture. And while there is scientific consensus that it is the best explanation for the origin of the Universe, the debate is far from closed. However, it's hard to find alternative models of the Universe without a beginning that are genuinely compelling.

At $41,000, the Volt will be more expensive than a competing electric vehicle from Nissan.

GM has announced that it will sell the much-anticipated Chevrolet Volt--an electric car with a gas generator for extending driving range--for $41,000, which is about what people had been expecting. The automaker notes that with a federal tax credit, the actual cost to consumers is $33,500.

A site lays bare the speed experienced by customers of different firms.

Choosing a broadband provider is a little like shopping blind folded: you rarely know what speed connection you'll actually get until you've handed over your first month's subscription. Also, marketing material carefully uses the phrase "up to", so consumers tend to only know about the best case scenario speeds of different providers.