A team of Scottish, German, and Italian researchers have collaborated to subvert the limits of the silicon chip and have come up with a way to create nano-sized wires and intricate nano-chips that can turn handheld phones into an equal of high-end computer laptops. This new discovery will be published in the next issue of the scientific journal Science.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany), and the University of Rome (Italy) have speculated that their new findings will pave the way to more powerful computers just about the size of your palm. "This will help to make small devices much more powerful in the future," said Dr. Michael Zaiser of the University of Edinburgh.

While many an enthusiast rambles on how great AMD processors are better than Intel or vice versa, soon there would be little to fuel the bickering when handheld supercomputers have come to be realized. "Holding a supercomputer in the palm of your hand will one day be possible - and we are going to make sure all the wires are in the right place," Zaiser said. That is, of course, once engineers and scientists have overcome the issues that come hand in hand with nano-miniaturization.

"What we found is when we made these wires smaller and smaller they started to behave in a very funny way," said Zaiser. The different behavior cued the researchers to use computers to predict these unconventional behaviors, which could help engineers understand the new phenomena and how to work around them.

In the experimental front, STI (Sony, Toshiba, IBM) have previously voiced out plans for a 45-nm iteration of the 1x8 core CELL Broadband Engine, while Intel is still secretive about developments on its 80-core prototype (codenamed POLARIS) which still has a couple of years before entering commercial production. AMD in the meantime has previously released news of its new Phenom processor, a multi-core on single-die architectural marvel.

Great news, guys. A recent study indicates that male are generally more intelligent than women. At the same time, we're also dumber. This results were observed from a recently conducted study, done in part by Edinburgh University's Timothy Bates.

The study was conducted on more than 2,500 brothers and sisters, and measured the subject's intelligence based on topics like science, maths, English, and mechanical finesse. The study's results indicates that there were twice as many men than women in the smarter group. There were also twice as many men than women in the lowest IQ brackets. To paraphrase Irving Berlin's classic song, anything they can do, we can do better (?).

To explain the study's observations, Professor Bates said that "[t]he female developmental programme may be tilted more towards ensuring survival and the safety of the middle ground." This study reportedly coincides with a previous study regarding academics. According to the said study, it was indicated that men tended to take higher risks in their academics. While this resulted in them getting higher marks, it also meant that men also tended to fail more. The females in the study rated very consistently academics-wise, and proved to be a middle ground.

 

Unreal Tournament III may mark the start of tough times for the Xbox 360 as Mark Rein of Epic Games explains that the size of the DVD format for the Xbox 360 are forcing developers to cut down the game. Rein says during the Edinburgh Festival that Epic Games will

... compress some things. But you know, we may have fewer maps on the 360 version... Blu-Ray has definitely given us a lot of legroom.

As developers begin to warm up to the capabilities of each console, the market may soon see a larger demand on data like UT3. This ups the ante quite a bit as this would definitely be a boon for the Blu-Ray, gaining more favor towards the PlayStation 3. 

However, data storage is quite easily bypassed with a second disc. This might not bode well for those who own the Core system though, as data may prove too large for a memory card. A Hard Drive would definitely be preferable when transferring between two discs. Might this be the reason behind the "Hard Disk Drive Required" sticker appearing on future 360 games?

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot today reaffirmed at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival that his company is intent on entering the film industry and has made big strides towards the attainment of that goal.

Guillemot calls the move as the next logical step for the French-based firm, saying that it's the best way to take advantage of the next-generation of technology. "We will start making movies not because we want to, but because this is what we have to do," he declared.

Ubisoft is already one of the biggest and most reputable game publishers in the business, and they still plan to expand on a global basis with the creation of big investments in North America and Asia. The company has set up a CGI studio in Montreal, Canada recently and is looking at China as the venue of its next stronghold. The company hires about 500 people a year.

No mention of the upcoming Prince of Persia movie was made, but it was reiterated that an Assassin's Creed flick was a very feasible project. "Prince of Persia" will be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Michael Bay.

Guillemot says that Ubisoft knows exactly what it takes to come up big in the entertainment industry, and he enumerates them as "AAA blockbuster titles, a family portfolio, and capitalizing on the Internet."

Whisking its way by the presses is Activision's announcement of a new track premiered at the last day of the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival (EIEF) for 2007. The official press release identified "She Bangs the Drums" by The Stone Roses to be featured in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii) and was played exclusively for the Edinburgh gamefest.

"She Bangs the Drums" is a track from The Stone Roses' album - the same album voted by New Musical Express (NME) Magazine to be the "Greatest British Album of All Time." It became the embodiment of the publisher's promise to Guitar Hero fans, because for Activision, every track will "draw inspiration" from different guitar music genres over time.

"The Edinburgh Interactive Festival is all about the culture of gaming. The Guitar Hero franchise has already established itself as part of mainstream pop culture, so it was a perfect place to unveil one of our UK-originated songs," said RedOctane Europe's general manager, Zach Fountain.

The track was played during the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock screening event, held August 14, 2007 at the Odeon, Lothian Road, in Edinburgh. Along with the music, the game's boss encounters and multiplayer modes were showcased, giving guests a for-their-eyes-only preview of the game's feature and content.

But fret not: RedOctane will be offering more to show at the industry's upcoming game shows, including the upcoming Games Convention in Leipzig. "The Guitar Hero road show moves from here to Leipzig, where we’ll be announcing a whole new stack of European songs for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock," said Fountain. So stay tuned.

CCP Games CEO Hilmar Petursson delivered a speech at the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) 2007 and part of it focused on the difference between World of Warcraft's "themepark" approach to the MMORPG genre and Eve Online's playground structure. He also talked about how their company was already there when the genre wasn't fully formed yet.

"We began full-force in 2000 by raising US$ 3 million, which is about one-tenth of the current MMORPG. The last year of which we had no money, but everyone turned up to work anyway despite us not being able to pay them. This created a core of people who have gone through hell with us, and helps with the community especially," explained the CEO.

On to the juicier part, Petursson reminisced how Eve Online started as an MMO video game but looking at it now, it is more of a virtual society or the console platform's sandbox genre. While acknowledging that WoW is a good game, the CEO hinted though that Blizzard is not giving its user base the chance to "play" and "explore".

According to the official, this is not even about giving the players complex tools to tinker with because the players themselves will eventually come up with "complex in-game behaviors" as long as they understand the tools at work in the game. He added:

When people play, they are doing something social and its inherently competitively social, which allows you to hone and develop skills which are applicable to real life: incentive plans for employees, using PR to take down your enemy, manage complex logistics, and so on.

Lastly, Hilmar Petursson reminded everyone that it's about time MMO developers give back the power to the hands of the players. "We are now in a big effort to decentralize governance of the world. We want to employ democratic elections to elect representatives to have an ongoing say in development," he added.

In the 2007 Edinburgh Interactive Festival, Eidos Product Acquisitions director Ian Livingstone observed that gaming was still significantly behind movies and comics in terms of character "recognizability". This led him to say that the gaming industry "needs more Lara Crofts."

GameSpot narrates that in Livingstone's presentation at the aforementioned shindig, he presented the audience images of popular movie and comic characters first, then went on to flash pictures of iconic game personalities. The result: movie and comic book characters were easier to recognize for the crowd.

The Eidos bigwig then goes on to ask, "If we all work in the games industry, what does that say?" And then he went on to answer that same question by saying that developers need to establish more character in their games.

Livingstone discussed some key elements which can make a character linger in the psyche of gamers. One of the most important, he says, is the name. ""With a name like 'Darth Vader,' you know he's not going to be nice," he says. "Now 'Jar Jar Binks,' he's going to be much more fun."

Livingstone also pointed out that a distinctive look always helps. He cited their character Agent 47 from the popular Hitman series and revealed that the bald head with the bar code at the base often fascinated their audience, giving the character more life than others.

Finally, he says there are catch phrases. These are amazingly cool and original lines that will help people identify with a given character. Much like in a movie, people will find it hard to forget a particular line that hits close to home.

The Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival (EIEF) 2007 has announced this year's Game Screening line up, featuring a plethora of highly anticipated AAA rated games. The Game Screenings will commence on August 14, 2007 at the Odeon Cinema in Edinburgh.

The event will play host to regional premieres of Codemasters' Rise of the Argonauts (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3) and Turning Point: Fall of Liberty (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3), along with Activision's Guitar Hero III (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii).

Other game titles to be featured at the Game Screenings are Midway's Unreal Tournament III (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3), Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3), and Take-Two Interactive's BioShock (PC, Xbox 360). The official announcement via press wire clued in to more games lined up for the one-day exclusive affair, although some titles will not be rendered in playable or hands-on format.

In addition, the Game Screenings will also pool in gaming fans for sneak previews, to meet, greet, and converse with their favorite game designers, and even participate in panels such as the "How To Get Into The Games Industry" expert discussion to be lead by Rebecca Thompson. Brian Glasgow, EIEF 2007 screenings director, shared his excitement and stated:

The 2007 festival Screenings promises to be the best yet. We have a fantastic line up of games and sessions. If you want to find out how to get a job in the games industry, see what you'll be playing this Christmas or meet the teams who are creating games for the latest generation of consoles, you have to be there.

Not limiting themselves to core and mainstream gamers, the EIEF is now open to even non-gamers, introducing a track for casual gaming and familiarization of gaming - the first step for going into a world of interactive entertainment. The current Game Screenings line up follows, and we'll give you more updates as they develop.

Curious about the Games Screening tracks? Check out a published list at the full article after the jump!

Forget Star Wars Clone Wars, cloned livestock looks to be the current trend most developed countries, like the U.S., are heading. Food and Drug Administration issued a draft ruling last year stating that meat and milk from cloned animals are safe for human consumption.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has also taken an interest in this and is also carrying out its own investigation into the safety of cloned food and the impact on animal welfare, biodiversity, and the environment .

The director of Genesis Faraday (a scientific partnership based in Edinburgh) Chris Warkup, has given a few thoughts on this, its implementation, and the current status of prime meat in the industry.

If the FDA say what they seem minded to say, you might expect meat and milk from the progeny of clones - not clones themselves - to be on the U.S. market in the not-too-distant future. There is a pyramid structure in animal breeding. All the breed improvement occurs to a few elite animals at the top of the pyramid.

The big advantage of the Dolly technology (somatic cell nuclear transfer) is that you know what the animal's potential is, because you are taking the DNA from an adult. You could even take cells from a beef carcass on the slaughter line and recreate the animal that produced that very impressive carcass.

If you'd care to recall, Dolly was the first animal ever cloned. This was soon followed by the cloning of various animals such as goats, dogs, cats, horses, mice, rats, but more importantly cattle and pigs. Now while the application of this cloning technology might seem like a very good thing for the meat industry, not everyone is jumping on the bandwagon.

The senior science officer at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) Nikki Osborne, spoke on behalf of his organization.

We are totally opposed to the cloning of animals for food production purposes. The process is inefficient, and has a huge potential to cause the animals involved unnecessary pain, suffering and distress - for absolutely no valid reason.

So there you have it, cloned meat might be hitting our grills pretty soon. Will it be long 'til we start referring to the quality of meat and dairy products as we do wine? Imagine walking into the grocery to find vintage labels on your milk, butter, and steaks. Mmmm, steaks.

If you look back at the history of the PlayStation consoles, you won't be able to avoid Chris Deering, founder of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) back in 1995. He also spearheaded for the PlayStation, PS2, and PlayStation Portable. He later became head of Sony's consumer electronics division in 2004. He left Sony in 2005 to pursue more personal goals in the U.S.

A living legend in the gaming industry, it's not surprising that his opinions for the PS3 still have a lot of weight even though he's no longer part of the Sony Group (he still maintains associations, though). In a recent interview by GamesIndustry.biz, Deering expresses his views on the PS3.

Deering remains very optimistic about the PS3, relating its current struggles with the ones the original PS console had. Back then the PS was also considered overpriced until the time that platform exclusive games came out and everyone suddenly agreed that it was worth it. With everything the PS3 has to offer Deering says gamers get value for their money. All it takes to get the ball rolling is for an iconic game to come out that equals the effect Tomb Raider and Grand Theft Auto had during their time.

Although the PS3 "is no longer the wonder child of high tech," Deering says that it's still early in the game. The Christmas season is fast approaching and a lot can happen then. A lot of games haven't come out yet and price changes will surely affect the market.

Deering also expresses the problems Sony had in coordinating its PR to promote the PS3 and how the industry can benefit from seeing new blood enter the arena, but all in all he remains confident in the future of the PS3. Deering ended the interview on a very bright note: "I think PlayStation 3 will be looked back upon ten years from now as a fabulous, life-changing invention."