Fancy the new iPad's whopping 2048x1536 Retina display, but wish it could be readable in direct sunlight, like those Pixel Qi netbook displays ?

This is one wild blanket. It's all embroidered up with sensors, conductive tassels and resistors that enable it to gather enough information to create a 3D model of itself no matter how it is folded or laid out

The battle to dominate your eyes is about to get ugly.

Back in March, we posted about how this could be the year where the National Ignition Facility breaks even with laser fusion , reaching the point where as much power is generated as is input. This doesn't mean we've got a fusion power plant around the corner, though, and researchers have come clean about what the hold-up is.

Diamonds, well known for being utterly useless piles of carbon atoms, may in fact be good for something: flaws inside them have been turned into an operational quantum computer .

Termites manage to power themselves by eating wood, which is a pretty neat trick. Sony has just come up with a battery that does the same thing: feed it shredded paper or cardboard , and it produces enough electricity to run an MP3 player.

The idea of jacking yourself into some sort of machine that can teach you anything you want to know without you having to, you know, do anything is total science fiction. Or, it would be, if some researchers hadn't just done it. Teachers, you are now obsolete!