WASHINGTON - A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily halted a hearing on patent infringement allegations brought against Qualcomm Inc., and several other companies, after a decision by patent regulators cast doubt on the claims. The delay in the action before the U.S. International Trade Commission appears to be favorable for Qualcomm, since it at least temporarily puts off any possible finding against Qualcomm that could result from the dispute. Qualcomm, the San Diego-based chipmaker giant, ... [full story]

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A start-up software company based on technology developed over a 10-year period by computer scientists at Oregon State University today launched its first commercial product. RedRover Software, Inc., was officially founded in 2006 by OSU professors Margaret Burnett, Martin Erwig and Gregg Rothermel, who were searching for ways to build confidence among spreadsheet users and reduce the costs associated with auditing and error detection of spreadsheets. The company was based in OSU’s ... [full story]

PRINCETON, N.J. - U.S. scientists have developed a technique that can, for the first time, produce three-dimensional, high-resolution images of the human brainstem.The brainstem, a small structure located at the base of the brain, controls such biological functions as breathing and experiences of reward or pleasure. It is also a site for the production of neurotransmitters, the overabundance or absence of which in other parts of the brain are associated with disorders such as schizophrenia ... [full story]

GENEVA, Switzerland - The final piece of the ATLAS particle detector has been put in place in Switzerland, where the Large Hadron Collider is being assembled.The LHC facility, which is scheduled to be switched on this summer, is poised to become the world's most powerful particle accelerator, Brandeis University said Friday in a release. Scientists said experiments conducted at the facility may help unravel some of the deepest mysteries of particle physics.ATLAS is a worldwide ... [full story]

Sci­en­tists in Italy have de­vel­oped com­put­er pro­grams that mim­ic hu­man decision-making by us­ing sim­u­lat­ed “re­gret” to im­prove per­for­mance. The mod­els do a bet­ter job than oth­ers in pre­dict­ing some as­pects of hu­man decision-making, the re­search­ers report. The stu­dy’s bas­ic as­sump­tion was that peo­ple mod­i­fy their be­hav­ior dur­ing stra­te­gic games by look­ing back­ward to what might have been their best move, once they know what the oth­er play­ers’ move was.  Da­vide Mar­chiori of the Uni­ver­s­ity of Tren­to ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies said a key federal toxics law could be used to help warn the public of nanotechnology risks.The organization, a partnership between the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and Pew Charitable Trusts, was formed in 2005 to address the social, political and public safety aspects of nanotechnology. In its first legal analysis, PEN found the federal Toxics Release Inventory law could be applied to production and commercialization of nanotechnology, ... [full story]

SEATTLE - E-mails suggest Microsoft executives struggled to make Windows Vista work on their own computers after it was released, a published report said.The e-mails, which were unsealed in a lawsuit against the company, show some of the early problems Microsoft had with hardware and software compatibility, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer said Thursday. "We need to be clearer with industry, and we need to decide what we will do and do that well and 100 percent and ... [full story]

ATLANTA - A downtown Atlanta bar owner has constructed a remote-controlled robot to patrol the neighborhood around his business late at night.Rufus Terrill, proprietor of O'Terrills bar, built the machine out of an old meat smoker, a three-wheel scooter, an infrared camera, a water cannon and a loudspeaker, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Thursday. Terrill said he got the idea for the remote-controlled vigilante after he became fed up with the drug dealers, thieves and vandals that ... [full story]

ALPHARETTA, Ga. - Reed Elsevier PLC Thursday announced a plan to purchase ChoicePoint Inc. in a deal that would merge personal information about hundreds of millions of people.The $4.1 billion cash offer would combine Reed Elsevier's LexisNexis Group with Alpharetta, Ga. based ChoicePoint, two companies that collect personal information. Both companies specialize in information dealing with law enforcement, homeland security and other intelligence-related concerns, The Washington Post reported.The purchase would create an information giant that ... [full story]

GAITHERSBURG, Md. - U.S. scientists have developed a technique that might offer a low-cost way to mass produce organic electronic transistors on polymer sheets.Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Penn State University and the University of Kentucky said their technique potentially offers an inexpensive way to mass produce such transistors for a wide range of applications including flexible displays, "intelligent paper" and flexible sheets of biosensor arrays for field diagnostics. The scientists discovered ... [full story]

BOULDER, Colo. - U.S. scientists have created a sensitive tiny sensor that can detect nuclear magnetic resonance in samples of fluids flowing through a novel microchip.The sensor developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology can detect nuclear magnetic resonance using a prototype chip device, developed in collaboration with the University of California-Berkeley.Researchers said the device might have wide application as a sensitive analyzer, for example in rapid screening to find new drugs by ... [full story]

SAN JOSE, Calif. - U.S. and German scientists have become the first to measure the force it takes to move individual atoms on a surface.The researchers from IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif., and the University of Regensburg in Germany said their landmark achievement provides fundamental information about atomic-scale fabrication and might lead to new miniaturized data storage devices and computer chips by furthering progress toward nanoscale computing and medical technologies. The research shows ... [full story]

RESTON, Va. - GSA Technology Schedule 70 orders for federal Fiscal Year 2007 (FY07) rose 45.4% to $361.2 million from $248.5 in FY06, according to a new report by INPUT, the authority on government business. Between October 2006 and September 2007, state and local governments ordered nearly $250 million for IT equipment, software and services and an additional $87 million was dedicated to wireless services. Top contractors were Verizon Wireless, DLT Solutions, HPTi, and Mythics ... [full story]