A bacterium on its own can’t reach very far. And when stacked on the sea floor in a large colony, it may have access to either oxygen (top of the pile) or food (bottom of the pile). So for the entire colony to thrive, the bottom and top layers must be choreographed in chemical reactions occurring across great expanses, allowing electrons from food consumption in the basement to react to oxygen from the rooftop. A new study just published in Nature set to isolate the way bacteria pull of this stunt. The first guess, molecular diffusion, was found to be too slow for as dynamically as these colonies reacted in various testing.

Nanotech wonder Buckypaper is 10 times lighter and 500 times stronger than steel. And while academic research labs have successfully synthesized the stuff for years, the first architectural firm has just made Buckypaper on their own. NY’s Decker Yeardon just revealed their first thin sheet of the stuff—a “paper” made up of carbon nanotubes that, aside from being absurdly strong and light, can serve functions like filtering and heat dispersion. Their first piece measures just 90mm in diameter, but that’s not stopping Decker Yeardon from imagining the possibilities: We’re hopeful that this new Buckypaper can be used as a thin, flexible electrode surface in an artificial muscle that we’re developing for architecture. But as much as the prospect of a flexing Burj Khalifa excites us all, it’s probably not a bad time to remember, we haven’t exactly don’t a ton of research as to the effects of of these materials on our own bodies. Further study is necessary before we dare fill our cities with it.

Conventional treatments are often ineffective for treating brain cancer, but scientists have developed a novel new method of destroying cancer cells in the brain: they tag them with metal nanodiscs and shake them to death with magnets. Scientists at the University of Chicago and the U.S. Department of Energy have developed a process by which tiny iron-plated discs are attached to antibodies that seek out cancerous cells. Those cells end up getting tagged with the discs, and when a light magnetic field is applied, the oscillation causes the cells to self-destruct.

They’re light, they’re colorful, and with the exception of the Mini, HyperMac’s new kandy-kolored iPhone / iPod batteries are easily pocketable. It’s a shame the new style hasn’t found its way to the MacBook-charging lineup — let’s hope that’s in the cards — but on the plus side, given it charges any USB-powered device, we can see this coming in pretty handy on an universal level. Like gazing upon rainbow-colored batteries? We’ve got you covered in the gallery below. Gallery: HyperMac Mini, Micro, and Nano hands-on HyperMac Micro, Mini, and Nano hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:41:00 EST.

Breaking news in the world of sponge technologies: Obsorb is a new nano glass matrix sponge that, when dipped into water, swells to suck the pollutants right out. Intended to purify our groundwater from dangerous pollutants like gasoline (note: it doesn’t appear that Obsorb can handle crude oil, but I could be mistaken), Obsorb is a hydrophobic material comprised of active glass—in other words, its glass actually bonds with bad chemicals, but it won’t take any water along with the pollutants. Once full of up to 8x its weight in gunk, Obsorb floats to the water’s surface where it can be skimmed, ringed out (by other chemicals, we believe) and dropped back in the water hundreds of times. And, if you listen very closely, you can almost hear the Stayfree exec who dropped the ball on the “Obsorb” trademark sobbing into his tie as he gives his letter of resignation one last pass.

If you’re even thinking about buying an Apple product, wait until after you’ve read this guide to product cycles and refreshes. It’s not always a good time to buy—and now might be an especially bad one for some. We’ve taken a good look at the handy Buyer’s Guide over at MacRumors and given you some background and our own recommendations for safe shopping. Enjoy, and try not to throw too many elbows out there. And don’t worry! If you hate all things Apple, we’ve got you covered here . iPod Shuffle Whether a major revamp or a new selection of colors, Apple has updated Shuffle twice a year, like clockwork, every year since 2006

Starting this Saturday, Wal-mart will begin selling the 8GB iPod Nano for $145 (normally $150 or so) with a free $50 iTunes gift card. The offer will go through December 24th. (In other words, no picking one up Christmas morning. Sorry.)

If you need yet more reason to delay purchasing a current generation netbook, we’re hearing that Acer has eagerly scooped up an order for NVIDIA’s Ion 2 chips, which will eventually be found partnering Intel’s forthcoming Pineview hardware in machines of the future. With Intel now integrating graphics processing and the memory controller into the CPU packaging, the Ion 2 is expected to serve much more like a discrete GPU than the Ion chipset of today. Plans to support VIA processors are also still firmly in place, should you wish to experience the improved graphics performance outside of the realm of Lord Intel. NVIDIA Ion 2 already ordered up by Acer?

Hard to believe it but iTunes tagging has finally arrived in Europe. Well, Great Britain. The UK? Fine, England. Ok, ok, to those parts of London where you can tune into Absolute Radio 105.8FM — the only European station to have inked a deal with Seattle-based Jump2Go (developer of the tech) and Britain’s own Unique Interactive. Owners of the new iPod nano with built-in FM radio can now tag songs they’re listening to for later purchase from the iTunes store when docked

Via’s latest nano processor, the 3000, has gone official today for a release in early 2010 in speeds ranging between 1 to 2GHz. The promise? 20% lower power consumption than old Vias, and 1080P playback. Intel’s gotten cocky enough in the space that we don’t mind the competition one bit.