IBM researchers make 12-atom magnetic memory bit

The groups of atoms were built using a scanning tunneling microscope

Researchers have successfully stored a single data bit in only 12 atoms.

Currently it takes about a million atoms to store a bit on a modern hard-disk, the researchers from IBM say.

They believe this is the world's smallest magnetic memory bit.

According to the researchers, the technique opens up the possibility of producing much denser forms of magnetic computer memory than today's hard disk drives and solid state memory chips.

"Roughly every two years hard drives become denser," research lead author Sebastian Loth told the BBC.

"The obvious question to ask is how long can we keep going. And the fundamental physical limit is the world of atoms.

"The approach that we used is to jump to the very end, check if we can store information in one atom, and if not one atom, how many do we need?" he said.

Below 12 atoms the researchers found that the bits randomly lost information, owing to quantum effects.

A bit can have a value of 0 or 1 and is the most basic form of information in computation.

"We kept building larger structures until we emerged out of the quantum mechanical into the classical data storage regime and we reached this limit at 12 atoms."

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As a scientist [I] would totally dig having a scanning tunnelling microscope in every household”

Sebastian Loth Research lead author

The groups of atoms, which were kept at very low temperatures, were arranged using a scanning tunnelling microscope. Researchers were subsequently able to form a byte made of eight of the 12-atom bits.

Central to the research has been the use of materials with different magnetic properties.

The magnetic fields of bits made from conventional ferromagnetic materials can affect neighbouring bits if they are packed too closely together.

"In conventional magnetic data storage the information is stored in ferromagnetic material," said Dr Loth, who is now based at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science in Germany.

"That adds up to a big magnetic field that can interfere with neighbours. That's a big problem for further miniaturisation."

Other scientists thought that was an interesting result.

"Current magnetic memory architectures are fundamentally limited in how small they can go," Dr Will Branford, of Imperial College London, told the BBC.

"This work shows that in principle data can be stored much more densely using antiferromagnetic bits."

But the move from the lab to the production may be some time away.

"Even though I as a scientist would totally dig having a scanning tunnelling microscope in every household, I agree it's a very experimental tool," Dr Loth said.

Dr Loth believes that by increasing the number of atoms to between 150 to 200 the bits can be made stable at room temperature. That opens up the possibility of more practical applications.

"This is now a technological challenge to find out about new manufacturing techniques," he said.

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What future for Afghan woman jailed for being raped ?

By Caroline Wyatt BBC News, Kabul

Gulnaz gave birth to her daughter, Moska, in jail

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Related Stories

• Afghan victim 'may marry' rapist
• Afghan girl in hospital after rescue

Two high profile cases of violence have sparked domestic and international outcry over the treatment of Afghan women, but campaigners fear a winding down of the military campaign will mean the international community will no longer be interested.

Outside it was a gloriously sunny winter's day. The mountains that loom above the city silhouetted against a cloudless blue sky. But inside the house was dark and the curtains drawn, so that the neighbours could not see in.

This was the safe house in Kabul where Gulnaz and her child had found refuge. The women there asked not to be identified in case their house was burnt down.

Just 21, Gulnaz had been released that week from prison, where she had given birth to her daughter Moska. Gulnaz seemed younger than her years, but she held my gaze almost defiantly as she told her story.

She had been imprisoned in a Kabul women's jail after her cousin's husband raped her.

The crime came to light when the unmarried Gulnaz became pregnant.

The police came and arrested both Gulnaz and her attacker. Under Afghan law she too was found guilty of a crime known as "adultery by force", with her sentence increased on appeal to 12 years.

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When the case aroused condemnation abroad, President Hamid Karzai intervened and Gulnaz was pardoned.

Looking bewildered at her sudden freedom, she told me all she wanted was to go home to her family. In order to do that, she was prepared to marry the man who raped her - otherwise their families would be enemies.

The problem for Gulnaz is that if her attacker will not marry her - or cannot come up with a substantial dowry - the "stain" on her family's honour will remain, perhaps with lethal consequences for Gulnaz and her child. That may mean she can never go home.

For a single mother, unskilled and unqualified, there are few ways for a woman to survive in Afghanistan without family support.

An American lawyer in Kabul, Kim Motley, has taken up Gulnaz's case. She is trying to raise money for her to fund a new life, somehow, somewhere, if Gulnaz cannot go home.

Rescued from violence

I was still wondering what would happen to her when we went to meet 15-year-old Sahar Gul, as she lay in a hospital bed recovering from her injuries, too traumatised to talk.

Sahar's injuries caused public outcry in Afghanistan

Married off to a 30-year-old man for a dowry of about $4,500 (£3,000), Sahar had been kept locked in a cellar for several months, starved and tortured by her husband and his family. It is still not really clear why.

Sahar may not have been able to speak, but her injuries did.

Burns to her arm and her fragile body, a swollen black eye, clumps of hair torn out. One small hand was scarred, where her fingernail had been pulled out.

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Tradition and family or community honour is often seen as more important than an individual's misery or misfortune”

The abuse aroused public indignation in Afghanistan, as well as horror abroad.

But Sahar was perhaps, in a strange way, lucky.

She did not run away from a violent marriage, as some Afghan brides have, but was instead rescued from it by police. So she cannot be found guilty of what might otherwise be deemed a "moral crime", as other young Afghan women have been.

Both Sahar and Gulnaz's stories are extreme. But they made me wonder how many other women in Afghanistan still suffer in silence, 10 years after the fall of the Taliban.

There are laws banning violence against women, but enforcing them is hard. Tradition and family or community honour is often seen as more important than an individual's misery or misfortune.

Poverty and lack of education also mean under-age marriage remains common.

When Sahar did try to escape her torturers, it was apparently the neighbours who brought her back to them, before the police intervened.

Dr Samar is concerned about the future of women's rights in Afghanistan

In a quiet, book-lined office in Kabul - a world away from the controlled chaos of the hospital and the dimly-lit safe house - I asked the head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission what she thought.

A no-nonsense woman with steely grey hair, Dr Sima Samar has long risked her own life to speak out for the principles she believes in, equality and justice.

Her answer was clear: She and her colleagues in Afghanistan will carry on fighting to improve the lives of women like Gulnaz and Sahar.

But Dr Samar, like many others, fears the international community is no longer quite so interested in keeping up the pressure on women's rights, as the West seeks to wind down its military campaign.

When Western soldiers no longer patrol the streets of Afghanistan, it will be easier to ignore what goes on behind locked doors and closed curtains in a faraway place.

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Mohamed ElBaradei will end Egypt presidency bid

Mr ElBaradei has been an outspoken critic of Egypt's military govenrment

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Egypt's Revolution

• Islamists battle for rural votes
• Baffling array
• Weird and wonderful logos
• Egyptian views on poll

Egyptian politician and former head of the UN nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei is dropping his candidacy in presidental elections later this year.

Mr ElBaradei, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005, said he had taken his decision in protest at the way Egypt's military rulers governed "as though no revolution had taken place".

A military council has run Egypt since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted.

The election is scheduled to take place in June 2012.

A BBC Arabic reporter in Cairo said Mr ElBaradei - seen as one of the leading liberal candidates - had been the subject of a smear campaign even before he declared his candidacy.

Constitution

In his statement, Mr ElBaradei praised the young people who led the uprising against Mr Mubarak, who was toppled in February 2011 after 18 days of street protests.

"My conscience does not permit me to run for the presidency or any other official position unless it is within a democratic framework," he said.

The BBC's Jon Leyne, in Cairo, says the comments are fairly damning, coming from someone with such international prestige.

However, Mr ElBaradei's critics will say he never stood much chance of becoming president, our correspondent adds.

Mr ElBaradei had wanted a new constitution to be drawn up from scratch before any elections took place.

However, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) opted to go ahead with parliamentary elections first.

The third round of voting has just concluded. The lower house of parliament will elect a 100-member assembly which will then draft a new constitution.

Mr ElBaradei played a prominent role in the Egyptian uprising but his secularist politics have been eclipsed by the main Islamist parties, the Muslim Brotherhood and the conservative Salafist Nour party.

The Islamists took the lion's share of the vote in the first two rounds of elections and will dominate the new parliament.

Even on the liberal wing of Egyptian politics, feelings about Mr ElBaradei are very mixed, our correspondent says.

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Heroes Discussing Poverty in America

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Remaki

Amazing panel on Poverty in America.

Muslim Woman and Med Student Sexually Harassed, Labeled a Terrorist, Thrown out of University, Even Though She's innocent. All this in 2012

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MUSLIM_STUDENT_FBI?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Inside Story US 2012: Is the American dream fading?

Israel upholds citizenship bar for Palestinian spouses

The law is thought to have prevented thousands of Palestinians from living with their Israeli spouses

Palestinian UN membership bid

• Q&A: Bid explained
• Palestinians score points at UN
• Showdown at UN
• Israeli view

Israel's Supreme Court has upheld a law banning Palestinians who marry Israelis from gaining Israeli citizenship.

Civil rights groups had petitioned the court to overturn the law, saying it was unconstitutional.

"Human rights do not prescribe national suicide," Judge Asher Grunis wrote in the judgement.

The law was introduced in 2003, with its backers citing security concerns and the need to ensure Israel remains a Jewish-majority state.

Human rights activists and Arab politicians condemned the court's decision.

The court "had failed the test of justice", said Arab-Israeli MP Jamal Zahalka of the Balad party.

"It is a dark day for the protection of human rights and for the Israeli High Court," lawyers from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel told AFP.

"The ruling proves how much the situation regarding the civil rights of the Arab minority in Israel is declining into a highly dangerous and unprecedented situation", Arab-Israeli civil rights group Adalah, one of those that brought the petition, said in a statement.

The Citizenship and Entry Law was passed in 2003, during the second Palestinian intifada (uprising), as waves of suicide bombings targeted Israel.

Many were launched from the West Bank, some with the help of Israeli Arabs.

Initially, the law was emergency legislation which has since been extended periodically.

It was amended in 2005, allowing women over 25 and men over 35 to apply for temporary permits to live in Israel, but still ruling out citizenship for all but a handful of cases.

In 2007, it was expanded to apply to citizens of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

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Can anyone disagree with the fact that Israel is an Apartheid state now? This ruling confirms that sentiment.

World's smallest frog discovered

By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News

The tiny frog sits easily on a US dime, whose diameter is 18mm

A frog species that appears to be the world's smallest has been discovered in Papua New Guinea by a US-based team.

At 7mm (0.27 inches) long, Paedophryne amauensis may be the world's smallest vertebrate - the group that includes mammals, fish, birds and amphibians.

The researchers also found a slightly larger relative, Paedophryne swiftorum.

Presenting the new species in PLoS One journal, they suggest the frogs' tiny scale is linked to their habitat, in leaf litter on the forest floor.

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What are amphibians?

• First true amphibians evolved about 250 million years ago
• Three orders: frogs (inc. toads), salamanders (inc. newts) and the limbless caecilians
• Adapted to many aquatic and terrestrial habitats
• Present on every continent except Antarctica
• Many metamorphose from larvae to adults

• Amphibians videos, news and facts: BBC Nature

Finding the frogs was not an easy assignment.

They are well camouflaged among leaves on the forest floor, and have evolved calls resembling those of insects, making them hard to spot.

"The New Guinea forests are incredibly loud at night; and we were trying to record frog calls in the forest, and we were curious as to what these other sounds were," said research leader Chris Austin from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, US.

"So we triangulated to where these calls were coming from, and looked through the leaf litter.

"It was night, these things are incredibly small; so what we did after several frustrating attempts was to grab a whole handful of leaf litter and throw it inside a clear plastic bag.

"When we did so, we saw these incredibly tiny frogs hopping around," he told BBC News.

Littering the leaves

The Paedophryne genus was identified only recently, and consists of a number of tiny species found at various points in the eastern forests of Papua New Guinea.

The tiny limbs of amauensis (top) and swiftorum are rendered translucent

"They're occupying the relatively thick leaf litter of tropical forest in low-lying parts of the island, eating incredibly small insects that typically are much smaller than insects that frogs eat," said Professor Austin.

"And they're probably prey for a large number of relatively small invertebrates that don't usually prey on frogs."

Predators may well include scorpions.

Intriguingly, other places in the world that also feature dense, moist leaf litter tend to possess such small frog species, indicating that amphibians are well placed to occupy this ecological niche.

Before the Paedophrynes were found, the title of "world's smallest frog" was bestowed on the Brazilian gold frog (Brachycephalus didactylus) and its slightly larger Cuban relative, the Monte Iberia Eleuth (Eleutherodactylus iberia). They both measure less than 1cm long.

The smallest vertebrates have until now been fish.

Adult Paedocypris progenetica, which dwells in Indonesian swamps and streams, measure 7.9-10.3 mm long.

Male anglerfish of the species Photocorynus spiniceps are just over 6mm long. But they spend their lives fused to the much larger (50mm long) females, so whether they should count in this contest would be disputed.

Paedophryne amaunensis adults average 7.7mm, which is why its discoverers believe it how holds the crown.

The remote expanses of Papua New Guinea rank alongside those of Madagascar as places where hitherto undiscovered amphibian species are expected to turn up, as they are largely undeveloped and not well explored.

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Unable to Work, Retirees Move in with Kids and Find it’s not So Bad

Bunching family under one roof isn’t the Holy Grail of retirement. But for those with few choices at least it’s an answer with some unexpected benefits.

By Dan Kadlec | @dankadlec | January 11, 2012 |

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You’ve heard it over and over: the Holy Grail of retirement security is working longer. By sticking around for a few extra years or phasing into retirement with a part-time job, you can defer Social Security benefits and avoid tapping your nest egg right away—and boost your retirement income by 30% or so.

But what if you can’t work longer? What if you are physically unable or, as many have found since the financial crisis, no one will hire you? The next best thing to the Holy Grail seems to be moving in with the kids, if your resources are lacking and they’ll have you.

(MORE: Americans Are Expected to Buy a Million More Cars in 2012)

More than 51 million Americans—about one in six encompassing 12 million homes—live in a multigenerational household. That is a 10% increase since 2007 and while it includes struggling young adults who have moved in with Mom and Dad, struggling parents moving in with the kids are a big part of the mix, according to a report from Generations United.

In the survey, 66% of those who live in a multigenerational household said economic considerations were part of the reason and 21% said economic considerations were the only reason they live that way. Other findings:

• 40% reported that job loss, change in job status, or underemployment was a reason their family became a multigenerational household.
• 20% reported that health care costs prompted them to form a multigenerational household.
• 14% reported that foreclosure or other housing loss prompted them to form a multigenerational household.

Evidently Robert Frost was correct when he wrote that “home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” Yet the living arrangement may not be as awful as you imagine. Some 72% report that living with multiple generations has improved their finances; 82% say it has forged closer bonds with family; and 75% say it has relieved the hardship of finding elder care or childcare.

Multigenerational living brings occasional stress, 78% in the survey report. But in general they agree that the benefits are significant and make it financially possible, for example, to go back to school or get additional job training.

(MORE: One Promising Economic Sign: Demand for Coins is Up)

This is a back to the future trend. When America was primarily an agricultural country, multiple generations routinely lived together on the farm. We may have been headed back this direction even without economic problems. Immigrant populations are growing and, as a matter of culture, often house multiple generations under one roof. Aging and suddenly single boomers, meanwhile, are choosing to take in family or roommates for companionship.

But the biggest driver going forward would seem to be the giant boomer generation now hitting age 66 at a clip of 10,000 a day and, after a lost decade for stocks, looking at retiring with fewer resources than they had planned. According to the report:

“Many boomers may end up turning to their adult children for help—and a place to live in the near future. Even if relatively few baby boomers follow this course, the sheer size of the baby boom population guarantees that their economic struggles will have a significant impact.”

Bunching family under one roof isn’t the Holy Grail of retirement. But for those with few choices, at least it’s an answer with some unexpected benefits.

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Warren Buffett Ready to Take Republicans’ Tax Challenge

By Rana Foroohar | January 11, 2012

Mark Seliger for TIME

Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2012/01/11/warren-buffett-to-mitch-mcconnell-put-up-or-shut-up/#ixzz1jEDVSIJJ

Updated, 6:10 p.m. E.T.

Warren Buffett is ready to call Republicans’ tax bluff. Last fall, Senator Mitch McConnell said that if Buffett were feeling “guilty” about paying too little in taxes, he should “send in a check.” The jab was in response to Buffett’s August 2011 New York Times op-ed, which made hay of the fact that our tax system is so unbalanced, Buffett (worth about $45 billion) pays a lower tax rate than his secretary. Senator John Thune promptly introduced the “Buffett Rule Act,” an option on tax forms that would allow the rich to donate more in taxes to help pay down the national debt. It was, as Buffett told me for this week’s TIME cover story, “a tax policy only a Republican could come up with.”

Still, he’s willing to take them up on it. “It restores my faith in human nature to think that there are people who have been around Washington all this time and are not yet so cynical as to think that [the deficit] can’t be solved by voluntary contributions,” he says with a chuckle. So Buffett has pledged to match 1 for 1 all such voluntary contributions made by Republican members of Congress. “And I’ll even go 3 for 1 for McConnell,” he says. That could be quite a bill if McConnell takes the challenge; after all, the Senator is worth at least $10 million. As Buffett put it to me, “I’m not worried.” (See below for a statement from McConnell’s office.)

Listen to Buffett’s retort to McConnell’s contribution theory:

(PHOTOS: The Life and Career of Warren Buffett)

Buffett doesn’t want to sound ungrateful, especially since McConnell and other Republicans have lobbied to keep taxes low for the über-rich, saving him between $6 million and $7 million this year. Oddly, though, conservatives can’t seem to make up their mind about taxes. On Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal, supply sider Arthur Laffer bashed Buffett for, among other things, shielded income, because he doesn’t pay taxes on unrealized capital gains (currently taxed at 0%) or charitable contributions (which are tax deductible). “Well, I had a net unrealized loss in 2011,” says Buffett. “But if Arthur has a plan for how he wants to tax unrealized capital gains, I’d love to hear it — it’s an interesting thing for a Republican to put forward!”

If Buffett had his way, he’d pay more than the 17% rate he currently forks over on his net adjusted income — and he’d have the government put that additional money to work by making sure that whatever portion of the 99% that isn’t thriving in the market economy gets some help. As Buffett wrote in Fortune a few years back, “I’ve worked in an economy that rewards someone who saves the lives of others on a battlefield with a medal, rewards a great teacher with thank-you notes from parents, but rewards those who can detect the mispricing of securities with sums reaching into the billions.”

Listen to Buffett discuss why a capitalist system should take care of good citizens:

(PHOTOS: The Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders’ Meeting)

Buffett doesn’t want to hobble capitalism. He just wants to give it a heart. And he says the way to do that is to change our tax policy to ensure that people who earn their money from investments rather than by working for a paycheck contribute their fair share. “We need a tax system that takes very good care of people who just really aren’t as well adapted to the market system and to capitalism but are nevertheless just as good citizens and are doing things that are of use in society.” Note to bond traders: your higher taxes should help subsidize the building of bridges and the running of state-sponsored day-care centers.

Buffett has plenty of other prescriptions for America — from more progressive consumption taxes to penalties for errant corporate directors to an overhaul of health care. He’s also got a few choice words for the Republican field and their ideas about bootstrapping and “merit” economies: “This whole business about [Newt] Gingrich going down to Occupy and saying, ‘They ought to be getting a job,’ that’s just … you know, maybe they can be historians for Freddie Mac too and make $600,000 a year.” When I ask whether Mitt Romney is a job creator or destroyer, Buffett says that while businesses shouldn’t keep people they don’t need, “I don’t like what private-equity firms do in terms of taking out every dime they can and leveraging [companies] up so that they really aren’t equipped, in some cases, for the future.”

(SPECIAL: See Warren Buffett in TIME’s List of the People Who Mattered in 2011)

Listen to Buffett explain why education can’t solve all the U.S.’s problems:

Despite Buffett’s disenchantment with conservatives and partisan politics, he’s more than ever a bull on America’s future. What would Warren do to get the U.S. back on track? Read TIME’s cover story this week, available Thursday morning online and Friday on newsstands, to find out.

Listen to Buffett talk about why housing will bounce back:

(MORE: What Politicians Have to Lose — and Gain — from the “Buffett Rule”)

Listen to Buffett discuss the tensions between the U.S. and China:

UPDATE: Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senator McConnell, provided the following response to Buffett’s remarks:

Sen. McConnell says that Washington should be smaller, rather than taxes getting bigger. And since some, like President Obama and Mr. Buffett, want to pay higher taxes, Congress made it possible for them to call their own bluff and send in a check. So I look forward to Mr. Buffett matching a healthy batch of checks from those who actually want to pay higher taxes, including Congressional Democrats, the President and the DNC.

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