TIMES OF TECHNOLOGY

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers trying to make tiny machines have turned to the power of nature, engineering a virus to attract metals and then using it to build minute wires for microscopic batteries.

The resulting nanowires can be used in minuscule lithium ion battery electrodes, which in turn would be used to power very small machines, the researchers report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

The international team of researchers, led by a group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, used the M13 virus, a simple and easily manipulated virus.

"We use viruses to synthesize and assemble nanowires of cobalt oxide at room temperature," the researchers wrote.

They modified the M13 virus' genes so its outside layer, or coat, would bind with certain metal ions. They incubated the virus in a cobalt chloride solution so that cobalt oxide crystals mineralized uniformly along its length.

They added a bit of gold for the desired electrical effects.

Viruses cannot reproduce on their own but must be grown in cells -- in this case, bacteria. They inject their genetic material and then the cells pump out copies of the virus.

The viruses formed orderly layers, the researchers reported.

The resulting nanowires worked as positive electrodes for battery electrodes, the researchers said.

They hope to build batteries that range from the size of a grain of rice up to the size of existing hearing-aid batteries.

Each virus, and thus each wire, is only 6 nanometers -- 6 billionths of a meter -- in diameter, and 880 nanometers long, the researchers said.

"We have previously used viruses to assemble semiconductor and magnetic nanowires," the researchers wrote.

India's video game buffs have a tough choice before them now that both Sony's Playstation and Microsoft's Xbox are determined to take over the country.

PS rules.” “Xbox rocks.” Just a few superlatives that show the huge divide that has come to pass, at least as far as gaming freaks are concerned. Sony’s Playstation (PS) and Microsoft’s Xbox have been battling it out hard to become the gamer’s first choice console for quite some time now.

For people who still don’t know what terms like PS and the Xbox (as they are popularly known) mean, here’s a little backgrounder. Playstation was actually launched in the late 90s by Sony and found its way to the Indian market in early 2002.

Playstation for quite sometime enjoyed unrivalled popularity worldwide. But with the entry of Microsoft’s Xbox at the turn of the century, people suddenly found that they had an alternative.

Xbox is pretty similar to Playstation and offers more or less the same technical specifications. Though officially not available in India, it has still created quite a stir among gamers in the country.

Milestone Interactive, a Bombay-based company, has been distributing the console in Indian markets. PS is a basic gaming console where all you have to do is insert a game CD or DVD before you can get down to some serious addictive gaming.

While PS 2 comes in two variants, the black and the silver, costing Rs 12,990 and Rs 13,490 respectively, the Xbox 360 needs to be officially ordered and is shipped across in a week’s time and costs around Rs 13,500.

Narayan Prabhu, sales manager, Milestone Interactive, feels that the PS as a product reaches out to everyone. “The games are meant for kids aged between 3-18 and above,” he says. So it covers the entire gamut of people who are interested in gaming consoles.

Says Mohit Anand, county manager, Microsoft India’s entertainment and devices division, “Xbox has become a favourite of gamers all across the globe and has found a lot of takers in India as well.”

He says that if this is the case before the product is officially available, it will gain even more popularity once shoppers can pick it up locally.

PS 2 has sold about 10,000 units in the country so far and is expecting to see an upward swing when PS 3 is officially launched. PS 3 is said to be one of the most awaited gizmos and should be launched in November 2006.

The other aspect of the whole gaming console business is the CDs or DVDs which one has to buy. The original CDs are pretty highly priced, and most users go for pirated ones that are easily available. However, Prabhu says that the CDs sound expensive only when a new game is launched.

“Once the game is about six months old, prices come down automatically.” A new game CD is priced at around Rs 3,000 while the old ones cost you anywhere around Rs 499-699.

While Anand feels that the Xbox CDs, when available, will be priced keeping in mind the purchasing power of the customer. The original CDs, though, cost around Rs 1,500.

Citing the example of Microsoft’s PC games, he explains, “Our PC games are priced at between Rs 300- 1,200, so we keep the target audience happy.”
Apart from Xbox and PS, there is another alternative which is available in the Indian markets, Nintendo’s Game Cube and its next generation model, the Revolution.

The fact that PS 2 can play both DVDs and PS 1 games gives it the edge over Xbox, despite the fact that it has inferior graphics and sound compared to the Xbox. The Xbox offers better graphics and surround sound as well.

The Xbox supports four players while the PS 2 supports only two. The PS 3 will support upto seven players excluding the online players, and will have better graphics as well as sound.

If you want to buy either of the two, it’s a tough call. Though if you are seriously into gaming, you can always buy both. And if you are not into gaming, then you have no clue what you are missing out on!