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Intel Core i7 720QM vs i3 3120M. Technology - What a waste: Turning poo into plastic. That rather unappetising image may soon be a reality, thanks to the rise of bioplastics.

Technology - What a waste: Turning poo into plastic

These biodegradable materials may soon offer a realistic – and cost effective – alternative to plastics derived from oil. Technology - ER-2: Reaching for the skies. Science & Environment - How to defend Earth from asteroids. Synopsis What's six miles wide and can end civilization in an instant?

Science & Environment - How to defend Earth from asteroids

Astronomer and blogger Phil Plait reveals all the ways asteroids can kill, and what we must do to avoid them. Talk recorded 5 September 2011. About the Speaker. Technology - Ten weird and wonderful transport concepts of tomorrow. US entrepreneur Elon Musk unveiled his vision for the Hyperloop, transporting people in a tube between cities at supersonic speed.

Technology - Ten weird and wonderful transport concepts of tomorrow

Here we look at some of the other transport concepts pushing the boundaries of what's currently possible. Elon Musk is a man who thinks big. Voyager probe 'leaves Solar System' 12 September 2013Last updated at 14:00 ET By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News Voyager will live out its days circling the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy The Voyager-1 spacecraft has become the first manmade object to leave the Solar System.

Voyager probe 'leaves Solar System'

Scientists say the probe's instruments indicate it has moved beyond the bubble of hot gas from our Sun and is now moving in the space between the stars. Launched in 1977, Voyager was sent initially to study the outer planets, but then just kept on going. Today, the veteran Nasa mission is almost 19 billion km (12 billion miles) from home. This distance is so vast that it takes 17 hours now for a radio signal sent from Voyager to reach receivers here on Earth. The new industrial design revolution. Formula E to use Qualcomm technologies in electric cars. 9 September 2013Last updated at 06:10 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter Qualcomm had already been working with Formula E team Drayson Racing ahead of the announcement Smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm has signed a sponsorship deal with the forthcoming Formula E championship.

Formula E to use Qualcomm technologies in electric cars

The FIA international motorsports body plans to launch the electric-car competition next year as an alternative to Formula 1.

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Phones. The city of 2050. Sensor networks Experts predict that everything, from street furniture to roads to the homes we live in, will be connected to the network.

The city of 2050

All these objects will produce vast amounts of data and some cities may build Nasa-style control centres to make predictions about city life, including where crimes may be committed. Smart buildings Buildings will have taken on a life of their own, controlling heating, lighting and security with little human intervention. Architects envisage buildings becoming far more sustainable, producing their own power and reusing rain water.

Buildings may be able to store energy in huge batteries, while homes put excess electricity back into the smart grid. Multimeters. Potato driven led. Understanding RC LiPo Batteries. Hagfish slime: The clothing of the future? 1 April 2013Last updated at 20:33 ET By Anna Rothschild PRI's The World, Ontario, Canada The jawless, spineless hagfish is a primitive creature that lives at the bottom of the ocean and dates back as far as 500 million years - but it exudes a very special slime, which could provide the clothing of the future.

Hagfish slime: The clothing of the future?

Hagfish are not the most glamorous of creatures. They slope around on the deep, dark ocean floor, scavenging for food. Stretchy battery drawn to three times its size. 26 February 2013Last updated at 11:39 ET By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News The team tested their battery by stretching it 300% while it powered an LED lamp.

Stretchy battery drawn to three times its size

Wi-fi, dual-flush loos and eight more Australian inventions. Australians are perhaps more famed for their sporting feats than for their technological innovation - but a new children's book aims to change that.

Wi-fi, dual-flush loos and eight more Australian inventions

Here are 10 eye-catching inventions that come from the land down under, according to Christopher Cheng and Lindsay Knight, authors of Australia's Greatest Inventions and Innovations. In some cases inventors from other countries may also have a legitimate claim, but Cheng and Knight do not want the Australian research to go unnoticed. Wi-fi John O'Sullivan, an astronomy and space science fellow at Melbourne's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, is seen in his home country as the father of wi-fi. The real Spider-Man: Stickiness goes to the next level. Geckos are among the superheroes of the animal world.

The real Spider-Man: Stickiness goes to the next level

These colourful lizards can scamper rapidly up walls, scuttle along ceilings and even hang upside down on polished glass. Yet the secret of their amazing climbing ability remained a mystery until relatively recently. The underside of a gecko's foot looks like a tyre tread and is covered in millions of microscopic hairs.

Each hair splits into hundreds of tips just 200 billionths of a metre wide. Two blind British men have electronic retinas fitted. 3 May 2012Last updated at 05:50 ET By Fergus Walsh Medical correspondent X-ray of skull showing position of chip with cable running to control unit Two British men who have been totally blind for many years have had part of their vision restored after surgery to fit pioneering eye implants. They are able to perceive light and even some shapes from the devices which were fitted behind the retina. 'Twisted light' data-boosting idea sparks heated debate.

7 November 2012Last updated at 19:05 ET By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News. Invisibility cloaking in 'perfect' demonstration. 12 November 2012Last updated at 00:50 GMT By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News. Quantum key distribution with single photons. 3 August 2012Last updated at 06:59 ET By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News "Quantum dots" are making inroads in medical imaging as well, thanks to their precise light-emitting properties German researchers have improved a method to make secure codes called quantum key distribution (QKD) by using the smallest possible packets of light.

The approach's security exploits the fact that quantum systems, once observed, are irrevocably changed.