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In every town in every part of this sprawling country you can find a faceless sprawling strip mall in which to do the shopping.

Rarely though do would you expect to find a medical miracle working behind the counter of the mall's hobby shop.

That however is what Lee Spievak considers himself to be.

"I put my finger in," Mr Spievak says, pointing towards the propeller of a model airplane, "and that's when I sliced my finger off."

Today though, you wouldn't know it. Mr Spievak, who is 69 years old, shows off his finger, and it's all there, tissue, nerves, nail, skin, even his finger print.

'Pixie dust'

How? Well that's the truly remarkable part. It wasn't a transplant. Mr Spievak re-grew his finger tip. He used a powder - or pixie dust as he sometimes refers to it while telling his story.

Mr Speivak's brother Alan - who was working in the field of regenerative medicine - sent him the powder.

For ten days Mr Spievak put a little on his finger.

"The second time I put it on I already could see growth. Each day it was up further. Finally it closed up and was a finger.

"It took about four weeks before it was sealed."

Now he says he has "complete feeling, complete movement."

The "pixie dust" comes from the University of Pittsburgh, though in the lab Dr Stephen Badylak prefers to call it extra cellular matrix.

Pig's bladder

The process he has been pioneering over the last few years involves scraping the cells from the lining of a pig's bladder.

The remaining tissue is then placed into acid, "cleaned" of all cells, and dried out.

It can be turned into sheets, or a powder.

It looks like a simple process, but of course the science is complex.

"There are all sorts of signals in the body," explains Dr Badylak.

"We have got signals that are good for forming scar, and others that are good for regenerating tissues.

"One way to think about these matrices is that we have taken out many of the stimuli for scar tissue formation and left those signals that were always there anyway for constructive remodelling."

In other words when the extra cellular matrix is put on a wound, scientists believe it stimulates cells in the tissue to grow rather than scar.

If they can perfect the technique, it might mean one day they could repair not just a severed finger, but severely burnt skin, or even damaged organs.

Clinical trial

They hope soon to start a clinical trial in Buenos Aires on a woman who has cancer of the oesophagus.

The normal procedure in such cases is often deadly. Doctors remove the cancerous portion and try to stretch the stomach lining up to meet the shortened oesophagus.

In the trial they will place the extra cellular matrix inside the body from where the portion of oesophagus has been removed, and hope to stimulate the cells around it to re-grow the missing portion.

So could limbs be re-grown? Dr Badylak is cautious, but believes the technology is potentially revolutionary.

"I think that within ten years that we will have strategies that will re-grow the bones, and promote the growth of functional tissue around those bones. And that is a major step towards eventually doing the entire limb."

That kind of talk has got the US military interested.

They are just about to start trials to re-grow parts of the fingers of injured soldiers.

Skin burns

They also hope the matrix might help veterans like Robert Henline re-grow burnt skin.

He was almost killed in an explosion while serving in Iraq. His four colleagues travelling with him in the army Humvee were all killed.

He suffered 35% burns to his head and upper body. His ears are almost totally gone, the skin on his head has been burnt to the bone, his face is a swollen raw mess.

So far he has undergone surgery 25 times. He reckons he has got another 30 to go.

Anything that could be done in terms of regeneration would be great he says.

"Life changing! I think I'm more scared of hospitals than I am of going back to Iraq again."

Like any developing technology there are many unknowns. There are worries about encouraging cancerous growths by using the matrix.

Doctors though believe that within the so called pixie dust lies an amazing medical discovery.

The increasing demand for wireless broadband has been highlighted by the news that Scarborough wi-fi users will be able to go online in the harbour area.

It was revealed that the service has been made available as part of the Freebay wi-fi project, reports the Yorkshire Post, which appears to have attracted positive feedback.

Boat owner Andrew Fletcher told the paper: "From a boat owner's perspective I would use it all the time and can come to Scarborough and do business. We also use it for safety reports while boating."

Scarborough is reported to have made steps towards becoming a broadband capital within the UK, after introducing technology which offers the fastest internet speeds for business users.

Meanwhile, the inventor of the world wide web has told the BBC that the internet could develop much further - offering more options for broadband users in the future.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee explained that the internet is still in its infancy, with the possibility of all the world's data being made available to broadband users across the globe

Is Mount Teide a magnet for UFOs?

Are aliens from outer space fascinated by our dormant volcano? Does it have an aura around it which can be seen from another hemisphere? Or perhaps there is a more sinister appeal? Is there perhaps an alien base deep down inside the crater?

It’s an interesting theory which sceptics will obviously scoff at but one which believers of extra-terrestial encounters will want to believe.

Certainly, new recent sightings of so-called UFOs have got people talking again and the magnetic appeal of Mount Teide and the mysticism surrounding the history of the Canary Islands makes a link even more plausible.

Only last week, several alleged sightings of an UFO in Gran Canaria made the headlines, with a number of people calling the police and the media after spotting a large bright object floating in the sky. And last autumn, an American couple living in Tenerife watched in disbelief for four hours as a wedge-shaped object hovered near their home in the La Laguna area. And no, they hadn’t been drinking!

Believe it or not, it’s surprising how often Mount Teide crops up in stories about UFOs or close encounters of the third kind.

One of the most celebrated cases concerns the cult which was broken up by police on Tenerife in the 1990s. The semi-mystic UFO group was led by a German pyschologist, Dr Heide Fittkay-Garthe. The official report says they were planning a trip to the summit of Mount Teide intent on making contact with a visiting spacecraft. If it failed, it was alleged they had drawn up a mass suicide pact. Neither the suicide or the UFO encounter happened.

Between August 2004 and December 2005, three separate sightings of UFOs also hit the headlines and each concerned a photograph. When the three independently-taken pictures were developed, a strange flying object was seen in each but had not been visible with the naked eye. All were in the flight line of Mount Teide, including by the cliffs at Los Gigantes. This particular picture suggested the disc-like object was flying at high speed and had banked sharply on approaching the cliffs.

A managing director on holiday in Tenerife from Barcelona also took photos of Mount Teide itself and her subsequent picture showed a similar UFO type object glittering in the skies.
It’s said that unexplained lights have soared above the volcano throughout history and there are constant reports of commercial liners being intercepted by brilliant lights which the bemused pilots have been unable to explain. In November of 1975, a commercial jet on its way from Austria to Tenerife had to make an emergency landing in Valencia after passengers claimed they had been trailed by pulsating red objects which zig zagged across the skies. They insisted they were unidentified flying objects and a number of people living in Valencia substantiated their story.

In 1975, a group of UFO believers from Santa Cruz even tried to make contact with outer space through an improvised ouija board after spotting a so-called spacecraft with occupants on board hovering near Mount Teide. They claimed they saw an enormous beam of light and, when looking at it with binoculars, saw a double row of windows emitting a purple glow. In 1976, a UFO was said to have landed on top of a farmhouse!

Perhaps the strangest of stories concerns an alleged incident around Mount Teide in 1992 which has never really been explained to this day. Witnesses claimed a mysterious aircraft fell from the skies but it was all hushed up by the Spanish military. Apparently, a group of friends had been walking near Mount Teide when they were told by soldiers to go home as there had been a landslide. Of course, they sneaked back and alleged they saw a powerful beam of light on the side of the volcano and later spotted a convoy of military trucks transporting a huge object.

Whatever happened, the force was enough to snap off a 450 ton lava projection from the side of Mount Teide. Were the trucks carrying the rock away - or was it something more sinister, like a flying saucer?

Stories about bright lights around Mount Teide persist today. One hunter insisted he saw a brilliant cloud around Mount Teide which came within six metres of the summit and then span round at great speed before vanishing.

And you may well remember our story of last year when we reported how a doctor visiting a patient in Tenerife and his taxi driver had seen a flying saucer descend in front of them with two huge figures dressed in red at the control panel. The patient had seen it too but fearing her fever had reached crisis point, she had ran back inside her home and started to pray!

This incident, however, coincided with a more believable prolonged and logged report from an armed Spanish navy escort ship whose crew observed yellow-blue lights in the sky - lights which were also seen by hundreds of residents of Tenerife, La Palma and Gomera. Was it just a natural phenomenon?

Of course, scientists pour scorn on the Mount Teide theory, saying there is absolutely no way there could be any sort of base inside the volcano, for the Spanish military or a starship fleet. But as for Teide being a magnet for UFOs who can spot it from outer space? The jury is out on that one as there are many things on this world which can’t be explained and perhaps, just perhaps, Tenerife’s appeal as a holiday destination has spread to an unknown dimension too!

A new rumor about the upcoming 3G iPhone has emerged from the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. It seems like an official from Telecom Italia (TIM), Franco Benabe has convinced Steve Jobs do to the unthinkable: to change its iPhone business model.

La Repubblica claims that Franco Benabe met with Jobs at Apple’s headquarters in March to finalize an agreement regarding the iPhone distribution in Italy. As the newspaper noted, the negotiations between Apple and Telecom Italia were started initially by Luca Luciani, Chief Operating Officer, TIM.

Apparently, the agreement stipulates that Apple will sell in Italy directly the 3G iPhone. But there’s more! La Repubblica also claims that the Cupertino company agreed to drop its famous revenue sharing model. Instead, the price of the iPhone will be higher than in other European countries, but no other details were given.

Also the deal is not exclusive, which means that after six months Apple may distribute its iPhone through other Italian mobile operators as well. Vodafone Italy and 3 were named in the article as potential distributors.

The Italian newspaper noted that it seemed like a strange agreement, but the author of the article had some explanations for Jobs’ sudden change of mind.

The increased pressure from the mobile makers like Nokia, Samsung and HTC, Italy's high uptake of 3G (44 percent compared to only 20 percent in France, 18 percent in UK and 15 percent in Spain), and the evolving mobile market were quoted as the reasons behind this, let ‘s say it, odd agreement.

The new report emerges after earlier this month T-Mobile and O2 have slashed the price of the 8GB iPhone. In addition, last Friday, the French newspaper Les Echos reported that Apple and Orange were negotiating a subsidized pricing scheme for iPhone.

In my humble opinion, I found it hard to believe that Apple was ready to change its distribution model so radically, but maybe indeed La Repubblica knows something more than the rest of us, even though no official sources, anonymous or otherwise, were mentioned. After all, everything is possible.

Apple's general manager of European operations Pascal Cagni believes Apple can do a better job at selling the iPhone in Europe than it has done so far.

Speaking to French newspaper, Les Echos, Cagni said Apple intends expanding its distribution of the iPhone to other European countries, though he declined to name those countries.

Cagni also reiterated Apple's determination it will sell ten million iPhone's in the current financial year. The company has sold just under 5.5 million since the product's US launch last June.

iPhone is currently expected to ship in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, and other European countries around the same time as the launch of the 3G iPhone in June.

Cagni also offered a tidy fillip to Apple's French users, promising the company will introduce TV show downloads through iTunes France in the coming months. Apple introduced such services into Germany on 2 April.

In related news, Carphone Warehouse today confirmed it has sold out of the recently-discounted 8GB model of iPhone. O2 and Carphone Warehouse cut £100 off the cost of the unit. The phone retailer says the discount provoked a "phenomenal response", but warns it doesn't expect any "additional stock at this time".

Apple is widely expected to introduce an upgraded iPhone model in June. Credit: Jonny Evans

Research has cast new doubt on the wisdom of using Sun-blocking sulphate particles to cool the planet.

Sulphate injections are one of several "geo-engineering" solutions to climate change being discussed by scientists.

But data published in Science journal suggests the strategy would lead to drastic thinning of the ozone layer.

This would delay the recovery of the Antarctic ozone hole by decades, and cause significant ozone loss over the Arctic, say US researchers.

The idea of pumping sulphur into the upper atmosphere ito counteract global warming comes from nature.

Major volcanic eruptions emit vast quantities of sulphur particles that can cool the planet significantly.

This was observed following the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo.

But one potential drawback is that sulphates provide a surface on which chlorine gases in polar clouds can become activated, causing chemical reactions that lead to the destruction of ozone molecules.

Ozone loss

Dr Simone Tilmes of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCar) in Boulder, Colorado, and colleagues used a combination of measurements and computer simulations to estimate future ozone loss if sulphate injections were carried out.

Quantities capable of mitigating climate change would destroy as much as three-quarters of the ozone layer over the Arctic, if carried out in the next few decades, they said.

This would also delay the expected recovery of the ozone layer over the Antarctic by about 30 to 70 years, they concluded.

Hold the climate fixes

Ozone depletion was enhanced in the Antarctic in the Mt Pinatubo aftermath.

Dr Tilmes said more research was needed before society attempted global geo-engineering solutions in the future.

However, she said the study should not rule out the approach altogether.

She told BBC News: "Politicians have to decide what is most important - if you have climate change you might have catastrophic conditions - they might decide to do this anyway.

"If you have to make decisions you need to know what is good about it and what is bad about it. With this scheme the bad side is definitely the ozone depletion, but you can cool the climate." By Helen Briggs

"The bad side is definitely the ozone depletion, but you can cool the climate" Dr Simone Tilmes

Qwerty keyboards? Dual cameras? iPhone nano?

The 3G iPhone internet rumour mill continues to turn (at least until somebody finally gets a solid glimpse of Apple's second generation handset). Here's what people are saying so far:

Anonymous sources have apparently been talking to The Times, suggesting that Apple's next iPhone will be "radically different". But how different? A Sidekick-esque flip phone? A clever dual-screen clamshell? A slider with a Qwerty keyboard? What about a smaller iPhone nano or an iPhone mini?

Other 3G iPhone rumours that have been circulating include: a combined video/photo camera (with increased camera resolution, maybe 5MP?); video conferencing functionality; a built-in GPS module; and a boost in the onboard memory to 32GB.

Digg head-honcho Kevin Rose has also suggested that the 3G iPhone will support two-way video iChat with dual cameras (one on the front, one on the back).

Why change the iPhone?

Anything's possible. But why make cosmetic changes to the iPhone at all? Admittedly, the 2G model hasn't sold as well in Europe as it has done in the US. Analysts expect losses to be "significant" and £100 price slashes in the UK (until 1 June) are designed to shift old inventory before the 3G model hits.

But the iPhone has arguably re-invigorated a mobile market that had been coasting along, half-heartedly tempting customers with chassis tweaks and small-time tech innovations. The multi-touch UI on the iPhone alone makes every other mobile phone you've ever used feel clunky in comparison. Where's the elegance in adding a keyboard? Isn't that something that Microsoft would do?

Whatever the 3G iPhone looks like, the industry squealers chit-chatting to The Times claim that 200,000 new iPhones have been ordered by Apple for the end of May, with another two million pencilled in for June.

Apple needs the iPhone to be a success. In its latest financial figures, iPod numbers are up just 1 per cent, suggesting that almost everyone who wants an iPod may already have one. The iPhone offers a converged option - why carry your iPod and a phone when you can have one device that does both?

Unlocked iPhones a-plenty

Crucial to selling more iPhones is extending their availability to consumers - a large number of the 1.7 million phones already sold in the US are unlocked and Apple's firmware updates are typically hacked/jailbroken within days of going live. So there are also suggestions that Apple could break with its current one territory/one preferred carrier approach when it launches the 3G iPhone in June.

In fact, the Washington Post reports that Apple could abandon revenue sharing deals in favour of a higher price for the iPhone, which the carriers would then subsidise. The information comes from Italian heavyweight paper La Repubblica.

Apple is also lining up third-party SDK-built apps for launch at this year's WWDC. The games and other productivity software sold via iTunes will ultimately add a new revenue stream to Apple's fledgling smartphone business. Over 200,000 developers have already signed up.

Apple's WWDC takes place on 9-13 June and, while it's traditionally a software-centric affair, it would be the ideal platform to launch the 3G iPhone. That said, Carphone Warehouse and O2 stores in the UK are only running the £100 price cut offer on the 2G iPhone until 1 June. What happens in the eight days in-between? Does the price go back up? Or will Apple have already held one of its 'special events' to show off iPhone 2.0?

What about all the 2G iPhone owners?

And what happens to all those 2G iPhone owners who still have a large chunk of their contracts left? Remember, the original iPhone was launched in the US on 29 June last year, so a full WWDC launch will render the first-gen handset obsolete within a year. UK early adopters are just over six months into an 18-month lock-down.

If O2 is clever, it'll offer existing cash-rich customers the opportunity to upgrade their phones and extend their contracts.

But let's not count the 2G iPhone out yet - O2's offer of 600 minutes, 500 texts and unlimited internet access for £35 is still a great deal. And, when upgraded to the 2.0 firmware in June, the 2G iPhone is going to make one hell of a games machine and corporate email device.

According to a report leaked on Monday, Telecom Spain has signed a nonexclusive deal to distribute Apple's iPhone in Spain -- and the phone will be a newer model, compatible with 3G (third generation) networks.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has decided to modify the company's distribution strategy of choosing an exclusive partner in each national market and taking a share of the operator's traffic revenue, the source said.

According to a report leaked on Monday, Telecom Spain CEO signed an agreement in Cupertino, California, at the beginning of April, the source said.

However, Telecom Spain declined to comment Tuesday on the report.

"We haven't been commenting and I can't tell you when we might be likely to do so," a Telecom Spain spokeswoman said.

The agreement provides for the distribution of iPhones compatible with 3G (third generation) networks based on the European UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) standard, and the handsets will be sold at a higher price than elsewhere to compensate for the absence of revenue sharing, the source said. While the agreement is nonexclusive, Telecom Spain has the 3G technology ready immediately, giving it an advantage of several months over Spanish competitors Vodafone and H3G, the paper said.

The newspaper put the change of direction down to a realization at Apple that boosting the market share of its Safari browser could be more important than short-term revenue gains from phone sales.

The deal reflects Spain's lead in 3G penetration and mobile Internet navigation, with Telecom Spain having more than double the number of 3G users than the principal mobile phone operators in France, Britain and Italy, the source said.

The iPhone has been credited with an increase in mobile Internet browsing, with mobile Safari users outnumbering users of all Windows Mobile browsers combined at the end of 2007, according to analyst reports.

Bionic eyes have been implanted in British patients for the first time offering hope to hundreds of thousands of blind people.

Two blind patients underwent the procedure, which surgeons say 'is straight out of science fiction', at Moorfields Eye Hospital in central London last week and are said to be "doing well".

Surgeons implanted an electronic device into the back of the eye to allow the patients to distinguish objects as pictures made up of spots of light.

The device works with a tiny camera mounted in a pair of glasses which transmits a wireless signal via a small processor on a belt into a receiver and a panel of electrodes placed in the back of the eye.

Three more patients will have the four-hour operation as part of an international trial before the technique is evaluated and extended.

At first patients who are completely blind due to an inherited condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa are being treated but eventually it could be offered to thousands of patients as the devices are perfected.

The operations were carried out by Mr Lyndon da Cruz, a consultant retinal surgeon at Moorfields. He said: "Conceptually it could be used for anyone with extremely poor vision but a physically intact optic nerve. The sort of vision we are getting is not good quality but as the thing gets better it will open up to more and more people."

Earlier trials in America have shown patients can see light, shapes and movement. They were able to navigate without their stick or guide dog and distinguish between objects on a table suggesting the device could help blind people to lead independent lives.

Mr da Cruz said this latest trial will help to evaluate if the technique restores enough vision for patients to rely on it alone in the long term.

The Second Sight's Argus II retinal implant technology works by mimicking the eye's natural ability to absorb light and process it into a picture.

A wireless signal is transmitted from the camera in the glasses to a small processing device, the size of a walkman that can be worn on a belt. It is then sent to an ultra thin electronic receiver, and electrode panel that is implanted in the eye and attached to the retina.

The electrodes stimulate the remaining retinal nerves allowing a signal to be passed along the optic nerve to the brain. The brain perceives patterns of light and dark spots corresponding to which electrodes are stimulated.

Mr da Cruz said the technology was extremely exciting and is a completely new way of treating eye conditions.

He said: "We have been fascinated with the idea of combining electronics and the human body since the Bionic Man in the 1970s. This shows it can and is being done."

Three other hospitals in Europe are taking part in the trial and by the end of the year surgeons at Moorfields hope to have treated ten patients.

The devices are made by a company called Second Sight near Los Angeles in California, which was founded in 1998 to help find treatments for patients with Retinitis Pigmentosa, in which vision gradually deteriorates over the years, and similar conditions.

Over two million people in the UK have significant sight loss with more than 360,000 registered as blind or partially sighted, according to the Royal National Institute of Blind People ( RNIB )

Barbara McLauglan, Eye Health Campaign Manager at Royal National Institute for the Blind said: "We very much welcome the progress that is being made with this type of technology. While 50 per cent of sight loss can be prevented, we must not forget that there are conditions that cannot be treated at present such as dry age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.

"An improved bionic eye that allows blind people to see more of their surroundings will improve their mobility and quality of life. RNIB will continue to monitor progress in this area with great interest over the next few years." By Rebecca Smith

Scientists have created the world's smallest transistor, one little bigger than a single molecule.

The feat marks a milestone in efforts to lay the foundations of the next generation of computers when conventional silicon based microchip technology runs out of steam.

Dr Leonid Ponomarenko, postdoctoral associate involved in the research, with a nanotransistor
A team in Manchester last year announced that it had created transistors that measured 50 atoms across. Now they have slashed the size of the transistors to just 10 atoms, marking the first true electronic nanocomponent, where a nanometre is one billionth of a metre, and a single human hair is 100,000 nanometres across.

The University of Manchester team led by Prof Andre Geim has been fashioning the transistors from the world's thinnest material, called graphene, consisting of carbon atoms a single layer thick, arranged in a hexagonal pattern like that seen in chicken wire.

Working with Dr Kostya Novoselov, he believes that the world's smallest transistor, described in the journal Science, could spark the development of super-fast computer chips.

In recent decades, manufacturers have crammed more components on to microchips, with the number of transistors per unit area doubling every two years. This has become known as Moore's Law.

advertisementBut the speed of cramming is now noticeably decreasing, and further miniaturisation of electronics is to experience its most fundamental challenge in the next 10 to 20 years, according to the semiconductor industry road map. The problem is that at the nanoscale, materials like silicon react with oxygen, changing their properties, moving ("like water droplets on a hot plate", as Prof Geim puts it) and decomposing.

Graphene has unusual electrical properties and behaves as if the electrical current is not carried by normal electrons but by charged particles with no mass at all. Graphene brings scientists close to making so called ballistic transistors - ultimately faster than any current technology because electrons shoot through them without colliding with component atoms.

Transistors made of graphene start showing advantages at sizes below 10 nanometres - the miniaturisation limit at which traditional silicon based technology is predicted to fail.

Prof Geim does not expect graphene-based circuits to come of age before 2025 but argues this technology will probably be the only viable way to shrink microelectronics after the silicon era comes to an end. "It is too early to promise graphene supercomputers," he says.

"In our work, we relied on chance when making such small transistors. Unfortunately, no existing technology allows the cutting of materials with true nanometre precision. But this is exactly the same challenge that all post-silicon electronics has to face. At least we now have a material that can meet such a challenge."

"Graphene is an exciting new material with unusual properties that are promising for nanoelectronics", comments Prof Bob Westervelt, of Harvard University. "The future should be very interesting". By Roger Highfield

A new storage technology will pave the way for MP3 players and other gadgets to store a hundred times more information

Mobile phones, iPods and other consumer devices may soon be able to hold a hundred times more information than they do at present thanks to a breakthrough in storage technology.

Scientists at IBM say they have developed a new type of digital storage which would enable a device such as an MP3 player to store about half a million songs - or 3,500 films - and cost far less to produce.

In a paper published in the current issue of Science, a team at the company's research centre in San Jose, California, said that devices which use the new technology would require much less power, would run on a single battery charge for "weeks at a time", and would last for decades.

So-called 'racetrack' memory uses the 'spin' of an electron to store data, and can operate far more quickly than regular hard drives.

Like flash memory - the most advanced type of memory for small devices such as mobile phones - it has no moving parts, meaning that the problems associated with mechanical reliability are dramatically reduced.

Unlike flash, however, it can 'write data' - or store information - extremely quickly, and does not have the 'wear out' mechanism that means flash memory drives can only be used a few thousand times before they wear out.

"The promise of racetrack memory - for example, the ability to carry massive amounts of information in your pocket - could unleash creativity leading to devices and applications that nobody has imagined yet," Stuart Parkin, the IBM fellow who led the research, said.

At present the most capacious iPod - the 160GB iPod Classic - can store 40,000 songs.

Dr Parkin said that racetrack memory could lead to the development of 'three-dimensional micro-electronics', breaking with the tradition of scientists trying to fit an ever greater number on transistors on an ultra-thin piece of silicon shaped like a wafer.

"The combination of extraordinarily interesting physics and spintronic materials engineering, one atomic layer at a time, continues to be highly challenging and very rewarding," he said.

The breakthrough also potentially paves the way for a radical re-writing of one of the most basic laws of computing - so-called Moore's Law, the maxim coined in 1965 by the co-founder of Intel, Gordon Moore, according to which computing speed doubles roughly every two years.

In September, Mr Moore himself said that the continued application of his law would come up against some fundamental laws of physics by about 2020 - laws which forced Mr Parkin and his team to rethink how silicon chips operate.

For nearly fifty years, scientists have explored the possibility of storing information inside the walls that exist between magnetic domains, but to date manipulating such walls has been too expensive and complicated to achieve significant results.

In his paper, Mr Parkin describes a milestone in which he and his team were able to store data in columns of magnetic material arranged on the surface of a silicon wafer. The information moves around the columns at high speed, giving the technology its racetrack name.

IBM said the technology was still "exploratory" at this stage, but that it expected devices which used it to be on the market within ten years. Jonathan Richards

The internet could soon be made obsolete by a new “grid” system which is 10,000 times faster than broadband connections.

Scientists in Switzerland have developed a lightning-fast replacement to the internet that would allow feature films and music catalogues to be downloaded within seconds.

The invention could signal the end of the dreaded 'frozen screen’, when computers seize up after being asked to process too much information.

The latest spin-off from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the internet, the grid could also provide the power needed to send sophisticated images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players; and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call.

David Britton, professor of physics at Glasgow University and a leading figure in the grid project, believes grid technology could change society.

He said: “With this kind of computing power, future generations will have the ability to collaborate and communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine.”

The power of the grid will be unlocked this summer with the switching on of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a new particle accelerator designed to investigate how the universe began.

The grid will be turned on at the same time to store the information it generates, after scientists at Cern, based near Geneva, realised the internet would not have the capacity to capture such huge volumes of data.

The grid has been built with fibre optic cables and modern routing centres, meaning there are no outdated components to slow the deluge of data, unlike the internet.

There are 55,000 grid servers already installed, a figure which is expected to rise to 200,000 within the next two years.

Professor Tony Doyle, technical director of the grid project, said: “We need so much processing power, there would even be an issue about getting enough electricity to run the computers if they were all at Cern.

“The only answer was a new network powerful enough to send the data instantly to research centres in other countries.”

Britain has 8,000 servers on the grid system, meaning access could be available to universities as early as this autumn. By Lewis Carter

Scientists have created the first hybrid embryo made from human cells and a cow's egg one month before MPs debate such research.

The work was carried out at Newcastle University, which was given a licence for the study by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) in January.

The Newcastle team hope research on hybrid embryos will lead to a better understanding of how cells develop and new therapies for debilitating human conditions such as Parkinson's disease and stroke.

Hybrid embryos have to be destroyed within 14 days and they cannot be implanted in a woman.

Dr Lyle Armstrong, who is based at the International Centre for Life in Newcastle, presented the creation of the hybrid embryo as part of the team's preliminary findings from their research.

Professor John Burn, head of the Institute of Human Genetics at Newcastle University, said: "These are preliminary findings from on-going research.

"Once fully validated Dr Lyle Armstrong will be submitting the work for peer review and publication, as is normal procedure."

He added: "If the team can produce cells which will survive in culture it will open the door to a better understanding of disease processes without having to use precious human eggs.

"Cells grown using animal eggs cannot be used to treat patients on safety grounds but they will help bring nearer the day when new stem cell therapies are available."

Research on hybrid embryos has drawn impassioned debate, with the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh using his Easter address to warn about the ethical implications of such work.

He said research on hybrid embryos "attacks the sanctity and dignity of human life".

Last month the prime minister promised Labour MPs a free vote on the research, which is outlined in the human embryology and fertilisation bill currently before parliament.

Tony Blair will today spell out why he believes faith and young people can solve the problems of the world and will call on religious leaders to work together to "awaken the world’s conscience”.

In his first major speech in the UK since leaving Downing Street last year, the former Prime Minister will address the whole area of faith in a global context, a subject about which he is passionate.

Mr Blair is expected to be greeted by anti-Iraq war protesters when he speaks this evening at Westminster Cathedral, the UK’s Roman Catholic flagship and Mr Blair’s “spiritual home” for his time in London as Prime Minister. The cathedral has attained even more significance since his conversion to Roman Catholicism shortly before Christmas last year.

Mr Blair, a Middle East peace envoy, will use the speech to flag up the work of his new Tony Blair Faith Foundation which he will launch officially next month. He has high earning capacity as a popular and charismatic speaker. Earlier this year he earned £300,000 for a speech to the banking giant Goldman Sachs in Florida, and last year he earned £240,000 in Dongguan, southern China.

The extent of his commitment to his work in the faith area is indicated by the fact that he is not being paid either for tonight’s speech or for any of the work he will do for the foundation.

In his wide-ranging speech, titled “faith and globalisation”, Mr Blair will say that he is passionate about the importance of faith in the modern world and will emphasise the need for people of faith to reach out to one another.

The aim of the foundation, thought to be modelled along the lines of former US President Bill Clinton's foundation, is to contribute to better understanding of the different faiths. It comes at a time of increasing fear and misunderstanding of religions around the world, particularly of Islam.

Mr Blair will describe why he believes that faith can be a progressive force, helping to advance humanity and end global poverty. One of the key goals of the Foundation will be to bring people of faith together to deliver the Millennium Development Goals, he will say. "Tony Blair believes that the capacity of faith organisations to do good is immense and that their reach is unparalleled,” an adviser said.

Mr Blair will say that the Millennium Development Goals are “the litmus test” of the world’s values and that, while faith groups do great individual work in this area, they could do even more, if helped to work better and more closely together. “The Millennium Development Goals are stark in their ambition and necessity. We are falling short as a world in meeting them. It would be a great example of faith in action to try to bridge the gap and awaken the world’s conscience.”

The foundation will work with faith leaders and with grassroots organisations, finding the best examples on the ground where faith is used as a progressive force and providing the backing of the Foundation and its partners to give this real global impact.

The Millennium Goals as described by the United Nations are to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV and Aids, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability and develop a global partnership for development.By Ruth Gledhill