All Blog Posts from Tech Talk

Fans of the "Harry Potter" series, "Trekkers," and those who remember Wonder Woman's preferred mode of travel all know the benefits of invisibility. And while real science has lagged behind Hollywood for many years this week a team of researchers at the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center at the University of California, Berkeley, announced they had made a breakthrough when it comes to making three-dimensional objects "invisible."

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At first glance, the platypus looks more like a bad taxidermy project than a vibrant example of evolution gone right. In fact, when it was discovered in 1799, some people actually thought its Donald Duck-like bill had been surgically attached by a prankster. Well, the often lampooned platypus got its comeuppence this week when researchers at the University of Washington St. Louis announced they'd mapped the genome of the cartoonish creature. Their findings about the mammalian/reptile-esque platypus were rather surprising, and you can listen to one of the lead scientists, Wes Warren, in this interview for my weekly CBS radio feed, SciEye. (I love how Warren describes the platypus.)

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Drue Kataoka is full of surprises. Not only is she a master Sumi-e artist, an ancient Japanese brush stroke technique, she's also an accomplished musician, world traveler, and Web pioneer. Her site, ValleyZen.com, has only been around for a couple months but it's getting attention for its message of simplicity in a tech world often cluttered with distraction and consternation. Indeed, her motto on the site is: ValleyZen -- at the intersection of zen and technology. I know, I know, if you're always stressed out and multi-tasking then zen+technology seems like an oxymoron. Au contraire. That's exactly why Kataoka believes it's worthwhile.

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