Google adds tracking tech to Gmail signatures

Google must be on a location-aware kick this month. Just a week after the search firm released its Latitude mobile device friend-tracker, Google Labs has a new tool that lets Gmail automatically include your location in an e-mail's signature.

"Sometime ago, I noticed how all mail systems tell you when an email was written, but not where it was sent from," said Marco Bonechi, the author of the tool on Gmail's blog. "Because I love to travel, the first question in many messages I receive is 'where are you?' and by the time I answer I am often somewhere else."

The experimental feature can be switched on by going to the Labs tab in Gmail settings. Users also need to have their email signature enabled and have the "append your location to the signature" option clicked in the general settings tab.

you can always just delete the location info in the email if you don't want the recipient in the location of your secret bunker – or just embarrassed about what a shut-in you've become.


Gmail give away your location...

Google Inc. certainly is focused on where you are and letting others in on that information.
A week after unveiling Google Latitude, which enables people to track the exact location of friends or family through their mobile devices, the company today announced that its Gmail software can now show the location of e-mail writers.

"Some time ago, I noticed how all mail systems tell you when an e-mail was written, but not where it was sent from," said Marco Bonechi, a Google software engineer, in a blog post. "Because I love to travel, the first question in many messages I receive is "Where are you?" and by the time I answer, I am often somewhere else. So in my 20% time, I wrote an experimental Gmail Labs feature that detects your location and appends the city region and country names to your signature."

Bonechi noted that people can use the new Location in Signature feature by going to the Labs tab in Gmail under Settings and then clicking on Signature Preferences.

"It'll use your public IP address to determine your location, so it may not always be that accurate," he noted. "For example, if you're at Heathrow Airport, IP detection may put you in Germany. If you want more accurate location detection, make sure your browser has a version of [Google] Gears that supports the location module. That way, Gears can make use of Wi-Fi access-point signals to recognize that you're actually in London."

Bonechi also added that users who want to keep their locations private can disable the option or delete their locations from specific e-mails.

Google's tracking technology hasn't received full support from security experts.

Just a day after Google Latitude was released, Privacy International called Google's new mapping application an "unnecessary danger" to users' security and privacy.

Simon Davies, director of the London-based privacy rights group, said in a statement that Google Latitude could be a "gift" to stalkers, prying employers and jealous partners.

But Google was quick to respond. Replying to Computerworld questions in an e-mail, a spokeswoman said the company's engineers and designers took privacy and security concerns into account when they created Google Latitude.

mobile phone networks has crossed the 4 billion mark worldwide

The number of connections on mobile phone networks has crossed the 4 billion mark worldwide, industry association GSMA said on Wednesday, forecasting additional growth to 6 billion by 2013. painful issues.

The number of connections does not translate directly into the number of users, however, because in many mature markets, one user may have two mobile phones, or a phone and a mobile data device, which would both count as two connections.
In Western Europe, about a fifth of connections are estimated to be due to one user having more than one device, a figure that probably applies to many developed markets, a GSMA spokesman said.
In developing countries, by contrast, phones are often shared.
In the run-up to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona -- the wireless industry's biggest trade show which starts next Monday -- the GSMA said some 100 million connections were "mobile broadband" connections. This refers to mobile data connections using the high-speed HSPA standard.
The figure reflects the popularity of "dongles" which connect laptops to the Internet via mobile phone networks, as well as phones with high-speed data connections made by Nokia or HTC or the latest version of Apple's iPhone.

How many dimensions are there in our universe?

Viennese scientists are trying to grasp the mysteries of the holographic principle: How many dimensions are there in our universe?
"A hologram, as you find it on bank notes or credit cards, appears to show a three-dimensional picture, even though in fact it is just two-dimensional," Daniel Grumiller explained. He is at the Institute of Theoretical Physics, Vienna University of Technology.
For decades, scientists have been wondering about the existence of additional dimensions so far hidden to our senses.
Grumiller and his colleagues are trying the opposite approach: Instead of postulating additional dimensions, they believe that our universe could in fact be described by less than four dimensions.
Grumiller is currently working on gravitational theories which include two spatial dimensions and one time dimension. They can be mapped onto a two-dimensional gravitationless quantum theory.
Such theories can be used to describe rapidly rotating black holes or "cosmic strings" — spacetime defects, which probably appeared shortly after the Big Bang.
In such a case, reality has fewer dimensions than we would think it appears to have. This "holographic principle" plays an important role in the physics of space time.
Instead of creating a theory of gravity in all the time and space dimensions, one can formulate a new quantum theory with one fewer spatial dimension.
That way, a 3D theory of gravitation turns into a 2D quantum theory, in which gravity does not appear any more. Still, this quantum theory correctly predicts phenomena like black holes or gravitational waves, said a Vienna release.
We perceive the space around us as three-dimensional, in terms of length, width and depth or height. According to Einstein, time and space are inseparably linked. Adding the time axis to them makes our space-time-continuum four-dimensional.

Creating a unified theory of quantum gravitation is often considered to be the "Holy Grail" of modern science

Viennese scientists are trying to understand the mysteries of the holographic principle: How many dimensions are there in our universe?

Some of the world's brightest minds are carrying out research in this area -- and still have not succeeded so far in creating a unified theory of quantum gravitation is often considered to be the “Holy Grail” of modern science.
Daniel Grumiller from the Institute of Theoretical Physics, Vienna University of Technology, can now at least unravel some of the mysteries of quantum gravitation. His results on black holes and gravitational waves are pretty mind-boggling - to say the least. Only recently he won the START prize and will use these funds to engage even more young physicians at the TU Vienna.
We perceive the space around us as three-dimensional. According to Einstein, time and space are inseparabely linked. Adding the time axis to our three-dimensional space makes our space-time-continuum four-dimensional. For decades, scientists have been wondering about the existence of additional dimensions so far hidden to our senses. Grumiller and his colleagues are trying the opposite approach: Instead of postulating additional dimensions, they believe that our universe could in fact be described by less than four dimensions.
“A hologram, as you find it on bank notes or credit cards, appears to show a three-dimensional picture, even though in fact it is just two-dimensional,” Grumiller explains. In such a case, reality has fewer dimensions than we would thinkit appears to have. This “holographic principle” plays an important role in the physics of space time. Instead of creating a theory of gravity in all the time and space dimensions, one can formulate a new quantum theory with one fewer spatial dimension. That way, a 3D theory of gravitation turns into a 2D quantum theory, in which gravity does not appear any more. Still, this quantum theory correctly predicts phenomena like black holes or gravitational waves.
“The question, how many dimensions our world really has, does probably not even have a proper answerprobably cannot be answered explicitly,” Grumiller thinks. “Depending on the particular question we are trying to answer, either one of the approaches may turn out to be more useful.”
Grumiller is currently working on gravitational theories which include two spatial dimensions and one time dimension. They can be mapped onto a two-dimensional gravitationless quantum theory. Such theories can be used to describe rapidly rotating black holes or “cosmic strings” – spacetime defects, which probably appeared shortly after the Big Bang.
Together with colleagues from the University of Vienna, Grumiller is organizing an international workshop, which will take place from April 14 to 24, 2009. Renowned participants, like scientists from Harvard, Princeton, the MIT and many other universities, reveal that the Viennese gravitation physicians are held in high regard internationally.

US Broadband Infrastructure Investments necessitate Transparency

broadband infrastructure investments planned as part of the economic stimulus package need transparency if they're to be effective

The key public policy problem with broadband is that citizen-consumers and policy-makers still lack basic information.

Government investment in broadband networks has emerged as one of the more contentious parts of the economic stimulus legislation slated for a Senate vote Tuesday. Already, at least $2 billion of a planned $9 billion for broadband has apparently been cut from the latest bill, as legislators and interest groups squabble over who should control Internet communications funding, and under what rules.

What should be less controversial is that intelligent spending decisions about funding for high-speed Internet connections can't be made without excellent and transparent data about our broadband infrastructure.

The key public policy problem with broadband is that citizen-consumers and policy-makers still lack basic information. The Bush administration set a goal of achieving universal broadband by the end of 2007, then declared "mission accomplished" without providing much evidence to substantiate its claim. And under former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin, the agency refused to release what data it did have about competitors in the broadband marketplace.
President Obama's commitment to "change" has included a more hands-on approach to promoting broadband. Throughout the presidential campaign, and repeatedly since the election, Obama has emphasized the importance of "expanding broadband lines across America." With input from his telecommunications advisors, the House stimulus bill included $6 billion for broadband. Early versions of the Senate measure raised the total to $9 billion.
Statistics?
Equally important is Obama's commitment to empirically-driven policymaking. In January, Obama became only the second president—after William Howard Taft in 1909—to invoke "statistics" in an inaugural address, when he spoke of "the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics."

The US spends more than $8 billion a year on statistics. Much of that goes to fund the Census Bureau and data collection about agricultural and labor markets, such as the monthly unemployment report, which on Friday brought the grim news that the economy had shed 598,000 jobs in January. Last week, when the Agriculture Department released its own census, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack reminded reporters: "Numbers and data are very important. They direct policy; they shape policy. They can tell us what we are doing right. They call tell us what we are doing wrong."
Yet almost none of this $8 billion in statistical spending goes to compiling information about broadband, the infrastructure of the knowledge-based economy. And the data that has been collected has been made to mislead.
The FCC—the official record-keeper on private-sector telecommunications—for years claimed that there was adequate competition in broadband because the median ZIP code was served by eight separate providers. The Government Accountability Office's assessment of the same data found a median of two providers per ZIP code. Worse, the FCC refuses to release the information that it has about competition.
A variety of organizations—including my own free web service, BroadbandCensus.com—have stepped in to do our best at collecting, compiling and releasing public broadband information. We believe that if you want to build a road, you need a map that tells you where existing roads lie before you begin taking construction bids, let alone start pouring concrete. Where will our nation's new broadband highways, by-ways and access points be built? Who's going to let the contracts? Who will own this infrastructure?
These questions can't be answered without detailed broadband data. To that end, I've supported a proposed "State Broadband Planning and Assessment Act," which could be introduced as an amendment to the fiscal stimulus measure. The goal of this effort, as of BroadbandCensus.com, is to unleash the Internet as means of sharing information about the Internet itself.
For two-and-a-half years, I've been trying to get access to basic broadband data for the public, including citizen-consumers, businesses, and local policy-makers. I've been seeking to identify which carriers offer service in a particular ZIP code, as well as smaller units, like census blocks. In September 2006, when I headed a project at the Center for Public Integrity that investigated the telecommunications industry, we filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the FCC to force them to release basic broadband data about carriers by ZIP code.
The project obtained and displayed similar location information about broadcasters and cable operators from the FCC's cumbersome web site. But our attempts to get broadband data were thwarted by the FCC and by industry. AT&T, Verizon Communications, and the lobbying organizations representing the Bell companies, the cable companies, the cell phone carriers, and wireless broadband providers all asked the FCC to deny information to the public. Even though every consumer who buys broadband knows the name of the company that provides them with service, the telecoms argued that compiling this information into a single location would reveal "proprietary" data. The FCC agreed.

The FCC did not want disclosure, and neither did the telecom incumbents and their lobbyists. They did not want successful broadband competition.

In its legal briefings, the FCC argued that releasing the data would lead to competition in communications—which was why it couldn't release the data! "Disclosure could allow competitors to free ride on the efforts of the first new entrant to identify areas where competition is more likely to be successful," the agency told the federal district court in Washington.

The once-vaunted virtue of competition in federal telecommunications policy—the underpinning of the 1996 Telecom Act—had taken a back seat to the privilege of supposedly proprietary information. The FCC did not want disclosure, and neither did the telecom incumbents and their lobbyists. They did not want successful broadband competition.
Congress was critical of the FCC's meager broadband statistics. In October it passed the Broadband Data Improvement Act to prod the agency to collect broadband data at a level more granular than the ZIP-code. The FCC began doing just that in June, as the bill was working its way through Congress.
But under pressure from telecom lobbyists, Congress dropped a core provision from the House version of the bill: the requirement that a separate agency, the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, take responsibility for conducting a national broadband census and producing a public map with the names of individual carriers and where they offered service.
The House version of the stimulus bill reintroduces the NTIA broadband map. But it takes out any mention of publicly releasing individual carrier names. Worse, the Broadband Data Improvement Act enshrined the business model favored by the carriers: providing information to an entity like Connected Nation, which agrees to excise the names of broadband providers from the maps they produce.
The House stimulus bill allocated $40 million to this business model. Last week's version of the Senate stimulus bill upped the total to $350 million.
President Obama has the opportunity to make broadband a priority in his administration by ensuring that the NTIA creates a public map of our national broadband providers and infrastructure. Map in hand, the Obama administration's broadband policy should be guided by three important principles:
1) Use the Internet to empower citizens and consumers.
With the FCC keeping broadband data out of the hands of the public, I started BroadbandCensus.com to publish the same information that any consumer can know: the name of their Internet service provider and type of broadband connection, how much they are charged for service, and the Internet speeds they are promised and actually delivered. The government of Ireland publishes exactly the same information on its communications ministry web page.
Some broadband data efforts focus on the needs of telecommunications carriers and their unionized employees. Based in Kentucky, Connected Nation has been promoting their state-wide maps of broadband availability as a means for providers to sell more service. The Communications Workers of America's Speed Matters campaign has collected random speed tests from Internet users to provide a snapshot about download and upload speeds. Both of these initiatives are good, so far as they go.
But to rigorously understand the condition of broadband, we can't rely only on the information provided by the carriers. It needs to be verified by Internet users. To truly unlock the power of Internet-enabled "crowdsourcing," an effective broadband strategy must focus on citizens. Empower them by releasing basic information and letting citizen-consumers add to the mash-up. It's about making citizens contributors as well as constituents.
2) Ensure that infrastructure investment is made on the basis of cost-benefit data.
In 1790, the United States was the first country to institute a periodic national census. What started as a questionnaire seeking only demographic information had broadened by 1840 to information about employment in mining, agriculture, manufacturing, and the "learned professions and engineers." Such information has enabled our government, our universities and our business sector to rely on good-quality statistical information.
We're going to need that kind of data, and a lot more of it, to make sound investment decisions about broadband. Because of our nation's agricultural origins, our statistical agencies provide far more data about crop production than they do about broadband availability, speeds, or prices. In the absence of good data, the temptation is to make public infrastructure investment decisions based on political pressure or lawmaker influence, rather than upon solid cost-benefit analyses.
3) Use the transparency of the Internet to regulate incumbents through public disclosure.
The regulatory philosophies of the New Deal—maximum and minimum wages and prices, hands-on federal regulation—have faded and are not likely to be revived even in the current crisis. Yet one Depression-era innovation of Franklin D. Roosevelt remains as valid as ever: the disclosure-based regime of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC is vigilant in requiring punctilious compliance with requirements that public companies disclose details of their operations. By and large, the SEC doesn't require substantive actions so much as it requires procedural compliance and full disclosure. Open information flows mean that poor corporate decisions are punished in the marketplace.
Equally important is that role that independent efforts, like those of BroadbandCensus.com and others, can play in collecting and aggregating public broadband data about speeds, prices, and reliability.
For more than a year, BroadbandCensus.com has provided a platform allowing Internet users to compare their actual broadband speeds against what they are promised by their carriers. We use the open-source Network Diagnostic Tool (NDT) of Internet2. All speed test data is publicly displayed under a Creative Commons license. This approach to public monitoring Internet traffic has recently been followed by Google and the New America Foundation and their "Measurement Lab" initiative, which also uses NDT.
Ultimately, broadband carriers that offer good speeds and good service will see the value in an objective and transparent broadband census. Fortunately, consumers don't need to wait on the carriers to begin collecting and publishing broadband of their own.
Neither should the government. No matter how much Congress decides to allocate to stimulate broadband, it should insist that information about speeds, prices, technologies, and specific locations of high-speed Internet availability are publicly available to all.

more.......

Guiding principles for U.S. broadband infrastructure economic stimulus

As Congressional leaders and the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama mull economic stimulus legislation including a portion of which is expected to be devoted to telecommunications infrastructure to boost broadband Internet access, I offer these guiding principles:
1. The focus should be on the so-called "last mile" or local access network portion of the system. There's a broad consensus that the lack of adequate broadband access in the United States is due to technological shortcomings on this segment of the telecommunications infrastructure, its weakest link. The overall goal should be full build out of this currently incomplete but vital infrastructure to serve all residents and businesses.

when it comes to advanced vehicle batteries :innovation and a little stimulus money could head off another OPEC scenario

An array of 88 lithium ion batteries sits in the rear of this Johnson Controls i3 plug-in hybrid.

There's a saying as the nation pushes for cleaner electric cars: The United States will end up trading dependence on Saudi oil for dependence on Asian batteries.
Most of the big players in advanced batteries - the ones used to power the cars of tomorrow - are from Japan, South Korea or China.
America's battery industry is in need of a shock. Enter Stimulus.
As part of the nearly $900 billion economic lifeline, lawmakers plan on spending $2 billion in loan guarantees and grants for makers of advanced batteries. They don't necessarily have to be U.S. companies that get the money, but they need to set up shop on American soil.
Industry observers have high hopes for the plan, but worry that the money won't be doled out fast enough or that it will be eaten up by a few big players.
Stimulus money: Not chump change
The money involved may seem small by stimulus standards, but for the nascent high-tech battery business it's serious cash.
Two billion is more money than what's flowed into the sector from venture capital and private equity firms over the last four years combined, said Heather Daniel, a power storage analyst at the research firm New Energy Finance.
"It could be a significant boost," said Daniel. "If there's a little guy that's got the technology, it could have big implications."
Most advanced batteries for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, like the Chevy Volt set for debut in 2010, rely on lithium ion batteries.
Lithium batteries - where the ultra light metal lithium is used as the conducting material - are more efficient and lighter than the nickel-metal hydrate batteries currently used in the hybrid cars of today.
Having a light and efficient battery is essential if cars are to move from current hybrids - which use battery power only for low speed driving - to plug-in hybrids where battery power is the only thing turning the wheels.
Getting the right battery is key to making plug-in hybrids commercial - current batteries are still a bit too heavy and a bit too expensive. (There may also be an issue with getting enough lithium - much of it appears to be concentrated in a few South American counties, but that's another story.)
King of battery hill
The company or companies that nail the technology are potentially set for big profits and big hiring sprees. And currently, while many foreign firms have manufacturing operations in the United States, most of those companies are not headquartered here.
Japan's Panasonic, NEC, and GS Yuasa; South Korea's LG; and China's BYD are the main players in this market, and account for nearly all current lithium ion sales.
"The United States is alarmingly vacant from this list," said Rob Wilder, manager of the WilderHill clean energy index, an investment fund. "It's painful as a patriotic American to see just how far behind we are."
That said, U.S. firms are not out of the game.
Companies like Johnson Controls (JCI, Fortune 500), Ener1 (HEV), Maxwell (MXWL), Valence (VLNC), and privately held A123 Systems are noted for innovative, advanced-vehicle battery technology, if not a huge amount of current sales.
General Motors is working with A123 Systems on the Volt, although it seems LG will make most of the initial batteries.
There's also an array of smaller American startups that are scraping by while they search for venture capital funding.
Wilder said that for the stimulus money to be effective, it should be available to these smaller companies that might have good designs but lack lobbying power.
"They just don't have the resources to get the money like GM or Ford, who came late to the game anyway," he said.
What are companies' eligibility requirements for this money, what projects will get funded, and over what period of time is what the industry wants to know, said Joseph Muscat, a clean tech director at the accounting and advisory firm Ernst & Young.
A spokesperson for the House subcommittee that wrote the battery portion of the bill said those specifics would be hammered out by the Department of Energy if and when the bill gets approved.
"Clearly, it's a help," said Muscat. "There are a lot of companies here, and it will be interesting to see how the technology plays out."

Economic rescue plan would increase payments and extend benefits for the unemployed. It would also provide access to subsidized health insurance.

The federal stimulus package is designed to create millions of jobs, but it also provides many benefits to those who just can't find work.
The measure, which congressional leaders hope to finish next week, currently proposes:
increasing and extending unemployment insurance;
expanding coverage to more low-income and part-time workers;
subsidizing health insurance coverage;
and recharging state unemployment insurance trust funds, which are running dry as layoffs climb.
A growing number of people are depending on unemployment benefits, with continuing jobless claims hitting a record 4.79 million in late-January. The figures are sure to grow with companies shedding more than 250,000 jobs so far this year.
The federal government releases January's national unemployment rate on Friday. Currently at 7.2%, it is expected to rise to 7.5%.
Bigger checks: The unemployed would see their checks rise by $25 a week, paid for with federal funds. The current average weekly benefit is $297.
The increase would have a big impact on those at the lower end of the pay scale who are likely to spend it all, said Wayne Vroman, economist with the Urban Institute.
Mike Grigsby of Portland, Ore., would certainly welcome another $25 a week. The political organizer is scraping by on a weekly pre-tax benefit of $304, which barely covers his $545 monthly rent and other expenses.
"I could have fresh fruits and vegetables in the house, instead of canned goods," said Grigsby, 37, who has been unemployed since November. "I could buy a new interview suit at Goodwill."
The Senate version would also forgive income taxes on the first $2,400 of benefits.
Extended benefits: The bill push back the deadline to apply for extended benefits.
The jobless typically get 26 weeks of unemployment insurance, paid for by the states. Last summer, the Bush administration and Congress added an additional 13 weeks of benefits, paid for by the federal government.
In November, federal officials added another seven weeks of benefits in all states. Those who live in states with unemployment rates higher than 6% -- 34 states meet that criteria as of December -- could receive a total of 20 additional weeks.
The federal program is set to expire in March, but under the stimulus package, the jobless could apply for the extended federal benefits through Dec. 31.
With the deepening recession making it harder for people to land new positions, extending benefits is crucial, said Heidi Shierholz, economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
Randall Paynter depends on his $320 weekly unemployment check to support his family. Even though his wife works full-time, they are living on half of what they did before Paynter lost his job as a warehouse supervisor in May.
A Rome, Ga., resident, Paynter is back in school studying computers in hopes of getting a job in automated manufacturing. But he doesn't graduate until 2010 so he hopes the federal government keeps extending the benefits.
"I need as much time as I can get to get retrained," said Paynter, 54, who has an 11-year-old son.
Expanding coverage: The package would enact the Unemployment Insurance Modernization Act, which provides $7 billion in incentives for states to expand the ranks of jobless that qualify for benefits.
States that allow workers to count more recent wages in their applications could share in $2.3 billion. The remaining funds would go to states that adopt additional reforms, including providing benefits to those seeking part-time work and those who quit because of a family member's illness or relocation of a spouse.
States would also divvy up $500 million to cover administrative costs.
This expansion would allow more women, part-timers and low-wage workers - who are often the most vulnerable of the unemployed - to collect benefits, Vroman said.
Subsidized access to health insurance: The bill would allow many workers to continue coverage under their former employer's health insurance, known as Cobra, by subsidizing 65% of the premiums for as long a year. The benefit would apply to those who lose their jobs between September 2008 and the end of 2009.
The typical family premium under Cobra is $1,000, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
The House bill would also allow workers who are 55 and older, or have been with their employer for at least a decade, to extend their Cobra until they become eligible for Medicare or secure coverage with another company.
Also, those unemployed whose family's gross income is below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines could temporarily receive Medicaid, under the House bill. The benefit, paid for by the federal government, would apply to those who lose their jobs between September 2008 and the end of 2010.
Assistance for states: The package would temporarily waive interest payments and accrual of interest on loans taken by states to pay unemployment benefits. Five states - Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio and South Carolina - are currently borrowing from the federal government.
Safety and stimulus
Advocates for the jobless are hailing the provisions in the package, saying they will help those struggling to survive while looking for work, said Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project.
On top of that, it will help stimulate the economy, since most people receiving unemployment benefits spend the money quickly, economist said.

UK developing a low-cost rocket capable of putting small satellites in orbit.

Plans for UK satellite launcher

Virgin Galactic is not only looking to put space tourists into orbit but satellites as well, with the company joining forces with another UK firm to come up with a cheaper way to launch the devices.
Along with Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL), Virgin Galactic will look to use a system that is comparable to the United States' Pegasus system – launching satellites into orbit from a plane.
The idea is that the same transport that takes the tourists – WhiteKnightTwo – could serve as the platform to put satellites into orbit for a fraction of the current cost.
Cheaper
"Hopefully we can do it for a lot less money than the current providers," SSTL's Dr Adam Baker told PA.
"It costs something like five million to 10 million dollars at the moment to get one of our smaller satellites into space. What we are targeting is to see if we can do this for a million dollars.
"I think that's a very challenging number but I'm confident we can get very close to that - and if you could build the satellite itself for a couple of million dollars, all of a sudden you've got a very attractive package for well under five million dollars that lets your customers do something pretty capable in orbit."

The idea is being promoted by SSTL, a firm in Guildford, Surrey, best known for its Earth observation spacecraft, in conjunction with Virgin Galactic.
It is 38 years since the UK government abandoned its successful satellite launcher programme, Black Arrow.
The new venture would be an entirely commercial exercise.
It would see a two-stage rocket launch from underneath a carrier aircraft.
The concept would look similar to the US Pegasus system, which uses a former airliner to lift a booster to 40,000ft, before releasing it to make its own way into orbit.

"In 1971, we cancelled our launch-vehicle programme and have never gone back into it despite the fact that launch vehicles are an essential part of a healthy space industry," said Adam Baker from SSTL (Surrey Satellite Technology Limited).
"If we had our own launcher - something modest, not an enormous vehicle - for a reasonable price, we could service our own needs, both scientific and military, and we could also sell the service on the open market."
SSTL's ideas are being developed with Virgin Galactic, the company set up by billionaire Sir Richard Branson to take fare-paying passengers on short, weightless hops above the atmosphere.
Galactic has a carrier aeroplane, known as White Knight Two. Its primary function will be to lift the space tourists' rocket plane to its launch altitude.
But Galactic also wants to pursue other uses for the White Knight craft, and the idea of using it as a platform to release a British satellite launcher is an appealing one.

"The Black Arrow decision was a tragedy," said Will Whitehorn, the president of Virgin Galactic.
"It was based on a then civil service that thought there wasn't going to be a market. They were wrong."
SSTL and Virgin Galactic are hoping to get the backing of the UK science and innovation minister, Lord Drayson, in trying to see if there is interest in government in helping to fund a short feasibility study.
But any launcher system that did eventually emerge would be a commercial service, not a government operation.

SSTL envisages a vehicle capable of taking at least 50kg of payload into a polar orbit with a minimum altitude of 400km (248 miles), but engineers would aim to get significant additional performance.
"We'd be looking at a range from 50 to up to a maximum of 200kg because you'd want to do different sizes of satellite," said Mr Whitehorn.
Dr Baker added: "Hopefully we can do it for a lot less money than the current providers.
"It costs something like $5m-$10m at the moment to get one of our smaller satellites into space. What we are targeting is to see if we can do this for a million dollars.
"I think that's a very challenging number but I'm confident we can get very close to that - and if you could build the satellite itself for a couple of million dollars, all of a sudden you've got a very attractive package for well under $5m that lets your customers do something pretty capable in orbit."
Dr Baker is convinced all the expertise - in composite structures, guidance and avionics, propulsion, etc - exists in the UK to make it happen, but a study would have to prove the technical case and a viable business model.
Although a number of other groups in the UK have pursued a satellite launcher capability, the pedigree of SSTL and Virgin Galactic is likely to make potential investors sit up and take notice.
'Live' science
SSTL is perhaps best known for its Disaster Monitoring Constellation satellites which map the Earth at times of emergency at resolutions between 4m and 32m.
It also produced Giove-A, the first demonstration spacecraft for Europe's forthcoming sat-nav system, Galileo.
SSTL is owned by EADS Astrium, Europe's biggest space company. Astrium is the prime contractor on the mighty Ariane 5 rocket, which lofts some of the biggest satellites in the world.
Virgin Galactic has yet to start its space tourism service. It unveiled White Knight Two last year, and expects to roll out its tourist spaceliner, SpaceShipTwo, later this year.
Mr Whitehorn said the rocket plane also had great potential for doing microgravity research.
"You could take scientists up instead of space tourists and they could conduct their experiments 'live' in the period of microgravity you get on SpaceShipTwo, which is greater than you can get currently with zero-G aircraft.
"And of course you would have the scientists there in a way you couldn't with a sounding rocket, for example."

silicon chips used to repair damaged tissue in the human body.

Computer chips may 'revamp nerve

Researchers have enthused closer to creation silicon chips which could one day be used to fix damaged tissue in the human body.

Edinburgh University has developed a technique, which allows neurons to grow in fine, detailed patterns on the surface of tiny computer chips.

Neurons are the basic cells of the human nervous system.
The scientists said the development may eventually enable chips to replace damaged nerve or muscle fibres.
They also said the development could possibly be used in the development of prosthetics in the future.
During the chip manufacturing process, the scientists printed patterns on the smooth silicon surface.

The chip was then dipped in a patented mixture of proteins, and neurons grew along the patterns on the surface.
The technique also works with stem cells.
It is hoped the method will eventually enable any type of tissue to be grown on a tailor-made pathway and implanted as prosthetic tissue in the body.
Professor Alan Murray, head of Edinburgh University's School of Engineering and Electronics, who led the research, said: "This is a small but important step on the path towards the long-term goal of many scientists and medical experts - to develop surgical implants using silicon chips.
"We can now make silicon chips with circuitry as well as pathways where cells can grow in the body.
"One of the areas this could be used in is prosthetics - if we can cause cells from damaged tissues to grow where we want.
"It is going towards the realms of science fiction - there is a definite Incredible Hulk feel about it."
He added: "We also hope that, rather sooner than this, the technique will allow better methods of drug discovery and reduce the need for animal testing, as new medicines could be tested on chips rather than in live creatures."
The research was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.