According to a recent research conducted by microbiologist Derek Lovley at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, some species of bacteria may  possess the secret to more powerful electronic circuits to work underwater through their hair-like threads. The threads are known to connect with other bacteria and also conduct electricity.

The same hurdles are being faced by the movement to ban conflict minerals from the electronics products particularly in areas involved in human rights violation. Regions like Congo that ignore human rights provide important raw material to the electronics supply chain. According to the industry participants, these regions use the income earned from the conflict minerals to finance civil wars in their areas.

A standard is being developed by the worldwide industry associations IPC, the EICC (Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition), and the GeSI (Global e-Sustainability Initiative) to introduce a compliance law that will discourage the use of conflict measures in the electronics industry. It is obligatory for the publicly traded companies under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, to report the use of tin, tantalum, gold and tungsten imported from conflicted regions. The compliance standard is expected to allow companies to assist in the preparation of compliance reports by sharing data on conflict minerals.

The EICC and GeSI designed model will enable companies to share conflict mineral-related data with their business partners and track this information within their supply chains. IPC will facilitate the data-exchange standard for the worldwide electronics industry through this basic template. According to a press release, the EICC/GeSI template includes all the information and data about a company’s conflict free mineral policy, including the smelters used by the company and its suppliers.

Though there is a complete regulatory mandate carried out by the electronics supply chain, yet there has been no governmental move to certify that the source minerals are conflict free. In order to completely overcome operational and brand risk hurdles with compliance complexity, some firms have simply stepped out of the region. As a result, these poverty stricken regions in Congo have seen a significant fall in their incomes.

However, the rapid development and adoption of EICC/GeSI tool will significantly benefit the electronics industry worldwide. Once a standard data is gathered, the companies can use the same as a baseline to measure their own compliance efforts.  A standard helps avoid duplication of effort and the information will be available in a consistent format.

IPC’s meeting scheduled on Sept 22, 2011, in Schaumburg, IL, is a first step to begin a data-exchange standard during its Midwest Conference and Exhibition.

Apple bought $9.7 billion worth of semiconductors in 2009 and in 2010 it bought a record quantity of over $17.5 billion worth of semiconductors rivaling other brand names like HP, Samsung, Dell and Nokia. IHS noted that the growth represented the highest rate of increase so far in 2011 with a $22.4 billion purchase.

Before becoming a member of IHS, In July 2010, iSuppli predicted that Apple was likely to become the world’s top chip purchaser as Apple’s spending would increase by 54% in the same year. In 2008, Apple was the sixth in number and in 2009 it was the third largest buyer after Hewlett-Packard and Samsung electronics. The statistics shows that the gain by Apple in the listing was not unexpected.

IHS observed that Apple would continue purchasing semiconductors in the coming years at a higher rate than before. The market research company noted that Apple’s semiconductor spending will exceed still further from its rivals in the electronics industry. Apple’s leadership in semiconductor spending in 2010 is due to the success of its wireless products like the iPhone and the iPad. Wenlie Ye- an IHS analyst stated that these products consume huge quantities of NAND flash memory and Apple was the world number 1 purchaser of NAND flash in 2010.

IHS data shows that Apple placed its bets wisely. In 2010, it spent around 61% of its semiconductor spending on wireless devices like iPhone and iPads. On the other hand Hewlett-Packard dedicated its 82% of semiconductor budget on computer products such as desktops, notebooks and servers. It proved to be the right move for Apple as its Smartphone shipments grew by 62% in 2010 and iPad’s by more than 900%. In contrast, global PC shipments grew only 14.2% in 2010.

Apple’s strength in hardware sales is due to its device and media ecosystem. According to IHS, Apple leverages each device to sell other devices through its ecosystem. Rising sales leads to increased semiconductor purchasing by Apple. On the other hand, this ecosystem is lacking in a conventional PC business. In the absence of such an ecosystem, consumers prefer to buy a PC brand of their choice as there is no incentive for them to buy the same brand time and again. In this situation, a buyer who purchased Hewlett-Packard PC would likely to purchase a Dell PC next time depending upon the price.

The EU’s 2006 RoHS directive banned the use of six substances — lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), hexavalent chromium (Cr (VI)), cadmium (Cd), polybrominated biphenyl flame retardants (PBB), and polybrominated biphenyl ether flame retardants (PBDE)—in eight categories of electrical and electronic equipment. While these materials are not utterly banned, the concentration of these materials has to be less than 0.1% and in the case of cadmium, less than 0.01% by weight of homogeneous material.

RoHS, also known as Lead-Free Directive 2002/95/EC, stands for Restriction of Hazardous Substances. RoHS, originated in the European Union that restricts the use of six hazardous materials found in electrical and electronic products. All applicable products in the EU market after July 1, 2006 must pass RoHS compliance.  The entire electronics industry and many electrical products were affected by the RoHS compliance. RoHS directive was introduced as part of an initiative to reduce and eliminate the threat of toxic waste as well as make industrial hardware, machine components and other equipments safe for human use.

The RoHS Compliance directive applies to all manufacturers, resellers, importers, and exporters of products sold in the EU and certain other countries. For distributors, this may mean more customers will seek RoHS compliance data and documentation, many of whom did not have to worry about RoHS compliance in the past.

Since the introduction of RoHS legislation in Europe the nature of electronics manufacturing and soldering in particular has undergone a drastic change. RoHS compliance and lead free solder presents many new challenges to businesses involved in pcb manufacturing. No-one can deny the fact that lead free solder is healthier for everyone involved in pcb assembly, but unleaded solder does present certain problems. The researchers will have to discover new and effective materials for soldering electrical components. In the EU, however, some military and medical equipment are exempt from RoHS compliance.

Your business probably will not escape RoHS compliance just because your products don’t sell in the EU. There are other countries that have worked out their own version of RoHS to free the world of health hazard substances.

Finally, while RoHS compliance may only represent an initial step, it is still one of the most significant steps towards a safer, healthier and toxin free environment for us, our children and the coming generations.

The solution lies in a long term investment in cutting edge research technologies with the potential to drive future revenue growth. It gives the management valuable insight into where their company is heading and what challenges are in store for them. How does a company efficiently move innovations in technology into new practices or products in a fast changing world where research and development costs are increasing day by day? It needs to be evaluated what research and development model works best in a global marketplace.

In recent years many new challenges are being faced by the organizations in the field of research and development. For many years large industrial laboratories such as AT&T’s Bell Labs served as light houses for the new and emerging industries. In an effort to scale down size and costs, these large groups have been forced to reorganize and more narrowly focus their research programs.

The best way to initiate research and innovation program in an industry is to create an environment which encourages collaboration in diverse fields to achieve corporate goals. Here are the important steps to create a team of researches within the corporate culture.

Three steps to create a team of researches

The first step is to create a team of researches whose primary role is to conduct research and they must be free from the tight product-release and maintenance procedures. This entails to explore long-term goals and projects as well as to concentrate on more urgent problems.

Secondly, it is important to utilize multidimensional skills to ensure far sighted research approaches which allow the discovery of diverse topics.

Thirdly, the company needs to create an environment that encourages innovation by fostering a culture of interaction across diverse disciplines and corporate boundaries. This goal can be achieved by keeping a small team of researchers who can frequently interact with each other. These researchers need to have a close contact with customers, product groups and with academic institutions of renown. A variety of collaboration programs with leading engineering universities around the world that involve strong internship and fellowship programs bring in additional talent.

It is important to conduct the research at a higher level with practical, organic and real-world implications. The researchers need to be exposed to the real marketplace challenges to endure and address the competitive pressure. At the end of the day, the long term success of a company will mainly rest on its ability to innovate and evolve changes in technology and the markets it serves to ensure its technological leadership in the times to come.

NASA’s space shuttle era officially came to a close on July 21, 2011 at 5:57 am when the space shuttle Atlantis with its crew of four astronauts landed safely at a remote runway of Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This historic incident was watched by a lot of space agency workers and reporters who came out before dawn to witness this memorable moment.

It seemed to be an almost unexpected end to the 30-year-old space travel program. It was a moment of both triumph and melancholy when Atlantis with its four crew astronauts glided to a safe landing in near-darkness after her last visit to the International Space Station, completing the 135th final shuttle flight mission. NASA employees were feeling sad at Kennedy Space Centre as half a century of American dominance in space came to an end.

In its about 30-year history, the space shuttle program has seen various ups and downs. During these years the fleet has taken astronauts on many successful missions­, resulting in great scientific gains. But these successes have been gained at a serious cost. We witnessed the Challenger exploded during launch in 1986. In 2003, the Columbia shuttle broke up during the ride home over Texas. Fourteen lives were lost in these two space shuttle accidents. After the Columbia accident, the shuttles were grounded pending redesigns to take safety measures.

Another incident happened when space shuttle Discovery was supposed to start the space travel once more. A large piece of insulating foam broke free from its external fuel tank, leaving scientists wonderstruck to solve the mystery and the program was grounded again until July 2006, when both the Discovery and Atlantis returned after completing successful missions. Nasa’s shuttles were instrumental in building the International Space Station, and were used to maintain the Hubble telescope.

Hundreds turned out at Kennedy Space Center to witness the swan song landing of the space shuttle Atlantis. An estimated 4,000 shuttle program workers, many of whom were going to lose their jobs due to the fleet’s retirement, gathered to watch live coverage on TV at Johnson Space Center in Texas.

“After serving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle’s earned its place in history. And it’s come to a final stop,” shuttle commander Christopher Ferguson radioed after Atlantis touched the ground just before dawn.

“There’s a lot of emotion today but one thing’s indisputable: America’s not going to stop exploring,” Chris Ferguson continued in his emotional tone. In fact, his words reaffirmed the faith that the sun will rise again tomorrow.

Now on the spaceship Atlantis and the two other surviving shuttles will become museum relics, like the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules and the Wright brothers’ flying machine before them.