After buying nine companies since 2006, Windstream said today that it is streamlining management positions by cutting 375 to 400 jobs. The job cuts, which are slated to be finished by the third quarter, represent 3 percent of Windstream’s total workforce of 14,500. “Windstream has grown rapidly through acquisition, and it is crucial that our […]
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Liberty Media spells out plan for Sirius control
Billionaire John Malone’s Liberty Media said Thursday that it will convert nearly half of its preferred shares of Sirius XM Radio into common stock and nominate a slate of candidates to the company’s board, as part of its ongoing push to take control of the satellite radio company. Liberty Media said in a filing with […]
Tool-wielding robots crawl in bodies for surgery
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Imagine a tiny snake robot crawling through your body, helping a surgeon identify diseases and perform operations. It’s not science fiction. Scientists and doctors are using the creeping metallic tools to perform surgery on hearts, prostate cancer, and other diseased organs. The snakebots carry tiny cameras, scissors and forceps, and even more […]
Yale chemistry chair appointed to NIH council
Scott J. Miller, chairman of Yale’s chemistry department, has been named to a prominent advisory body within the National Institutes of Health that helps award research grants. Miller will serve on the National Advisory General Medical Sciences Council for an appointment of four years. The council’s members provide advice and the second level of peer-review […]
Harvard’s Wyss Institute develops nanodevice manufacturing strategy using DNA ‘building blocks’
Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have developed a method for building complex nanostructures out of short synthetic strands of DNA. Called single-stranded tiles (SSTs), these interlocking DNA “building blocks,” akin to Legos, can be programmed to assemble themselves into precisely designed shapes, such as letters and emoticons. Further […]
Dresselhaus, Graybiel, Luu receive 2012 Kavli Prizes
Kavli award winners, from left, Mildred Dresselhaus, Ann Graybiel and Jane LuuPhotos (L to R): Dominick Reuter; Kent Dayton; Kavli Institute Three MIT researchers — Mildred Dresselhaus, Ann Graybiel and Jane Luu — are among seven pioneering scientists worldwide named today as this year’s recipients of the Kavli Prizes. These prizes recognize scientists for their […]
Synchronous buck converter delivers 90% efficiency & requires only 12µA quiescent current
Linear Technology announces the LTC3630, a 65V input-capable synchronous buck converter, which delivers up to 500mA of continuous output current from a 16-lead thermally enhanced 3mm x 5mm DFN or MSOP package. Its internal synchronous rectification topology delivers efficiencies as high as 90% and its Burst Mode operation requires only 12µA of quiescent current (at […]
Verizon to unleash 300 Mbps broadband tier
Starting next month, Verizon will push its broadband speed needle up to 300 Mbps on the downstream, with 65 Mbps on the upstream. The new 300 Mbps tier, which appears to be the fastest commercially available tier in North America, will be available next month and is just one piece of Verizon’s plan to restructure […]
RCN taps thePlatform to back TV Everywhere service
RCN Telecom has tapped thePlatform to help it introduce a TV Everywhere service later this year. RCN did not say when the service would begin to be available, nor did it specify which of its markets would get the service first. RCN, thePlatform and RCN’s set-top vendor TiVo are collaborating on the TV Everywhere experience, […]
A zettabyte a year on the Internet by 2016
It appears that traffic on the Internet is, indeed, growing at a rapid pace. Annual global IP traffic should reach 1.3 zettabytes by 2016, according to Cisco. That would be more or less on schedule. If there’s a new nugget in Cisco’s annual network updates, it’s that more than half of that traffic in 2016 […]