Philips to Unveil 52-inch Multi-Touch LCD at CES

Philips says it will unveil a 52-inch multi-touch LCD at next week's Consumer Electronics Show.

LG.Philips LCD is planning to unveil a 52-inch multi-touch LCD (liquid crystal display) at next week's Consumer Electronics Show, it said Monday. The screen is 5-inches larger than one it recently showed in Japan and is the largest display of its type in the world, the company said.

Multi-touch screens differ from conventional touchpanels because they allow input from more than one spot on the screen so, for example, an image can be manipulated from opposite corners. Probably the most famous current example of the technology is the display on Apple's hit iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

With the technology helping to make the iPhone a smash hit display makers are now pursuing its inclusion in screens. The LG.Philips 52-inch screen uses an infrared image sensor to gauge input from fingers or other instruments and can recognize gestures such as the movement of fingers. It boasts full HD resolution (1,920 pixels by 1,080 pixels).

Additionally, the company will be showing an 84-inch multi-touch display that is made up of four 42-inch panels joined together.

LG.Philips LCD will also unveil a 47-inch "triple-view" screen. This has a filter over the front that sends light from pixels in one of three different directions so that three images can be displayed at once: one to viewers on the right of the screen, one to people in front of it and one to those on the left. The feature is being positioned at public display applications for use in advertising.

Also at CES the company will show a 47-inch double-sided screen that is made up of a single backlight sandwiched between two LCD panels and a 42-inch transreflective panel for outdoor advertising use.

International CES opens in Las Vegas on Jan. 7.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,140910-c,ces/article.html

Toshiba XF LCD TV's to get 100Hz

Most notable for an ultra slim profile of just 23mm the XF range of LCD TV's from Toshiba is also a very well equipped flat screen. From this March the 46in model in the XF series is set to become even more desirable with the addition of 100Hz processing.

Sporting a 10-bit panel for a broader range of colours and Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution along with 3 HDMI as well as the usual component, Composite and S-video inputs, the XF series has certainly not relied on its good looks to make its way in the world.

Toshiba's ultra slim series of LCD TV's have gained a loyal following not only because of their looks but also for the successful implementation of innovative technology. Complementing Full HD, the XF series also includes an "Exact Scan" mode that allows a 1080i (such as Sky SD) broadcasted signal to be processed by the TV in the original broadcasted format, with no scaling of the original image.

The slim line nature of the Toshiba's XF series make the screens appear much smaller than they actually are, and the impact is that much greater, especially with HD material. With the forthcoming addition of 100Hz processing, the overall performance of these screens should improve, especially with Standard Definition material.

http://hdtvorg.co.uk/news/articles/2007123101.htm

Mitochondrial DNA

Mitochondrial DNA (some captions in German)

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is the DNA located in organelles called mitochondria. Most other DNA present in eukaryotic organisms is found in the cell nucleus. Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA are thought to be of separate evolutionary origin, with the mtDNA being derived from the circular genomes of the bacteria that were engulfed by the early ancestors of today's eukaryotic cells. Each cell is estimated to contain 2-10 mtDNA copies.^[1] In the cells of extant organisms, the vast majority of the proteins present in the mitochondria (numbering approximately 1500 different types in mammals) are coded for by nuclear DNA, but the genes for some of them, if not most, are thought to have originally been of bacterial origin, having since been transferred to the eukaryotic nucleus during evolution. Among multicellular animals (metazoans), nearly all of the mtDNA in a fertilized egg (zygote) is inherited from only one parent - the female. One mechanism for this is simple dilution: an egg contains 100,000 to 1,000,000 mitochondria, whereas a sperm contains only 10 to 100. Another mechanism, documented for a few organisms, is that the sperm mitochondria do not enter the egg. Whatever the mechanism, this single parent (uniparental) pattern of mtDNA inheritance is found in most animals, most plants and in fungi as well.

In humans (and probably in metazoans in general), 100-10,000 separate copies of mtDNA are usually present per cell (egg and sperm cells are exceptions). In mammals, each circular mtDNA molecule consists of 15,000-17,000 base pairs, which encode the same 37 genes: 13 for proteins (polypeptides), 22 for transfer RNA (tRNA) and one each for the small and large subunits of ribosomal RNA (rRNA). This pattern is also seen among most metazoans, although in some cases one or more of the 37 genes is absent and the mtDNA size range is greater. Even greater variation in mtDNA gene content and size exists among fungi and plants, although there appears to be a core subset of genes that are present in all eukaryotes (except for the few that have no mitochondria at all). Some plant species have enormous mtDNAs (as many as 2,500,000 base pairs per mtDNA molecule!) but, surprisingly, even those huge mtDNAs contain the same number and kinds of genes as related plants with much smaller mtDNAs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_DNA