To help develop next-generation prosthetics that can perform up to 22 distinct motions that better match human performance, Protagoras Cutchis at Johns Hopkins University devised an electrode array implanted around the sheath of a peripheral nerve that does not penetrate into the nerve itself. This invention can detect the individual electrical signals from each cell within the nerve to potentially enhance control of the prosthesis. Machines are thus proving ever more able to pick up the slack when humans falter.--Charles Choi

Of Brain Maps and Saving the Internet An array of technologies are complemented by a push toward sensible public policy The Ultimate Computer

Once a theoretical curiosity, the idea of a computer that stores information in quantum superpositions of 0 and 1, known as quantum bits or qubits, is edging slowly toward reality. Demonstrations of simple quantum computation have typically relied on relatively clunky experimental setups that would not easily allow hundreds or thousands of qubits to work together like logic gates on a Pentium processor. This year researchers finally engineered microchips capable of rudimentary storage and manipulation of the quantum states of individual charged atoms, the most promising candidates for implementing practical qubits. Christopher Monroe of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and David J. Wineland of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder both fabricated chips capable of storing just a few atoms, paving the way for more elaborate chips that can manipulate atoms in more serious numbers.--JR Minkel

Net Neutrality

Phone and cable companies have recently begun floating the idea of charging major Internet content providers such as Google and Vonage for "premium" access to bandsize. Outraged at the proposed tampering with so-called network neutrality-the concept that all Internet traffic should be carried and charged for in the same way--consumer groups lobbied the Federal Communications Commission to enshrine neutrality as a regulatory principle. Columbia University law professor Timothy Wu has been a leader in articulating and articulating the value of neutrality. Unfortunately, this June the House of Representatives voted down the Network Neutrality Act of 2006, introduced by Edward Markey of Massachusetts, one of several proposed bills to consolidate the principle of network neutrality as law.

DNA Building Blocks

One sub-discipline of nanotechnology devotes itself to building structures with molecules of DNA. Last year at the University of Oxford, working jointly with Vije University in Amsterdam, described using DNA to construct a tetrahedron, a pyramid that has three faces and a base. The rigid structure measures 10 nanometers wide and could conceivably form a building block for electronic circuits that send currents along paths in three dimensions. The technique devised by Andrew J. Turberfield allows the fabrication of trillions of these structures in just a few minutes.--Gary Stix

Brain Atlas:

Three years ago Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen donated $100 million to establish the Allen Institute for Brain Science. Its first project would be the Allen Brain Atlas, aimed at accelerating efforts to map where and when every gene in the mouse brain is active. This September the Institute unveiled the complete Atlas, a three-dimensional map depicting the activity of 21,000 genes in time and space and resolved down to individual cells. The map was pieced together by dividing whole mouse brains into thin slices and probing each one to determine what genes were active and where. Because mice and humans share up to 90 percent of the same genes, researchers hope that such a map will provide insights into the genetics of human brain development, functioning and disease, including Alzheimer's, addiction and autism.--JR Minkel