As we previously reported, the specs on their production quad-band S101 model leave little to be desired as folding smartphones go, with 128MB of RAM, 64MB of ROM, a 2-megapixel shooter, 400MHz of the XScale PXA263 variety, and Qtopia's mobile Linux platform in a 210-gram package.

ENGADGET: ROAD's Handy-PC S101 apparently real Mobile

Michael Demkowicz of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is developing a model that he hopes will address the problem from a different direction: specifying a set of desired properties and then trying to predict the nanostructures needed to deliver them.

ECONOMIST: New materials for renewable energy