Anyone who's dropped a cellphone in the bath knows that water and microelectronics don't usually mix well. But at IBM's Swiss lab in Zurich, marrying the two is becoming almost commonplace: microprocessors with water coursing through microchannels carved deep inside them are already crunching data in SuperMUC, an IBM supercomputer - with the heat that the water carries away used to warm nearby buildings.
A British parliamentary inquiry has heard that more than $650m ( £420m) worth of European Union aid to Africa may have been badly spent. In some cases, not enough local people were trained in how to maintain the necessary equipment - so after a few years it just stopped being used. But the biggest problem was finance - or getting long-term agreement from the communities and governments of poorer countries on how the water supply would be funded
S. Hess, C. Muller, W. Frobenius, U. Reith, K. Klotz, and K. Eger. J Med Chem, 43 (24):
4636-46(November 2000)Hess, S Muller, C E Frobenius, W Reith, U Klotz, K N Eger, K In Vitro
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't United States Journal of medicinal
chemistry J Med Chem. 2000 Nov 30;43(24):4636-46..