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, и K. Eger. J Med Chem, 43 (24):
4636-46(ноября 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..