Researchers today plan to unveil a silicon-based chip that uses laser light rather than wires to transmit data between chips. The technology is expected to greatly accelerate the pace at which data move inside computers, increasing processing speeds and cutting costs, and increase data transmission capabilities between fiber-optic networks and conventional wire-based systems

The discovery of a new extrasolar planet that is a third as large again as Jupiter but has only half Jupiter's mass has astronomers' heads spinning once again as theories of planetary formation come crashing down to earth. The new planet HAT-P-1 was spotted by a team at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Brown is the new white, according to Microsoft which last night revealed its answer to the iPod and surprised industry watchers with its choice of colours. Alongside white and black versions of the Zune player, which make it look similar to Apple's iPod, it will be available in brown. As well as a 30GB memory that can store 7,500 songs or 40 hours of video, it includes an FM radio and built-in wireless technology that allows music sharing with other Zune users

Arctic sea ice in winter is melting far faster than before -- a new and alarming trend that threatens the ocean's delicate ecosystem. The sudden and rapid melting is a sure sign of man-made global warming, said researchers in NASA studies Wednesday. "It has never occurred before," said NASA senior research scientist Josefino Comiso. "It is alarming... This winter ice provides the kind of evidence that it is indeed associated with the greenhouse effect

Space shuttle Atlantis astronauts on Thursday were setting up a new set of solar arrays on the International Space Station, which will eventually double the orbiting laboratory's power capabilities, NASA said. The deployment had been delayed by several hours by a glitch in software that controls the arrays' rotation arm

Google Earth has teamed up with the United Nations to allow users to monitor global environmental crisis zones. The website, which allows users to zoom in on any location on a satellite-based, colour, 3D depiction of the planet, will "overlay" information from partners on to its geographical images. A tie-up with the United Nations Environmental Program will allow users to see images illustrating the world's most extreme areas of environmental degradation

Nintendo's quirky game console, the Wii, will go on sale in the U.S. on Nov. 19 for $249.99, a price far lower than competing consoles from Sony and Microsoft Corp., the company said Thursday. In an unusual move for the launch of a Japanese product, the Wii will go on sale in Japan two weeks after the U.S. launch

In a joint project, Memory-Tech and Toshiba have created a one-side, triple-layer disc for both DVD and HD-DVD formats. It is a breakthrough which opens the door to higher capacity hybrid storage on a single disc. The new disc is an advance on Toshiba's current DVD TWIN format, which supports both DVD and HD-DVD storage types. The three-layer discs will allow for either two HD-DVD layers and one DVD layer, two DVD layers and one HD-DVD, or one dual-layer DVD and one HD DVD layer

Nathan Peterson, the owner of the software piracy site will spend the next 7 years and 3 months behind bars. This is the longest sentence ever handed down for software piracy. In addition,U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III ruled that the defendant must pay restitution of more than $5.4 million and also to be stripped of assets including property, cars and a boat

Shuttle Atlantis has finally docked with the international space station for the first time in three years. The shuttle carrying six astronauts took off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Saturday, and is currently docked 218km (349 miles) above Earth