The use of open source hardware and software will continue to grow among both professional engineers and the hobbyist community in 2013, according to the results of a new survey from element14. [ + ]

A sliver of wood coated with tin could make a tiny, long-lasting, efficient and environmentally friendly battery, according to researchers at The University of Maryland. [ + ]

A new system, proposed by MIT researchers, uses two-dimensional structures to guide plasmonic waves at ultrashort wavelength, offering a new platform for memory and computer chips. [ + ]

Now, for the first time, a transistor made from just one molecular monolayer has been made to work where it really counts. On a computer chip. [ + ]

The element14 community is celebrating its fourth birthday. To mark the occasion, the company has launched a brain teaser competition, with three winners per week being selected to win a Freescale SabreLite development kit. [ + ]

Printing lithium-ion batteries on a 3D printer could enable the development of miniaturised medical implants, compact electronics, tiny robots and more. [ + ]

Australian researchers have proposed a new way to distinguish between quantum bits that are placed only a few nanometres apart in a silicon chip, taking them a step closer to the construction of a large-scale quantum computer. [ + ]

Sandia National Laboratories researchers want airports, border checkpoints and others to detect homemade explosives made with hydrogen peroxide without nabbing people whose toothpaste happens to contain peroxide. [ + ]

The Fraunhofer ITWM team has developed a new asynchronous programming model, Global Address Space Programming Interface or GPI, that might become a key building block towards realising the next generation of supercomputers. [ + ]

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have confirmed the particle-by-particle mechanism by which lithium ions move in and out of electrodes made of lithium iron phosphate, findings that could lead to better performance in Li-ion batteries in electric vehicles, medical equipment and aircraft. [ + ]

Texas Instruments has installed the AutoStore inventory management system in its product distribution centre (PDC) in Singapore. This marks the first installation of by a semiconductor in Asia. [ + ]

Researchers have found a way to make the manufacture of crystalline silicon materials faster and more affordable. The technology enables a large number of crystalline layers, controlled for thickness, to be produced from a single crystalline silicon wafer in just a single step. [ + ]

National Instruments recently hosted their 2013 LabVIEW Developer Days, a series of annual events providing an opportunity for new and existing LabVIEW users to learn about time-saving tips and expert development techniques. [ + ]

To make OLEDs cheaply and easily, researchers from the University of Louisville in Kentucky are developing new materials and production methods using modified quantum dots and inkjet printing. [ + ]

Scientists have designed and tested an all-solid lithium-sulfur battery with approximately four times the energy density of the conventional lithium-ion technologies that power today’s electronics. [ + ]