Nano: The Next Dimension

Nanosciences and nanotechnologies represent a formidable challenge for the research community and industry.


World-class infrastructure, new fundamental knowledge, novel equipment for characterisation and manufacturing, multi-disciplinary education and training for innovative and creative engineering, and a responsible attitude to societal demands are required.


This documentary film, made available by the European Commission, provides a glimpse of some of the many activities that are being carried out in Europe in these fast-grozing fields of research and technological development.

Flores: The Home of the Hobbit

** First Documentary: Saving Flores - The Home of the Hobbits






* Second Dcumentary: The Hobbits, who are they?





"Saving Flores - The Home of the Hobbit", by Raffaela Acampora, tells the story of how the gentle villagers of Flores, Indonesia, are fighting against a giant Corporation to protect their right to live and die in their native land, and to save their traditions and the ecosystem of their magnificent, unviolated territory.


The Island of Flores become famous when a team of archaeologists happened upon a tiny 18,000-year old skeleton. It was no more than a metre tall. They assumed they have found the remains of a young girl. But other signs suggested she was in fact much older. They had discovered one of the smallest human adults ever found (Watch Second Documentary).

As the dig continued, the evidence unearthed got stranger. The diggers found elephants the size of cows, rats the size of dogs, lizards the size of crocodiles. It was like stepping with Alice into Wonderland. It was not just the humans that were peculiarly sized, everything large had shrunk and everything small had grown.

Further digging uncovered spear points scattered among the bones of the pygmy elephants that appear to have been roasted on fires. It seemed that their tiny human must have been a skilled and intelligent hunter. Yet when they looked more closely at her skeleton, they discovered her brain was smaller than any other known human and no bigger than a chimpanzee's.

The team began to realise they had discovered a new species of human being. They called her the Hobbit. She was the smallest known species in modern human history. She lived at a time during which we previously thought we were the only species of human left on the planet. She seemed intelligent even with an animal-sized brain. She was someone worlds apart from everything understood about our ancestry, who challenged what it means to be human. The Hobbit was hailed as the scientific sensation of the century.

But the discovery team could have made a monumental mistake. Scientists began to wonder whether the Hobbit was in fact nothing more than a modern human, but a sick one.

A team of Indonesian biologists headed deep into the Flores jungle on a mission to find pygmies who might be the Hobbit's living descendants. They were convinced that they found them. An evolutionary scientist retraced the trail of clues that led her to one of the oldest anatomical collections in the world and the discovery of a diseased but tiny human skeleton. Another expert brought the Hobbit's brain back from her grave and subjected it to the rigours of cutting-edge brain scan technology.

The Memory: How Does It Work?

You might think that your memory is there to help you remember facts, such as birthdays or shopping lists. If so, you would be very wrong.


The ability to travel back in time in your mind is, perhaps, your most remarkable ability, and develops over your lifespan.


This Documentary is an extraordinary journey into the human memory. From the woman who is having her most traumatic memories wiped by a pill, to the man with no memory, this film reveals how these remarkable human stories are transforming our understanding of this unique human ability.


The findings reveal the startling truth that everyone is little more than their own memory.

First Images From Rejuvenated Hubble

September 9, 2009: Astronomers have declared NASA's Hubble Space Telescope a fully rejuvenated observatory with the release of observations from four of its six operating science instruments. Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland unveiled the images today at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.


"This marks a new beginning for Hubble," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "The telescope was given an extreme makeover and now is significantly more powerful than ever, well-equipped to last into the next decade."


The Hubble Space Telescope is back to work after a billion-dollar repair that included installing new cameras and replacing broken parts.

Commercial Breaks

Commercial Breaks - A documentary about Video Games Software companies at early 80's


Bit of history showing a behind the scenes of two software houses: Ocean and Imagine.


In early 1984 the Imagine team were working on a spectacular project known as Bandersnatch. The game was to come in an A4 sized box containing around 30 'goodies' including a required additional piece of hardware for your Spectrum computer.


The retail price of Bandersnatch was expected to be around £40 and it was to be a completely new concept in computer games. Apparently 10 professional artists were working on the graphics alone.


Bandersnatch was never released. On the 9th of July 1984, Imagine went bust after only 18 months of operation. Interestingly, its demise was documented by a BBC television program: "Commercial Breaks". (Watch The Video)


The Documentary shows also the catastrophical damages of pirating video games.


Later that year, 1984, ex-Imagine director Ian Hetherington started a new company known as Psygnosis. Many Imagine employees moved to the new team including David Lawson, Eugene Evans, John Gibson, and Jake Glover. Their first game was to be Brataccas, which was essentially a rebadged version of Bandersnatch on the new Amiga and Atari ST. Unfortunately it never quite lived up to the lofty ideals of the former game but it was the catalyst for what was to come.

Invention of the Modern Number System

Undoubtedly, the Greatest invention by mankind after fire is the invention of the modern number system.


This invention enabled man to reach a much higher level of sophistication .


Everything from calculating the payload carrying capacity of a space shuttle to making records of wheat production was all possible because of the invention of the number: "Zero", and the new number system with it .

DAConnect : The first hologram for cars

DAConnect ( Driver Assistant Connect ):



An Assistant which is the first of its category. An hologram who helps the driver when he drives.



Made in China, The Driver Assistant Connect projects a hologram on the passengers seat that will help you on the road.

Hubble Space Telescope: Most Facinating Images

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by the space shuttle in April 1990. It is named after the American astronomer Edwin Hubble. Although not the first space telescope, the Hubble is one of the largest and most versatile, and is well-known as both a vital research tool and a public relations boon for astronomy. The HST is a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency, and is one of NASA's Great Observatories, along with the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope.


The Hubble is the only telescope ever designed to be serviced in space by astronauts. There have been five servicing missions, the last occurring in May 2009. Servicing Mission 1 took place in December 1993 when Hubble's imaging flaw was corrected. Servicing missions 2, 3A, and 3B repaired various sub-systems and replaced many of the observing instruments with more modern and capable versions. However, following the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia accident, the fifth servicing mission was canceled on safety grounds. After spirited public discussion, NASA reconsidered this decision, and administrator Mike Griffin approved one final Hubble servicing mission. STS-125 was launched in May 2009, and installed two new instruments and made numerous repairs. Assuming testing and calibration of the new equipment goes well, the Hubble should resume routine operation in September 2009.


The latest servicing should allow the telescope to function until at least 2014, when its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), is due to be launched. The JWST will be far superior to Hubble for many astronomical research programs, but will only observe in infrared, so it will complement (not replace) Hubble's ability to observe in the visible and ultraviolet parts of the spectrum.


In few months Hubble will celebrate its 20th anniversery, and still sending billions of priceless informations and images.