Japan is getting tough about recycling and not in the paper and plastic kind of way. Recently, the country requires that all electronic goods -- TVs, VCRs, stereos, and more -- be recycled. But recycling will not be left to consumers, instead, the devices will be sent to the original manufacturer for proper disposal.

The new law poses(造成) a few challenges to manufacturers who are now rushing to set up collection networks and perfecting techniques to disassemble and recycle older products.With an eye toward the future, they are also integrating easily recycled materials into new products. Plastics, a major component of most electronic products, pose a particular obstacle because their quality becomes worse and worse with age, losing strength and flexibility even if reprocessed. NEC Corp, overcomes this problem by creating a plastics sandwich, in which the filling is 100 percent recycled plastic and the outer layers a mixture of 14 percent recycled material.The resulting plastic has sufficient strength and toughness for use as a case for desktop PCs. The company, in cooperation with plastic maker Sumitomo Dow, has also developed a new plastic, which engineers claim retains(保持) its mechanical properties through repeated recycling. NEC uses the plastic, which is also flame-retardant (阻燃的) in battery cases for notebook PCs.

Meanwhile, Matsushita Electric, maker of the Panasonic brand, is avoiding plastic in favor of magnesium (镁). Magnesium, says the company, is ideal for recycling because it retains its original strength through repeated reprocessing. Matsushita has developed molding techniques to form magnesium into the case for a 21-inch TV. Unfortunately, the magnesium case and energy-saving features make the TV about twice as expensive as an ordinary model.The company hopes, however, that increased use of magnesium will eventually bring prices down.

Dyson has just unveiled its second beauty gadget and it’s certainly going to make waves in more ways than one. The Airwrap(卷发棒) is the much anticipated follow-up to the Supersonic hairdryer which proved a huge hit despite the ￡299 cost. This new gadget promises to be a whole new way to create waves and smooth blow-dries, but the price alone is enough to make your hair curl, coming in at an even heftier ￡399. So what, exactly, is your money buying you? Can there really be THAT different a way to curl your hair?

Well, this being Dyson, the answer is yes. It’s radically different from your typical curling irons that involve you physically winding your hair around a scorching-hot barrel.The new Airwrap technology uses jets of air to attract your hair onto the curling barrel, automatically wrapping it and shaping it. All you have to do is place a section of hair close to the styler, and it’ll wind itself around the styler by a (literally) invisible force.

If you’re a beauty geek, you might like to know that force has a name— the Coanda Effect. This occurs when a high speed jet of air flows across a surface and the difference in pressure makes the air flow (and any hair that gets caught up in its wake) attach itself to that surface. Dyson says the Coanda effect enables you to shape your hair at far lower temperatures than regular styling, which translates into less damage. Like the Supersonic dryer, the Air wrap employs “intelligent heat control”, measuring the temperature up to 40 times a second to ensure the heat never reaches the point where your hair is frazzled to the point of no return.

The Airwrap comes with different attachments, depending on the style you want to achieve.You can either go for a wavy look with the curling barrel or use the Coanda effect to guide your hair onto the brush attachment, replicating a salon style blow dry without the arm ache.

“Once my hair was wrapped in place and had been sufficiently whooshed for a few seconds, I hit the cool button to set the style, then slid the styler out of my hair. I felt shocked, proud, ecstatic, disbelieving. It was kind of like childbirth without the mess.” Then again, many people were initially sceptical about the idea of coughing up nearly ￡300 for a hairdryer, yet the Supersonic has blown away all the doubters. Who’s to say the Airwrap won’t be our new best curl friend?

The Dyson Airwrap is available at Dyson online and in Dyson stores.

Since the 1970s, scientists have been searching for ways to link the brain with computers. Brain-computer interface (BCI) technology could help people with disabilities send commands to machines.

Recently, two researchers, Jose Millan and Michele Tavella from the Federal Polytechnic School in Lausanne, Switzerland, demonstrated (展示) a small robotic wheelchair directed by a person’s thoughts.

In the laboratory, Tavella operated the wheelchair just by thinking about moving his left or right hand. He could even talk as he watched the vehicle and guided it with his thoughts.

“Our brain has billions of nerve cells. These send signals through the spinal cord (脊髓) to the muscles to give us the ability to move. But spinal cord injuries or other conditions can prevent these weak electrical signals from reaching the muscles,” Tavella says. “Our system allows disabled people to communicate with external world and also to control devices.”

The researchers designed a special cap for the user. This head cover picks up the signals from the scalp (头皮) and sends them to a computer. The computer interprets the signals and commands the motorized wheelchair. The wheelchair also has two cameras that identify objects in its path. They help the computer react to commands from the brain.

Prof. Millan, the team leader, says scientists keep improving the computer software that interprets brain signals and turns them into simple commands. “The practical possibilities that BCI technology offers to disabled people can be grouped in two categories: communication, and controlling devices. One example is this wheelchair.”

He says his team has set two goals. One is testing with real patients, so as to prove that this is a technology they can benefit from. And the other is to guarantee that they can use the technology over long periods of time.