Tiny solar cells fix themselves

Researchers have demonstrated tiny solar cells, just billionths of a metre across, that can repair themselves, extending their useful lifetime, reveals The BBC.

The cells make use of proteins from the machinery of plants, turning sunlight into electric charges that can do work.

The cells simply assemble themselves from a mixture of the proteins, minute tubes of carbon and other materials.

A Nigerian man has been sentenced to more than 12 years in a US prison for orchestrating an advance payment scam that bilked victims out of more than $1.3 million, writes The Register.

Okpako Mike Diamreyan, 31, was ordered to serve 151 months in federal prison and pay a little more than $1 million in restitution to the 67 victims he was convicted of scamming from 2004 and 2009.

The rare conviction was the result of his relocation to the US in 2008, when he married an American citizen. Rather than capitalising on the opportunity to start a new life, he used it to ramp up his e-mail-based scheme, which is often referred to as a 419 scam, after the Nigerian penal code that makes them illegal.

Google will face an antitrust investigation in Texas over charges that it manipulated search results, in what appears to be a similar case to one pending in Europe, says CNet.

Google confirmed an earlier report by Search Engine Land Friday after the close of the stock market that Texas attorney general Greg Abbott has contacted it in connection with an "antitrust review" of Google's business practices.

Earlier this year, European regulators opened an investigation regarding claims by a Microsoft-friendly price-comparison site called Foundem that Google was downranking Foundem in hopes of putting the site out of business.

Toshiba is recalling its Satellite T135, Satellite T135D and Satellite Pro T130 laptops in response to reports that these devices overheat and can burn users, reports Computing.co.uk.

About 41 000 laptops sold between August 2009 and August 2010 worldwide are affected by this defect, according to a US Consumer Product statement.

Toshiba is reported to have received 129 complaints of laptops overheating and the plastic casing area around the AC adapter plug deforming, according to the statement.