We know that you are already proud of the Cell Broadband Engine that can be found in PlayStation 3 units. Aside from providing you with the most exciting gameplay experience, the chip is also responsible for bringing about medical breakthroughs.

Today, we learned that Mayo Clinic and IBM decided to collaborate yet again to help improve medical imaging technology. At the heart of this project is the unassuming chip. Know more after the jump!

Last year, a small marketing company in Dublin had claimed to find the essence of free energy by harvesting energy created from perpetual motion. Orbos, the device used to demonstrate the free energy generation, was announced to enter a 10-day public trial at their London offices starting back in July 4, 2007.
 
The demonstration was set to be a worldwide web broadcast over their official web site, covering the demonstration from four cameras, which are situated inside a room that could also be viewed from the outside. The Kinetica demonstration was previously observed by a live jury - credible personalities in the scientific community - and the claim will be validated if true or false when the results of the 22 scientists are published.

The company has yet to undergo the Orbos Kinetica demonstration thoguh, due to an issue with extra heating from the camera lighting positioned directly above the device. Critics and skeptics alike are beginning to doubt the existence of this free energy, while many have cause to believe that the hype and the trouble was all just for nothing.

But later today, as our team re-investigated the claim, the device does exist and it has not been removed from the web broadcast at all. We will keep a close look on the developments of Steorn's demonstration and hopefully be able to name a day and date when the demonstration will start after the delay.

You may jump over to the live demonstration via the Read link below, but you may require an above average broadband connection to get as many updated images as possible.

Lifehack.org  has an interesting new article on how to improve one's well-being. In this case, it's on one's productivity. Yes, it may sound cliche, but they do have some decent tips that make sense, and it isn't all the standard stuff you'd get from self-help books, and from celebrity TV shrinks. In fact, some gamers may find these tips useful.

For example, tip number 11 says "Write a blog to chronicle your own personal development and achievements" Something a lot of homebrew folks with schedules they need to meet (and priorities they need to juggle) do.

Tip number 20 says "Use a Tivo or DVR". Tip number 40 delves into the semi-technical and suggests that one "Start a polyphasic sleep schedule."

A famous form of polyphasic sleeping is the Uberman's Sleep Schedule, wherein sleepers take 20 minute naps every 4 hours throughout the day. It may sound extreme but many suggest that it's effective and as it's intended to extend REM sleep time. Sounds weird, but could be useful if you're trying to schedule a mean MMORPG power leveling marathon.

There's a whole lot of other tips, but we suggest that you get all of it via our "read" link below. We'll leave you with our fave tip in the list. Tip number 39: "Speed up your Internet with a broadband connection."

Sony steps up for some corporate responsibility as it teamed up with Stanford University's Folding@home project, and all this in order to harness the PS3's technology to help study how proteins are formed in the human body and how they sometimes form incorrectly.

Using a powerful new processor called the Cell Broadband Engine, PS3 is able to run highly realistic games like Metal Gear Solid 4, Full Auto 2, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07. This chip is the same one IBM is using in its supercomputer project for the Department of Energy. This supercomputer is said to be able to reach speeds of one petaflop or 1,000 trillion calculations per second. Because there is so much horsepower in this chip, Sony thought that it might be a good idea to use it for something else. This time, something that could benefit not only gamers, but the whole of mankind as well.

How does the PS3 exactly fit into the scene of medical research?

Well, in observing the process of folding, or that where proteins start out in the body as long as strings of amino acids and have to assemble themselves into complex shapes, it is rather difficult for scientists to observe this because proteins are so small and the process is so fast--about 10 one-millionths of a second, in fact.

Now, scientists use computer simulation instead, But it takes about a day for a computer to simulate a nanosecond, so it would basically take about 30 years for that computer to complete one simulation, and that's a really long time. To be able to make this faster, Folding@home uses a network of about 200,000 personal computers to simulate how proteins assemble themselves! Heck, a network of 10,000 PS3s would run even faster! Vijay Pande, leader of the Stanford Project, says that a network of 10,000 Playstation 3s would increase speeds by a factor of five, and 100,000 would be 50 times faster than what they can do today. "It turns two years into one month, and that's a huge thing for us."

To participate, PS3 owners need only to download a program into the console's hard drive. Then, when they're not playing, they just need to leave their machines on. The Folding@home team will then divide their complex calculations into manageable chunks and then send it to the participating machines. But don't worry, since the program won't run when someone is using the PS3 since it might bog down the game. "What we want is for people to just have to make the decision to contribute electricity and benefit mankind."

Protein formation is important as improperly-formed ones are linked to a number of diseases, including Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, cystic fibrosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gherig's disease), and mad-cow disease. So now, everytime you use your PS3, you're not only using it for entertainment, but more importantly, you're contributing to significant medical research that can cure diseases. See, there's goodwill in gaming, just as it should be.

A new school, sponsored by Microsoft, named the 'School of the Future' opened in Philadelphia, USA on Thursday. It's actually a collaboration between Microsoft and two other schools. What has been tagged as "one of the most advanced high schools ever conceived" opened its doors at 8am on 7th September thanks to a collaboration between the School District of Philadelphia, Microsoft and the West Philadelphia community.

The school is designed to show that tomorrow's schools are perfectly achievable even with a typical, and at times meager, budget of today. Each of the 170 new students at the school are given tablet PCs, have smartcard-accessible lockers and get broadband internet at home to name just a few of the perks their entitled to.

The building is also a high-tech wonderland, made up of such features as photovoltaic panels in the glass windows and a roof that convert sunlight into direct current to contribute to the electricity supply. The data is even relayed in real-time so students can see the positive effect.

"The School of the Future shows how public and private partnerships can yield new thinking and sustainable change in educational systems around the world," said Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft.