There is a technological breakthrough on the horizon that could be the biggest thing since the silicon chip or fibre optics.

A material called graphene has the potential to almost triple the speed of electricity in the best semiconductors, holding out the prospect of much faster computer chips and biochemical sensors.

UK researchers claim to have created the world’s first practical transistors cut from ribbons of graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms. Two researchers at the University of Manchester include details of their breakthrough in a review article published in the March issue of Nature, though their research has not yet been peer-reviewed.

Just one atom thick and less than 50 atoms (a few nanometres) wide, the tiny transistors pave the way for a new breed of computer chips smaller and faster than those based on silicon.

The number of silicon transistors crammed onto a chip has so far doubled roughly every two years, as Intel co-founder Gordon Moore predicted in his eponymous “law”, but there are fundamental limits to the capacity of silicon-based electronics, as components become so small that electrical current begins to leak.

There is one remaining step before graphene can become viable - they have to clean up the “atomic-scale dirt” that slows the electrons down to a fraction of their potential speed.

The online social networking site Facebook says it has fixed a security loophole discovered by a Canadian computer technician that allowed people to look at the private photos of users.

The news follows Facebook’s announcement that it was implementing tougher measures to allow members to restrict access to their personal profiles.

However, a Vancouver computer technician looking for flaws was able to use computer coding to pull up private pictures of Facebook members and their friends. The private photos included those of Paris Hilton at the Emmy awards and of her brother Nicholas drinking a beer with friends.

A reporter from the Associated Press was also able to use the template to access the personal and private photos of random Facebook users, including a personal photo album of Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg posted in November 2005.

Within hours, Facebook administrators claimed to have fixed the problem. Around 67 million people are members of the site.

Less than a week after losing out in the latest U.S. spectrum auction, Google has started pitching a plan to use TV “white space” — unlicensed and unused airwaves — to provide wireless internet.

Google is urging the FCC and the US government to open up the white space for unlicensed use in the hope of enabling more widespread, affordable internet access over the airwaves. This comes amid recent predictions that internet use has become so widespread that we could be facing serious worldwide slowdowns before long.

Google claims that the vast majority of viable spectrum in this country simply goes unused, or else is grossly underutilised. Google suggests that unlike other natural resources, there is no benefit to allowing this spectrum to lie “fallow”.

The white space, located between channels 2 and 51 on TV sets that aren’t hooked up to satellite or cable services, offers a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to provide ubiquitous wireless broadband access to all Americans,” argues Google.

TV broadcasters oppose use of white space, fearing such usage would cause interference with television programming and could cause problems with the transition from analog to digital broadcasting signals next year.