As tech companies seek to shrink transistors, they run up against heat and resistance issues that have seemed insurmountable. But now researchers at IBM believe they have found a way to breach the “brick wall” that has foiled other attempts to make even smaller electronics.

The innovation, according to a New York Times article, will not only lead to smaller but also more powerful, faster computer processors. The research was published this week in the journal Science.

The technology works with precise placement of carbon nanotubes – tubes that are just one-atom thick — aligned on silicon wafers. Carbon nanotubes have long been a promising but troublesome technology for computer scientists to manage. Currently the use of nanotubes is limited since the particles tend to clump together.

But the use of nanotubes with the new IBM technique is expected to be a leading candidate for improving performance and energy efficiency, in future computers. In a simulated microprocessor, the IBM team found that using carbon nanotube transistors in place of traditional ones increased speeds by nearly seven orders of magnitude, or created almost that much energy savings.

The development is the first in a decade to show the promise of increasingly faster computing.

There has been growing interest by Chinese tech companies in U.S. investments, but national security concerns have squashed some of their efforts. Now one Chinese company hopes to take a small step into the U.S. market.

Earlier this week, California-based Western Digital Corporation announced a deal with a division of the Chinese tech company Tsinghua Unigroup, called Unisplendour. Tsinghua will pay $3.78 billion for a 15% share of Western, paying 34% above Tuesday’s closing share price of Western’s stock, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Western Digital has more than 76,000 employees and had revenues of over $14 billion this last fiscal year. But the company’s stock has suffered this year, with slow growth leading to significant declines.

Earlier this year Tsinghua offered $23 billion in an attempt to acquire the U.S. semiconductor maker Micron Technology Inc, but that deal fell through on national security concerns.

The Unisplendour stake in Western may have an easier road, as the company is acquiring only a minority position, not a controlling interest as in the failed Micron takeover. Still, the deal is expected to be reviewed for national security concerns by an interagency group led by the Treasury Department.

Western Digital expects the cash from the deal to help propel further growth, while Unisplendour aims to expand its overseas portfolio.

We all enjoy the ease of wireless technologies, but now a British start-up plans to make our wireless networks into a power source for our homes.

Drayson Technologies has created the Freevolt energy harvester, a device that can capture the power from low-energy radio waves created by wireless devices to create a wireless power supply, according to CNET.

Futurists expect our homes will soon be filled with computer-embedded smart devices, from self-monitoring trash bins to light-sensing window shades and more. But thinking about how we will power the “Internet of Things” without batteries or plugs has been a challenge.

Now Freevolt has solved the problems of low-power wireless technology. The device harvests energy across a wide range of radio frequencies and efficiently converts the energy into a current. A power management system captures even tiny amounts of spare energy from wireless systems.

The device is about the size of a cell phone, but the thickness of a credit card. Drayson hopes to make it even smaller, so we may one day have a wearable version that will provide an ongoing energy supply for our smart phones and other mobile devices.

California is dry from the worst drought in history, so the state’s water managers are searching for answers. One solution they say is to reuse treated sewer water, but experts fear that the public may not be ready for drinking their water from “toilet-to-tap.”

The filtering technology for the system is already being tested by two Northern California water districts. In Southern California, Orange County is recycling 100 million gallons of waste water a day, treating it and returning it to aquifers, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Home grey water systems already reuse some household water, from dishwashing, bathtubs, and sinks for gardening or toilet water. But municipal systems would purify sewage on an industrial scale, returning filtered water back to the consumer as potable water.

The systems work by filtering sewage through several stages. Solids are removed, and the water is treated to the point where it is considered safe for ocean discharge. Then microfiltration and a reverse osmosis process eliminate concerns from bacteria or other pathogens. Finally the water is treated with ultraviolet light and hydrogen peroxide, rendering it equivalent to distilled water.

But public perception may be a challenging barrier to overcome. A $24.5 million system built in San Ramon, California in the 1990’s was rejected when local residents found out the original source of the “filtered” water.

Speakers that surround you with sound are no new thing. But now Sonos is launching a new speaker technology that can measure the acoustics of a room and automatically adjust to fill the room with sounds in the most effective way possible.

Sono’s latest speakers are called Play:5, and each one includes a sensor that tells the speaker whether to produce sounds for a wider or more vertical room, according to a story by Fast Company. Pairing the speakers, which will be available later this fall, users will hear an ultra-wide sound throughout the room.

But the real innovation, which has been announced but with no release date, will be the speakers’ combination of a small built-in microphone with the company’s True Play function.

True Play allows the speakers to take acoustic readings of the room in which the speakers are placed, and adjust the sound accordingly. With the microphone, the speakers can sense the sound waves in the room and make even more sensitive adjustments based on the placement of the speakers in the room’s sound profile.

A company demonstration of the technology reverberated with remarkable results. A speaker placed inside a kitchen cabinet was played with True Play turned off, leading to a muffled sound. With True Play turned on, the sound quality was impeccable.

You may enjoy the ease and accessibility of online dating sites. But a major HIV prevention organization is warning people about the risks when internet dating  leads to casual hook-ups.

A billboard in Los Angeles created by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation is warning viewers about the increased risks of sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) to people who use online dating apps, including calling out the internet dating app Tinder and Grindr specifically.

The billboards equate the names of the companies with the sexually acquired diseases chlamydia and gonorrhea, according to Newsweek.

In a cease-and-desist letter to the Foundation, Tinder’s attorney called the links between disease and the company’s services “unprovoked and unsubstantiated.”

But the foundation says it will not take down the ads. A report from the Rhode Island Department of Health, they say, shows an increase in the rate of STDs in the state between 2013 and 2014, equating the rise to the use of social media that encourages casual sex and sex with multiple partners.

The foundation also says that a study of gay men’s dating habits by the U.S. National Library of Medicine found that those who use dating apps were more likely to have chlamydia or gonorrhea.

In response, Grindr has dropped the Foundation’s paid ads for STD testing from its site.

You may use twitter to keep up with news and maybe even for online shopping deals. You may use Square as your online payment site of choice. But you’re probably not planning to work as the leader of both companies at the same time.

That is, unless you’re Jack Dorsey. The top executive at Square has been serving as interim chief at Twitter, and is expected to be named Twitter’s permanent CEO today, according to Reuters.

Still, experts worry that the two posts pose serious conflicts of interest. Twitter has already been adopting more e-commerce and payments options since Dorsey joined the company in July. Twitter recently announced a deal with Square that allows its users to make donations to political campaigns, and the company is planning to add “buy now” buttons on some tweets.

One expert suggested that if accepting payments becomes a major business for Twitter the conflicts could be insurmountable. Others said that the time commitment that a CEO needs for each company could be seen as a conflict, especially with Square’s IPO expected later this year.

Some investors, however, are backing Dorsey. A spokesman for Rizvi Traverse Management, which has investments in both companies, expressed confidence in Dorsey’s ability to serve as CEO for Twitter and Square simultaneously.