Ah, where would science be if not for the contributions of the humble microscope? Did you know that the development of the world's first microscope began in 11th century Iraq, when scientist and polymath Ibn al-Haytham recorded all sorts of data about lenses, binocular vision, mirrors and observable properties of light his The Book of Optics? That would make this pioneering technology more than a thousand years old. BibliOdyssey has amassed a great collection of drawings of pre-20th century microscopes and some of them look more like art pieces than instruments of science. Check out my favourites: [Bibliodyssey via MAKE]

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Which sounds like a better way to make the roads safer: rescind drivers licenses from people who are very old and have failing vision, or create a fancy system with lasers to allow them to keep driving. If you answered the latter, you're in the same camp as General Motors. They're hard at work on a fancy new windshield that uses lasers, infrared sensors and a camera to make it easier for your decrepit old granddad to see just where the hell he's going.

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You may have noticed that we've got a bit of a Windows Vista takeover happening at the moment on Gizmodo. Part of that is having a hub dedicated to Vista, where Microsoft's "Professional Geek" Nick Hodge is blogging about helpful Vista features. One of the things he's mentioned - Turning the Pages 2.0 - is actually pretty awesome.

Essentially, it's digitised versions of 19th century (and older) diaries, books and records that you can read and flick through using Silverlight (there's also a plain Vista version as well). It's been done in conjunction with the British Library, and offers 15 of the library's most precious books up for you to read.

I hope that one day, in 150 years time, whatever technology has replaced blogs will come up with some awesome method of rediscovering everything you're reading today on Giz AU.

[Turning The Pages 2.0 via Giz AU's Vista Hub]

AT&T's geezerphone, the Pantech Breeze, is designed with the elderly in mind. The Breeze has three big speed-dial buttons, simple menus, a loud speakerphone and large font. Now you can hear Gladys's mahjong story and read Morty's steamy text messages from anywhere in Del Boca Vista. A step up from the Jitterbug and the ClarityLife, other mobile phones for the olds, it has a camera to snap pictures of your grandkids, or the carpet while you're figuring out how to make a call. The Breeze sells for US$70 up front with a two-year contract, or US$155 if you do pay-as-you-go, which is a good option if you don't know where you'll be three weeks from now. Bigger pics and press release after the jump. [AT&T]

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To help its engineers better understand the challenges that the elderly have behind the wheel (and feed the fears of Japan's midlife crisis population), Nissan has developed an "old suit" simulating stiff movements, blurred vision, bad balance and extra weight (probably to simulate weaker strength). It all makes sense to us, save for the harsh generalisation of the warp-around eyewear. Can't we get this engineer a pair of blurry contacts or something? Maybe some that give him a sexier eye colour, even? It's already embarrassing enough to drive 40 in a 60 while soiling a diaper, trust us on this one. [reuters]

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Why is this dinky little TV so important? Its screen is roughly the size of the box that Lebowski comes in, and it costs hundreds more than the 50" plasma overshadowing it in the picture. Why so important? Because this little TV is LCD's Grim Reaper. The days of the LCD are numbered—the time of OLED is at hand. And if the performance of Sony's XEL-1 is any indication, nobody is going to miss LCD—or plasma—in the least.

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