Extra, extra, read all about it

It is as thick as three human hairs, can be rolled into a cylinder, bent, twisted and, say its developers, the latest computer screen is an important step towards electronic newspapers you could fold up and read on the train.

The 0.3mm reusable screen, which displays black text on a whitish-grey background, is made possible using a thin foil topped with circuits that activate an electronic "ink".

It can be updated in a quarter of a second, making it fast enough for text, and can be viewed crisply from almost any angle, though is not quite yet suitable for single-sheet electronic newspapers or books.

Yu Chen, of the E Ink Corporation in Cambridge, Massachusetts, however said it was a "major step forward".

"We have cleared a big obstacle in electronic paper development," he told the science journal Nature.

But until the screen is thin enough to be folded and bent through any angle it will not be true e-paper, which would revolutionise publishing and many other areas of life.

Later versions of the screen could be used for newspapers, downloaded onto the e-paper each day, computer screens sewn into clothing allowing users to read maps and listings in an unfamiliar city and credit cards showing the available balance.

Other aims include upping the speed the screen can switch to a new page of text so it can show video, incorporating wireless technology and squeezing a full range of colours out of the electronic ink.

Robert Wisnieff, senior manager of IBM advanced display laboratory in Yorktown Heights, New York, said the flexible screen will help to make electronic screens part of every day life.

"This is a peek at the future," he said.