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Top Stories in Science
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April 2005 Issue |
| [D] Defence and security |  |
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Reforming the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's plans to reform the United Nations have received a cautious welcome from member states. They include enlarging the Security Council, setting out rules on when it can authorise military force, and an agreed definition of terrorism. A BBC World Service poll of 23,000 people across 23 countries showed overwhelming popular support for the UN to be reformed, particularly by enlarging the Security Council and giving the UN more power. [D][X]
Bird flu risk The World Heath Organisation (WHO) has concluded that the prospects of now eliminating bird flu are bleak. The disease has become endemic in East Asia, spreading to 11 countries from Japan to Indonesia and causing the death or destruction of over 120 million Asian birds so far. Already it may have caused more than $10 billion of damage to the economies of the most seriously affected countries. The WHO models suggest that a human pandemic will, in a best case, kill around 5 million people, with over a billion people sick and 28 million hospitalised. Less optimistically, the death toll could be in many tens of millions. [D][H]
Bird flu vaccination The key ingredient in any flu vaccine is the viral protein haemagglutinin, or HA. Bird flu has the HA type H5. Several studies have shown that for HAs, such as H5, to which people have not previously been exposed, the standard vaccine dose of 15 micrograms can have little or no immunising effect. The US is therefore undertaking clinical trials to test the effectiveness of doses of 15 and 45 micrograms of H5. More encouragingly, UK scientists found in 2001 that with an adjuvant to boost the effect, two doses of just 7.5 micrograms of H5 were enough to induce immunity in previously unexposed people, and in 2004 scientists at GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals found that two doses each of 1.9 micrograms of another novel HA were sufficient. If this could be achieved for H5 and bird flu, it would make a huge difference to the time needed to produce enough vaccine to stem a pandemic. [D][H]
Terrorism risk Iraq is now by far the most dangerous country to do business in, but global terrorism is also making the rest of the world riskier, according to a new insurance survey. Danger has risen in 31 nations, many of them in western Europe. The survey places London at a high risk of a terrorist attack. [D][X]
Terrorist uses of the Internet Five European governments - Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain - are setting up a hi-tech team to monitor how terrorists and criminals use the Internet. The group will make recommendations on shutting down websites that break terrorism laws. The five countries also agreed to make it easier to swap data about terror suspects and thefts of explosives. [D][I][K]
Nuclear terrorism The UN General Assembly has adopted an international convention aimed at preventing nuclear terrorism. The convention makes it a crime to possess nuclear material with the intent to cause death or injury. The text, first introduced by Russia, also calls for stronger international co-operation and sharing of intelligence. [D][K][P]
Protecting nuclear waste from terrorism An expert report from the US National Academy of Science on the risks from potential terrorist attacks on nuclear installations has identified several scenarios that could have dire consequences. The cooling ponds in which spent radioactive fuel is kept could be severely damaged by crashing aircraft, high-powered weapons or explosives, the report says. With the water draining away, the fuel cladding, made of a zirconium alloy, would overheat and burst into flames, and this could release large quantities of radioactive material into the environment. The report calls on the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC) to conduct additional analyses to obtain a better understanding of potential vulnerabilities plant-by-plant. [D][E][P][X] |
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| [A] Aeronautics and space | |
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Airline security A report compiled by the US Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has concluded that airlines remain at risk to terrorist attacks despite a raft of security improvements and the $12bn so far spent by the Transport Security Administration on improving security. The report says that commercial airliners are likely to remain a target and a platform for terrorists, and also warns that terrorists could target helicopters and corporate jets or private planes parked at small airports where security is relatively weak. [A][D][X]
Space elevators Space elevators, in which space is accessed via long tethers with the power needed being transmitted on beams of light, are the target of two new cash prizes sponsored by NASA. They are modelled on the $10 million X Prize recently awarded to the first privately developed spacecraft. [A][M][P][O]
ESA mission to Mars Europe has confirmed its intention to try again to land on Mars in order to search for evidence of past or present life. The European Space Agency mission, which would include a roving robot, would leave Earth in June 2011 and arrive at Mars in June 2013. [A][U]
Autonomous space rendezvous NASA's DART mission to test autonomous rendezvous technology in space came to a premature halt halfway through its 24 hour mission because the spacecraft found it was running low on nitrogen propellant and autonomously stopped its programmed manoeuvres. The autonomous docking of spacecraft and satellites is seen as a crucial technology if NASA is to achieve its ambitious plans for exploration of the Moon, Mars and the rest of the solar system. Russia already uses automated technology to dock its Soyuz and Progress cargo vehicles to the International Space Station, and Europe and Japan are developing self-directed steering and mooring capabilities. [A][U]
Robot space mechanic The US Air Force has launched a micro-satellite that could lead to an autonomous robotic mechanic able to fix satellites in orbit. During its mission, the XSS-11 craft will approach dead or unused US satellites or old rocket parts. At each rendezvous, the Air Force satellite will burn its engines to move around the object while taking a range of pictures. After a commissioning and testing phase, XSS-11 will only take instruction on where to find a dead satellite. Then, with its on-board planner, it will calculate when to burn its engines. [A][U] |
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| [U] Unmanned vehicles and robotics | |
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Mars rovers The missions of the twin Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity - which have already surpassed all expectations - have been extended for a further 18 months by NASA. [U][A]
Searching for life on Mars A rover-based life detection system developed by Carnegie Mellon has found signs of life in Chile's Atacama Desert. This serves as a test bed for technology that could be deployed in future missions to search for life on Mars. [U][A][R]
Humanoid robots Japan's industrial giants are spending billions of yen to make humanoid robots a reality. Hitachi has unveiled its first humanoid robot, called Emiew, to challenge Honda's Asimo and Sony's Qrio robots. Emiew is 1.3 metres tall and can move at 6 km per hour. While the humanoid form may be an accident of evolution, there are some good reasons to emulate it. In the short term, humanoid robots generate excellent publicity for the companies. In the longer term, there should be a huge demand for flexible robots as domestic helpers, particularly for providing home-living and healthcare support for the ageing population. Since homes are designed for use by people, the humanoid shape may well prove optimum for domestic robots. [U][H][K][T][V][W] |
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| [P] Propulsion and energy | |
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Fuel cell powered electronics IBM and Sanyo are working on a hybrid power system for portable computers that combines batteries with a methanol fuel cell. They expect to introduce the technology in around 2007. [P]
Membraneless alkaline fuel cell The first membraneless alkaline fuel cell has been produced at the University of Illinois. In normal fuel cells a membrane separates the two chambers. The tiny pores in the membrane allow a current of acidic protons to flow between the chambers whilst blocking the flow of the larger alkaline hydroxyl ions. The membraneless cell uses laminar flow to avoid the need for a membrane. In the cell, tiny streams of liquid flow past each other without producing any vortices that cause them to mix. Removing the membrane saves 20 to 40 percent of the cost of the cell and also allows alkaline chemistry to be used. The belief is that alkaline fuel cells can have substantially higher efficiency, but this has not yet been demonstrated in the prototype model. [P][M]
Higher thermoelectric efficiency In a car engine, 70 percent of the fuel energy is wasted as heat. It would be possible to recover much of this heat in the form of electricity if thermoelectric conversion could be made more efficient. Researchers at the University of Oregon have discovered that this may be possible by using extremely thin nanowires. They have found that two objects can have different temperatures yet still be in thermodynamic equilibrium with each other at the nanoscale. Hence the thermoelectric efficiency for nanowires might be made as high as 50 percent of the ideal Carnot limit, more than three times higher than the 15 percent or worse achieved with bulk thermoelectric materials. [P][E][M][N][S]
Quantum dot thermoelectric cooling Thermoelectric coolers currently have few uses - mainly for cooling sensors and electronics. However, if thermoelectric efficiencies could be raised to 50 percent, instead of the current efficiencies of 10 percent or less, thermoelectric cooling, with its advantages of being silent, compact, long lived and needing no refrigerant, could have very wide applications and even take over household refrigeration. To achieve such a high efficiency requires a circuit with good electric conduction but poor thermal conduction by the electrons, so that charge flows but little heat. Researchers suggest that this might be achieved if the thermocouple circuit were made not of bulk matter but instead of quantum dots engineered to block the flow of the higher-energy electrons carrying the most thermal energy. [P][A][C][J][M][S]
Solid state micro-refrigerator A new micro-refrigerator developed by NIST offers remarkable cooling capacity at temperatures below 1 degree Kelvin. Its core is a tiny sandwich-shaped diode whose layers are successively a normal metal, an insulator, and a superconductor. The stack has the effect of pulling the hottest electrons out of the normal-metal layer. This is the first no-moving-parts refrigerator to achieve 100 mK temperatures with technologically useful cooling powers. [P][M][C][F][J][M][N][O][S]
Nuclear waste disposal Proposals to send Britain's nuclear waste into space or to store it on ice sheets or below the sea are impractical, a UK government advisory committee has concluded. The Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CORWM) recommends waste be either buried underground or stored temporarily in facilities above ground. [P][A][D][E][M]
Nuclear waste containment The transportation and containment of highly radioactive waste may become safer as a result of the development of a new gadolinium-nickel alloy. Gadolinium has a neutron-absorption cross-section sixty times larger than that of boron. Borated stainless steel is commonly used in conventional nuclear-waste containers, but cannot withstand highly radioactive waste. [P][D][M]
Third world fuel Promoting cleaner, more efficient technologies for producing charcoal in Africa, similar to those already used in Brazil and Thailand, could save millions of lives and have significant climate change and development benefits. Charcoal is the main fuel used for heating and cooking in Africa, but is currently produced wastefully, often by illegal loggers. Environment and development ministers from the G8 group of leading countries have committed themselves to tackling the problem of illegal logging. They have also agreed that action is needed to protect Africa from the consequences of climate change. [P][D][E][H]
Hydrogen fuel One possible way to store hydrogen fuel conveniently is in the form of liquid ammonia. US scientists have shown that an iridium nanocatalyst can extract hydrogen from ammonia. The catalyst has a finely textured surface consisting of millions of iridium pyramids with facets as tiny as five nanometres across, onto which ammonia molecules can nestle like matching puzzle pieces. This sets up the molecules to undergo complete and efficient decomposition. [P][E][M][N] |
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| [M] Materials, structures and surfaces | |
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Possible new class of superconductors US and Korean scientists have found what may be the first of a new class of superconducting materials. The new form of superconductivity, observed in a compound called plutonium-cobalt-pentagallium (PuCoGa5) appears to be produced by magnetic fluctuations. PuCoGa5 possesses the highest superconducting transition temperature so far found among actinide based compounds. [M]
Nanoscale crystallisation Scientists at Northwestern University have demonstrated a new technique that is capable of starting crystallisation from scratch and then controlling and imaging the process as it proceeds in real time. They used an atomic force microscope coated with a polymer to grow crystals of the polymer on a mica substrate. The technique means that features of crystallisation, which were previously too small to be detected, could now be observed for the first time. [M][N][S]
Shock wave temperature Physicists have taken the temperature of a fleeting shock wave passing through a thin layer of a tungsten-molybdenum alloy by shooting neutrons through the layer just as it was squeezed by the shock wave. The tungsten nuclei acted as the thermometers, exploiting the temperature sensitivity of their neutron absorption spectrum. The technique could potentially help researchers to determine the equation of state - the mathematical relation between pressure, density, and temperature for a given material - which describes how a material will behave in a wide range of conditions. [M][D][P][S]
Blast protection materials Granular materials have long been used to absorb impacts - for example, by packing sandbags around bunkers and using iron shot to absorb shocks in industrial processes. The friction between the grains turns the energy of a shock into heat. Using more sophisticated granular materials might provide even better protection, perhaps against terrorist bombs. Computer simulation shows that if granular materials have grains of different masses arranged in specific patterns, they can trap the impact in the form of small, slow pulses bouncing back and forth, so that the energy is released slowly over time. [M][C][D][W]
Softer work environment A project funded by the UK Department of Trade and Industry is exploring how the use of new methods and materials, including composite materials in furniture design, can reduce the high level of noise and stress experienced by many UK workers in offices and plants. A new EU noise directive comes into force in 2006 that will set a limit of 87 decibels for workers' daily exposure to noise. [M][E]
Oil-water mixing It was discovered in 2003 that oil and water will mix providing all the gas dissolved in the liquids is removed first. This discovery has been developed into a method for dispersing fat-soluble drugs in water. Around 40 percent of newly formulated drugs are fat-soluble, and the problems of dispersing them has meant that many have been left untested on the shelf, or have introduced undesirable side effects. [M][G][H]
Protein adhesives Researchers at Oregon State University have developed a new group of protein adhesives based on the protein that enables muscles to stick so tenaciously to wet rocks. The new adhesives could, the researchers believe, revolutionise a large portion of the wood products industry because of their safety, strength and water resistance. [M][W] |
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| [E] Environment, transport and marine | |
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Past global warming Researchers at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and UCSC have found that Earth's last great global warming period, 3 million years ago, may have been caused by levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere similar to today's and was not caused by changes in ocean currents. The result is relevant to estimating how the Earth's climate may respond to emissions of greenhouse gases in the future. [E][C]
Measuring atmospheric carbon dioxide The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide increased less in 2004 than in 2002 and 2003. The new high, 378 ppm, was measured by a Hawaiian laboratory at an altitude of 3500 metres. The location is ideal because there is no obvious nearby source of pollution, such as a heavy industry, and no natural "sink", such as forest that would absorb carbon dioxide. [E]
UK greenhouse emissions The UK emissions of carbon dioxide rose by 2.2 percent in the year 2002-2003, according to UK government data. However, this was compensated by a fall in output of other greenhouse gases. Unfortunately, however, provisional government data shows that the UK's emissions of greenhouse gases rose by 1.5 percent between 2003 and 2004. This means that, for the first time, the UK could be in danger of missing its target set down under the Kyoto Protocol. [E][P]
Origin of ice ages Researchers at Woods Hole and MIT have reviewed the more than 30 different theories that have been proposed to explain the cycle of recent ice ages, which have occurred at intervals of 100,000 years on average. They have concluded, using modelling, that the most plausible theory is that the ice ages are due to the 40,000 year cycle in the tilt of the Earth's axis. The glaciations all end about the time when the Earth's tilt is large, provided that the ice sheet is also large. This combination has sometimes produced an 80,000 year ice age and sometimes 120,000 years. The Earth's tilt is currently 23.5 degrees and decreasing. So, without global warming caused by human activity over the past centuries, and perhaps over the past several thousand years, the Earth would probably now be moving back towards glaciation. [E][C][X]
Ordovician extinction Scientists at NASA and the University of Kansas say that a gamma ray burst could have caused the Ordovician extinction, which killed 60 percent of marine invertebrates at a time when life on Earth was largely confined to the sea. The evidence comes from computer models of the effects of a nearby gamma ray burst on the Earth's atmosphere and its life forms, and the statistical probability that such an event could occur sufficiently close to the Earth every billion years or so. [E][C]
Water resources March 2005 marks the start of the UN international decade of action on water, aimed at halving the number of people without clean water supplies by the year 2015. Currently one person in six has no access to clean drinking water and one in three has no access to sanitation. [E][D]
Bio-aerosols A global study has found that a quarter of the aerosols in the atmosphere are biological in origin, formed of tiny fragments of biological detritus. This previously unknown microbial system may, like aerosols of soot, dust and ash, influence climate by reflecting or absorbing the Sun’s rays and by providing the condensation nuclei necessary for clouds to form. It may also, along with other aerosols, be responsible for “global dimming”, which may be shading Earth from the full force of warming from greenhouse gases. Biological aerosols may also contribute to spreading diseases and allergies around the globe. [E][H]
Ocean-diving gliders Two ocean-diving gliders built at the University of Washington have set a world record for autonomous underwater voyage by travelling a quarter of the way across the Pacific Ocean, covering 1860 miles in 191 days. Unlike floats used for oceanography that drift where ocean currents take them, gliders can be commanded remotely to hold their positions or change direction. They can dive from the surface down to a depth of 3000 feet and back every 3 to 9 hours, remaining on the surface for 5 minutes to transmit ocean data, relay position and receive instructions via the Iridium satellite phone network. The glider is propelled by buoyancy control: a hydraulic system moves oil in and out of an external rubber bladder to force the glider up or down through the ocean. Moving its battery pack causes it to pitch its nose up or down or roll its wings to change compass heading. [E][I][P][R] |
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| [R] Remote sensing and sensor systems | |
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Predicting submarine earthquakes Scientists from Woods Hole and USC have found that some types of large undersea earthquakes are preceded by systematic foreshocks and may be predictable on time scales of hours. They believe that if an extensive array of sensors like that along the San Andreas Fault were placed on the sea floor, seismologists would see an earthquake coming. An expedition in 2007 to deploy sensors along the East Pacific Rise will begin testing this idea. [R]
Satellite measurement of turbidity Satellite remote sensing provides reliable quantified data on the concentration of suspended matter in water. French researchers have compared the data from Landsat satellite with in situ measurements of the concentrations of suspended matter in a lagoon. The results show that water turbidity can be mapped in detail using optical remote sensing, with an uncertainty of less than 20 percent. The satellite images provide key data for calibrating, refining and validating the sediment-transport models and for mapping the potential of sea-floor sediments to return into suspension. [R]
Precise ultra-wideband for sensing and comms Research at Purdue has shown that it is possible to shape ultra-wideband radio pulses very precisely to improve radio communications, ground-penetrating radar and through-wall imaging. The shaping involves first creating nanosecond laser pulses with the precise intensity profile desired, and then converting these pulses into electrical signals. [R][I][O][S]
Next generation telescopes A new generation of ground-based telescopes could be up to 10 times the size of existing instruments and have vision 40 times as sharp as the Hubble telescope. [R]
Other solar systems Nearly 150 planets have been found beyond the solar system, but all except one of these have been discovered indirectly, either by observing the dimming of a star as the planet passes in front of it or by the star's wobble caused by the gravitational tug of an orbiting planet. The one planet seen directly is orbiting a Sun-like star at a radius of about 20 times that of Jupiter round the Sun. Planets in very large orbits could harbour life if their sun is sufficiently hot or large. This happens naturally as stars approach the end of their life and turn into red giants swelling to 10 times the diameter of the Sun. It means that conditions suitable for life could move out radially in solar systems as they age. [R][E]
Detecting gravitational waves ESA's Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), whose launch is envisaged for 2013, is one of the most ambitious missions ever undertaken. It will use laser interferometers and proof masses on board three spacecraft flying in a triangular formation, 5 million kilometres apart. The system is designed to detect low-frequency gravitational waves originating. for example, from black holes swallowing massive neutron stars or binary star systems revolving around each other, and from the Big Bang. The three spacecraft will orbit the Sun, following the Earth at a distance of 50 million kilometres so as not to be perturbed by its gravity. Infrared lasers will be beamed between the spacecraft, arriving on small 2-kilogram proof masses (4 cm cubes of gold and platinum). [R][A][F][O] |
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| [S] Sensor devices | |
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Fingerprint visualisation Dusting for fingerprints can sometimes alter the prints, erasing valuable forensic clues. Now, chemists report a new fingerprint visualisation technique using micro-X-ray fluorescence that leaves prints intact and reveals chemical markers that could give investigators new clues for tracking criminals and missing persons. The technique could be especially promising for finding missing or lost children, whose fingerprints are often more difficult to detect than an adult's. [S][D]
DNA analysis sensors Spanish researchers have developed new miniature sensors for analysing DNA. The sensors reduce the time needed to identify DNA chains to between several minutes and few hours, depending on each chain. The sensors can be applied to many different tasks: paternity tests, identifying people, detecting genetically modified food, identifying bacterial strains in food borne illnesses and testing genetic toxicity in new drugs. Mass production could make their cost and availability similar to that of pregnancy test kits, according to the researchers. [S][D][E][G][H]
Carbon nanotube gas sensor Researchers have shown that dimethylmethylphosphonate - a simulant for the nerve agent sarin - can be detected down to 0.5 ppb using single-wall carbon nanotubes. When gas molecules adsorb onto the nanotube surface, they produce a capacitance change. This gives a fast response and sensitivity to a broad range of gases. [S][D][N]
Smart bandage A biomedical business spun-out of the University of Ulster, has produced the 'smart bandage' which uses electrodes to transmit information on how wounds such as burns, pressure sores and skin grafts are healing. [S][H][I]
Radiotracer imaging of plant processes The radiotracer techniques used to image processes in the living human brain can also be used to track biochemical and physiological processes within plants. This is enabling researchers to study the effects of factors such as insect attacks, disease, elevated carbon dioxide, soil toxins, and drought on vital plant processes. [S][B][E][X]
High resolution ultrasonic transmission tomography In traditional hand-held ultrasound systems used for medical imaging, the sound waves are broadcast into the tissue, and the echoes produce an image of the reflecting interfaces. However, only a tiny fraction of the transmitted sound comes back as echo on soft tissues. Around 2000 times more energy is transmitted through the tissue. Researchers at USC have successfully exploited this to develop a "High-resolution Ultrasonic Transmission Tomography" (HUTT) that produces far superior 3D images of soft tissue - better than can be produced by any existing commercial X-ray, ultrasound or MRI units, according to the researchers. Importantly, HUTT has the potential to reliably differentiate types of tissue based on their multi-band signatures caused by their varying attenuation patterns. This promises to allow non-invasive detection of lesions in clinical diagnosis. [S][H]
Cell springiness diagnosis A simple, cheap laser-based technique that measures how easily cells can be stretched could revolutionise the ability to spot whether cancers have spread and also to find stem cells in blood. Cells from most organisms have a cytoskeleton that keeps their shape and helps them move. But this structure is weaker in primitive stem cells and in cancer cells - which lose the special characteristics of the tissues in which they originated. The laptop-sized gadget developed by German researchers can give a diagnosis using as few as 50 cancer cells and allows doctors to test for cancer in cases where traditional biopsies are dangerous or even impossible. It is also sufficiently simple to be used for cancer screening. Trials in Germany are testing its use for spotting oral cancers and for staging breast cancer. The ability to measure the progress of a cancer by examining only the primary tumour is a great advance. [S][G][H][O]
Biocavity laser diagnosis Laser light scattering off mitochondria can immediately identify the distribution of mitochondria in the cell and determine whether the cell is healthy. In a healthy cell, the mitochondria cluster cooperatively around the cell nucleus whereas in a cancerous cell the mitochondria are sprawled across the cell. The technique can potentially also monitor stem cells as they undergo various stages of development. [S][G][H][O] |
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| [O] Optoelectronics, optics and lasers | |
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Laser genome sequencing A new technique that colour codes each of DNA's four building blocks has been used to laser sequence a short section of the human genome. With more work, the technique could sequence millions of longer DNA strands in parallel. The US National Human Genome Research Institute hopes the work can help slash the cost of sequencing a mammalian sized genome from $10 million now to $1000 by 2015. This would be cheap enough for patients to have their genome sequenced before they receive genome-tailored treatments. [O][G][H][S]
2D electronic spectroscopy To understand and exploit molecular processes such as photosynthesis, researchers want to map how excitation energy moves through molecular systems on femtosecond timescales and with nanometre resolution. This is now possible using a new technique called two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy. The technique, which is analogous to super-heterodyne radio, involves sequentially flashing a sample with light from three laser beams, delivered in 50 fs pulses, while using a fourth beam as a local oscillator to amplify and phase-match the resulting spectroscopic signals. [O][G][M][N][P][S]
Slow light in photonic crystal Researchers at Stanford have succeeded in reducing the group velocity of light by a factor of more than 100 in a novel two-dimensional photonic crystal. The device could be used for a variety of optical applications and components, including high-power photonic crystal lasers with low thresholds. [O][N][M]
Measurement of photonic band structure For the first time, physicists have measured the photonic band structure of a photonic crystal. Their technique allows the directions of the phase and group velocities of the light to be determined, and shows that under certain conditions the phase velocity can be negative while the group velocity is positive. They plan to study an array of phenomena - including negative refraction - with the technique. [O][M][N][S]
Hypersonic crystals German, Greek and US scientists have shown that "hypersonic crystals" can be used to control phonons at high frequencies. A sonic, or phononic, crystal is the acoustic equivalent of a photonic crystal. A periodic variation in the acoustic properties of a phononic crystal means that only phonons with frequencies outside the phononic band gap can propagate. Phononic crystals are made by embedding cylinders of one material in a different background medium, and the properties of the phononic band gap depend on the size and periodicity of the cylinders. If this periodicity is comparable with the wavelength of visible light, the crystal may exhibit both phononic and photonic band gaps. This occurs at hypersonic frequencies between 1 and 100 GHz. Acousto-optical interactions in such hypersonic crystals are predicted to lead to effects such as optical cooling and shock-wave-mediated light frequency shifts. [O][J][M][N]
Terahertz optical switching A Franco-Japanese team has turned an insulator into a conductor in just 2 picoseconds, a 50-fold speedup compared with previous switching rates. This could catapult optical switching from the gigahertz to the terahertz range, allowing terahertz optoelectronic switches for high-speed routers and hubs in optical networks. [O][I][M]
Plasmonic comms Research at Stanford has shown that the intensity pattern of a plasmon travelling across the surface of a metal strip is the same as for a light wave travelling through an optical fibre. Plasmons could be superior to optical communications for moving data around circuits at the speed of light. Plasmon-carrying wires can be made of copper or aluminium like conventional interconnects, and they can be as small as the electrical components, whereas the size of optical fibres is limited by the wavelength of light. [O][C][I][J][S] |
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| [I] IT, communications, networking and secure systems | |
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Digital communications Because of the rise in broadband connection, the UK leads the world in home computers that have been hijacked by malicious hackers, according to a report by the security firm Symantec. By the middle of 2005, it is estimated that 50 percent of all UK net users will be on broadband. About 14 million households in the UK, 60 percent of all household, have digital TV, according to the UK communications regulator Ofcom. [I]
Forensic computing Forensic computing - computer-based investigative work, which involves tracing the digital footprints left by criminals on machines and networks - is becoming increasingly important and exploits specialist technology and psychological analysis of criminals to help identify them. Special software is used to gather evidence from storage devices and to apply cryptographic tags to verify that data has not been tampered with during the investigation. There are specialist search tools, e-mail scanning tools and disk-analysis tools; tools to gather information over a corporate network when investigating internal incidents; tools that monitor network traffic for suspicious behaviour; administrative tools to keep track of evidence from multiple cases, to plot events on timelines for analysis, and to generate reports. [I][D][T]
Computer crime Computer crime is taking an increasing toll on UK companies, and is estimated to have cost more than £2.4 billion in the FY 04-05, according to the 2005 annual review by the UK National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU). The report revealed that 89 percent UK businesses with over 1000 staff experienced some form of computer crime in the year, and that 90 percent of UK companies targeted by cybercrime suffered a computerised break-in, while 89 percent were victims of data theft. The total cost to UK businesses of computer virus infections is estimated to be in excess of £70 million. [I][D]
Cyber crime Police in London say they have foiled one of the biggest attempted bank thefts in Britain. The plan was to steal £220m ($423m) from the London offices of the Japanese bank Sumitomo Mitsui. The cyber criminals infiltrated the bank's system with keylogging software that would have enabled them to track every button pressed on computer keyboards. [I][D]
Cyber defence Five European governments are setting up a hi-tech team to monitor how terrorists and criminals use the net. [I][D]
Zombie networks More than a million computers on the net have been hijacked to attack websites and pump out spam and viruses, according to security researchers who have spent months tracking more than 100 networks of remotely-controlled machines. The largest of these so-called zombie networks, or bot nets, spied on by the team was made up of 50,000 hijacked home computers. Leveraging such power it is possible to take down almost any website or network instantly, as well as launching worms and relaying spam. Eighty large net service firms are jointly using software to spot and stop net attacks automatically. This system creates digital fingerprints of ongoing incidents that are sent to every network affected, and to the police. [I][D] |
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| [K] Knowledge, information and technology management | |
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UK digital strategy The UK government has published its digital strategy. The aims include helping to promote public awareness about the Internet, harnessing the economic and social returns in ways that benefit all society, closing the digital divide and minimising social exclusion, and making the UK a world leader in digital excellence with public services that are leading edge in being responsive, personalised and efficient. Policies include ensuring a safe online environment, embedding ICT in education, supporting innovative broadband content and access, and creating a vision and strategy for public service delivery transformed by modern technology. [K][I][T]
Voice over Internet Protocol Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a decade old and is now growing very rapidly. The low costs and the efficiencies for carriers of maintaining a single, unified telecommunications network, practically guarantee that all telephony will eventually be done over IP. VoIP still has quality-of-service problems of network congestion causing latency, jitter, and packet loss, but network engineers have devised clever methods to guarantee a minimum bandwidth for a particular application. Encryption is now making VoIP even more secure than conventional telephony. VoIP also enables very sophisticated services that are hard to introduce in a switched telephone system. However, as phones become full-blown computers, as computers, PDAs, and other devices become phones, and as the boundless Internet becomes a phone network, the challenge will be to keep it all human-friendly. [K][I][T][V][W]
Uses of camera phones Camera-phones are not being used so much to send photo snaps but instead for new applications that involve recording and reading data and labels such as address cards and barcodes, downloading real-time information, running small pieces of software on the phones, checking prices and making purchases. [K][I][T][V]
Mobile e-mail The BlackBerry pioneered mobile e-mail and there are now 2.5 million BlackBerry devices in circulation. However, with hundreds of millions of e-mail users worldwide, the market for mobile email is potentially very large and is becoming highly competitive. This may drive a lot of innovation in mobile email software and applications. [K][I][V]
Virtual police The UK's first 'virtual' police station is up and running, giving residents face-to-face access to a police officer 24 hours a day. [K][I][D]
Artificial lawyer The advent of smart software capable of giving good, solid legal advice could revolutionise the legal profession. The software does not just follow legal rules, but can examine past cases and infer how the courts are likely to view a new case. Many lawyers already use automated document-retrieval systems to store, sort and search through mountains of documents. Now, programs are becoming capable of not just assisting lawyers but actually performing some of their functions, and this could improve access to justice and massively reduce legal costs, both for the client and the courts. The culture may move from dispute resolution to dispute avoidance. For example, a computer service that advises on property disputes between divorcing couples can avoid the need to go to court. [K][T][U]
Collaborative filtering Collaborative filtering software is core to the success of personalised online selling. It uses patterns in people's likes and dislikes to help them find things they did not know they were looking for, and is changing the way people shop. It can also provide better spam filtering by allowing through only the sort of material that people who are like the user find interesting. “User-user” collaborative filtering based on the user's similarity to other users is computationally intensive because relationships between users must be constantly recalculated. Its performance also deteriorates as the size and diversity of the user base increases. "Item-item" collaborative filtering, which works by finding other items that had similar appeal to many users, performs much better and can easily be scaled up computationally over many millions of users. It can also allow better privacy of information about users. [K][C][I][T][V]
Automatic text analysis A UK company, Corpora, has developed software that can automatically gauge the tone of any electronic document, enabling political parties, companies and others to quickly know what is being said about them. The software uses algorithms to tease out grammatical components, such as nouns, verbs and adjectives, and identify the subjects and objects of verbs. It can analyse pronouns like “it”, “he” and “her” to work out what words or concepts they are referring to. Having an understanding of grammatical structure makes it possible to disambiguate whether particular words are positive or negative, and to filter out words that are not relevant to the sentiment of the article. [K]
Trusted information sharing Failures in intelligence can occur because of insufficient sharing of information. Researchers at Penn State say they have developed a protocol that provides incentives to engage in the trust-building process that will allow more information to be shared and to be shared more quickly. [K][B][D] |
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| [C] Computing, supercomputing, modelling and simulation | |
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Market mechanism for utility computing If utility computing, buying computing power over the network, is to succeed it will need the right market mechanisms to value and prioritise millions, perhaps billions, of different transactions. Researchers at Hewlett Packard have developed and tested a prototype scheme and software for doing this, and has passed it to CERN for more extensive trials. In a grid system, demand for resources will change constantly and unpredictably, and so also will the supply of resources as individual host computers on the grid come and go. The market mechanism needs to prevent the complex mix of computing and network resources being seriously underutilised or overwhelmed. [C][I][K][T][X]
Modelling climate systems Given the difficulty of predicting weather more than a fortnight ahead, many sceptics of climate change argue that it is foolish to believe any of the climate model predictions. To try to counter this scepticism the Institute of Physics has published a paper explaining the certainties and uncertainties of climate change modelling. [C][E][T][X] |
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| [W] Whole life engineering, manufacture and testing | |
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User innovation The rise of online communities, together with the development of powerful and easy-to-use design tools, seems to be boosting user innovation. This growing phenomenon, harnessing the creativity of customers as luminaries, is evident in open software, consumer goods, car designs and healthcare. Moreover, customers seem willing to donate their ideas for free. [W][C][E][H][K][T]
Personal fabrication Extending the concept of Do It Yourself, the world might be poised for a personal-fabrication revolution. This might be particularly beneficial to developing countries. The idea is being pioneered by the “fab lab”, developed at MIT. This is a collection of commercially available machines including a laser cutter that makes two-dimensional and three-dimensional structures, a device that uses a computer-controlled knife to carve antennas and flexible electrical connections, a miniature milling machine that manoeuvres a cutting tool in three dimensions to make circuit boards and other precision parts, a set of software for programming cheap computer chips known as microcontrollers, and a jigsaw. Together, these can machine objects with micron precision. The fab lab's purpose is to endow inventors, particularly those in poor countries who lack a formal education and the resources to implement their ideas, with a set of tools that can translate back-of-the-envelope designs into working prototypes. [W][E][M][U][V]
Fast prototyping Researchers at Bath University are developing 3D printers that can make copies of themselves by producing all the necessary parts. The idea is that this could make the price of 3D printers so low that the technology would take off both in manufacturing and in the home. However, critics argue that even if all its components could be replicated by the machine, the concept does not make economic sense, since many of the components could be produced much faster, cheaper and more safely by other machines. [W][M][U]
Safe manufacture and disposal. The new EU environmental rules that force electronics firms to eliminate toxic substances and take back and recycle their products are having an effect not just in Europe but globally. Companies cannot afford to have a separate product development and production line just for European standards. The Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) legislation bans products containing any more than trace amounts of lead, mercury, cadmium and three other hazardous substances. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive requires manufacturers to take back and recycle electrical products. The Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) directive requires firms to register the chemicals they use in their manufacturing processes. This is raising significant intellectual property issues for companies such as Intel. [W][E][H][M][J][R][T] |
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| [X] Systems, complexity and risk | |
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Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment programme was commissioned by the UN in 2001 to assist global policy-makers to identify effective economic, health and environmental policies. It has involved a global partnership of some 1,500 scientists, and is the first international study to appraise the status of Earth's diverse ecosystems as an entirety and to evaluate their associated impact on future human well-being. The programme has now issued its primary report, and has found that 15 of the 24 "ecosystem services" that support life on earth are degrading and liable to deteriorate more rapidly. The worst problems are in fresh water, fisheries, air and water purification, and the regulation of climate, natural hazards and pests. Only four ecosystem services have been enhanced, three pertaining to food production, and these enhancements have been at the expense of degradation of other ecosystem services. [X][C][D][E][G][H][P][R]
Global risk analysis on natural disaster hot-spots The World Bank has published a global risk analysis on natural disaster hot-spots. The report indicates that 3.4 billion people are exposed to at least one of the major natural hazards evaluated. The information in the report aims to enhance disaster prevention and preparedness in high risk areas, and to encourage the implementation of risk based disaster management and emergency response strategies. The report also aims to encourage better planning for long-term land use and better strategies for multi-hazard risk management. Central America, East and South Asia, and large areas of the Mediterranean and Middle East are at the greatest risk from multiple hazards. [X][D][E][R]
Mathematics of risk Researchers at King's College London have found that wildfires follow the same mathematical laws as other natural events such as earthquakes. They analyzed records from more than 88,000 wildfires in the US between 1970 and 2000. Both the size and frequency of the fires have a power-law relationship. [X]
Economic risk from population ageing Most discussion on ageing populations has focused on pensions and health care, but potentially far more damaging is the effect of ageing on savings, wealth, and economic well being. By 2024, according to McKinsey, total household financial wealth in developed countries will be 36 percent lower than if current conditions had persisted. This will reduce capital available for investment and impede economic growth. The US will no longer be able to finance its massive current account deficit from foreign capital flows. As available capital dwindles, persistent government budget deficits are likely to push interest rates higher and crowd out private investment. The only meaningful solution is for governments and households to increase their savings rates and for economics to allocate capital more efficiently, thereby boosting returns. Policy makers must increase competition. encourage innovation, and reduce fiscal budget deficits. [X][D][H][K][T] |
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| [V] Virtuality and human-machine interface | |
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3D display University of Tokyo scientists have created a 3D display with an image depth of several metres when viewed with the naked eye. The display uses so-called integral photography to generate its 3D images. A computer divides up the image into pixels that are shown on a flat screen display. When passed through an array of lenses the result is a 3D image with a depth of 5.7 m or more in front of the display and 3.5 m or more behind the display. [V][O]
Gesture-based interface Man-machine interfaces generally depend on vision and sometimes on speech. Researchers are also trying to exploit motion and gestures, particularly for devices that are used on the move. [V][S]
Non-acoustic speech A DARPA project, Advanced Speech Encoding, aims to replace microphones with non-acoustic sensors that detect speech via the speaker's nerve and muscle activity. The technology would be used on covert missions, by crews in noisy vehicles or divers working underwater. It might also have civil applications in noisy environments and in allowing people to use phones in places such as train carriages, cinemas or libraries without disturbing others. [V][I]
Speech chip Speech recognition algorithms and their applications may now have reached the level of maturity where it is worth implementing them in a custom processor. The hope is that speech chips can open up the applications of speech processing in the same way that graphics processor chips transformed computer graphics. [V][C][I][K]
Retinal implant A "bionic eye" in the form of a 3 mm wide chip that fits behind the retina has been successfully tested on rats. The hope is that the device could provide blind people with 20/80 vision, sufficient to read large forms and live independently. [V][B][I][J][S]
Ultrasonic neural stimulation According to a patent granted to Sony, it may be possible to fire pulses of ultrasound at the head to modify neural patterns in targeted parts of the brain. This might create "sensory experiences" ranging from moving images to tastes and sounds, possibly giving blind or deaf people the chance to see or hear, the patent claims. [V][B][H][R][S]
Brain chip A paralysed man, Matthew Nagle, in the US has become the first person to benefit from a brain chip that reads his mind. The chip, called BrainGate, consists of nearly 100 hair-thin electrodes implanted a millimetre deep into part of the motor cortex. Wires feed the signals to a computer which translates them into cursor movements on a screen. The user is able to control the cursor by thought and to move it over icons to make selections. Mr Nagle has also been able to use thought to move a prosthetic hand and robotic arm. He was left paralysed from the neck down and confined to a wheelchair after a knife attack in 2001. [V][B][H][J][S] |
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| [B] Brain research and human science | |
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Active neuroscience Researcher have installed genetically encoded phototriggers - ion channels that initiate neuronal activity when illuminated - in brain cells in fruit flies. This can be used to make the flies jump, beat their wings, and fly on command. The hope is to use this to study the connectivity and activity of neural circuits in living organisms, discovering how certain neurons and their activity are related to specific behaviours. The ability to control specific groups of neurons without implanting electrodes in the brain or using similarly invasive techniques could take neuroscience forward from passive observation to active and predictive manipulation of behaviour. [B][G][O][V]
Visual learning A new study suggests there may be a better way to sharpen the eyes of radiologists, military pilots and other professionals who have to identify objects or patterns in clutter, often quickly and with pinpoint accuracy. Conventionally it has been thought that training in a realistically cluttered environment should work best. However, research now shows that the perceptual skills of identifying target objects and rejecting clutter are independent and that the human vision system learns best in "clear display" conditions without visual noise. [B][K][V]
Cetacean cognitive ability. Despite the divergent evolutionary paths of dolphins and primates, both have developed similar high-level cognitive abilities. Home sapiens has a brain size that is a factor seven times bigger than would be expected for human body size. For some dolphins and whales the factor is close to five, whereas for the great apes it is only between two and two-and-a-half. Dolphins have the capacity for mirror self-recognition, a feat of intelligence previously thought to be reserved only for mankind and our closest primate cousins. [B][R]
Genetic origin of sleep disorder A study which explored a mutant gene, CKIdelta, in humans, mice and flies, has found that this gene is a central component of the circadian clock and causes a sleep disorder called familial advanced sleep phase syndrome (FASPS). The findings may lead to new treatments for FASPS, and for disturbed sleep patterns caused by jet lag or night shift work. [B][A][G][H]
Inate behaviour Neuroscientists have assumed that in primate brains simple movements are "hard-wired" while complex behaviours are learned. Now, however, studies are finding that a number of surprisingly complex behaviours appear to be built into the brains of primates, and presumably also into the human brain. This explains why certain human behaviours, such as defensive and aggressive movements, grasping food and smiling are so similar around the world. [B]
Causes of bullying A retrospective follow up to a national US survey to study the amount of television watched by 1266 four-year-olds has found that those four-year-olds who watched the average amount of television - 3.5 hours per day - were 25 percent more likely to subsequently become bullies than those who watched no television. And children who watched eight hours of television a day were 200 percent more likely to become bullies. The study also looked at factors thought to decrease the likelihood of bullying. It found that children whose parents gave them cognitive support by regularly exposed them to ideas were a third less likely to become bullies, as were those whose parents provided them with emotional support by eating meals together and talking. Each of these factors seems to have an independent effect. [B][K]
Integrating law and behavioural biology. The growing understanding of the biological underpinnings of human behaviour could strengthen legal measures in a variety of areas: enhancing understanding of why some penalties are more effective than others, how people make choices in areas such as environmental protection and retirement savings, and the underlying causes of aggression. [B][D][X]
Building trust US researchers have developed a technique called hyperscan-fMRI that allow synchronised fMRI scanning of two interacting brains. They have used this to investigate the brain processes involved in progressively building a relationship of trust. The experiments were done on 48 pairs of subjects, using two fMRI scanners 1500 miles apart. Eventually the technique might give insights into all kinds of negotiations, from the economic to the social to the political, including across geographical and cultural boundaries. It may also help in understanding autism in which the ability to form models of the actions of other people is impaired, and conditions such as schizophrenia. [B][D][H][K] |
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| [H] Healthcare and medicine | |
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Reducing hypertension with electroacupuncture Tests in rats have shown that acupuncture treatments with low levels of electrical stimulation (electroacupuncture) can markedly reduce hypertension. The researchers found that high frequencies of stimulation had no effect, but low frequencies lowered increased blood pressure by as much as 40 to 50 percent. Overall, the researchers found that a 30-minute treatment reduced blood pressure in the test rats by 25 mmHg, with the effect lasting almost two hours. [H][B]
Vulnerability to influenza A new study in mice suggests that short bouts of intense social stress may improve the ability to recover from influenza. probably by boosting the production of specialised immune cells that fight the virus. However, other experiments have shown that obesity may greatly increase vulnerability. Researchers found that compared to other mice of normal weight, which were otherwise identical, obese mice were 10 times more likely to die when infected with the flu virus. Four percent of lean mice died during the experiments, compared with 40 percent of the extra fat ones. [H][B][D]
Controlling rabies Eradication of rabies has been one of Europe’s success stories. Switzerland became rabies-free in 1998, thanks to a huge campaign in which biscuits doped with vaccine were distributed in fox habitats. France eliminated rabies in 2000, and Belgium and Luxembourg followed in 2001. However, stubborn nests of infection have persisted in Germany, and Europe’s fox population has grown as much as eightfold in the past decade, raising fears that rabies could easily get out of control. [H][D][E]
Virus-based therapy New research shows that a virus designed to kill cancer cells can significantly increase the survival of mice with an incurable human brain tumour, even in some animals with advanced disease. The study used a genetically altered herpes simplex virus that infects and reproduces only in malignant glioma cells and kills them. [H][G]
Combating pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer has one of the worst survival rates and there is currently no effective treatment for it. Mayo Clinic researchers have now discovered a key regulator molecule that controls the growth, spread and survival of pancreatic cancer cells. If this regulator is turned off, pancreatic cancer cells commit apoptosis. The discovery may also lead to new drug development strategies for other cancers. [H][G]
Identifying dangerous plaques The ability to identify dangerous plaques could enable them to be treated before they rupture and produce a heart attack or sudden cardiac death. A US study has found that a catheter-based imaging technology called optical coherence tomography (OCT) can successfully identify the characteristics of coronary plaques in patients with various cardiac symptoms. Vulnerable plaques are believed to have three major characteristics – a deposit of lipids, a thin cap of fibrous material covering the lipid pool, and infiltration by macrophages. [H][S]
Type 1 diabetes Type 1 diabetes is caused by an autoimmune reaction in which the immune system destroys the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Recently, Spanish and German researchers working on embryonic stem cell (ESC) therapy using mice have discovered that exposing human white blood cells to the same growth factors they had applied to mouse ESCs caused the white blood cells to produce insulin. If insulin-producing cells can be derived from the blood of people with diabetes, and if they are be stable after re-implantation, this may provide a very effective treatment for type 1 diabetes. [H][G]
Healthier high-fat food Chemists in the US have identified a form of soluble cellulose that, when added to high-fat food, appears to slow fat absorption to a healthier rate and to reduce the likelihood of developing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Called HPMC (hydroxypropylmethylcellulose), the cellulose-derivative has been used for half-a-century as an additive in many foods and drugs, mostly to provide texture. Adding it to hamburgers, pizza and other fast foods in the future could benefit the health of people who regularly eat fast-foods that are high in fat. [H]
Benefits of fasting Calorie-restriction in mice is well known to increase their lifespan. Research has now shown that healthy mice given only 5 percent fewer calories overall than mice allowed to eat freely have a significant reduction in cell proliferation in several tissues, considered an indicator for cancer risk. The key to achieving this reduction was that the mice, although eating 5 percent fewer calories overall, were fed intermittently, or three days a week. This suggests that fasting rather than calorie restriction may be particularly important. [H]
Curing allergies A molecule designed to block cat allergies has successfully prevented allergic reactions in laboratory mice, as well as in human cells in a test tube. The hope is that these promising results could lead to a new therapy not only for human cat allergies, but also for severe food allergies such as potentially lethal allergic reaction to peanuts. The injected treatment comprises a chimeric molecule, named GFD, that loosely tethers a feline and a human protein together. The feline end is the notorious protein (called Fel d1) found in cat dander and saliva that causes the cat allergy. The human end is an antibody that docks to a cell receptor that can be recruited to stop allergic reactions. GFD has the potential to prevent human allergic reactions long after injections cease. [H][G] |
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| [G] Genomics, biotechnology and bioinformatics | |
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New understanding of cancer Medical research has for decades focused on finding the underlying genetic abnormalities that cause cancer. However, research at the University of Illinois has now demonstrated that this is only part of the picture. The genes are themselves controlled by components outside the nucleus, which in turn are regulated by the cell's microenvironment. This suggests that what lies outside cancer cells may be as important as the genes inside in explaining a tumour's malignancy. The molecules that surround a cell play a crucial role in altering the packaging of its genome, affecting whether or not genes are expressed. Manipulating the microenvironment might make cancer therapy much more effective without causing side effects. The different way that normal, benign and malignant tissues respond to enzyme digestion could also lead to a new tool for distinguishing different types of tumours and their malignancy. [G][H]
Suppressing cancer A protein called Akt, which controls the balance between cell growth that leads to cancer and cell death that prevents tumour formation, plays a key role in many cancers, including some of the commonest. It was known that Akt is activated by phosphorylation. But until now, no way has been found to deactivate Akt once it has been switched on. Researchers at UCSD have now found that a compound PHLPP, which is expressed throughout the body, switches Akt off, and that the levels of PHLPP are markedly reduced in several colon cancer and gliobastoma human cell lines that have elevated levels of activated Akt. Reintroduction of PHLPP into these cell lines caused a dramatic suppression of tumour growth. It is not yet clear whether this suppression will work in patients, but if it does it could be effective against a wide range of cancers. [G][H]
Blocking arthritis Cartilage contains a crucial component called aggrecan, which functions like a shock absorber. In arthritis, aggrecan is destroyed by a family of enzymes called the aggrecanases. The cartilage then loses its shock-absorbing capacity, causing progressive loss of cartilage around the joints. US and Australian researchers have now discovered that one particular member of the aggrecanase family, aggrecanase-2, plays a crucial role in this destructive process. They showed by experiments with genetically engineered mice that inhibiting this single enzyme may be enough to block the development of arthritis. [G][H]
Genetically linked diseases Scientists at the Karolinska Institute have identified a common gene variant that is involved in both cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases and possibly in many more. The gene variant, which leads to a reduction in the production of a number of immune defence proteins, may affect up to a quarter of the population. Importantly the discovery shows how drugs such as statins that are used to treat one disorder may also be efficacious for others. [G][H]
Gene-editing to correct mutations A gene-editing process that corrects mutations without weaving foreign genetic material into the DNA has been demonstrated in diseased human cells. The cutting triggers the body’s natural repair process, called homologous recombination, which corrects the gene where the DNA was cut. The method could provide a less risky and more efficient alternative to gene therapy, which has resulted in leukaemia in some patients. [G][H]
Reducing bad cholesterol Mice genetically engineered to lack a key protein PCSK9 involved in cholesterol regulation have levels of low-density lipoprotein ("bad" cholesterol) more than 50 percent lower than normal mice. A similar result has been found in humans with a genetic mutation that prevents them producing the PCSK9 protein, and suggests that inhibiting the PCSK9 might lead to new cholesterol-lowering drugs. [G][H]
Neural stem cells Norwegian scientists have transformed stem cells from adult human bone marrow into nerve cells by transplanting them into damaged chicken embryos. This could lead to a new source of cells to treat brain diseases such as Parkinson's. The stem cells were converted at a high rate of about 10 percent and had fully functional physical features. There are about 230 different cell types in the body, but all of these are derived from three embryonic layers – one which forms the brain and spinal cord, another which forms the guts and liver and a third which forms muscles and bones. A technique is needed to derive each of these from human embryonic stem cells, so they can be transplanted straight into the affected area of a patient. Other researchers have found that hair follicle stem cells can turn into nerve cells. [G][H]
Non-DNA inheritance The fundamental tenet of Mendelian inheritance, namely that genes are passed down in the form of DNA and that all organisms have to make do with the DNA inheritance they inherit from their parents, may need to be revised. Scientists at Purdue have made the extraordinary discovery that the weedy cress Arabidopsis thaliana, the workhorse of plant biologists, seems to be able to correct a gene it passes on, even though it inherits two mutant copies of the gene from its parents. It can thereby ensure that at least a few of its offspring revert to normal. This suggests that that the mutant genes are being repaired using RNA templates inherited from earlier generations. This may be a widespread mechanism that allows plants to "experiment" with new mutations while keeping RNA spares as a back-up. [G][F]
Antibiotic resistance Bacteria have acquired up to 90 percent of their genetic material from distantly related bacteria species, according to new research from Arizona University. The finding has important biomedical implications because such gene-swapping, or lateral gene transfer, is the way many pathogenic bacteria pick up antibiotic resistance or become more virulent. [G][H]
Survival of biological material in fossils Palaeontologists who broke open a leg bone of a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil have discovered it contains flexible structures that appear to be unfossilised blood vessels and small red microstructures that resemble red blood cells. The researchers compared the material to structures found in the bones of ostriches, and found similarities in both the branching of the blood vessels and the presence of reddish brown dots, which could be nuclei from endothelial cells that line blood vessels. The discovery suggests that biological information can be recovered from a wider range of fossil material than realised, which would greatly help the tracing of evolutionary relationships. [G] |
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| [N] Nanotechnology and molecular technology | |
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Unnatural DNA Scientists at Scripps Institute have succeeded in replicating unnatural DNA with fidelity against every possible mispair. Instead of just the natural canonical base pairs "G-C" or guanine–cytosine, and "A-T" or adenine–thymine, the unnatural DNA has a third pairing "3FB-3FB" between two bases called 3-fluorobenzene. Unlike the case for other unnatural base pairs, DNA polymerases are able to replicate the 3FB base with reasonably high fidelity. DNA with three or more base pairs could find broad applications in a number of fields, including biotechnology, medicine, data storage, and security. [N][C][D][G][H][I][J]
Molecular motors Researchers using an extremely fast and accurate imaging technique have revealed how two molecular motors shuttle material within living cells. The motors, dynein and kinesin, haul cargo by stepping along filaments called microtubules. Dynein hauls cargo from the cell membrane to the nucleus and kinesin hauls it in the opposite direction. The researchers found that the two molecular motors do not compete for control, even though they work in opposite directions, and that multiple motors can work in concert, producing more than 10 times the speed of individual motors measured outside the cell. To measure such minuscule motion, they developed a technique called Fluorescence Imaging with One Nanometre Accuracy (FIONA), which can locate a fluorescent dye to within 1.5 nm and with millisecond time resolution. [N][G][O][S]
Holding and manipulating bacteria At the University of Wisconsin, researchers have used electrical fields to manipulate bacteria into a gap between two electrodes. They were able to detect that the bacteria were in position by measuring changes in the electrical performance of the device. They believe their technique could be used for building nanocircuits and in biosensors. In addition, by exploiting antibody binding to the bacteria, the technique could build up complex nanoscale structures. [N][G][J][M][S]
Holding nano-sized objects still Particles floating in a fluid jiggle continuously and randomly as they are bombarded by the liquid's molecules (Brownian motion). To fabricate nanomachines or to study individual biomolecules it would be very helpful to be able to hold them still. Optical tweezers do not work well for particles less than 100nm diameter. A new technique developed at Stanford can trap and manipulate particles of 20nm diameter and may be extendable down to 1nm. The technique has trapped viruses, lipid vesicles, and segments of DNA, and could, if coupled with other probing devices, allow researchers to watch biochemical processes as they unfold. [N][G][J][M][O][S]
Molecular electronics Researchers at NRL and UCSB have developed a technique for simultaneously forming thousands of junctions for molecular electronic devices. This is promising for achieving a simple, reliable, parallel method of fabricating molecular junctions at the wafer scale, which is needed to make molecular electronics viable. The method, called magnetic directed-assembly, uses magnetic fields to align metallised microspheres between electrodes. [N][J][M]
Magnetic nanostructures US researchers have found that 300nm diameter carbon nanotubes can be filled with magnetic nanoparticles surprisingly easily. The resulting magnetic nanostructures could have many applications, including for memory devices, medicine and wearable electronics. [N][J][M][S]
Nanomotor and GHz nano-oscillator US physicists have built the first nanoelectromechanical device that exploits surface tension. The "relaxation oscillator" consists of two droplets of liquid metal on a substrate made of carbon nanotubes and can be controlled with a small applied electric field. Relaxation occurs in about 200 picoseconds, and 5 femtojoules of energy is released per relaxation event. As a motor, the devices produces a peak pulsed power of 20 microwatts, giving it a power density about 100 million times that of a 225 hp V6 car engine. [N][J][P] |
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| [J] Microelectronics, MEMS and spintronics | |
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Single protein transistor Italian physicists have demonstrated a single protein transistor that can operate in a wet biological environment, such as in brain-machine interfaces or for sensing cellular events. [J][B][G][N][S][V]
Quantum interference effect transistor (QuIET) Physicists at the University of Arizona have proposed the idea of a quantum interference effect transistor (QuIET) - a single molecule transistor that modulates the flow of current through a hydrocarbon ring by switching quantum interference "on" and "off". They believe the QuIET could be a realistic way to extend existing transistor technology down to the nanoscale. It should be able to function in aqueous environments, such as those inside living organisms, because it is made of organic molecules. [J][B][G][N][S][V]
600 GHz transistor Physicists at the University of Illinois have built the fastest ever transistor. The device, which operates at over 600 GHz, is a bipolar transistor made from indium phosphide and indium gallium arsenide. It demonstrates the feasibility of making transistors that can operate at frequencies of several terahertz, which could be used in ultrafast communications, high-speed computing, medical imaging and sensors. [J][C][I][M][N][O][S]
New low-k insulator Replacing aluminium with copper as the multilayer interconnect material in microelectronic devices could enhance both miniaturisation and performance, exploiting the copper's much higher electrical and thermal conductivity. The problem has been that insulating materials with low enough dielectric constant to avoid cross-talk between wires have lacked the hardness and stiffness to withstand the chemical-mechanical polishing needed to produce a smooth copper surface. A new dielectric material, developed at the University of Illinois, could solve this problem. It is an aromatic polymer, with a dielectric constant of only 1.85, good mechanical properties, excellent adhesion, and ability to withstand processing at 400 degrees C. [J][M]
Overcoming the superparamagnetic limit The next generation of hard discs for personal computers and portable music players will exploit a different way of writing magnetic data to the disc. Over the past decades, the capacity of hard drives has been continuously improved by packing the magnetic sectors more closely together. But to achieve densities above 15 gigabytes per square inch now necessitates a move away from present longitudinal recording, which magnetises the sector parallel to the disk surface, to perpendicular recording normal to the surface. Perpendicular recording allows each sector to be magnetised more deeply below the surface, so that it can have a smaller surface area and still retain its identity. This should allow a further factor 10 increase in data density. [J][C][M]
NEMS mass spectroscopy NEMS offers a new approach to mass spectroscopy by enabling the mass of an individual molecule to be weighed with a precision of a few zeptograms. Masses are measured by how they affect an oscillating doubly clamped silicon carbide beam. As each molecule strikes the beam, its mass is measured by the change in resonant frequency. [J][G][M][N][S] |
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| [F] Fundamental science | |
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Counting electrons individually Physicists in Goteborg have counted individual electrons in an electric current for the first time. They measured the oscillations associated with single electrons in a one-dimensional chain of superconducting "islands" connected by tunnel junctions. The technique could provide a new quantum-based primary standard for current. The oscillation frequency, f, is related to the current, I, by a simple equation, I = e f, where e is the charge on the electron. "This would close the so-called quantum metrological triangle that relates current, voltage and frequency. Voltage and frequency can be related through the AC Josephson effect, while current and voltage can be related through the quantum Hall effect, with both these relationships including the same two fundamental constants, the Planck constant and the charge on the electron. [F][J][M]
Optically-latticed quantum degenerate Fermi gas Physicists at the ETH lab in Zurich have made a quantum degenerate Fermi gas in which the atoms are loaded into the criss-cross interstices of an optical lattice, an artificial 3D crystal in which the atoms are held in place by the electric fields of well-aimed laser beams. By being able to control the atoms' positions and the strength of the interactions between them, it might be possible to test various condensed matter theories, such as those that strive to explain high-temperature superconductivity, on a real physical system. [F][M][N][O]
Testing the inverse square law of gravity If the universe contains more than three spatial dimensions, as widely believed, theory predicts that the inverse square law of gravity should break down at small distances. Measurements so far, using torsion pendulums, small oscillators and microcantilevers, and neutrons show no deviations for distances down to around 60 microns. [F][S][T]
Cosmic swell According to controversial new calculations, dark energy may not be needed to explain the accelerating expansion of the universe observed by astronomers. The cause may instead be the gravitational wake of gigantic ripples in space-time, larger than the observable universe, descended from random quantum fluctuations just after the big bang. [F]
Synthetic black hole A fireball created at the Relativistic Heavy Collider by smashing beams of gold nuclei together at near light speed may have been a black hole. The fireball, a plasma of quarks and gluons that lasted only a billionth of a picosecond, was 10 times more powerful in absorbing jets of particles produced by the beam collisions than was predicted. [F]
Super star cluster Super star clusters are groups of hundreds of thousands of very young stars packed very densely. Until now, they were only known to exist very far away, mostly in pairs or groups of interacting galaxies. Now, European astronomers using the European Southern Observatory (ESO) have discovered a super star cluster in the Milky Way. It contains hundreds of very massive stars, some shining with a brilliance of almost one million suns and some two-thousand times larger than the Sun - as large as the orbit of Saturn. [F][R]
Cosmic ray sources Astronomers have detected eight new sources of very high-energy gamma rays in the Milky Way. Two of these may be a new class of cosmic-ray source, a 'dark' particle accelerator. [F] |
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Chinese high-tech High tech Chinese companies, such as Huawei, are becoming formidable competitors on quality as well as on price. To provide services as well as products to the global markets they are having to become more like Western companies. Meanwhile Western companies are becoming more Chinese because of their need to exploit China's huge markets and low wage costs. [T][I][K][W]
Technology for developing countries An international panel of 63 experts has ranked nanotechnologies for likely benefit to developing countries. In top place is energy, with nanotech solar cells, hydrogen fuel cells and hydrogen storage systems, and synthetic nano-membranes to convert light into chemical energy. In second place is agriculture, where nanotech materials can allow slow release and efficient dosage of nutrients and medicines, nano-sensors can monitor the health of crops and farm animals, and magnetic nano-particles can decontaminate soils. Water treatment is ranked third, where nano-membranes, nano-clays and carbon nanotube filters can provide cheap, portable and easily cleaned systems to purify, detoxify and desalinate water, and nanosystems can decompose organic pollutants and remove salts and heavy metals to make heavily contaminated and salt water fit for irrigation and drinking. Ranked in fourth to tenth position are: disease diagnosis and screening, drug delivery systems, food processing and storage, air pollution remediation, construction, health monitoring, and disease vector and pest control. [T][D][E][H][M][N][O][P][S] | ||