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Top Stories in Science
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August 2004 Issue |
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| [D] Defence and security |  |
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According to a report in Jane's Defence Weekly, North Korea has modified technology used in old Soviet submarines to construct both land and sea-based ballistic missile systems capable of carrying nuclear warheads. With a sea-based system, North Korea could threaten mainland US. [D] Precision attack that is precise in time as well as space is important for engaging moving targets and for avoiding collateral damage. Previously an air controller has had to verbally transmit a nine-line package of information to call an air strike, taking at least three or four minutes, and much longer if controller and receiver speak different languages. A new system called DesCat developed by QinetiQ now enables this to be done digitally in a fraction of a second. [D][A][I] An accurate terrorist attack on a UK nuclear plant would be extremely difficult to carry out, according to a report by the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. It concludes that an attack would be "highly unlikely" to kill large numbers of people immediately, but could cause widespread cancers later. In a worst-case scenario, aircraft impact could cause "significant release of radioactive material with effects over a wide area". [D][A][P][X] Spotting an anthrax bioterror attack as early as possible is crucial for saving lives. However, identifying someone who has inhaled anthrax can be extremely difficult as most of the symptoms are similar to common acute respiratory infections like pneumonia. US researchers have now pinpointed a distinct group of clinical symptoms that indicate anthrax. The most important pointers are seen on X-ray images, and are a swollen chest and fluid in the chest cavity. Other symptoms include nausea, vomiting and altered mental state, such as confusion. Several patients presenting with these symptoms would indicate an anthrax bioterror attack. [D][H] US authorities, Wall Street firms and financial organisations are confident the US financial system is now well prepared to withstand a terrorist attack. [D][I][K] NATO countries have agreed to start training Iraqi security forces to help them in taking over from the US and UK forces. Iraq's infrastructure is very vulnerable to attack. It has 8500 km of oil pipelines, mainly above ground, and two off-shore oil terminals that together account for about 80 percent of Iraq's oil exports. One of these terminals came close to being destroyed in an attack last April. [D][K][P] The introduction of biometric passports for entry into the US is being delayed because of issues over whether to use fingerprinting or facial recognition. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and European privacy groups are arguing against using fingerprinting. [D][K][R] The US 9/11 Commission's report has urged sweeping changes to how the intelligence services operate. The report affirms that none of the measures adopted by the US government from 1998 to 2001 disturbed or even delayed the progress of the al-Qaeda plot. The most important failure was one of imagination in not understanding the gravity of the threat. The Commission's recommendations include unifying strategic intelligence and operational planning against Islamist terrorists across the foreign and the domestic divide. [D][K][X] The UK defence modernisation plans put greater emphasis on exploiting advanced technology and enhancing the UK's ability to mount expeditionary warfare in far-flung areas of the globe. [D][T] Food scientists working for the US military have developed a dried food ration that troops can safely hydrate with even the filthiest of muddy swamp water or urine. [D][H] |
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| [A] Aeronautics and space | |
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Extreme waves, high winds, and turbulence created by the ship, all conspire to limit the conditions under which sea-based military aircraft can operate. Ways to smooth airflow over warships are being considered by the UK MOD and the US Navy. One idea is to install columnar vortex generators at key points round the ship to channel turbulence away from the take-off and landing area. [A][D][E] According to the UK Department of Transport, aviation within UK airspace (all internal flights plus all international departures from the UK) currently contributes 11 percent of the total UK impact on climate change. On present trends this will rise to 33 percent by 2050, which is the reason that the UK Government is determined to ensure that the aviation sector takes its share of responsibility for tackling this problem. [A][P][E] Congressional tightening of NASA's budget means that more ambitious long term ventures may need to be put on hold, including sending humans back to the Moon by 2020. The budget now provides for only about one-quarter of the proposed development costs of the next generation piloted vehicle to replace the space shuttle, which is due to be phased out by 2010. [A] Researchers at London's Natural History Museum have resolved the question of whether Archaeopteryx, the Jurassic bird-like dinosaur, was actually able to fly. Using computer aided x-ray tomography, they produced a three-dimensional reconstruction of the interior of the skull of the London specimen of Archaeopteryx - the only one of the seven Archaeopteryx specimens in the world suitable for scanning. They found that its brain was remarkably similar to that of a modern bird. It had a relatively large cerebellum for co-ordination and flight control, and large optic lobes to provide more visual input. The inner ear was similar to that of modern birds, which suggests that Archaeopteryx had similar hearing and balance-sensing capabilities. This indicates not only that Archaeopteryx was an accomplished aviator but also that flight probably evolved considerably earlier than previously thought. [A][R] Inside the Endurance crater, the Mars rover Opportunity has found structures called razorbacks which were formed by mineral-laden water that percolated through cracks in rocks leaving deposits behind to form veins, or "fracture fill". This indicates that surface water was present for aeons, allowing enough time for life to evolve. [A][U] The ESA Mars Express has found ammonia in the Martian atmosphere. This could come from active volcanoes on the surface of Mars, but none has been detected. The only other known way that ammonia could be produced is from living microbes. Ammonia only survives for a short time in the Martian atmosphere. So there must be an active source. [A][F][R] |
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| [U] Unmanned vehicles and robotics | |
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Future fighter pilots could command a swarm of unmanned planes from the air using a system developed by QinetiQ. The system would allow a pilot to control up to five aircraft during a mission without needing to constantly keep a check on them. [U][A] 3D computer vision, using optical time of flight to measure the distance from the sensor to each point in the scene, is moving out of the laboratory and into applications. 3D makes it easier to classify, track and pick up objects. It can also enable human gestures or actions to control numerous types of systems from a distance. [U][O][R][V] A remote-controlled crawling robot has been developed at Carnegie-Mellon University, designed to inspect underground gas mains. The robot, which is already being used to inspect live gas mains in New York, is segmented like a row of sausages with front- and rear-fisheye cameras and lights. It interacts with a remote operator via wireless communication while inside a pipe, and can relay near real-time data including images of a pipe's interior. Its range inside the pipes is determined by its wireless communication and battery power. [U][I][P][R] A Japanese company, Secom, has developed a six-wheeled surveillance robot for patrolling airports, ports, hazardous industrial sites and similar locations. It can be remotely controlled or pre-programmed, chase intruders, take high definition video pictures, issue loud warnings, and release a dense, billowing cloud of non-toxic smoke to frighten or disorient intruders whilst human guards reach the scene. [U][D] Within five years or so, robots may be able to work as librarian assistants, searching for, retrieving and returning books and documents to stacks. Because a library is a semi-structured environment, it should be easier for robots to co-work safely with humans. One of the hardest challenges is the dexterity needed for a robot to take a book off a shelf on which it is surrounded by other books. [U][K] Australian researchers have developed a very cheap autonomous underwater vehicle only 40 cm long. It has five propellers, and can travel at one metre per second and hover, tilt and right itself if overturned. [U][E][R] |
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| [P] Propulsion and energy | |
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Two UK universities are attempting to develop a free-piston engine that is capable of running on a variety of fuels and could ultimately become a competitor to the fuel cell. The single-cylinder, four-stroke engine has no crankshaft. Instead, the piston is combined with the rotating armature of an electrical generator. This allows elements such as the compression ratio to be varied, and optimised for use with different fuels including biofuels and even hydrogen. Being able to control the timing means that controlled auto ignition (CAI) can be used whereby the fuel-air mix is ignited automatically through heat and pressure rather than by a spark, improving fuel efficiency and emissions. [P][E] A thermoacoustic-Stirling heat engine (TASHE), developed by a Los Alamos-Northrop Grumman team, may provide a lighter, smaller, and more efficient source of electricity for future deep space missions to the outer planets. The TASHE generator has 18 percent efficiency compared to 7 percent for thermoelectrics, and can produce a projected 8.1 watts/kg compared to 5.2 watts/kg for thermoelectrics. [P][A] It has been previously shown that fuel cells can be powered from decomposing organic matter on the ocean floor to power hydrophones and other stationary instruments. DARPA-funded research at Oregon State has now also shown that fuel cells can be powered from plankton near the ocean surface. The idea is that autonomous, mobile instruments may be able to glide through the water, powered by scooping up plankton like a basking shark. [P][E][U] According to researchers at the University of Houston, thin film solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) could provide a very compact and efficient power source for applications from mobile electronics to powering a home. Their conversion efficiency is around 65 percent, and each cell is only a micron thick enabling many cells to be put in series to provide mains voltages. Thin film SOFCs operate at a temperature of 400 to 500 degrees C without needing a catalyst. By comparison, bulk SOFCs in general require 900 to 1000 degrees C. [P][M] Following the precedent set by legal action against tobacco companies, eight US states and New York City have filed a lawsuit against five US power companies for their contribution to global warming. [P][E] The UK has huge unminable coal reserves that it could gassify and use to generate electricity and hydrogen if only it could dispose of the carbon dioxide. Sequestration into water-filled sandstones beneath the impervious rock layers under the North Sea might be a possibility. [P][E] According to the UK Department of Trade and Industry, managing the UK's nuclear waste will cost over £47bn in the coming years, and the waste has to be held safely for centuries. Currently high level nuclear waste is stored temporarily to allow short-lived radioactive products to decay and is then encased in a borosilicate glass and sealed in stainless steel drums. Unfortunately, radiation damage to the containers causes the materials to swell and crack, allowing material to escape. However some natural minerals such as zircon can apparently contain radioactive materials indefinitely. Computer simulation suggests that when zircon is damaged by radiation its atoms spontaneously rearrange within the damaged area to form a protective shell. [P][M] A UK government report says that the risk of cancer or other long term ill effects from plutonium and similar radionuclides, if absorbed into the body, may be an order of magnitude worse than previously thought. One problem is that descendants of cells that seem to survive radiation unharmed can subsequently suffer delayed damage. This occurs because radiation damage to small sections of DNA that they inherit creates "genomic instability". A second problem is that cells adjacent to those irradiated can also suffer damage ("bystander effect"). This increases the difficulty of disposing of radioactive waste and the risks from nuclear terrorism, unless cures can be found for cancer and the other long term ill effects. [P][D][G][H][M] Over the last 50 years, nine reactors at the 1500-square-kilometre Hanford nuclear complex in Washington State have produced 67 tonnes of plutonium for the US nuclear weapons programme. In 2002, the US Department of Energy (DOE) embarked on a 30-year, $50 billion clean-up, which includes emptying more than 190 million litres of liquid radioactive waste from 177 underground tanks. However, according to the New Scientist, a new study suggests there is a 50 percent chance of a major accident. The study says that the worst hazard is from a steam explosion at one of the melters used to mix radioactive waste with molten glass. Since 1991 there have been at least eight melter-related accidents and failures at DOE sites, including two steam explosions. [P][D][M][U][X] |
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| [M] Materials, structures and surfaces | |
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Metallic glasses resist breaking when stretched, they keep their shape, and they are hard to shatter. They behave elastically like polymers and are much stronger than metal alloys. This makes them ideal for structural engineering materials, consumer electronic components, jewellery, replacement joints, sports equipment and other equipment that requires lots of rebound. The problem has been that all of the known bulk metallic glasses were multicomponent alloys and suffered from lower thermal stability and from phase separation at high temperatures. Now, Los Alamos has found that pure zirconium metal forms a metal glass at temperatures roughly one-third of zirconium's melting temperature and static pressures around 50,000 atmospheres. The material shows excellent thermal stability. [M] According to current theories, superconductors are supposed to possess particle-hole symmetry. However, scientists at the University of Illinois have found that electron- and hole-tunnelling across an atomically flat interface within a cuprate superconductor show a large particle-hole asymmetry. Tunnelling of electrons from states with particle-like character (negative bias) exhibits the expected superconducting gap. However, tunnelling of electrons into states with hole-like character (positive bias) shows a dramatic step-like increase. This effect, which depends strongly on the perfection of the interface, may provide a way to test theories of high temperature superconductivity. [M] Over the past decade, so-called phononic materials have been developed. These have regular structures that create interference effects which block the transmission of specific frequencies of sound. Research at the University of Manitoba has now shown experimentally that the same interference effects can produce negative refraction. One important application may be for ultrasonic imagers. Normally the ultrasound is focused using lens-shaped objects. However, negative refraction may provide better resolution for wavelengths of 1 millimetre or less, where conventional ultrasound focusing begins to fail. The focusing is very frequency specific. [M][I][O][S] Researchers have succeeded in making the first crystal of polymeric nitrogen. According to computer simulations, polymeric nitrogen could pack several times as much energy per unit of volume as some of the most powerful conventional explosives available today. If it could be produced cheaply it might not only be used as an explosive but also as a rocket fuel, and even as an automotive fuel. The snag, however, is that the process requires extremely high pressures and temperatures, similar to those needed to make diamond, which has the same lattice structure. [M][P][T] A better understanding of how materials fragment would help the military, miners, and demolition crews in designing explosions, and forensic scientists in reconstructing the details of an explosion from its aftermath. By comparing the fragments from detonations of hydrogen-filled eggshells with those of smashed shells, researchers have concluded that all shell-like structures may fragment in a similar way. They hope to use the results to estimate the amount of spacecraft debris in orbit and to analyse mass redistribution following a supernova. [M][A] If a transparent material is embedded in another with similar refractive index, such as glass in water, light passes easily across the boundary. For sound it turns out that the opposite can be the case. Physicists in France and Canada have found it is not just the difference in acoustic impedance that matters but also the radius of curvature of the interface and the sound frequency. They studied gold particles ensconced in silica and sapphire, which have a fairly similar acoustic impedance to gold. When they set the gold particles ringing with a pulse of laser light, the particles kept ringing. [M][O] French physicists have succeeded in separating two mixed liquids (silicone oil and paraffin) by using a highly non-uniform electric field. Under a potential difference of 100 volts, the silicone oil moved towards the electrodes while the paraffin remained further away. The liquid reverted to its mixed state once the electric field was switched off. It is possible the effect could also be induced by electromagnetic radiation, giving possible applications in electro-optics. [M][O][S] Research on how to produce earthquake-resistant buildings without needing expensive reinforcements is showing that it is the mortar that fails. [M][E] The Welding Institute has developed a process, called Comeld, to join fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP) composites to titanium, aluminium or stainless steel. Early indications are that this could produce joints able to absorb more than twice as much energy as conventional joints. [M][A] A plasma coating process, originally developed by Dstl and Durham University to repel water, oil and dangerous chemicals from soldiers' clothing, has been adapted for devices such as mobile phones, car parts and aircraft components. The technology can coat any solid material, such as metal, plastic, fabric, glass or paper, and coats every surface that the ionised gas can reach. [M] |
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| [E] Environment, transport and marine | |
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The UK government's chief scientific adviser has warned that London could be among the "first cities to go", along with New York and New Orleans, if global warming causes the planet's ice to melt. [E][P] Measurements over the past 10 years show that the sea has absorbed 48 percent of the carbon dioxide that humans have pumped into the atmosphere over the last 200 years. Unfortunately, because vertical mixing in the ocean occurs only slowly, most of this carbon dioxide is in the surface regions, where it is raising the acidity and affecting plankton and other marine life that form calcareous shells and skeletons. This may seriously harm marine life and also reduce the ability of the oceans to absorb carbon dioxide in the future. [E][P] Once dismissed as a nautical myth, freakish ocean waves that rise as tall as ten-storey apartment blocks have been accepted as a leading cause of large ship sinkings, and may sink 10 ships on average each year. Results from ESA's ERS satellites helped establish the widespread existence of these 'rogue' waves and are now being used to study their origins. [E][A][R] The UK Department for Transport has published a strategy for the future of transport in the UK over the next 15 years. Central to the strategy is the need to bring transport costs under control, the importance of shared decision-making at local, regional and national levels to ensure better transport delivery, and improvements in the management of the network to make the most of existing capacity. Key aims include reorganising the rail industry, better traffic management, introducing road tolling particularly to reduce peak-time congestion (07:00 to 09:00), introducing high occupancy vehicle lanes, encouraging more efficient freight logistics, combining better bus services with local charging schemes, and increasing walking and cycling for short journeys. The government will act as an enabler so that the UK is at the forefront of transport technology innovation, and will align policy and technology development to drive technology improvements through policy changes. [E][I][P][R][T][X] Measured in fatalities per billion kilometres travelled, travel by bicycle and on foot is an order of magnitude more dangerous than travel by car and two orders of magnitude more dangerous than public transport. [E][X] Infrared cameras that automatically count people in cars could soon be a feature on the UK's motorways, making it easier to enforce priority lanes for car sharing. [E][R] The UK government has given its strong commitment to road-pricing. It is proposed that by 2014, technology permitting, drivers should pay charges per mile driven ranging from pennies on lightly used country roads to £1.30 a mile at peak-time on the most congested urban ones. [E][R] |
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| [R] Remote sensing and sensor systems | |
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The ten-instrument payload on ESA's Envisat includes a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that can detect movements of the Earth's crust that occur as slowly as the growth of a fingernail. To accurately measure the slow build up of strain as tectonic plates move against each other along the Earth's seismic belts, multiple SAR interferograms are combined. These observation from space can reveal geological faults that do not extend to the surface and can be missed in a ground survey. [R][A][T] A report by the International Whaling Commission's scientific committee says there is "compelling evidence" that entire populations of marine mammals are at potential risk from increasingly intense man-made underwater noise, particularly from mid-frequency military sonar, and from oil and gas exploration. The committee urged investigation into setting up marine protected areas to keep marine mammals safe from underwater noise. [R][D][E] Scientists investigating the possible effect of underwater seismic pulses on marine mammals have conducted tests to measure and understand the force of sound waves generated by shipboard airguns, used for oil exploration and geophysical research. The results show that previous models overestimated the deep water impact of low frequency sound waves, while underestimating their impact in shallow water where reverberation is important. Beaked whales are most sensitive to sound in the 1 to 20 kHz frequency range, whereas most airgun energy is in the range 5 to 100 Hz. Gradual ramping up of a seismic array over 30 to 60 minutes can warn whales and give them time to leave the area. [R][D][E] Researchers at Warwick University and UCL have developed a technique that enables a surgeon to model the stress that surgical procedures would put on an aortic aneurysm and to try out various surgical procedures before operating. The researchers used a 3D scan of the patient's actual aortic aneurysm and rapid prototyping technology to produce an exact latex duplicate of the aneurysm. They then covered the duplicate with a reflective coating, and used photoelastic stress analysis to examine the stress on the model aneurysm as the surgeon manipulated it. [R][H][M][W] A new technique called Neutron Stimulated Emission Computed Tomography (NSECT) may be better than x-rays for screening for tumours. Neutrons are highly penetrating, and can image deep body structures. Illuminating the body with fast neutrons with energies between 1 and 10 MeV can identify every naturally occurring chemical element, except hydrogen and helium, from its stimulated gamma-ray emission. Cancers and other lesions could be found very early from characteristic differences in their concentrations of trace elements compared to normal tissue. [R][H][S] Tumour cells can be found in the bloodstream in the early stages of cancer, but their low concentration, about one cell in a million, makes them very hard to detect. The best technique available today, automated digital microscopy, is too slow for practical diagnosis. It can take up to 32 hours to scan a typical sample, which contains around 50 million blood cells. Now the Scripps-PARC Institute has developed a new technique, which uses fibre-optic array scanning technology (FAST) and can scan a sample in only two minutes. Because it is a simple, robust technology and enables cost-effective operation, it could make screening for cancer and other rare cells as routine as an annual blood test. [R][H][O][S] |
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| [S] Sensor devices | |
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A scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) contains a tip that narrows to an atom-sharp point, enabling it to map surfaces in 3D with atomic resolution from changes in the electrical current flowing to the tip as it is scanned over a surface. Now researchers at IBM Zurich have shown that the tip can deliver individual electrons to individual surface atoms as it moves across them, and can detect whether individual surface atoms are neutral or negatively charged. The technique will help in developing atomic and molecular-scale electronics. [S][G][J][M][N] By exploiting quantum interference it may be possible to produce ultrasensitive cantilevers for detecting single molecules, say of TNT or antibody, and possibly single particle spins or charges. Researchers at NTT used a U-shaped cantilever with a conducting semiconductor layer of InAs just 15 nm thick on top of a 285-nanometer thick strip of AlGaSb. They applied a magnetic field perpendicular to the strip. Electrons flowing round the U, confined in a quasi-one-dimensional system, took many different paths as they scattered off impurities. The quantum interference between these paths as the cantilever was bent showed up in the way the piezoresistance varied with magnetic field, so that at certain field strengths the piezoelectric signal from vibrating the beam was double its zero-field value. [S][G][J][N] Biophysicists at Imperial College have developed an ultrasound microprobe for use in minimal access surgery, carried out by inserting tiny surgical instruments through small cuts in the body. Currently surgeons rely mainly on watching a monitor showing images taken by a fibre-optic camera inserted into the body. MRI is sometimes used but is usually too bulky for use in the operating theatre. The ultrasonic microprobe, which is only 1 mm in diameter, can be inserted into diseased arteries to provide information on the extent to which they are thickened and blocked. The Imperial team is also investigating the probe's use for keyhole surgery of shoulder and knee joints. [S][H] Scientists have used a new class of luminescent "quantum dot" nanoparticles to simultaneously target and image cancerous tumours. The quantum dots were encapsulated in a highly protective polymer coating and attached to a monoclonal antibody that guided them to prostate tumour sites in living mice, where they were visible using a simple mercury lamp. [S][H][N] The Jewel beetle can detect forest fires at ranges of possibly up to 80 km. It uses a thermo-mechanical sensor tuned to infrared radiation at 3 micron wavelength. Researchers hope that similar thermo-mechanical devices might lead to very low cost infrared sensors. [S][J][M][N] By depositing thin films of silicon nanoparticles on silicon substrates, researchers at the University of Illinois have fabricated a photodetector sensitive to ultraviolet light. The technology might be useful for improving the efficiency of silicon solar cells as well as for being able to integrate UV sensors onto silicon chips. The silicon nanoparticles are around 1 nm diameter, and strong quantum confinement prevents recombination of the electrons and holes generated by the UV. [S][J][N][P] Korean researchers have built an optical fibre sensor that performs simultaneous measurements of strain and temperature at a distance of up to 50 km. The long range is achieved by using Raman amplification to overcome the transmission loss in the fibre. [S][O][R] |
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| [O] Optoelectronics, optics and lasers | |
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Researchers have shown that a beam of light can be used to move tiny droplets of water around over a substrate by changing the wettability. The technique, which involves a combination of very high nanoscale roughness and chemically coating the surface with molecules to optimise the effect, may be useful for microfluidic devices. [O][G][M][N][S] White-light LED street lights powered by solar energy are being introduced in Japan. The lamp incorporates a polycrystalline solar cell, ten 1 W LEDs and a rechargeable battery inside the pole. [O][P] LEDs use far less electricity and last much longer than conventional fluorescent and incandescent bulbs, but are not bright enough to replace the standard light bulb in most everyday applications. Research at Rensselaer Polytechnic has developed an omnidirectional reflector that reflects light at nearly 100 percent, up to twice as much as previous reflectors, and which could greatly increase use of LED lighting. It uses a thin triple-layer coating that consists of a semiconductor, a dielectric material, and a silver layer. [O][P] The new field of subwavelength nanostructures, in which light is sent through metal films perforated by holes with diameters much smaller than the wavelength of the light, could lead to more efficient solid-state lasers, LEDs, and other electronic components. It is possible that rectangular holes may be acting as waveguides. [O][J][N][T] A photonic crystal has periodic structure close to the wavelength of photons and this creates an optical bandgap just as in a crystalline semiconductor the relationship of the electron's wavelength to the crystal period creates an electronic bandgap. Kyoto University has created a true three-dimensional photonic crystal operating at a 1.55-micron wavelength, and also incorporated a light emitting layer in the centre of the crystal. Experiments with the new system confirm that 3-D photonic crystals do indeed closely resemble electronic semiconductors, including the ability to introduce defects anywhere in the photonic lattice, analogous to doping in a semiconductor. [O][J][M][N] Physicists in Japan have predicted theoretically that an optical equivalent of the Hall effect should exist and could be demonstrated by polarisation experiments in photonic crystals. [O][M] |
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| [I] IT, communications, networking and secure systems | |
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A group of physicists in the UK and US has built a device which they controversially claim generates radiation that falls off as the inverse of distance (1/r) instead of the normal inverse square law. Their "table-top synchrotron" is based on a model of pulsar radiation from a rapidly spinning neutron star and involves rotating a pattern of polarisation at faster than the speed of light. They believe that the device could be used as a new type of low-power or long-range radio transmitter. [I][O][P][R] American Airlines has demonstrated an in-flight cellular radio system that allows up to 15 passengers at a time to make and receive mobile phone calls in flight. Cellular phones connect to a "pico-cell" base station aboard the plane before being linked to a satellite. [I][A] Ultra-wide-band smartcard tickets could eliminate barriers in rail stations by allowing tickets to be checked remotely. They could also support links to other location-based travel services. [I][E][K] A service that mimics internet file-sharing networks to enable desktop computers to call conventional telephones could have a big impact on global telecommunications. [I] A wall covering that prevents Wi-Fi signals escaping from a building without blocking mobile phone signals has been developed by BAE SYSTEMS. It blocks Wi-Fi at 2.4, 5 and 6 gigahertz, while letting through GSM and 3G cellphone signals, plus emergency service calls. This prevents outsiders breaching a company's computer security by hacking in through an unprotected Wi-Fi laptop inside. The technology, called Frequency Selective Surface (FSS) sheeting, is also used to shroud radar antennas on warships or aircraft. [I][D][R] A malevolent program designed to remotely take control of handheld computers has been discovered by Russian anti-virus experts. The "Trojan horse" program, dubbed Brador, opens a backdoor into palmtop computers that run Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system. [I] The first virus (named Cabir) to spread through a cell phone network has been created as a proof of principle. [I] The US Department of Homeland Security’s Computer Emergency Readiness Team issued an unprecedented warning in July that the Microsoft Internet Explorer is so vulnerable to attack users should consider other browsers. In a method of attack identified in June, the computer operating system is fooled into giving the browser, and the Web pages it reads, the highest level of access. A rogue Web page could then put a malicious software program on the computer by exploiting the cross-domain security model. [I] A new ISO technical report on electronic storage provides a complete list of controls that an organisation needs to implement to safeguard trustworthiness and reliability of electronically stored information - including policies, security measures, procedures, technology requirements and audit trials. [I][K][W][X] |
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| [K] Knowledge, information and technology management | |
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The Technical University of Madrid has developed a search engine for finding open source software on the internet. The tool classifies code by its function rather than by its description and can pull together different code packages from different applications to meet users' requirements. [K][C][W] A collaboration between Siemens and a New York hospital is piloting a system in which patients wear wristbands with RFID tags enabling their medical records to be recovered wherever they might be in the hospital. Siemens is also developing a RFID watch that transmits information about a wearer's location and heart frequency. [K][H][I] A report by the House of Commons Committee on Science and Technology found that the average price of an academic journal in Britain rose by 58 percent between 1998 and 2003, while the retail price index rose by 11 percent and scientific output rose by 20 percent. Criticising some publishers for profiteering, the report strongly endorsed open access to scientific papers and has recommended that the UK government fund the establishment of an interlinked network of institutional repositories on which all research articles originating in the UK should be deposited and can be read for free. Around the world there are over 2,000 publishers in scientific, technological and medical publishing (STM), and together they publish 1.2 million articles a year in about 16,000 periodical journals. Less than 1 percent of STM publication is currently open access, according to the Public Library of Science. [K] |
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| [C] Computing, supercomputing, modelling and simulation | |
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The US army has commissioned a new supercomputer to model the behaviour of advanced materials and to simulate complex weapon systems. With a peak performance of 10 teraflops it will be the most powerful computer in the world using the Linux operating system. The US Navy has ordered an even faster supercomputer with a peak performance of 20 teraflops to model weather systems in order to produce detailed forecasts for navy ships. NASA is increasing its supercomputing power by an order of magnitude to model flight missions, climate research, and aerospace engineering. The NASA system will have 500 terabytes of storage and will use 10,240 Intel Itanium 2 processors. For even more power, DARPA is now aiming at a petaflop machine for defence research. [C][D] Two separate groups of researchers, at Duke University and at Harvard, have independently demonstrated how to connect quantum dots to form what may be the building blocks of a solid-state quantum computer. [C][J][T] Some sportspeople are more prone to injury than others, despite being fully fit. A new mathematical model of the body shows that these injury-prone athletes rely on a fixed combination of movements that they cannot easily modify. The discovery might help in spotting injury-prone people early on. [C][B][H] Simulating whether people can escape from a fire in a building, aircraft, train or other confined space involves a combination of CFD modelling of how a fire and smoke will spread and modelling how people will behave in each likely circumstance. Evacuation could be an important factor in the design of blended wing aircraft. [C][A][B][T][X] European and US scientists have developed and tested a computer modelling method for mapping the evolution of the influenza virus. The method could help understand how certain mutations in influenza and other viruses allow diseases to circumvent the human immune system. [C][D][H] An international consortium of scientists from Canada, Germany, UK and US has created the biggest and most detailed computer model of the universe ever made. The goal is to simulate on a supercomputer the evolution of the entire cosmos, from just after the Big Bang until the present. [C][F] |
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| [W] Whole life engineering, manufacture and testing | |
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A new software checker developed by NASA proved able to check hundreds of thousands of lines of code in 25 minutes in evaluation tests on software from previous space missions. [W][C][I] X-ray imaging systems have been largely confined to medical diagnostics, but increased understanding of x-ray sources and safety is now pushing x-ray automated optical imaging (AOI) into product-inspection, quality-control, and process-control systems. [W][J][M][R][T] As the technology becomes cheaper, condition monitoring is being applied more widely to give real-time information about a machine's performance and maintenance needs, and about mechanical structures. For example, the fall in the cost of the interrogation electronics means that fibre optic strain sensors are being applied in the marine industry for monitoring hulls and engines, and in wind turbines for monitoring critical conditions such as load, temperature and damage. Japan is constructing a countrywide network of fibre optic sensors to monitor buildings for earthquake damage. Cheap microwave technology developed for cellular radio means that microwave radar is affordable for condition monitoring of commercial plants, where other sensors are unsuitable because of high temperatures, oil and other contamination, or electromagnetic interference. [W][I][O][R][S][T] A report by the UK House of Commons Defence Committee concludes that most of the MOD's "smart acquisition" proposals set out in 1998 have not been implemented successfully, and that MOD procurement projects are still going seriously over their planned budget and timescale. [W][D][K] |
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| [X] Systems, complexity and risk | |
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An attack on key nodes of a system, such as the Internet or electricity grid, can cascade into a catastrophic failure. Research on complex systems at Max Planck suggests that this can be mitigated by shutting down selected peripheral nodes that handle only small amounts of the network's total load. [X][D] The specific errors and negligence that caused the largest power blackout in history on 14 August 2003, costing between US $4 billion and $6 billion, are now well documented in the report on the accident. However, such large blackouts are inevitable, the emergent property of a complex system that can only be prevented by radically altering the system. Research has shown that the number of large blackouts in the US is higher than one would expect from the frequency of small power cuts, if the distribution were Gaussian. In fact the frequency of blackouts as a function of their magnitude follows a power-law distribution, which is characteristic of a complex, chaotic system in which the interplay of the components leads to surprising outcomes. Other examples of complicated events that seem to occur with similar regularity are earthquakes, forest fires, and dam failures. Phenomena that fit such distributions tend to occur with remarkable consistency, and, as it happened, the 14 August blackout occurred uncannily on cue. [X][D][P][T] How to regulate synthetic biology to make it secure and safe is a critical and pressing challenge. Just as a circuit designer does not need to be an expert in silicon physics and manufacturing processes, the future biodesigner, using design automation systems tailored to the task of genetic engineering, will not need a detailed knowledge of biochemistry to effectively create complex biochemical machines, including potential pathogens, whether accidentally or deliberately. [X][C][D][G][W] |
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| [V] Virtuality and human-machine interface | |
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A German clothes manufacture has developed a jacket with built-in electronics for Bluetooth mobile telephony and an MP3 player. The electronics are an integral part of the clothing and are controlled by a textile keyboard incorporated on the sleeve. [V][I][K] A German company has developed a communications system that transmits data across the skin. One use is in safety systems. For example, a pair of safety goggles can send a signal to a corresponding electric drill to that the drill only switches on if the operator is wearing the protective goggles. [V][H][I] Noise cancellation conventionally works by using a second microphone to detect the background noise and then exploiting adaptive filtering to subtract this out. A more sophisticated approach developed at the University of Toronto for removing background noise from mobile phone conversations employs two microphones that, just like the two human ears, can identify and focus on the speaker's voice and then filter out other noises and deconstruct other conversations. [V][I][S] By using wave mechanics to analyse how local curvatures (bumps and dents) affect resonance frequencies in straight organ pipes, physicists at Kings College London have devised the most precise way yet of reproducing the natural resonance frequencies, or formants, of the human vocal tract. Their result substantially advances a previous analysis of organ pipes by Lord Rayleigh in 1878 and may lead to better speech recognition devices that can adapt to natural human speech styles. [V][H][M] A neural network that recognises phonemes has been used to generate an animated conversing face on a screen. This helps people with hearing difficulties converse over the telephone by being able to lip-reader the conversation visually. In a trial by the UK Royal National Institute for the Deaf, 84 percent of hard-of-hearing volunteers found the prototype system, which runs on a PC, helped them in deciphering pre-set sentences and taking part in real conversations. [V][I] Cinema film contains pigments that can create a limitless number of colour variations. However, TV sets combine discrete amounts of red, green, and blue light to create a more limited colour range. An Israeli company, in partnership with Philips, has developed a technology that adds two more primary colours, yellow and cyan. This enables the Philips rear-projection TV to produce more than a trillion colours. [V] Virtual reality is being used for therapy. Patients can get relief from pain or overcome their phobias by immersing themselves in computer-generated worlds. [V][B][H][T] A new virtual reality haptic technology uses air jets instead of gloves to give the user the sense of touching a virtual object. [V] |
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| [B] Brain research and human science | |
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MRI studies have shown that people with high IQ scores have significantly more grey matter in 24 specific regions of their brains. These regions are spread throughout the brain and are known to be related to memory, attention and language. [B][K] Experiments on rats suggest that social status may lead to rapid changes in the number of neurones in their hippocampus, a brain region implicated in learning and memory. Researchers at Princeton studied the brains of around 40 rats that had been left to form new social hierarchies in a semi-natural setting. The rats established their new pecking order within three days. Two weeks later, the high-status animals were found to have around 30 percent more neurones in their hippocampus than they had before. Neurones in the hippocampus are constantly recycled and their production can also be triggered by exercise and environmental enrichment. [B][X] A new study in male mice has found that chronic psychosocial stress from an environmental of constant conflict and defeat produces long term heart damage. The results suggest that people living or working in a constant-stress environment may be suffering long term cardiac damage, even though may seem to adapt to the stress. [B][H] Experiments involving military personnel exposed to stress during survival training show that stress appears to stimulate production of a hormone DHEA-S that may enhance memory, reduce depression and improve cognitive performance. The increase in the ratio of DHEA-S compared to the hormone cortisol during stress was significantly higher in subjects who reported fewer symptoms of dissociation and exhibited superior military performance under pressure. This may provide a way to predict how well individuals are equipped to cope with acute stress. DHEA-S might also be given to people before stressful experiences to help them cope better. In humans, levels of DHEA-S peak around the ages of 20-25 years, and then decline to 20 percent to 30 percent of the peak values at ages 70 to 80 years. [B][D][H] A landmark survey of 43093 non-institutionalised Americans over the age of 18 has estimated that 14.8 percent of US adults (30.8 million) meet standard diagnostic criteria for at least one of the seven major personality disorders (16.4m obsessive-compulsive, 9.2m paranoid, 7.6m antisocial, 6.5m schizoid, 4.9m avoidant, 3.8m histrionic, 1.0m dependent personality). With the exception of histrionic personality disorder, all the personality disorders assessed in the survey were associated with considerable emotional disability and impairment in social and occupational functioning. [B] Caffeine may excite the brain and improve alertness at the expense of shutting down some other brain processes, according to researchers in Italy and Ireland. They found that caffeine made it harder for people to recall a word that was on the "tip-of-their-tongue". The results suggest that caffeine may aid short-term memory when the information to be recalled is related to the current train of thought but may hinder short-term memory when it is unrelated. [B] Fatigue has been thought to be due to overworked muscles ceasing to perform properly. But a new study suggests that fatigue is generated in the mind and is a mechanism to protect muscles from damage. The finding could lead to treatments for conditions like chronic fatigue syndrome, or the development of performance-enhancing drugs. [B][H] Researchers believe they have discovered the biological cause of autism. Using fMRI they have found numerous abnormalities in the activity of brains of people with normal IQs who have autism. These abnormalities indicate a deficiency in the co-ordination among brain areas. The researchers believe that autism involves a system-wide "under-connection" that limits the co-ordination and integration among brain areas. This would explain why some people with autism have normal or even superior skills in some areas, while many other types of thinking are disordered. [B][H] Whilst fMRI and EEGs are powerful for studying activity in brain areas, they cannot see what is happening at the level of individual neurones. To overcome these limitations, a neuroscientist at Carnegie Mellon has created a transgenic mouse that couples green fluorescent protein with the gene c-fos that turns on when nerve cells are activated. Using this method, researchers can see specific neurones glow as they are activated by external stimuli such as sensory experience or drug treatment. [B][G][R] During prenatal development, nerves grow over amazingly long distances, progressing via intermediate destinations and then making connection to the right final target. Johns Hopkins researchers have found how a protein called nerve growth factor (NGF) from the final target supplants the attractiveness of protein from the intermediate sites (called NT-3 - neurotrophin-3), so that the nerve heads to its correct final destination and stops there. Other researchers have found that another family of molecules, FGF22 and its close relatives, appear to cause synapses to form in the brain when neurones are close to one another. [B][G] In a spinal chord injury, the trauma is exacerbated by a cascade of molecular events over the first few hours, which permanently worsen the paralysis. Researchers have discovered unexpectedly that ATP is a culprit. The release of high levels of ATP at the site of the injury over-stimulates healthy neurones in nearby regions of the spinal cord and causes them to die from metabolic stress. When ATP's effects on neurones was blocked, rats with damaged spinal cords recovered most of their function, walking and running and climbing nearly as well as healthy rats. [B][H] Japanese researchers have found that intravenous injection of human immune cells, called CD34+ cells, from umbilical cord blood, into mice after stroke, greatly enhances new blood vessel growth and the restoration of nerves in the stroke-damage region. The research provides direct evidence that new blood vessel growth is essential for repairing stroke damage. [B][H] |
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| [H] Healthcare and medicine | |
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Glaucoma is the most important cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. It can be cured by surgery, but this is often unsuccessful because of scarring. UK researchers have now found a drug that prevents this scarring. In animal tests the drug increased the success rate of the surgery from 30 percent to 80 percent. [H] A long-term study involving male Wistar rats, which are prone to obesity, has found that a high protein diet with a protein intake of three times the normal requirement led to 18 percent lower weight. Importantly, there were no adverse effects on the renal and hepatic functions, on oxidative stress, or on the calcium balance. Exchanging carbohydrates for proteins was beneficial for body composition, basal triglycerides, glucose, leptin, and insulin plasma concentrations. Though the results do not resolve the concerns over the long term safety of the Atkins diet for humans, they support the case for using a high protein diet to prevent obesity. [H] To pump blood, the individual muscle cells in the heart must contract in synchrony. Otherwise the heart just vibrates uselessly (fibrillation) leading quickly to death. People who have already had a heart attack are prone to fibrillation because scar tissue inside their heart has a higher electrical resistance. Rotating electrical waves can develop around these areas and disrupt the heart's normal electrical activity. Roughly 175,000 people around the world have a defibrillator fitted inside their chest every year, but these are bulky to implant and the large electric shock they deliver to the heart is very unpleasant. An electrophysiologist at Case Western Reserve University has now shown theoretically and experimentally that by timing the shock so that it arrives just as the wave is passing around the scar tissue, it is possible to dislodge and quench the fibrillation with a very much smaller shock. [H] Precise MRI guidance of surgical instruments would improve laparoscopic, minimally invasive and ablative surgical techniques, and MRI is now regarded as the imaging modality of choice for diagnosing many cancers, diseases of the brain, head and neck, plus many cardiovascular conditions. Unfortunately, MRI was thought to be unsafe for patients with implanted heart assist devices, such as pacemakers and defibrillators. However, scientists at Johns Hopkins have now shown, using animal and laboratory studies, that most modern devices are safe and perform well in both standard MRI scans and when scans are performed using electromagnetic fields at maximum strength. [H][R][S] Radiofrequency ablation (RFA), the use of electrodes to heat and destroy abnormal tissue, is a promising technique to safely and effectively treat patients with inoperable lung tumours, according to Italian researchers. In a study on 18 patients with lung tumours ineligible for surgery, forty nodules were treated by lung RFA. Upon regular follow-up, no relapse was detected in 17 or the 18 patients. [H] A vaccine against malignant melanoma is undergoing large scale trials in Australia and Britain. Melanoma cells produce a characteristic protein, known as NY-ESO-1. Unfortunately the immune system normally does not learn to recognise this protein until it is too late. The new vaccine is essentially a synthetic form of the NY-ESO-1 protein that teaches the immune system to look for tumours earlier. [H] Mayo Clinic and British researchers have developed a promising new approach to cancer vaccines. This purposely kills healthy skin cells to target the immune system against tumours. Using mice, they tested the approach on skin cells called melanocytes that are involved in malignant melanoma. They created a molecular scout to home in on and kill some of the melanocytes, and to this they attached an unusual protein, called heat shock protein 70, or hsp70, which in the presence of dying cells gives a strong danger-signal to the immune system. This prompted a killer T cell response so strong that it eradicated all of the tumour cells in the mice. The immune system also released regulatory T cells which prevented an autoimmune response. This is very significant because a key problem in producing vaccines against cancer has been that the vaccines generally trigger a highly damaging auto-immune attack on healthy cells rather than just against the cancer cells. [H] Natural killer T (NKT) cells maintain the immune system's balance between destruction of foreign cells and tolerance of own tissue. Being able to regulate NKT production could provide a treatment for type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases. As a step towards this, researchers have found a way to boost NKT production by reprogramming cells in the immune system. [H][G] A protein called nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kB) plays a central role in initiating inflammation. Curbing its activity might provide a way to treat autoimmune diseases and also cancer, but unfortunately this could be lethal since NF-kB is a vital component of most cells in the body. Researchers at the Salk Institute have now shown that another protein, ELKS, is crucial in inducing NF-kB to initiate inflammation and may be a feasible target for drugs. [H][G] In the US, the direct and indirect costs of caring for individuals with Alzheimer's disease have reached at least $100 billion, according to estimates used by the Alzheimer's Association and the National Institute of Ageing. The rate of US Medicare beneficiaries identified as having Alzheimer's disease rose 250 percent during the 1990s. The trend threatens to bankrupt Medicare and Medicaid. Another study has estimated that the cost across Europe is similar. This makes it very urgent to do more research to find better ways to care for Alzheimer's patients affordably and ways to prevent, diagnose and treat the disease in its early stages. [H][B] Immune therapy is offering hope for Alzheimer's disease. Researchers at the University of California injected mice with antibodies against the protein, Ab peptide, that forms the toxic beta-amyloid plaque in Alzheimer's. They found the Ab antibodies cleared the Ab peptide and this was followed by clearing of the tau protein that makes up the "neurofibrillary tangles" inside the cells. Significantly, when the immune therapy was discontinued the tau pathology re-emerged after the Ab pathology. This supports the "amyloid cascade hypothesis" that accumulation of amyloid plaque causes the tau tangles to form inside the cells leading to cell death. The results suggest that immune therapy against Ab peptide may be able to halt Alzheimer's in humans if the disease can be diagnosed before the tau tangles become too advanced. Combined immune therapy targeted at both the Ab peptide and the tau tangles might be effective in treating more advanced stages of Alzheimer's. Imaging techniques such as PET and MRI are near to becoming useful in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease earlier and distinguishing it from other types of dementia. [H][B][G][R] A second case of new variant CJD thought to be associated with blood transfusion has been reported in the UK. Until now all cases of vCJD have been people with prion protein genotype MM. However, the new case is from the type MV group which had been thought to be immune to vCJD. In the UK, 42 percent of the population is type MM, 47 percent type MV, and 11 percent type VV. [H][B] |
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| [G] Genomics, biotechnology and bioinformatics | |
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Researchers at UCSF have created a synthetic prion by misfolding a large fragment of a harmless normal prion protein. The synthetic prion was injected into the brains of mice genetically engineered to incubate the prion rapidly. The mice developed prion-disease a year later. Brain tissue from the mice was then injected into wild mice, and these mice then developed prion disease in half a year. This is an important result because it provides very strong evidence that infectious prions are just misfolded proteins and do not involve any DNA or RNA. The ability to create synthetic infectious prions in the test tube will now enable scientists to explore the mechanism by which a protein can spontaneously fold into a shape that causes disease. Other neurodegenerative diseases that involve protein misprocessing (though not necessarily misfolding) include Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. [G][B][H] Gene therapy might be used to protect vulnerable people against the effects of heart attacks and strokes. Researchers modified an adeno-associated virus to give cells an extra copy of the HO-1 gene, which is triggered by oxygen starvation to produce a protective protein, heme oxygenase-1. Tests on rats showed that, by greatly accelerating the normal production of HO-1 protein, the extra gene dramatically improved the survival of heart, liver and muscle tissue when their blood supply was cut off for up to an hour. Recent results also show it provides protection to brain cells. [G][B][H] Cancer arises from gene mutations, and tumour growth involves continuing, multiple mutations. However, how malignancy progresses is also affected by epigenetic factors, such as methylation, that can determine if a gene is silent or active. Researchers at the Whitehead Institute have successfully cloned mice from the nucleus of an advanced malignant melanoma cell. The mice were born entirely healthy, but showed a strong propensity to develop melanoma quickly. This result resolves an important biological question, showing that the epigenetic elements of cancer are reversible, so that the mice were born healthy, but the genetic elements are not, so that the mice inherited the propensity to malignancy. This means that drugs that target the cancer epigenome may be able to treat diverse cancers. [G][H] Scientists at the Pacific Northwest Research Institute in Seattle have found evidence for a DNA structure characteristic of metastasis in normal tissues from prostates with metastasising tumours. This suggests that the DNA structures for metastasis are already present in seemingly normal cells that are destined to become metastatic tumours, rather than arising from rare mutations in primary tumours, as widely believed. Being able to diagnose in advance whether a tumour will metastasise would be very valuable. [G][H] Because all human cells carry proteins that identify them as coming from a particular person, even embryonic stem cells could be rejected if their identifying proteins, or antigens, do not exactly match the recipient's. Johns Hopkins scientists have now shown that embryonic stem cells can be induced to become antigen presenting cells, able to re-train the recipient's immune system not to reject the embryonic stem cells. [G][H] Transposons are repeated DNA sequences that move through the genome. They constitute 45 percent of the genetic material of the human genome. Spanish researchers have discovered that transposons can silence the genes adjacent to them by inducing a molecule called antisense RNA that is complementary to the normal messenger RNA and combines with it to obstruct protein synthesis. This may be a mechanism that allow rapid evolutionary adaptation. [G] By transplanting primordial germ cells (PCGs) from rainbow trout into young male masu salmon, Japanese researchers have made the male salmon produce rainbow trout sperm. When used to fertilise trout eggs, the sperm produced perfectly healthy young trout. If the technique can be shown to also work for eggs as well as sperm, then PGCs may offer a way to preserve endangered species, or even to resurrect extinct ones. [G][E] A tissue bank that will store genetic material from thousands of endangered animals has been set up in the UK. [G][E] Scientists have identified a gene, called MAX3, that controls the number of side shoots that plants develop. MAX3 probably functions to inhibit branching as the main stem grows. It could potentially improve crop yields. Trees with fewer branches would yield better quality timber, and cereal crops might produce more nourishing ears if they had fewer wasteful side sprouts. [G][E] |
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| [N] Nanotechnology and molecular technology | |
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Three factors, low Reynolds number, ubiquitous Brownian motion and strong surface forces, make designing nanoscale machines very challenging, if they are to operate at ambient temperatures in the presence of water. Living cells are highly optimised by evolution for this nano-environment. Copying nature through biomimetic nanotechnology, using soft materials and biological design paradigms, could prove a good route to radical nanotech innovations. [N][G][T] The UK Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering have published a report on the safety of nanomaterials. They conclude that most nanotechnology poses no risk, but they recommend that nanoparticles and nanotubes should be treated as new chemicals under existing UK and European legislation. This allows for more appropriate safety tests and labelling measures. The report also recommends that the release of large quantities of nanoparticles for the cleaning up of soils should be prohibited until it is shown that the net benefits exceed the risks. [N][E][G][H] Nanocrystalline metals are much stronger than normal metals. US researchers have confirmed the theoretical explanation that the prominent method of deformation in nanocrystalline metals is not by movement of dislocations but by sliding of grain boundaries past one another, allowing the grains to rotate and fit together in new ways. [N][M] Researchers have found that by using different substrates they can control the crystal lattice direction in which semiconductor nanowires grow. They showed the method works for both gallium phosphide (GaP) and zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires. Being able to control nanowire growth direction means that anisotropic parameters, such as thermal and electrical conductivity, index of refraction, piezoelectric polarisation and band gap, may be used to tune the physical properties of nanowires made from a given material. [N][J][M][S] Nanocrystals of similar size can self-assemble into 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional superlattices whose properties depend on the inter-nanocrystal coupling as well as on the nanocrystals themselves. Nano-crystal layers on chip have many potential electronic and photonic applications. Researchers have found that a simple annealing treatment allows the electrical properties of an array of metal nanocrystals to be altered from insulating to near-metallic behaviour as the anneal temperature is increased up to 150 degrees C. They believe this provides a simple route to manipulate inter-nanocrystal coupling on chip. [N][J][M][O] |
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| [J] Microelectronics, MEMS and spintronics | |
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Photocurable nanoimprint lithography (P-NIL) can produce lines of polymer resist just 7 nm wide with a pitch (or pattern repeat) of only 14 nm. The technique also produced reliable results over the whole area of a 4 inch wafer, according to researchers at Princeton. [J][N] NIST and IBM have developed a quick and cheap method to measure the elastic modulus of ultra-thin films of polymers, and other materials, with thicknesses down to 5 nm. Measuring nanomechanical properties is important in using very thin films in nanoimprint lithography, in NEMS and MEMS, and in next-generation chips. [J][M][N][S] A UCLA team has succeeded in flipping the spin of a single electron in a transistor on an ordinary commercial silicon chip, and in detecting the current changes when the electron flips. The result suggests that silicon technology might one day be used to make quantum supercomputers. [J][C] Researchers at the University of Michigan have built a tiny silicon-compatible slot-antenna that is sufficiently power efficient and a MEMS frequency resonator that is sufficiently accurate that all the components for a wireless transceiver can now be put on a single chip. This could, for example, enable cell phones to be made almost as small as an earpiece. The technology is being developed by the researchers for use in environmental sensors. [J][I][S] |
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| [F] Fundamental science | |
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The non-zero mass of the neutrino and the accelerating expansion of the universe may be linked, according to physicists at the University of Washington. In their radical new theory, neutrinos are influenced by a new force. This force results from the neutrinos' interactions with a postulated subatomic particle, which they have called the "acceleron", and which has never been detected because it has essentially zero interaction with normal matter. Dark energy is increasing because the expansion of the universe is pulling the neutrinos apart against the force resulting from their interactions with accelerons. This creates a tension like that in a stretched rubber band, and this energy gives the neutrinos mass. The mass may change depending on the medium through which a neutrino is passing, and this may provide a way to test the new theory. Experiments to measure neutrino oscillations and the masses of the three types of neutrinos have been giving conflicting results round the world. According to the new theory, this could arise because the neutrinos detected in different part of the world travel paths that contain different combinations of air and rock. [F] Stephen Hawking has resolved the "information paradox" of black holes by showing that black holes do not have an event horizon from which nothing can every escape. They instead have an "apparent horizon". This means that information is preserved in black holes and can eventually escape back out again. It also means that there is no possibility, even theoretically, of using black holes to travel to other universes. [F] Using 3000 recently discovered quasars as searchlights on the distant universe, astronomers have mapped the distribution of gas between galaxies with unprecedented precision, allowing the most precise determination so far of the age of the universe as 13.4 to 13.8 billion years. The distribution of gas is consistent with the inflation model that the infant universe underwent a brief but enormous growth spurt. This locked in and magnified subatomic-scale fluctuations to astronomical-sized wrinkles that seeded the clusters of galaxies seen today. [F] It is believed that the universe began with equal amounts of matter and antimatter. However, all observations indicate that we now live in a universe made only of matter. Scientists have searched for asymmetries between matter and antimatter that may explain why the antimatter has disappeared. An international team from 75 institutions has now observed a clear, strong signal for asymmetrical behaviour resulting from direct charge-parity (CP) violation. Sifting through the decays of more than 200 million pairs of B and anti-B mesons, they found 910 examples of the B meson decaying to a kaon and a pion, but only 696 examples for the anti-B mesons. This preference for the B meson over the anti-B meson is a huge asymmetry compared to a similar asymmetry observed in kaons at just 4 parts in a million. [F] Physicists in Austria have found strong evidence for superfluidity in an ultracold gas of fermionic atoms. By observing which RF wavelengths were absorbed by the system, they were able to calculate the binding energy of the Fermi-pairs, which shows up as a "pairing gap" in the spectra. The dependence of this energy gap on temperature agreed with theoretical predictions. Studying the Cooper-pairing process in a gas of fermionic atoms may help in understanding high-temperature superconductivity and systems as diverse and exotic as neutron stars, atomic nuclei and quark-gluon plasmas. [F][M] |
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| [T] Technology reviews | |
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The European Commission has published guidelines on securing Europe’s leading role in research and technological development. They recommend increasing EU funding to around 10 billion euros a year over the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), reducing the number of research priorities, and focusing future European efforts on key topics, including security and space. [T][A][D][K] The latest McKinsey Quarterly survey of some 5,500 senior corporate leaders around the world shows that executives from a wide range of industries and regions remain broadly positive about the global economy. Of the respondents from large companies, 31 percent said their company is investing in R&D facilities in China and 27 percent in India. Company investment in IT is also expected to increase. [T][I][K] |
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