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Top Stories in Science
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January 2004 Issue |
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| [D] Defence and security |  |
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If the world faces a potential pandemic from influenza it will be important to have enough vaccine. Influenza mutates rapidly and it is necessary each year to produce a new vaccine to combat the latest flu variants. However, sometimes a component for the seed vaccine relating to a dangerous strain is not available in time - it takes up to 6 months to grow the "seed vaccine" in hens eggs in order to produce enough vaccine doses for the population. Using reverse genetics should enable the seed vaccine to be produced more quickly and flexibly, and the vaccine could be mass-produced more rapidly using mammalian cell cultures instead of eggs. [D][G][H] An anti-blood-clotting protein rNAPc2 may provide a treatment for Ebola. US Army researchers found that giving monkeys infected with Ebola a shot of rNAPc2 saved a third of their lives - possibly by giving their immune system enough time to fight back against the virus. This is the first time a treatment for Ebola has been successful in primates. [D][H] The SARS virus looks like a dangerous genetic merger of bird and mammal viruses, say researchers in Canada. Their finding is based on a genetic analysis of the coronavirus that causes the disease and others that are closely related. Monkeypox is another disease that could adapt to human hosts and create an epidemic, particularly as general immunity to smallpox is declining now that people are no long vaccinated against it. Monkeypox is endemic in parts of Africa, but in 2003 it spread to the US with 81 cases reported in six US states. There are fears that monkeypox could become endemic in the US, like West Nile Virus. [D][G][H][X] Researchers have unintentionally created a super-virulent strain of tuberculosis. They disabled a collection of genes that act as a virulence factor helping the organism invade cells. They expected this to make the pathogen less virulent, but surprisingly it turned out to have the opposite effect. Tuberculosis now infects one-third of the world's population and kills 2 million people per year. According to the World Health Organisation, which in 1993 declared TB a global emergency, an estimated 36 million people could die of TB by 2020 if the disease is not controlled. [D][G][H][X] Giant rats in Sub-Saharan Africa have been successfully used to detect land mines by their odour, and are being trained to sniff out tuberculosis in humans. Preliminary tests suggest the rats could test as many as 150 saliva samples for TB in just 30 minutes. By contrast, human technicians using a microscope can test only 20 samples a day. [D][G][H][S] Because some stem cells can make fresh bone, muscle or blood, doctors hope to use them to repair tissues. But they are difficult to store and transport in a viable state. Researchers are honing a technique to create dried stem cells that can be revived just by adding water. This could enable stem cell therapies to be used on the battlefield and in remote regions. [D][G][H] The US Department of Homeland Security is planning to adapt military technology to equip US airliners with countermeasures to defend against heat seeking missiles. There are an estimated 150,000 shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile weapons circulating worldwide, and there have been 35 attacks on civilian aircraft in the last 25 years, with 500 fatalities. [D][A][R] The UK Government Chief Scientific Advisor has said that climate change is a far greater threat to the world than international terrorism and has publicly criticised President Bush for failing to reduce greenhouse emissions in the US. The UK, he said, is responsible for about 2% of the world's emissions while the US, with just 4% of the world's population, produces more than 20%. [D][E][P][X] A bomb-blast simulator at the University of California will enable the effects of blast to be measured experimentally without needing an explosion. The facility will recreate the speed and force of explosive shock waves through servo-controlled hydraulic actuators. The aim is to allow much quicker and more reproducible testing of many different structures and materials in order to produce much better computer simulations for designing bomb-resistance. [D][C][M] Minefield safety shoes that can enable military and civilian personnel to cross minefields without triggering pressure sensitive fuses have passed initial trials. They consist of pneumatic platforms that can be easily attached to a wearer's boots, redistributing body weight and decreasing the pressure exerted at any point on the ground. [D][M] |
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| [A] Aeronautics and space | |
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Aircraft could change as much in the 21st century as they have in the past 100 years. The Pentagon estimates that by 2020 one-third of America's combat planes will be robotic. By 2030, military UAVs might be able to optimise their shape for different roles by “morphing” using stretchy skins and special “memory” materials. They may be built using self-repairing materials capable of detecting flaws, and sealing holes during flight. Also by 2030, UAVs may be used routinely to transport soldiers, and this will spur the technology and confidence for commercial airliners to also become pilotless. However, the biggest breakthrough in civil aviation would be the personal "air car", the aerial equivalent of the motor car. This will require vertical take-off and landing, and for safety "air cars" may need to be pilotless and controlled using far more sophisticated air-traffic control systems than exist today. [A][D][M][R][T][U] As the aviation industry looks towards its second century, it will have to confront challenges at least as daunting as those faced by the Wright brothers a hundred years ago. Growth in air travel is expected to soar over the next 30 years and beyond, and the industry may struggle to keep pace with this growth and to achieve the necessary reductions in noise and emissions. Innovative new technologies may come to the rescue, but they need to be affordable. [A][E][M][P][T] A twin-deck passenger-carrying blended-wing body (BWB) would seat 650-900 people, and is predicted to need around 20 percent less fuel than an equivalent conventional aircraft because of its highly efficient aerodynamics, reduced weight and the need for fewer less powerful engines. Critical issues identified so far include: the pressurisation of non-tubular passenger cabins, flight-control characteristics and engine/airframe integration; plus how passengers would respond to fewer windows and the use of display screens to provide a view of the outside. [A][E][M][P][T][V] Boeing's Canard Rotor/Wing (CRW) concept demonstrator has completed its first hover flight. Under joint development by Boeing and DARPA, the CRW combines the speed and range of a fixed-wing aircraft with the flexibility of rotary-wing flight. The CRW's rotor is designed not only to spin during vertical takeoffs and landings but also to convert to a fixed wing for high-speed cruise. [A][D] Around 1 percent of long-haul travellers develop potentially-dangerous blood clots as a result of their flight according to a study by New Zealand researchers. They tested 878 passengers before and after they undertook lengthy flights. 112 passengers showed increases in D-dimer concentrations indicative of blood clotting, and of these nine had deep vein thromboses detected by ultrasound scans. Six of the nine patients had pre-existing risk factors that made them more likely to have clots. A German study of 964 passengers returning from long-haul flights and 1,213 control participants who did not fly found that 27 passengers had venous thrombosis (2.8 percent) compared with only 12 of the controls (1.0 percent). [A][H] The aviators Brian Jones and Bertrand Piccard, who in 1999 became the first to circumnavigate the globe in a balloon, are planning to repeat the journey in a solar-powered aeroplane that will use batteries to fly at night. A feasibility study has confirmed the viability of the Solar Impulse project and experts are now preparing to design the craft for launch some time in 2006. [A][D][M][P][U] The first piloted and rocket-powered craft to have been developed by a private company has made its maiden flight, breaking the sound barrier. The craft, called Space Ship One (SS1), aims to win the $10 million X Prize for the first private space flight. For this, the craft must reach an altitude of 100 km with three people on board, and then repeat the process within two weeks. [A][M][P] The New Scientist's diary of major events in space and cosmology in 2003 highlights: the Shuttle disaster and its aftermath; the evidence for the existence of dark energy; the probability that vast numbers of stars have solar systems that could support life; the launch of NASA's infrared space telescope - the last of its great observatories; the successful launch of China's first astronaut in space; and the new ventures to Mars, taking advantage of Mars's closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years. [A][F][T] NASA's space shuttle fleet is to be fitted with wing sensors to detect any impact damage caused by launch debris or orbiting space junk. [A][S] The NASA probe, Stardust, has achieved a successful fly-by of Comet Wild-2, collecting samples from the comet's halo of particles and rocks for return to Earth in two years time. It is hoped that their analysis will reveal much about comets and the earliest history of the Solar System. [A][F] The NASA rover Spirit made a perfect touchdown on the surface of Mars on 4 January 2004. Learning from the ill-fated 1998 Mars Polar Lander and Mars Observer missions, NASA made many changes for the Spirit landing, including the constant stream of data sent back by Spirit during entry and landing. The lack of such data made it impossible to be sure of the cause of the 1998 failures, as has been the case in determining what has happened to the Beagle 2 lander. Steering rockets designed to compensate for strong winds during the descent may have made a crucial difference in the Spirit mission's success. Data showed that the rockets did fire, indicating that the wind may have been strong enough to cause a landing failure without the rockets. [A][U] NASA's rover Spirit has landed in a huge crater on Mars called the Gusev Crater, which planetary scientists think might once have held a lake. A channel resembling a dry river valley leads into Gusev, and may have been carved by flowing water billions of years ago. The final orbit of the ESA Mars Express will bring it to within 300 km of the surface of Mars, from where it will also search for signs of frozen water beneath the Martian soil. [A][R][U] Space technology is finding applications in other extreme environments including mining, particularly exploiting sensors, robotics and materials technologies. [A][M][S][T][U] |
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| [U] Unmanned vehicles and robotics | |
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Scientists at CSIRO have developed the machine intelligence and vision system for an autonomous helicopter that makes it possible for fleets of small drone helicopters to do jobs now done by conventional aircraft, including inspection, search and traffic surveillance. [U][A][R][S] Georgia Tech researchers are using automated analysis to study animal movement and social behaviour in the expectation that this can be transferred into robots to improve their locomotion. [U][R] A new generation of active orthotic devices, capable of augmenting or replacing lost muscle function, is being developed by American start-up companies. These devices use an assortment of complex computer and mechanical technology to help patients get around after a stroke or orthopaedic surgery. They are being made possible by the falling prices and improving performance of robotics, sensors, computer control systems and battery technology. [U][H][T][V] |
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| [P] Propulsion and energy | |
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The US Navy is interested in using bacteria to produce missile propellant more cheaply. Genetically engineered microbes are able to convert certain types of sugars into butanetriol, which is used to produce the propellant BTTN (butanetriol trinitrate). [P][D][G] Los Alamos has developed a plasma combustion technique that could provide much higher combustion efficiencies and lower emissions. Applying an electrical voltage to the gaseous-phase fuel stream prior to combustion turns the fuel into a plasma. This cracks the fuel into smaller hydrocarbon molecules that burn more efficiently. The technique has so far worked well with propane fuel, and should also work on gasoline and diesel fuels. [P][E] An international research programme has shown that it is technically feasible to recover gas from gas hydrates on the ocean floor. Test drilling at a site in the Canadian Arctic indicates that gas hydrates are much more permeable and conducive to flow from pressure stimulation than previously thought. In one test, the gas production rates were substantially enhanced by artificially fracturing the reservoir. [P][E] Experiments to synthesise compounds of hydrogen and water, hydrogen and methane, and hydrogen and octane at very high pressures have produced hydrogen clathrate hydrate. The compound remains stable at atmospheric pressure and at liquid nitrogen temperature (77 degrees K). Therefore this might provide a much easier way to store hydrogen fuel than as a compressed gas or as liquid hydrogen, which boils at 20 degrees K. The challenge is to find a way to produce the compound cheaply and in very large quantities. [P][M] Dutch scientists have shown by computer simulation that with appropriate technical measures it is feasible to replace a large fraction of conventional generation with wind power without undermining the stability of the electricity grid. [P][C] Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have developed a system where a small microgrid network of local generators can reliably disconnect from the rest of the power supply, enabling locations where electricity is critical to stay in operation during a major blackout. [P][X] |
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| [M] Materials, structures and surfaces | |
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The high superconducting transition temperature (25K) and relative cheapness of magnesium dibromide (MgB2) gives it huge potential to replace niobium alloys in superconducting magnets. Unfortunately, however, its current carrying capacity has not been high enough. Now, Los Alamos has developed a new way to make MgB2 wires using hot isostatic pressing to increase the current carrying capacity by 45 percent. The processing reduces the porosity of the wire and increases beneficial structural defects. [M][P] Physicists at the University of Tokyo have discovered a new superconductor made of potassium, osmium and oxygen. The material has a superconducting transition temperature of 9.6 K, remains a superconductor in high magnetic fields, and is the second superconductor with a so-called pyrochlore structure to be discovered by the group. [M][P] The US DOD expects to make the light armoured vehicle's replacement lighter, tougher, and smarter, through the use of new composites and nanotechnology. [M][D][N] Scientists have developed biodegradable polymer beads that can mimic the ability of white blood cells (leukocytes) to target inflamed blood vessel walls and deliver precise doses of medication. In inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, heart disease or inflammatory bowel disease, leukocytes accumulate in areas where they are not needed and cause or progressively worsen the disease. The hope is that, by biodegrading quickly, the beads can deliver medication only where it is needed and not cause clogging. [M][H] A new coating made of a carpet of nanoscale zinc oxide columns can be switched from being highly water-repellent (super-hydrophobic) to a water-wettable form by exposing it to ultraviolet light. The radiation it thought to trigger a chemical process that makes water 'stick' to the column surfaces. In the dark, oxygen atoms from the surrounding air plug the sticky sites, switching the surface back to the water repellent form. One application may be for making programmable lab-on-a-chip circuits. [M][D][J][N][S] Further evidence that nanoscale surfaces can improve the longevity of implants has come from research at Purdue which has found that carbon nanofibre-reinforced plastic composites not only adhere strongly to neural and bone cells but also slow the growth of cells that can coat implants with undesirable tissue. For neural implants the materials can promote the interactions with neurones that are needed for successful neural probes. [M][B][H][N][V] Mussels produce a powerful glue to maintain their grip on whatever surface they call home. Research at Purdue has identified how the glue works. The glue, or a synthetic version, would be valuable to surgeons - it is compatible with biological tissue, and forms a strong bond in wet conditions. Another objective is to find better ways to prevent mussels fouling ships' hulls. [M][E][H] |
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| [E] Environment, transport and marine | |
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With the Kyoto agreement now unlikely to be ratified by sufficient nations to come into effect, there is growing interest in an alternative approach called "contraction and convergence" (C&C). Under the C&C proposals, national emissions must converge year by year towards some agreed target based upon each country's population, with Europe and particularly the US needing to make the biggest cuts in their current emissions of carbon dioxide. There is an emerging consensus that warming in excess of 2 degrees C above pre-industrial levels is dangerous for the world's future; so far temperatures have risen by 0.6 degrees C. [E][D] Recent climate model predictions for Australia, which did not endorse the Kyoto agreement, suggest temperatures in Australia will rise 6 degrees C by 2070 on present trends. [E][C] Results from a climate model now add evidence that extreme temperatures in Europe are set to rise, and that the very hot summer of 2003 is part of the trend. [E][C] Statistical models of climate change indicate that global warming could drive a quarter of land animals and plants to the edge of extinction by 2050. Scientists studied six regions around the world representing 20 percent of the planet's land area and used computer models to project the future distributions of 1,103 animal and plant species. Three different climate change scenarios were considered – minimal, mid-range and maximum, as was the ability of some species to successfully "disperse," or move to a different area. The results showed that in the worst case scenario, between a third to a half of land animal and plant species will face extermination. The United Nations says the prospect of mass extinctions also threatens the billions of people who rely on Nature for their survival. [E][C][D][P][X] Scientists are trying to come up with radical ideas to combat global climate. These include: ways to sequester carbon dioxide; modifying the albedo of clouds and other surfaces to increase reflection of the Sun's energy; climate design for example by long-term management of carbon for photosynthesis, or by glaciation control; reducing the impact of climate change, includes stabilising ocean currents by river deviation, and providing large-scale migration corridors for wildlife. [E][D][P][X] NASA computer simulations suggests that black soot may be responsible for 25 percent of observed global warming over the past century. The emissions of black soot alter the way sunlight reflects off snow. The NASA scientists say that technology is within reach that could greatly reduce soot emissions, restoring snow albedo values to near-pristine values, while having multiple other benefits for climate, human health, agricultural productivity, and environmental aesthetics. [E] The most striking evidence of climate change has appeared in the Arctic over the past three decades. The changes in the Arctic are likely to have profound and mostly negative consequences for the weather and economy in the continental US and Europe. The US NSF is leading a multiagency initiative to understand the full scope of the changes. [E][T][X] Despite the early loss of one of its lasers, the NASA IceSat is providing excellent maps of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets in remarkable detail, down to the last ice crevasse. These ice sheets together cover 10 percent of the world's landmass and making high resolution measurements of their height and topography and how this is changing is important for predicting how much sea level is likely to rise in the next decades. Satellite data shows that one of the most important Greenland glaciers, which has appeared to be stable, has started to shrink rapidly since 1993. The glacier is one of the major drainage outlets of Greenland's interior ice sheet. In Antarctica the IceSat data is showing a complex picture: some ice streams are thickening and others are thinning; some are flowing faster than before, and others are slowing down. [E][A][R] Tropical ocean waters have become dramatically saltier over the past 40 years, while oceans closer to Earth's poles have become fresher. This trend appears to have accelerated since 1990. The analysis indicates that fresh water is being lost from the low latitudes by increased evaporation and added at high latitudes at a pace exceeding the ocean circulation's ability to compensate. These large-scale, relatively rapid oceanic changes increase concern that global warming and climate changes threaten to disrupt the global ocean circulation (Ocean Conveyor). [E][X] A study has shown that marine life around the world is surprisingly dependent on a single ocean circulation pattern in the Southern Hemisphere where nutrient-rich water rises from the deep and spreads across the seas. The results suggest that ocean life may be more sensitive to climate change than previously believed because most global warming predictions indicate that major ocean circulation patterns will change. [E][X] As manufacturers produce increasingly energy-efficient goods to protect the climate, people are simply buying more of them - wiping out green benefits. The increase in single-person households is making this worse. While recycling does help the environment, much greater benefit can be achieved by using water wisely, walking, cycling or taking public transport instead of driving, and turning off electricity. [E][P] US scientists have decoded and analysed the genome of the bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens, which could help clear up radioactive waste and possibly even generate electricity. Geobacter species can precipitate a wide range of radionuclides and metals (including uranium, technetium and chromium) from groundwater, preventing them from migrating to wells or rivers where they may pose a risk to humans and the environment. Its ability to manipulate electrons in metals could form the basis of a bio-battery, the US Energy Department says. [E][D][G][P] Nanoparticle pollutants are known to cause lung damage in susceptible patients, and are implicated in cardiovascular disease. Experiments on rats and humans have now discovered they can penetrate further into the body including into the brain, with unknown results. [E][B][H][N] |
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| [R] Remote sensing and sensor systems | |
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A US university spinout company has begun commercial production of a 3-dimensional, forward-looking sonar for marine navigation. It has a range of 1,000 feet, a 90 degree field of view, and a refresh rate of just two seconds to enable marine vessels to avoid collisions with submerged hazards such as submerged shipping containers, whales, coral reefs, buoys, rocks and coastal ledges. [R][E] National weather services provide forecasts on a grid of tens to hundreds of kilometres. However, the weather can change over short distances. In cities, the local weather is influenced by large buildings creating turbulence, by aerosol emission nucleating rainfall downwind and by heating effects from building and asphalt roads. Many businesses depend critically on the local weather and need higher resolution forecasts. These businesses include airlines, transport operators, utilities, farmers, emergency services, construction, media and sports. High density sensor networks, phased-array radar and new weather satellites are increasingly able to provide the high resolution input data that is needed. And, new weather models coupled with advanced computing and decision support are enabling this data to be turned into precise timely advice to users. [R][C][D][E][I][K][T] NASA's new infra-red space telescope is revealing objects that are obscured in visible light by cosmic dust clouds, such as the stellar nursery in the Elephant's Trunk nebula. [R][A] RFID tags are being incorporated into casino chips to protect against counterfeiting and theft. The tags will also enable casinos to check that big winners are not cheating, and to identify and pamper lucrative "high rollers". There have also been controversial proposals to incorporate tags in banknotes that can only be read from a few millimetres away, allowing banks and stores to check the validity of notes without letting snoopers and thieves spy on the contents of the wallets of passers-by. [R][D][J] Researchers in Israel have developed a non-invasive way to monitoring hydration levels in the human body by measuring the body's absorption of radio waves of different frequencies using a small radio-frequency absorption device placed on the wrist. [R][B][H][S] An ingestible video camera that produces digital images of the small intestine can reach areas that other diagnostic techniques cannot see. The video capsule is the size of a large vitamin pill and transmits a continuous stream of digital images to a small data recorder worn around the patient's waist. [R][H][S] |
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| [S] Sensor devices | |
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Inspired by the panoramic and precise vision of flies and other insects, many researchers are working on biologically-inspired "eyes" for smart weapons and other self-guided machines. One concept is to use photon sieves, which focus light by diffraction. These work like a Fresnel lens but with a series of precisely spaced holes rather than concentric transparent rings. The holes help sharpen the focus of the light, and by using surface plasmons it may be possible to reduce the light loss in the opaque parts of the lens. [S][D][O][U] Harvard scientists have developed a nanowire sensor that they claim is a thousand times more sensitive than conventional DNA tests, and capable of producing results in minutes rather than days or weeks. Unlike conventional DNA detection methods that require a complex procedure called PCR amplification to view the results, the nanowire sensor does not need sophisticated and expensive techniques. [S][G][N] Stochastic resonance can augment the sensitivity of carbon nanotube sensors, according to research at the University of Southern California. [S] Ion-mobility spectrometry is not very good at distinguishing between different types of large molecule. Diesel fuel, cigarette smoke, detergents, pesticides and chemical-weapons agents all contain heavy molecules in the same range. The performance of chemical-weapons detectors can be improved by using intense laser pulses to break the large molecules into smaller pieces. Researchers have found that specific types of pulses break up specific molecules in a specific way. This allows chemical agents to be detected by cycling through a number of pulses of different types that are known to break up chemical agents in predictable ways, and then identifying the fragments. [S][D][G][R] |
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| [O] Optoelectronics, optics and lasers | |
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Researchers in US, China and Japan have found that nanoscale optical fibres, 50 nm diameter, confine light signals more tightly than conventional fibres and could enable optical telecommunications over long distances with much lower signal loss. They can also guide light signals around tight bends and this can help in photonic integrated circuits. Although the fibre diameter is an order of magnitude smaller than the wavelength of the light, it is possible to launch light into the fibres by using evanescent coupling. [O][J][N] Researchers in Barcelona have succeeding in producing the first transparent magnetic aerogel by incorporating iron alloyed with neodymium and boron. These form magnetic "microneedles" suspended in the aerogel. The aim is to use this material to produce optically addressed 3-dimensional magnetic memories and displays using a polarised laser beam to flip the direction of polarisation of each microneedle. [O][J][M][V] US and Russian scientists have held a light pulse stationary for 10-20 microseconds whilst keeping the pulse intact as an optical entity. This goes a step further than the experiment in 2001 when a light pulse was halted by storing the energy in the atoms of a gas. The team fired a signal pulse through a hot gas containing atoms of rubidium, illuminated by a control beam. While the pulse was travelling through the gas, the researchers switched off the control beam, creating a holographic imprint of the signal pulse on the rubidium atoms. They then switched on two control beams which created an interference pattern that behaved like a hall of mirrors, trapping the pulse. Being able to controllably localise, shape and guide stationary light pulses in three dimensions would enable light beams to be held in one place for a relatively long time so that they can interact. Such techniques may enable nonlinear interactions between faint laser pulses that could be useful for processing light signals. Controlling photons to store and process data could also lead to the development of quantum computers. [O][C][F] |
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| [I] IT, communications, networking and secure systems | |
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The adoption of voice over internet protocol (VOIP) means that the telephone is becoming a subset of the internet and is transforming the economics of telephone companies. [I][K][T] Mobile telephones, smart cards and credit cards may be converging. A trial in Japan, set up by NTT DoCoMo and Sony, is allowing thousands of mobile phone owners to use their phones as a swipe card to pay for purchases, as travel passes, and as concert and movie tickets. The user simply places the phone near a reader to exchange information and the smart card in the phone keeps a receipt of the transactions. [I][K] Hard disks are still largely confined to computers, but as they become smaller, cheaper and require less power, they are starting to find new applications in home and portable consumer electronics that can exploit their superior memory capacity and random-access. Toshiba has developed a tiny hard drive less than an inch across that can hold two to four gigabytes of data. [I][D][K][R][T][U][V] At the World Summit on the Information Society, organised by the UN, some 170 countries endorsed what has been called the first constitution for the information age. The summit looked at the impact of technologies like the internet and mobile phones. It brought together more than 10,000 politicians, business representatives, development workers and technology experts for three days in Geneva. The declaration of principles and action plan adopted at the summit set ambitious goals to ensure that more than half of the world has access to some form of electronic media by 2015. Language is one barrier facing many Third World countries, since 70 percent of websites are in English. Digital inclusion is also an important issue for developed countries. In the UK, the government has set up a private sector-led Digital Inclusion Panel to advise on how to ensure that everyone has access to a digital network by 2008 in their own home. [I][D][K][X] Vehicles equipped with a satellite-based internet connection are extending the internet by road. Concepts include mobile e-book stores (Bookmobiles) that provide high print-quality e-publications and mobile Wi-Fi equipped buses that provide e-mail access for remote areas, collecting and delivering e-mails wirelessly as they drive past homes and businesses. [I][E] In the next decade the Internet is likely to become the basic communications infrastructure for almost anything and spread everywhere. Grid computing will virtualise processing and storage resources and let people use, or rent, the capacity they need for particular tasks. Novel naming systems will allow objects other than web servers and net domains to become a web address space, including barcodes, magazines, books, and telephone numbers. [I][C][K][T] A new file-sharing standard to distribute copyrighted music and movies legitimately has been developed by the Content Reference Forum (CRF), founded by Universal Music Group and backed by technology companies including Microsoft. The new standard allows users to share small files containing information about music, video or other data, but not the content itself. The system could then deliver any content format to any computer, and users might even earn rewards points for sharing the files. [I][K] As general purpose microprocessors become smaller, cheaper and more powerful, smart radios capable of switching from one wireless standard to another are emerging into military and civil products. The DOD Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) allows new radios to communicate with existing radios and will enable interoperability between the various branches of the US armed forces and the emergency services, and also with radios used by armed forces in the UK and other countries. In the future, smart radio will transform civil mobile communications, for base stations and for handsets, and provide the flexibility and compatibility to cope with the growing plethora of standards within and between different parts of the world. [I][A][D][J][R][T] The New Scientist's review of the past year highlights 2003 as the worst year so far for computer viruses and worms, with Slammer, Fizzer, Bearbug, Blaster, SoBig and also the growing problem of SPAM. The review also highlights the evolving technical and legal infrastructure for sharing information via the internet and protecting copyright. [I][T] |
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| [K] Knowledge, information and technology management | |
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Computer games are increasingly social, involving role-playing sagas in which thousands of PC users can log in at any one time. Online, their virtual personas interact in complex and, of course, occasionally violent ways. Players create virtual alter egos, which are transformed into colourful avatars to represent themselves in the online world. But, unlike an internet chat room, users can attack annoying people with their virtual sword as well as their keyboard. More than a million gamers are expected to be playing online on the Xbox by the middle of 2004, according to Microsoft. [K][C][I][T][V] As the computer gaming sector matures, gaming consoles are converging with DVD, television and music to create integrated home entertainment. New systems will be backwards compatible with older systems so that consumers can protect their past investment in gaming software. [K][C][I][V][T] A service to search the entire text of books has been launched by Google. In October, the online retailer Amazon gave customers the option to search the complete text of books that can be bought through the Amazon site. [K][I] Research on how users keep track of web page addresses and retrieve past information shows that current web tools such as Favourites do not mesh with the way people actually work on the web. [K][I] Animal owners in India are using internet kiosks to talk to veterinarians. The specially-designed kiosks include cameras that offer cheap, instant video conferencing via the internet. Vets can inspect chickens, dogs and goats in real time then offer treatment advice. If the animal is too large, like a cow, or sick to squeeze inside the booth, owners can email photographs to aid diagnosis. There are already around 450 'vet on the net' kiosks spread across rural India, and a further 9,000 units are planned for 2004. [K][H][I][V] A study in six European countries has found that many people suffering from untreated and undiagnosed depression are turning to Internet communities for help. These virtual communities could be used to offer diagnosis and support to people that are depressed, and offer the possibility of online therapy. [K][B][H] Much more guidance and support needs to be given to carers. The 2001 UK census has showed about ten percent of people provide informal care for another person. Around a million over-65s and 100,000 under-16s care for a relative. Carers of all ages are twice as likely to suffer ill-health. Over half of carers had sustained a physical injury since becoming a carer, and over half were being treated for a stress-related disorder. [K][H] Outsourcing offshore offers companies major cost savings and can help offset the demographic manpower crunch. However, the inflexible architecture of modern business-information systems, which forces firms to perform tasks as a series of discrete steps, makes it hard to outsource individual parts of an operation without having to design in complex error-prone information flows. Next generation enterprise systems may enable companies to selectively and flexibly outsource smaller and smaller slivers of their business. New technology may also remove the benefits of outsourcing. For example, advances in speech processing and digital support will obviate much of the need for call centres. [K][V] The Expert Group advising the European Council of Ministers on the establishment of an European Research Council (ERC) has delivered its final report. This calls for the establishment of a European Fund for Research Excellence, with the ERC managing the fund, and supporting investigator-driven research of the highest quality selected through European competition with rigorous and transparent peer review. The report recommends an ERC budget of €2 billion per year, and suggest the ERC should be funded through the next Framework Programme. [K] The development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), highlighted by the award of the 2003 Nobel prize in medicine to Peter Lauterbur of the University of Illinois and Sir Peter Mansfield of the University of Nottingham, is an interesting story of innovation. [K][H][S][T] An action plan to increase innovation and help British businesses succeed in an increasingly competitive global market has been published by the UK government. The report warns that the UK will find it increasingly hard to compete in the global market against countries with low labour costs. Future success will be won through the exploitation of new ideas, particularly in areas such as nanotechnology, biotechnology and information and communication technology. [K][T][W] China has moved higher in the hierarchy of technology exporters, according to the latest 3-yearly study by the Georgia Tech Policy and Assessment Center, sponsored by the US NSF. This year, China received a 49.3 rating for its overall success in exporting high technology products. This score compares with 20.7 in 1993, 22.5 in 1996 and 44.2 in 1999 and places China in 6th place, behind United States, Japan, Germany, UK and Singapore. Overall, the study shows that the US has extended its lead, particularly because of the scale of its productive capacity and technological infrastructure, and the strength of the US institutions and resources that contribute directly to its capacity to develop, produce and market new technology. [K][T][W] |
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| [C] Computing, supercomputing, modelling and simulation | |
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Software developed for the film industry is being adapted to predict how surgery on a particular person's face will alter their appearance after the operation. This computer simulation enables surgeons to experiment virtually before operating to find the best incisions to make. The software uses data from MRI scans of the patient undergoing surgery that show the structure of the epidermis, the dermis and the subcutaneous fat, the three layers closest to the skin surface. MRI can give a good indication of the dimensions and physical properties of these layers, such as their stiffness, which can be used to predict the effects surgery might have. [C][H][M][S] Advanced city simulation software is helping urban planners look decades ahead and make tomorrow’s cities more liveable. The modelling tools need to capture the complexity of urban dynamics, especially the strong interaction between how traffic grows and where households, shops, and businesses decide to locate—in short, how transportation affects land use and vice versa. Researchers at the University of Washington, funded by NSF, have developed an advanced simulation tool, called SimCity, which is open source and freely available. The program simulates urban growth and lets users test different planning scenarios. A feature of the model designed to make it widely usable in many countries is that it uses representations of people, things, and actions as they exist in real-life, as opposed to the use of abstract variables and parameters. [C][E][K][X] The European Grid will process data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) when it comes online in 2007. The UK element of this Grid, dubbed GridPP2, will be equivalent to the world's second largest supercomputer after Japan's Earth Simulator computer. GridPP's testbed was incorporated into the LHC Computing Grid in September 2003, which was the first time a production grid was deployed worldwide. [C][I][K] |
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| [W] Whole life engineering, manufacture and testing | |
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The Large Hadron Collider is beginning to take shape at CERN. Everything about the LHC, scheduled to host its first proton-proton collisions in 2007, is superlative: the highest collision energy ever achieved, on the order of 1 TeV; the most powerful and reliable superconducting magnets ever mass-produced for an accelerator, which generate fields of 9 Tesla; the largest and most complex detectors, whose installation is a feat of civil engineering in its own right and which require the hardest of radiation hardening to keep from self-destructing; control electronics, data acquisition and processing technologies, and digital communications that all push the state of the art much further than ever before; and automated data analysis procedures requiring batteries of the world’s best software engineers. [W][C][F][K][M][T] The UK Civil Aviation Authority's (CAA) Research Management Department has developed a software tool that will help aircraft maintenance companies assess and enhance their safety culture. Produced with support from industry, the software is called the 'Safety Health of Maintenance Engineering' (SHoMe) tool and is available free of charge. SHoMe measures human factor issues that impact on the quality and reliability of work, regardless of whether staff are engaged in 'hands-on' maintenance or not. [W][A][B][K] The US Navy is testing ideas for using weblogs to speeding up the exchange of information on new defence technologies and hence to get technologies into the field faster. An "enterprise blog" can serve as a medium for distributing general information and also enable users to post proprietary data, for example, test results and reports, that are accessible only to designated readers or groups of readers. [W][K] Cockpit designers need to take more account of the psychological characteristics of pilots, according to researchers studying the dependability of large computer-based systems. They analysed a disaster in which a Boeing 737 crashed during an emergency landing in 1989. The pilots of the 737 were caught in what is known as a confirmation bias where, instead of looking for contradictory evidence, humans tend to overestimate consistent data. Because there are so many parameters to supervise, operators controlling highly demanding processes, such as aircraft piloting, work on a simplified picture of reality, which is very fragile and fallible particularly in a crisis. With fly-by-wire computer control the complexity of the cockpit has increased dramatically without reducing the pilot workload. [W][A][B][C][V][X] |
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| [X] Systems, complexity and risk | |
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A mathematician at the Sante Fe Institute has proposed a method to find the 'best' terms for ending a civil war - those that produce the lowest likelihood of continued hostilities, and the smallest chance that either side will renege on a pact. The method uses game theory to calculate how the probability of each party's decision to fight or compromise changes as the terms of an agreement change, and hence to identify possible obstacles to a robust settlement, and a corresponding list of potential solutions. Other US researchers have found a procedure by which an independent arbitrator can divide up goods, land or other assets with 'perfect' fairness between two or three parties, taking into account the preferences of each receiving party. [X][D] Of the ten richest countries in the world in terms of GDP per head, only two have more than five million people: the US with 250 million and Switzerland with 7 million. Norway has 4 million, Singapore 3 million, and the remaining six have fewer than one million people. According to two US economists, the best size for countries is a trade-off between the benefits of scale and the costs of heterogeneity. The US economy succeeds despite being large because it combines economies of scale that make infrastructure, government bureaucracy and defence cheaper per head with weak central control that provides local political independence. The researchers argue that free trade favours being small, and that the world will move increasingly towards small economies with open borders within supra-national organisations, like the European Community, which will have more power to preserve markets and co-ordinate policies. [X][D] A new "gene expression" map is helping scientists track how a complex tissue ultimately arises from the blueprint of thousands of genes. Focusing on the root of a small flowering mustard plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, the research team created a detailed mosaic of cells showing where and when about 22,000 of the plant's roughly 28,000 genes are activated within growing root tissue. [X][G] A study of coral DNA has shown that a surprising number of genes are common between coral and the human genome, and also that a tenth of these are not present in the genomes of the fruit fly or the nematode worm. This suggests that many genes thought to be of vertebrate origin probably originated much earlier in evolution. It also supports the theory that during evolution animals discard some genes as they become more sophisticated. The finding means that although fly and worm models are useful for studying gene function in development and cellular processes, they may be of limited value in studies of the evolution of human genes. [X][G] A new immunisation strategy could help to prevent disease epidemics without blanket vaccination, suppress computer viruses, and even break up terrorist networks, according to researchers in Israel. The strategy is to choose people at random and then to immunise their friends. In human networks, a few individuals have a very large number of links. Such "super-linked" individuals are very likely to be among the friends vaccinated. They are also "super-spreaders" of diseases. So vaccinating them is highly effective in preventing epidemics. Other networks, such as the Internet and interacting protein networks in the body, similarly have super-connected individuals. [X][D][H][I] Detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) is useful for studying the complexity of signals in economic, genetic, heartbeat or acoustic data. Using DFA, researchers have concluded that among different types of music, Western classical, Hindustani and Javanese Gamelan have the highest rhythmic complexity. [X][C][K][S] |
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| [V] Virtuality and human-machine interface | |
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An 800 x 600 pixel organic LED head-mounted display, designed for consumer applications, has been on show in the US. The headset provides a screen size equivalent to a 15-inch notebook computer or a 60-inch television. The device will initially be targeted at PC, PC DVD and PC game users. [V][I][K] Smart pens let users turn ordinary scribbles and doodles into digital images that can be sent via email or multimedia messaging service (MMS) to online diaries or weblogs. The pen connects via Bluetooth to a compatible mobile phone in order to send the message by MMS. [V][I][K] An Austrian firm is planning to provide a network of virtual reality personal conferencing between 16 European cities. The Tholos, named after a Greek temple from the Mycenaean period, is a 3-metre high, 360-degree screen that sends and receives images between two locations, in effect providing a window between the two cities. A person in London will be able to walk up to the screen and have a chat with someone in Vienna, as though they were meeting in the town square. A panoramic view of the other city will be visible in the background, and it will always be on. [V][I][K] DARPA-funded researchers are investigating the use of sophisticated vibrators located on the body as a way of passing messages to soldiers on the battlefield, particularly to warn them of threats that they may miss in the thick of all the visual and auditory information they are receiving. [V][D] Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Architecture and Software Technology (FIRST) have developed a brain-computer interface (BCI) that uses EEG signals. The system is non-invasive and users can learn to play computer games by thought after only a few hours of practice. To use single brain waves in real time requires filtering out background noise produced both by the brain and by the EEG equipment.
The FIRST team have developed a program that filters out the noise in much the same way that the human brain's reticular activating system filters out most of our sensual stimuli to avoid sensory overload. [V][B][S][K] Two deaf women in the US have become the first people to undergo the risky procedure of having implants in their brainstems. The devices are designed to restore hearing by directly stimulating nerves. Some deaf people have been given implants that sit just outside the brainstem, but these do not work very well. Feeding auditory signals directly into the brainstem should work better, but because the brainstem carries signals from the entire body to the brain, any damage caused by an implant could be disastrous. [V][B] |
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| [B] Brain research and human science | |
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US researchers and US marines are testing the effect of anti-oxidant drugs in protecting against noise-induced hearing loss on the battlefield. [B][D][H] Security duties may be damaging to soldiers' mental health according to recent analysis of a survey carried out in 1993-94. The survey covered 150 UK servicemen from all ranks of an infantry battalion before and after a six month tour in Northern Ireland. The soldiers reported high levels of psychological illness, and were three times more likely to suffer physical and psychological symptoms after their tour. Gulf war veterans still have considerably poorer health than other military personnel, but the health gap has narrowed slightly according to a recent study. [B][D][H] American footballers sustain a blow to the head equivalent to a severe car crash in every game, a new study has found. Using helmets fitted with sensors the researchers recorded over 3300 head impacts over 10 games and 35 practice sessions during the August to December season in 2003. The average force of a blow was 40G and the most severe blows registered up to 120G. Every year six to eight players in the US die from head injuries and a large number suffer permanent brain damage or paralysis. [B][H] Research at Columbia University has found that a prion-like protein called CPEB may help nerve cells store long-term memories. The finding raises the prospect that other prion-like proteins could serve all kinds of essential biological functions, as well as being implicated in causing neurological diseases such as BSE and vCJD. [B][G][H] For many years it has been suspected that Alzheimer's disease is caused by a rogue protein called amyloid beta (Aß) that forms plaques in the brain. Strong evidence for this has now come from research on mice prone to Alzheimer's disease. As the mice aged the levels of Aß rose in their brains and their memory declined so that they became less able to remember cage mates and learned locations. However, mice that were genetically engineered to lack a key enzyme BACE1 that helps make Aß stayed dementia free. Removing the BACE1 enzyme has no noticeable side effects in mice. So it is hoped that drugs that block the enzyme may be able to prevent or even reverse dementia in humans. [B][G][H] Neurones only account for a small part of brain matter: 90 percent consists of glial cells, which may play a role in enhancing or inhibiting action in the synapse. Computer simulations suggest that malfunction of the neural-glial interaction may be the cause of epilepsy. [B][H] The January 2004 issue of Scientific American has a review article on current research on schizophrenia and hopes for more effective treatments. [B][T] Since ancient Greece, physicians have noticed that persons with a 'melancholic temperament' are more vulnerable to viral infections. More recently during the AIDS epidemic, researchers found that introverted people became sick and died sooner than extroverted people. Researchers at UCLA, using physical and mental stress tests on a group of 54 early-stage HIV-infected men, have shown that high nervous system activity helps HIV continue replicating. The immune systems of introverted subjects replicated the virus between 10 to 100 times as fast as in the other patients, and antiretroviral drugs had barely any effect. According to the researchers, the study suggests that the body's production of norepinephrine during stress makes a big difference in people trying to fight off infection. [B][H] People, especially children, who suffer severe trauma or abuse can develop multiple personalities. This appears to help them cut off difficult memories, making them seem as if they happened to someone else. Imaging studies using positron emission tomography (PET) have now shown that each personality seems to use its own network of nerves to help recall or suppress memories. [B] Treatment options for pain have not changed much since the ancient Greeks, but understanding of pain's basic mechanisms has progressed rapidly in the last decade. Yet these breakthroughs have not yet translated into new clinical treatments - partly because pain and its perception are so complex. [B][H][T] Stretching stem cells can influence whether they turn into fat or bone, say researchers. This might partly explain why exercise strengthens the skeleton. [B][G][H] |
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| [H] Healthcare and medicine | |
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The New Scientist's diary of 2003 in medicine and biology highlights the emergence of SARS and the massive global effort to contain it, the outbreak of monkeypox in the US, and the alarm over man-made viruses including super-lethal monkeypox. Other big stories have been in cloning, stems cells and artificial embryos. [H][D][G][T] Although sustained stress is harmful, it appears that an occasional burst of acute stress or low levels of stress can be very protective. Elevated levels of special protective proteins that respond to stress in a cell (known as molecular chaperones) promote longevity. Acute stress triggers a cascading reaction inside cells that results in the repair or elimination of misfolded proteins, prolonging life by preventing or delaying cell damage. [H][B][G] According to a European Commission survey, the rates of asthma in the UK are by far the highest in Europe and almost double the EU average, 13.8% of the population compared with 7.2%. Globally, more than 100 million people suffer from asthma and 180,000 a year die from it. US researchers have now found a molecule called MANS peptide that in tests on 'asthmatic' mice prevents the build up of mucus. Asthmatics currently use drugs that help relax their airways, but there are no medications for reducing mucus. The drug may also help people suffering from cystic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). [H][G] In one of the largest analyses of the economic impact of back pain, a team at Duke University Medical Center has found that, in the US, patients suffering from back pain consume more that $90 billion annually in healthcare expenses, with approximately $26 billion of that amount directly attributable to treating the back pain. [H] The Worldwatch Institute says more than 25 percent of the world's people now enjoy the lifestyle which used to belong to the rich, but rising obesity and debt, increasing pressures on time and living in a degraded environment, are reducing many people's quality of life. In both England and the US, according to data in an Economist survey on food, two-thirds of men are now overweight or obese. In the world as a whole more people are now obese than malnourished, according to the WHO. Obesity now affects a third of US women and a quarter of women in the UK. Obesity is also rising rapidly in Chinese cities as incomes increase. [H][E] According to WHO guidelines, a body mass index (BMI) below 18.5 is considered underweight, 20.0-24.9 is classified normal, 25.0-29.9 is overweight and a BMI of 30 or greater is obese. These guidelines were drawn largely based on mortality statistics from European and American populations. However, evidence is mounting that Asian populations have a particularly high risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and mortality from other causes at relatively low BMIs. Compared with other ethnic groups, they have a higher proportion of body fat, often hoarded around the waist, and a BMI of 26-31 may be high risk. [H] In experiments with mice, Johns Hopkins researchers have shown that appetite is immediately and directly tied to amounts of a chemical called malonyl-CoA in the brain. Understanding how appetite is controlled in the brain could lead to drugs to treat eating disorders including obesity. [H][G] |
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| [G] Genomics, biotechnology and bioinformatics | |
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Research at MIT has clarified how calorie restriction increases lifespan. MIT researchers discovered in 2000 that calorie restriction activates the silenced information regulator (SIR2) gene, which has the apparent ability to slow ageing. This gene makes a protein called Sir2, which is normally activated by the coenzyme molecule NAD. The researchers have now shown that calorie restriction reduces levels of a coenzyme NADH that blocks the action of NAD. This decrease in NADH allows NAD to activate Sir2 better and thereby extend life span. [G][H] Using laboratory techniques alone and no animal hosts, researchers have isolated sex-cell precursors from mouse embryos, coaxed the cells into a sperm-like form, used them to fertilise mouse eggs, and formed early-stage embryos. Together with the successful production of fertile eggs from stem cells demonstrated earlier in 2003, this could lead to alternative ways to help infertile couples conceive by in vitro fertilisation and help parents who have genetic defects give birth to normal children. [G] A group of researchers from The Scripps Research Institute has identified a small synthetic molecule, named reversine, which causes cells that are normally programmed to form muscles to undergo reverse differentiation and turn into precursor cells. These precursor cells are multipotent; that is, they have the potential to be converted to other cell types, such as bone or cartilage. [G] Allicin, the chemical that gives garlic is pungent aroma and taste, is extremely toxic to cells. It is created when garlic is crushed by the reaction of two precursors, alliinase and alliin, stored apart in adjoining compartments within each clove. Researchers at the Weizmann Institute have used the same reaction to deliver allicin specifically to tumour cells in mice, killing the tumour cells without injuring the health cells. They used a tumour antibody to first attach the allicinase to the surface of the tumour cells, and then injected the second component, alliin. The technique could prove particularly useful for preventing tumour metastasis after surgery. [G][H] Research at the University of Manchester has provide the first evidence that alterations in a gene involving the development of the vascular system may contribute to psoriasis susceptibility. This may open up a radical new approach to treating psoriasis by targeting the vascular system in addition to the immune system, which is targeted at present. [G][H] A study in Los Angeles has found that having a common variant form of a gene called 5-lipoxygenase (ALOX5) gives a high risk of atherosclerosis. The adverse effect of the variant gene is increased by dietary intake of certain n-6 polyunsaturated fats and blocked by intake of fish oils containing n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. This may explain why these fats are implicated in heart disease and strokes. The ALOX5 protein serves to convert fatty acids into molecules involved in inflammation, and previous research has linked the ALOX5 gene to asthma. Atherosclerosis is also now believed to be an inflammatory disease. [G][H] Mayo Clinic researchers have demonstrated that mixing of genetic material can occur naturally in a living body. They have found that pig cells and human cells can fuse together in the body to yield hybrid cells that contain genetic material from both species and carry a swine virus similar to HIV. This observation helps explain how a retrovirus can jump from one species to another. [G][D][H] Human-animal chimeras raise enormous ethical and social issues. The technology, which is still in its infancy, might enable animals to make human stem cells and to grow 'humanised' organs for transplantation into humans. But it could also cause animal pathogens to cross into humans, and human and animal cells might fuse to produce chimeras at the cellular level. [G][H][M][T] The draft genome of the honey bee has been published. It is relatively small, about a tenth the size of the human genome. This should make it easy to identify the genes, many of which are also present in the human genome. Honey bees are used by researchers to study human genetics, ageing, disease and social behaviour. Deciphering the genome may also help breed bees resistant to the varroa mite which is threatening bees worldwide. [G] The effort required to sequence the genomes of plants, such as maize, can be greatly reduced by new techniques that can distinguish the regions of the genome that contain genes from expanses of highly repetitive DNA that contains no genes but can be extremely difficult to decipher. [G] Long strands of DNA floating in a cell's nucleus can easily become tangled. By using optical tweezers to tie knots in DNA, researchers have studied how knots of various complexities move along a strand of DNA, propelled only by random thermal fluctuations. They found that the movement of the knots agreed with theories of the behaviour of ideal knots. In cells, knots are untangled by enzymes called topoisomerases. Understanding how topoisomerases work, and how to disrupt them, may provide a way to kill tumour cells. [G][O][X] |
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| [N] Nanotechnology and molecular technology | |
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Purdue University researchers have shown carbon nanotubes might be used to create brain probes and implants to study and treat neurological damage and disorders. The nanotubes were designed so that their surfaces contained nanoscale bumps that mimic features found on the surface of a brain protein called laminin. This discouraged astrocytes from attaching to the tubes and forming scar tissue. At the same it encouraged neurones to make better contact to the probes. [N][B][G][H][V] Researchers at CNRS in Strasbourg have found that carbon nanotubes are adept at entering the nuclei of cells. At low doses the nanotubes appeared to leave the cells unharmed, but as the concentration increased cells began to die. Possible future applications might be to deliver drugs and vaccines into specific compartments of a cell. [N][B][G][H] Engineers here have found an easy way to carve the surface of inexpensive ceramic titanium dioxide material into tiny filaments, creating a platform for devices that detect chemicals in the air. They could also be used to clean up toxic chemicals or gather solar energy, or to form fog-free or self-cleaning surfaces. [N][M][P][S] Researchers from Rice University have come up with a new technique for making continuous fibres from single-walled carbon nanotubes. They believe their technique, which uses superacids to disperse large concentrations of pristine tubes, can be used to make macroscale fibres and sheets of nanotubes using methods that are quite similar to those in widespread use by the chemical industry. [N][M] Physicists have observed movements on subatomic scales in a crystal for the first time by watching magnetic domain walls move by as little as 0.05 nm. This is 100 times better than the best spatial resolution achieved in previous experiments. [N][M][S] Researchers at IBM have used self-assembly of polymer molecules to make a FLASH memory device. They combined the technique with conventional semiconductor processing methods to create an array of silicon nanocrystals each with a diameter of around 20 nm. The IBM scientists are now developing silicon-based self-assembly devices for microelectronics, biosensing, biomedical, memory and logic circuit applications. [N][J] Scientists at the University of Maryland have found that semiconducting carbon nanotubes have a carrier mobility higher than that of any known material at room temperature. The nanotubes they grew exhibited p-type behaviour, and one of the devices had a field-effect mobility 70 times that of silicon. The scientists estimated the intrinsic mobility of the nanotubes at more than 100,000 sq. cm/Vs at room temperature. [N][J][M] |
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| [J] Microelectronics, MEMS and spintronics | |
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Researchers at Berkeley and Stanford have created the first working, integrated silicon circuit that successfully incorporates carbon nanotubes in its design. Carbon nanotube memory chips might hold 10,000 times more data than current silicon chips according to some estimates, and nanotube sensor chips might be sensitive enough to detect traces of explosives or biochemical agents at the molecular level. [J][N][S] Intel has disclosed how its strained silicon technology works. Hole mobility in p-type regions is increased by compressing the silicon using trenches filled with SiGe, which has a larger lattice size than silicon. Electron mobility in n-type regions is increased by stretching the silicon using an overlay of silicon nitride deposited at high temperature and exploiting the fact that the silicon nitride contracts less than the underlying silicon on cooling. Intel claims this technique boosts chip performance by up to 20 per cent compared with ordinary chips of the same size. [J][M] Chips with an array of tiny microheaters may make it easier to controllably grow replacement tissue for injured patients and to make medical sensors to quickly detect pathogens. The heaters are coated with a material that causes proteins to stick to it when it is hot and releases them when it is cold. Cells stick locally to the proteins. The researchers were able to attach proteins in different patterns by selectively turning on microheaters in the array, enabling proteins or cells to be attached, tailored to detect specific pathogens. Cell structures for artificial tissue could also be grown. [J][G][H][M] Researchers at Xerox PARC have created a transistor array of the type used to control a flat-panel display using a modified ink-jet printer and semiconductor "ink." A computer-vision system ensures precise registration of each layer even if the substrate deforms slightly during the process. The technology could substantially reduce the cost of flat-panel displays. [J][M][V] Recently, indium nitride has been found to have a band gap of 0.7-0.8 eV, rather than 1.8-2.1 eV as previously believed. This means that alloys of indium nitride - such as indium gallium nitride - have band gaps that span the entire visible spectrum from the near infrared to the ultraviolet. UK and US researchers have now discovered that indium nitride can support a large build-up of negative charge at its surface. Only one other semiconductor - indium arsenide - exhibits this property. The discovery could make it easier to fabricate hybrid devices made of metals and semiconductors. [J][M] Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed the world's first light emitting transistor (LET). The LET, built of indium gallium phosphide and gallium arsenide, produces infrared light in essentially the same way as an LED, but can modulate the light much faster. [J][I][O] |
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| [F] Fundamental science | |
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A true one-dimensional atomic system, consisting of a Bose Einstein condensate (BEC) of rubidium atoms pulled out into a thin tubelike shape, has been experimentally demonstrated for the first time in the ETH lab in Zurich. One-dimensional systems are more intrinsically dominated by quantum effects than 2- or 3-dimensional systems. [F][O] Magnetic fields of about 1 microgauss (one millionth of the earth's magnetic field strength) seem to exist in all galaxies observed so far including the Milky Way, but their origins remain one of the great mysteries of the Universe's evolution. The fields may have originated from the Big Bang. Computer simulations of how they might have then evolved suggest that the phase transitions when the four fundamental forces came into being through symmetry breaking could have provided enough energy to account for the strength of the fields in the Universe now. [F][C] It is currently believed that the universe is made up of 5% ordinary matter, 25% undetectable "dark matter", and 70% mysterious dark energy. Galaxies in a universe with such a low density of matter should have stopped growing early in the history of the Universe, and should therefore appear the same today as they did then. However, in a recent survey of distant clusters of galaxies, the ESA XMM-Newton x-ray observatory has found puzzling differences between today's clusters of galaxies and those present in the Universe around seven thousand million years ago. This could undermine current thinking about dark energy. There is also growing evidence that the formation of galaxies in the early Universe was considerably more active and fast-moving than expected from prevailing theories. [F][A][R] Astronomers have discovered that a rare set of double stars is made up of two pulsars. This is a very important discovery because it will allow relativity to be tested in novel ways. Four different effects have already been measured using the binary stars and all are consistent with Einstein's theory of gravity. The orientation of the two pulsars means that the radiation from one shines through the magnetic field of the other, giving scientists an unprecedented opportunity to work out what happens in the region immediately around a pulsar. [F] The Milky Way and other galaxies are "breathing" and evolving. Originally the Milky Way was surrounded by many smaller satellite galaxies and large quantities of leftover gas. Over billions of years it has incorporated most of those satellites, and may also have accreted much of the pristine gas from its intergalactic environs. However, plenty of gas remains and is still trickling in, taking the form of high velocity clouds (HVC). At the same time, the galaxy expels gas loaded with heavy elements into its halo and maybe even into intergalactic space. [F][T] According to a new analysis by Australian researchers, a ring-shaped habitable zone containing stars that might have the environment and ingredients plausibly needed to support life emerged about eight billion years ago, roughly 25,000 light years from the core of the Milky Way. They conclude that the zone has expanded slowly and includes stars born up to about four billion years ago. It now encompasses close to ten per cent of all stars ever born in the Milky Way galaxy, including the Sun. Most of these stars are on average one billion years older than the Sun, allowing much more time, in theory, for any life to have evolved. [F][A][R] Huge quantities of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons have been found in deep space from their infrared light spectrum, and amino acids have been found in meteorites landing on Earth. Scientists have now discovered anthracene and pyrene in a nebula 1000 light years from Earth that contains an old star at the final stage of its life when its nuclear reaction creates carbon. The carbon and hydrogen caught in the stellar wind may be the source of the anthracene, pyrene and even more complex organic molecules in space. Organic molecules raining down on the early Earth from space may have helped create life. Minerals containing borate, which complexes with RNA, might have converted the organic molecules into sugars including ribose, leading to RNA. [F] Researchers at Cardiff University have calculated how debris from Earth, thrown into space as a result of a giant impact, would become incorporated in the frozen outer layers of comets. They claim that wherever life originated in our galaxy it could have spread across the galaxy on timescales that are short compared with the 10-billion-year estimated age of our galaxy. The implication is that life could be widespread throughout the galaxy and may not have originated on our planet. [F] Scientists claim to have found the oldest evidence of oxygenic photosynthesis in 3.7-billion-year-old rocks. If this is correct, it means that life was very sophisticated very early on in Earth history even though the early Earth was being bombarded by meteorites until around 3.8 billion years ago. [F] |
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