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Top Stories in Science
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January 2006 Issue |
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| [D] Defence and security |  |
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UK defence industrial strategy A defence industrial strategy has been published by the UK Ministry of Defence. The strategy is in two main parts, one examining strategic trends and the other covering individual sector and cross-cutting capabilities. It examines what industrial capabilities the UK needs in its indigenous defence industry, how the defence industry should adapt to a more technology-driven future while meeting the needs of the armed forces, and the issues of supporting and upgrading equipment and systems over long operating lifetimes. [D][T]
Tsunami defence The tsunami in December 2004 was monitored in far greater detail than was ever possible in the past. Three satellites measured the pristine, undistorted wave heights as the tsunami propagated across the ocean; the effects on land were captured in detail by photographs and amateur video. All of this has improved models of how a tsunami propagates around the oceans and how it behaves on-shore. Together with new monitoring and warning systems and new structural standards for protecting against tsunamis, these models will help to defend against future events. The surprising size of the 2004 tsunami has revealed how the complexities of an earthquake strongly influence a tsunami's scale and shape. [D][C][E][R][T]
Emergency relief The care of children in emergency situations could be greatly improved by providing relief organisations with evidence-based guidelines, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In a review of published literature, researchers say that children under five often have the highest mortality rates in famines and population displacements, and in the aftermath of armed conflicts and natural disasters. The most common causes of death are diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections, measles, malaria and malnutrition. [D][H]
H5N1 vaccine The first tests of an H5N1 vaccine in August 2005 found that to stimulate effective protection required two shots of 90 micrograms of the virus' main surface protein. This is twelve times more than is needed in ordinary flu vaccination. The French pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Pasteur has done clinical trials of combining a candidate H5N1 vaccine with alum, the most commonly used adjuvant for increasing the effects of vaccines. The preliminary results showed that adequate protection still required two shots of 30 micrograms. Whilst this is a factor of four improvement, it is disappointing. It implies that if all the flu vaccine companies in the world were to produce this vaccine for six months, there would still only be enough to vaccinate 225 million people. [D][G][H]
Enhancing vaccination Many candidate vaccines carry a high risk of toxic side effects, or in the case of bird flu, cannot be produced in sufficient quantities to deal with pandemic threats. Researchers at the University of British Columbia have demonstrated a technique that has the potential to solve these problems by allowing much smaller amounts of vaccine to be used. The researchers enhanced the vaccine's effect by simultaneously inducing the overproduction of TAP, a component of the immune system. TAP enhances activity of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), which alerts immune system cells to destroy infected cells. In trials, the team vaccinated mice against a relative of the smallpox virus, and found that mice immunized with just one-hundredth the standard dose and induced to overproduce TAP were still able to survive an otherwise lethal viral infection. [D][G][H]
Enhancing vaccination US researchers have shown that they can enhance the effects of vaccination by switching off a molecule that helps to regulate dendritic cells - the specialised white blood cells that activate the immune system. They believe this technique could help enhance therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines against pathogens, such as HIV, for which normal vaccination does not induce a sufficient immune response. [D][H]
Anthrax and plague vaccines Tobacco has been genetically engineered to produce vaccines against anthrax and plague. Scientists at the University of Central Florida injected the anthrax vaccine gene into the chloroplast genome of tobacco cells. Current production of anthrax vaccine involves an expensive fermentation process that can cause harmful side effects such as inflammation, flu-like symptoms and rashes. The vaccine taken from the tobacco plants was found to be just as potent as the one produced through fermentation but was free of the bacterial toxin that can cause harmful side effects. The researchers say that enough anthrax vaccine to inoculate everyone in the United States could be grown in one acre of tobacco in one year. Scientists at Arizona State used a genetically modified tobacco mosaic virus to infect tobacco plants and produce immunizing proteins against plague. [D][G][H] |
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| [A] Aeronautics and space | |
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Composite airliners Boeing's medium-size wide-body 787 will be the first commercial jet to have its fuselage and wings made almost entirely of composites. Boeing says that the light weight materials, together with improved aerodynamic design and better engines and onboard systems, will mean that the 787 will burn 20 percent less fuel than comparable jetliners and have maintenance costs 10 percent lower. The long range version will be able to fly routes previously possible only for jumbos. Boeing is also studying a composite replacement for its 737 series of aircraft, and Airbus has announced that it plans a new generation of planes to replace its A320 family and these will have composite fuselage and wings. [A][M]
Space weather During space storms, plumes of electrified plasma form in the ionosphere and as these move they impede low and high frequency radio communications and delay GPS navigation signals. Scientists from NASA and NSF have discovered what drives this movement. They found a link between GPS data and satellite images of the plasmasphere - the plasma cloud surrounding Earth above the ionosphere. From this they discovered that the motion of the ionospheric plumes corresponds to the ejection of plasma from the plasmasphere during space storms. [A][I][R]
Space radiation High energy electrons in the outer Van Allen radiation belt are a major threat to satellites and also to astronauts. They can increase by a factor of a thousand at the peak of a magnetic storm and in the following days. Intense solar activity can also push the outer belt much closer to Earth, affecting lower altitude satellites. European and American scientists, using data from the ESA Cluster mission and ground receivers in Antarctica, have shown that very low frequency electromagnetic waves in the outer magnetosphere can account for these effects. The waves, named chorus, consist of discrete audio-frequency oscillations of short duration (less than one second) that sound like the chorus of birds singing at sunrise. [A][R]
Solar flares Magnetic field loops on the sun cross and re-form constantly, sometimes leading to solar flares that can disturb communications on earth. But is has been a puzzle how the fields can rearrange quickly enough to trigger such massive release of energy. A new theory, supported with computer simulations, suggests that a flare can occur when magnetic field lines are squeezed past a critical point beyond which a new physical process kicks in, one that can release huge amounts of energy in a short period of time. The effect may also operate in the earth's magnetic field and in the fields of experimental fusion reactors. [A][E][I][P]
Galileo demonstrator The first of two demonstrator satellites for the Galileo satellite navigation system has been launched and has begun transmitting navigational signals to ground stations. Built by Surrey Satellite Technology, it will secure use of the frequencies allocated by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for the Galileo system. It will also demonstrate critical technologies for the navigation payload of future operational Galileo satellites, and it will characterise the radiation environment of the orbits planned for the Galileo constellation. [A][I][R]
Stardust mission The Stardust capsule has landed successfully on Earth after a seven year mission. The capsule contains comet particles from its close encounter with comet Wild 2 in January 2004 and also contains a few dozen particles of interstellar dust that have hopefully been collected en route. Using the internet, the general public will be able to participate in searching for the grains of interstellar dust. [A][I]
Water on Mars Volcanism or meteorite impacts, and not standing water, could be responsible for the sulphate sediments detected on Mars by NASA's Opportunity rover, according to two separate studies. [A] |
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| [U] Unmanned vehicles and robotics | |
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The Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity have now been operating on Mars for two years. Recently NASA has used them not only during the day for studying the Martian geology but also at night to provide some striking views of the planet's sky, including lunar eclipses, shooting stars and possibly cosmic rays. [U][A][R]
Robotic spiders ESA and JAXA are planning to flight-test robotic 'spiders' that could be used to build large structures in space. The concept is that the mechanical spiders would inch their way across large nets of fabric in space performing small tasks or lining up to create an antenna or some other structure. The engineers hope the robots will eventually be used to construct colossal solar panels that could reflect and concentrate the Sun's rays to a receiving station on Earth or perhaps beam energy down in the form of microwaves. [U][A][P]
Robotic snail MIT scientists have developed a robotic snail that can crawl on vertical walls and traverse ceilings. ‘Robosnail’ was developed to explore and demonstrate mathematical theories to explain a snail’s movement and ability to adhere to walls at all angles. [U][P]
Animal locomotion A single unifying physics theory, called "constructal theory", can explain basic characteristics of locomotion for every animal, from flying insects to fish, according to researchers. Constructal theory is a powerful analytical approach to describing movement, or flows, in nature. The findings that many important functional characteristics of animal shape and locomotion are predictable from physics has important implications for evolution. [U][E][G][M][P]
DARPA Grand Challenge DARPA's Grand Challenge competition in the Mojavi desert was not intended to produce a robot that the military could move directly to mass production. Its purpose, successfully achieved, was to energise the engineering community to tackle the many problems that must be solved before autonomous vehicles can pilot themselves safely at high speed over unfamiliar terrain. The challenge spurred advances in laser sensing, computer vision and autonomous navigation. Five vehicles crossed the finish line, four of them navigating the 132-mile course in well under the 10 hours required to be eligible for the cash prize. [U][D][R][T]
Robotic vessels As pirates go hi-tech, so ships must use more advanced technology in their defence, according to the latest report from the International Maritime Bureau. Robotic vessels and UAVs could play a role in anti-piracy defences for shipping. [U][A][D][E][R]
Robot receptionist The world's first walking humanoid robot is set to make its office debut in 2006 as a receptionist. The latest version of Honda’s Asimo robot will be starting its new job in April at a Honda office in Tokyo. The prototype can guide guests to a meeting room, serve coffee on a tray and push a cart with a load of up to 10 kg. [U][V] |
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| [P] Propulsion and energy | |
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Double layer ion engine ESA has reported that initial testing of a new plasma drive for spacecraft has been a success. The "double layer thruster" is a new kind of ion drive which works by accelerating charged particles between two layers of argon plasma. ESA believes that this double layer engine could be as small and economical as the ion engine on board Smart 1, and will be much more powerful, enabling craft to accelerate and decelerate faster. [P][A]
JP-10 powered scramjet The first scramjet powered by conventional liquid hydrocarbon fuel has made its initial free flight. During its 15 seconds of flight, the craft reached mach 5.5. [P][A][D]
Combustion US chemists have developed an experimental technique to measure the flow of energy inside a molecule in the process of breaking apart. This allows experimental tests of computer models of combustion for improving fuel efficiency and emissions. [P][E][M][R]
Thin foldable battery NEC has developed a thin, foldable battery to be used in cards or clothes. The 0.3-mm thick battery can support tens of thousands of signal transmissions on a single charge and can be recharged in less than 30 seconds. NEC expects the battery to be used extensively to power all kinds of devices ranging from electronic paper to tags that trace retail goods in real-time. [P][J][S][V]
Electro-kinetic generator Using an electro-kinetic road ramp, traffic lights and road signs can be powered by extracting energy from passing cars. [P][V]
Photoelectric carrier multiplication Bulk photovoltaic materials produce only one photoelectron per photon, which limits the efficiency of solar cells. However, nanocrystals can produce multiple electrons. This not only means that nanocrystalline solar cells might produce higher electrical outputs, but could also be useful for producing hydrogen by photo-catalytic splitting of water, since this requires four electrons per water molecule. Carrier multiplication was previously seen only in lead selenide nanocrystals, but has not been found to occur with very high efficiency in nanocrystals of other compositions, such as cadmium selenide. [P][J][M]
Greenhouse gas emissions According to a report by the US Department of Energy, greenhouse gas emissions by the US rose 2 percent in 2004. The output of 7122 million tons was the highest annual total so far recorded by the US. [P][E]
Biomass energy The EU currently meets four per cent of its energy needs from biomass. But it would be possible to more than double biomass use by 2010, according to an action plan from the European Commission. [P][E] |
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| [M] Materials, structures and surfaces | |
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2D superconductivity The use of superconductors to transmit electrical power is limited by the fact that large currents produce strong magnetic fields that destroy the superconducting state. This also limits the magnetic fields that can be generated using superconducting magnets. Now, however, a physicist at the University of Arizona has shown that it should be possible to exploit strong magnetic fields to restrict electrons to two dimensions in space and produce 2-dimensional superconductivity. This could make superconductivity stable in a strong magnetic field environment. The results have been demonstrated for organic materials, but should also be applicable to high-temperature superconductors. [M][P]
Fermionic pairing Both superconductivity and superfluidity arise from pairing of fermionic particles with opposite spins. Superconductivity occurs because of pairing of fermion particles carrying an electrical charge; superfluidity occurs because of pairing of electrically neutral particles, leading to a complete absence of viscosity. Normally there are equal numbers of spin-up and spin-down particles, and scientists have for 50 years wondered what would happen if there were an imbalance. Researchers at Rice University have now tested this experimentally by using radio waves to alter the ratio of spin-up and spin-down atoms in a fermionic fluid of ultra-cold lithium-6 atoms. They found that the superfluid was able to tolerate an excess of unpaired fermions of up to 10 percent. When unpaired spin-up atoms rose above 10 percent, the unpaired loners were suddenly expelled, leaving a core of superfluid pairs surrounded by a shell of excess spin-up atoms. [M][F]
Nanoparticle superlattices Superlattices containing two types of nanoparticle offer the potential to create new materials with valuable physical properties. A team from IBM, Columbia University, and the University of Michigan has created ten new binary nanoparticle superlattice materials. The superlattice constituents included nanoparticles of gold, lead selenide, palladium, lead sulphide, iron oxide and silver, as well as triangular nanoplates of lanthanum fluoride. The resulting superlattices had a range of crystal structures. The scientists were able to direct the self-assembly process by tuning the charge state of the nanoparticles. [M][N]
Nano-armour Shock tests on a new high strength nanomaterial using steel projectiles travelling at up to 1.5 km/sec showed that it could withstand 250 tons/cm2. The material proved to be so strong that after the impact the samples remained essentially identical compared to the original material. Tests of the new material under isostatic pressure have found it to be stable up to at least 350 tons/cm2. The material is made of tungsten disulfide, which is relatively heavy. But, according to ApNano, the company that has developed the nanomaterial, titanium disulfide should perform even better against shock waves and is four times lighter. [M][N]
New alloys Aluminium-yttrium-nickel alloy could replace heavier or costlier components in the “cool” sections of jet engines, and also in other parts of an aircraft such as wing spars, according to researchers at Ames Laboratory who are developing it for use in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The alloy is produced using high-pressure gas atomisation in which a special nozzle blasts a stream of molten alloy material with a pressurised gas such as helium or nitrogen. The result is powder-fine metal particles that are highly uniform in chemical composition and, because they cool so quickly, exhibit the amorphous structure of the liquid metal rather than the crystal structure normally found in bulk metals. The powdered metal is vacuum hot-pressed and hot extruded, a process that bonds the particles together while retaining some of the amorphous structure. [M][A][N][P]
New state of matter New states of matter are usually only discovered experimentally at extremely low temperatures. However, physicists at the University of Chicago have discovered a novel state of matter at room temperature, created by dropping a marble into a container of loosely packed sand. They have found that the impacting marble produces a jet of sand grains that briefly behaves like an ultra-cold, ultra-dense gas, not in terms of ambient temperature, but in terms of having extremely little random motion. [M][F]
Printing biological tissue Biophysicists at the University of London have used a form of ink-jet printing to create "jets" of living cells. They believe their technique, which does not destroy the cells, could be used to grow biological tissue or even human organs. [M][H]
Tissue growth Studying how stem cells grow into complex structures can help in understanding how to use stem cells to grow replacement organs. Researchers at USC have identified the epithelial stem cells in birds that produce the 20,000 feathers on the average bird. They have also discovered how the topological arrangement of stem cells, proliferating cells, and differentiating cells within the feather follicle allows for continuous growth, shedding, and regeneration of the entire feather, and how the specific orientation of the ring of feather stem cells is related to the type of feather being generated. [M][H]
Non-spherical bubbles Air bubbles in impure ocean water are often non-spherical. According to researchers at Harvard this is because their shapes are distorted by surface dirt. Ordinarily, if two bubbles are fused, the product is a larger but still spherical bubble. But, if particles are strongly anchored to the bubble surface and bubbles are fused, a stable sausage shape is produced. The researchers have demonstrated that non-spherical gas bubbles can exist in stable peapod, doughnut and sausage shapes and in sizes from microns to millimetres. The ability to alter the shapes of bubbles and liquid drops in manufacturing might provide a means to alter the consistency or texture of products such as ice cream, shaving foams and creams. The non-spherical bubbles might also find use as vessels for delivering drugs, vitamins or flavours. [M][E][R] |
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| [E] Environment, transport and marine | |
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Climate records The formation of tropical storm Zeta on 30 December brought to a total of 27 the number of tropical storms in the North Atlantic during 2005. This total is six more than the previous record of 21 set in 1933. The year 2005 has also been the warmest on record in the Northern Hemisphere and the second warmest globally since the 1860s, when reliable records began. Ocean temperatures recorded in the Northern Hemisphere Atlantic Ocean have also been the hottest on record. [E]
Arctic warming Over half of the Northern Hemisphere's topmost layer of permafrost could thaw by 2050 and as much as 90 percent by 2100, according to modelling by NCAR. The thaw would alter ecosystems, damage buildings, add runoff to the Arctic Ocean, and release vast amounts of carbon. The permafrost layer currently covers nearly a quarter of the land in the Northern Hemisphere. [E][C]
Ocean currents The close link between temperatures in the North Atlantic and the strength of ocean circulation is underlined by a new analysis of sediment cores by Woods Hole. The researchers measured the ratio of two isotopes of protactinium and thorium in the sediment cores. These isotopes occur from the radioactive decay of uranium. As sediments fall through the water, thorium tends to "stick" to them and is buried, whilst protactinium tends to be washed out of the North Atlantic basin. The stronger the circulation, the less protactinium is buried in the sediment. The measurements can reveal how the currents in the North Atlantic have varied over the past 60,000 years. The results show that warm periods are generally associated with strong ocean circulation, or overturning; and cold periods are generally associated with a weak overturning circulation. [E]
Ocean circulation The global warming of 55 million years ago, known as the Palaeocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), involved a warming of between 4 and 7 degrees C and a mass extinction of deep-sea bottom dwelling species. The PETM emerged in less than 5,000 years, and may show what could happen as a result of the current global warming. Isotope measurement on marine fossils from the time of the PETM have enabled researchers to trace the flow of nutrients in the ocean, showing that the PETM caused a major change in ocean currents, shutting down the thermo-haline ocean conveyor in the Southern Hemisphere, but increasing the flow of water between the surface and the deep ocean in the Northern Hemisphere. The researchers believe this shift drove unusually warm water to the deep sea, likely releasing stores of methane gas that led to further global warming and a massive die-off of deep-sea marine life. [E][X]
Ocean circulation At the beginning of the current warm period 8,000 years ago, retreating glaciers opened a route for two ancient meltwater lakes known as Agassiz and Ojibway to suddenly and catastrophically drain from the middle of the North American continent. Climate modellers have succeeded in simulating the climate changes caused by this massive freshwater pulse into the North Atlantic. The simulations are in reasonably agreement with the records from North Atlantic sediment cores and Greenland ice cores and suggest that the effects globally were much milder than many people have feared. Although the ocean circulation initially dropped by half, it may have rebounded within only 50 to 150 years. [E][C][X]
Biogenic methane Researchers at Max Planck have make a surprising discovery that plants themselves produce methane and emit it directly into the atmosphere. They estimate that living plants contribute roughly 10 to 30 percent of the annual world methane production of 600 million tonnes. This finding explains the unexpectedly high methane concentrations recently observed by satellites over tropical forests. Until now, it was thought that biogenic methane was formed anaerobically via micro-organisms, particularly in wetlands and rice fields, as well as the digestion of ruminants and termites, waste disposal sites, and the gas produced by sewage treatment plants. [E]
Tropical forests Tropical trees do not have annual growth rings and therefore it is harder to tell their age. Using radiocarbon dating methods, researchers have found that in the Amazon up to half of all trees greater than 10 centimetres in diameter are more than 300 years old, and some are as much as 750 to 1,000 years old. This shows that, on average, tropical trees grow more slowly than previously thought and therefore take up less carbon than predicted by current global carbon cycle models. [E]
Amphibian extinction Studies show that global warming is contributing to the increase of chytrid disease, a fungus infection that is responsible for the extinction of many tropical frog species. According to the scientists, the Earth's rising temperatures enhance cloud cover on tropical mountains, leading to cooler days and warmer nights, both of which favour the chytrid fungus. The Global Amphibian Assessment, published in 2004, found that nearly one-third of the world's 6,000 or so species of frogs, toads and salamanders face extinction. [E]
Boring to the mantle A colossal vessel that will drill 7 kilometres below the seabed has completed its first training mission at sea. The hope is to obtain the first ever samples of the Earth's mantle and to bore through a "subduction zone", the point where one tectonic plate descends underneath another. This should provide new data on the seismic activity that produces earthquakes. The researchers also hope to detect primitive subsurface organisms known as extremophiles and to find clues to prehistoric climate change. [E][X]
Deep-sea fishing In the north Atlantic, species of deep sea fish are on the brink of extinction, according Canadian scientists, who have studied five species including hake and eel. They found that some populations have plummeted by 98 percent in a generation. Scientists and conservation bodies are pressing for a global moratorium on deep-sea fishing which they regard as particularly destructive. [E]
Environment-friendly shipping The marine industry is looking to engineering innovations to help reduce the environmental impact of ships. Areas of concern include the transfer of invasive species from one region to another, either attached to a ship's hull or carried in ballast water tanks; underwater noise and its effects on marine mammals, particularly whales and dolphins; and emissions from ships' exhausts containing sulphur and nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide. [E][P][T] |
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| [R] Remote sensing and sensor systems | |
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Meteosat imaging A second satellite from Europe's new generation of weather satellites was launched successfully in December. The satellite's visible and infrared imager observes the Earth in 12 spectral bands, delivering pictures every 15 minutes with a ground resolution of one kilometre. [R][A]
Gravity sensing Ohio State University scientists have used minute fluctuations in gravity to produce the best map yet of ocean tides that flow beneath two large Antarctic ice shelves. They did it using the twin satellites of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), a joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Centre. [R][E]
Monitoring aquifers An international team has worked on the verge of the Sahara to gather data on the ground and in the air, to be compared with imagery of the same region acquired by ESA satellites. The results will be used in support of an ambitious project to apply satellite remote sensing to improve monitoring and management of vast water aquifers concealed beneath the desert. [R][A][E]
Sensing incipient earthquakes There is evidence, which has yet to be confirmed by an unambiguous statistical analysis, that space-borne instruments have seen changes in the radio waves of the ionosphere that coincide with, and sometimes precede, earthquakes in the ground below. A possible explanation has been advanced that in granite, and many other kinds of rock, deformation of the rock's constituent crystals turn some of the oxygen atoms in those crystals into charge carriers. The strain in a geological fault could then, as the fault shifted, generate currents of hundreds of thousands of amperes per cubic kilometre in a fluctuating pattern that would cause very low frequency radio waves to be emitted, thus disrupting the ionosphere. If confirmed, this might provide a way to detect incipient earthquakes. [R][D][E][X]
Multispectral lunar survey ESA’s SMART-1 spacecraft is successfully using "push-broom" imaging to survey the Moon’s surface in visible and near-infrared light. The colour imaging gives information on the mineralogical composition on the lunar surface. [R]
TeraHertz astronomy Early results from CONDOR, the CO N+ Deuterium Observation Receiver, which started operating in November 2005, confirm the potential of teraHertz astronomy for studying hot gas clouds associated with star formation. The CONDOR telescope is located in the extremely dry Atacama Desert of Chile at an elevation of 5100 m so that the THz radiation is not screened out by water vapour in the Earth's atmosphere. [R]
Tomosynthesis An experimental technique called tomosynthesis could become an essential tool for spotting breast cancer. It provides radiologists with a three-dimensional view of the breast's inner structure, and enables them to recognise as harmless many of the areas that appear suspicious on conventional mammograms. The method may also identify tumours that current tests miss. Tomosynthesis integrates up to 25 X-ray exposures per breast. Each exposure is taken from a different vantage point along an arc. The multiple perspectives enable a computer to generate a 3-D map of the breast. Doctors can then examine virtual slices of tissue millimetre by millimetre. [R][H][T]
Sniffing out cancer US researchers have convincingly demonstrated that dogs are as effective as state-of-the-art screening for detecting people with lung or breast cancer. The research raises the possibility that trained dogs could detect cancers even earlier than is possible with current screening methods and might supplement or even replace mammograms and CT scans. [R][H][S] |
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| [S] Sensor devices | |
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Imaging arrays Researchers at the University of Rochester have developed a prototype imaging chip that digitises the image at each pixel. The digitisation requires as few as three transistors per pixel, reserving nearly half of the pixel area for light collection. According to the researchers, the chip consumes only 0.88 nanowatts per pixel at a video rate of 30 frames per second, and the technology has already achieved a dynamic range of 100,000. The researchers have also developed a way to arrange photodiodes on an imaging chip so that compressing the resulting image demands as little as 1 percent of the computing power usually needed. [S][J][R]
Imaging HIV Using an X-ray Cryo electron microscopy technique (Cryo-EM), UK and German researchers have succeeded for the first time in obtaining clear images of the HIV virus. The virus varies in size from as little as 100 nm to as much as 350 nm at different stages in its life-cycle, and building-up a comprehensive picture has proved extremely difficult. The researchers combined hundreds of images to build computer tomograms, enabling them to examine the virus in 3D and make computer slices through the virus. The research reveals how a variable structure assembles to produce an infectious agent. [S][G][H]
Detecting DNA mutations US researchers have developed a way to wire a single DNA molecule into an electrical circuit and to measure its conductance. The technology may provide a much quicker and cheaper way to detect mutations. The researchers found that just one base pair mutation in a DNA molecule, such as substituting an A for a G, can cause a significant change in the conductance of the molecule. [S][G][N]
Micro-gyroscope biosensor A micro-gyroscope consists of a chip with a tiny vibrating disc mounted at its centre. The vibrations are highly sensitive to acceleration, so the chips can be used to detect motion in rockets, aircraft and anti-lock braking systems in cars. Researchers at the University of Newcastle have now created a gyroscopic disc less than 0.1 mm across that can measure the mass of proteins. The researchers believe that this can be used to identify specific proteins produced by cancer cells. It will also be much faster than conventional biosensors, such as the glucose detector used for people with diabetes, which rely on chains of chemical reactions to measure the target chemical. [S][H][J]
Detecting single nanoparticles Until now it has only been possible to detect single nanoparticles indirectly, such as by labelling them with a fluorescent molecule or by immobilising the particles on a surface and then analysing them. Now, US researchers have shown that they can detect individual particles as small as 5 micron diameter directly in real time. The new technique involves measuring the amplitude of light scattered from the particles. This exploits the fact that the amplitude of the light decreases only as the cube of the particle size, whereas the intensity of the scattered light decreases as the sixth power of particle size. The researchers believe the technique could distinguish different virus strains, and could be used in sensors that provide early warning of biological threats. It might also be useful for monitoring nanoparticle contamination when fabricating silicon chips. [S][D][G][H][J][N]
Single molecule absorption spectroscopy A powerful new tool for probing molecular structure on surfaces has been developed by researchers at the University of Illinois. Called single molecule absorption spectroscopy, it combines the chemical selectivity of optical absorption spectroscopy with the atomic-scale resolution of scanning tunnelling microscopy. It can enhance molecular analysis, surface manipulation and studies of molecular energy and reactivity at the atomic level. [S][M] |
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| [O] Optoelectronics, optics and lasers | |
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Inter-satellite laser communications Two satellites have become the first to exchange information from different orbits using a laser. This may lead to super-fast data-relay systems between spacecraft. One satellite is in low-Earth orbit at an altitude of 610 kilometres. The other is in geostationary orbit. Pointing and maintaining a laser connection between the two satellites is difficult because they can be as much as 45,000 kilometres apart and moving at a relative speed of several kilometres per second. [O][A][I][R]
Interplanetary laser communications Interplanetary space probes currently communicate via microwaves, but the spreading of the microwave beams reduces the microwave power received and thus the maximum data rate. For example, NASA's Mars Odyssey probe can send only 128,000 bits per second to Earth. Laser communications could enable much higher data rates to be sent over much longer distances, but the difficulty of tracking satellites and pointing the laser beams sufficiently precisely has prevented this. Now, a laser communication link has been made between the Messenger spacecraft and instruments on Earth, across a record 24 million kilometres. [O][A][I]
Slow light Researchers have slowed the speed of a light signal to less than 0.091 mm/second using coherent population oscillation (CPO) in a film of bacteriorhodopsin. This is a bacterial protein which has a very long excited state lifetime, allowing CPO to delay a light signal by nearly a second. Using a second light beam, the researchers were able to precisely control the light's speed from 0.091 mm/second up to the full velocity of light. Controlling the speed of one light signal with another over such a wide range is unprecedented, and the technique could be useful in all-optical circuits of the future. [O]
Optical wireless networks White light LED's hold great promise for much more efficient lighting. They might also be used to provide an optical wireless network in homes and other buildings, achieving GHz bandwidths according to researchers. They could be coupled to broadband over power line grids and offer transmission capacities that exceed DSL or cable and are more secure than RF. [O][I]
Negative refraction A new type of negative-refractive-index material has been discovered that is made from layers of superconducting and ferromagnetic thin films. Until now, negative refraction had only been achieved in metamaterials and photonic crystals. The researchers have also shown that the index of refraction can be switched between positive and negative values using an external magnetic field. [O][M] |
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| [I] IT, communications, networking and secure systems | |
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Internet protocol v6 Most of today's internet is still using the 32-bit internet protocol version 4 (IPv4), which is now nearly twenty years old. IPv4 has been remarkably resilient, but it is beginning to have problems. Most importantly, there is a growing shortage of IPv4 addresses, which are needed by all new machines added to the Internet. The US DOD and other major users are now moving to the 128-bit internet protocol version 6 (IPv6), which provides many improvements in areas such as routing and network autoconfiguration. The DOD's transition to IPv6 will greatly increase the number of addresses that can be assigned to personnel and equipment. The automated configuration capabilities and security features also allow administrators to distinguish and prioritise data traffic based on the user’s authorization and the type of packets being sent. [I][D][T]
Voice over Internet Protocol Many organisations, including the military, are now adopting voice over Internet protocol for secure collaboration and information sharing on converged networks - those combining voice, video and data. Standards bodies and networking vendors are developing secure, collaborative VoIP technologies that will support new applications. These include: security, priority and pre-emptions; policy constraining communications; conferencing and collaboration systems; text-based instant messaging; voice and video; shared whiteboard and applications; and location-based signalling that selects the receiver based on a geographic region. [I][D][T]
Mobile TV TV on mobiles is widely expected to start growing strongly in 2006. DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld) has been adopted by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) as the standard for mobile TV services in Europe. DVB-H works by beaming a signal to a digital TV receiver, attached to phones. [I][V]
Digital citizen The year 2005 saw the advent of the digital citizen journalist. [I][K][T][V]
Cyber attacks In 2005, cyber attacks have become more selective and sophisticated, and are driven more by criminal groups wanting to make money. Instead of trying to infect everyone, many virus creators are creating variants that attack small groups of users. Constantly releasing new variants is also designed to overwhelm anti-virus firms. One worrying trend seen in 2005 was the emergence of attacks aimed at security software itself. [I][T]
System risk Securing control systems has become a much more serious issue because of terrorism. Many government and private organisations have their control systems connected to the internet. [I][D][T][X] |
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| [K] Knowledge, information and technology management | |
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Effective IT report Infoconomy has published it third annual report on effective IT. In this year's report, special attention is paid to technologies for helping enterprises to be highly responsive, such as systems virtualisation, agile programming, business intelligence and business activity monitoring. [K][C][I][T][W]
Multi-lingual websites International companies and organisations, using the internet to communicate with customers and employees in many parts of the world, are making increasing use of language translation to maintain multi-lingual versions of their website or multiple versions aimed at different audiences. Direct machine translation is still too unsophisticated for corporate use and human translation is very expensive. Translation memory and translation management bridge between the two. Translation memory builds up a database of source texts and accepted translations of each text. Translation programs can then use the source text to identify either perfect matches or close matches, reducing the volume of new text that requires human translation. Translation management automates the workflow, linking it with the content management for the website. [K][I][V]
Web search The cost of setting up a global infrastructure to scan and index the web is extremely expensive and internet users have only been able to search the web indirectly through intermediaries such as Google and Yahoo. Now, through its subsidiary Alexa, Amazon has launched a service that will give people access to a monthly-updated copy of much of the information found on the web. They will be able to search directly up to 300 terabytes of data. Alexa expects the service to be of great interest to entrepreneurs keen to use web search systems for their own applications or services. [K]
Wikipedia A study by the journal Nature has found that the accuracy of scientific information contained in the free online resource Wikipedia is roughly the same as that of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Wikipedia is produced by volunteers who add entries and edit others. It was founded in 2001, and now plays host to more than 1.8 million articles in 200 languages. [K]
Bayh-Dole act and intellectual property It is more than a quarter of a century since America passed the Bayh-Dole act. The act enables US universities to patent any innovation that springs from government-funded research, license it and share the spoils with the inventor. The idea was not to enrich universities, but to give them a reason to propagate the fruits of research, which had been mouldering unexploited. Scores of medical advances and technical innovations have resulted, including MRI body scanning, the vaccine for hepatitis B, the atomic-force microscope, and even the technique behind Google's search engine. However, over-commercialisation of US university research is now being criticised for inhibiting the flow of knowledge and technical advances in research, and changing US universities so that they are virtually identical to companies. [K][T] |
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| [C] Computing, supercomputing, modelling and simulation | |
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Multimedia processors The need to optimise performance per watt means that designers are putting many processors on a chip rather than squeezing the maximum speed from a single processor. There is likely to be a convergence between general microprocessors and graphics and multimedia chips as they all exploit parallelism, and as gaming and multimedia become the main drivers for computing. Cell, the new processor developed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba, has nine processors on a chip, which together deliver 192 gigaflops. Cell is targeted at high-volume mass-market products such as games consoles and televisions. Exploiting the full potential of such parallel processors will mean a huge shift in how computers are programmed, so that their processors can run at full speed without having to hang around for outputs from other processors. This means that new software tools to support programming will be all important. [C][J][T][V][W]
Simulation and gaming Observing participants playing computer games can be used to gain better understanding of decision making and team-forming processes and to model specific activities, such as terrorist and counterterrorist operations, or building an intelligence picture. Gaming can be used at several levels: at the micro level to explore the behaviour and processes of individuals, at the medium level to explore how individuals work within systems, and at the macro level of whole organisations and operations. Gaming can reveal unexpected behaviours and emergent properties of systems, and unforeseen gaps in knowledge. In doing this, a big challenge is to make games sufficiently representative of the real world without making them over-complex. [C][D][K][T][V][W][X]
Violent computer games Using electroencephalogram (EEG) measurements, US researchers have shown that playing violent computer games appears to diminish brain responses to images of real-life violence, such as gun attacks, but not to other emotionally disturbing pictures, such as those of dead animals, or sick children. The research does not prove a direct link between violent games and violent behaviour, but it is seen as indicative. [C][B][D][K]
4-body breakthrough In a computational breakthrough, the first-ever complete quantum-mechanical solution of a system with four charged particles, namely the photoionization of a hydrogen molecule, has been achieved by US, Spanish and Belgium researchers. The breakthrough was inspired by experiments at the Advanced Light Source measuring the position and momentum of both electrons and protons resulting from the photofragmentation of molecular hydrogen. [C][F][M][N][O]
Quantum networking Several research teams have published important progress towards quantum networking. Research teams at Harvard and at Georgia Tech have independently used powerful laser pulses to extract quantum information from a cloud of atoms in the form of a single photon. That photon was then transmitted through a normal optical fibre before its quantum state was transferred to a second atomic cloud. The storage and retrieval of a qubit state in an atomic quantum memory node is an important step towards a quantum repeater device necessary for transmitting quantum information over long distances through optical fibres. A third team at Caltech has demonstrated entanglement over long distances by entangling the physical state of a group of atoms with that of another group of atoms across the room. [C][I]
Qubit lifetime Scientists at Oxford University have come a step closer to quantum ‘supercomputers’ by creating a new technique, called bang-bang, to isolate a qubit from its environment. The qubit, held on the nuclear spin of an ion, is incorporated inside a buckyball, which acts as a molecular cage. Then the ion is blasted repeatedly with strong microwave pulses. These pulses repeatedly shock the ion's nuclear spin preventing it from coupling with its environment. The scientists say they were able to show a very high level of decoupling of the nuclear spin from its environment. [C][N] |
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| [W] Whole life engineering, manufacture and testing | |
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Software testing A consortium of 11 European organisations has developed a generic solution to enable automated testing of software systems. The methodologies and tools are based on TTCN-3, the international standardised testing language from the European Telecommunication Standards Institute, and have been validated in industrial-scale demonstrators for automotive, railway, financial and telecommunications applications. The consortium estimates that they could cut software testing costs by up to 50 percent and reduce the total cost of software development by more than 10 percent. [W][C][E][I][K]
Ink-jet fabrication Ink-jet technology may provide ways of manufacturing everything from solar cells and medical sensors to electronic circuits and pharmaceuticals. Engineering applications include printing metals tracks on circuit boards and flexible substrates, printing cheaper transparent electrodes for flat panel displays, fabricating solar cells in a single process, and printing materials that harden to form the walls of fuel cells. In biology and medicine, ink-jet technology may be used to make strip sensors with inbuilt electronics, and to print live cells to build up biological tissue and even organs. Medicines might be custom-made on demand by jet-filling pills with the required drugs. Ink-jet technology might also be used to bring together tiny quantities of liquids to carry out the combinatorial tests that are used, for example, in DNA testing. [W][H][J][M][N][P][S][T][V]
Rapid manufacture The world's first commercial-scale system for the rapid manufacture of lattice metal parts is being developed by UK researchers. It uses selective laser melting to turn titanium, stainless steel and many other metals into parts made of lattice metals. These have a structure similar to scaffolding but on a much finer scale. Because loads are channelled along the "scaffolding poles", the parts can comprise up to 70 percent air while remaining strong enough to perform correctly. The components could replace solid metal in integrated circuits, automotive uses and other applications. Aircraft parts, for example, could be produced that have less than half the weight of conventional alternatives. [W][A][M][O][P] |
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| [X] Systems, complexity and risk | |
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Ethical risks Research has found that people who focus primarily on the ends recognise ethical issues when harm is done but are much less sensitive to ethical issues that seem to only involve a violation of the means. Means-focused people, however, recognise both harmful situations and those situations in which the means used were an ethical issue. The results are important for governance and suggest that organisations like Enron that overemphasise outcomes might be at risk of making their leaders blind to ethics and limiting their abilities to recognise ethical or moral issues. Other researchers have found a relationship between the role models that students adopt and how they view unethical behaviour in negotiations. [X][B][D][H][K][W]
Complex systems In its January issue, IEEE Spectrum cites five winning technology developments for 2006 and five losers. One of the winners is the wireless broadband service being introduced in Kuala Lumpur. Among the five losers, in the view of IEEE Spectrum, is the system architecture by which the UK government is proposing to introduce biometric identity cards, particularly because of the risks in such a complex monolithic system. [X][C][I][K][T]
Stock market Shareholders seem to be swayed by the buying pattern of other shareholders much less than has hitherto been assumed, according to research by economists at the Bank of England, McKinsey and universities in Germany. The researchers scrutinised the share-buying behaviour of about 6,500 persons in an Internet experiment. They found no signs of 'herd instinct', but did demonstrate the value of taking account of psychological effects in share prices rather than relying just on cool rationality. Psychologists proved more successful at investing than physicists and mathematician, or even than economists. [X][B]
Bayesian-reasoning and the mind Bayesian reasoning lies at the heart of leading internet search engines and automated “help wizards”. Given a good prior model, it enables strong inferences to be drawn from sparse data. Some psychologists are now suggesting that the human brain itself might be a Bayesian-reasoning machine. The Bayesian capacity to draw strong inferences from sparse data could be crucial to the way the mind perceives the world, plans actions, comprehends and learns language, reasons from correlation to causation, and even understands the goals and beliefs of other minds. Experimental evidence is now supporting this theory, showing that people do indeed have the ability to make accurate predictions from very sparse information and that they possess good prior models of what probability distribution to apply in each circumstance. [X][B][K]
The human mind A high level expert group set up by the European Commission has examined new opportunities arising from advances in understanding the human mind. The report argues for much more interdisciplinary research to link the rapid progress being made in many fields - from molecular and behavioural science to the humanities. It reviews progress in genetics, neurobiology, cognitive science, human and animal behaviour, paleoanthropology, history, modelling and philosophy, and outlines five key thematic areas: the genetics of human cognition, the developing and ageing mind, the process of thinking, motivation and decision making, and cultural context. Understanding how and why humans think in certain ways should help with issues of globalisation, demographic transition, corruption and conflict resolution, and in moderating human behaviour to cope with global warming and shrinking natural resources. [X][B][C][D][G][K][T]
Genome complexity The ubiquitous and usually harmless E. coli bacterium, which has one-seventh the number of genes as a human, has more than 1,000 of them involved in metabolism and metabolic regulation. Activation of random combinations of these genes would theoretically be capable of generating a huge variety of internal states. However, computer simulation of growing E.coli in 15,580 different environments showed that only a handful of dominant metabolic states are found. This finding that genetic complexity yields surprisingly few physiological functions may be a general principal in many, if not all, species. [X][G]
Complexity and genome size As a general rule, more complex organisms, like humans, have larger genomes than less complex ones, but there are many exceptions. For example, some species of frogs and some amoeba have much larger genomes than humans. Researchers at Georgia Tech have found experimental evidence that supports the hypothesis that most of the mutations that arise in organisms are not advantageous and that the smaller a species effective population size (the number of individuals who contribute genes to the next generation), the larger the genome will be. The implications are that it is not beneficial adaptive mutations, but slightly bad ones that make the genome larger. But having a large genome provides more genetic material for evolution to make something useful. So successful complex organisms have genomes that are large but not over large. [X][E][G]
Marine microbial ecosystem Microbes in the ocean play a crucial role in maintain the Earth's biosphere, but little is yet known about them, according to an interdisciplinary report by the American Academy of Microbiology. The report, titled "Marine Microbial Diversity: The Key to Earth's Habitability", makes a number of recommendations for future research in marine microbiology including the roles of both climate change and human activities on the populations and processes of marine microbes. [X][E][G][H][R][T] |
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| [V] Virtuality and human-machine interface | |
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Voice recognition The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has completed a draft for the VoiceXML 3.0 standard for technology enabling voice identification and verification. While normally associated with voice commands, it has the potential to greatly speed and improve the accuracy and positive proof of online transactions. [V][I]
Videoconferencing A videoconferencing system that gives meeting participants in different locations the illusion that they are just across the table from each other has been developed by Hewlett Packard. Each conferencing studio contains three large plasma screens fitted into the wall opposite a large conference table. A fourth screen hangs above these and can be used to display presentations to everyone simultaneously. [V][I]
Chameleon shawl Japanese researchers have developed a colour-shifting garment that automatically changes colour to suit the rest of an outfit. Interwoven into the scarf material are pixels containing red, blue and green light-emitting diodes. Adjusting the brightness of each type of diode turns the scarf a different overall shade, which can be chosen to match or contrast with the rest of the outfit. [V][M][O]
OLED display Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute have constructed transparent OLED displays using light-emitting polymers. Their brightness, operating life time and efficiency are high and suitable for commercial applications. The display is sufficiently transparent that it might be combined with liquid crystal displays to provide an information overlay, or incorporated into car window screens to provide head-up displays. [V][O]
Nano-interfaces Coatings made with titanium and peppered with pores only nanometres wide could help interface living cells with electronics for prosthetics and other advanced devices. [V][G][M][N] |
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| [B] Brain research and human science | |
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Sleep inertia The brain takes a considerable time to shake off the effects of sleep, according to researchers. They found that the cognitive skills of test subjects were worse upon awakening than after extended sleep deprivation, and for a short period could be as bad as being drunk. The most severe effects generally dissipated within the first 10 minutes, but the effects were often detectable for up to two hours. The research has implications for medical, safety and transportation workers and for others who are often called upon to perform critical tasks immediately after waking. [B][D][H][V][W]
Sleep restriction As the pace of life quickens, many people are functioning on less than normal sleep. It is well known that sleep-deprived individuals have a shorter attention span, impaired memory, and a longer reaction time. Experiments in rats have now found that sleep deprivation interferes with learning by reducing the survival of new cells in the hippocampus. The researchers also found that sleep-deprived rats given a non-memory recognition task did better than their rested counterparts. This may be because the rats were not confused by trying to rely on memory, and may indicate that sleep restriction may not impair performance where memory is not needed. [B][W]
Memory Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), US researchers have found evidence that the act of recalling a memory is a bit like mental time travel. In searching for memories of a particular event, the brain progressively recreates a state resembling the state it was in when experiencing the initial event. [B][U]
Learning to speak Researchers at Rutgers University believe they have located a place in the brain where songbirds store the memories of their parents' songs. The discovery provides neurobiological evidence that helps explain how human infants acquire speech. Humans and songbirds are among the few animals that learn to vocalise by imitating their caregivers. [B]
Pavlovian conditioning Much of advertising is aimed at developing consumer preference for particular brands and products by associating brand items with other rewarding or appetite stimuli. The neural mechanism by which this occurs has been explored using fMRI. The researchers detected significant activity in a region called the ventral midbrain, as well as an area of the ventral striatum. In the former region, the researchers found that the response increased with increasing preference. And in the latter area, the researchers found a "bivalent" response, with the highest responses for highest and lowest preference. [B]
Neuronal communication By introducing expression of a special green-algae gene into neurons of the tiny, transparent nematode C. elegans, researchers have been able to elicit specific behavioural responses by simply illuminating animals with blue light. The work paves the way for better understanding of how neurons communicate with each other, and with muscles, to regulate behaviour in intact, living organisms. [B][G]
Controlling neural activity Brain-imaging using fMRI now enables individuals to use mental exercises to control activity in specific neural regions. Preliminary evidence indicates that people can in this way learn to quell temporary or chronic physical pain. [B][H]
Trust and fear The brain hormone oxytocin has recently been found to boost trust. New research shows that it appears to work by reducing activity and weakening connections in fear-processing circuitry in the amygdala and in its brainstem relay stations in response to fearful stimuli. The work suggests that a long-acting analogue of oxytocin could have therapeutic value in disorders characterised by social avoidance, such as social phobia and autism. [B][H]
Stress and health A new study has shown that stress substantially slows the human body's ability to heal. A study on married couples found that for those who were routinely hostile toward each other, healing of minor wounds took nearly twice as long compared with couples where hostility was low. This difference was also reflected in levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) in the blood. Sustained higher-than-normal levels of IL-6 have been linked to long-term inflammation which, in turn, is implicated in a host of major age-related illnesses. [B][H] |
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| [H] Healthcare and medicine | |
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Pain relief There are four major opioid receptors in the cells of the central nervous system. Researchers have developed a drug that binds to only one of these receptors, called mu, and blocks another receptor, called delta. Tests in mice showed that this drug was about 50 times more effective than morphine in blocking pain and also did not appear to produce any drug dependence. Also, the drug alleviated pain just as strongly at the end of the experiments as it did at the beginning, indicating that, unlike morphine, it did not produce tolerance. [H][B][G]
Osteoporosis Endocannabinoids might provide a way to prevent bone density loss and to treat osteoporosis, according to researchers in Israel. Endocannabinoids are compounds similar to the psychoactive components in cannabis. They are produced mainly in the brain and also in the bone and other tissues, and activate two receptors, CB1 and CB2. CB1 is found in the nervous system and is responsible for the psychoactive effects of cannabis and endocannabinoids. The second receptor, CB2, is found in the immune system and the researchers have found that it is present in high levels in bone and maintains bone density, stimulating bone building and reducing bone loss. The researchers have developed a new drug, HU-308, that activates CB2 and have shown experimentally in mice that this drug slows the development of osteoporosis and is also free of any psychoactive side effects. [H][A]
Multiple sclerosis Some clinical studies have indicated that marijuana or its active cannabinoid ingredient alleviates symptoms of the inflammatory disease multiple sclerosis (MS). Also, researchers have found that the brain's natural "endocannabinoids" are released after brain injury and are believed to alleviate neuronal damage. Now researchers in Germany and the US have pinpointed how one of the brain's endocannabinoids protects neurons from inflammation after such damage. They believe this work could lead to new drugs to treat the inflammation and brain degeneration from MS or other such disorders. [H][B]
Cancer prevention According to researchers at UCSD, taking 1,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D3 daily - half the safe daily dose - appears to lower an individual's risk of developing certain cancers by up to 50 percent. These include colon, breast and ovarian cancer. The findings are based upon an extensive systematic review of scientific papers on the relationship of blood serum levels or oral intake of vitamin D with risk of certain types of cancers published worldwide between January 1966 and December 2004. However, the survey does not identify any mechanism that could explain the linkage. [H]
Bright lights and cancer Animal experiments and surveys of people over the past two decades has supported the hypothesis that night time illumination, by interrupting the body's mainly nocturnal production of the hormone melatonin, might increase the risk of breast cancer. Now clear evidence has been obtained from recent experiments. The effect appears to be very large. Experiments in mice showed that night time exposure to artificial light stimulated the growth of human breast tumours by suppressing the levels of melatonin. The study also showed that extended periods of night time darkness greatly slowed the growth of these tumours. The study results might explain why female night shift workers have a higher rate of breast cancer. It might also help explain the epidemic rise in breast cancer incidence in industrialised countries. [H][V]
High fibre diet A high fibre diet from whole plant foods has been shown to reduce the risk of heart diseased and diabetes, and has also been thought to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer. However, evidence for this has been inconclusive, and now a prospective study has found no association when allowance was made for other dietary factors such as consumption of red meat. The prospective study combined data from 13 studies covering 725,628 men and women followed over 6 to 20 years. [H] |
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| [G] Genomics, biotechnology and bioinformatics | |
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Cause of type II diabetes US researchers have discovered a molecular link between a high-fat, Western-style diet, and the onset of type 2 diabetes. In studies in mice, they found that knocking out a single gene encoding the enzyme GnT-4a glycosyltransferase (GnT-4a ) disrupts insulin production. Then they also showed that a high-fat diet suppresses the activity of the same gene, disrupting the insulin-secreting beta cells in the pancreas. This leads to loss of control of glucose levels in the blood and the onset of type 2 diabetes. [G][H]
Stem cell therapy Scientists have managed to protect and regenerate the part of the brain that is damaged in Parkinson’s disease, by genetically engineering cells to bypass the blood-brain barrier and then produce a growth molecule called glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) inside the brain. Previous studies have shown that GDNF increases the survival and function of dopamine-producing cells, which are progressively destroyed in Parkinson’s disease. [G][B][H]
Neural stem cell therapy One key gene, called brahma-related gene-1 (Brg-1), appears to control how neural stem cells become various kinds of brain cells. In the early stages of brain development prior to birth, the stem cells differentiate into neurons. But, in later stages, these same stem cells suddenly start becoming glial cells, which perform a number of functions that include supporting the neurons. Since the process only involves a single gene, it should be possible to develop drugs to promote stem cell differentiation in the adult nervous system to treat diseases and injury to the brain and spinal cord. [G][B][H]
Cancer stem cells The process of cell division has a series of checkpoints to prevent mistakes that might produce cancer-causing chromosome abnormalities. One such checkpoint confirms that the cell's chromosomes have been disentangled before they are pulled apart in mitosis. US researchers have now found that stem and progenitor cells lack this checkpoint and will divide even if the chromosomes are entangled. This may explain how a cancer stem cell arises from a normal cell and acquires additional mutations that increase malignancy. The findings could be an obstacle for stem cell therapies, which involve pushing stem cells to divide many times more than they normally would divide in an organism. [G][H]
Breast stem cell Using experiments on mice, researchers have identified the rare stem cell that drives the formation of all breast tissue. This discovery lays an important foundation for understanding how normal breast tissue develops. The identification of the breast stem cell is also likely to provide clues about how breast cancer develops and how rogue cells evade current therapies. [G][H]
New view of cancer The traditional view of cancer is that it arises from a series of genetic changes in a cell's nuclear DNA. However, an alternative hypothesis is that, although genetic changes occur in the development of cancers, these are preceded by epigenetic changes. These include the turning off or quieting of genes that normally suppress cancer and the turning on of oncogenes to produce proteins that set off malignant behaviour. The first stage may be an epigenetic disruption of progenitor cells within an organ or tissue, altered by abnormal regulation of tumour-progenitor genes. This leads to a population of cells ready to cause new growth. This view would suggest that screening for epigenetic changes might enable people to be treated before tumours develop. [G][H]
Synthetic biology Rather than randomly altering a few genes in a cell's DNA, some genetic engineers are now breaking genomes into collections of parts and precisely reassembling them. The fruits of the approach are taking many different forms: bacteria that can count or form patterns in a petri dish, a virus redesigned to make its genes easier to study, microbes programmed to seek out and destroy tumours, and bacteria that produce great quantities of a rare and complicated malaria drug. [G][H][T]
Combating AIDS At the University of Bonn, researchers have found that it should be possible to produce dicaffeoyl quinic acid (DCQF) relatively cheaply using a sunflower gene. DCQF is currently so rare that it sells at a million euros a gram. It holds huge potential as a treatment for AIDS, because it inhibits viral integrase, an enzyme that is essential for HIV to reproduce, and it should have few side-effects compared with current anti-AIDS drugs. [G][H]
Genes and ageing According to research at Yale, micro-RNA genes that control the timing of organ formation during development also control timing of ageing and death. This provides evidence of a biological timing mechanism for ageing,. [G]
Avoiding antibiotic resistance Researchers have discovered that Attini ants carry potent antibiotic bacteria in special pockets on their bodies. They use these bacteria to help control a parasite that can ruin a fungus that they tend and harvest. It appears they have used the bacteria in this way for as long as 50 million years, and the mystery is how they have avoided promoting resistance in the parasite. Understanding how the ants achieve this could be very valuable for both agriculture and medicine. [G][E][H]
Improved rice Japanese scientists have made an important and long sought-after improvement in rice, making it more rigid so that sunlight can reach leaves on even the lowest parts of the plant. This improves photosynthesis and therefore grain production. Being stiffer also allows plants to be placed in closer proximity without interfering with each other's growth. The new plant produced more than 30 percent more grain than regular rice plants without the generous helpings of fertiliser commonly used with present varieties of rice. [G][D][E][T]
Story of wheat Over the past 11,000 years, a slightly nutritious grass has been transformed by man into high yielding varieties of wheat, rice and maize that have driven the vast expansion in human population. [G][D][E][T]
Feline family tree Modern cats have their roots in Asia 11 million years ago, according to a DNA study of wild and domestic cats. Eight major lineages emerged, including lions, ocelots and domestic cats. The domestic cat is most closely related to the African and European wild cat and the Chinese desert cat. [G] |
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| [N] Nanotechnology and molecular technology | |
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Nanomedicine The European Science Foundation has published a forward look on nanomedicine. According to the report, cancer is a prime area where nanomedicine research is already showing great potential for providing new treatments. Nanomedicine could also revolutionise treatments for atherosclerosis, AIDS, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. [N][G][H][T]
Nanoparticle therapy According to in vitro experiments by chemists in Chile and Spain, a combination of gold nanoparticles and irradiation with low level microwave radiation appears to provide a way to disperse protein aggregates. This might lead to an approach for treating Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's and Huntington's, that involve protein aggregation. [N][H]
Nanoparticle safety Computer simulations indicate that C60 molecules (buckyballs) are likely to bind strongly to the spirals of single and double-stranded DNA in an aqueous environment. It is known that buckyballs are able to migrate into bodily tissues and can penetrate cell membranes. The new results suggest that if they can also penetrate into the cell nucleus they could destabilise DNA and also interfere with DNA repair mechanisms. [N][G][H]
DNA pyramids Physicists at Oxford University and Vrije University in Amsterdam have invented a simple method to create robust DNA "pyramids" that self-assemble in seconds. Each side of the pyramid is made up of a double helix of DNA, creating a strong tetrahedral structure and providing exactly the capabilities needed to form the components of large 3-dimensional DNA lattices. The pyramids can be joined to make structures such as 3D scaffolds for molecular devices and electronic circuits, and could also act as containers for individual protein molecules and be used to deliver drugs. [N][G][H][J][M]
Nanoscale self-assembly Duke University scientists have used the self-assembling properties of DNA to mass-produce nanometre-scale structures in the shape of 4x4 grids on which patterns of molecules can be specified. The structure is formed from building blocks, or tiles, made up of strands of DNA bent into the shape of a cross, with a loop in the centre that can be loaded with a desired cargo. Each arm of the cross, about 10 nm long, has a pair of "sticky ends" where the DNA strand is made of unpaired bases that tend to bind with reciprocal bases. Tiles with complementary sticky ends then link together when mixed, self-assembling into the grid structure. [N][J] | |||