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Top Stories in Science
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July 2004 Issue |
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| [D] Defence and security |  |
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The UK Review of Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction by Lord Butler has found that, taken overall, intelligence has been validated to an impressive extent and has played a crucial part in enabling developing threats to international security and stability to be identified and countered. The review found a high degree of co-operation between agencies and other relevant parties, and noted the powerful multiplier of effective international (in many cases, multinational) collaboration. In Iraq, the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) and of the IAEA had proved more effective than was realised at the time in dismantling and inhibiting Iraq's prohibited weapons programme, and such international organisations need to be built on for the future, supported by intelligence from national agencies. The report recommends the use of 'virtual' networks to increase the sharing of information and expertise, and the closer involvement of defence intelligence and its scientific and technical experts. The report calls for sufficiently large resources and wide expertise to fully assess intelligence and to think radically, and the need to maintain clear awareness on the limitations of the intelligence base on which any specific judgement is based. [D][I][K][V] UK government spending on security will rise by an average of 10 percent a year in real terms, from £950 million in 2001 and £1.5 billion in 2004-05 to reach £2.1 billion by 2007-08. This will be used on modernising border control and radio communication, on counter-terrorism and on nuclear and chemical decontamination plans. UK Defence spending will also rise, from £29.7 billion in 2004-05 to £33.4 billion by 2007-08 - an average real terms increase of 1.4 percent per year. [D] EU foreign ministers have given approval for the creation of a European Defence Agency (EDA) to coordinate the EU's fragmented defence industry. The task of the EDA will be to coordinate hardware purchases, promote European defence research and end Europe's long tradition of duplication in armaments research, development and procurement. EU countries together have a total defence expenditure of 160 billion euro and 1.6 million troops. However, EU countries in total spend only 30 billion euro on procurement and ten billion euro on research at national level, according to the UK Centre for European Reform. [D] The US Congress has given final approval to a $5.6 billion, 10-year plan to stockpile drugs to treat victims of a biological attack. Project Bioshield provides incentives for pharmaceutical companies to make drugs that counter exposure to anthrax, smallpox and radiation. Overall, the US government has spent $14.5 billion on civilian biodefence since 2001, and there is a further $7.6 billion in the President's budget request for FY2005. The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) together account for more than 90 percent of the spend. A large part of the DHS funding for FY2004 and FY2005 is devoted to Project Bioshield. [D][H] Bird flu (influenza type H5N1) is becoming steadily more lethal according to Chinese and US researchers. They took 21 different samples isolated over the years since 1997 to 2004, and injected them into mice. The more recent viruses killed the mice more quickly, and were also able to reproduce in more parts of the body than before. One particular H5N1 genotype has developed immunity to drugs used to treat influenza in humans. A key question not yet resolved is whether the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus is now being spread by wild migratory birds. [D][H] DARPA has launched a major new investment thrust to provide revolutionary improvements to warfighting in urban environments. As well as technologies to support urban warfighting and logistics, the 11 specific technical areas include combating guerrilla and suicide fighters, options for post-conflict stabilisation, and tools to rapidly protect or restore the urban infrastructure or detect weapon stores. [D] Long range stun guns are being developed that do not require firing a metal wire in order to create a conducting path between the gun and target. One approach uses a small explosive charge to squirt a stream of tiny conductive fibres through the air at the target. Another projects a plasma at the target, and a third uses a UV laser to fire a 5-joule pulse lasting just 0.4 picoseconds that ionises the air. [D][O][P] |
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| [A] Aeronautics and space | |
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The July issue of IEEE Spectrum has a review of the challenges facing Boeing in competing against Airbus. [A][T] An Atlanta company is testing a solar-powered, helium-and-nitrogen–filled airship that will receive signals from nearby ground stations and rebroadcast them over the Atlanta metropolitan area. This is a proof-of-concept demonstrator aimed at gaining regulatory approval for a full-scale airship that will hold its position at 20km altitude, giving it a coverage of about 337 000 square kilometres. Thirteen airships would be enough to cover all points in the continental US. [A][I][R] SpaceShipOne successfully reached an altitude of 100,124 metres. The craft experienced a 3 second lock-out of its flight-control that forced its pilot to use a back-up system. The cause of the problem turned out to be minor and easily fixed. But, according to simulator tests, it cost the craft 9,000 metres in altitude, as well as shifting it 35 km off course. [A] The joint NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens spacecraft has successfully entered its operational orbit round Saturn. It will make at least 76 orbits around the planet and 52 close encounters with seven of its 31 known moons. In December it will release the Huygens probe, which will descend to the surface of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. [A] The Cassini-Huygens probe has seen what appear to be methane clouds and a giant impact crater on its first fly-by of Titan. In October, Cassini will make the first of 45 close passes of Titan, flying to within about 1200 kilometres. This will provide much finer images, and enable Cassini's radar to map the surface in 3D. [A][R] Initial analysis of the data collected during the Cassini spacecraft's fly-by of Saturn's moon Phoebe shows that Phoebe is almost certainly a captured object from the Kuiper Belt, out beyond Pluto. It may therefore preserve detailed information about the materials from which the planets were made 4.6 billion years ago, and could provide important clues to the nature of the whole outer Solar System. [A] The close-up images that Cassini has provided of Saturn's rings show an unexplained clumping of material within the rings, which could help scientists understand how planets are created. Saturn's rings are thought to be a small-scale version of the disk of ice and dust that once surrounded the Sun and from which the planets formed. [A] Ideas for the future that are being explored by ESA's Advanced Concepts Team include: nuclear propulsion technology and missions such as a spacecraft to orbit Pluto; the extreme difficulty of building an antimatter engine; the best routes for interstellar spacecraft to take between stars; the possibility of nudging away dangerous asteroids; and, the biology of hibernation in mammals and whether humans could hibernate on deep space voyages. Researchers in Germany have proved that at least one primate, the fat-tailed dwarf lemur, does hibernate through the winter. They have shown that hibernation does not require low temperatures but is an adaptation to cope with periods of scarce food by cutting body metabolism to a minimum. [A][B][P] After considering six different mission studies, all aimed at increasing understanding of potentially dangerous near Earth objects (NEOs), ESA has decided to develop a mission to actually move an asteroid. [A][U] China is planning to launch an unmanned mission to land on the Moon in 2007 and to build a Chinese space station. [A] |
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| [U] Unmanned vehicles and robotics | |
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US researchers have developed a small, throwable, remote-controlled prototype robot designed for surveillance in urban settings. Several of the robots are being sent to Iraq for testing. Called Dragon Runner, the robot can stand in sentry mode by using several onboard motion and audio sensors to monitor selected areas. It may also be configured to carry mission-specific payloads. It has a top speed of more than 20 miles per hour and can be deployed in less than three seconds from the backpack in which it is carried. [U][D][S] Northrop Grumman has successfully demonstrated a shipboard mission control system that will allow unmanned combat aerial vehicles to participate safely and autonomously in conventional manned, aircraft-carrier flight operations. [U][D] Networked inexpensive robots could replace large, expensive and power hungry equipment for many farming roles. [U][E][I] Robots that propel themselves by continuously deforming their shape have been developed in Japan. They are wheel-shaped, 4 cm in diameter and 1 cm thick, with a wheel rim made of an elastic polymer and spokes made of shape memory alloy. Heating a spoke by passing an electric current through it causes it to shorten, distorting the rim and making the wheel roll or even leap up to 8 cm into the air. The robot moves by sequentially contracting successive spokes, with each spoke quickly cooling back to its normal length. [U][P] |
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| [P] Propulsion and energy | |
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The most important factor in reducing aircraft noise during takeoff is to control the exhaust airflow, according to researchers at Ohio State, who have developed a "plasma actuator" technology that creates electrical arcs to control turbulence in the engine exhaust airflow. The technology not only reduces the noise but may also provide additional stealth for military aircraft. Pilots could fire the electrical arcs in certain patterns to mix the very hot exhaust gas with outside air, significantly reducing the engine heat signature. Importantly, the plasma actuators can be turned off when not needed so that they do not reduce engine efficiency - unlike mechanical chevrons currently used for noise reduction, which are permanently fixed. [P][A][E] New regulations will limit the amount of sulphur permitted in road fuel within Europe to 10 parts per million (ppm) by 2009. In contrast the limit for aviation fuel is still 3000 ppm and typical levels of sulphur in the standard Jet A-1 fuel are 350 ppm. As regulations for aviation fuel are tightened this could substantially increase aviation fuel cost, and encourage greater use of synthetic fuels. [P][A][M] A new study of the effects of combustion-related air pollutants in New York City reveals that babies in the womb are more susceptible than their mothers to DNA damage from such pollution. [P][E][H] Toshiba has developed a methanol fuel cell that it believes could be used in handheld electronic devices in place of lithium-ion batteries. The prototype cell is 22mm x 56mm x 4.5mm in size, weighs 8.5 gm including 2cc of fuel, and produces 100mW of power for 20 hours. [P] In the few millimetres just below the skin, temperature differences can be as much as 5 degrees C, enough to drive a thermocouple generator to power implanted electronics. A US company is developing a biothermal generator with thousands of minute bismuth telluride thermocouples in series on a chip. The company, Biophan, plans to produce an array 2.5 centimetres square that generates 4 volts and delivers a power of 100 microwatts, which could be implanted under the skin on the chest to drive a pacemaker. [P][H] With scientific breakthroughs on the horizon and production costs dropping, advocates of solar energy say that it is on the cusp of a huge expansion. In 2003, world production of photovoltaic modules increased 32 percent from 2002, including a 45 percent growth in Japan and 43 percent growth in Europe. Japanese companies are the world's largest photovoltaic cell manufacturers, with Sharp Electronics holding about 29 percent of the world market. This is helped by the high electricity costs in Japan ($0.22 per kWh compared $0.085 per kWh in the US) and by consistent government subsidies. [P][J][T] Carbon dioxide sequestration is being evaluated internationally to see if it provides a technically and economically viable way to dispose of carbon dioxide without releasing it to the atmosphere. Canadian researchers report that a project started in 2000 has successfully shipped high pressure carbon dioxide by pipeline from the US and pumped it into a partially-depleted oil reservoir in Saskatchewan. The higher pressure in the reservoir is enhancing oil recovery, and the prediction is that this will enable 130 million extra barrels of oil to be recovered from the Weyburn field. [P][E] New nuclear power stations are being built in Asia and Eastern Europe but hardly anywhere else, according to a new global analysis by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Currently, 442 reactors in 32 countries generate 16 percent of the world's electricity, and on present trends this will fall to around 11 percent by 2030. However, the IAEA believes this trend will reverse and the percentage could rise to more than 25 percent by 2030 depending on the rate of economic growth, particularly in developing countries. Despite large investments in wind power the UK may need to build more nuclear power stations if it is to meet its commitments on cutting carbon dioxide emissions. This puts a premium on finding a satisfactory solution to nuclear waste. [P][D][E] |
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| [M] Materials, structures and surfaces | |
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Smart fluids whose properties can be changed by the application of an electrical or magnetic field, are now emerging as a practical technology. Magneto-rheological (MR) fluids have been used to provide electronically variable dampening in vehicle suspensions, and as seismic shock absorbers for buildings in earthquake zones. MR fluids may also be used in clutches and air conditioning compressors, and in haptic devices and electrically controllable lenses for compact digital cameras. [M][O][P][S][T][V] "Metal rubber”, which conducts electricity like a metal and stretches like rubber to up to 250 percent of its original length, could be key to making artificial muscles and produce flexible electronic circuits, antennae or mirrors. Metal-rubber mirrors would be light and rugged for use in cameras, space probes or satellites. [M][A][O][P][R] With the goal of making refrigerators and air conditioners more efficient and less polluting, several groups around the world are developing magnetic-refrigerant materials. [M][P][T] Amorphous steel has been fabricated for the first time. It has a hardness and strength more than twice that of the best ultra-high-strength conventional steel. The researchers believe that structural steel in bulk metallic glass form can be produced economically with traditional drop-casting methods, in which metallic glasses are made by pouring the hot liquid into a cold copper mould. [M] Researchers using the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble have developed a method to watch the recrystallisation of metals, and have found that the growth of metallic grains is less smooth and regular than predicted by theory. The method involves making a series of 2D images through the crystal and then repeating this to build up a movie of the 3D crysallisation process. There initial observations were on a single crystal of aluminium. The researchers plan to observe other metals with the aim of developing a better description of the recrystallisation process. [M] Silicon carbide MEMS templates 40 to 100 microns across can achieve temperatures of 1100 degrees, providing compact high temperature furnaces. Applications include oxygen and engine emission sensors, chemical vapour deposition chambers and micro-reactors. [M][J][P][S] An eco-friendly way of "growing" metal for circuitry or antennas has been developed by QinetiQ. The metal printing technique replaces conventional copper etching by using a special ink which attracts metals. It means antennas for tiny mobiles or radio frequency identification (RFID) tags can be made cheaply and quickly. [M][I][R][W] |
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| [E] Environment, transport and marine | |
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It is estimated that tens of millions of people in Bangladesh and the West Bengal have been poisoned by drinking arsenic-contaminated water from wells. Researchers at Manchester University have now shown that certain kinds of bacteria are involved in the contamination by stripping arsenic from earth and depositing it in the ground water. However, it is not clear how to prevent this bacterial action affordably. [E][G] Around the world, polluted air and water and other environment-related hazards kill more than three million children under the age of five every year, according to the WHO, and children are also exposed to an enormous number of synthetic chemicals that have been invented in the last 30 to 50 years with unknown effects on their future health. European Health Ministers have called for decisive action to overcome the gaps in knowledge about the effects of chemicals on human health and to achieve sustainable development in the chemical industry. However, the problem is very complex. [E][H][X] Ten leading US climate scientists have called for more urgent action to tackle global warming. They warn that climate models might have grossly underestimated the rises in temperature that will soon occur. [E][D][X] On present trends, by 2050 the release of carbon dioxide from peat bogs could be as large as the release from burning fossil fuels. New research suggests that the cause is a complex vicious cycle. As carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere rise, plants assimilate much larger amounts which in turn increase carbon dioxide levels in the soil moisture. This feeds bacteria in the soil water that in turn break down the peaty soil itself, releasing stored carbon from the bog into the rivers as dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Bacteria in the rivers feed on the DOC and quickly convert it to carbon dioxide. Peat bogs are a vast natural reservoir of organic carbon. By one estimate, the bogs of Europe, Siberia and North America hold the equivalent of 70 years of global industrial emissions. [E] Global warming is partly caused by high sunspot activity as well as by release of greenhouse gases. A new analysis, using ice cores from Greenland, shows that the Sun is more active now than it has been at anytime in the previous 1,000 years. [E] The rise in demand for air travel is one of the most serious environmental threats facing the world, according to the Stockholm Environment Institute. The report concludes that any danger that limiting air transportation might adversely affect economic prosperity are far outweighted by the environmental risks. [E][A][X] An analysis by the UK Met Office shows that the effects of global warming will be much more intense in urban areas, where vehicles and buildings heat the air and asphalt and concrete retain heat at night. [E] The International Rice Research Institute at Los Banos in the Philippines has found that rice yields have fallen by 10 percent due to a 0.7 degree rise in temperature over the past 25 years. This is twice the fall that was predicted. The predictions were wrong because they missed the fact that global warming is most intense at night, when tropical plants need to cool off and respire. While maximum temperatures rose by 0.35 degrees C, night minima have risen by 1.1 degrees C. [E] Global warming may be causing a major shift in the ecosystem of the North Atlantic. This, together with overfishing, explains declining fish stocks and is also probably the reason that so many sea birds are dying. The problem may be that the North Atlantic is changing from a cold temperature ecosystem into a warm temperature ecosystem. Cold water species of plankton have moved much further north, and they are being replaced by more sub-tropical species. [E][X] A team of UK scientists has surveyed the running costs of 83 marine protected areas (MPAs) worldwide, ranging in size from 100 sq m up to 300,000 sq km. From this they estimate that to run a global network of marine "parks" to protect threatened ocean ecosystems would cost around $13bn per year for 30 percent coverage of the oceans. Though this is expensive it would safeguard, and increase, the global fish catch, and also benefit income from marine tourism. However, enforcing and policing such parks would present major technical and social challenges. [E][D][X] |
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| [R] Remote sensing and sensor systems | |
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A new underwater navigation and search system developed by QinetiQ will increase the effectiveness of mine clearance divers. It incorporates a high frequency, forward looking sonar search capability integrated with navigation technologies, a data recording facility and user-friendly display. [R][D][E] US and UK researchers have developed a system called Place Lab that uses triangulation of Wi-Fi signals to provide an alternative to GPS for determining location in cities where Wi-Fi networks are dense and GPS signals tend to be screened out by buildings. At present the method can provide accuracy of only 20-30 metres but as Wi-Fi density increases the accuracy could rival GPS. Place Lab has already been tested in Berkeley, San Diego, Seattle, Manhattan and Cambridge in the UK, among other cities. [R][I][S] Europe and the US have signed a deal to co-operate over satellite navigation. The EU's Galileo system will now be compatible with the US GPS. Galileo's frequencies will be structured so that signals can be jammed in war zones if necessary. [R][A][D] Road toll technology is becoming increasingly complex, and could ultimately shape the future of motoring. A traditional toll plaza is very expensive to build and to operate. In comparison, a state-of-the-art electronic toll plaza is two orders of magnitude cheaper to build and an order of magnitude cheaper to run. The vehicle is identified from a battery powered tag without it needing to slow down at the booth by means of designated short range communication (DSRC), using microwave or infra-red signals. GPS determines the vehicle's position to within a few metres, and an on-board unit (OBU) records where the vehicle has been and at what time to calculate charges. Electronic road tolling is already working very successfully for lorries in Switzerland. A key challenge, however, will be to make different national and local systems interoperable. [R][E][I][T] Satellite mapping techniques can provide precise information about small earth movements. Researchers at the University of California have measured landslides moving downhill at between 5 and 38 millimetres per year. They tracked the movement of highly reflective objects such as buildings or rock outcrops using high-resolution interferometric synthetic aperture radar data collected by two European Remote Sensing satellites from 1992 to 2001. [R][A] The Lisa Pathfinder satellite, which is to be built by EADS-Astrium and launched in 2008, will demonstrate technologies that will be necessary to detect gravitational waves in space. [R][A][S] Self-configuring, self-powered sensor networks known as "smart dust" could become a serious technology by 2010. BP is experimenting with a 160-node network on one of its ships to see if this can predict equipment failures. Researchers at Ohio University are planning this December to demonstrate a 10,000-node sensor “fence” around ten square kilometres of corn fields, for the American military. [R][D][I][M][S][T] Robust intelligent networked sensors, developed at the University of Southampton, are being inserted at the base of glaciers to collect information about the glacial movement and melting, and the effects of global warming. The sensors are pebble-shaped so that they match the way sediment that gets caught up at the bottom of glaciers flows with the ice and meltwater. [R][S] |
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| [S] Sensor devices | |
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The magnetoelastic sensor technology used for security tags on merchandise in stores can also be exploited to make very cheap passive underskin sensors to measure the blood sugar level of diabetic patients. The magnetoelastic material is coated with a polymer that responds to changes in acidity and with a second coating of glucose oxidase. The glucose oxidase reacts with blood glucose to produce an acid that causes the polymer to swell, changing the frequency of the sensor when it is excited by a magnetic field. According to the researchers, the technology also shows promise for monitoring environmental toxins and bioterrorism agents such as ricin. [S][M] Japanese researchers have developed electronic skin to give robots a sense of touch. It consists of a sheet of rubbery polymer, impregnated with flakes of electrically conducting graphite. The electrical resistance of the sheet changes when it is squeezed, and this change is detected by an array of transistors beneath the rubber to sense pressure and its location. The researchers are hoping to also give the skin sensitivity to temperature and humidity. Other possible applications are for pressure mats and seat covers, for example to distinguish individuals by their footfall, to monitor training, posture, pressure and alertness, and as home telehealthcare sensors. [S][A][B][D][H][M][U][V] TeraHertz detectors may be used for airport security screening within a few years in the form of a handheld security wand that could be used by airport security guards to pass over the body of passengers. [S][A] As DNA analysis technology becomes more powerful, compact and cheap, this opens the way to use DNA as a security marker. [S][D][G][T] Military magnetic sensor technology has been adapted by QinetiQ researchers to protect against the risk of a ferrous object accidentally being taken into a MRI scanner room in a hospital. Ferrous materials can become dangerous or even lethal projectiles when attracted by the MRI scanner's high magnetic fields. Moreover, turning the superconducting magnets off to remove a metal objects means the scanner is out of action for days. [S][H] Magnetic resonance imaging has been used by IBM researchers to pinpoint the position of a single, unpaired electron for the first time. The key to the breakthrough was to construct a cantilever sensor 100nm thick and 85nm long that could detect the force of one attoNewton produced by a single electron’s spin in response to an applied magnetic field. The technique opens the way towards imaging biomolecules in three dimensions, once it has been adapted to detect the force exerted by the spin of atomic nuclei. [S][G][N] Conventional ultrasonic techniques for detecting cracks and other defects in railway lines require making contact to the rail and only work at speeds of around 20-30 mph. This requires special slow trains and disrupts the use of the rail network by high speed trains. Research at the University of Warwick has developed a new type of contactless sensor that exploits low frequency wideband Rayleigh waves. It works at high speed and could be mounted on ordinary trains, enabling continuous inspection of the network. [S][R] US researchers have developed quantum dot infra-red sensors with a detectivity nearly 100 times higher than the previously reported peak for quantum-dot systems, and only a factor of 10 lower than for cadmium mercury telluride (CMT) detectors. [S][N] |
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| [O] Optoelectronics, optics and lasers | |
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Conventional optical fibres have circular cross-sections. If optical fibres have non-circular cross sections and are twisted, some photons leave the core and enter the cladding, imparting a circular polarisation. This effect can be used to produce optical components. By twisting fibre optic strands into helical shapes, researchers have created unique structures that can precisely filter, polarise or scatter light. Compatible with standard fibre optic lines, these hair-like structures may replace bulky components in sensors, gyroscopes and other devices. [O][S] Ion beams can be used to drill nanoscale holes through materials. According to research at Imperial College this could enable optical lenses and computers to be built at much small dimensions that the wavelength of light by exploiting surface plasmon effects. [O][C][J] Two research teams, one at NIST in Boulder Colorado and the other at the University of Innsbruck, have independently achieved teleportation, the transfer of quantum states, between ions. The NIST team used beryllium ions and the Innsbruck team used calcium ions. This is a significant step towards practical quantum computers using many ions. Whereas in past work the quantum transfers took place only when certain random processes happened to occur, such as photons arriving simultaneously at a detector, the Innsbruck and NIST teams can produce teleportation controllably on demand. [O][C] Physicists have succeeded in entangling five photons for the first time. Although four photons have been entangled before, five is the minimum number needed for universal error correction in quantum computation. [O][C] |
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| [I] IT, communications, networking and secure systems | |
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Digital processing technology on board satellites can help emergency services share information more effectively during natural disasters. [I][A][D] Five years ago wireless networking was a niche technology. Now Wi-Fi is becoming pervasive, and shows the power of opening up spectrum to unregulated use and of creating universal open standards. This is just the start of the wireless networking story. Wi-Fi allows local networks with a range of 50 metres or so. Within a few years, WiMax, based on the IEEE 802.16 standard, should provide a wide-area version with a maximum throughput of 70 megabits per second, and a maximum range of 50km. Another new standard, 802.15.3 known as WiMedia, will provide short-range, high-capacity home networking with much better power economy for portable devices. [I][T] US and German researchers have used a range of genetic algorithms to develop strategies for internet servers to use when caching data to improve traffic flow and download times. When tested on a simulated network of 300 nodes, the algorithms that evolved were twice as fast as the best existing strategy. [I][C] Future households will be connected to the internet via a broadband link that is always on, and content will be shared wirelessly between rooms within the home. A struggle is developing over which industry will dominate this network. The computer chip and software industry wants the PC to become the digital hub. The consumer electronics industry wants it to be the games/entertainment console. [I][K][T][V] Real error correction codes have started to approach the Shannon limit, the maximum theoretical rate at which information can be transmitted without error. Turbo coding, which combines two convolution codes, is being deployed in third-generation mobile-telephone networks and allows wireless access over ten times faster than from an old-fashioned dial-up line. To work well turbo codes require long blocks of data and are almost ideal for data-rich applications such as wireless broadband. Low-density parity check (LDPC) codes, which use sparse matrix encoding, perform even better. They are being incorporated into the standards for 4G mobile telephones, which will be able to handle up to a gigabit per second. [I][T] A survey by Yahoo has concluded that spam is costing the UK economy £6.7 billion a year. It is estimated that around 14.5 billion spam messages are sent around the world each day. [I][K] |
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| [K] Knowledge, information and technology management | |
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The younger generation of mobile phone users are becoming so emotionally attached to their phones that they cannot live without them, according to a study of 10 to 14-year-olds. These so-called "M-Agers" are increasingly sophisticated in using their mobile phone to manage their lives. [K][B][I] There is a big market for intelligent editing systems that can automatically scan through video footage to tag and extract particular events. For sports such as football that follow well defined rules and take place in predictable locations, computers are beginning to be able to pick out the key pieces of play and automatically compile highlight packages that can be customised to an individual viewer's interests. [K][C][R] Data mining can enable retailers and service providers to build personal knowledge about individual customers' needs and buying habits. Initially the data deluge far outpaced the capabilities of the data mining technology to digest it. However, as data mining has matured, it is now possible to mine data in real time to adjust pricing and to accurately spot credit card fraud, for example. There is also growing interest in technology such as IBM's WebFountain that can analyse unstructured data, such as text on the web, and in predictive analytics that may make it possible to accurately forecast trends. [K][D][H][T][X] The ageing population is creating a huge future market for intelligent home telehealthcare and security. Many companies are developing sensors and systems to detect accidents and hazards, and to predict incipient problems, in order to alert the home user or carer. However, many of the assistive technology products are driven by technological opportunity rather than user needs, and are not being adopted. Programmes to promote the use of the technology and to understand what is really needed are largely unsuccessful or non-existent. [K][D][H][R][S][T] The Netherlands is to prioritise sustainable technologies, researcher mobility and fundamental research during its six month presidency of the EU. The EU research commissioner Philippe Busquin has launched a new initiative that aims to make it easier for researchers and their families to move around Europe. [K][T] A new study by the UK Engineering Employers Federation (EEF) claims that investing across the board in new technologies, skills and innovation is the key to improving company performance. Based on a survey of 600 businesses in the UK, France and Germany, the EEF report shows 'substantial evidence' that investment holds the key to faster growth and increased profitability. [K][T] UK government investment in science will rise from £3.9bn in 2004 to £5bn by 2008 according to the latest 10 year government spending review. The new money will go on science teaching, support for graduates and for link-ups with business to increase innovation. [K][T] |
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| [C] Computing, supercomputing, modelling and simulation | |
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Playing a video game that simulate their illness and treatment may enable patients, particularly children, to understand and cope better with having diseases such as cancer and their therapy. [C][H][K] Building driver behaviour into models of traffic flow has enabled German researchers to correctly include "concertina" traffic bunching and to accurately predict congestion density up to an hour in advance more than 90 percent of the time. The model is already being used to forecast traffic on the autobahn network around the city of Cologne, based on traffic data gathered in real time from sensors buried in the road. The forecasts are displayed on the web, but this is altering the traffic because drivers change routes in response to the predictions. Other simulations predict that if only 20 percent of cars are equipped with adaptive cruise control, which uses radar to monitor the road ahead and adjust the speed accordingly, bunching can be largely prevented, and big improvements achieved in traffic flow even in the most dire road conditions. [C][E][K][R] A US company has completed the first stage of building what is claimed to be the first neural system to achieve a level of complexity rivalling that of the mammalian brain. The system, CCortex, has 20 billion neurones and 20 trillion connections, and is aiming to replicate primary characteristics of human intelligence. The company has completed the first step, which was to develop a realistic representation of the workflow of a functioning human cortex. Dubbed the CCortex-based Autonomous Cognitive Model ('ACM'), the software may have immediate applications for data mining, network security, search engine technologies and natural language processing. [C][B][K][U][X] |
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| [W] Whole life engineering, manufacture and testing | |
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The UK Government has published a strategy for the manufacturing industry. Manufacturing contributes most of UK exports, but manufacturing productivity is 55 percent higher in the US than in the UK, 32 percent higher in France and 29 percent higher in Germany. Although the UK manufacturing sector comprises only 20 percent of UK output, it accounts for between 30 and 40 percent of the total shortfall in productivity between the UK and its competitors. The report concludes that Government and industry must look closely at the barriers to increasing productivity and how to overcome them, exploiting capital and knowledge-intensive production techniques, high and sustained levels of R&D, and levels of investment that can turn innovations into manufacturing success. [W][K][T] Inadequacies in managing inventory, scheduling and accounting information cost the automobile industry more than $5 billion a year and the electronics industry almost $3.9 billion a year, or about 1.2 percent of the value of shipments in each industry, according to a study commissioned by NIST. Almost all of these costs could be eliminated with optimally integrated systems for exchanging information throughout supply chains, the study concludes. Lack of universally accepted and implemented standards for the format and content of messages is a key problem. [W][K] The introduction of RFID tagging is proceeding well to plan in retail, defence, transport and manufacturing logistics. As prices fall, demand should grow, from tens of billions of tags in 2006, to hundreds of billions by 2009, to perhaps trillions a few years later. [W][I][R] Rapid prototyping machines have now become so sophisticated that it is possible to print devices with moving parts. Machines driven from CT scanners can produce a great range of parts for reconstructive surgery, such as teeth, bones and hip joints. The technology has now reached the stage where it is a realistic prospect to print whole body organs, building them up by arranging individual cells one layer at a time. [W][H][M][N][R][T] Designers often work best with their hands in developing an initial design. Researchers from the Virtual Reality Lab at the University at Buffalo have developed a "'virtual clay sculpting system" that enables users to replicate in real time on a personal computer the physical act of sculpting a block of clay or other malleable material. The resulting 3D electronic shape can then be fine-tuned using standard CAD software. [W][C][V] |
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| [X] Systems, complexity and risk | |
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A biological cell can be viewed as a factory that contains an elaborate network of interlocking assembly lines, each of which is composed of a set of large protein machines. The new field of "interactomics" is involved in deconstructing these molecular machines, mapping protein-protein interactions in bacteria, yeast, fruit flies, nematodes, mice, and humans, in order to unravel the functions of unknown proteins, and determine which protein complexes they participate in. Mapping the protein-interaction networks is a huge task given the hundreds of thousands of different proteins in each cell, and their many variants. Protein-interaction networks are not uniformly connected, but contain a continuum of node connectivity ranging from poorly connected proteins to highly connected "hubs." Some hubs (party hubs) contain proteins that interact simultaneously to assemble individual molecular complexes, or modules. Other hubs (date hubs) contain proteins that interact at different times and locations, and link the modules to perform high level functions. As in information networks, this architecture provides robustness and helps to protect the cell from random mutational events. [X][C][G][I][T] The Church of England has declared its support for a challenging proposal to tackle the threat of climate change. According to Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, mankind's continuance as a species capable of some vision of universal justice is now at stake. He said the current addiction to fossil fuel has all the ingredients for the most vicious kinds of global conflict - conflict now ever more likely to be intensified by the tensions around religious and cultural questions. [X][D][E][K] |
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| [V] Virtuality and human-machine interface | |
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Familiarity with target items, not procedure, is what enables airport security staff to spot suspect items in luggage using scanners, according to research at the University of Illinois. Security screening staff need to regularly practice with every variety of gun, knife and nail file they might encounter if they are to reliably spot the real thing. [V][B][D][R] Integrating music players, photo albums and personal organisers into mobile phones is stimulating innovative design and clever new shapes. Mobile phones may evolve to include even more integrated functionality (the equivalent of the Swiss Army Knife), or they could become more modular with the handset turning into more of a “personal network device” providing a gateway between specialised local devices and the cellular network. Phones may turn into wearable electronics and techno-jewellery, tailored increasingly to the user's tasks and lifestyle. [V][I][T] The huge success of the Apple iPod is largely because its 40GB hard disk allows users to carry with them all the audio entertainment that they could possible need and to share this with their friends and to compile it into personal selections for different moods and different activities in their lives. In a fast, congested, high pressure world, iPod users can isolate themselves free from intrusion in their own digital world. [V][B][I][K][T] With the deluge of digital information now available, there is a need for new technologies to filter this information and provide what has is needed in a simple and immediate way. Household furniture and ornaments might play a role in presenting information in an easy to use way. [V][I][K][T] For video conferencing it has been supposed that transmission delay causes the worst problem for users. However, experiments show that people can tolerate slow data transfers and even lost data, but what really annoys them is “network jitter” that causes a jumpy, freeze-frame effect and breaks up the smooth flow of a video signal. [V][B][I] Researchers at the University of California have developed an audio recording system, called motion-tracked binaural sound (MTB), which enables listeners to experience virtual-reality sound that changes as they move their head to follow the sound source, just as if the sound was live. [V] Researchers at Stanford have developed a prototype for a new kind of implantable chip they believe could be adapted to serve as both a prosthetic retina and as a drug-delivery system that could treat conditions such as Parkinson's disease. The chip does not use electrical impulses to communicate to nerve cells, but instead releases a small quantity of neurotransmitter. [V][B][G][H][J] Brain implants have been used to "read the minds" of monkeys to predict what they are about to do and even how enthusiastic they are about doing it. The researchers implanted 96 electrodes into the parietal cortex, just above the ear. They believe the signals decoded were cognitive rather than sensory or motor signals, because the monkeys were trained not to move their eyes during their experiments and hence the signals were not linked directly to sensory input. [V][B][H] Rapid progress in decoding the neural signalling needed to create artificial sensations is enabling robots and artificial limbs to be equipped with sensors that give sensory feedback to users of both pressure and proprioception. This can enable people to feel sensations as if through the robot's fingers. Position sensors in the robot's joints can be translated into “proprioception” signals that enabled the user to feel the arm's position. To apply this to artificial limbs, the biggest challenge now is in developing ways to communicate with individual nerve fibres on a one-to-one basis using electronics that can be permanently implanted. [V][B][H][T][U] |
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| [B] Brain research and human science | |
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Yale scientists have discovered how odours are encoded by the olfactory system of fruit flies into the complex messages that are sent to the brain. The researchers genetically engineered fruit flies to determine what chemical each of the fly's 32 different odour receptions responds to. The noses of humans and the antennae of insects contain many odour receptor proteins, but it was previously not known how the entire collection of receptors act together to encode olfactory information. The researchers hope that the fruit fly will serve as a model for the olfactory systems of insects such as mosquitoes that transmit disease and for more complex organisms, including humans. [B][S][V] Existing types of lie detectors, such as the polygraph and voice tremor analysis, are easily fooled because they measure second-hand signals that primarily indicate stress. Actors can control their stress whereas ordinary people can show stress even if they are telling the truth. New technologies that measure brain activity can provide much more reliable lie detection, because they are detecting first-hand signals. Functional MRI (fMRI) can detect activity in particular brain areas, notably the anterior cingulate gyrus and left prefrontal cortex, that is characteristic of lying. Electroencephalography (EEG) can verify whether or not a subject is familiar with specific details he or she is being asked about. Reflection of infra-red radiation transmitted through the skull can, it is claimed, reveal blood flow in particular brain areas that are characteristic of telling the truth or lying. [B][D][R][S][T][V] It has been calculated that the average American is subjected to some 3,000 advertising messages every day. As a result people are now increasingly resistant. Understanding how to make advertising and marketing more potent could bring big savings and also reduce the growing burden of advertising clutter. Neuromarketing technology, using electroencephalogram (EEG) mapping and functional magnetic-resonance imaging (fMRI) to learn more about the mental processes behind purchasing decisions, is being used by companies such as Daimler-Chrysler and Ford. With $1 trillion spent each year marketing and advertising worldwide, understanding better how customers respond to products, brands and advertising has great potential. [B][D][K][R][S][T] Thought processes occur in milliseconds, but current brain imaging techniques, such as fMRI and traditional EEGs, are averaged over seconds. US researchers have developed a technique to parse EEG data and identify the individual signals coming from different areas of the brain. [B][C][R] Although some people can multitask better than others, researchers have found that the human brain actually works serially with tasks queuing passively to be processed. Trying to switch rapidly between different tasks decreases the overall processing speed. However, the brain does process emotion separately. [B] Analysis of research over the past 30 years on how different types of stress affect the immune system has found that short term stresses strengthen the immune response. Stressful event sequences where there is "light at the end of the tunnel" have little effect on the immune system. However chronic stressors, with no apparent end, progressively wear out the immune system, at first in cellular immunity and then in broader immune function. Illness and age increase vulnerability to chronic stress, probably because they make it harder for the body to regulate itself. [B][H] Attempts to produce a vaccine against Alzheimer's disease are aimed at inducing specific immune activity to clear existing plaque or prevent the formation of new plaque. However trials of a possible vaccine were halted because the vaccine caused severe inflammation in the brains of some participants. Researchers have now succeeded in producing a new vaccine without the harmful side effects, by boosting part of the immune system not responsible for the side effects. In tests on mice, a vaccine most like the previous form proved lethal to four out of six mice. However, the new modified form of the vaccine, additionally equipped with a tetanus toxin to alter the immune response, proved much safer while still causing a 20-percent decline in the amount of amyloid plaque in the brain. [B][G][H] Researchers at OHSU have identified a gene, Mpdz, that is involved in physical dependence on a class of drugs known as sedative-hypnotics. These include alcohol, inhalants, barbiturates, and benzodiazepines and some other "club drugs." The discovery increases the evidence that drug and alcohol dependency is genetically determined, and opens the way to finding how this gene regulates brain circuits involved in drug dependence and withdrawal. [B][D][G][H] |
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| [H] Healthcare and medicine | |
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Nearly 160 years since the first use of ether as an anaesthetic, it is still largely a mystery how general anaesthetics work. [H][G][T] Surgeons have taken minimally invasive surgery a step further by developing a technique for abdominal surgery that avoids any abdominal incisions. By inserting an endoscope and related surgical tools through the mouth, into the stomach and through the stomach wall and peritoneum, they can see and repair any of the abdominal organs, such as the intestines, liver, pancreas, gallbladder and uterus. The new surgical technique has been tested extensively in animals. [H][U] There has been huge progress in obesity research in the past decade as scientists have discovered an abundance of molecules involved in body weight regulation and many overlapping systems and pathways. Hopes are high for developing drugs that control obesity, particularly by inhibiting hunger and also by reducing fat tissue with angiogenesis suppressors that destroy its blood supply. [H][G][T] According to the results of a 50 year long study, smoking wipes 10 years off a person's life on average. Stopping at ages 60, 50, 40 or 30 buys, respectively, 3, 6, 9 or 10 years of life expectancy that would otherwise be lost to smoking-related disease. [H][E] According to the UN's annual AIDS report, about 4.8 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2003, the highest number in any year since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. The total number of people with AIDS has grown from 35 million in 2001 to 38 million in 2003. The AIDS crisis continues to deepen in Africa. By 2010 sub-Saharan Africa will have 50 million orphans due to AIDS. New epidemics are growing with alarming speed in Asia and Eastern Europe. For social reasons the epidemic in Asia will not infect as high a proportion of the populations as in parts of Africa. However, Asia has 60 percent of the world's population and the potential scale of the epidemic is very serious. The experience in Thailand shows that early intervention could stop the Asian epidemic. However, it is currently being ignored by many Asian governments. [H][D][G] A vaccine for AIDS is still many years away, according to a new report by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). The report warns that global efforts to develop a vaccine against HIV infection and AIDS 'continue to fall short of what is needed to achieve success'. [H][G] HIV is rapidly developing resistance to current drug therapies that work by inhibiting the enzymes reverse transcriptase (RT), which helps copy the virus's genome, and HIV protease, which alters viral proteins. There is hope of developing a new therapy that inhibits HIV integrase, the enzyme by which HIV inserts itself into the cell's chromosomes. A new study has shown that integrator inhibitors successfully help monkeys to fight a simian version of AIDS. Multivitamin pills may also provide a cheap way to combat AIDS. A clinical trial involving over 1000 pregnant women with HIV in Tanzania has found that those who swallowed a daily dose of vitamins B, C and E for up to five years were only half as likely to progress to full-blown AIDS as those in a comparison group. [H][G] Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major problem worldwide. It is highly resistant to most antibiotics, with the exception of vancomycin. A vancomycin-resistant strain of MRSA was first discovered in 1997, but it was thought that only one type of MRSA, called the New York/Japanese clone, had developed this resistance. A study by Bath University of 101 MRSA samples, which were known to be either fully or partially resistant to vancomycin, has now found nine strains that are vancomycin-resistant. These have developed from five different types of MRSA, and came from eight countries; France, UK, Norway, Poland, US, Japan, Sweden and China. [H][G] The ribosome is the structure within cells on which amino acids are strung together to make proteins with the aid of transfer RNA (tRNA) and messenger RNA (mRNA). The final stage of protein synthesis requires the release of the tRNA and mRNA from the ribosome, allowing it to be recycled to make more protein. New research has clarified how a molecule called ribosome recycling factor (RRF) triggers this final stage. Because the mechanism is different in eukaryotes versus prokaryotes, and hence in humans versus bacteria, it could be an excellent target for a new class of antibiotics. [H][G] Cells that are capable of making new eggs have been isolated from adult mouse ovaries, and researchers have also discovered a drug that can boost the numbers of eggs in the mouse ovaries. These results suggest that mammalian ovaries, including human, could produce eggs throughout life. This could provide a way to treat women with a low egg-count, such as cancer survivors or older women, and to delay the menopause. [H][G] |
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| [G] Genomics, biotechnology and bioinformatics | |
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Controversial findings by OHSU researchers suggest that theories that stem cells repair diseased tissue by transforming into other cell types may be wrong, at least in the liver. They found that mature macrophages derived from bone marrow stem cells, and not the bone marrow stem cells themselves, are what fuse with diseased liver cells, ultimately curing a genetic liver disease. Helpfully, macrophages can more easily be grown in tissue culture than stem cells, and it may also be possible to genetically modify them before transplantation. [G][H] Conventional gene therapy relies on inserting the desired bit of DNA into a cell's genome. A Canadian company has now shown that it is possible to insert a whole new chromosome. This eliminates the risk that the new DNA is inserted in the wrong place, and it also allows much larger amounts of DNA to be added. A key question is whether artificial chromosomes are as stable as real chromosomes. [G][H] A technique known as RNA interference has been used to successfully prevent mice from developing a hereditary brain disease that is similar to Huntington's disease in humans. Fragments of genetic material designed to prevent unhealthy genes producing toxic proteins were injected into the mice's brain cells on stripped-down viruses, called viral vectors. The fragments triggered the destruction of all RNA with a matching sequence, so that the toxic protein could not be produced and the degenerative condition did not develop. After six months of gene therapy, the mice showed no signs of the brain damage normally caused by the disease and had experienced no side effects. Whether the same technique can be used to prevent or treat similar diseases in humans, including Huntington's and Alzheimer's, is not yet clear. [G][B][H] There are two types of immune response, innate and adaptive. Both spot and destroy pathogens such as viruses, bacteria and fungi. Innate immunity is inherited, and does not change over an animal's lifetime whereas the adaptive system changes according to the antigens an animal encounters. Until now it was believed that animals had evolved one adaptive immune system. However, researchers have found that fish-like creatures called lampreys have evolved their own adaptive immune system, using building blocks that are completely unrelated to the antibodies found in mammals. [G][H] Evidence has accumulated over the past 30 years for a second form of inheritance, epigenetics, that allows rapid adaptation to environmental changes. Epigenetic patterns are so sensitive to environmental change that they can dramatically and hereditably alter a phenotype in a single generation, modulating gene expression without modifying the actual DNA sequence. Epigenetics is important for diseases such as cancer, which can arise if oncogenes are turned on or tumour suppressor genes are turned off. How epigenetic inheritance works at the molecular level, and how to use this to develop new drugs, is still being unravelled. [G][H][T] Research is showing that tumours metastasise by reactivating and commandeering one or more long-dormant proteins that should have been shut off permanently in early embryo development. This gives cells the ability to detach from their neighbours and to move throughout the body. [G][H] Anthrax toxin uses a protein known as protective antigen to gain entry into human or animal cells by binding to either of two different cell receptors: CMG2 and TEM8. Scientists at Burnham Institute and NIAID have used x-ray crystallography to map how the protective antigen docks with CMG2. They believe that as well as helping to find a way to counter anthrax, the work may also lead to a way to enable anthrax toxin to kill tumours, by modifying anthrax toxin so that it binds only to TEM8. The CMG2 receptor is present in most tissues, whereas the TEM8 receptor is mostly found on the cells that form the blood vessels of tumours. [G][D][H] The gene MYC is the most overexpressed oncogene in human cancers. MYC protein binds with around 15 percent of all human genes and MYC mutations are associated with many common cancers including breast, colon, ovarian, prostate and melanoma. Scientists have long believed that when MYC protein binds to a target gene, it turns that gene on, and many drug companies are developing drugs that totally block MYC. However, new research has found that MYC frequently binds to genes without activating them, indicating that its role is more sophisticated than previously thought. [G][H] The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources, which has taken 25 years to agree, has now become law. It will ensure that a vast pool of genetic resources - both in gene banks and in the field - are protected and maintained and available to all for research. Just 12 crops, including rice, wheat, maize and potato, provide over 80 percent of human energy from plants. The need to protect genetic resources is illustrated by the fact that in 1900 in India there were 30,000 varieties of rice documented. Today there are just 12 varieties, and the rest have been lost. [G][E] Genetic technology may provide a better way to improve animals by natural breeding. A US company has correlated thousands of so-called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the bovine genome with the quality of the individual animal's meat. Almost 100 SNPs have been identified that are useful in identifying cattle with high meat quality before they are slaughtered, so that they can be reserved for naturally breeding better livestock. [G] A naturally decaffeinated variety of Coffea arabica has been discovered. This means the decaffeinated trait should be relatively easy to breed into popular types of coffee, and could enable coffee growing countries to produce decaffeinated coffee directly without the need for industrial processing. [G][E] |
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| [N] Nanotechnology and molecular technology | |
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Trials have begun of using porous silicon nanoparticles to deliver drugs controllably to tumours. Initial trials are on primary liver tumours. The technology can safely deliver much larger total doses of drugs. Also because silicon is semiconducting the rate of delivery can be controlled electrically. In the future, the nanoparticles may also incorporate sensors that can sense and monitor activity and release drugs in response. [N][H][S] Tiny gold-coated particles called nanoshells, when injected into the bloodstream, selectively accumulate in tumours. The core and thickness of the gold coating can be selected to convert near-infrared light into heat, which can kill the tumour without affecting surrounding healthy tissue. In tests on mice, the tumours in the nanoshell-treated mice had disappeared ten days after treatment, whereas tumours in the animals that had not received a nanoshell injection continued to grow rapidly. [N][H] Researchers have proposed that silicon should be able to form into nanostructures similar to carbon buckyballs. They predict through modelling that several hundred silicon atoms can join to form a nanometre-sized icosahedral particle, a 20-sided polyhedron. Because they are more symmetrical than crystalline nanoparticles, the icosahedral nanoparticles should have more well defined quantum levels, behaving like artificial atom that could be the basis for better light sources and detectors. [N][M][O][S] Researchers at Cambridge University have grown unusual silicon carbide nanostructures in the form of nanoflowers, nanotrees and nanobouquets. Apart from their remarkable beauty, the structures may also have useful properties including being highly water repellent. [N][M] Water absorbed into nanotubes forms a water "wire" surrounded by a sheath of water. As a result the water remains fluid far below its normal freezing point. This may help to explain how water migrates from soil to plants via xylem vessels, and the proton translocation in transmembrane proteins. [N][E][G] Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have found new ways of combining quantum dots and segmented nanorods into multiply branching forms, and have applied new ways to calculate the electronic properties of these nanostructures. The researchers say that the ability to independently tune the separate components of the nanostructures with unprecedented accuracy, and to calculate the electronic interactions of their branches in three dimensions, will enable electronic devices to be created and tailored to a variety of uses. They say that the structures can be chemically manufactured in large quantities. [N][C][J][P] Research at Argonne National Laboratory has shown that films of the lead titanate remain ferroelectric down to a thickness of just 1.2 nanometres. This suggests that, contrary to previous findings, there is no fundamental limit to the thinness of crystals that can exhibit ferroelectricity. This could enable the memory density of ferroelectric nonvolatile memory (Fe-RAM) to be increased by at least a factor 100. At present Fe-RAM is limited to low density applications, such as smart cards. High-density Fe-RAM might be suitable for personal computers and handheld devices, and would also be faster than the FLASH memory used in digital cameras and memory sticks. [N][J][M][V] Scientists in Japan have made a new type of molecular photodiode, whose current switches direction depending on the wavelength of the light used to excite it. The device consists of two helical peptide molecules, whose dipole moments point in opposite directions. The large dipole moment of helical peptides means they could be used as modulators in many types of nanoscale electronic devices, according to the researchers. [N][J] |
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| [J] Microelectronics, MEMS and spintronics | |
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Researchers at Harvard have developed highly conductive nanowires by blending silicon and nickel together. These could provide a way to connect nanoscale components with existing electronic components. The method can also be used to create simple nanoscale electronic components, such as field-effect transistors, and by extending this to crossed nanowires the researchers believe it should become possible to assemble large and dense arrays of transistors and other devices to create hybrid integrated circuits. [J][N] Semiconductor nanocrystals (or quantum dots) are hard to pump electrically because of their insulating organic capping layers. Scientists at Los Alamos and Sandia have found that they can be pumped instead with excitons transferred from epitaxial quantum wells without needing electrical contacts. The efficiency of exciton transfer is around 55 percent, and the researchers believe they may be able to achieve almost 100 percent. This could make hybrid quantum-well/nanocrystal devices feasible as efficient sources of any colour light - or even white light. [J][N][O] In order to capitalise on the small size of nanowire electronics it is necessary to find a way to contact them without needing conventional lithography, which produces relatively huge contact pads. Researchers at Harvard have found an answer by using a novel nanowire-based shadow masking method that can produce semiconducting silicon devices with a gate length as small as 10 nm seamlessly interconnected to metallic nickel silicide nanowire interconnects. [J][N] Researchers at GE have produced a 5 terminal device made from a single-walled carbon nanotube. Instead of doping the nanotube by adding atoms of another material, the team used electrostatic doping, applying a voltage to alter the tube's properties. They expect that the device can operate both as a field effect transistor (FET) or as a light emitting diode (LED). It can carry high currents and might also be useful for power electronics. [J][N][O] Inkjet printing techniques can deposit thin layers of molecules on cantilever beams, enabling the beams to act as nanomechanical chemical or biochemical sensors. [J][N][S] |
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| [F] Fundamental science | |
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A mathematician at Purdue University in the US claims to have proved the Riemann Hypothesis - called the greatest unsolved problem in maths. However, other mathematicians are sceptical that the proof will prove watertight. [F][C][I] According to a new theory, dark matter and dark energy might be two aspects of a single phenomenon, a scalar field called k-essence, possessing energy and pressure. A simple type of k-essence field with constant potential energy progresses naturally from a clumpy form that resembles dark matter and could account for the formation of galaxies in the early universe, to a later form spread uniformly throughout space, which looks like dark energy. [F] A key question for cosmology is whether the fine structure constant, alpha, and in particular the velocity of light, has changed since the Universe began. If the velocity of light was substantially higher in the early Universe it could explain why far-flung regions of the Universe are at roughly the same temperature without needing to invoke the concept of cosmic inflation. Analysis of how the light from distant quasars was absorbed by intervening gas clouds led researchers in 2001 to conclude that alpha had increased by a few parts in one hundred thousand in the past 12 billion years, suggesting that the velocity of light had decreased by the same proportion. Researchers at Max Planck studying photons emitted by caesium and hydrogen atoms have now determined that alpha has not changed by more than one part in a million billion in the period from 1999 to 2003. However, reanalysis of data from the world's only known natural nuclear reactor, found at Oklo in Gabon, has found surprisingly that over the past two billion years, far from increasing, alpha seems to have actually decreased by more than 4.5 parts in 100 million. [F] If dark energy exists the key question is what produces it. One possibility is that it is due to quantum fluctuations of the vacuum (vacuum energy) that produces the Casimir effect. According to physicists in the UK and Canada it may be possible to test this fairly simply by measuring the zero point quantum fluctuations in Josephson junctions. They predict there should be a cut-off in the spectrum of these fluctuations at a frequency of around 1.69 TeraHz if the vacuum energy is equal to the dark energy. [F][J][S] Some explanations for dark energy, such as quintessence, modified gravitational theories that include extra dimensions, or string physics, suggest that dark energy could change with time. US researchers have now performed numerical simulations on observational data from supernovae, the cosmic microwave background and galaxy clusters, and have found that dark energy appears to have remained constant. This accords with Einstein's model. [F] Current models of galaxy formation have held that in the early universe galaxies were relatively small and that they subsequently coalesced to form large galaxies. However, Italian astronomers have now found four galaxies around 12 billion light years away that are as massive as the heaviest galaxies in the present-day universe. These galaxies must have formed when the Universe was only about 2 billion years old, and may be members of a hitherto undetected population of old massive galaxies. US researchers have also found massive galaxies at distances of 8 to 11 billion light years. [F][R] A team of nearly 100 physicists from around the world has confirmed without doubt that neutrinos oscillate between their three flavours (muon-neutrino, electron-neutrino and tau-neutrino). This oscillation means that neutrinos must have mass and that the Standard Model of fundamental forces and particles (which predicts that neutrinos have zero mass) must be incomplete. The same team discovered neutrino oscillations in 1998, but their original results were not absolutely conclusive. [F] |
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| [T] Technology reviews | |
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In a special report, IEEE Spectrum has examined the future for networked sensors and ubiquitous information, and the tension between the technical power of sensor and information networks and issues of privacy and protecting civil liberties, and how networks may change social norms and interaction. [T][D][K][H][R] The UK government has published a White Paper on making globalisation a force for good. It looks at the growth and benefits of international trade and investment, the reasons for the globalisation of business, and the implications for rapidly growing economies, notably China and India, and for those developing countries, particularly in Africa, that are being left behind. The report also looks at the implications for the UK economy and employment in a more competitive world, and the importance of supporting science and innovation. It also looks at how to make globalisation a force for good in the developing world, and how trade policy needs to sit within the wider context of sustainable development. The White Paper makes recommendations for the UK, the EU and the international community. The analysis is supported by an extensive economic analysis on maximising the benefits of international trade and investment. [T][D][E][K][X] After the US, the UK is the second most productive country in the world in terms of the number and influence of its scientific papers, according to a global analysis conducted by Sir David King, the UK government's chief scientific adviser. The combined effort of EU15 countries in this area outranks the US performance, he also found. The analysis, based on data from US company Thomson ISI, showed that between 1997 and 2001, the US produced almost 35 per cent of all scientific papers, almost four times the number produced by second placed UK, with 9.43 per cent. Next came Japan with 9.23 per cent; followed by Germany (8.76 per cent); France (6.39 per cent); Canada (4.58 per cent) and Italy (4.05 per cent). [T][K] |
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