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Top Stories in Science
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June 2006 Issue |
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| [D] Defence and security |  |
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Bird flu vaccine for poultry By incorporating the proteins of various strains of bird flu into an existing poultry vaccine, scientists have created experimental vaccines that can prevent bird flu in chickens. Controlling bird flu in poultry and other birds should greatly reduce the risk of a human pandemic developing, and can also avoid the economic damage and social difficulty of slaughtering huge poultry flocks. [D][G][H]
Pre-pandemic vaccination The deaths of seven out of eight members of a family in Sumatra from bird flu, apparently involving human-human transmission of the H5N1 virus in seven of the cases, has raised concerns that a pandemic could occur sooner rather than later. This has increased interest in using pre-pandemic human vaccination against bird flu. In the past, the World Health Organization (WHO) and governments have dismissed the idea of pre-pandemic vaccination on the argument that no vaccine would exactly match whatever pandemic virus emerges and would therefore offer only limited immunity. However, even if it does not stop a pandemic from spreading, pre-pandemic vaccination could greatly reduce the number of deaths. [D][H]
Radiation protection of first responders Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have successfully protected mice against radiation damage to bone marrow by using gene therapy to deliver the compound manganese superoxide dismutase-plasmid liposome (MnSOD-PL) to their cells. The therapy works best if delivered before the exposure to the radiation. These results suggest that gene therapy given before exposure may be able to protect first responders in the event of a radiological accident or the detonation of a dirty bomb. [D][E][G][H][P]
Nuclear disarmament The US, UK, France, Russia and China, the five countries officially recognised as having nuclear weapons, are all committed to giving them up. However, according to a special report in the Economist, the practical problems involved, both technical and political, are so many and difficult as to be virtually insuperable. [D][P][R][T][X]
Universal patterns of conflict Modern warfare takes many different forms in scale and asymmetry. However, according to a study covering three high-profile ongoing wars and global terrorism in non-G7 countries, there is a remarkable universality in the patterns of violence. The events of any insurgent war appear to follow a power law in terms of their frequency versus their intensity, and in all cases the power law exponent is close to the value -2.5. This result agrees precisely with a proposed model that treats an insurgent force as a generic, self-organizing system which is dynamically evolving through the continual coalescence and fragmentation of its constituent groups. The model is universal and is independent of conflict arena, ideologies, motivations and terrain. [D][X]
Water conflict According to a report "Addressing Our Global Water Future" by Sandia Laboratory and CSIS, many social, economic, and political systems are approaching a tipping point, and mankind is facing large-scale dislocations and crises unless significant action is taken now on water resources by leaders in both developed and developing countries. By 2025, over half the world's population will live in water stressed or water scarce regions. In many river basins in Africa, Middle East, Russia, China, SE Asia, Latin America and South America, there is increasing danger of social strife and armed conflict over water resources. The report argues that there is an urgent need and opportunity for major innovation in both technology and policy, and a vital need for an integrated strategy. [D][E][T][X]
Climate security A campaign to convince European citizens that they can individually help stop climate change has been launched by the European Commission. The campaign is called "You Control Climate Change" and highlights personal responsibility, listing 50 practical tips on everyday actions that can lead to cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions. The European Commission has also outlined initiatives it is taking to combat greenhouse gas emissions and has published a web-based environmental encyclopaedia called Epaedia. [D][A][E][P][T][W][X]
Ballistic missile defence A Standard Missile 2 (SM-2) has successfully intercepted a ballistic missile target in its terminal descent or endo-atmospheric phase in a test designed to prove technical feasibility. The US Navy has now made seven ballistic missile intercepts from eight firings, but until this point all of the engagements had occurred with the BMD-dedicated SM-3 in the exo-atmospheric ballistic phases. [D][A] |
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| [A] Aeronautics and space | |
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Green aviation In Europe, the aerospace and defence industries are promoting the case for a "Clean Skies" Joint Technology Initiative (JTI) under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). This would 'assess, design, build and test many technology validation vehicles that will give the industry the confidence to launch greener, more innovative products much sooner'. The industries spent some 12.6 billion euros on research in 2005. [A][E][M][P][U]
Fly-by-wireless A fly-by-wireless aircraft, with only a wireless network and no wires or mechanical connections between its engine, navigation system and onboard computers, is being built by engineers in Portugal. Tests flights on a partly wireless prototype have shown that the system works well. [A][I][P][R][U]
Air travel and DVT It remains unclear why long haul air flights may increase the risk of deep vein thromboses. Researchers simulating conditions of reduced cabin pressure and reduced oxygen levels, such as may be encountered during an 8-hour flight, have found no increase in the activation of the blood clotting system in healthy individuals. [A][H]
Winged paratroops A new military parachute system that fits wings on soldiers could enable them to glide up to 200 kilometres after jumping. The system, which involves the development of new modular carbon-fibre wings, will mean that aircraft can drop parachutists from 30,000 feet (9,150 metres) into an area of operations without needing to fly into a danger zone. The parachutists' high speed also makes them less vulnerable to attack from the ground during their descent. [A][D]
Space weather ESA’s Cluster satellites have flown through regions of the Earth’s magnetic field that accelerate electrons to approximately one hundredth the speed of light. The observations present Cluster scientists with their first detection of these events and give them a look at the details of a universal process known as magnetic reconnection. [A][I]
Advanced heat shields Lunar heat shields have to be better than those for flights returning from low-Earth orbit and the International Space station because Moon capsules enter the atmosphere at a higher speed of 11 km/sec compared to 7.5 km/second. A future Mars spacecraft would be entering Earth's atmosphere even faster, at 12.5 to 14 km/sec. NASA is developing and testing new heat shield concepts and materials to cope with these higher re-entry velocities and temperatures. [A][M][T]
Galileo specification The Galileo project, with the publication of its signal specifications, has taken an important step towards ensuring standardisation with existing global satellite positioning systems. The specifications ensure full compatibility with GPS signals, providing accurate location information and state-of-the-art navigation performances to worldwide users. [A][R]
GPS in space As well as testing several crucial technologies that will be used for Galileo, Europe's experimental navigation spacecraft GIOVE-A has successfully picked up signals from several GPS satellites. This shows that geosynchronous spacecraft could use orbiting satellites rather than ground stations for navigation. Doing this would significantly reduce their operational costs. [A][R]
Life on Earth and Mars In the Pilbara region of Western Australia there are odd shaped laminated rock structures that some scientists believe are the remains of stromatolites formed by microbes 3.43 billion years ago. Stromatolites are rock piles that in more recent settings are known to have been built by mats of microbes capturing grains and sticking them together. Australian researchers have now analysed the complexity of shapes in a section of the Pilbara formation and explained how these forms can be linked to different environmental niches in a shallow-sea reef setting. If their interpretation is correct - and others believe the Pilbara formations were instead produced by purely chemical activity around hydrothermal vents - it would show that Earth harboured life early in its history, and would increase the possibility that life also existed on Mars. [A][E]
Voyager spacecraft Having travelled far beyond the planets in their 28.5-year journey, the two Voyager spacecraft are providing new information on the heliosphere, the teardrop-shaped bubble that separates the solar system from interstellar space. They are measuring its asymmetry, which is due to a magnetic field from interstellar space pushing on the southern hemisphere. The field is about 1/100,000 the strength of Earth's field but its effects can be felt for billions of miles, since it is acting over a large area on the very dilute gas at the solar system's edge. Voyager 1 has already reached the heliosheath, the region where solar wind and interstellar gas mix. It will take another 10 years, or 3 to 4 billion miles, before the two spacecraft reach pure interstellar space. [A] |
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| [U] Unmanned vehicles and robotics | |
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Precision-guided drones The increasing performance and availability of GPS and of technology for remote-controlled light aircraft make it more likely that terrorists might use GPS guided drones for precision attacks. Models with a wingspan of five metres are capable of carrying up to 50 kilograms. [U][D][R]
Robotic astronaut A six-limbed circular robot called Lemur (Limbed Excursion Mechanical Utility Robot) has been developed by NASA JPL. Lemur is designed for performing repairs in space, and also shows potential as a lander able to explore difficult terrain. [U][A]
Robotic tentacle US researchers funded by DARPA have developed robotic "tentacles" that can grasp and grapple with a wide variety of objects. Each tentacle is powered by compressed air and has surface pressure sensors, positional sensors and a camera mounted at its tip. This allows it to nimbly investigate pipes, tunnels and other narrow spaces. [U][S]
Amphibious robot Researchers at McGill University in Montreal are developing an amphibious robot designed for use in shallow waters including coral reefs. Called Aqua, the robot measures 50 by 65 by 13 cm and weighs 18 kg. It can be thrown into the water, or it can launch itself from the beach using its six independently moveable flippers. In the water these flippers enable it to move forward, backward, up, down, and sideways. It can swim in a straight line or along a sinusoidal or helical path, and it can perform tight somersaults and rolls. [U][E][P]
Robot surgeon For the first time, a surgical robot in Italy has carried out a long-distance heart operation by itself. The 50-minute surgery, which took place in a Milan hospital, was carried out on a 34-year-old patient suffering from atrial fibrillation. The robot has learned to do the job thanks to experience gathered from operations on 10,000 patients. [U][H]
Robot intestinal worm A robot designed to crawl through the human gut by mimicking the wriggling motion of an undersea worm has been developed by European scientists. It could one day help doctors diagnose disease by carrying tiny cameras through patients' bodies. It will be able to stop and explore more effectively than a passive swallowed capsule. [U][H][S]
Robot manipulating animal behaviour Cubic insect-like robots or 'insbots' little larger than a thumbnail have been developed by European researchers. The insbots are fitted with two motors, wheels, a rechargeable battery, several computer processors, a light-sensing camera and an array of infrared proximity sensors. Coated with cockroach pheromones, the insbots were able to infiltrate a pack of cockroaches and influence their collective behaviour, persuading them to venture out into the light despite their normal preference for the dark, for example. The researchers believe insbots could be used to catch cockroaches and that bots designed to mimic other animals could one day work on farms controlling flocks of sheep and chickens by similar means. [U][E] |
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| [P] Propulsion and energy | |
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Hydrogen-powered transport Under the Clean Urban Transport for Europe (CUTE) project, 27 hydrogen powered buses have transported four million people more than one million kilometres since 2003 in nine European cities: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Porto, Stockholm and Stuttgart. Each city has needed its own hydrogen supply chain and refuelling stations. These networks used more than 192 tonnes of hydrogen and made more than 9,000 successful refuelling stops. The next stage, under the Hydrogen for Transport initiative, will introduce 200 hydrogen-powered vehicles and will involve a much more extensive hydrogen refuelling network. [P][E]
Microbial fuel cells Researchers at the University of Ghent have shown that microbial fuel cells using primarily the bacterium Brevibacillus agri can convert sewage sludge into useable electricity. [P][G]
Microbial fuel technology Scientists have boosted the power output of microbial fuel cells more than 10-fold by letting the bacteria congregate into a slimy biofilm. This unexpected result may mean that efficient technologies for generating electricity with microbes are much closer than anticipated. The researchers found that the bacteria produce conductive protein filaments, or pili 'nanowires,' to transfer electrons. The pili extend the distance over which electrons can be transferred allowing bacteria throughout the biofilm to contribute effectively to the power output. Bacteria may also be used to produce ethanol from cellulose and hydrogen from organic waste, and to release more oil from existing oil wells, according to other recent research. [P][G][N]
Nuclear reactor safety Some 441 commercial nuclear reactors operate currently in 31 countries and provide 17 percent of the world's electricity, according to the US DOE. Global warming and energy security are making it more likely that these reactors will be replaced and more reactors built. To avoid any repeat of nuclear accidents like Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, the new generation of reactors - light water, heavy water and pebble-bed - have been designed to be intrinsically safer, according to a review in the Economist. [P][T][X]
Nuclear reactor vulnerability A leaked report to the French nuclear safety regulator has raised doubts whether the new European pressurised water reactors, planned to be built widely across Europe, are capable of withstanding a 9/11-style terrorist attack. [P][D]
Thermonuclear fusion One of the major challenges in developing tokamak-based thermonuclear power is how to prevent sudden fluxes or eddies occurring in the outer edge of the thermonuclear plasma. These so-called edge localised modes (ELMs) erode the tokamak's neutron-absorbing inner wall so that it has to be replaced more often, adding hugely to costs. Eroded particles also have a big impact on the plasma performance, diminishing the amount of energy it can deliver. Now, US scientists believe they have found a way to overcome the ELM problem. Using a tokamak in San Diego, they have found that a small resonant magnetic field, derived from special coils located inside the reactor vessel, creates "chaotic" magnetic interference on the plasma edge. This interference stops the fluxes from forming. [P][M]
Quantum dot solar cells Quantum dots have the potential to transform the efficiency of solar cells by enabling each solar photon to generate more than one photoelectron. In theory, quantum dot solar cells could convert up to 42 percent of solar power to usable electricity. In recent experiments using 8 nanometre diameter lead selenide quantum dots, each UV photon was able to release as many as seven photoelectrons. How this happens is not fully clear. Some scientists contend that the multi-electron output can be explained by the well understood process of impact ionisation. Others argue that because the multiple excitons are generated so quickly, within less than 50 femtoseconds, some previously unseen type of quantum mechanical entity, perhaps a high energy virtual exciton, must briefly form in each quantum dot. [P][A][J][N][O][S][T] |
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| [M] Materials, structures and surfaces | |
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Binary alloy superconductors The discovery of superconductivity in the simple binary alloy magnesium diboride at 39 degrees Kelvin raised hopes of using it as a model for finding even better superconducting materials. As it turns out, magnesium dibromide is a unique material, finely tuned by nature, and attempts to improve on it have so far been fruitless. However by using a data-mining technique to look for other possible configurations of binary alloys and tweaking their compositions, researchers at Duke University have identified the binary alloy lithium monoboride as a promising candidate that might be both structurally stable and superconducting at temperatures that exceed 39 degrees K. [M][P]
Low dimensionality The concept of reduced dimensionality is important in many theories that seek to account for various poorly understood phenomena, including high-temperature superconductivity and the anomalous behaviour of metallic magnets known as ''heavy fermions''. Researchers have now for the first time found a clear example of such dimensional reduction in a real material, the magnetic insulator barium copper silicate. They found that, at the quantum critical point in this material, magnetic waves travelled only along flat planes rather than throughout the entirety of the three-dimensional material. The researchers hope that by studying the quantum critical behaviour of insulating materials, they can isolate the magnetic properties and gain a better understanding of their possible behaviours, and how they may operate in non-insulating materials, including high temperature superconductors. [M]
Stability of glass Scientists in the US have discovered that alumino-silicate glass containing calcium oxide can completely return to its original state after being bombarded with high-energy electrons. This result shows that the glassy state can be extremely stable thermodynamically. As well as being fundamentally important, the work could have implications for safely storing nuclear waste. [M][P]
Shape memory protection A car that can anticipate a side-on impact and subtly alter its body shape to absorb the force of the crash is being developed by researchers in Germany. Hood-mounted cameras and radar spot a vehicle on course for a side-on collision. If an impact is imminent, shape-memory alloy is activated in the door frame. This reinforces the bond between door and frame to give much greater strength. [M][R]
Acoustic lens metamaterial Researchers at Berkeley have produced an ultrasonic metamaterial with negative modulus. This means that whereas normal materials compress when a force, such as from a sound wave, is applied to them, the metamaterial instead expands. Acoustic lenses made of such metamaterial could be much smaller and provide much higher resolution, making it possible to greatly enhance ultrasound image resolution and to miniaturise sonars and other acoustic devices. So far the researchers have made a two-dimensional material that can be used for only one frequency and can capture sound from only one direction. They plan to develop "three-dimensional" materials that will not only be able to capture sound from every direction, but will also be tuneable. [M][R][S]
Self-decontaminating surface The wings of the African Namib beetle have patterns of water-attracting and water-repelling areas that enable it to capture water from fog and to funnel the water droplets into its mouth. Researchers have managed to mimic the surface using ink-jet compatible technology. This should make it easy to produce custom designed surfaces for various applications. One of these could be for self-decontaminating surfaces in which water-attracting areas of the surface collect a contaminated aerosol, and water-repelling areas channel it down to be collected. [M][D][J] |
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| [E] Environment, transport and marine | |
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Ancient Arctic Fossil remains of tropical vegetation in a sediment core excavated from 400 metres below the seabed of the Arctic Ocean have revealed that 55 million years ago, during the Palaeocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum, the North Pole had sea temperatures of around 23 degrees C. These temperatures, determined by analysing the composition of lipids in the cell membranes of the plants, are around 15 degrees C higher than would be predicted by applying current climate models to this period of the Earth's history. This may indicate that climate models are under predicting global warming at high latitudes. A major question is why the warming was so much greater at the North Pole than in the tropics. The Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum began with a huge release of a greenhouse gas, possibly carbon dioxide or methane, into the atmosphere. This caused global temperatures to rise by an average of about 5 degrees C, similar to the rise now expected from the current global warming. [E][C]
Amplified global warming Global temperatures will rise further in the future than previous studies have indicated, according to new research from two scientific teams that have used historical records to calculate the likely amplification of warming as higher temperatures release carbon dioxide from ecosystems. One team used data from Antarctic ice cores containing a 360,000-year record of global temperature and of levels of carbon dioxide and methane. They found that during periods of warming, greenhouse gas levels rose and created significantly higher temperatures than would be expected solely from the increased intensity of sunlight that triggered these warm periods. They say that if this amplification is taken into account, the upper limit of warming at the end of the 21st century could be 7.7 degrees C rather than 5.8 degrees C. The second group reached a similar conclusion by studying a much shorter period, looking back to the "Little Ice Age", a period in the middle of the last millennium when the northern hemisphere experienced relatively low temperatures. [E][D][P][R][X]
Pollution and global warming In lower latitudes, pollutant haze reduces global warming by reducing that amount of sunlight reaching the Earth's surface. However, researchers at the University of Utah have found that, in the Arctic, pollutant haze has the opposite effect of increasing warming by mixing with thin cloud and increasing their ability to trap heat. Record levels of pollution are reaching the Arctic from North America and Europe. [E]
Climate change in SE Asia Climate change in India and SE Asia is driven by a balance between pollution and global warming, according to research at Scripps Institute. Global warming is heating the southern Indian Ocean, but further north the extensive air pollution over land appears to be masking the greenhouse warming of the continent and the northern Indian Ocean. This is keeping land temperatures more bearable, but is driving the vital monsoon rain system away from South Asia into the equatorial and southern oceans. As a result, the climate could fluctuate between extreme heat in some years and drought in others. [E][D]
Climate change and desertification Researchers analysing the tropical air circulation pattern, which brings rain to the equator and dries the subtropics, have found that this climate belt has expanded by about 1 degree of latitude towards both the north and south poles over the past 27 years. The north and south jet streams have also moved correspondingly closer to each pole. The changes could cause deserts to expand into heavily populated urban areas. A desert-like climate could encroach upon Europe, possibly cutting winter rain and snowfall in the Alps and the Mediterranean. The same effect could also occur in south western Australia. [E][R]
Marine security Fish stocks in international waters are being plundered to the point of extinction through Illegal fishing and bottom-trawling in deep waters, according to a report by the WWF. [E][D]
Earthquake aftershocks Geophysicists in the US have found that the "aftershocks" produced by earthquakes are triggered by "dynamic" seismic waves from the main shock and not, as previously believed, by changes in stress in nearby faults brought about by the rearrangement of the Earth's crust. The findings could help predict better where aftershocks are likely to occur. [E][D][X]
Earth's heat flow Earthquakes, volcanoes and mountain building are all driven by the flow of heat out of the Earth's core. Much of this heat flow is thought to be via transmission of infrared radiation through the lower mantle. However, the heat flow models may now need to be revised following the discovery that crystals of magnesiowüstite, the second most common mineral in the lower mantle, whilst being transparent to infrared at atmospheric pressure, become highly absorbing at the intense pressures within the Earth's interior. [E][O] |
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| [R] Remote sensing and sensor systems | |
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Seismic imaging Companies are having to hunt for oil in deeper and more complex geological structures. This increases the costs of drilling and the difficulty of interpreting seismic data. To help solve this problem, researchers at MIT have developed sophisticated stochastic signal processing techniques that can map the 3D shape of important structures, such as salt domes, that are likely to trap oil. [R][C][P]
Networked seismography The networking of seismographic stations around the world is enabling seismic date from earthquakes to be used to probe the deep Earth. This is illustrated by the discover, using seismic data from earthquakes in South America, of a massive folded slab or rock at the boundary between the core and the mantle, lying 1700 miles below the Earth's surface beneath the West Coast of Central America. The researchers believe this slab is from the ocean floor and sank beneath North America some 50 million years ago. The discovery appears to resolve a big debate over whether subducted slabs sink all the way down to the base of the mantle or get trapped in the upper mantle. [R][C][E][I]
Earth observation ESA has announced the shortlist of new Earth Explorer mission proposals within its Living Planet Programme. The proposals cover: measuring forest biomass; monitoring air quality and long-range transport of air pollutants; understanding processes that link trace gases, radiation, chemistry and climate in the atmosphere; observing global photosynthesis through the measurement of fluorescence; understanding better the global carbon cycle and regional carbon dioxide fluxes; and, making detailed observations of key snow, ice and water cycle characteristics. [R][A][E]
Disaster early warning Satellites could be used to monitor rainfall conditions that may trigger landslides or floods, according to a NASA study. By linking satellite observations of soil type, vegetation and land slope with observations of rainfall, rivers and topography, NASA scientists hope to provide a disaster early warning system. The study combined data from NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental satellites and from several NASA satellites. [R][A][D][E][X]
Discovery of vast impact crater Gravity fluctuations measured by NASA's GRACE satellites have revealed a 200-mile-wide mascon, a plug of mantle material, lying beneath the Antarctic ice sheet south of Australia. Overlaying the gravity image with airborne radar images of the ground beneath the ice has shown that the mascon is perfectly centred inside a circular ridge some 300 miles wide. This suggests that the Earth was hit by a meteorite up to 30 miles wide, probably around 250 million years ago. The researchers postulate that this colossal impact may have caused the Permian extinction and might even have initiated the splitting off of Australia from the ancient Gondwana supercontinent. [R][A][E]
Hurricane forecasting Using data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite, NASA scientists have developed a technique to estimate whether a hurricane's surface winds will strengthen or weaken. They have found that if rain is falling from clouds that extend up to 9 miles high, and if the rain continues for at least one out of three hours, a hurricane's surface winds are likely to strengthen. Researchers have also improved hurricane models by incorporating the effects of the periodic change of ocean current that was responsible for intensifying Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the Gulf last year. Forecasters are predicting that in 2006 hurricanes are more likely to hit the US East coast rather than the Gulf coast. [R][A][E]
Observing Earth like planets About 170 extrasolar planets have been discovered so far, including three Neptune-sized worlds circling a star 41 light years away. One of these three worlds is by far the smallest planet yet found in the “habitable zone” of a Sun-like star, where liquid water could exist. Astronomers would like to detect Earth-like extrasolar planets directly, since analysis of the light would reveal much more information - the spectrum of Earthshine reveals the presence of ozone and chlorophyll, both sure signs of biological activity on Earth. However, simulations suggest that, even with the latest adaptive optics and signal processing, existing Earth-based telescopes can only hope to directly detect young, bright planets that are at least five times the size of Jupiter, and nothing smaller. Earth-based telescopes can, however, do the preliminary search work to support the space-based missions Kepler and Darwin, which are scheduled for launch in 2008 and 2015 respectively. [R][A][C][O] |
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| [S] Sensor devices | |
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Night vision The cheapness of image intensifiers means that night vision is now available to insurgents and terrorists as well as to regular military forces. The US is trying to maintain its technological superiority in night operations by exploiting many areas of the spectrum. This includes the short wave infrared region of the spectrum from 1 to 2 micron wavelength. The US is also exploiting visual collaboration, the sharing of real-time image, graphics and information from soldier to soldier via digital networks. [S][D][K][R][T][V]
Infrared detector Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector (QWIP) arrays offer a low-cost alternative to conventional infrared detector technology. Researchers at NASA have now demonstrated QWIP arrays that can operate over a much wider infra-red band from 8 to 12 microns wavelength. [S][R]
Counting terahertz photons Japanese scientists have succeeded in detecting single terahertz photons for the first time. The achievement is relevant to terahertz communications and to photon-counting microscopy in the terahertz range to study the dynamics of individual molecules. [S][G][N][O][R]
Extreme-UV microscope US researchers have developed a tabletop optical imaging system that can reveal details smaller than 38 nanometres. Such high resolution is important for inspecting nanoscale geometry devices and circuits. Also, because the microscope uses a picosecond EUV laser, it may be possible to create picosecond-scale snapshots of important nanoscale processes. [S][J][N][O]
Hydrogen sensor array A major challenge in using hydrogen as a fuel is that it is explosive even at concentrations of only a few percent in air. Detecting hydrogen leaks will be very important. With this in mind, researchers at the University of Florida have developed small cheap hydrogen sensors that harvest their electrical power from vibrations and that can sound an alarm via wireless communication. The aim is that arrays of such sensor nodes could operate continuously without batteries or maintenance when affixed to cars, refrigerators, pumps, motors or any other machine that gives off a slight vibration. [S][I][P][R]
Artificial nose The human nose detects a thousand different proteins to allow the brain to recognise 10,000 different smells. Researchers are trying to make artificial noses that could surpass humans and animals in sensitivity and discrimination. European researchers have shown that nanobiosensors will react to a few molecules of odorant with a very high degree of accuracy, and that it is feasible to make large arrays. A major challenge now is to establish precise odorant signatures for different targets. Artificial noses could be used to diagnose diseases, detect rotten food, test cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, identify pollutants or scan for drugs and explosives. [S][B][D][E][H][J][N][V]
Artificial fingertip An artificial touch sensor as sensitive as a human fingertip has been developed by scientists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The sensor is made by depositing alternating layers of gold and cadmium sulphide nanoparticles, separated by insulating layers of polymer, to create a film just 100 nm thick and about a centimetre on each side. A voltage is applied across the film and when pressure is exerted on the material its layers squeeze together allowing current to flow locally. As the current flows through different regions of the material it causes the cadmium sulphide nanoparticles to emit light, creating an image that can be picked up by a digital camera. [S][J][N][O][U][V] |
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| [O] Optoelectronics, optics and lasers | |
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Radial fibre laser Conventional fibre lasers emit light along their axis. However, for some applications it would be better to have a larger emitting surface. Scientists at MIT have developed a fibre laser that emits light radially from its circumferential surface. This could be particularly useful for medical applications such as fluorescence imaging and diffusive optical imaging. [O][H][R]
Solid state lighting A pair of articles in Science News reviews progress in solid state lighting. This new technology provides much greater control over the location, intensity and colour of lighting, and the articles discuss how this can create a more flexible, effective and healthy environment. Solid state lighting should also bring big savings in power consumption. [O][E][J][P][T]
Flexible OLEDs The fabrication of flexible OLEDs for lighting and displays has been held back by the fragility of the brittle indium tin oxide layer that serves as the transparent electrode. Now, however, Canadian researchers have succeeded in making high-performance OLEDs using a rugged and flexible mat of carbon nanotubes as the transparent electrode. [O][J][N][V]
Ultraviolet LED The capacity of optical storage discs is limited by the wavelength of the light used to read and write to the disc. Existing DVDs use red light at the wavelength of 650 nm, while the new Blu-ray and HD DVD discs use blue light at 405 nm. Researchers at NTT have developed an LED that emits light at a wavelength of 210 nm. This could be used to create discs with a capacity of about 100 gigabytes. Before such applications become a reality, however, the device's efficiency needs improving at least a million-fold. Its output power is currently only 20 nanowatts, and it requires an operating voltage of 25 V. [O][C][J]
Optical transistor Scientists at Duke University have succeeded in optically switching a high-intensity light beam using a much weaker beam, a development that could lead to the optical equivalent of the electronic transistor. They used two overlapping laser beams pointing in opposite directions inside a rubidium vapour glass cell. The non-linear Interactions between the laser beams and the rubidium atoms create what is called "counterpropagating beam instability" in which the electromagnetic patterns created by the counterpropagating laser beams are very sensitive to additional light entering the system. The researchers found that when a third weaker laser beam was added it caused the pattern to rotate by an amount proportional to the third beam's intensity. [O][J]
Optical communications At present the high bandwidth of signals carried on optical fibre trunk networks means that the signals have to be split optically into multiple lower bandwidth signals before each of these can be converted to an electrical output. This complexity adds considerably to the cost of optical communications. Now, Siemens and Infineon have developed a data receiver chip that processes a data volume of 107 gigabits per second and can be used for the future 100 Gbit/s Ethernet transmission system without needing optical splitting. [O][I][J]
THz saser Sound amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, or SASER, is the acoustic analogue of a laser. Scientists from the University of Nottingham and the Lashkarev Institute of Semiconductor Physics in Ukraine have built a saser that emits at terahertz frequency - essentially ultrasound with wavelengths measured in nanometres. Terahertz acoustical devices might be used in modulating light waves in optoelectronic devices. The saser's gain medium consists of a superlattice of thin layers of semiconductors that together form quantum wells in which electrons can be excited by parcels of ultrasound. Coherent sound can build up by the emission of phonons from many quantum wells in the superlattice. US researchers also report the development of an ultrasound equivalent of a random laser, which they call a UASER. [O][J][N][R] |
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| [I] IT, communications, networking and secure systems | |
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Mobile phone use The number of mobile phones in use around the world is now approaching 2.5 billion. A survey commissioned by Nokia into mobile phone use in different countries has found that, overall, 44 percent of people already use their handset as their main camera, and two thirds of those questioned said they expected their phone to replace their portable music player. [I][K][O][V]
60 GHz wireless comms Cheap silicon circuits could soon start to open up wireless comms in the 60GHz region. Last winter, IBM engineers unveiled the first experimental 60-GHz transmitter and receiver chips. This uses IBM’s latest silicon-germanium technology, which achieves switching rates of 200 GHz. With antennas incorporated into the plastic package to eliminates signal losses, the chips have communicated at 630 megabits per second over a distance of 10 metres. Researchers at UCLA report three key 60GHz transceiver components built using widely available 130-nm and 90-nm silicon CMOS. An IEEE standards group, 802.15.3c, is now hard at work defining specifications for 60GHz chips in a 2-Gb/s short-range, personal area network. [I][J]
Organising dynamic networks Understanding how complex biological systems are able to adapt dynamically to changing circumstances can help in developing better tools for managing complexity in computer networks, according to European research. The researchers have developed and tested a promising routing algorithm called AntHocNet that exploits a model of Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO) to optimise mobile ad-hoc communication networks. Tiny packets of data, called ants, are sent out to find the most efficient routing choice based on the twin needs of connectivity and power management. [I][C][X]
Steganalysis The ability to hide files within another file, called steganography, allows people, such as criminals or terrorists, to send encrypted information without this being obvious. In particular, information can easily be hidden within images using subtle changes in colour or grey scale that are impossible for the eye to detect. The emerging science of detecting such files – steganalysis – uses automatic analysers, trained on a very large set of clean images, to spot rogue images containing stego information. [I][K][R][T]
Network and information security Investment within Europe in network and information security (NIS), currently 5-13 percent of IT expenditure, is too low, according to the European Commission. The growth of mobile-based network services, the increasing interconnectedness of systems and the critical dependency of infrastructure and organisations on IT are expanding the opportunities for malicious attacks and the risks that breaches in NIS could have devastating results. The Commission proposes a more 'dynamic and integrated' approach to IT security strategy. A first step should be a benchmarking exercise on national NIS-related policies, including specific security policies for the public sector. This could help to identify best practices to help small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and citizens to recognise and address their own specific NIS risks and needs. [I][C][K][T]
Reliable and secure operating systems Microkernels - long discarded as unacceptable because of their lower performance compared with monolithic kernels - might be making a comeback in operating systems due to their potentially higher reliability. Today's operating systems have two characteristics that make them unreliable and insecure: they are huge, with millions of lines of code, and they have very poor fault isolation because they are monolithic and full of so many interdependencies. No one person can understand a kernel this size. Using a conservative estimate of six bugs per 1,000 lines of code suggests that the Linux kernel probably has something like 15,000 bugs and Windows XP has at least double that. About 70 percent of the operating system consists of device drivers, and it is very hard to prevent buggy device drivers sometimes crashing the system. [I][C][T][W] |
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| [K] Knowledge, information and technology management | |
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Telemedicine A European project is kick-starting the wider deployment of telemedicine across Europe. Hospital specialists in Spain, Italy and Denmark are using a telecounselling service for remote consultations with patients, avoiding the need for them to come to a hospital. This is coupled with a telelaboratory service that allows primary healthcare professionals to take samples of a patient’s blood or urine, analyse the samples on the spot at the patients bedside or in their home, and send the results wirelessly to a specialist over a secure Public Key Infrastructure. [K][H]
Neutrality of the Web The World Wide Web Consortium supports an open model of the internet based on the concept of network neutrality, where everyone has the same level of access to the web and all data moving around the web is treated equally. This view is backed by companies like Microsoft and Google, who have called for legislation to guarantee net neutrality. However, telecoms companies in the US would like to implement a two-tier system, where data from companies or institutions that can pay are given priority over those that cannot. This has particularly become an issue with the transmission of TV shows over the internet, with some broadband providers wanting to charge content providers to carry the data. Proponents of the open web fear that this would make broadband providers the gatekeepers to the web's content. [K][I]
Information analysis Web feed tools such as Really Simple Syndication (RSS) automatically alert a user when new information is added to a favourite website. This provides automatic updates when fresh news stories are posted to a site or when new scientific papers are added to a journal, for example. However, there is so much information available that it is hard for users to sort through it or recognise what is particularly significant. Researchers at Oak Ridge have developed a new tool that uses flocking software to organise information. It can recognise associations and does not require the categories to be specified in advance. When a new article appears, the software scans it for words similar to those in existing articles and then files the document into an existing flock, or creates a new one. It uses a modified version of the software that creates animations of birds in movies and video games. [K][C]
User-generated games content With the cost of producing new computer games now approaching those of major movies, games developers are increasingly interested in the potential of user-generated content. The challenge is to enable users to produce content of sufficiently high quality. A new game, called Spore, allows users to create and bring to life their own civilisations, starting from a single cell organism, and eventually dominating the universe with highly intelligent species. The game is able to bring to life creatures of any design, automatically working out the physics of how creatures should move and interact, guaranteeing that everyone's creations will at least work. [K][C][U][V]
Science paper ontology A framework for translating the write-ups of experiments into a format that can be processed by computers has been developed at Aberystwyth University in Wales. The researchers have published the software code online so that anyone can use and modify it. The researchers believe the new tool could revolutionise the way scientific papers are written and help scientists make creative leaps. The tool, called EXPO, provides an ontology to represent different stages of an experiment and the relationships between these stages. It also includes ways to define the hypothesis tested, the way results are analysed, and the conclusion drawn. It enables a computer to pick out similarities between papers in different fields that might otherwise go unnoticed, allows much more sophisticated searching of the literature and makes it easy to see whether an experiment contradicts or agrees with other work. [K]
Networked-based research and teaching The League of European Research Universities (LERU) has outlined its views on the form of the proposed European Institute of Technology (EIT). LERU's view is that the EIT should be network-based rather than located at a specific geographical site. It should comprise up to ten areas of research, with a network of between three and five research groups (the best in Europe) within each field. A partnership relationship should exist between the parent bodies - the universities from which the research groups come, to ease interaction on research, postgraduate teaching and innovation between the EIT and the universities. Most groups will be in research-intensive universities, but some may be in research institutes with leading-edge specialist skills relevant to the network. A connection to industry is vital, and could be achieved through 'Knowledge Integration Communities'. [K][T] |
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| [C] Computing, supercomputing, modelling and simulation | |
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Bot networks Five European research institutes are collaborating on a project to explore how intelligent machines interact and collaborate in a network, and from this to understand more about human social networks and language. The project, called NEW TIES, has developed software agents that will populate the NEW TIES engine, which will run across a Grid of 60 computers. This network will initially support about 1,000 agents, building up to millions. Each agent is a unique entity with its own characteristics, including gender, life expectancy, fertility, size, and metabolism. The agents will not be labelled, but will have their own distinguishing characteristics to make them recognisable. Their traits will be inherited from their parents, and passed on to their offspring, but they will be able to learn from their own experiences and from each other. [C][K][X]
Quantum computing Concepts for quantum computers have envisaged using qubits individually and controlling their interactions. Researchers suggest that a better concept may be to have a processor core where qubits are active all the time, continuously and freely talking with all their neighbours. The whole core becomes entangled and the qubits record and manipulate data as a group. The key to making the new design work is a separate storage bank of qubits that swap information in and out of the quantum processor core. [C]
Quantum computer error checking Physicists at UCSB have discovered a new, and they believe more scaleable, way to check how much of the information stored inside a quantum computer has decayed. In their set-up, a qubit is created using two superconducting metals separated by an insulating barrier. Passing a current through this component produces a qubit in the form of two energy levels in superposition. The researchers have found that if they lower the energy barrier to a point just above the higher of the two energy levels, they only partially collapsing the waveform. Scanning the qubit using microwave radiation then reveals its state of superposition without actually revealing the qubit's actual state, which would destroy its quantum properties. In a functional quantum computer this technique could be used to confirm that a qubit can still be used for a quantum computation. [C]
Magnetic storage Magnetic tape storage has been given a possible new lease of life by an IBM breakthrough. Researchers at IBM have packed 6.67 billion bits of data per square inch on magnetic tape developed with the help of Fuji Photo Film Company of Japan. This is 15 times higher density than on current industry standard magnetic tapes. [C][J][O] |
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| [W] Whole life engineering, manufacture and testing | |
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Dependable software design In the past, many large software systems have failed, despite being designed using good practice at the time. It was once hoped that programs could be proved correct mathematically. However, these formal methods are impractical except for relatively modest but especially critical pieces of software. Now a new generation of powerful analysis tools is emerging that enable engineers to analyse and test for structural and conceptual inconsistencies that could lead to system failure. Computers and simulation languages are now powerful enough to test design concepts by simulating all the possible conditions of the system that might arise in practice. The latest tools avoid the need to examine system scenarios in their entirety, but instead search for bad scenarios by filling in each state in an automated fashion, one bit at a time, in no particular order. Tools called SAT (satisfiability) solvers can handle problems with millions of constraints. The design tools often include facilities that help designers to visualise undesirable states or relationships between blocks of code. [W][A][C][D][H][I][K][R][T][X]
Concurrent programming Despite progress in nanotechnology, higher performance computing will depend increasingly on greater parallelism. In general-purpose software engineering practice, one approach to concurrent programming dominates all others, namely threads - sequential processes that share memory. The threads approach is supported by modern computers, programming languages, and operating systems. Many general-purpose parallel architectures, such as symmetric multiprocessors, are direct hardware realizations of the thread abstraction. Unfortunately, however, threads are wildly non-deterministic, and nontrivial multithreaded programs are incomprehensible to humans. This leads to the argument that concurrent programming will eventually require discarding threads as a programming model. [W][C][T]
Technology insertion The US Army is using a dedicated force, called the Rapid Equipping Force (REF), to speed new technology into operational use in Afghanistan and Iraq. The REF is adapting existing products to meet urgent operational requirements, and it is inserting technologies such as advanced sensors directly from military and commercial laboratories into systems in the field. The success of this approach is leading to changes in acquisition regulations to accelerate acquisition and deployment time schedules and to support operational forces by facilitating more real time technology insertion. [W][D][T] |
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| [X] Systems, complexity and risk | |
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Microbiota systems Humans, like other animals, are colonised by bacteria, viruses and other microbes from birth. These systems of microbiota are distinctly different from person to person, and they are important to a person's health. Proper development of the immune system is reliant on microbial stimulation. Lack of beneficial microbes caused by ultra-hygienic living conditions may promote the development of allergies such as asthma, according to recent research. By adding beneficial microbes to an individual's microbiota systems, it may be possible to improve the person's innate and acquired immune systems, and therapy using these so-called probiotic microbes could become very important for future medicine. [X][G][H][T]
Cell control system A cell needs to regulate gene expression so that there is the right level of gene activity at any time - not too little and not too much. It has been conjectured that this regulation is accomplished digitally by pulsing genes on and off, and scientists have now observed this experimentally by using a fluorescent marker that sticks to the gene only when it is active. It remains unclear how this pulsing is controlled, and whether this pulsing applies to all types of genes - not only in developmental genes, which are turned on selectively in an organism and only in certain tissues, but also in the constitutive genes that are regularly expressed by all the cells of an organism. [X][G]
Systems biology Several decades of past research has uncovered many parts of the mechanism through cells repair damage to their DNA, such as those caused by carcinogenic mutagens. Now, US researchers say they have provided a 'systems biology' explanation of how all the parts function together. From experiments on yeast, they uncovered a tangled network of interactions of 30 transcription factors with more than 5,000 yeast genes. This has revealed how the initial event of DNA damage is transmitted by these transcription factors not only to the DNA repair processes but also to all the other important functions of the cell. [X][G][H]
Value of species Researchers have quantified the energy needed for evolution to create a new species. Using a mathematical model based on the body size and temperature-dependence of individual metabolism, the researchers made specific predictions on rates of speciation at the global scale. Then, using fossils and genetic data, they looked at rates of DNA evolution and speciation during a 30-million-year period in the case of a single-celled animal, foraminifera plankton, that floats in the ocean. From this they found that to create one new species of plankton takes 10 billion terajoules of energy, more energy than all the fossil fuel people burn on the planet in a year. Every species represents a solution to the problem of survival in a particular ecological niche, and hence species individually and together represent a huge wealth of biomimetic opportunity. [X][E]
Boson-fermion system Two independent teams have managed to trap bosons together in a 3D optical lattice, in the form of a mixture of potassium-40 atoms (bosons) and rubidium-87atoms (fermions). One team has studied the coupling between fermions and bosons in the lattice whilst the other has looked at how bosons behave differently in the presence of fermions. The breakthrough provides a model system in which to study real-life solid-state materials, and may be relevant to understanding many other systems, including certain biological systems and traffic systems. [X][M][O] |
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| [V] Virtuality and human-machine interface | |
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User-sensitive touch screen A new interactive computer display can keep track of multiple users by differentiating between their touch. It consists of a touch-sensitive screen that can be operated by several users simultaneously. It works by transmitting distinct electrical signals to each area on the surface of the screen. When each user makes contact with the screen the relevant signal is sent through his or her body and picked up by a receiver located in the user's chair. The technology could be used in command and control, for example to help limit access to certain controls at power station or in the cockpit of an airplane, or in vehicle dashboards. It might also find wide consumer application for computer games. [V][C][K][U]
Second skin garments CSIRO scientists have developed a ‘second skin’ material made from wool and Lycra to help protect the body against wounds and traumas. A major use is expected to be in patient care, particularly of the elderly or bed-ridden, whose skin is liable to tear. Second skin garments may also incorporate sensors linked to telemetry devices for telehealthcare. [V][H][M][R][S][V]
Retinal projector A machine that lets partially blind patients read and explore virtual buildings by projecting images directly onto their retinal cells has been successfully tested. Its developers say the machine could help people who suffer from degenerative vision loss, for example as a result of glaucoma or macular degeneration. It could enable them to read books and familiarise themselves with the layout of a new building before visiting it for the first time. [V][H][O]
Correcting loss of accommodation As people age their eye lenses becomes less pliable, making it harder to focus without using glasses. This could be corrected by using a laser to cut the fibres in the lens that make it stiff, but this has been considered to be too risky. Now, researchers at the University of Michigan have shown how this can be done safely by using microbubbles to measure the thickness and rigidity of the eye lens during laser surgery. Ultrafast laser pulses are used to create tiny gas bubbles within the intraocular lens and these bubbles are then hit with high frequency sound waves that push the bubbles against neighbouring lens fibres. From the reflected ultrasound signal it is possible to measure how far the bubbles have moved and hence the local pliability of the lens. This information is used to control where to cut the fibres to restore the right pliability. [V][H][O]
Travel sickness goggles The nausea symptoms of travel sickness are thought to result from mismatch between the visual information from the eyes and the balance information from the inner ears, caused by the rattles and shakes of a vehicle's movement. Astronauts can be badly affected by space sickness for the first few days of their space missions, and even after they return to Earth. NASA JSC has now developed goggles that can eliminate or reduce the nausea by simulating a strobe-lighting effect. This freezes the moving visual scene on the retina in jerks. The goggle may also work against sea sickness and other travel sickness. [V][A][H][O]
Brain-machine interface A robotic hand controlled by the power of thought alone has been demonstrated by researchers in Japan. The robotic hand mimics the movements of a person's real hand, based on real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the haemodynamic responses in the brain. Previous non-invasive brain-machine interfaces (BMI) required the user to undergo intensive training in order to generate detectable brain activities. The new BMI technology is different in that natural brain activity associated with specific movements can be decoded without using alternative brain activity. [V][B]
Nanotube bio-interface Thin films of carbon nanotubes deposited on transparent plastic can also serve as a surface on which biological cells can grow. US scientists have used nanotubes to send signals to nerve cells showing that nanotube films could potentially serve as an electrical interface between living tissue and prosthetic devices or biomedical instruments. [V][B][N] |
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| [B] Brain research and human science | |
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Brain co-ordination Different parts of the brain have specialised abilities that can contribute in various ways to completion of different tasks, and much of the brain's power derives from its ability to flexibly configuration its processing systems to take one stimulus and process it in different ways to produce different feedback. Researchers have now identified that three regions of the brain, the dorsal anterior cingulate and the left and right frontal operculum, seem to be responsible for the master planning of how to use and co-ordinate different processing systems to accomplish a task. [B]
Brain's executive planning Studies in which monkeys were asked to manipulate computer cursors for fruit juice rewards have revealed that the brain's "executive" centre plans behaviours not by specifying movements required for given actions, but rather the events that will result from those actions. This accords with subjective human experience that when people plan multiple steps of actions in daily life, they usually do this by consciously arranging future events that they expect to occur as the consequence of actions, and rarely consider the temporal sequence of motor actions that are involved. [B]
Evolution of planning ability Forward-planning has been thought to be a uniquely human ability. However, German researchers have now shown that bonobos and orang-utans also have this ability. It may have evolved about 14 million years ago, when the great apes and humans shared a common ancestor. [B][G]
Neural mechanism of prejudice By scanning subjects' brains using fMRI while they were thinking about people either politically similar or different from themselves, researchers have found that different areas of the brain are active in the two cases. The researchers believe their work could aid in understanding the basis of stereotyping of groups other than one's own, as well as understanding prejudice and how to reduce it. The findings suggest that to reduce prejudice it is beneficial to emphasise how alike different groups are, rather than highlighting their differences. [B][D][K][W][X]
Memory For over 40 years it has been thought that the hippocampus was important for creating long-term memory but not short-term or working memory. Now memory tests performed with amnesiacs suggest instead that the hippocampus is also involved with working memory and that the age of the memory is less important to the hippocampus than is the requirement to form connections between pieces of information to create a coherent episode of memory. [B][K]
How Prozac works It has been known for some years that the widely prescribed antidepressant Prozac (fluoxetine) is likely to work by somehow causing more neurons to be present in a particular region of the brain called the dentate gyrus. But the origins of these neurons, and how Prozac promotes their existence, have been a mystery. Now, researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have found that Prozac treatment specifically stimulates the generation of a kind of cell they dubbed "amplifying neural progenitors" or ANPs. These cells are the second step in the neurogenesis pathway from stem cells to mature neurons. Understanding factors that affect neurogenesis is not only important for relieving depression but also for human space missions to Mars and beyond, since radiation in deep space could be seriously injurious to an astronaut's brain over a long space flight. [B][A][G][H]
Nerve regeneration Several years ago, it was found that the inflammatory response triggered by eye injury promoted nerve regeneration in the eye. This was surprising because the body usually shuts down nerve regeneration after injury, probably to prevent erroneous re-connections being made. Researchers have now, after exhaustive testing of all the molecules involved in the immune response, found that one protein, oncomodulin, is particularly potent. The hope is that drugs developed from oncomodulin might not only heal damage optic nerves but also help to heal spinal cord injury. [B][H]
Reversing vegetative state It has been discovered that a sleeping bill called Zolpidem, usually used to treat insomnia, can temporarily revive people who appear to be in a permanent vegetative state to the point where they can engage in conversations. Zolpidem and similar drugs activate receptors for a chemical called GABA in nerve cells in the brain. When brain damage occurs, these receptors appear to change shape, so they cannot behave as normal. The drug appears to cause the receptors in dormant areas to change back to their normal shape, triggering nerve cell activity. [B][H] |
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| [H] Healthcare and medicine | |
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Surviving low oxygen The common carp has evolved to survive extreme conditions of temperature, lack of oxygen and dirty, sediment-laden water. Research at the University of Liverpool has found that the protein myglobin - thought to act as an oxygen store in the heart and muscle cells of humans and vertebrate animals - also exists in many other tissues of the common carp and enables it to survive in low oxygenated environments. The research is relevant to understanding how humans could survive better the loss of oxygen supply to their tissues during a stroke or a heart attack. [H][B]
Age-related loss of vision A cell layer called the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) forms the outer barrier of the retina and when the RPE deteriorates with age. or becomes damaged in some other way, the eye's rods and cones die. It is widely believed that the RPE cannot regenerate. However, experiments in mice are now showing that stem cells from bone marrow can migrate to the RPE and replenish it. If this process can be enhanced it could go a long way towards preventing blindness in old age. [H][G]
Trachoma test The first cheap, simple and accurate test for trachoma, an eye disease that ravages parts of Africa, has been developed and successfully trialled. Nearly six million people have been blinded by trachoma, which is caused by a bacterium called Chlamydia trachomatis. Having an easy-to-use and sensitive tool to diagnose an infection before it develops into clinical symptoms means that the drug azithromycin can be used much more effectively to treat trachoma. [H][S]
New type of antibiotic Merck has developed an entirely new type of antibiotic. Called Platensimycin, it is effective against 'gram-positive' bacteria, including MRSA and other antibiotic resistant superbugs. Most classes of antibiotic were discovered in the 1940s and 1950s, and work by blocking synthesis of the cell wall, DNA and proteins within bacteria. Platensimycin works by blocking enzymes involved in the synthesis of fatty acids, which bacteria need to construct cell membranes. If it passes clinical trials, it will become only the third entirely new antibiotic developed in the last four decades, and researchers hope that it will lead to an entirely new series of antibiotics. One possible problem is that in mice platensimycin appears to be metabolised rapidly. If this happens in humans it may mean that platensimycin will need to be continually infused into patients, making it less practical as a drug. [H][G]
New drug against HIV A revolutionary drug that could help overcome HIV's growing resistance to existing antiviral drugs is about to be tested in combination with standard antivirals. Called PA-457, it is the first of a new class of anti-HIV compounds called maturation inhibitors. It works by disrupting formation of a conical shield, called the capsid protein, which stores and protects the RNA heart of the HIV particles as they bud out from infected cells. [H][G]
Antibody cocktail therapy A new cancer therapy developed by Australian and Japanese scientists has shown unprecedented success in experiments on mice. It uses a cocktail of three different antibodies. One of these attacks the tumour directly, by stimulating the receptor for a death-inducing protein on tumour cells, called TRAIL. The other two antibodies activate killer T-cells to attack the tumour. The treatment cleared large breast tumours in 80 percent of the mice and induced a complete cure in 60 percent of mice in which the breast cancer had spread to the lungs, liver, and brain. The approach should work for a range of cancers that express TRAIL. Other researchers have also shown that another antibody that blocks interleukin 23 (IL-23) helps killer T-cells to penetrate tumours. [H][G]
Anti-cancer compound Alpha tocopheryl succinate is a derivative of vitamin E and is often taken as an anti-oxidant supplement. It also has a weak ability to kill cancer cells by triggering apoptosis. Research at Ohio State has now shown that it does this by interfering with a protein called Bcl-xL, which is often present at abnormally high levels in cancer cells and protects them from dying. From this finding, the researchers have been able to alter the compound's molecular structure to make it very much more effective in blocking Bcl-xL. [H][G]
Checkpoint proteins, cancer and ageing Checkpoint proteins have long been known to be involved in preventing cancer. Researchers have now found that they are also involved in ageing. When they genetically removed checkpoint proteins in the nematode worm, C.elegans, they found this resulted in a 15 to 30 percent increase in the lifespan of the worms. Checkpoint proteins protect against cancer by preventing damaged cells from dividing. The new research also shows that they are active in non-dividing cells, such as neurons. There may be many more checkpoint proteins to be discovered and some of these may help to develop therapies for cancer and age associated diseases. [H][G]
Possible treatment for Type 2 diabetes Taking a cue from traditional Chinese medicine, researchers have uncovered a specific chemical, genipin, from the fruit of the gardenia plant that may be the basis for treating Type 2 diabetes. Genepin works by blocking an enzyme UCP2. This enzyme is overproduced in patients with Type 2 diabetes and inhibits pancreas cells from secreting insulin. [H][G]
Heart repair Because fully developed heart cells do not divide, it was long thought that the heart was unable to regenerate after injury. In 2003, US researchers discovered stem cells in the hearts of mice, and subsequently humans. However, it was not clear whether these stem cells actually resided in the heart or had merely migrated there from another tissue, such as bone marrow. Now researchers have located cardiac stem cell clustered together with more mature heart cells in niches between cardiac muscle cells. The finding raises the possibility that these cardiac stem cells could one day be manipulated to rebuild tissues damaged by heart disease. [H][G]
Snakebite antivenom UK researchers have developed a way to make snakebite antivenom that is more powerful and works even when it is unclear exactly what species of snake has bitten the victim. Snakebites kill tens of thousands of people each year; yet supplies of traditional antivenom are drying up. The researchers started with the DNA of the carpet viper, which causes the majority of snakebite deaths in West Africa, and looked for the genes that are active when the snake is refilling its venom sacs. From these genes they created a “consensus” gene sequence, from which they constructed a DNA strand from seven DNA stretches that code for parts of the outside of the protein molecules. When they injected this synthetic DNA into mice, the animals made corresponding antibodies, and when these were injected into other mice they not only proved more powerful than classic serum against carpet viper venom, but also against other West African vipers, and even a viper from North Africa. [H][G] |
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