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Top Stories in Science
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May 2004 Issue |
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| [D] Defence and security |  |
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The UN Security Council has unanimously approved a resolution aimed at keeping weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists. All UN member states will be required to pass laws to stop terrorists and black market traders from buying, selling or developing such weapons. [D] A DARPA-supported project is developing a real-time system to help respond to chemical or biological attacks. The system combines weather-forecasting models with specialised knowledge about the plume and dispersion patterns for various toxic agents, together with venue-specific data. Using the system, first responders can gauge how much toxin has been discharged and where, and predict how the plume will drift and disperse. The system is being tested using the Pentagon building as the venue and simulants released from balloons. [D][E][R] A report by the Royal Society has called for a new UK national centre to co-ordinate procedures for dealing with chemical and biological attacks by terrorists. This includes establishing standards for 'safe' clean-up levels after an incident. In the US, researchers at Argonne National Laboratory have warned that the US is ill prepared to deal with the long term aftermath of a 'dirty-bomb' terrorist attack. They say that existing clean-up laws and regulations covering radioactive materials were not designed for dirty bombs, and give seriously conflicting recommendations. [D][E] The UK security service MI5 is now making its terrorist threat assessment and safety advice available publicly to help citizens protect themselves against terrorism. The advice includes a top 10 list of safety tips for businesses and other organisations. [D][K] The US army is testing enzymes called paraoxonases to see if they could be used in prophylactics to protect troops from exposure to nerve agents during battle. Paraoxonases completely break down organophosphorus nerve agents such as sarin. They might also be a basis for producing drugs that could protect the general public. [D][H] Men who have served in the US military are 60 percent more likely than civilians to develop amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease), according to researchers who studied the causes of death of around 400,000 men over a nine-year period. Some 217 veterans developed the disease, which is rare but fatal, and causes nerve-cell death and muscle wasting. The men had served in various conflicts including the Second World War, Korea and Vietnam. Researchers think that environmental factors, such as viral infections, lead poisoning and excessive exercise, may contribute to the disease. [D][H] There is concern over a new outbreak of SARS in China. The virus appears to have escaped from a laboratory at the Beijing Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, where it was being studied. Neither of the two staff who contracted the SARS actually worked with the live virus. Chinese scientists have found the SARS virus in the sweat glands of people killed by the infection in southern China in 2003, raising the possibility that the virus might be able to spread by touch as well as by inhaled droplets. [D][H] There are 70 percent fewer cases of HIV in Uganda now compared with ten years ago. This success story is unique in Africa, and is in part due to rapid response mass media campaigns that have changed social behaviour and engaged local communities in combating the epidemic. [D][H][K] The WHO has published a report on the investment needed to meet the goals for improving water and sanitation. Currently, an estimated 2.4 billion people have no access to basic sanitation facilities and 1.1 billion lack safe drinking water. According to the report, the additional investment of around US$11bn per annum needed could result in a total economic benefit of US$ 84bn annually. [D][E][X] The World Trade Organisation (WTO) Dispute Panel has ruled that the $2 billion a year support which the US has been giving to its cotton farmers is illegal under world trade rules. If the decision is upheld, and if the EU loses a similar case on sugar subsidies, the US and EU will probably be forced to end or greatly reduce all trade-distorting subsidies. This could create a huge shift in agricultural production from richer to poorer countries. Oxfam calculates that if Africa could increase its share of world exports by 1 percent, it would earn an extra $70 billion annually, five times what the continent receives in aid. [D][E] |
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| [A] Aeronautics and space | |
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To maximise an aeroplane's efficiency over a broader range of flight speeds, Penn State engineers, funded by NASA and DARPA, have developed a concept for wings that change shape like a bird's wing and are covered with a segmented outer skin like the scales of a fish. [A][M] A solar-powered aircraft with flapping wings is being developed in NASA-funded research at the University of Missouri. The wings are made from an ionic polymer-metal composite, which can bend, twist or flap in response to an applied voltage. The researchers have been able to control precisely the amount of deformation required for a flying motion, and have used a scaled-down model in water to mimic the effects of air resistance on a full-sized wing. [A][M] A robotic rescue mission to repair and upgrade the Hubble space telescope may be feasible, according to NASA. [A][U] The European unmanned reusable launch vehicle (RLV) is planned to ferry satellites into orbit cheaply by 2015. A prototype, called Phoenix, which is one of several proposed concepts for the RLV, has successfully demonstrated the autonomous landing capability in a test flight. It uses GPS, radar and laser altimeters, as well as pressure and speed sensors. [A][U] Venus might once have been warm and wet, and a potential breeding ground for life, but at some point a runaway greenhouse effect dried the planet out and heated its surface to more than 480 degrees C. Life could still possibly exist in the Venusian atmosphere, sucking water from hydrated sulphur compounds in the clouds. Researchers have suggested a plan to ESA by which a ship orbiting Venus would release a canister to sample the atmosphere, recapture it and return it to Earth for analysis. [A] |
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| [U] Unmanned vehicles and robotics | |
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NASA's Mars rover, Opportunity, is trekking round a 130-metre-wide crater called Endurance, examining the rocks within and looking for a safe route in and out. The crater is about 20 metres deep and has cliffs of bedrock in places that are 5 to 10 metres high. These could reveal a lot more about the sea that once existed at the Opportunity landing site. [U][A] Fingerprints that are old and have largely dried out can be disclosed by "fuming" suspect artefacts in a sealed cabinet with a vapour of cyanoacrylate - better known as superglue. Canadian engineers have developed a "superglue gun" that can be used in the open air on a bomb disposal robot to take pictures of fingerprints on suspect packages before blowing them up. [U][D][S] The US Department of Transportation estimates that the US economy loses $100bn each year through accidents and delays caused by highway lane closures. Researchers at the University of Nebraska have developed robot traffic cones that can reduce the risk to workmen of clearing or deploying markers on highways in high traffic conditions. Each flock of cones consists of a number of cheap units plus a more expensive "shepherd" robot that leads them and is equipped with GPS navigation. [U][E][R] Hospital trials of a robot electronically linked to a physician found that half of the patients preferred routine visits from the robot linked remotely to their own physician compared with visits from the human physicians on duty. The robot had a computer screen for a head, a video camera for eyes and a speaker for a mouth. Half of the patients also said that this robot telerounding should become a standard practice for post-operative patient management. [U][H][I][K][V] |
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| [P] Propulsion and energy | |
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A Controlled Auto-Ignition (CAI) combustion system, in which the fuel-air mix is ignited automatically through heat and pressure rather than by a spark, could lead to a new generation of highly efficient petrol engines that cut nitrogen oxide emission by 95-99 percent and eliminate particulates. [P][E] Studies on police car patrol officers in the US suggest that ingesting the very fine particulates from vehicle exhausts, sucked into the car interior, causes irregular heartbeats and increased levels of blood-clotting proteins. These symptoms may indicate increased risk of cardiovascular disease due to particulate emissions. [P][E][H] Imperial College London and Johnson Matthey have developed a catalytic converter that they claim removes 99 percent of sub-100nm diameter particles in a vehicle exhaust gas and converts them to carbon dioxide. [P][E][M] The world's first fuel cell-powered submarine is currently undergoing deep-water trials and will enter service with the German navy in August. [P][D][E] Many of the Eastern European countries that have joined the European Union rely heavily on nuclear power stations, mostly of Soviet design. This is forcing the EU to confront some tricky choices about the future role of nuclear power, not only over upgrading the existing plants to meet EU safety standards but also over how to meet future energy demands. It has become even less clear how the EU can meet the targets for lower carbon emissions and at the same time reduce dependence on nuclear power. [P][X] |
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| [M] Materials, structures and surfaces | |
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Recent research on magnetic vortices in high temperature superconductors (HTS) suggests that something resembling superconductivity may be present in small regions of high temperature superconductors well above the temperature at which they become superconducting, possibly even up to room temperature. [M][P] Doping magnesium diboride with carbon doubles its critical magnetic field, enabling it to remain superconducting up to 32.5 Tesla, higher than the best value achieved with niobium tin. [M][S] Using intense pulses of magnetic field 10 Tesla in amplitude and only 2.3 picoseconds in duration, researchers have found that the fastest speed at which material can be magnetised or demagnetised is 1000 times slower than previously thought. This sets an upper speed limit for writing magnetic information to a computer's hard drive. The reason for the limit is not known, but one possibility is that thermal fluctuations might somehow interfere with magnetisation at such high speeds. [M][C][J] The nematic liquid crystal in a flat-panel display consists of rod-shaped molecules that point in the same direction but spin randomly around their long axis. Now researchers have produced boomerang-shaped molecules that can line up along two orthogonal axes. These biaxial nematics may respond faster than conventional uniaxial nematics, and may lead to new device concepts exploiting the 2-D alignment. [M][N][O][V] Biological enzymes could have many uses, but they are unstable outside their natural environment. Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have now found how to stabilise them by using a polymer coating. The resulting single-enzyme nanoparticles remained active for five months. [M][G][N] Genetically engineered microbes are manufacturing more and more high value chemicals, and may, in the future, be used to make plastics and to turn cellulose plant waste into ethanol for fuel. Thousands of new species of bacteria and millions of new genes are being discovered by bioprospecting in hot springs, in seas and ocean beds, and in soda lakes and Arctic tundra. Computational biology can pick-and-mix biochemical pathways from different organisms, and can put them together in a single bacterium, such as E. coli, to customise the required microbial factory. [M][G][T][W] Active packaging, so far confined mainly to beer cans, is poised for widespread applications. In the food industry, active packaging will kill bacteria, reveal whether the food inside the package is still fresh, absorb oxygen inside a wrapper to help prevent food spoilage, maintain optimum gas balances to keep food fresh, and show whether foods like red meat and chicken have been stored at unsafe temperatures. [M][H][S][T] Supercritical carbon dioxide can be used to force chemicals into polymer. One application could be for incorporating drugs into polymer bone replacement implants. [M][H] A consortium of European firms in the chemicals and construction sectors is testing a range of building materials which will not only clean their surfaces but might also break down pollutants. The materials incorporate titanium dioxide, which can photocatalytically decompose oxides of nitrogen and volatile organic compounds. [M][E] Scientists at CSIRO have created a low-cost, aerated cement-based product that is as strong as normal concrete but half as heavy. It provides up to five times the thermal insulation of concrete and is also impact and fire resistant. [M][D][E] Contaminated land including landfills might be reclaimed for light building or recreational use by covering it with a solid, waterproof platform of material made from a mixture of treated sewage, coal shale and discarded building rubble. In Britain, this derelict land covers 0.8 percent of the country's entire area. Traditional buildings are difficult to construct on such land because they require foundations that reach deep into the contaminated earth. [M][E] |
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| [E] Environment, transport and marine | |
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For years, climate researchers have struggled with an apparent discrepancy in the data on global warming. The warming in the troposphere seemed to be much less than at the Earth's surface. This has prompted arguments that climate models were missing unrecognised but important physical processes, or even that human-caused climate change was not occurring at all. Now, analysis of microwave emissions measured by microwave-sounding units on NOAA satellites from 1979 to 2001 has found that stratospheric cooling, a known effect of greenhouse gases, appears to account for discrepancies between temperature trends on the ground and in the troposphere. Taking this into account, the troposphere appears to have been warming at least as fast as the Earth's surface. [E][R] Although greenhouse gases now dominate global warming, increases in cirrus cloud coverage caused by aircraft condensation trails also make a significant contribution. Indeed, this may have been the dominant cause of warming during the 20 years from 1975 to 1994, according to NASA scientists. [E][A][P] A C-130 research aircraft is being used over Colorado's Front Range to measure how much carbon dioxide mountain forests remove from the air. The researchers are developing new methods for assessing carbon uptake over complex terrain on regional scales. Accurate assessments could help show to what extent carbon dioxide storage in mountain forests in Western US may be slowing down as the ongoing drought affects tree growth. [E][R] Experimental evidence that weakening of the Atlantic circulation leads to cold conditions in Northern Europe has come from research on the shells of tiny marine creatures called foraminifera. These shells record surface water conditions when the animals were alive. Sediment cores from the subtropical North Atlantic containing these shells have confirmed that the coldest interval of the last 20,000 years occurred at the same time that the overturning circulation collapsed following the discharge of icebergs into the North Atlantic 17,500 years ago. This regional climatic extreme began suddenly and lasted for 2000 years. A second cold period that started 12,700 years ago and lasted for more than 1000 years, also accompanied a slowdown of overturning circulation. Each of these two cold intervals was followed by a rapid acceleration of the overturning circulation and dramatically warmer climates over Northern Europe and the North Atlantic region. [E] Ocean fertilisation could provide an environmentally friendly technique for reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. The outcome of the "iron fertilisation" trial in the Southern Ocean indicates that each atom of iron added to the sea could pull between 10,000 and 100,000 atoms of carbon out of the atmosphere by encouraging plankton growth. The plankton captures carbon and sinks deep towards the ocean floor. A pair of robotic floats, programmed to descend to a depth of 1km several times a day, was used to measure the concentrations of particulate organic carbon and to document its export, within and outside the fertilised area, below 100 metres. The floats reported their data and GPS position regularly via satellite. [E][R] Research at UCSB suggests that phytoplankton play a major role in regulating the global climate system by emitting vast amounts of dimethyl sulphide (DMS) as part of their biological process for repairing UV damage. The thinning of the Earth's ozone shield means that higher levels of UV are reaching the surface layer of the oceans, generating enormous DMS emissions from the phytoplankton. In the air, DMS breaks down into a variety of sulphur compounds that act as cloud-condensing nuclei, leading to increased cloudiness. This cloudiness reduces the UV levels and also helps mitigate global warming. [E] According to the Topex data, global average sea level rose by 2.8 millimetres a year between 1993 and 2002. This is thought to be a consequence of global warming, not only from melting of glaciers and ice caps but also because water in the oceans expands as it warms up. But during the same period, the water level within 100 kilometres of the coast rose faster, by an average of 3.7 millimetres a year. The reason for this is not certain, but it could mean that the threat of flooding to coastal regions from rising sea levels is worse than has been supposed. [E][R] The UK Foresight programme has published its report on managing future flood risk. There are currently around £200bn worth of assets and 1.7 million properties in flood risk areas in England and Wales. In the most extreme scenario, and without improvements to existing defences, the damage could rise from about £1bn a year now to £20bn a year by 2080. [E][T][X] Plastic waste in the sea gets ground down like sand into plastic microparticles, and even biodegradable plastics leave an undegradable residue. What effect this plastic pollution could have on the ecosystem is not known. The plastic microparticles are ingested by marine animals such as barnacles and by plankton, carrying them into the food chain. [E][M][X] |
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| [R] Remote sensing and sensor systems | |
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Ministers at the Earth Observation Summit have approved the draft implementation plan for GEOSS. This is a ten-year programme to maximise the effectiveness of earth observation by minimising data gaps, building capacity and exchanging information as fully and quickly as possible. The GEOSS plan was developed by an intergovernmental working group, GEO, with representatives from 47 nations. Developed and developing nations will have access to all data gathered by the GEOSS network. This follows the model of the World Meteorological Organisation's four-decade-old World Weather Watch, which co-ordinates the globe's weather satellites along with in-situ climate stations. [R][D][E][K] A new ESA-funded office, located at the Hadley Climate Research Centre, is co-ordinating international efforts called the GODAE High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature programme to map global sea surface temperature (SST) in unprecedented detail. This is part of an international endeavour called the Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment (GODAE), which is intended to develop a range of operational ocean analysis and prediction systems for the world's oceans. Achieving a reliable operational GHRSST system requires the integration of near real time SST data, gathered from a variety of different satellites, ships and thousands of floating sensors. Available space-based sensors include meteorological satellites measuring solar irradiance as well as instruments that directly record SST, such as the Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) aboard ESA's Envisat. [R][A][C][K][S] Satellite data and new satellite systems, used in global forecast models, are improving the capability to predict severe weather a week in advance. [R][A][C][E][T] Security surveillance systems using data fusion algorithms, and wireless LAN to transmit broadcast-quality video images from mobile and fixed digital cameras, can assist police and security services to handle terrorist threats. [R][D][I][K][S] Using a femtosecond terawatt laser, French and German researchers have developed a lidar that can detect biological aerosols from two-photon fluorescence of natural fluorophores present in the aerosols. The team believes the technique should work at ranges up to 4 km with a resolution of better than 0.5 m. [R][D][O] |
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| [S] Sensor devices | |
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New technologies are being developed and used for bomb detection. Fast neutron scanning can reveal bombs and explosives inside vehicles from their gamma ray emissions. Computer aided x-ray tomography can provide 3-D images of baggage contents. X-ray diffraction and backscatter imagers can provide higher resolution, and detect smaller amounts of explosive. Other new and emerging technologies can detect explosives from their chemical signatures. These include odour sensors, quadrupole resonance and terahertz imaging. [S][D][R][T] Using a combination of a three new imaging techniques - electrical impedance spectroscopy, microwave imaging spectroscopy and near-infrared spectroscopy - to create a computerised image of a cross-section of breast tissue may provide a better way to screen for breast cancer, avoiding the need for x-rays. The three technologies can each identify various properties that can differentiate normal and diseased tissue, including the amount of oxygenated blood flow in the breast and how the tissue absorbs light and stores and conducts an electrical charge. [S][H] Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have found a way of using MRI to make movies of blood travelling through vessels in the human body. The technique is non-invasive and avoids the need for x-rays and for contrast agents, which can cause kidney damage. The new approach, called global coherent free precession, allows researchers to selectively "tag" protons within the water of blood cells with rf signals as they pass through the plane of the MRI scan. Since all other tissues surrounding the blood do not pass through the scanner's plane, they are not tagged, leaving images solely of the blood as it moves downstream through the vessel. [S][H] Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed an intelligent stent, called the Stentenna, which performs the normal stent function of holding open clogged arteries but also includes two silicon pressure sensors to measure the rate of blood flow. The device is interrogated wirelessly and powered inductively. [S][H] The Mayo Clinic has invented a non-toxic molecular probe that can cross the blood-brain barrier, attach specifically to amyloid plaques, and show up strongly in MRI images. This could be a major advance in the ability to diagnose and monitor Alzheimer's disease. [S][H] Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is used to amplify DNA samples so that they can be tested. However PCR is not easy to use on the battlefield, or in a post office, hospital, shop and other non-laboratory environments. Researchers at Northwestern University have demonstrated an alternative amplification technique that uses a “bio-bar-code”. It can detect 10 strands of target DNA in a 30 microlitre sample, giving it a sensitivity comparable to PCR-based techniques. The researchers demonstrated the technique's practical use by detecting a DNA sequence associated with anthrax lethal factor. [S][D][H][N] Oak Ridge National Laboratory has developed a nanobiosensor that can physically probe inside a living cell without destroying it. The sensor is a tiny fibre-optic probe that has been drawn to a tip only 40nm across. The probe can monitor cellular signalling networks and the team has detected the biochemical components of the key cell-signalling pathway involved in programmed cell suicide (apoptosis). [S][G][H][N][O] |
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| [O] Optoelectronics, optics and lasers | |
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Researchers at Northwestern University have developed an optically pumped ultraviolet microdisk laser based on a commercial silicon substrate. They grew a thin layer of ZnO gain material on a silicon dioxide microdisk on top of a silicon pedestal. The first application of the laser has been as a chemical sensor, using the shift in laser frequency caused by absorption of vapour molecules on the disk. With a diameter of 2 to 20 microns, the laser may also be used for optical data storage. [O][J][S] US researchers have developed a laser capable of nanomachining sharp-edged features down to 20nm in materials such as quartz, sapphire and silicon. The laser uses highly focused femtosecond pulses whose amplitude is set so that just the material in the centre of the spot exceeds the threshold to be cut. As well as applications in microelectronics and MEMS devices, the researchers hope to apply the technology to microfluidics and intracellular nanosurgery. [O][J][N] A paper disc that uses blue-laser technology and can hold up to five times more data than current DVDs has been developed jointly by Sony and Toppan. It should be cheaper to manufacture, and it is also easy to dispose of securely. [O][I] NIST has demonstrated quantum key distribution (QKD) with a transmission rate of a megabit per second, two orders of magnitude faster than previously described QKD systems. The major difference in the NIST system is the way it identifies a photon from the sender among a large number of photons from other sources, such as sunshine. To make this distinction, scientists time-stamp the QKD photons, then look for them only when one is expected to arrive. [O][I] |
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| [I] IT, communications, networking and secure systems | |
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The IEEE has approved the start of work on four projects concerning the IEEE 802.15 wireless personal area network (WPAN) standards. Two are for ultra-low-power WPANs. [I] Vodafone is launching its first full third-generation mobile services in Europe. The roll-out will be concentrated in densely populated urban areas, covering about 30 percent of the population. [I] A serious flaw in the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), the most commonly used internet communications protocol, has been revealed by computer experts. Attacks exploiting the flaw could be used to knock out many brands of router. A number of router makers, including Cisco, have confirmed that their products are vulnerable. Some systems can be protected through careful configuration, while others require a software fix. [I] The latest UK government survey of information security breaches shows a dramatic rise in serious attacks against UK companies over the past year. Interviews of 1001 computer security managers found that 68 percent of UK companies suffered a malicious incident in 2003, up from up from 44 percent in 2002 and 24 percent in 2000. [I] Among the critical vulnerabilities revealed by Microsoft at the same time as those exploited by the Sasser worm was one vulnerability that affects the way Windows Internet Information Server 5.0 handles secure communications. According to the security firm IRM, this vulnerability can be used easily to gain control of a Windows web server, potentially affecting millions of web servers, many of which are run by financial organisations. [I] The time between the announcement of a vulnerability and the appearance of a virus or worm exploiting it is shortening. The Sasser Windows worm was launched only a couple of weeks after the announcement of a patch for the loophole was put online by Microsoft. The Witty worm appeared only two days after a patch announcement. If this trend continues, organisations will need more sophisticated knowledge of their networks and what they are connected to, so that they can protect themselves more quickly from attack. [I] |
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| [K] Knowledge, information and technology management | |
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Microsoft has released technical details of its next-generation Windows Digital Rights Management software. DRM is an enabling technology for the shift to digital music and video. It provides studios a way to protect and charge for their premium content using a variety of business models that are still emerging. [K][I] Surrey University researchers have developed an identification card that removes the need to store biometric data on central databases, thereby removing one of the main civil liberty concerns over identification cards. The card itself contains the algorithms needed to verify that it is being held by its correct owner. A facial snapshot or fingerprint taken on the spot can be compared immediately to the biometric data embedded on the card's microchip. [K][D][R][V] The UK government has started a large-scale test of the biometric technology to be used in UK identification cards. The three options being tested are facial scanning, iris imaging and fingerprinting. The trial will establish the practical aspects of incorporating the information into the biometric database. [K][D][S] To prevent fraudulent use of stolen credit cards for online transactions, a US company has produced a credit card with a built in microphone and voice recognition chip. The card requires its user to speak a password each time before it can be used. [K][I][V] A new type of search engine under development at the University of Washington, funded by DARPA and Google, trawls the web for data and then collates it in the form of a list. For any input noun, the engine finds sentences on websites that contain that noun, and looks for words that often appear after it. It can take a phrase such as "list scientists" and return with a list that it believes are (or were) scientists, with a measure of probability for each. [K] The UK Royal Society has advised scientists that they must be aware of their responsibilities to work within ethical boundaries and comply with the national and international laws. The advice is aimed particular at bioscientists because of the risk that their research could be misused by terrorists groups. If such misuse happened, it could lead to great danger and panic, and create a backlash against scientists. [K][D] A “troubling decline” in the number of US citizens training to become scientists and engineers is creating an “emerging and critical problem” for the US, according to the NSF 2004 Science and Engineering (S&E) Indicators - a biennial NSF report to the US president. The number of US jobs requiring S&E skills is growing at almost 5 percent per year. In comparison, the rest of the labour force is growing at just over 1 percent. Yet, the US is increasingly dependent on importing scientists and engineers. The percentage of foreign-born mathematicians and computer scientists in the US workforce has nearly doubled since 1990, and foreign-born students constituted more than 50 percent of US engineering and computer science graduate students in 2001. This dependence on importing foreign talent will not be sustainable as emerging countries such as China and India become major S&E based economies. [K][T] According to NSF 2004 S&E indicators, US companies providing computer-related services were more innovative than computer hardware manufacturers, and process innovation typically generated more revenue than did product innovation. Internet companies continued to attract more venture capital than any other technology area in the post-bubble period. Contrary to popular perception, little venture capital funding ends up as seed money to support research or early product development. In 2001 and 2002, seed financing represented just 1 percent of all US venture capital. Acquiring IT, doing R&D and purchasing external research were the most important internal and external factors identified for IT-based innovation by innovative companies. Technology that is developed in one company or industry and acquired by others plays an important role in the acquiring company's innovation process. The availability of skilled IT personnel and favourable timeframes for realising a return on investment were cited as the most important incentives for IT-based innovation. [K][T] The US R&D expenditure of $276 billion in 2002 represented 44 percent of the total R&D expenditures in all OECD countries combined. Of the $33 billion spent on R&D in US academic institutions, only $2.1 billion was contributed from industry. The Federal Government provided $19 billion, academic institutions $6.7 billion, state and local governments $2.2 billion. About 74 percent of academic R&D expenditure was for basic research, 22 percent for applied research, and 4 percent for development. [K][T] |
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| [C] Computing, supercomputing, modelling and simulation | |
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The soaring heat dissipation in integrated circuits is becoming the most critical problem for chip and computer designers. Packing in more fans makes equipment too noisy, and this has spurred the development of silent cooling technologies that use liquid or ionised air. Getting the heat from the chip to the heat sink is another big challenge. Supercomputers can afford to use elaborate cooling technologies, but laptops and other portable equipment, including military equipment, need chips that dissipate less heat. [C][J][M][T] Intel has abandoned two chip developments in order to concentrate more resources on a new more efficient super-chip, whose low power will require less costly and less noisy cooling. Microsoft is likewise seeking to reduce the power consumption of Windows. [C][J] Electronic power consumption may benefit from a technology that scavenges energy that is usually lost within an integrated circuit. Its developers claim that it can deliver power savings of up to 75 percent in the type of chips used in everyday portable devices such as mobile phones and laptops. [C][I][J] Disposable ASIC computers that can collect, process and exchange several pages of encrypted data will be incorporated into intelligent packaging, linked to a microscopic antenna for information input and output. Intelligent pharmaceutical packages can enable users to time-stamp medicine dosages and integrate these with a patient's electronic diary, providing timely prompts to ensure correct dosage and frequency. [C][H][K] |
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| [W] Whole life engineering, manufacture and testing | |
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From its experience with Linux, IBM has decided to make its key microprocessor architecture, Power, open-source. The company says product developers will be able to license the architecture at little or no charge and can customise it for their own products. [W][C] Comms Design has published a two-part tutorial illustrating the many ways that phase locked loops are being exploited in current systems. [W][T] Embedded.com includes a technical insight on designing to the IEC 61508 standard governing the functional safety of programmable electronic systems. IEC 61508 is well established in the industrial process-control and automation industry, and it is now gaining ground in automotive, heavy machinery, mining, and other fields. [W][T] |
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| [X] Systems, complexity and risk | |
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The US Commission on Ocean Policy has issued its preliminary report calling for a new US ocean policy that balances ocean use with sustainability, that is based on sound science and educational excellence, and that moves toward ecosystem-based management. The report concludes that it is critical that ocean and coastal resources are managed to reflect the complex interrelationships among the ocean, land, air, and all living creatures, including humans, and to consider the complex interactions among the multiple activities that affect entire systems. [X][D][E] The risk of being burgled follows a similar pattern to the way a disease is spread between people, according to research at University College London. Results indicate that properties within 400 metres of a recently burgled home, and particularly those on the same side of the street, are at an elevated risk for up to two months after the initial event. Crime hotspot maps that use algorithms that consider not only where but also when incidents occur succeeded in capturing between 62 to 80 percent of burglaries compared to 46 percent by other methods. [X][D] The intricate spiral patterns displayed in cacti, pinecones, sunflowers, and other plants often encode the famous Fibonacci sequence of numbers: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, . . . , in which each element is the sum of the two preceding numbers. A mathematical model suggests that this apparent complexity arises out of simple mechanical forces acting on a growing plant. [X][C] The aim of synthetic biology is to find more systematic ways to engineer microbes, plants and other biological systems to perform useful functions. This nascent field has three major goals. One is to learn about living systems by building them rather than by tearing them apart. The second is to find a systematic engineering approach that standardises previous creations to make interchangeable components and can recombine them to make new and more sophisticated systems. The third is to stretch the boundaries of life and of machines until the two overlap to yield truly programmable organisms. It includes building life forms with more than the standard 20 amino acids and 4 coding letters of DNA. This research may also answer fundamental questions about how life began. [X][C][F][G][N][S][T] |
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| [V] Virtuality and human-machine interface | |
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A new sports shoe that continuously reconfigures its sole to provide a constant level of support whilst its wearer is running has been unveiled by German sportswear company Adidas. The shoe contains an impact sensor, a microprocessor and a motorised cushioning system. It can reconfigure the level of shock-absorption provided by the shoe every four steps. [V][S] A way to read text messages just by touch has been developed by researchers in Germany. It uses tiny arrays of moving pins that rise and fall under a person's fingertips to create specific patterns, which can be learned easily. As well as their use in mobile phones, tactile actuator arrays built into steering wheels or control handles could provide car drivers or pilots with route information or warnings. [V][A] A technique called visual cryptography enables information to be displayed on PDAs, computer screens and cash machine terminals so that it can be read only by the user, and cannot be read by a bystander even looking over the user's shoulder. The message is encrypted in hundreds of different colours and is viewed through a matching mask that only gives the correct decoding in the user's cone of view. [V][O] Display systems that scan laser beams over the retina enable information to be superimposed on the normal field of view. The technology, which was pioneered for military helmet-mounted displays, can provide information to assist surgeons as they operate and engineers as they service complex equipment. The very lower power consumption makes the technology compatible with PDAs and other portable electronics and could give them HDTV quality displays. Computer gaming is likely to be a major future market. Costs have been reduced by using LEDs and MEMS scanners that can integrate functions onto a single chip. This integration also enables the scanner to be used in sensors, for example in an endoscope. [V][J][O][S][T][W] Research at Philips and TNO has improved OLED efficiency so that polymer OLED technology should be competitive with LCD displays. A novel anode layer has reduced hole injection giving a better match of hole and electron partial currents to improve recombination efficiency. Secondly, by dispersing phosphorescent 'guest' material into the light-emitting polymer 'host', it has been possible to use more of the excited states to emit light. The researchers have created a new copolymer material suitable for hosting a green triplet emitter, and believe that they will also be able to achieve efficient blue emission. [V][J][M][O] |
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| [B] Brain research and human science | |
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Using biofeedback to enable people to learn to suppress pain could be hugely beneficial for people with severe or chronic pain. However, past attempts to achieve this using biofeedback from EEG signals have been disappointing. Research at Stanford has now shown that fMRI can show people precisely the activity of a pain-control region of their brain, and this precision does enable them to learn to suppress their pain. This new biofeedback technique, because it shows more precisely the level of the relevant brain activity, may turn out to be widely useful. [B][H][V] The ability to empathise is often considered uniquely human, the result of complex reasoning and abstract thought. However, fMRI studies at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands suggest that the process is much simpler and that the brain simply transforms what a person sees into what the person would have felt in the same situation. This could mean that basic aspects of empathy may be quite primitive and possessed by other mammals. [B][K] In 1993, neuroscientists showed that college students who listened to Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major for 10 minutes performed better on a spatial reasoning test than students who listened to new age music or nothing at all. The cause of this "Mozart Effect" is not known, but it has been shown to occur in other mammals besides man. Researchers at Stanford have now shown, using rats, that it has a molecular basis. Rats listening to the sonata had enhanced gene expression in their hippocampus of a neural growth factor BDNF, a learning and memory compound CREB, and a synaptic growth protein synapsin I. [B][K] The hippocampus processes recent memories, but how the brain houses older memories has remained a mystery. Now, US and Canadian scientists have pinpointed a region of the brain called the anterior cingulate that appears to be responsible for retrieving and storing distant memories. [B][K] The mammalian brain contains a master clock called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which contains thousands of clock cells that act as pacemakers for the rest of the body. Research at the University of Washington has now found that only some of these cells respond to light and dark to synchronise the clock with day and night. Other clock cells do not respond. This suggests the brain has at least two independent clocks and that problems such as jet lag may be caused when two of the clocks become out of step with each other. [B][A][H] Transplanting genetically modified skin cells into the brain might slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease, according to a preliminary clinical trial on eight patients by researchers at UCSD. The researchers modified the stem cells to produce Nerve Growth Factor (NGF), a naturally occurring protein that prevents cell death in the brain. They injected up to 10 million NGF-producing cells into 10 different brain sites in each patient. One year later, the patients' rate of mental decline was halved. By comparison, the best drug therapies offer only around a 5 percent decrease in the rate of decline. [B][G][H] Stem cells from dental pulp are easily available and also produce a host of beneficial "neurotrophic" factors, which promote nerve cell survival. They may provide a way of treating neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson's disease, and also nerve injuries. [B][G][H] It is well known that the choroid plexus helps a developing brain to form its protective blood-brain barrier. Evidence now suggests that the choroid plexus is also important in the adult brain, and can respond to strokes and other injury or disease by stimulating the production of stem cells to replace damaged neurones and of neurotrophic factors that nourish brain cells. Implanting biocompatible microcapsules containing choroid plexus tissue may be a way to enhance brain recovery. [B][H] Brain development in the embryo involves the production of excess neurones and axonal branches, which then die back in a process dubbed “pruning.” Glial cells, whose function is poorly understood, seem to co-operate actively with neurones in this process, clearing up degenerating neurones and perhaps actively pruning the networks. [B] Men and women are known to react differently to brain injuries such as strokes. Research has now found that male and female brain cells respond to damage in different ways. Researchers using rats found that both male and female brain cells were killed by oxygen starvation, but in different ways. Male cells, for example, suffered a crash in levels of an antioxidant called glutathione, while female cells did not. The discovery suggests that life-saving treatments for ischaemia, suffocation or near-drowning could be suited to the sex of the patient. For example, for male patients a drug called N-acetylcysteine preserves glutathione in cells. It is sold as an over-the-counter food supplement in Europe. [B][H] |
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| [H] Healthcare and medicine | |
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A study at Cornell University has estimated that the cost to US employers of on-the-job slowdowns from a variety of medical complaints may be up to 60 percent of the total health bill to employers, and greater than the combined cost of absenteeism and medical and disability benefit. On-the-job productivity loss arises from a variety of medical complaints including hypertension, arthritis, allergies, headaches. The researchers analysed information from a large medical/absence database of about 375,000 employees, detailing insurance claims for medical care and short-term disability over a three-year period. They combined these data with findings from five published productivity surveys for 10 health conditions that commonly affect workers. [H][W] Existing medicines against malaria, which have been used for many years, are no longer effective in many places because the malaria parasite has developed resistance to them. Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) provide a highly effective new medicine to treat malaria for the first time in more than 20 years. The WHO estimates that the global demand for ACTs will soar from about 20 million per year currently to between 130-220 million adult treatments in 2005. [H][D] According to latest estimates, around 3.2 million deaths worldwide can be attributed to diabetes each year, a figure three times higher than previously thought. According to the WHO, diabetes is now a major threat to global public health and is rapidly getting worse. The biggest impact is on adults of working age in developing countries such as India, where growing wealth is bringing new lifestyles. India is the world's largest democracy and very important for the stability of middle Asia. [H][D] Cystic fibrosis has joined the list of diseases that research has shown might be alleviated by turmeric. Others include inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, alcohol-related liver disease and, most recently, Alzheimer's disease. Cystic fibrosis is caused because a gene defect produces a defective protein that, although still functional, cannot become active on the cell surface in the lungs and gut because the body's quality control mechanism imprisons it inside the cells. Curcumin, a component of turmeric, releases the protein by starving the inspector proteins of calcium. [H][G] Destroying the blood vessels that supply fat cells may provide a new treatment for obesity, according to researchers at the University of Texas. They used a protein called prohibitin, which is present only on the surface of fat cells and helps to regulate the growth of surrounding blood vessels. They attached to the prohibitin a fragment of another protein that is used in cancer therapy to kill blood vessels. In tests, mice fed a high-fat diet lost 30 percent of their body weight in just four weeks on the treatment. The animals also showed few signs of any side effects. [H][G] A new study suggests that anti-oxidant vitamins including E, C and beta carotene may not always be beneficial, and may increase the levels of "bad cholesterol" in the blood by interfering with the ability of the liver to break down a key precursor protein in harmful lipoproteins. [H] In-vitro fertilisation (IVF) and tissue-typing has been used in the US to create healthy babies that are tissue matched to siblings with serious non-heritable conditions. This is the first time "saviour siblings" have been created to treat children whose condition is not genetic. The stem cells are taken from the umbilical cord of the saviour sibling. [H][G] Researchers at Kings College London hope that technology to grow and transplant replacement teeth from stem cells could be widely available to the public, possibly within 5 years. [H][G] |
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| [G] Genomics, biotechnology and bioinformatics | |
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Chemotherapy generally works by causing cancer cells to commit suicide (apoptosis). An alternative could be to make them age rapidly and die of senescence. Research at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center has identified a gene that regulates other genes and that, when altered, makes cells and animals age and die prematurely. [G][H] Progeria is a very rare disease that causes children to age rapidly. It is caused by a mutated form of the gene Lamin A. Research at Brunel University has now shown that this gene defect causes cells to replace themselves too frequently so that the body's ability to renew itself is quickly exhausted. This confirms that cellular decline and the ending of cell division is a key factor in ageing. [G][H] The ends of chromosomes are capped by repetitive sequences of DNA called telomeres. These maintain chromosome integrity as cells divide, and they shorten with each division, eventually becoming so short that the cell cannot divide further. This is an important process in ageing. Cancer cells can override this process and become immortal, dividing for ever. In what could prove very significant work, scientists have found that a molecule called RAD51D protects DNA from damage but can also prevent telomere shortening. [G][H] Stem cell therapy might be beneficial for patients with cardiac failure, according to a small clinical trial at the University of Pittsburgh. Patients who had bone marrow stem cells transplanted into their damaged hearts had significantly better heart function six months later compared with the control group. [G][H] The three billion DNA letters of the human genome were published in 2001. However, this does not resolve which sections of the DNA in each gene provide the instructions to make proteins. A group of 152 researchers from 11 countries, known as the H-Invitational international consortium, is combining the best available evidence to compile a database of the genes that includes information about where the genes are active in the body, predictions of the proteins they make, and information about the individual variations in genes that help to distinguish one person from another. This database now covers over 21,000 genes out of the roughly 30,000 human genes believed to exist. [G][H][X] The long-held tenet that two mammals of the same sex cannot combine their genomes to give rise to a viable offspring has been disproved. A team of Japanese and Korean scientists has made a mouse by combining the nucleus of one female's egg with that of another, essentially creating a mouse with two mothers. The mouse is now 14 months old, very healthy, and has babies of her own, showing that she is fully viable. [G] Researchers comparing the human genome with the genomes of other species have discovered a surprising number of matching DNA sequences in a variety of vertebrate species, including the mouse, rat, dog, and chicken. These sequences have been conserved meticulously through hundreds of millions of years of evolution, and therefore must be biologically very important. However, only a small fraction of these elements code for proteins and their functions are largely a mystery. These ultra-conserved elements are long, they evolved quite rapidly, and then became evolutionarily frozen. The only other part of the genome having a comparable level of conservation is the DNA that codes for ribosomes, which translate the genetic code to carry out protein synthesis and are essential to all forms of life. [G][X] Scientists at the Weizmann Institute have created a tiny biological computer that is built of DNA and that senses changes in its environment and responds by releasing biological molecules. The device has only worked so far in a test-tube with a finely balanced salt solution, but researchers hope it will be the precursor of future 'smart drugs' that can roam throughout the body. The current device senses messenger RNA. It can, in particular, detect the abnormal messenger RNAs produced by genes involved in certain types of lung and prostate cancer, and can then release an anticancer drug, also made of DNA, which damps expression of the tumour-related gene. [G][C][H][N] |
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| [N] Nanotechnology and molecular technology | |
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Using an atomic force microscope, biophysicists in the Netherlands and Spain have found that some viruses have shells (capsids) that are as strong as hard plastic. The researchers believe that viral capsids could be used as nanocontainers that are strong and able to self-assemble. The capsid proteins could also function as building blocks to make other complex structures. [N][G][M] For nanoscale manufacturing to become a realistic prospect, mobile microscopic robots will be needed to assemble other nanomachines and move useful molecules and atoms around. Bells Labs has developed a nanoscale biped which has legs just 10nm long and which can walk along a DNA-based track. Each of the legs is 36 bases long and is made from two strands of DNA that pair up to form a double helix. The legs are able to detach themselves from the DNA-based track, move along a bit, and then re-attach. [N][G][U] In order to build nanoscale structures economically, technology is needed that can deliver atoms and clusters of atoms quickly and controllably. Research at Lawrence Berkeley is demonstrating that carbon nanotubes, working as a voltage-controlled nanoscale conveyor belt, may provide one answer. [N] Sandia researchers have found a way to make nanocrystals self-assemble into a cubic lattice. The structure consists of gold nanocrystals arranged as a cubic lattice in a silica matrix. It is suitable for integration into devices using standard microelectronic processing techniques. [N][J] Chinese and Japanese scientists have found a way to create gold nanoparticles inside a block of glass doped with gold oxide. They focused short laser pulses on to specific points inside the block to dislodge individual atoms of gold. When the block was heated to 550 degrees C, the gold atoms coalesced into tiny globules. The aim is to make continuous interconnect circuits running through the glass, as a route to 3-D electronics. [N][J][M][O] Since the discovery of carbon-60 ("buckyball"), other larger fullerenes with between 70 and 500 atoms have been produced. All of these are structures in which every pentagon is surrounded by five hexagons, which makes them very stable. Carbon-60 is the smallest fullerene for which this structure is possible. Now, Chinese chemists have made a stable fullerene with only 50 carbon atoms by incorporating a ring of 10 chlorine atoms to stabilise the structure. This opens the way to make other stable small fullerenes, which should provide interesting chemical and physical properties. [N][M] Coating nanoparticles, including quantum dots, quantum rods and quantum wires, with peptides can disguise them so effectively that cells mistake them for proteins. The ability to import such electronic functions into the cell and to mesh them with biological functions could open tremendous new possibilities, both for basic biological sciences and for medical and therapeutic applications. [N][G][J][S] |
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| [J] Microelectronics, MEMS and spintronics | |
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Nanotube transistors that can switch at gigahertz frequencies have been made at the University of California. The researchers estimate that the theoretical speed for these transistors should be around one terahertz. [J][I][N][S] Existing UV lithography systems can produce feature sizes down to 100nm using light at 193nm wavelength. Until recently it was thought that to go to finer chip geometries manufacturers would be forced to make a massive leap to extreme UV lithography, which uses soft x-rays at 13.4nm wavelength and requires reflective optics. Now, immersion optical lithography has suddenly emerged instead as the most likely technology for making chips down to perhaps 32nm geometry. Immersion lithography exploits the higher refractive index of water by injecting a small film of water between the wafer and the projection lens. The film has to be perfect and free from any bubbles. Because the refractive index of water is very close to that of the fused silica of the lens, immersion-lithography enables larger numerical aperture lenses to be used, giving the higher resolution. [J][O][T] The creation of a nanotransistor that generates a terahertz signal has been reported by researchers in France. They used a high electron-mobility transistor with an indium gallium arsenide channel and a T-shaped 60nm gate. Shorting the gate to the source created a cavity, and applying a voltage to the drain generated plasmons that resonated in the cavity, emitting the terahertz signal. The emission was very weak and both the radiation detector and the transistor were immersed in liquid helium and isolated to screen out any external radiation. However the researchers believe the transistor should also work at room temperature and that an array of such transistors could produce a useful terahertz source. [J][O][S] Future memory chips may use organic compounds to store information. Low fabrication cost and lower power consumption could give this technology a major advantage in mobile electronics. [J][I][T] |
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| [F] Fundamental science | |
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The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS II) detector, which began operating last November, has so far detected no WIMPS. It has also found no contamination from stray neutrons and this establishes that a high degree of background rejection has been achieved. CDMS II is at least a factor of four more sensitive than other WIMP detectors, and the researchers will now increase its sensitivity by a further factor of ten. If WIMPs are still not detected, this will rule out a large range of supersymmetry models. [F][S] The May issue of Scientific American contains a lucid article by Gabriele Veneziano, the father of string theory in the late 1960s, reviewing the current status of string theory and two associated theories of the origin of our universe. The first of these is known as the "pre-big bang scenario" in which cosmic inflation occurs before the big bang rather than after it and in which our universe may have emerged from a giant black hole in an even vaster eternal cosmos. The second is the "ekpyrotic theory" in which our universe lies on the 3D surface of one of many D-branes floating within a 10-dimensional space. The branes exert attractive forces on one another and occasionally collide. The big bang could be the impact of another brane into ours, possible a random occurrence or one that occurs cyclically. Experimentally it may be possible to test these theories from more detailed measurements of the anisotropy in the microwave background radiation and from future detection of gravitational waves. They should also show up in fluctuations in galactic and intergalactic magnetic fields. [F][A][R][T] Evidence for superfluidity in an atom-based Fermi gas has been observed for the first time by researchers at Duke University. The researchers laser-confined a gas of lithium-6 atoms at 50 nanoKelvin. The ultracold atoms behaved like a "perfect" jelly that vibrated for a long time after being shaken. [F][M][O] |
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| [T] Technology reviews | |
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The UK Office of Science and Technology has published the Foresight report on exploiting the electromagnetic spectrum. [T][D][H][I][M][O][R][S][V] In most industries, even pharmaceuticals, it is becoming increasingly hard to make truly differentiating new-product breakthroughs. One answer is to make lots of small innovations. Another is to afford more R&D by off-shoring it to low cost economies, such as India and Russia. Another is to exploit IT creatively in new business processes. [T][K][W] Global economic growth will show a strong and sustainable recovery over the next two years, according to the OECD. It forecasts that average growth amongst the 30 OECD member countries will rise to 3.4% this year and will be 3.3% in 2005. However, growth is unbalanced, with China and the US "close to overheating" while the recovery is so far "bypassing" the eurozone. [T][D] |
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