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Top Stories in Science
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November 2006 Issue |
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| [D] Defence and security |  |
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Flu vaccine US government scientists have developed a vaccine that protects mice against the H1N1 influenza virus that caused the 1918 pandemic. They have also created a technique for identifying antibodies that neutralize this virus, a tool that could help contain future pandemic flu strains, including H5N1 avian flu. [D][G][H]
Influenza surveillance Understanding how influenza evolves is important for determining how best to anticipate and defend against future epidemics. It was thought that it evolved by a Darwinian process in which the virus' main surface proteins, haemagglutinin (HA), continually changed to evade the human immune response. However, genome analysis of the two most common flu strains has revealed that the virus has long static periods during which many varied strains accumulate. Ultimately, one variant becomes dominant and rapidly sweeps through the human population, eliminating most other variants. During the periods of stasis, any one of the many small groups of related viruses could become the next dominant strain. To spot which one it will be requires sequencing far more representative isolates than is done at present. [D][G][H]
New H5N1 strain According to researchers at the University of Hong Kong, who have been testing poultry in markets in Southern China over the past two years, there has been a three-fold increase in the percentage of poultry carrying H5N1 bird flu. The researchers say that 95 percent of infections in June 2006 were due to a new vaccine-resistant strain. The fear is that this strain could start another global epidemic in poultry. The Chinese government has rejected the findings and has said that it is continuously updating its vaccines to cope with new strains. China has been strongly criticised by the WHO for its lack of cooperation and transparency over bird flu, but has now agreed to share virus samples with international health authorities. [D][H]
Risks from mass use of Tamiflu In a future pandemic, many millions of people will be given the antiviral drug Tamiflu, more or less at the same time. An antiviral drug has never been used in this way before, and there are fears that, as large quantities of the drug find their way into rivers, this could have a big effects on fish and wildlife, and lead to a wave of Tamiflu-resistant viruses in ducks and thence in humans. Both Tamiflu and Relenza, the two drugs currently being stockpiled by governments, are inherently susceptible to resistance because of the way they work. There are already cases of people treated with Tamiflu developing a Tamiflu resistant strain. [D][H][X]
Defence against smallpox attack According to a US study, mass vaccination would not be necessary in the event of a large-scale smallpox bioterrorist attack. The current US policy of post-release surveillance, prompt containment of victims, and vaccination of hospital workers and close contacts would be sufficient to thwart an epidemic, the study concludes. This applies even to scenarios involving the most virulent, fatal forms of the virus. [D][C][H]
Nuclear proliferation According to the IAEA, 20 to 30 countries have the capacity to develop nuclear weapons in a very short time span, and so much information is now in the public domain that it is difficult to restrict the flow of nuclear technology. But, improved technology including satellite imagery and sophisticated sampling can help detect the signs of nuclear weapons development. [D][R][S]
Protecting ports against nuclear terrorism Over 95 percent of US imports and exports are shipped in standardized containers that enter through US ports. Preventing a nuclear device being smuggled inside a container is a tough challenge. But, according to a Stanford study, it would be feasible to detect a nuclear device with a probability of at least 90 percent. This would involve testing cargo in both US and foreign ports and the cost would be around $10 billion a year. In comparison, the cost of a nuclear detonation at a US port is estimated to be of the order of 1 trillion dollars. The Stanford study was based on an 11-layer security system and the use of game theory to find the optimum combination of security measures. [D][C][R][X]
Airport security Electronically tagging passengers at airports might help against terrorism, according to researchers at the new Centre for Security and Crime Science at University College London. Prototype technology will be tested at an airport in Hungary. Each passenger will be issued with an ID tag at check-in. A network of panoramic cameras and RFID tag readers will then monitor the movements of people around the various terminal buildings. [D][A][I] |
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| [A] Aeronautics and space | |
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Silent Aircraft Initiative The Silent Aircraft Initiative (SAI) has revealed its designs for an ultra low noise, fuel efficient passenger aircraft. The SAI is a collaborative project by Cambridge University and MIT with industrial participation from British Airways, Boeing and DHL. The researchers predict that the design, which exploits a blended-wing, can achieve 149 passenger-miles per UK gallon of fuel and a noise level of 63 dBA outside airport perimeter. This is some 25 dB quieter than current aircraft. [A][E][M][P]
Sustainable air travel One-fifth of all international passengers are on flights which arrive at or leave from UK airports. This makes the UK is a vital player in attempts to reduce aviation emissions. The UK government wants aviation included in the next round of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. But a report from Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute recommends that faster action is needed. This might include new taxation to curb the UK's air dependent vacation culture, implementing fuel-saving measures proposed by airlines, and changing UK policy on airport expansion. At present aircraft produce about 5.5 percent of UK emissions, but this is rising rapidly. [A][E][P][X]
Space sun shade If the world faces a climate change crisis, a space sun shade could be used as an interim way to reduce global warming to give time for a permanent solution to be achieved. US researchers have proposed how to create a transparent sunshade that would blur sunlight and uniformly reduce the energy reaching Earth by 2 percent - enough to counteract a doubling of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. The sunshade would consist of a cloud of trillions of small spacecraft placed at the stable L-1 point between the Earth and Sun, a million miles above the Earth. The cylindrical cloud would be aligned along the Sun-Earth axis and would have a diameter about half that of Earth and a length of 60,000 miles. Each craft would weigh only a gram; it would be two feet in diameter and made of transparent film 5 microns thick, pierced with small holes. MEMS mirrors acting as tiny tilting sails would be used to steer each craft, and this steering along with the transparency could prevent the cloud from being blown away by solar radiation pressure. The craft would be launched with an electromagnetic launcher and moved into position using solar-powered ion-beam propulsion. [A][E][J][M][O][P]
Water supply in space Astronauts need an average of 1.6 kg of water to sustain each of them every day, as well as an additional 27 kg for other purposes, according to NASA. Launching this from Earth costs $25,000 per kg. If water could be found on the Moon, it would make manned missions and establishing a lunar base very much easier. In 1992, Earth-based radar telescopes located "ice deposits" inside impact craters at the poles of the planet Mercury. It is possible that ice might likewise exist on the Moon deep inside impact craters at the poles. The crater bottoms are in permanent shadow from the Sun and their temperature stays at minus 173 degrees C or lower. Astronomers have now searched for ice in craters at the lunar south pole by using the highest resolution radar images ever made of the Moon, with resolution down to 20 metres and probing up to one metre into the lunar soil, Sadly, they have still found no clear evidence of any ice there. [A][R]
Shielding astronauts NASA is funding a study at the University of Arizona to see whether it might be possible to use asteroids or material from asteroids to shield astronauts from space radiation during future manned missions to Mars. The study has listed 40 asteroids with orbits that cross those of both the Earth and Mars and will make observations to see if any are B-type asteroids, which contain a relatively small proportion of heavy elements. Heavy elements produce dangerous secondary particles when struck with cosmic rays, so are not well-suited for radiation shielding. [A][R]
STEREO mission NASA has launched the STEREO mission that will study coronal mass ejections (CMEs). STEREO's two satellites will together have an unprecedented "broadside" 3-D view of the entire relationship between the Sun and the Earth. [A][I][R]
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has begun its primary science mission from low orbit, aimed particularly at understanding the history and distribution of Mars' water. The orbiter's instruments include a high-resolution camera, imaging spectrometer, context camera, ground-penetrating radar, atmospheric sounder and global colour camera. [A][R]
Life on Mars A new analysis of soil sample data from both of the Mars rovers suggests that Mars once had a planet-wide ocean. The samples contain both sulphates and phosphates, and the analysis shows that the ratio of the two is about the same at both locations. The most likely explanation for this is that any local variations were smoothed out by mixing in a planet-wide ocean. The phosphorus was probably leached from rocks in the form of calcium phosphate. The fact that it appears to have been dissolved and mixed with sulphates in large amounts suggests that the ocean must have been very acidic. The amount of phosphorus also makes it less likely that Mars supported any extensive life forms. Phosphorus is an important element for life on Earth, and is quickly extracted from the environment by organisms. [A][R][U]
Life on Titan Dozens of structures on Saturn's moon Titan that appear to be collapsed slush volcanoes have been revealed by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The heat and chemicals associated with these possible volcanoes could provide a niche for life. Cassini has also found flooded rivers and lakes, which are likely to be filled with liquid methane or ethane. Titan's methane cycle is analogous to the hydrological cycle on Earth. [A][R] |
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| [U] Unmanned vehicles and robotics | |
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Robotic surgery A three-dimensional ultrasound scanner has been successfully used to guide a surgical robot. This might eventually enable surgery to be performed without surgeons, a capability that could prove particularly valuable in space stations or other remote locations. The scanner could be coupled to the surgeon-operated robots that are being increasingly used for performing minimally invasive "laparoscopic" surgeries on the heart or other organs. [U][H][R][S]
Robot receptionists and porters Robots have made their debut at a Japanese hospital where an android receptionist and two porters now work alongside their human counterparts. The receptionist robot welcomes visitors at the entrance and answers spoken inquiries. The two porter robots, which can move around on two wheels at a maximum speed of 1.5 km per hour, can carry luggage and take visitors and patients to their destinations. [U][E][H][P]
Insect vision Scientists at Max Planck have shown for the first time how two nerve cells communicate with each other from different hemispheres in the visual centre of an insect, combining the movement signals from both the facetted eyes of a fly. The research reveals the remarkably efficient visual processing that enables a fly to differentiate its own movement from that of the environment and to correct its course in real time. The researchers believe the findings could have applications in improving machine vision for robots. [U][B][R]
Embodied cognition Tests involving two real and one simulated robot show that feedback between sensory input and body movement is crucial to navigating the surrounding world. Understanding this relationship better could help in building more life-like machines, according to the researchers. Maximising information flow between sensory and motor systems could produce more flexible, capable systems. [U][B] |
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| [P] Propulsion and energy | |
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More efficient gasoline engine Efforts to improve the efficiency of the conventional spark-ignition gasoline engine have for decades been stymied by a barrier known as the "knock limit", the onset of spontaneous combustion that makes a metallic clanging noise and can damage the engine. Now, using sophisticated computer simulations, researchers at MIT have found a way to prevent this with ethanol. When the engine is working hard and knock is likely, a small amount of ethanol is directly injected into the hot combustion chamber, where it quickly vaporises, cooling the fuel and air and making spontaneous combustion much less likely. The researchers believe their ethanol boosted engine, using 5 litres of bio-fuel ethanol per 100 litres of gasoline, could be on the market in 5 years. They say it is half the size of a conventional gasoline engine and could provide efficiency gains comparable to those of today's hybrid engine system for much less extra investment. [P][E]
Fuel efficient cars Three-quarters of Europe's car brands are failing to improve fuel efficiency fast enough to meet a key European emissions target, a study has claimed. Only Fiat, Citroen, Renault, Ford and Peugeot are set to meet or exceed their target by 2008. [P][E]
World Energy Outlook The 2006 World Energy Outlook, published by the International Energy Agency, says that, based on projections of current trends, the world faces an energy future that is dirty, insecure and expensive. It concludes that strong policy action by governments is essential to move the world onto a more sustainable energy path. [P][A][E][T][W]
EU Energy Efficiency Action Plan An action plan to cut Europe's energy consumption by 20 percent before 2020 has been outlined by the European Commission. The plan has ten priority areas. These include updating eco-labels on electrical goods, possible legislation to deliver car emissions targets, encouraging investment in energy efficiency, making power plants more efficient, and introducing energy saving taxes and incentives such as tax credits to manufacturers who improve the energy efficiency of their products. The EU's High Level Group on Competitiveness, Energy and the Environment has called for the creation of a strategic European Energy Technology Programme focusing on those technologies that need an ambitious funding programme to accelerate technology deployment. [P][A][E][T][W]
Stern report The report by Sir Nicholas Stern on the economics of climate change has been welcomed by groups including the European Commission and the Confederation of British Industries, but received a chilly official reception in the US and Australia. UK prime minister Tony Blair backed the report, and Chancellor Gordon Brown said the UK would lead and coordinate attempts to tackle climate change. Among the proposals are: reducing European-wide emissions by 30 percent by 2020, and at least 60 percent by 2050; by 2010, having 5 percent of all UK vehicles running on biofuels; creating an independent environmental authority to work with the government; establishing trade links with Brazil, Papua New Guinea and Costa Rica to ensure sustainable forestry; working with China on clean coal technologies. [P][A][E][T][W]
US climate change technology plan The US Department of Energy (DOE) has released its Climate Change Technology Strategic Program Plan, a 243-page report that evaluates prospects for all relevant greenhouse-gas mitigation technologies and identifies the various sources of government support for development of the technologies. This is the first time that US federal spending on greenhouse mitigation technology has been detailed and combined into a complete plan. [P][A][E][R][T][W]
Giant photovoltaic power station Australia has announced plans to build the world's biggest photovoltaic solar power station. The 154 megawatt station will be built by Melbourne-based Solar Systems and will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 400,000 tonnes a year according to the company. [P][E]
Solar up-conversion An innovative process that combines two green photons from sunlight into a higher-energy blue photon has been developed by researchers at Max Planck and Sony. Normally, such up-conversion involves the absorption of two or more photons by a single molecule. The multiple absorptions must occur nearly simultaneously and only lasers can provide sufficient intensity to achieve this. The researchers devised an alternative technique that instead uses absorption by two molecules, each storing one photon's worth of energy for later summation. The researchers have demonstrated the technique using focused sunlight and converting green light into blue. If the technique can be made to work in the infrared with worthwhile conversion efficiency, it could conceivably be used to enhance the performance of silicon solar cells by converting the useless infrared component of sunlight into visible light that the cells can absorb. [P][J][O]
Artificial photosynthesis Primitive bacteria about 3.2 billion years ago developed a way to use sunlight to split water molecules into protons, electrons and oxygen - the cornerstone of photosynthesis. By deriving the precise structure of a catalyst that drives this water-splitting reaction, an international team says it has taken a major step towards harnessing the process for producing renewable energy. It is already known that the catalyst goes through four steps as it oxidizes water to oxygen, with each step triggered by the absorption of a photon. It should now be possible to learn how individual bonds are broken and formed, and how the water molecule splits apart, step by step. [P][E][M][N]
Wave-powered desalination Devices that purify salt water by harnessing the motion of the ocean's waves could provide an energy-efficient way to produce drinking water. They would avoid the high energy demands of conventional desalination plants, and could be installed in arid countries with good access to seawater. Scale models are currently being tested in wave tanks by researchers in Edinburgh. A final system, around 10 metres in diameter and 20 metres long, should be able to produce around 2000 cubic metres of desalinated water a day. This would be enough to supply more than 20,000 people. [P][E][M] |
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| [M] Materials, structures and surfaces | |
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Supersolid helium The supersolid state of matter is predicted to occur at very low temperatures when the vacant lattice sites in a regular solid condense into the lowest quantum state and exhibit fluid-like properties. The result is a material that appears mostly like a solid, but with a small proportion flowing like a liquid. The effect was predicted in 1969 and apparently observed in solid helium in 2004 by researchers at Penn State. However, experiments remain inconclusive. A team at Cornell has now reproduced the 2004 findings of a supersolid transition in helium below 250 mK. But a group from Helsinki University of Technology has found no transition when helium is cooled down to 10 mK. Researchers at Brown University and Ecole Normale Supérieure have found that the flow appears to occur only if the helium crystal contains grain boundaries. This suggests that the flow may be due to superfluid helium creeping along the boundaries rather than to a Bose-Einstein condensation. [M][F]
Corrosion resistant alloys Metal dusting is a corrosion problem that leads to the disintegration of structural alloys. It occurs in carbon-rich environments at temperatures between 450 degrees and 800 degrees C, and it is a major problem in many chemical and petrochemical processes, such as hydrogen-, methanol- and ammonia-reformers and in synthesis gas production plants. Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory have now developed a range of new alloys that are much less vulnerable to metal dusting because they produce oxide scales that resist carbon attack. The researchers say these new materials will allow redesign of industrial processes and that they will be even more significant with the advent of the hydrogen economy. [M][E][P][W]
Spinning strong fibres Researchers at Oxford University have found that spiders and silkworms have independently evolved the same method for spinning their fibres and that this is quite similar to methods used for commercial spinning. In both cases the unspun silk behaves just like a traditional, commercial semi-crystalline polymer and also exhibits shear thinning, meaning that it flows easier the faster it is being sheared. The discovery that the spinning process relies on well understood flow physics means it should be easier to copy the spider's spinning technique to produce ultrastrong fibres. Some similar results have been reported independently by a group at MIT. [M][A][D][N]
Biomimetic dry adhesive Researchers in Germany have produced a dry adhesive material that has exceptional performance on smooth surfaces. It uses mushroom-shaped microhairs that mimic the soles of the feet of a type of beetle that is able to stick to very smooth surfaces. In test, a five square centimetre area of the material was able to stick objects weighing up to 100 gm to a smooth wall. [M][N]
Droplets and tumours Similarities between tumour growth and the physics of splashing water drops have been used by researchers in the US and Italy to model how cancer invades healthy tissue. The researchers defined a tumour “invasion parameter” by modifying the fluid-dynamical equations that predict which drops will splash and how many jets will result. The invasion parameter is a function of three variables: the confining pressure exerted on the tumour by surrounding tissue (analogous to the impact pressure in a drop), the radius of the tumour, and its surface tension. Greater pressure and larger radii favour invasive tentacles, whereas greater surface tension inhibits invasion. The model suggests that oncologists should use drugs to boost tumour surface tension by increasing the adhesion of cancer cells to the surface of the tumour, and also use drugs to reduce the pressure exerted on the tumour by surrounding tissue. [M][H]
Aerated shower As Australia suffers its worse ever drought, researchers at CSIRO have found a way to reduce the amount of water used in a shower by 30 percent using a simple 'air shower' device. When fitted into existing showerheads, the nozzle sucks in air and fills each water droplet with an air bubble. The bubbles expand the volume of the shower stream so that it feels just as wet and strong as before. [M][E] |
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| [E] Environment, transport and marine | |
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Protecting forests The Stern Review says that preventing deforestation is the most cost-effective way of reducing carbon emissions. A study by the International Institute for Environment and Development has found that global deforestation could be halved by spending as little as $5 billion on providing incentives to forest owners to halt felling of trees. Brazil has proposed a plan to allow countries to benefit from protecting their rainforests, and the World Bank has advocated using carbon trading in which industrial states would offset their carbon emissions by funding projects to reduce deforestation in developing countries. However, for this to work, better methods will be needed to police forests and identify illegal timber. In Papua New Guinea, for example, 80 percent of logging is currently illegal. [E][D][P][R][X]
Ethics of climate change Ethics, human rights and distributive and procedural justice must be an integral component of international negotiations seeking any comprehensive solution to climate change, according to a report to the UN Climate Change Conference. The report, written by research institutions in the US, Brazil and Britain, asserts that many nations are taking positions that are ethically problematic. The paper concludes that those nations that use scientific uncertainty, cost to their national economy alone, lack of action by other nations, or waiting for new, less costly technologies to be invented as justifications for not reducing their emissions to a level that represents its fair share of safe total global emissions, are acting unethically. [E][D][P][R][X]
Ancient climate change Researchers at Ohio State have found evidence that the Ordovician ice age 450 million years ago was caused by the rise of the Appalachian Mountains. The silicate rock in the mountains weathered rapidly, reacting with carbon dioxide and trapping it in the resulting sediments. The findings provide further evidence that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere truly drive Earth's climate. The current series of ice ages, which began 40 million years ago, may have been caused in a similar way by accelerated silicate weathering following the rise of the Himalayas. [E]
Weakening of Gulf Stream In 2005, data from an array of sensors spanning the Atlantic Ocean suggested that the Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) has weakened by as much as 30 percent over the past 50 years. The findings were based on five historical "snapshot" measurements of overturning in 1957, 1981, 1992, 1998 and 2004. Now, taking into account variations in the MOC measured over the past year, this estimate of the weakening has been reduced to 10 percent. This is more in line with estimates from other sources. [E][R]
Industrial poisoning By examining publicly available data on chemical toxicity, researchers have found that 202 industrial chemicals have the capacity to damage the human brain, and that in all but a few cases the toxic effects have generally been overlooked. The main vulnerability lasts from foetal development through infancy and childhood to adolescence. According to the researchers, industrial chemicals are causing a silent pandemic of damage with huge consequences. For example, it is estimated that the economic cost of poisoning in US children is $43 billion per annum from lead alone and $8.7 billion per annum from methyl mercury. [E][H][W] |
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| [R] Remote sensing and sensor systems | |
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Ice sheet monitoring NASA scientists have analyzed data from direct, detailed satellite measurements to show that ice losses now far surpass ice gains in the shrinking Greenland ice sheet. The study is based on an innovative use of data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite that reveals detailed information about where and when the Greenland ice mass has changed. Other recent studies using GRACE observations have reported continent-wide ice mass declines, but none has shown these changes in enough detail for scientists to investigate how the change is distributed among the different areas of the ice sheet. Although the ice mass loss observed in the new study is less than half of what other recent research has reported, the results show that Greenland is now losing 20 percent more mass than it receives from new snowfall each year. [R][A][E]
Ice sheet monitoring Using phase-sensitive radar, scientists at the British Antarctic Survey have studied the internal structure of the enormous Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf and measured the rate at which the bottom of the ice shelf is melting. The internal structures in the ice are formed as layers of snow laid down each year. The radar reflections from the layers provide a totally new view of the internal workings of an ice sheet. This is helping to understand how the ice flows and to predict how the ice sheet as a whole will evolve in the future. [R][A][E]
MetOp-A ESA has launched its first polar-orbiting weather satellite, MetOp-A. According to ESA, MetOp-A is the most sophisticated Earth-observation satellite ever built, with 12 instruments to record temperature, humidity, wind speed and ozone cover across the globe, monitor the environment in space and listen out for signals from ships and aircraft in distress. Europe's current generation of weather satellites operates at geostationary orbit, providing snapshots of half of the Earth from a distance of 36,000 km. MetOp will provide higher resolution pictures of the entire globe, swinging around the poles in 101-minute orbits while the planet turns. It will be operated in conjunction with NOAA, whose satellite will fly in a complementary orbit in order to maximise coverage of the Earth. Two further MetOp satellites will be launched over the next 10 years. [R][A][E]
Hubble update Using a robotic mission to repair the Hubble telescope has turned out to be impossible in the time available. NASA has decided instead that it can use a manned mission by extending the shuttle's orbit time by 25 days. The mission will be very complex, but if successful it will not only repair Hubble but also install two new instruments. One is a spectrograph that will study the composition and specific location in space of the constituents of the cosmic web - the long, narrow filaments of galaxies and intergalactic gas that make up superclusters of galaxies and the large scale structure of the universe. The second new instrument is a wide-field camera that will extend Hubble's capability to see deep into the universe to study young, hot stars and the earliest stars and galaxies that formed in the infant universe. [R][A][F]
LIDAR surveillance Many regions of the world have undiscovered seismically active faults hidden by dense forests. Vulnerable areas include Indonesia, India, NW North America, all Andean nations and the alpine countries of Europe. The 2005 Kashmir earthquake was an example of the grave dangers from such hidden faults. Now scientists at the University of Leicester have demonstrated that airborne LIDAR can be used in mountainous terrain to reveal details of the forest floor topography, including the traces of active faults. In trials in Europe, they were able to see how the faults connect at the surface and cut the landscape, and thereby to assess whether the faults are likely to produce large earthquakes or small events in the future. [R][A][D][E][O]
Underwater sound The simple ray theory of acoustics predicts that any sound produced underwater will be reflected at the surface, rather than transmitted into the air. From this it has been assumed that sounds from the oceans are not transmitted into the air above. However, a US physicist has discovered that ray theory breaks down when used to describe low-frequency noises that are produced near to the surface of water. He has calculated that if the wavelength of the sound is comparable to or longer than the depth of the source, sound should be almost entirely transmitted to air. If confirmed experimentally, the discovery may be relevant for detecting low-frequency sounds associated with the testing of nuclear weapons, and it may be a factor in how marine birds locate underwater prey and avoid underwater predators. [R][D][E][M][O]
Smart security surveillance Smart surveillance systems capable of automatically detecting violent crimes could soon be available and could simplify the task of monitoring CCTV data. Researchers at the University of Texas have developed a computer vision system that can distinguish between friendly behaviour and aggressive actions. Tests were carried out on six different pairs of people performing a total of 54 different staged interactions including hugging, punching, pushing, kicking and shaking hands. On average, the system identified these actions correctly in four out of five cases. [R][D] |
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| [S] Sensor devices | |
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Photoacoustic detection of melanoma Photoacoustic spectroscopy can be used to detect as few as 10 melanoma cancer cells in a blood sample, according to researchers at the University of Missouri. The technique uses pulses of blue-green laser light. The dark, microscopic granules of melanin contained in each cancer cell absorb the light, causing the cell to expand and contract with each pulse. This generates sharp acoustic signals that can be detected. The technique should make it possible to determine very early whether the malignant melanoma has spread and therefore how best to treat the patient. Other laboratories have used photoacoustic spectroscopy for scanning mouse brains and for mapping port-wine birthmarks, but this is its first application to oncology. [S][H][O]
TeraHertz probe UK and Spanish researchers have found a way to control the flow of terahertz radiation down a metal wire by corrugating its surface with a series of grooves. This grooving creates, in effect, a T-ray metamaterial that enables the T-rays to be focused to the tip of the wire and to be guided into confined spaces or used to detect small objects. This could have applications for endoscopic probing for cancerous cells or explosives, for example. [S][D][H][M][O]
Scanning photoionization microscopy A new form of scanning microscopy that simultaneously reveals physical and electronic profiles of metal nanostructures has been demonstrated by US researchers. It combines the high spatial resolution of optical microscopy with the high sensitivity to subtle electrical activity obtained from detecting the low-energy photoelectrons emitted by a material as it is illuminated with laser pulses. [S][M][N][O]
Watching molecular vibration Using laser pulses with an average duration of only six to seven femtoseconds, researchers at Max Planck have succeeded for the first time in continuously measuring the molecular motion of deuterium, one of the fastest molecular systems. They "photographed" the molecule using intense ultrashort laser pulses at different points in time, and compiled a film from the separate images. This allowed them to visualise the quantum mechanical wave pattern of the vibrating and rotating molecule. [S][N][O]
Implantable osteo-microsensor During the healing process that follows joint replacement, bone grows and attaches to the pores on the surface of the implant, creating stronger fixing and better stability of the joint. Researchers at the University of Alberta have developed an implantable self-powered rf microsensor that is able to measure and report the progress of this osseointegration. The sensor is permanently implanted with the joint and is powered from the movement of the patient's body. The data from the sensor should enable patients to leave hospital and resume normal activities as soon as possible with much less chance of over stressing the fracture during recovery and rehabilitation. The sensor can be used throughout the life of the joint and can show when the implant is worn out and needs to be replaced. [S][H][I][M]
Rugged microfluidic pump A new type of pump for moving fluid round microfluidic chips has been developed at MIT and could make microfluidic sensors much more rugged. One application would be for a microfluidic diagnostic chip for testing soldiers to see if they have been exposed to biological or chemical weapons. Conventional microfluidic chips use either a mechanical pump or capillary electro-osmosis, where flow is driven by an electric field across the chip. Current electro-osmotic pumps require more than 100 volts. In the new MIT pump, known as a three-dimensional AC electro-osmotic pump, tiny electrodes with raised steps generate opposing slip velocities at different heights. These combine to push the fluid in one direction, like a conveyor belt. Simulations predict this can achieve mm/sec flows with only battery voltages. [S][D][G][H][J][N][P]
DNA nanoactuator Researchers at the University of Portsmouth have developed an electronic switch based on DNA. It consists of a strand of DNA anchored in a tiny channel on a microchip together with a magnetic bead and a biological motor powered by adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Together these act as a molecular dynamo generating an electrical signal. The device has an immediate application for biosensing, for example as a toxin sensor for biodefence. [S][D][E][G][H][J][N][V] |
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| [O] Optoelectronics, optics and lasers | |
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Optical SETI The number of extrasolar planets already discovered shows that planetary systems are quite common. If one assumes that one in a million stars has a planet bearing intelligent life, that would means that our galaxy could be home to at least 100,000 advanced civilizations. Since 1960, radio astronomers have mounted dozens of SETI experiments, some lasting only a few weeks or months, others running for years. Most of these searches were targeted at nearby star systems, while others encompassed the entire sky. To date, however, radio astronomers have heard nothing. Now researchers are searching for signals at visible wavelengths. Extraterrestrial civilisations could use high power pulsed lasers to send signals that can be distinguished from background starlight. Extraterrestrials might also transmit at a frequency of one of the Fraunhofer lines - naturally occurring holes within the spectrum of visible light given off by stars. [O][A][I][R][T]
3D miniature endoscope A new type of miniature endoscope has been developed at Massachusetts General Hospital that could greatly expand the application of minimally invasive diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Unlike conventional endoscopes, which use bundles of optical fibres to supply light to and transmit images from the areas of interest, the new endoscope uses a technology called spectrally encoded endoscopy (SEE). Multicoloured light from a single optical fibre is broken into its component colours and projected onto tissue, with each colour illuminating a different part of the tissue surface. The device uses interferometry to create 3-dimensional depth information. [O][H][R][S]
Dynamic Stark control Physicists at Queen's University in Ontario have shown that laser light can be used as a catalyst to control chemical reactions. The new technique, called dynamic Stark control, is catalytic in that it involves no absorption of light. This is in contrast to the conventional use of lasers to control chemical reactions, where some light is absorbed by the target molecules. The technique works by using the electric field associated with an ultrafast laser pulse to modify the molecular energy levels that dictate how a chemical reaction proceeds. This allows chemists to adjust energy levels on timescales similar to the duration of a chemical reaction, a capability that could revolutionize the field of catalysis. [O][M][N]
Uranium ion laser pump German scientists have succeeded for the first time in using a beam of uranium ions as the pump for producing ultraviolet laser light. The interest in using uranium is that, being so heavy, uranium atoms deposit their energy into a gas much more efficiently that lighter particles such as electrons. The hope is that uranium ions can be used to excite excimer lasers of pure rare gases for producing radiation in the vacuum ultraviolet and soft X-ray region of the spectrum. Applications of soft x-ray lasers include x-ray imaging and holography, and plasma diagnostics. [O][P][S]
Free electron laser Using a tuneable free electron laser, US researchers have produced a 14.2 kilowatt beam of light at an infrared wavelength of 1.61 microns. Potential applications include shipboard antimissile defence, laser-based manufacturing, and scientific research. [O][D][W]
Wakefield images Plasma physicists at the Universities of Texas and Michigan have photographed Langmuir waves for the first time using a specially designed holographic-strobe camera. The waves, moving at very nearly the speed of light, are plasma waves generated in the wake of an ultra-intense laser pulse, and give rise to electric fields reaching voltages of over 100 GeV/m. Being able to see these waves should help in developing wakefield accelerators. [O][P][S]
Invisibility cloak A team with members from Duke University, Imperial College London and SensorMetrix has demonstrated the first working "invisibility cloak." The cloak, a disk of concentric fibreglass-and-copper bands, bends a narrow-frequency range of microwaves around a protected zone at its centre. By then reorienting the electromagnetic field so that the rays exit the disk on their original paths, as if undisturbed, the shield renders itself and whatever is in its protected zone almost invisible to a microwave detector downstream. The demonstration was quasi-2D for simplicity. The researchers expect to be able to demonstrate cloaking in 3D in a year or so. But, to be practical against radar, cloaks will have to work across a broad range of microwave frequencies. [O][D][M][R]
Optical-electronic fibre By embedding semiconductor material inside an optical fibre, research at the Penn State and the University of Southampton have opened the possibility of combining optical and electronic functions within the same fibre devices. The researchers discovered how to make fibres with a very fine capillary core and to use chemical vapour deposition to deposit germanium and other semiconductor materials inside the capillary to create a semiconductor core essentially filling the capillary. [O][I][J][M][N]
Optomechanical entanglement Building on recent studies on optomechanical entanglement with lasers and mirrors, a group of scientists has developed a theoretical model using entanglement swapping to entangle two micromechanical oscillators. In the proposed scheme, the two entangled oscillators are the mechanical components of two separate micro-opto-mechanical systems. The reflected laser beams would be entangled first and then entanglement swapping would be used to correlate the two oscillators. If this can be achieved experimentally it would be a further demonstration of quantum behaviour in macroscopic objects. It could lead to advances in information processing and in electrometers, displacement detectors and rf signal processing, and other applications that exploit micromechanical resonators. [O][C][F][I][J][R] |
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| [I] IT, communications, networking and secure systems | |
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Laser communications through cloud For military communications, it may be possible to transmit many gigabytes of data by laser beam even through cloud, according to a DARPA project. Laser light can carry large amounts of data, but the dust, dirt, water vapour and gases in a fluffy cumulus cloud scatter the light and create echoes. The loss of some light to scattering is less important than those parts of the beam that are deflected and yet reach their target at different times, creating many overlapping echoes. Researchers at Penn State have shown by computer simulation how to remove these optical multipath effects in real time using existing signal processing methods. [I][D][O]
Wireless power A team at MIT claims that it is possible to build a transmitter capable of setting up a field of evanescent radio waves with an effective range of several metres. The evanescent field does not get absorbed by nearby objects, because only objects that are precisely tuned to resonate with the emitted field can absorb energy from it. On the other hand, a suitably resonant receiver can drain most of the energy. In this way, the MIT scheme might conceivable achieve a power transmission efficiency approaching 50 percent over a distance of a couple of metres. The team calculates that it should be quite easy to transmit a few watts over a few metres, which would be enough to power a cellphone or to recharge a laptop. [I][P]
Spin wave communications Spin waves propagating in a ferromagnetic thin film might offer an alternative to optical communication for transmitting large amounts of data between processors, according to researchers at UCLA. Because one can transmit many different frequencies through a single ferromagnetic layer, the spin waves might substantially increase the amount of data that can be processed in some standard systems in microcircuits. [I][J][M]
Hiding messages in noise Using spread spectrum, messages could be transmitted securely through ordinary fibre optic networks, disguised as random optical noise, according to scientists at Princeton. The signal could be spread across multiple frequencies using an existing piece of equipment known as a CDMA encoder. This is normally used to spread a signal so that more information can be sent through a fibre optic link. [I][O]
Web video security Malicious hackers and high-tech criminals are exploiting the growing popularity of online video. IT security firms are reporting more and more instances of booby-trapped Windows codecs that contain spyware or adware. [I][V] |
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| [K] Knowledge, information and technology management | |
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Telehealthcare UCLA radiologists and Siemens Medical Solutions have developed remote-control software that enables an off-site imaging expert to operate a MRI scanner via the Internet. The quality of the remote scans was superior to onsite scans made by someone less experienced. The software was tested by performing particularly demanding scans, such as scans of paediatric patients with congenital cardiovascular disorders. These are the type of examination where it is particularly valuable to have specialised expertise. Other examples are for battlefield medicine or in an emergency setting, such as a natural disaster. The researchers say that the software can also be applied for remote-control of computer aided tomography. [K][H][I][R]
Personalised search engine Google has launched a bespoke search engine that can be included on people's websites or blogs. It allows users to choose which webpages to search and to customise and prioritise the results. The aim, according to Google, is to make it easy for anyone to create a search engine about all of their favourite topics. [K][I][V]
Automated image description Major search engines currently rely upon uploaded tags of text to describe images. Producing these by hand is very labour intensive. Penn State researchers have now trained computers to interpret images automatically using a vocabulary of up to 330 English words. The system analyzes the pixel content of images in terms of the distributions of colour and texture, and then compares that against a stored knowledge base of the pixel content of tens of thousands of image examples. It can automatically annotate online collections of photographs as they are uploaded and can also be applied to other domains such as art collections, satellite imaging and pathology slides. [K][I][R][U][V]
Web science MIT and Southampton University are launching the Web Science Research Initiative aimed at understanding the scientific, technical and social challenges underlying the growth of the web. According to Sir Tim Berners-Lee, web science involves the convergence of many disciplines, including social science, psychology, economics and law, along with computer science and engineering, in order to address the social implications of the web. These include the growing volume of information on the web that documents more and more aspects of human activity and knowledge, how we access this information and assess its reliability, and the risks that the web is used for misinformation. [K][D][I][V][W][X]
Internet addiction In a telephone-based study, Stanford researchers have found that more than one out of eight Americans exhibits at least one possible sign of problematic Internet use. The findings follow results from previous, less rigorous studies that found a significant proportion of the population could be suffering from some form of Internet addiction. According to preliminary research, the typical affected individual is a single, college-educated, white male in his 30s, who spends approximately 30 hours a week on non-essential or compulsive computer use. [K][H]
Citizendium The Wikipedia online encyclopaedia is to be complemented by a more authoritative version. The idea is that by engaging expert editors, eliminating anonymous contribution, and launching a more mature community under a new charter, a much broader and more influential group of people and institutions will be able to improve upon Wikipedia's extremely useful, but often uneven work. [K]
Negative stereotype A study by the University of British Columbia has found that women who are told that female under-achievement in mathematics is due to genetic factors perform much worse on subsequent mathematics tests than those who are told that social factors are responsible. The difference was surprisingly strong and underlines how powerful the effects of negative stereotypes can be. The findings could have implications for the way that mathematics is taught in schools and for public discussions about genetic influences. It may also inform debates about why women are under-represented in university mathematics and science departments. [K][B][W][X]
European Institute of Technology The European Commission has adopted a proposal on establishing a European Institute of Technology (EIT). The structure outlined in the proposal has two levels: a governing board that will be the EIT's legal entity, and Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs). The KICs will bring together universities, research organisations and businesses within an integrated partnership. The partnership should then contribute to all three aspects of the 'knowledge triangle': research, innovation and education. The Commission believes that the EIT will ensure stronger cooperation between academia and industry, help pool Europe's resources, mobilise private sector funding for cutting edge research, attract the best researchers from all over the world, and stimulate spin-offs of innovative SMEs. [K][C][I] |
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| [C] Computing, supercomputing, modelling and simulation | |
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Distributed environmental data system VTT in Finland has developed a software framework for environmental monitoring applications that could be used in fields as diverse as the detection of natural disasters and improving road safety. The system makes use of earth observation data from satellites and a range of other sources, including web camera images and other observational records. The applications can be implemented over the internet as distributed systems, so that computers around the world can work together to collect, analyse, store and distribute the information. [C][E][I][K][R][W]
Simulating molecular folding Scientists at Harvard University have developed a computer model that, for the first time, can fully map and predict how small proteins fold into three-dimensional, biologically active shapes. [C][G][M][N]
DNA computer A computer that uses strands of DNA to perform calculations has mastered the game tic-tac-toe (also known as noughts and crosses). The computer uses a system of DNA logic gates each of which consists of a strand of DNA that binds to another specific input sequence. This binding causes a region of the strand to work as an enzyme, modifying yet another short DNA sequence into an output string. The researchers believe the design should prove particularly useful for exploring ways to identify the genetic markers associated with certain diseases. Although DNA computers are very much slower than silicon computing they have the advantage that they can be used in fluids, such as a sample of blood or in the body, and make decisions at the level of a single cell. Researchers hope that in the future they can be used to simultaneously detect, diagnose and treat cancer, diabetes or other diseases. [C][G][H]
Space supercomputer A supercomputer is being developed at the University of Florida and Honeywell Aerospace for use in space probes and satellites. It exploits a new design called the Dependable Multiprocessor. This uses software rather than physical hardening of components in order to cope with errors and circuit damage caused by radiation from solar flares and other space events. The completed computer is planned to fly aboard the unmanned ST8 rocket mission in February 2009. It needs to be small, lightweight, very power efficient, and tough enough to survive the vibration of launch and the shock of the delivery vehicle separating from the booster rocket. [C][A][J][R][U] |
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| [W] Whole life engineering, manufacture and testing | |
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Automated map making Creating maps from aerial photographs is currently done by hand and it can take several years to update maps. Researchers have developed map-making software that learns from the choices made by a human cartographer. For legal and other reasons, this software could not take over completely from humans, but it could dramatically speed up the creation of useful maps. In tests against people working manually, using typical aerial images, the software tracked 85 percent of the roadways without help and nearly tripled the speed of the process. Importantly, the software is able to detect when it has gone astray and it then hands control back to the operator, who can go back and make necessary corrections. [W][A][D][R][U]
Automated news compilation Software that automatically generates timely video news bulletins, presented by computer-animated characters, could revolutionise current affairs broadcasting, according to researchers at Northwestern University. The system, called News at Seven, can produce reports tailored to a person's particular interests, from world affairs to celebrity gossip. [W][I][K]
Agile and efficient IT development Companies that have focused on achieving IT efficiency through centralization have often then suffered in agility and speed for developing new applications. Decentralising IT development into business units can improve agility but can then lead to higher costs, poorly managed performance, and difficulties deploying cross-group functionality. According to a study by McKinsey, the answer for achieving both agility and efficiency is to separate the demand for IT from the supply. The demand organisation coordinates development requests between businesses and IT suppliers, it coordinates requests across business units to avoid duplication and to achieve greater economies of scale, and it controls the business processes dependent on IT. [W][I][K] |
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| [X] Systems, complexity and risk | |
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Value of ecosystem diversity A comprehensive analysis of the benefits of ecosystem diversity, combining the results of more than a hundred studies performed over two decades, has shown that ecosystems with more species function better; they are more efficient in moving energy and matter. In practical terms, this means that diverse ecosystems are better, for example, at controlling pests, breaking down organic matter and absorbing carbon dioxide. [X][E][P]
Ecosystem services Two new studies have quantified the economic value of preserving intact ecosystems in terms of the value of different ecosystem services. One study was a cost-benefit analysis of the Mbaracayú Forest Nature Reserve in eastern Paraguay, part of the disappearing Atlantic woods of South America. This showed that storing carbon is the highest value service and is on average at least six times more valuable than clearing the land for agricultural use. In contrast the value of bioprospecting as an ecosystem service turned out to be very low. The second study presented a strategy for integrating ecosystem services into biodiversity conservation plans in California's Central Coast ecoregion to systematically identify priorities for conservation. [X][E][P][R]
Ecosystem diversity and cooperation Bacteria are known to cooperate in a wide variety of ways, including the formation of multicellular structures called biofilms. Understanding how such cooperation has evolved and how it is maintained represents one of evolutionary biology's thorniest problems. This stems from the fact that freeloading cheats will evolve to exploit any cooperative group that does not defend itself, leading to the breakdown of cooperation. UK and French researchers have now found that the key to cooperation is diversity. Diverse cooperators evolve to use different nutrient resources, thereby reducing the competition for resources. By manipulating diversity within experimental biofilms, they found that as diversity is reduced more microbes become freeloading cheats. The work also sheds light on how division of labour within multicellular organisms may initially have evolved in order to minimize functional redundancy among cells and to increase efficiency. [X][E][G][W]
Marine ecosystem management An international study is warning that unless all the ocean species are managed together, as diverse working ecosystems, all fish stocks are likely to collapse worldwide by 2050. The study says that protecting diversity is the key to protecting fish stocks. Experiments performed in small, relatively contained ecosystems show that reductions in diversity tend to bring reductions in the size and robustness of local fish stocks. Data from open sea and coastal fisheries also show that declining stocks are going hand-in-hand with declining diversity. Conversely, in marine-protected areas, biodiversity has increased and populations of fish just outside the zone have recovered. The findings suggest that the best way to save the world's fisheries is to use marine reserves in temperate as well as tropical seas, and to focus on protecting biodiversity and the ecosystem rather than on just one threatened species, such as cod. [X][D][E][R]
Risk of ecosystem collapse Current global consumption levels could result in a large-scale ecosystem collapse by the middle of the century, according to the WWF. Under the "business as usual" scenario, the authors project that the resources needed to meet demand in 2050 would be twice as much as the Earth could provide. The nations that were shown to have the largest "ecological footprints" were the United Arab Emirates, the US and Finland. The Ecological Footprint measures the amount of biologically productive land and water needed to meet the demand for food, timber, shelter, and absorb the pollution from human activity. [X][D][E][W]
Sustainable consumption The environmental effects of economic activity are ultimately driven by consumption. Reducing this impact involves understanding the complex system through which each product and service is produced, delivered, consumed and waste disposed of. A survey of recent studies shows in detail the contribution that each type of product and economic activity makes to the total environmental impact. This confirms that 70 to 80 percent of the total impact is from automobiles, air transport, food (meat and dairy, chief among them), and home and related energy use, including heating, cooling and energy-using appliances. [X][E][W]
Social networks Most technological and biological networks collapse when strong ties are removed. A gel, for example, loses its mechanical strength when enough bonds between neighbouring molecules are broken. However, researchers have found that human social networks are different. They studied the communication patterns of 4.6 million mobile-phone users and found that a person's social circle is more likely to break into smaller clusters as a result of losing contact with more casual acquaintances. The researchers believe the weak links are important because they tend to link to different social groups and at longer range. The findings could be important in understanding how rumours and other social phenomena, including epidemics, move through a social group. [X][D][H][I][K][V]
Managing by evidence An organization is much more likely to improve its current performance and underlying health by using a combination of complementary practices rather than any one of them alone, according to new McKinsey research based on 230 businesses round the world. Three main conclusions stand out. The first is that executives should eschew simplistic organizational solutions: when applied in isolation popular techniques such as management incentives and key performance indicators were strikingly ineffective. Second, high-performing companies must have a basic proficiency in all of the available practices; a conspicuous weakness in any drags down the overall result. Third, managers should concentrate most of their energy on a small number of practices that, introduced together, typically produces the best results. [X][K]
Rapid urbanisation Fifty percent of China's population of more than 1.3 billion people will live in cities by 2010 according to China's state media, and this will rise to 60 percent by 2020. This pace of urbanisation is leading to environmental problems, traffic congestion and an inadequate social safety network for migrants, according to Chou Baoxing, vice minister of construction. [X][E][P] |
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| [V] Virtuality and human-machine interface | |
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Virtual cities The Virtual Earth mapping software from Microsoft has been updated to include photo-realistic three-dimensional models of real buildings and other structures. The new 3D version of Virtual Earth is currently available for 15 US cities. Microsoft says it will expand to more than 100 cities internationally by the summer of 2007. The 3D models are built using multiple ground and aerial images, automatically stamped with GPS co-ordinates and overlapping by 90 percent. Each building is captured from multiple different angles and each virtual cityscape requires approximately 10 million photos. As well as enabling users to explore locations they would like to visit, the 3D cities may open up new business opportunities, for example as virtual real estate for advertisers. [V][C][I][K]
Driver warning systems Ergonomists at Ford have tested driver warning systems designed to help reduce car crashes by alerting drowsy drivers that their vehicle has wandered out of the lane. Four warning devices were tested: steering wheel torque that communicated to the driver the appropriate steering wheel angle needed to return to the lane, a rumble strip sound recording, steering wheel vibration, or a row of flashing red LEDs on top of the instrument panel. All four warning systems cut the reaction time of drowsy drivers by almost half. The steering wheel vibration warning in combination with the steering wheel torque proved to be the most effective. [V][B][E]
Future television With most of the developed world going digital in the next few years, the entire television landscape is in the process of changing. According to an analysis by Gartner, plasma panels and LCDs are currently the front runners in the race to replace the CRT, but a third technology, the surface-conduction electron-emitter display, or SED, is also emerging as a serious contender. In an SED, every single pixel of the display is, effectively, a cathode-ray tube. For very large display sizes, projection TVs with high-intensity LEDs are likely to dominate. [V][I][T]
Vascular pattern authentication A new type of biometric identification device takes advantage of the fact that the network of vessels in each person’s hand forms a pattern that can be distinguished from anyone else’s. Vascular pattern recognition devices are being introduced widely in the Far East. They have the advantage over fingerprint scanners that users do not have to touch the sensors, which is a concern in some Asian countries where hygiene is an exceptionally important cultural value. They also offer higher security - vein patterns are not visible to the naked eye and copies are not left like fingerprints on just about every surface a person touches. [V][I][R][S]
Biomimetic artificial retina A silicon chip that faithfully mimics the neural circuitry of a real retina could lead to better bionic eyes for those with vision loss, researchers claim. Most artificial retinas connect an external camera to an implant behind the eye via a computer. The new silicon chip, built with the mammalian retina as its blueprint, could remove the need for a camera and external computer altogether. It contains light sensors and circuitry that functions in much the same way as nerves in a real retina, automatically filtering the visual data to leave only what the brain uses to build a picture of the world. [V][B][J][S]
Cochlear implants Researchers have found that mice lacking the gene otoferlin are profoundly deaf. The animals' deafness results from an inability to translate sound stimulation into the release of neurotransmitter. The findings suggest that people who are deaf as a result of defects in otoferlin will benefit from cochlear implants. [V][B][G]
Electrically enhanced memory Applying a gentle electric current to the brain during sleep can significantly boost memory, according to research at the University of Luebeck. The small study involving 13 healthy medical students showed that half an hour of this brain stimulation improved students’ performance at a verbal memory task by about 8 percent. The researchers believe that the approach enhances memory by creating a form of electrical current in the brain seen in deep sleep. [V][B][K] |
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| [B] Brain research and human science | |
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Speaking in tongues The first neuroimaging study of glossolalia - the religious practice of "speaking in tongues" - has shown that during glossolalia subjects are not in control of the usual language centre of the brain. The study involved five subjects in a laboratory setting. Its findings are consistent with the subject's experience of not being in intentional control whilst speaking in tongues. According to the researchers, the findings could be interpreted as the subject's sense of self being taken over by something else, but there was no evidence in the study of it being taken over by another part of the brain. [B]
Elephant self-recognition Experiments on three female elephants housed at the Bronx Zoo in New York have shown strong evidence that elephants share with humans, great apes and dolphins the ability to recognise themselves in a mirror. The three elephants were exposed to a jumbo-sized mirror measuring eight feet high by eight feet wide inside the elephants' yard. They passed all the standard tests for self-recognition. This finding is not altogether surprising given elephants' large brains, their complex social networks and their empathetic behaviour. Elephants are far more distantly related to humans than are the great apes, but they seem to have evolved similar social and cognitive capacities. [B][G][X]
Alzheimer's disease Scientists have identified that a naturally occurring enzyme, matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9), degrades abnormally aggregated proteins known as amyloid fibrils, a main ingredient of the amyloid plaques in Alzheimer's disease. The finding might explain why, as Alzheimer's disease progresses, the number of plaques increases but each individual plaque reaches a mature size and stops growing. Mature plaques become surrounded by astrocyte cells, which are the producers of MMP-9. It is possible that this production of MMP-9 and other similar substances establishes a balance that limits the size of plaques. [B][H]
Monitoring Alzheimer's progression Using an innovative three-dimensional imaging technique, UCLA researchers have tracked how Alzheimer's disease spreads through the hippocampus, the area of the brain linked with memory. This provides a way to monitor the progression of Alzheimer's disease in living patients. [B][H][R]
New theory of Parkinson's It is generally thought that the abnormal body movements characteristic of Parkinson's result from nerve cells in the motor cortex firing at a decreased rate due to lack of dopamine. However, neuroscientists at Duke University have discovered in mice genetically engineered to lack dopamine that the critical nerve cells do not fire at a decreased rate but instead fire all at the same time, overwhelming the brain's ability to control the body's movements. If the findings apply in humans, therapy that restore the normal synchrony of these neurons in the brain may potentially be beneficial in treating Parkinson's. [B][H]
Cause of MS Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. What causes MS is unclear, but it is known that the immune system's T-cells attack and damage myelin, the fatty tissue that electrically insulates the nerve cell axons. This demyelination has long been considered the central feature of MS. However, researchers have recently discovered another process in which immune system B-cells damage the axons themselves. They have found an increased level of B-cell antibodies on lesions and in spinal fluid bound to two specific enzymes, GAPDH and TPI. These enzymes are essential for efficient energy production and the researchers believe that the antibody binding inhibits energy production in the nerve cells, ultimately causing them to degenerate and die. This opens up new hope for finding a cure for MS. [B][H]
Controlling free radicals Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute report they have found how the brain turns on a system that protects nerve cells from toxic free radicals. Free radicals are waste products of the oxidative phosphorylation process by which the cell's mitochondria convert food molecules into energy in the form of ATP. Using a mouse model, the scientists have discovered that, as the free radicals begin to accumulate, a regulatory protein called PGC-1a switches on the protective anti-oxidant system. Moreover, PGC-1a also drives the mitochondria to make energy. This suggests that PGC-1a might be an almost ideal protein to control or limit the damage caused by defective mitochondrial function. Finding drugs that increase PGC-1a could provide a new mode of therapy for Parkinson's, Huntington's, Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases. Free radicals are also implicated in cardiovascular disease, strokes, cancer and ageing. [B][G][H]
bute An abnormality in part of the brain that controls breathing, arousal and other reflexes may be what causes sudden infant death syndrome, according to a report from Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School. The abnormality is in nerve cells that make and use serotonin and may cause impaired reflexes. This could explain why babies lying face down are more likely to die, because in that position an infant's reflexes, including head turning and arousal, are harder to trigger when breathing is challenged. [B]
Obesity and addiction Using positron emission tomography, researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified the brain circuits that motivate the desire to overeat in obese people and have found that these are the same circuits that cause addicted individuals to crave drugs. [B][H] |
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| [H] Healthcare and medicine | |
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Resveratrol, obesity and lifespan Resveratrol is known to extend the lifespan of simple organisms, and some research suggests that it may affect gene expression in a similar way to caloric restriction. Experiments have now shown that resveratrol can extend the lifespan of mammals. Researchers fed mice on an extremely unhealthy high-fat diet. Those on the diet alone soon died from obesity-related diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease. But mice that were also given high doses of resveratrol, though they became obese, remained as healthy and long-lived as control mice fed on a standard healthy diet. The dose of resveratrol used was high, and to obtain a similar amount, weight for weight, a person would need to drink several hundred glasses of red wine a day. [H][G]
Body temperature and lifespan Reducing body temperature can substantially increase lifespan, according to experiments at Scripps Institute. Mice genetically engineered to have a body temperature only 0.6 degrees lower than normal showed an increase in lifetime of 12 to 20 percent. Caloric restriction also produces lower body temperature and also prolongs lifespan. But in the Scripps study the genetically engineered mice ate about the same amount as the controls. This suggests that with caloric restriction it might be the resulting lower temperature and not necessarily the consumption of fewer calories that plays the most important role in extending lifespan. The body burns less fuel when it is at a lower temperature, which results in the production of fewer free radicals and this could reduce the rate of ageing. [H][G]
Body temperature and healing Higher body temperature, including fever, helps the body’s immune system to identify an infection and neutralise it quickly, according to research on mice. Fever-based therapies might be refined to improve existing treatments for infections, auto-immune diseases and cancer. In clinical trials for treating cancer, hyperthermia used in conjunction with chemotherapy and radiotherapy has shown promising results. [H]
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