Future Air and Space Operational Concepts   The UK MOD has published a paper on future air and space operations. Like its sister papers for land and maritime operations, it looks out to 2030. It sees the main drivers of conflict being the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Effect and the imbalance between populations and resources. The Gulf War proved how decisive air power is against conventional operations. It will remain decisive, but must adapt to new warfighting tactics including irregular formations, concealment underground, and improvised weapons. The fight for information will be core, exploiting air and space-based observation for very fast response. By 2030, the technical superiority of Western nations in air and space may be undermined, and space may be weaponised. New technology, especially directed energy weapons, virtual knowledge bases and cyberspace operations (CNO), will have profound effects. There may be more use of unmanned airborne systems (UAS), including extreme endurance UAS. Costs - financial, manpower, environmental, ethical - will be key issues, along with information integration, multi-role flexibility, countermeasures, robustness (e.g. against loss of GPS), and new training. [D][A][I][K][R][T][U]
http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/8373350E-6958-4928-A409-E9C24F2226FF/0/20090901FASOC_2009UDCDCIMAPPS.pdf http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/E982FAB4-0A95-4379-9A27-C93F0E363788/0/20081030FLOC2008UDCDCIMAPPS.pdf http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/6C1276E2-48C4-4DDB-913A-B0B7284ADBD2/0/20080122_FMOC07_U_DCDCIMAPPS.pdf

Value of the UK defence sector   The UK Defence Industries Council (DIC) has published a major reports setting out the value of the defence industry for the UK in terms of security, jobs and engineering excellence. The report advocates that investing more in defence would be good for the economy as a whole. It says that the sector currently employs 300,000 people in the UK, had an annual turnover of £35bn in 2008, exports on average £5bn per year, generates 1.6 new jobs elsewhere in the economy for every new job created in the defence industry. A parallel report by Oxford Economics shows that the UK defence and security sector generates more significant benefits to the country in terms of jobs, return to the Exchequer, GDP impact, R&D investment and export potential than other sectors. It finds that a £100m investment in defence leads to a £227m output. [D][T][X]
http://www.defencematters.co.uk/News-Featured-Article/DIC-reports.aspx http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8230910.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8137934.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8189558.stm

Modelling counterinsurgency   Insurgent groups like the Taliban can only be effectively engaged with timely and accurate military intelligence, and even good intelligence may only succeed in containing the insurgency, not defeating it, according to a new study. The study is the first of its kind to combine military intelligence, attrition and civilian population behaviour in a unified model of counterinsurgency dynamics. [D][X]
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-07/ifor-mms071609.php

Safer laser dazzle weapon   The US DOD is developing a pulsed laser designed to stop drivers at checkpoints without risk of causing eye damage. Part of the laser pulse is absorbed by the vehicle windscreen, vaporising the outer layer of the glass and producing a plasma. This absorbs the rest of the pulse and re-emits the energy as a brilliant white light that is dazzling but harmless. [D][O]
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227145.400-laser-weapon-dazzles-but-doesnt-blind.html

Inflatable heat shield   NASA has successfully demonstrated how a spacecraft returning to Earth can use an inflatable heat shield to slow and protect itself as it enters the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds. Inflatable heat shields can also be used for interplanetary missions. To land more mass on Mars at higher surface elevations, for instance, mission planners need to maximize the drag area of the entry system. [A][M]
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/aug/HQ_09-188_IRVE_launch.html http://www.nasa.gov/topics/aeronautics/features/irve.html

What heats the solar wind?   The solar wind is hotter than it should be, and for decades researchers have puzzled over the unknown source of energy that heats it. New evidence suggests that the energy comes from vortices caused by jets from Sun stirring the solar wind. This produces large eddies that break into smaller ones and eventually dissipate as heat. The evidence for this comes from the Cluster spacecraft that ventured briefly into the solar wind to make measurements in March 2006. [A]
http://www.physorg.com/news167054041.html http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Mystery_Source_Of_Solar_Wind_Heating_Identified_999.html

The mystery of methane on Mars   In 2004, the ESA Mars Express satellite detected methane on Mars. The methane is not spread evenly through the atmosphere, but is concentrated in pockets. To see if these could be explained by atmospheric chemistry, researchers in Paris have used a global climate model adapted for Mars. This successfully accounts for the winds, turbulence, chemistry and distribution of all the known compounds in the Martian atmosphere apart from the methane. The only way to explain the methane pockets is to have intense local sources of methane and for the methane to be then destroyed within 200 terrestrial days - 600 times faster than on Earth. If so, whatever process is responsible for the methane destruction must almost certainly be wiping out other organic molecules. This makes it less likely that life can survive in the atmosphere or surface of Mars. [A]
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17562 http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Mars_Methane_And_Mysteries_999.html

Venus may once have been Earth-like   Venus Express has made the first infrared map of the southern hemisphere of Venus. This hints that Venus may once have been more Earth-like, with both plate tectonics and an ocean of water. The infrared measurements provide some indications of the chemical compositions of the surface rocks and they are consistent with the hypothesis that the highland plateaus of Venus are ancient continents that were once surrounded by ocean and produced by past volcanic activity. Venus Express has found no evidence that there is still any volcanic activity on Venus. [A][R]
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/New_Map_Hints_At_Venus_Wet_Volcanic_Past_999.html

Carbon-based life may be common in the universe   NASA scientists have discovered glycine, a fundamental building block of life, in samples of comet Wild 2 returned by the NASA Stardust spacecraft. Glycine is an amino acid used by living organisms to make proteins. This is the first time an amino acid has been found in a comet. The discovery supports the idea that the fundamental building blocks of life are prevalent in space. It strengthens the argument that life may be common rather than rare and that some of the ingredients for life may have been delivered to the early Earth from space. [A][R]
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stardust/news/stardust_amino_acid.html

Vertical Take Off and Landing UAVs   A new company has developed a family of Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) Unmanned Airborne Vehicles (UAVs). They are designed to operate in both urban and rural environments and to provide platforms suitable for various tasks including surveillance and cargo lift. The design has no external rotating parts and can survive low speed impact with the ground, buildings and other fixed objects. It utilise the Coanda effect to generate lift. The Coanda effect is named after a Romanian engineer, Henri Coanda, who described the tendency of a jet of fluid or air to become ‘attached’ to a nearby curved body instead of following its original path. The curving of the airflow produces lift in the same way as air flowing over the curved wing of an aircraft. [U][A]
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/New_Family_Of_UAVs_Make_Appearance_At_UV_Conference_999.html

Robo-bats   Researchers are developing flying robots that very closely mimic bats. The skeleton of the robotic bat uses a super-elastic shape-memory metal alloy for the joints and smart materials that respond to electric current for the muscular system. The fully assembled skeleton weighs less than 6 gm. With the wing membrane added, it should allow the robo-bat to fly with the same efficient flapping motion that is used by real bats. [U][A][M][P]
http://www.physorg.com/news166163661.html

Robot fish   Fish propel themselves by contracting muscles on either side of their bodies, generating a wave that travels from head to tail. Researchers at MIT have created two different types of robo-fish that mimic this motion. One mimics the swimming technique used by bass and trout in which most of the movement takes place in the tail end of the body. The other moves more like a tuna or shark, which swim faster and for longer distances. The motion of these fishes, and also of dolphins, is concentrated in the tail and in the region where the tail attaches to the body. [U][P]
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=robotic-fish

Autonomous ocean monitoring   Using an underwater robot laboratory, US scientists have conducted the first remote detection of a harmful algal species and its toxin below the ocean surface. The robotic instrument, called the Environmental Sample Processor (ESP), is a fully-functional analytical laboratory that collects the algal cells and extracts the genetic information required for identification and the toxin for assessing the risk to humans and wildlife. It then makes molecular-based measurements of species and toxin abundance, transmitting the results back via radio. Harmful algal blooms damage coastal ecosystems and pose threats to humans and marine life. Climate change is expected to make this worse. [U][E][I][R][S]
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2009/20090713_mbari.html

Autonomous terrain sensor networks   A squadron of 'spiderbots' deployed inside Mount St Helens is the first network of volcano sensors that can automatically communicate with each other and with satellites, rather than sending data to a base station first. The fifteen bots were lowered by helicopter to spots inside the crater and around the rim of the volcano. Once the bots landed, they autonomously organised themselves as a self-healing mesh network. Each bot has a seismometer for detecting earthquakes, an infrared sensor to detect heat from volcanic explosions, a sensor to detect ash clouds, and a global positioning system to sense the ground bulging and pinpoint the exact location of seismic activity. The bot network can call a satellite to take pictures if it senses an unusual tremor, or a satellite can ask the network to focus its attention on a particular spot if it sees an anomalous heat source. This interaction between the ground and the space systems is autonomous, requiring no human intervention. [U][E][I][R][S]
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17579

The threat from machine intelligence   As machine intelligence in robots, autonomous systems and intelligent network applications becomes increasingly powerful, a stage may be reached where systems reach human levels of intelligence, perhaps within a few decades. If machines are used to build even better machines, a runaway process might occur, called the AI "singularity", in which machines progress out of human control. Or, the internet might become self-aware. A panel of 25 scientists, roboticists, and ethical and legal scholars is examining the various possibilities. One initial finding is that in the near term malware that can mimic the digital behaviour of humans could be used to impersonate an individual with little or no external guidance from the cyber-criminals. [U][C][D][I][V]
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17518

Low carbon jet fuel   Researchers have analysed the carbon dioxide emissions of jet fuel made from camelina oil over the course of its life cycle - from planting to tailpipe. The headline result is that camelina jet fuel could cut aircraft carbon emissions by 84 percent compared with normal jet fuel. This huge saving is the result of camelina having a low fertilizer requirements, high oil yield, and co-products, such as meal and biomass, for other uses. The plant, Camelina sativa, is a member of the mustard family, along with broccoli, cabbage and canola. It thrives in semi-arid conditions. The oil from camelina can be converted to a hydrocarbon green jet fuel that meets or exceeds all petroleum jet fuel specifications. It provides a "drop-in" replacement that is compatible with the existing fuel infrastructure, from storage and transportation to aircraft fleet technology. [P][A]
http://www.physorg.com/news166859707.html

Combining the advantages of petrol and diesel   A fuel-blending gasoline-diesel engine could cut carbon emissions by up to 30 percent, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin. With fuel-blending, the engine's fuel injection is programmed to produce the optimal gasoline-diesel mix based on real-time operating conditions. By injecting the diesel as a spray, gasoline-diesel mixtures with only a small percentage of diesel can still be burned efficiently in a diesel engine because the diesel spray ignites the mixture like a forest of spark plugs. Using the gasoline-diesel mix, the engine operates at combustion temperatures as much as 40 percent lower than in conventional engines. Also, the customized fuel preparation controls the chemistry for optimal combustion so that there is less unburned fuel lost in the exhaust and fewer pollutant emissions. The system can use relatively inexpensive low-pressure fuel injection rather than the high-pressure injection required by conventional diesel engines. [P][E]
http://www.physorg.com/news168524276.html

Batteries for mobile robots   The development of electric vehicles is spurring big investments and progress in improving the cost, weight and capacity of rechargeable batteries. This could also open up the market for mobile robots. Batteries are probably the biggest barrier at present to widespread use of humanoid and other mobile robots in the home and in healthcare. [P][U]
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=robot-battery-technology-life-span

Printable battery   Fraunhofer researchers have developed a printable battery that weighs less than a gram and is thin enough to be integrated into credit cards or greetings cards. [P][M]
http://www.physorg.com/news165748959.html

Finding the best heliostats for solar thermal power   In a solar tower power plant, a field of steerable mirrors (heliostats) focus sunlight onto a single collector to heat a medium such as water or molten salt, which is then used to produce steam to drive a steam turbine. The heliostats are usually large curved mirrors and they normally account for 30 to 50 percent of the cost of the facility. Several approaches are being explored for reducing the heliostat cost. One is to use a computer-controlled array of many small flat mirrors, each around a square metres in size. A 5 MW facility using this approach is starting operation in California. The key question is whether the savings in construction costs will be outweighed by the extra maintenance cost of such a large number of mirrors. [P][O]
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=first-us-power-tower-lights-up-california

Solar power from deserts   Twelve European companies have launched a 400-billion-euro initiative to plant huge solar farms in Africa and the Middle East to produce energy for Europe. [P][D]
http://www.physorg.com/news166715377.html

Nanowire solar cell   The best solar cell efficiency is around 40 percent, achieved by stacking GaInP, GaAs and germanium together in triple-junction cells in order to convert as many photons into electronic current as possible. The efficiency could be increased further by adding a GaInNAs layer that would absorb photons with an energy around 1 eV, but unfortunately the lattice mismatch causes defects that would ruin the cell. Honda has now applied for a patent on a different approach in which the successive semiconductor layers are grown as nanowire pillars on a substrate. Because the junction area in each nanowire is small, a defect-free 4-junction cell can be grown. Also, the area of the nano-wire array can be unlimited whereas in a conventional triple-junction cell, defect formation currently limits the cell size to less than 4 square centimetres. Research at Stanford has also shown that tailoring the thickness of nanowires can greatly increase their absorption at particular wavelengths and angles of incidence. [P][J][N]
http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/38772 http://www.physorg.com/news166207278.html

Nanopillar solar cell   Solar cells are usually two-dimensional. But computer simulations suggest that better performance can be achieved by making a 3-dimensional cell in the form of a forest of semiconductor nanopillars. These provide more surface for collecting light and it is also easier to separate and collect the photogenerated electrons and holes. Early attempts to make nanopillar cells proved disappointing, but researchers at Lawrence Berkeley and UC Berkeley have demonstrated a new method that is promising. They use a vapour-liquid-solid process in a quartz furnace to grow pillars of n-type cadmium sulphide on an aluminium foil. The foil has an array of pores made by anodization that provides the template so the nanopillars grow in a regular array. Then, in the same furnace they submerge the nanopillars in a layer of p-type cadmium telluride sufficiently thin to act as a window to collect the light. The interface between the two materials provides the cell's p-n junction. Photoelectrons flow via the nanopillars to the aluminium and the holes flow through the cadmium telluride to an electrode on the surface of the window. [P][J][N]
http://www.physorg.com/news166375114.html http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/39848

Progress with wave and tidal power   Various wave power technologies are being demonstrated. Pelamis, the world's first commercial wave "farm", utilises three 150-metre-long jointed steel structures that flex to drive hydraulic generators. A similar concept is the Anaconda, a giant snake-like device made of rubber rather than steel. This has so far been trialled in a 1/25th scale version. Other wave harvesters in development use floats attached to a pole that drives a linear generator. Other concepts use buoys designed to stay underwater, where they can avoid the roughest sea conditions. These use wave energy to pump seawater through pipes to onshore hydroturbines. There is also increasing interest in capturing tidal power. Two turbines installed in the tidal currents of Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland, in 2008, are already supplying 1.2 megawatts to local houses, and a 12 MW installation is planned off the Welsh coast by 2011. [P][E][M][T]
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17446

Exploiting lower-grade geothermal sources   Thanks to improvements in drilling and extraction technology and the development of binary cycle power plants, a far wider range of geothermal sources can now be developed. A binary cycle plant allows cooler geothermal reservoirs to be exploited by using a heat exchanger to transfer the energy to a working fluid, typically an alkane or perfluorocarbon, with a lowish boiling point. The evaporation of the working fluid drives the turbine. However, these working fluids release less energy than water would and this makes the generation process less efficient. Now, researchers have reported two advances that they say can boost the efficiency of binary-cycle power generation to essentially that of a conventional steam cycle. The first is a new biphasic working fluid that gives rapid expansion and contraction. The second is the discovery that the heat capacity of alkanes can be increased by a factor of 20 by adding cheap-to-produce nanoparticles with cage-like structures. [P][M]
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=nano-traps-geothermal-power http://www.physorg.com/news166969295.html

Alternative approach for fusion power   A Canadian start-up company says it has raised sufficient capital to begin a project that it hopes will produce a working prototype fusion power plant within the next decade at a cost of less than a billion dollars. The reactor consists of a metal sphere with a diameter of three metres. Inside this is a liquid mixture of lithium and lead that spins to create a vortex with a vertical cavity in the centre. Two donut-shaped plasma rings called spheromaks are injected into the top and bottom of the vertical cavity. The spheromak plasma is in magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium and the stabilizing magnetic field is largely self-generated through plasma currents. This means that only one set of magnetic coils is required. To compress the plasma, 220 pneumatically controlled pistons simultaneously ram the surface of the sphere. This sends an acoustic wave through the spinning liquid that becomes a shock wave when it reaches the spheromaks. The big unknown is whether this shock wave can compress the plasma enough to achieve a commercially worthwhile amount of nuclear fusion. The first goal is to demonstrate net gain. [P][M]
http://www.physorg.com/news168623833.html http://www.technologyreview.com/business/23102/

Third world three-in-one oven, refrigeration and electricity generator   A combined combustion oven and refrigerator that can also harness electricity from its vibrations is now undergoing field trials in the UK and Nepal. The hope is that with its cheap production costs and variety of functions, the new generator could become an affordable and sustainable energy technology for communities in the developing world. The electricity generator exploits a two-step energy conversion from heat to sound to electricity, which takes place inside a gas-filled pipe. A fire at one end of the pipe creates a temperature gradient, which triggers acoustic waves as gas moves from hot to cold regions. These sound waves can then be harnessed by a linear alternator, which converts mechanical energy into electrical electricity in the reverse process to an electric motor. The vibrations are also used by thermoacoustic engine to generate cooling. Finally, the heat from the burning wood or other biomass can be used for cooking. [P][D]
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/39981

Superconductivity in the iron chalcogenides   The discovery in early 2008 of superconductivity in iron pnictides (LaFeAsO, SrFe2As2, BaFe2As2, etc.) and in iron arsenide opened up massive research activity round the world spurred by new hopes of unravelling the mechanisms of high temperature superconductivity and of designing materials that might be superconductors at room temperature. Studies on the iron pnictides showed that iron and perhaps other magnetic atoms could enable magnetic fluctuations that might play an important role in binding electrons together to form a superconducting state. In 2009, superconductivity was also discovered in the iron chalcogenides (FeTe and FeSe). It was expected that these would be like the pnictide, but experiments now show they probably involve some different mechanism for superconductivity. The comparison between the chalcogenides and the arsenides also suggests that arsenic, and not simply iron, may be involved in superconductivity in iron pnictides. Finding out what is so special about iron and arsenic might provide some important clues. [M]
http://physics.aps.org/articles/v2/59

Hydrogen storage materials   US researchers report they have created a reversible route to form alane (aluminium hydride). Alane has long been identified as a material with the right combination of properties for high capacity hydrogen storage. But, until now, it was considered impractical because of the high pressures required to combine hydrogen and aluminium. The new method could also be used for forming other complex metal hydrides that may be suitable for hydrogen storage. [M][P]
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-07/drnl-rdr070609.php

Growing replacement bone from the right stem cell   Many scientists are trying to use stems cells to grow bone-like materials that can be implanted into patients who have damaged or fractured bones or have had parts of diseased bones removed. The hope is that the bone-like materials can be inserted into cavities so that real bone can meld with it to achieve complete bone repair. Scientists from Imperial College London have now found that the bone-like material produced depends significantly on the type of stem cell used. [M][H]
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-07/icl-sct072409.php

Growing replacement teeth   Researchers in Japan report that they have successfully grown replacement teeth in mice. They transplanted tissue containing the cells and instructions for building a tooth into the jawbones of mice. The tissue "germs" regularly grew into fully functional teeth with a hardness comparable to that of natural teeth. [M][H]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8182684.stm

Scald-proof fabrics   In recent years, chemists have produced water-repellent materials that are inspired by natural surfaces, such as lotus leaves. These owe their properties to a waxy hydrophobic coating and a spiky surface texture that helps to trap small pockets of air beneath water droplets. However, neither of these properties protects against hot water. Now, researchers have found that cotton dipped in a mix of carbon nanotubes and Teflon is able to repel hot water, milk, coffee and tea at 75 degrees C. The hope is that the Teflon-nanotube coating can be added to textiles to produce scald-proof fabrics that can protect vulnerable members of the population from hot-water burns. Around 80 per cent of such burns occur among young children, the elderly, and the physically impaired. [M][N]
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17467

Self-assembly by differential contraction   It might be possible to use differential expansion and contraction to engineer complex assemblies. Researchers at Columbia University heated a disc of the polymer PDMS so it expanded, and then coated it with a thin copper film. When they cooled the disc, the polymer shrank more than the metal, causing the copper to buckle into an array of teeth. Cooling the disc further increased the height of the teeth. The technique can produce complicated bevels or curves that are difficult to produce with traditional methods. The hope is that it can also produce complicated gears for more sophisticated gear trains. The key is to adjust the properties of the polymer so that it shrinks preferentially in one or more directions when it is cooled. [M][N][W]
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17507

Could bacteria solidify sand?   One third of the world population is at risk from desertification, particularly in China, sub-Saharan Africa and the former Soviet republics in central Asia. Whilst drought is a factor in the spread of deserts, a big problem is moving sand dunes that engulf people and crops. North African nations have promoted the idea of planting trees to form a Great Green Belt to prevent the spread of the sand. Now a new suggestion has been proposed of using bacteria to convert sand dunes into solid sandstone walls that could then hold back the dunes. The bacterium Bacillus pasteurii produces calcite that can act as a natural cement. Researchers have been studying it as a possible agent to solidify the ground in earthquake prone areas. The new idea is to incorporate huge quantities of Bacillus pasteurii with nutrients in the path of sand dunes so that, as the sand covers them, they bind the grains into sandstone. The sandstone could also be used as a building material. [M][D][E][G]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8166929.stm

How will clouds affect global warming?   Uncertainty over how low-level clouds affect climate is one of the biggest impediments to more confident predictions of global climate change. The question is whether global warming will cause clouds to dissipate, letting in more sunlight and making warming worse, or whether cloud cover will increase and so reduce warming. Different climate change models predict different answers. Now, using observational data collected over the last 50 years and correcting for data errors, researchers have found a surprising degree of agreement between two multi-decade datasets that were not only independent of each other but also employed fundamentally different measurement methods. One set consists of collected visual observations from ships over the last 50 years; the other is based on data collected from weather satellites. The results indicate, unfortunately, that low-level stratiform clouds are likely to dissipate as the ocean warms, making global warming worse. The researchers found that the Hadley Centre climate model from the UK Met Office was able to accurately reproduce the observations. [E][C][R]
http://www.physorg.com/news167579418.html http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=climate-change-and-clouds http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2009/0723sp_clouds.shtml http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/39908

Hurricanes and global warming   A study that has examined evidence of hurricanes going back 1,500 years supports the theory that two main factors fuel higher hurricane activity, namely the La Niña effect and high surface temperatures over the ocean. La Niña conditions are favourable for hurricanes because they lead to less wind shear in the tropical Atlantic. Global warming can be expected to increase ocean temperature. The last time that hurricane activity was as high as it is now was around 1000 AD at the peak of the Medieval Warm Period. Global temperature were then around 0.3 degrees higher than the average for the past 2000 years, though still around 0.5 degrees lower than today. [E][P][X]
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=115424&org=NSF&from=news http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/good-bye?http://live.psu.edu/story/40850

How does the solar cycle affect climate?   Using computer models of global climate and more than a century of ocean temperature data, researchers have managed to distinguish the climate effects caused by the solar cycle from the larger pattern of global warming that is due to human activity. The total energy reaching Earth from the Sun varies by about 0.1 percent across the solar cycle. As the Sun reaches maximum activity, the extra sunshine over several years heats cloud-free parts of the Pacific Ocean enough to increase evaporation, intensify tropical rainfall and the trade winds, and cool the eastern tropical Pacific. This produces something similar to a La Niña event, although the cooling of about 0.5 to 1 degree C is focused further east and is only about half as strong as for a true La Niña. This La Niña-like pattern tends to evolve into an El Niño-like pattern, as slow-moving currents replace the cool water over the eastern tropical Pacific with warmer-than-usual water. Depending on where the solar cycle maximum occurs in the El Niño - La Niña cycle, it can weaken an El Niño event or produce a stronger La Niña. [E][C]
http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2009/solarcycle.jsp http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=115207&org=NSF&from=news http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Solar_Cycle_Linked_To_Global_Climate_999.html

How the solar cycle affects climate   Solar eruptions screen the Earth from cosmic rays that nucleate the formation of aerosols, which in turn grow into water droplets in low altitude clouds. To measure how big an effect this has on cloud cover, researchers at the University of Copenhagen have examined events, called Forbush decreases, where there is a sudden drop in the number of cosmic rays. For the five strongest Forbush decreases from 2001 to 2005, they found that clouds over the ocean lost as much as 7 per cent of their liquid water within seven or eight days of the cosmic-ray minimum, and satellite data showed an average reduction of 4 to 5 percent in clouds. Extrapolating this result to the more prolonged reductions of cosmic rays during period of strong solar activity now explains the alternations of warming and cooling seen in the lower atmosphere and in the oceans during solar cycles. The current period of exceptionally low solar activity is temporarily masking some of the global warming caused by higher carbon dioxide levels. [E][A][R]
http://www.physorg.com/news168353215.html

Global warming will probably not shut down the Gulf Stream suddenly   Starting with the last glacial maximum about 21,000 years ago, researchers have simulated atmospheric and oceanic conditions through the so-called Bølling-Allerød warming, the Earth's last major temperature increase, which occurred about 14,500 years ago. The simulation agrees closely with temperatures, sea levels and glacial coverage estimated from fossil and geologic records. It confirms that 14,500 years ago the fresh water released by glacial melting shut down the thermohaline circulation. Without any Gulf Stream, the North Atlantic cooled and heat backed up in southern waters. Glacial melting slowed or stopped, and eventually the ocean circulation was restored. As warm water poured north, this produced the very rapid Bølling-Allerød warming. The simulations have not yet reached the present era, but the modelling suggests that current global warming is not likely to cause a similar rapid shutdown of the Gulf Stream, as had been feared. The researchers stress that whilst this is good news, it does not change broader concerns about global warming. [E][C][X]
http://www.news.wisc.edu/16906 http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2009/jul/research-indicates-ocean-current-shutdown-may-be-gradual http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Research_Indicates_Ocean_Current_Shutdown_May_Be_Gradual_999.html

Warning from the Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum   The Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM), which occurred 55.8 million years ago, has been identified in hundreds of sediment core samples worldwide. It could be a useful climate analogue for present-day Earth. During the PETM, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased by about 70 percent over about 1,000 years, and temperatures rose over 20,000 years by 6 to 7 degrees C globally and by 10 to 20 degrees C at the poles. Ocean currents reversed and more than a trillion tonnes of methane were released from the ocean bed. Many species in the deep sea were wiped out. But what caused the PETM is still a mystery. The most plausible explanation is that an initial temperature rise triggered a runaway release of methane that subsequently oxidized to carbon dioxide. But although the carbon dioxide levels were very much higher than today, this only seems to account for at most half of the 6 to 7 degrees C warming that occurred. This suggests there was some other unknown factor driving up temperatures. Conceivably, this might also add to current global warming. [E][C][P][X]
http://www.physorg.com/news166795736.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleocene-Eocene_Thermal_Maximum http://www.physorg.com/news166715232.html

Health hazards from airborne particulates   By comparing how many people die when concentrations of particulates in the air are high against mortality figures on cleaner days, epidemiologists have found that airborne particulates may be far more damaging than thought, possibly causing more than a million deaths a year in China, for example. Recent studies suggest particulates are contributing to a host of conditions, from asthma and stroke to heart disease and premature aging of chromosomes. Ultrafine particles are inhaled most deeply into the lungs, from which some pass directly into the blood. Studies show they increase blood pressure and appear to also foster vascular disease, including atherosclerosis and ischemic stroke. [E][H][N][P][T]
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/45186/title/Bad_Breath

Measuring depletion of aquifers   The NASA Grace (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) satellites have found that in north-west India, including Delhi, the water table is falling by about 4 cm per year. This is due to over-extraction of water and not to any change in rainfall. The Indian government has published a report warning of a future water crisis. The two Grace satellites fly along the same orbit, one just in front of the other. Minute differences in the gravitational pull cause the two craft to shift slightly in their positions relative to one another. As water is extracted, the gravitational pull decreases slightly and this change can be measured over long periods. [R][D][E]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8197287.stm http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=is-india-running-out-of-water

UAV compatible high-resolution radar   Radar technology from the ESA Envisat remote-sensing satellite has been used to develop a high-resolution radar that is sufficiently light and compact to be mounted on very small unmanned aircraft or on a single-engine aircraft such as a Cessna 172. The radar can monitor structures such as dams, harbours, canals and buildings, and help produce maps for urban planning, territory surveillance and cadastral updating. Several flights over the same location can spot changes between pictures, revealing ground movements that could affect structures. [R][A][U]
http://www.spacemart.com/reports/Space_Radar_Techniques_For_Land_Mapping_999.html

Fermi Space Telescope finds radio-quiet gamma-ray pulsars   A pulsar is a neutron stars that is highly-magnetised and rotating rapidly. It emits a narrow radio beam in both directions along the axis of its magnetic field. As the star rotates about its spin axis, this beam sweeps around like a lighthouse beacon, and if it briefly point towards the Earth, it produces a train of radio pulses. The beam can be powered by the rotational energy of the pulsar, or by the gravitational energy of material being sucked in by the pulsar, or by decay of an extremely strong magnetic field (a type of pulsar called a magnetar). The Fermi Space Telescope has now found 16 new rotationally-powered pulsars that emit gamma rays but have no observable radio signal. It is thought that the gamma ray beam is broader than the radio beam and so can be seen even though the radio beam misses the Earth. The gamma rays come from charged particles accelerated to near the speed of light by the very intense magnetic and electric fields of the pulsar. [R][A][F]
http://www.physorg.com/news165763241.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulsar

Tracking near-Earth objects   The US Air Force has contracted the first development phase of Space Fence, a global S-band space surveillance ground radar system. This will detect and track thousands of pieces of space debris in low and medium earth orbit as well as tracking commercial and military satellites. It will replace the current VHF Air Force Space Surveillance System, which was built in 1961 and which cannot deal with the growing population of small and micro satellites in orbit. [R][A]
http://www.spacemart.com/reports/Northrop_Grumman_Awarded_Contract_To_Develop_Space_Fence_Technology_999.html

Quantum discrimination   Researchers have shown it is possible to distinguish between two different molecules with identical absorption and emission spectra by using shaped ultrafast laser pulses and an adaptive algorithm that controls the pulse shapes. The technique illustrates the power of controlled quantum interference to discriminate between almost identical systems. [R][M][O]
http://physics.aps.org/articles/v2/51

How did the solar system originate?   Using adaptive optics, ESO’s Very Large Telescope has provided very sharp images of a star cluster RCW 38 located about 5500 light-years from Earth. RCW38 is crowded with budding stars and planetary systems and is thought to be similar to the environment in which the solar system may been created. The young stars are subject to intense UV radiation from giant stars and also to supernovae, as giant stars explode at the ends of their lives. These explosions scatter material throughout nearby space, including rare isotopes, and this ejected material ends up in the next generation of stars that form nearby. As these isotopes have been detected in our Sun, scientists have concluded that the Sun must have formed in a cluster like RCW 38, rather than in quieter part of the Milky Way. There is also evidence that a giant supernova close by might have initiated the formation of the solar system. [R][A]
http://www.astrobio.net/pressrelease/3221/the-origin-of-solar-systems http://www.astrobio.net/exclusive/3202/our-smashing-solar-system

Dual-polarized frequency selective surface filter   With the continued uncertainty surrounding the effect of clouds in climate models, satellite instruments are playing an increasingly important role in climate science. However, space-borne instruments looking at thermal emissions from gases in the atmosphere have been limited because they can only detect one polarisation at a time. Researchers in Northern Ireland have overcome this problem by designing an electronic filter that can detect both polarisations simultaneously. It is designed to operate in the 250 to 360 GHz range, but the researchers are also developing a filter to operate at 664 GHz. It consists of two rectangular loops of highly conductive metal embedded into the surface of a silicon wafer. The outer loop responds to horizontally polarized waves and the inner loop to vertically polarized waves. It will be used by ESA in upcoming missions. [R][E][S]
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/40160

3-D imaging sensor   Conventional imaging sensors in digital cameras record flat, two-dimensional pictures. But a new generation of imaging sensors can record in 3-dimensions, recording the distance of each pixel from the camera. Like the human eye, it uses binocular vision from two imaging sensors. These can now be put on the same CMOS chip, opening the way for cheap mass production. There are numerous potential applications not only for digital cameras but also for collision avoidance and security cameras, for computer-based manufacturing and testing, and for webcams and interfaces to computers, iPods and games consoles. [S][J][R][U][V][W]
http://www.physorg.com/news166293891.html

High performance microfluid chip   Microfluidic chips use tiny devices to automatically route tiny amounts of liquids around channels in the chip surface. Compounds can be tested very quickly and only tiny amounts of materials are required. This greatly reduces the time and costs in identifying and testing new compounds, such as specialist drugs against cancer and other diseases. Researchers at UCLA have now developed a microfluidic chip technology that can perform more than a thousand chemical reactions at once on a chip the size of a postage stamp. [S][C][G][H][J][W]
http://www.physorg.com/news168522738.html

New hope for quantum imaging   In classical imaging, resolution is limited to about two-fifths the wavelength of the illuminating light. But much higher resolutions can potentially be achieved by using quantum imaging. This is based on the idea that an ensemble of N entangled photons, each with classical wavelength ?, can be regarded as a single quantum object with an effective wavelength of ?/N. Good progress has been made with quantum optical sources and optical processors, but the big barrier has been in finding a way to detect the N-photon ensembles. Attempts to produce multiphoton photoresists have been unsuccessful, and N-photon coincidence detection schemes have yielded such low detection rates that they have only been useful for proof of principle. Now, fresh hope has come from a new concept for making a nonlocalised detector that can detect the entangled photons without revealing information about their paths, thereby preserving their entanglement. If quantum imaging can be made practical it could have many applications - in nanoimaging, metrology and sensing, and in quantum information processing. [S][C][F][I][J][N][O][R]
http://physics.aps.org/articles/v2/52

Surface photonic circuits   Photonic crystals are nanostructured materials in which periodic variations of some property, notably electric permittivity, produce a photonic "band gap". Photons with energies in the photonic band gap cannot travel through the crystal. This allows scientists to change the flow of light by introducing carefully selected defects. Introducing defects into the bulk enables photons to be manipulated inside the photonic crystal. Now researchers at Kyoto University have shown they can also manipulate photons at the crystal surface. This is much more accessible way to manipulate photons and might lead to advanced photonic circuits and novel nano-photonic devices, such as improved LEDs and solar cells. The researchers also demonstrated that photons can be localized in surface nanocavities that have Q factors as high as 9000. Such a high-Q nanocavity system could be used as a very sensitive sensor for detecting chemicals or biomaterials. [O][C][M][N][S]
http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/39924

Active cloaking   In most approaches to cloaking, the cloaking device envelops the cloaked object. The cloaking is passive, achieved through the use of metamaterials to alter the wavefront of incident radiation. Now, using computer simulation, researchers have demonstrated the possibility of active cloaking in which cloaking devices emit signals and sit outside the cloaked object. The signals destructively interfere with incoming radiation and can hide objects provided their dimensions are small compared with the wavelength of the incoming radiation. This means the technique could be useful against water waves and seismic waves, and perhaps also against radar. The snag is that one must know in advance everything about the incoming wave. This means the cloaking might require placement of numerous sensors to detect the incoming waves. [O][R]
http://www.unews.utah.edu/p/?r=081009-1

Optical transformation   Researchers in Hong Kong have described how cloaking might be used not only to make an object invisible but also to transform an object optically so that it appears to be a different object. [O][R]
http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.253902

Guiding light   Researchers at the University of Boston have demonstrated the use of metamaterials and transformational optics to guide light beams along complex pathways. [O]
http://www.physorg.com/news168263666.html

DNA light converter   By adding two fluorescent dyes to DNA and then spinning the DNA strands into nanofibres, researchers at the University of Connecticut have made a new material that can absorb ultraviolet light and re-emits visible light, ranging from blue to orange to white depending on the proportions of the two dyes it contains. This enables a UV-emitting LED to be converted to a bright white light LED by coating it with the DNA material. The DNA fibres orient the dyes in an optimum way for efficient energy transfer to occur. The researchers believe the light emitters should have a good operational life because DNA is a very strong polymer. [O][N]
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/23042/

Self-assembling nanoscale superlens   Korean researchers have created nanoscale lenses with superhigh resolution using a novel self-assembly method. The tiny lenses can be used for ultraviolet lithography, for imaging objects too tiny for conventional lenses, and for capturing individual photons emitted from quantum dots. Because the nanolenses are smaller than the wavelength of light, they allow imaging beyond the diffraction limit, provided they are in the near field. This means they need to be placed very close to the object being imaged. [O][N][R]
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/23040/

Laser random number generator   Message encryption, Monte Carlo simulations, and electronic gambling machines all rely on random number generators. With a computer algorithm, it is only possible to generate numbers in a pseudorandom way, however complex the algorithm. To generate truly random numbers one needs some chaotic process. Researchers in Israel have shown that a simple edge-emitting semiconductor laser can be used to generate a chaotic signal that produces a random bit stream at a rate of 12.5 Gbits/second, the fastest random number generation so far achieved based on a physical process. [O][C][I]
http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.024102

New LED closes the yellow gap   Monochromatic light-emitting diodes (LED) cover a large part of the visible spectrum with high efficiency. For blue light, nitride diodes achieve external quantum efficiencies in excess of 65 percent. For red light, phosphor diodes achieve efficiencies of approximately 50 percent. However, so far no highly efficient monochromatic LEDs have been available for the “yellow gap” at around 560 nm. Now Philips researchers have developed a monochromatic nitride diode that closes this gap. The external quantum efficiency is 30 to 40 percent, depending on temperature. [O][V]
http://www.physorg.com/news167555795.html

Nanolaser   Researchers at UC Berkeley claim to have created the smallest semiconductor laser ever. By exploiting surface plasmon polaritons, the new nanoscale device can generate light in a space just 5 nm in size. It could be exploited in optical computers, biosensors and nanometre-sized photonic circuits. [O][C][I][N][S]
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/40258

K-band space communications   Over the next year, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will collect more information about the Moon's surface and environment than any previous mission. It is able to transmit this data back to Earth at a rate of up to 100 megabytes per second by using a K-band microwave link. [I][A][R]
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/LRO_twta.html

DTN protocol tested   Internet protocols work well in richly connected terrestrial networks that have short delays, but they are not suitable for space communications or in remote terrestrial environments where networks are sparse and can be heavily loaded. A new protocol called Disruption Tolerant Networking, or DTN, has been tested on the International Space Station. It uses a store and forward method so that packets are not lost when they cannot be forwarded immediately. As well as being the basis for an interplanetary internet, DTN also has terrestrial applications including tracking of livestock and wildlife, enhancing Internet 'hot spot' connectivity in remote rural areas in Third World countries, and tactical military communications. [I][A][D]
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-07/uoca-cnt070609.php

Federated Model for Cyber Security   Cyber attacks are often targeted at several locations simultaneously. So scientists at Argonne National Laboratory have devised a program that enables cyber security systems to communicate instantly when they are attacked to warn cyber security systems at other institutions. Currently the system can share information about hostile IP addresses and domain names; soon it will also be able to share hostile email address and web URLs. [I][D]
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-07/dnl-adp071609.php

Cyber attacks on social networking   Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites are increasingly being targeted by cyber-criminals. A vicious virus Koobface has affected many thousands Facebook and Twitter users since August 2008 and has been detected in 4,000 different variants. The virus hijacks the accounts of social networking site users and sends messages steering friends to hostile sites containing malware. [I][D]
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Cyber-criminals_targeting_social_networks_experts_warn_999.html

Identifying online experts   Websites where users can organize and share information are flourishing, but it can be hard to know which users and information to trust. Now a team of European researchers has developed an algorithm that ranks the expertise of users and can spot those who are using a site only to spam. The technique works by distinguishing between 'discoverers' and 'followers', focusing on users who are the first to tag something that subsequently becomes popular. [K][I]
http://www.technologyreview.com/web/23100/

Insects make excellent collective decisions by quorum sensing   Social insects, such as ants and bees, use collective decision making - for example, in selecting a site for a new nest. Recent research has revealed how information is communicated and shows that collective decisions are arrived at by quorum sensing. The group of scouts at a candidate site can sense when enough of them are sufficiently in favour to select the site. The collective decisions are highly rational. Researchers found they were unable to trick bees and ants into making sub-optimal decisions in the way that humans might do, for example by offering them alternative sub-optimal sites that were closer or superior in some aspects but not optimum overall. [K]
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mindless-collectives-rational-decision-making http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/43117/title/Swarm_Savvy

e-Health   Online healthcare could make a big difference to care in the home, particularly for the elderly. Part of the challenge is technological: ensuring the interoperability of different medical devices and systems, securely managing patient information, intelligent monitoring and decision support. The other part is human: making the system user friendly, achieving sufficient patient compliance, providing the human support. Social networking sites may play an important role here, ushering in the caring online community. [K][H][I][T]
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17513-innovation-is-the-future-of-healthcare-online.html?full=true

Personalised advertising   Machine vision could enable electronic adverts to adapt to the viewer. A system developed in Singapore lets advertising screens detect the genders of passers-by and will soon be able to tell their age. IBM has worked on systems that can scan a crowd and estimate numbers, demographics, and where people are looking. Face recognition could track individuals allowing even finer personalisation of adverts - or intrusion into their privacy. [K][I][R]
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17424-innovation-when-advertising-meets-surveillance.html

Science of learning   Recent findings in neuroscience, psychology and machine learning are converging to create the foundations for a new science of learning that may transform education and may also help in understanding the origins of human intelligence. Three principles are particularly important in explaining how children learn rapidly: learning is computational, it is social, and it is supported by brain circuits linking perception and action that connect people to one another. The brain takes in information and computes statistically which information is significant. Interpersonal interaction is key. Research shows that babies will learn a second language face to face from a real person, but not when they view that person on television. Children learn what is important by following the gaze of another person. These three principles have important implications for computer based learning. [K][B][U][V]
http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleID=50883

Growth in virtual education   Online education is booming. Many colleges and universities now offer free courses online on a huge variety of subjects, including offering videotaped lectures by some of their most distinguished professors. YouTube recently created a hub called YouTube EDU. Nature Education has launched a free science library and personal learning tool called Scitable.com. Its course material is initially focused on genetics, but it plans to expand to cover cell and molecular biology, drug discovery, biotechnology and neuroscience, and eventually chemistry, physics, environmental science and ecology. Virtual education comes in many forms: virtual classrooms, hypertext courses, video- and audio-based courses, animation-enhanced courses, online support for paper-based textbooks, and peer-to-peer courses that are taught "on-demand" and without a prepared curriculum. Second Life has recently become a virtual classroom for major colleges and universities, including Princeton, Rice University, Pepperdine University, University of Derby, and the Open University. [K][V]
http://www.physorg.com/news168241291.html http://www.nature.com/scitable http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_education

Origins of human technology   Paleoanthropologists have discovered stone tools that show that early modern humans living on the southern coast of Africa employed sophisticated heat treatments to increase the quality and efficiency of their stone tool manufacturing process at least 72,000 years ago. The heat treatment involved using carefully controlled hearths in a complex process to improve the flaking characteristics of the stone. Previously it was thought that humans first used heat treatment about 25,000 years ago in Europe. The new discovery suggests that modern humans developed the ability to solve complex problems much earlier than previously supposed. Such a sophisticated technological process implies complex cognition and probably language to develop and pass on the knowledge. [K][B][M][P][T]
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=115415&org=NSF&from=news http://asunews.asu.edu/20090813_ancienttoolmakers

Quantum computers can tolerate errors   Quantum devices are very sensitive to noise in their surroundings, and their performance can be greatly impaired by errors. Encouragingly, however, a new theoretical study finds that a useful quantum computer can be built even if up to 10 percent of its components suffer an error, or up to 50 percent of the components are completely lost. [C]
http://www.physorg.com/news168706585.html

Making quantum computations more robust   US researchers claim to have demonstrated the first small-scale device to perform all the functions required in large-scale ion-based quantum processing. They stored qubits in two beryllium ions held in an ion-trap with six distinct zones. Electric fields were used to move the ions from one zone to another, and UV laser pulses of specific frequencies and duration were used to manipulate the energy states of the ions. The scientists demonstrated repeated rounds of a sequence of logic operations and found that error rates did not increase as they progressed through the series, despite transporting qubits across distances of almost a millimetre while carrying out the operations. To achieve such robustness, they used two partner magnesium ions to sympathetically cool the beryllium ions to prevent errors from heating during transport. They also used three different pairs of energy states within each beryllium ion to hold information during different processing steps. This allowed information to be held in ion states that were not altered by magnetic field fluctuations during ion storage and transport. [C][O][N]
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=quantum-computer-nist http://www.physorg.com/news168791155.html http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17575 http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/40067

Controlling qubits whilst maintaining their quantum coherence   One approach towards making a quantum computer exploits individual rubidium atoms held in an optical lattice. A big challenge is to maintain external control over these atom qubits whilst also keeping them sufficiently isolated from the environment so they can maintain their quantum coherence long enough to perform useful computations. For external control the qubit should be sensitive to manipulation whereas for a long coherence time it should be very insensitive. NIST scientists have found a partial solution by exploiting the fact that each rubidium atom can take on any of eight different energy states. They use two pairs of these energy states: one to store quantum information and the other for computation. Each pair of states is field-insensitive, but the transitions between the memory and computational states are sensitive and amenable to field control. The control can be done using the magnetic field of a polarised beam of light, making it easier to address individual atoms without affecting other atoms in the array. [C][O]
http://www.physorg.com/news166182556.html

DNA computing   For certain specialized problems, biomolecular computers exploiting DNA and enzymes are faster and smaller than any other computer built so far. A DNA computer can detected cancer in a test tube and released a molecule to destroy it, and it is conceivable that such devices might one day be used in the living body. To make DNA computing more user-friendly, researchers at the Weizmann Institute have created a compiler for converting from a high-level programming language into DNA computing code. To compute the answer, various strands of DNA representing the rules, facts and queries are assembled by a robotic system. The answer is produced in the form of a fluorescent flash of green light from a specialized enzyme, attracted to the site of the correct answer. The researchers showed that the tiny water drops containing the biomolecular data-bases were able to answer very intricate queries, lighting up in a combination of colours to represent the complex answers. [C][G][H][S]
http://www.physorg.com/news168510956.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_computer

Simulating cells   Computational biology is an interdisciplinary field that applies the techniques of computer science, applied mathematics and statistics to address biological problems. An important objective is to model how cells function. Researchers at Virginia Tech report that they have developed a quantitative mathematical model that accurately describes the DNA replication and cell division for the bacterium Caulobacter crescentus. This model includes a wiring diagram that maps the essential regulatory steps for DNA replication and cell division in Caulobacter in a way that is similar to how you would define a computer process. The researchers were able to show in simulations that the model accurately describes how the different proteins change in quantity during the cell division cycle and the impact of specific known mutations on cell function. [C][G][X]
https://www.vbi.vt.edu/public_relations/press_releases/math_model_mimics_cell_division

Modelling gene networks responsible for complex diseases   Computational biologists at Carnegie Mellon University have developed an analytical technique to detect the multiple genetic variations that contribute to complex disease syndromes such as diabetes, asthma and cancer, which are characterized by multiple clinical and molecular traits. With such diseases, genome-wide gene expression profiling can identify tens of thousands of molecular traits, making it virtually impossible to unravel the root causes one gene and one trait at a time. The CMU method instead uses a statistical approach to provide a more comprehensive analysis of the genome variations underlying an entire regulatory network of genes or traits. [C][G][X]
http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2009/August/aug14_plos.shtml

Design consistency and context capture   True Engineering Technology, a startup based in Cambridge, MA, has developed semantic technology that adds meaning to numerical data to help prevent miscommunication and to record contexts. It has launched a website called Numberspace that lets users upload pieces of numerical data and semantically tag the data. Once tagged, the information can be shared without losing its meaning. Customers can also pay for a business version that stores their information on a private server. Numberspace is being marketed primarily to engineering companies that need to ensure consistent design data and documentation. [W][K]
http://www.technologyreview.com/web/23087/

Making antibody surrogates   Diagnostic sensors that use antibodies for detecting specific proteins in blood are currently limited by the fact that the antibodies tend to be expensive and unstable. Now chemists at Caltech and Scripps Research Institute have developed a way to create cheap and highly stable chemicals that could potentially replace the antibodies. Their method is very simple and uses a sequence to steps in which the target protein is used to select the appropriate peptide segments to form a three-segment peptide that is long enough to be both selective for and specific to the target protein. [W][G][H][S]
http://www.physorg.com/news166361266.html

Conserving ecosystems is better than relying on restoring them later   Restoration ecology is a relatively new science that has become core for sustainable development and for coping with global warming and climate change. The goal of restoration is to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services in a damaged environment, though not necessarily to restore the ecosystem to a pristine prehuman level. Research topics include soil fertility and soil microbial communities, fertilisation and pollinators, restoring forest ecosystems, countering invasive species, restoring estuarine ecosystems such as oyster beds, and restoring marine ecosystems and fish stocks. However, whilst ecological restoration can have a big impact, a meta-analysis of 89 ecological restoration assessments in several types of ecosystems across the globe has found that ecosystem conservation is far more effective. Intuitively it is no surprise that conserving and smartly adapting ecosystems works much better than relying on restoring them later. [X][E]
http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=EN_NEWS&ACTION=D&SESSION=&RCN=31091

Conserving marine ecosystems   The first study to exhaustively assemble the best available data worldwide on the status of marine fisheries and trends in exploitation rates suggests fisheries can be saved from collapse by applying the right mix of management techniques, including catch restriction, gear modification, closed areas, and policing of international fishing fleets. In half the ecosystems studied worldwide, the average exploitation rate is falling, making collapse less likely. There are many examples where good management practices have led to an increase in fish sizes and numbers. The bad news is that 63 percent of the fish stocks are in decline and even lower exploitation rates are needed to allow the most vulnerable species to recover. The researchers criticised the use of Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) to work out the total acceptable catch. Their analysis showed that a better indicator is the multi-species MSY (or MMSY), which adds up the yield across all species in an area. Fishing below MMSY sustains the catch, while the number and size of fish tend to rise and the risk of stock collapse falls. [X][D][E]
http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=EN_NEWS&ACTION=D&SESSION=&RCN=31096 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8176292.stm http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17539 http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=115279&org=NSF&from=news

Applying physics to model complex socioeconomic systems   Sociophysics treats groups of people as complex socioeconomic systems of many interacting individuals and analyses them using conceptual tools borrowed from physics, mathematics and computer science. The field began in the 1970s by applying the Ising model, which describes how magnetic interactions produce the collective atomic behaviour of ferromagnetism in solids, to try to describe how interactions within human networks produce collective human behaviour. In the 1990s, econophysicists developed models of stock market and economic behaviour that show, for example, why large economic swings are more common that conventional economics would predict. Some econophysics models have also been blamed for giving false confidence of sub-prime mortgages. Recently, complex system research has made some big advances in describing traffic flow and the spread of epidemics. Other current thrusts include how society has evolved from feudalism to democracy, the impact of climate change on regions, and the development of terrorist networks and radicalisation. [X][C][D][E][H][I][K][M][P][T]
http://www.if.pw.edu.pl/~jholyst/data/science_jh.pdf

Current challenges in modelling techno-social systems   To predict future weather, forecasters use sophisticated supercomputing to combine current weather data with huge libraries of historical meteorological patterns. Despite the huge complexity, weather predictions are usefully accurate. It is much harder to model techno-social systems where social networks of networks and their dynamic self-organisation play a big role. Techno-social systems depend sensitively on social adaptive behaviour. When catastrophic events occur, such as a pandemic or major disaster, the system is driven out of equilibrium into unknown territory. But useful progress is now being made thanks to new data on mobility and networks from mobile phone use, GPS and other sources, and new techniques for modelling complex networks. Currently, the three big goals are to gather large scale data on information spread and social reactions in times of crisis, to identify how individual awareness and perceptions of risk affect the network structure and dynamics, and to use the monitoring infrastructure to inform computational models in real time. [X][C][D][E][H][I][P][T]
http://www.physorg.com/news167579576.html

Modelling techno-social networks   Conventional modelling of networks uses random configurations of vertices (nodes) in which the number of edges (connecting links) is specified for each vertex. However, new research shows a more powerful way to represent networks is by specifying how many triangles each vertex participates in, and how many single edges or “stubs” (apart from triangles) the vertex connects to. The network can then be built out of triangles and stubs such that no edges or triangle corners are left hanging. This can make it easier to derive important properties such as the collection of nodes that can easily intercommunicate, the isolated groupings that are cut off from the rest of the nodes, and average path lengths from one node to another. The approach should assist the analysis of real networks involved in the spread of disease, communications, and social interaction. [X][B][C][D][E][I][P]
http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.058701

Touchable hologram   Researchers from the University of Tokyo have developed 3D holograms that can be touched with bare hands. Generally, holograms cannot be felt because they are made only of light. But the new technology adds tactile feedback to holograms hovering in 3D space. This is achieved by using ultrasonic acoustic radiation pressure to create a pressure sensation on the hands that creates the feeling of touching the objects in the hologram. [V][O]
http://www.physorg.com/news168797748.html

Machine-brain interface using neurotransmitters   Current methods of stimulating nerve signals in the nervous system involve direct electrical stimulation. Cochlear implants, for example, are surgically inserted into the cochlea and electrodes are connected directly to the auditory nerve. However, researchers from the Karolinska Institute and Linköping University in Sweden have found that this crudely activates all cell types in the area of the electrode. They have developed a new type of connector that uses electrically conducting plastic and releases neurotransmitters that stimulate nerves in a natural and selective way. [V][B][H]
http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=EN_NEWS&ACTION=D&SESSION=&RCN=31093 http://www.physorg.com/news166109773.html

Cognition and brain-reading   Neuroimaging, particularly using fMRI, has found that certain specific mental functions, such as learning, memory, fear and love, can be ascribed to activity in specific areas of the brain. However, a study of 130 participants performing more complex mental tasks has found that these higher cognitive tasks do not correspond directly with specific brain areas but rather with a unique pattern of neural connections. The tasks included read, memorizing a list, and making complex decisions about whether to take monetary risks. The researchers showed they could read out what the brain was focussed on with 80 percent accuracy and could do this tens of milliseconds before the awareness reached consciousness. The research is part of the Connectome Project whose goal is to provide a complete map of the neural circuitry of the central nervous system. [B][D][V]
http://news.rutgers.edu/medrel/news-releases/2009/07/researchers-develop-20090724

Decisions making under stress   Experiments using rats have shown that chronic stress locks rats into an automatic response mode and leads to bad decision making because potentially more suitable and beneficial responses cannot be considered. The researchers traced how the chronic stress changed the brain activity of the animals during decision-making tasks. They found that when compared to control mice, the dorsomedial striatum (DMS), which is the part of the brain associated with goal-orientated actions, became atrophied, whereas the dorsolateral striatum (DLS), which is linked to habit formation, was expanded. The findings help in understanding why addictive and compulsive behaviour is often prevalent in people with stress-related disorders. The findings are relevant to people who need to make critical decisions under constant stress, such as military personnel. [B][D][H][K][V]
http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=EN_NEWS&ACTION=D&SESSION=&RCN=31097 http://www.physorg.com/news168188476.html

How the mind scans and the function of brain waves   Neuroscientists have long debated how humans and animals search elements of a visual scene, looking for a person or object of interest. Research at MIT with monkeys has now revealed that the brain scans by jumping around from object to object, and that the speed of this search is related to brain wave frequency. Researchers have been recording brain waves - the cyclic oscillation between low and high brain activity - for more than 100 years, but it remains unclear what function these waves performs. The MIT study now shows the waves act like an internal clock that provides a framework for shifting attention from one location in the scene to the next. Furthermore they found that the faster this clock ticked in the monkeys the faster the animals "thought". This suggests that brain waves may work much like the internal clock in a computer, providing a way for different processes and different regions across the brain to synchronise. If so, it may be possible to change the speed of cognition if researchers can learn to artificially manipulate brain waves. [B][C][K][R][U][V]
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/mindseye-0812.html

Nerves in the spinal cord can regenerate long after injury   The central nervous system (CNS) consists of the brain and spinal cord. If nerve cells in the CNS are damaged, they do not regrow, whereas peripheral nerves can regrow. There are several reasons for this difference. There are substances in the CNS that discourage regeneration; these substances are absent in the peripheral nervous system. Injury to a peripheral nerve cell activates genes linked to cell growth; these genes are not activated by damage in the CNS. Regrowth in the CNS is also blocked by the formation of scar tissue. Researchers at Max Planck have now found, however, that if there is damage in the right order to both the CNS and peripheral nerves, the peripheral activation of growth genes can stimulate regrowth in the CNS. By using a laser to damage single nerve cells in the CNS without producing scar tissue, they showed that CNS nerves can regenerate even after a long period of time if regrowth is peripherally stimulated and if the formation of scar tissue can be prevented or at least reduced. [B][H][V]
http://www.physorg.com/news166719838.html

Rooks display evidence of remarkable intelligence and inventiveness   Some animals, even with quite small brains, can display ape-like intelligence. In Aesop's fable "The crow and the pitcher", a thirsty crow uses stones to raise the level of water in a pitcher to quench its thirst. New experiments show that rooks are even cleverer than this. The rooks were confronted with a test tube part filled with water in which a worm was floating on the surface. They very quickly worked out that they could obtain the worm by dropping stones into the tube to make the water level rise. They selectively dropped stones into tubes containing water rather than ones containing sawdust. They quickly learned to select the best sized stones to use. Rather than attempting to reach the worm after each stone was dropped, they apparently estimated the number needed from the outset and waited until the appropriate water level was reached before dipping their beaks into the tube. Rooks are not thought to use tools in the wild at all. So the experiment appears to demonstrate remarkable cognition and problem solving ability. [B][K]
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-08/uoc-at080609.php

Intelligence of crows   The New Caledonian Crow is the only non-human species with a record of inventing new tools by modifying existing ones and by using materials it does not encounter in the wild, and of then passing these innovations to other individuals in the cultural group. Now experiments by Oxford University scientists have revealed that these crows can spontaneously use up to three tools in the correct sequence to achieve a goal, something never before observed except in humans. [B][K]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8182446.stm http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2009/090805_1.html http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/46196/title/Tool_use_to_crow_about

Does the brain exploit transposons?   Interspersed repeats, also known as transposable elements or transposons, are DNA sequences that can "jump" around the genome. They account for 44 percent of the human genome, which suggests that they serve some useful purposes. It was known that some long length transposons, known as LINE-1 elements (or Long interspersed element 1) randomly jump around the genome in the brain cells of mice. Researchers have now shown this also happens in human brains and that whilst in most of tissues in the body the genetic switch that activates the LINE-1 elements is permanently locked in the 'off' position, it is generally switched 'on' in the brain. The researchers speculate that this could be a mechanism to create the neural diversity that makes each person unique. The brain has 100 billion neurons with 100 trillion connections, but the mobile pieces of DNA could give individual neurons a slightly different capacity from each other, providing an additional level of adaptability. The researchers now plan to look for differences in LINE-1 activity in individuals with neurological conditions to see if there is any link. [B][G]
http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=EN_NEWS&ACTION=D&SESSION=&RCN=31113 http://www.physorg.com/news168697506.html

Brain plasticity   Learning occurs through change in the strength of connections between neurons and also through neuroplasticity - adding or removing connections between brain cells and adding new cells. Striking evidence of how plastic the brain can be is provided by the case of a 10-year old girl who was born with the right half of her cerebral cortex missing. A study has found that she now sees perfectly because of a massive reorganisation of the brain circuits involved in vision. Normally the right side of the brain processes the left visual field, and vice versa. Brains scans showed in her case that retinal nerves that should normally connect to the right half of her brain have instead carved out processing areas in two parts of the left brain: the thalamus and the visual cortex. [B][H][V]
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17489 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=wide-reaching-effects

Brain plasticity   Other new research also shows that the adult brain has much greater plasticity than previously thought. Experiments in rats using fMRI show that new experiences and information have wide-ranging effects throughout both hemispheres of the brain, rather than just creating connections in one discrete area. [B][H][V]
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=wide-reaching-effects

Safety of DEET   Discovered in 1953, DEET is still the most common active ingredient in insect repellents. It works against a wide range of important pests, including mosquitoes. Recent evidence shows that mosquitoes intensely dislike the smell of DEET. Now French researchers have found that DEET also inhibits the activity of a key enzyme, acetycholinesterase, in both insects and mammals. This enzyme is responsible for degrading the neurotransmitter acetylcholine to that it can be recycled. It is the target of nerve gases and of organophosphate and carbamate insecticides. Nerve gases, such as Sarin, strongly inhibit acetycholinesterase. This causes a build up of acetylcholine that produces neuromuscular paralysis, leading to death by asphyxiation. The action of DEET is very much milder, but the researchers found that it can enhance the action of carbamate insecticides. They say that their findings question the safety of DEET, particularly in combination with other chemicals. [B][D][E][H]
http://www.physorg.com/news168675389.html

Hope for treating neuropathic pain   Around 1 percent of people suffer persistent neuropathic pain. This is often due to nerve damage caused by diabetes. Unfortunately, traditional painkillers like aspirin and even morphine often do little to take the edge off neuropathic pain. Now, early trials in rats are showing that a compound harvested from soft coral looks promising for controlling neuropathic pain. Several other important drugs have already been developed from chemicals found in coral reef organisms. These include the antiviral AZT used against HIV, and also drugs for cardiovascular diseases, ulcers, leukaemia and skin cancer. [H][B]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8183039.stm

Stem cell therapy   US researchers have reprogrammed bone marrow stem cells to turn into retinal cells and have used them to repair damaged retinas in mice. These results suggest it should be possible to use stem cell therapy to treat age-related macular degeneration. Importantly, the researchers found that it was only after the stem cells were reintroduced into the mice that they completely transform into the desired type of vision cells, apparently taking environmental cues from the damaged retinas. Following from this, the researchers found they could use chemical compounds that mirrored environmental conditions in the body to convert the bone marrow stem cells into retinal cells without needing to use any gene therapy. The researchers say the results suggest that bone marrow stem cells can be programmed to restore a variety of cells and tissues, including ones involved in cardiovascular disorders such as atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease. [H][B][G][V]
http://www.physorg.com/news168257942.html

Hope for killing cancer stem cells   There is increasing evidence that tumours harbour a group of cells, called cancer stem cells, that can enable tumours to spread and to regenerate after treatment. In addition to promoting tumour growth, these cells are largely resistant to current cancer therapies. Scientists are therefore searching for drugs that can selectively kill these cancer stem cells. But the difficulty is the cells are rare and they also tend to lose their stem cell properties when grown outside of the body. To overcome this, researchers have found a way to instead use ordinary cancer cells by coaxing them to acquire stem-like properties. They used these stem-like cancer cells to screen 16,000 compounds and found that a small number showed toxicity against cancer stem cells. In tests on breast cancer, one of these compounds, salinomycin, reduced the number of cancer stem cells by over a 100-fold compared to paclitaxel, a common chemotherapy drug for breast cancer. It is not yet clear how salinomycin works, but the researchers found it does decrease activity of a groups of genes that are highly active in cancer stem cells. [H][G]
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/stemcell-0813.html

Hope for killing breast cancer stem cells   Researchers have found that breast cancer stem cells have a gene signature that might be used to develop drugs that can combine with conventional therapy to eradicate the cells. Cancer stem cells are resistant to normal chemotherapy and may be responsible for disease recurrence, resistance to treatment, and perhaps metastasis. [H][G]
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-08/bcom-gsf072909.php

Nanoparticle gene therapy against cancer   Nanoparticles carrying the gene for diphtheria toxin can effectively suppress ovarian tumour growth in mice, according to a team of researchers from MIT and the Lankenau Institute. The gene is engineered to be overexpressed in ovarian cells but to be inactive in other cell types so that the treatment is free of toxic side effects. The researchers found that the gene-therapy treatment was as effective as traditional chemotherapy, and in some cases more effective. The nanoparticles are made with positively charged, biodegradable polymers. When mixed together, these polymers spontaneously assemble with DNA to form the nanoparticles. The polymer-DNA nanoparticle can deliver the functional DNA when injected into or near the targeted tissue. [H][G][N]
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/ovarian-0730.html

The innate immune system   Natural killer (NK) cells are major players in the innate immune system. They patrol the body, providing the front line of defence against tumours and viral and bacterial infections. But despite their importance, little is known about how they function and particularly about how they decide whether to kill individual cells or not. European scientists have now used high-speed microscopy to observe the NK cell decision-making process. They found that when a NK cell attaches itself to a cell that is cancerous or infected, large numbers of its activating receptors are triggered. The NK cell then spreads itself out over the surface of the target cell, continuously monitoring the levels of activating and inhibiting signals as it does so. If activating signals continue to dominate, the NK cell keeps hold of the target cell and eventually kills it. In contrast, healthy cells interact with more inhibiting receptors and relatively few activating receptors. As a result, 'off' signals dominate, and the NK cell soon releases the healthy cell and continues its hunt for diseased cells. [H]
http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=EN_NEWS&ACTION=D&SESSION=&RCN=31077

Knocking out the PAPPA gene extends lifetime of mice by 30 percent   Insulin-like growth factor (IGF) is a hormone that promotes cell division and is required for normal embryonic and postnatal growth. But in later life, IGF is associated with tumour growth, inflammation and cardiovascular diseases, and with deterioration of the thymus gland. Because the thymus gland produces T cells that fight disease and infection, its deterioration progressively weakens the immune system and contributes to decline in old age. Because of these deleterious effects of IGF, reducing its availability in adulthood might prolong healthy life. To test this, researchers genetically engineered mice to lack a gene called PAPPA, which produces an enzyme that promotes IGF availability. They found that these mice lived 30 percent longer than normal mice and they maintained just enough IGF in the thymus to sustain production of T cells without consuming precursor cells, thereby preventing the thymus and immune system from deteriorating. The results suggest that it may be possible in humans to promote health ageing and longevity by using drugs to inhibit the PAPPA enzyme. [H][G]
http://www.physorg.com/news166471334.html

Restricted-calorie diet promotes health and longevity in rhesus monkeys   It is well known that a calorie-restricted diet increases the longevity of nematode worms and also of mice. Now a decades-long study has shown that calorie-restriction similarly increases longevity in rhesus monkeys. All of the monkeys in the study were enrolled as adults at ages ranging from 7 to 14 years. The average lifespan of a rhesus monkey in captivity is 27 years. During the 20-year course of the study, half of the animals permitted to eat freely are still alive compared with 80 percent of the monkeys given the same diet but with 30 percent fewer calories. The incidence of cancerous tumours and cardiovascular disease in animals on the calorie restricted diet was less than half that seen in animals permitted to eat freely. Remarkably, while diabetes or impaired glucose regulation is common in monkeys that can eat all they want, it has yet to be observed in any of the animals on a restricted diet. [H][G]
http://www.physorg.com/news166355977.html

Unravelling the richness of venom   It is estimated that the world has some 100,000 different venomous species, each with its own blend of venom. In some cases, the venom contains hundreds of different toxins. Scientists are now teasing apart and cataloguing these toxins, some of which could make excellent drugs. Venom toxins can act very quickly and with great precision, and they remain stable for a long time. To find which proteins and peptides are present in venom, scientists use several approaches. One approach, messenger RNA analysis, works by identifying the messenger RNA for producing the toxic proteins. This approach was used to profile the toxins made by the Komodo dragon, a lizard only recently shown to be venomous. [H][G][T]
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/46016/title/Venom_hunters

Importance of gene interactions for choosing optimum chemotherapy   New research at MIT has demonstrated the importance of studying cancer genes as a network, rather than trying to predict chemotherapy outcomes based on the status of single genes. The researchers focused on two proteins: ATM and p53. ATM is involved in controlling the response to DNA damage. It is known to help regulate p53, which is a tumour suppressor gene that activates repair systems when DNA is damaged and initiates cell death if the damage is irreparable. Past research on how mutations in these genes affect chemotherapy outcomes have produced confusing and contradictory findings. Now MIT research has revealed that tumours in which both p53 and ATM are defective are highly susceptible to chemotherapy agents that damage DNA. However, in cells where p53 is mutated but ATM is not, DNA-damaging chemotherapy is less effective, and where ATM is mutated but not p53, the tumours are highly resistant to DNA-damaging chemotherapy. [G][H]
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/cancer-personal-0806.html

Encouraging gene therapy results   Three young adults who received gene therapy for a blinding eye condition in 2008 have remained healthy and maintained previous visual gains one year later. The condition is inherited and causes severe vision loss and blindness in infants and children. Because the condition was already very advanced, the gene therapy was only able to restore some sections of the retina, but the brain has rewired itself to use these restored sections successfully. [G][B][H]
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-08/nei-gto080709.php http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-08/uof-vrs081009.php

Identifying epigenetically active compounds   New findings add to the evidence that pollutants and chemicals in the environment and in food are causing epigenetic changes in human genes. These changes can silence genes or switch them on at the wrong times. This could be promoting a variety of diseases and disorders, including diabetes, asthma, cancer and obesity. Exposure in the womb is likely to be particularly important. Research indicates that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), common air pollutants from traffic, cause methylation of a gene ACSL3 and this change is strongly associated with asthma. Methylation of certain genes in the brain is common in suicide victims. Some carcinogens, such as nickel, chromium and arsenic, cause cancer because of their epigenetic effect. Identifying epigenetic changes and their effects could lead to powerful therapies, but the challenge is how to screen compounds for epigenetic effects, particularly in the womb. [G][E][H][M][T]
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=silencing-genes-chemical-contaminants-cancer-diabetes

Faster and cheaper genetic engineering   Traditional genetic engineering works one gene at a time, systematically mutating its letters to achieve a particular effect. But usually the processes that researchers want to engineer depend not on one gene but on whole gene networks. So engineering one gene at a time is far too slow. Scientists at Harvard Medical School have now developed a method that can cheaply create hundreds or thousands of mutations in a few days. These can then be bred, and the most effective selected. Called multiplex automated genome engineering or MAGE, it relies on the tendency of cells to incorporate little bits of laboratory made DNA into their dividing chromosomes. Researchers can customise those bits so they modify specific genes and even parts of genes. [G][W]
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17514 http://web.med.harvard.edu/sites/RELEASES/html/072609church.html

Precisely modifying plant genomes   Until now, genetically modified plants have been made by randomly inserting a new gene into the plant cell. This gives no way of knowing if the gene is in the right place or whether it will work until many resulting plants are tested. Now researchers have developed a process that can modify the DNA at a predetermined location in the plant genome. Like many gene engineering methods, it exploits homologous recombination, a mechanism that all cells use for DNA repair and cell division. First, a specific gene is located in a living plant cell, then a break is made in the DNA of that gene. When the cell begins to repair the DNA, new DNA can be added near the break site and/or existing DNA can be deleted or modified. This precise targeting not only makes the process vastly more efficient but also means that researchers know much more precisely what they are doing to the genome. So it is much less likely that the genetic modification will have unforeseen side effects. [G][E]
http://www.physorg.com/news167310456.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homologous_recombination

How does evolution make big leaps?   Most evolutionary changes happen in tiny increments, but some involve a transition between two discrete physiological states - the number of wings on an insect, or limbs on a primate, for example. US scientists have now shown from studies on how bacteria form spores that these large evolutionary leaps can occur by mutations of genes controlling the frequency with which some process occurs. In the bacterial case, this changed how many chromosomes and spores were produced by a particular bacterium. [G][X]
http://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13276

Creating life   Because RNA molecules can replicate by themselves, it is thought that life on Earth started with RNA and only later switched to using DNA. Studies have supported the hypothesis that primitive cells containing RNA or similar molecules could assemble spontaneously, reproduce and evolve, giving rise to all life. Researchers have now found a way that the first RNA could have formed from chemicals present on the early Earth. The next goal is to create fully self-replicating artificial organisms in the laboratory to show how protocells might have developed. [G][F]
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=origin-of-life-on-earth

History of life   New Scientist has published a timeline of life, showing how the different lifeforms on Earth have evolved over the past four billion years. Pinning down when specific events occurred relies mainly on dating the rocks in which fossils are found and looking at the "molecular clocks" in the DNA of living organisms. Modern genetics allows scientists to measure how different species are from each other at a molecular level, and thus to estimate how much time has passed since a single lineage split into different species. As a general rule, both methods becomes more uncertain the further back one goes along the geological timescale. But despite this, the overall timeline gives a good overview of the history of life. [G][E]
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17453-timeline-the-evolution-of-life.html?full=true

Organelles-on-a-chip   In the past 15 years, many synthetic versions of key parts of the human cell have been made. These include chromosomes and artificial ribosomes, the bodies inside each cell that make proteins based on instructions from DNA. Now researchers are developing the first working artificial prototype of the Golgi apparatus, an organelle which helps the cell to modify biomolecules and package them for delivery around the cell. By building organelles-on-a-chip, researchers hope to understand much more about processes in the cell. [N][G][J]
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=cells-golgi-apparatus

Engineering DNA-based nanomachines   Good progress has been made recently in techniques for the self-assembly of DNA nanostructures with controlled 3D architectures. But to make sophisticated molecular machines, engineers need to be able to bend and twist 3-dimensional DNA nanostructures controllably and with high precision. Now, scientists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen and Harvard University have now shown they can controllably engineer DNA curvature by self-assembly of longer double helices laterally coupled to parallel shorter ones. They have also developed a graphical software program that helps to translate specific design concepts into the DNA programming required to realize them. More work is needed to establish how stable the curvatures are, to hierarchically engineer structures with high yields, and to understand how the 3D packing affects the mechanical properties of the DNA molecules. [N][G][J][W]
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/40042 http://www.physorg.com/news168787205.html

DNA origami   A new method for folding DNA into a range of useful shapes and for positioning these "origami" pieces onto industrial materials has been developed by researchers at IBM and Caltech. The origami method for manipulating DNA was developed originally at Caltech. It involves forcing a large viral genome to bend by the addition of small synthetic DNA sequences in a solution. The shorter segments attach to the main genome and act as "fastening posts" that hold the DNA in a range of shapes such as squares, triangles and stars. These nanostructures might be used as scaffolds or as miniature circuit boards for precisely assembling components like carbon nanotubes and nanowires. They might also be used to study how groups of proteins interact by placing the proteins in patterns on top of the DNA origami. [N][G][J]
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/40171

Growing carbon nanotubes without metal   Carbon nanotubes are grown using nanoparticle seeds of metal to initiate the growth. Unfortunately, this creates a major problem because the metals used react harmfully with materials found in circuits and composites. Now researchers at MIT and Cambridge University have shown that nanocrystals of ceramic zirconium oxide can be used instead to catalyse the growth of carbon nanotubes, avoiding the need to use metals. It is likely that other similar oxide-based catalysts will be found in the coming years. [N][J][W]
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/nanotubes-0810.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_nanotube

Carbon nanotube electron emitters   In a typical x-ray tube, an electron emitter, normally a hot tungsten filament, emits electrons that are then accelerated along the tube to strike a metal target, creating x-rays. Researchers have developed a new type of electron emitter that uses an array of vertical carbon nanotubes that serve as hundreds of tiny electron guns. While tungsten requires time to warm up, the nanotubes emit electrons from their tips instantly when a voltage is applied to them. Turning multiple nanotube emitters on and off in sequence enables an x-ray machine to take pictures from different angles for computer tomography without moving. And because the emitters turn on and off instantaneously, images are taken faster, reducing any motion blur and allowing more images a second. It should be possible to take 3D images at the same time as delivering radiation therapy, enabling tumours to be targeted much more precisely. Nanotube emitters could also lead to light emitting flat panel displays with superior appearance and lower power consumption than plasma and LCD displays. [N][H][O][R][V]
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/40042

Nano-optoelectronics   Semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes can emit and absorb light and sustain large electrical currents. This makes them attractive for nano-optoelectronics. Researchers at IBM have shown they can simply and efficiently switch the nanotube light absorption and emission on and off by applying a weak electric field. [N][J][O]
http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/40088

Planck's law breaks down at the nanoscale   The blackbody radiation law, formulated in 1900 by Max Planck, describes the spectrum of energy that is radiated from an idealized non-reflective black object, called a blackbody. The law says that the emission spectrum follows a precise pattern that varies according to the temperature of the object. The emission from a blackbody is usually considered as the maximum that an object can radiate. Planck suggested however that the law would break down when objects are very close together. Researchers at MIT have now observed this experimentally. They found that for spacings of a few nanometres the heat transfer can be 1,000 times greater than the law predicts. The results have applicability to magnetic recording where the spacing between recording head and the disk surface is typically in the 5 to 6 nm range. [N][J][O][P]
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/heat-0729.html http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/40044

Rippled graphene   Suspended graphene is invariably rippled. Scientists at UC Riverside have reported how to use simple thermal manipulation to produce ripples and to control their orientation, wavelength and amplitude. This could lead to the novel strain-based graphene electronics. They speculate that ripples might, for instance, be used to produce effective magnetic fields that could steer and manipulate electrons in a nanoscale device without requiring any external magnet. [J][M][N][S]
http://www.physorg.com/news167835039.html

Multilayer epitaxial graphene   Researchers in the US and France have found what they claim is a new form of carbon. The new material is made from layers of graphene stacked on top of one another in such a way that each layer is electronically independent. The researchers claim that the material, dubbed multilayer epitaxial graphene (MEG), could be used in carbon electronics instead of costly single and double layer graphene sheets. It should be possible to manufacture MEG relatively cheaply on a large scale. The researchers are now attempting to make high speed transistors from MEG. [J][M][N]
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/40048

Photogenic graphene   Researchers in the US have found that firing a camera flash at graphite oxide is enough to make graphene. The process could be used to make complex patterns of graphene that could be integrated into fast and flexible carbon-based electronic circuits. [J][M][N][O]
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/40134 http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-08/nu-cft081209.php

Chemically manipulating graphene   Graphane has the same honeycomb structure as graphene, except that it is has hydrogen atoms bound to each carbon atom. This locks up the electrons that make graphene so conducting, making graphane an insulator. But graphane retains the thinness, super-strength, flexibility and density of graphene. The combination of graphene and graphane is attractive for making integrated circuits, and it may be possible to chemically modify graphene in other ways. [J][M][N]
http://www.physorg.com/news168251755.html

Artificial graphene   Graphene’s many exotic features occur because its electrons can be described as though they are massless particles similar to photons. This happens because the carbon atoms in graphene are arranged in a perfectly two-dimensional honeycomb lattice. Scientists in Italy and the US have now produced an artificial version of this on the surface of gallium arsenide. They created a two-dimensional electron gas confined in an AlGaAs/GaAs quantum well. On top of this, they grew a honeycomb network of nanosized “pillars” to modulate the electric potential in the two-dimensional electron gas. This is analogous to carbon ions in the graphene lattice. Calculations and preliminary evidence suggest this causes the electrons to behave like massless particles, as in graphene. [J][N]
http://www.physorg.com/news167052354.html http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevB.79.241406

Graphene interconnects   As chip geometries are made even smaller, copper interconnects are increasingly likely to fail because of breaks caused by electromigration. The solution may be to use graphene interconnects instead. Measurements of thermal conductivity and breakdown current density in narrow graphene nanoribbons show that in widths as narrow as 16nm, graphene has a current carrying capacity approximately a thousand times greater than copper, whilst also providing better thermal conductivity. This makes graphene very robust in resisting electromigration. [J][N]
http://www.physorg.com/news168103210.html

Spintronics without magnetism   Metallic spintronics is now critical to the magnetic storage industry and ferromagnetic metal devices are still the mainstream of spintronic research. However, parallel effort in semiconductor spintronics is growing vigorously with the aim of understanding and controlling the transport of spin-polarized currents and applying this in information technologies. Semiconductor spintronics offers the promise of integrating the storage capacity of magnetic memory and the computing power of semiconductor logic, and also of exploiting the relatively long-lived quantum coherence of spin states in semiconductors. It could lead to truly revolutionary devices that exploit both the amplitude and phase of wave functions. Recently an approach to spintronics has emerged that does not require magnetism, so that all operations can be controlled electrically, as in an integrated circuit. The non-magnetic approach exploits spin-orbit interaction to generate and manipulate carrier spin polarization in semiconductors, exploiting phenomena such as the spin Hall effect, current-induced spin polarization, and the spin helix. [J][T]
http://physics.aps.org/articles/v2/50

Macroscopic quantum systems   Top explore the quantum-classical boundary, researchers round the world are seeking to perform quantum experiments on macroscopic objects, particularly mechanical oscillators. These can vary in size from a few hundred nanometres up to several centimetres. One approach is to transfer the properties of an elementary quantum system, such as a single electron, atom or photon, onto the mechanical resonator. To achieve this, the resonator has to be cooled down to temperatures close to absolute zero, and the interaction between the mechanical resonator and the quantum system must also be strong enough to transfer quantum states before they decay. Austrian physicists have now demonstrated they can achieve the latter. They used a mechanical bridge 50 microns wide and 150 microns long, visible to the naked eye. A small mirror attached to the bridge formed part of a resonant optical cavity. The coupling, due to radiation pressure, depended on the strength of the laser beam. When it was strong enough, the system generated hybrid opto-mechanical oscillations, neither purely optical nor purely mechanical. [F][C][I][J][N][O]
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/40149 http://www.physorg.com/news168771383.html

Electrons can divide into two new particles   The electron is a fundamental particle and is indivisible in isolation. Despite this, the physicist Duncan Haldane conjectured theoretically in 1981 that if electrons were confined very tightly at extremely low temperatures, the mutual repulsion of their electric charges would cause them to modify their behaviour so that their magnetism and their charge would separate into two new types of particle called spinons and holons. Researchers at Cambridge and Birmingham Universities have now observed this experimentally for electrons travelling in a quantum wire at a temperature of 0.1 degrees K. Quantum wires are widely used to connect up quantum "dots", which may in the future form the basis of quantum computing. So the discovery may have practical as well a fundamental importance. [F][C][J][N]
http://www.physorg.com/news168182729.html

Observing quantum effects for massive objects   The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is so sensitive that it can measure displacements smaller than one-thousandth the size of a proton for mirrors that are 4 km apart. This means that as well as its primary mission of detecting gravitational waves, LIGO might also be used to observe quantum mechanical behaviour, such as quantum entanglement, at mass scales previously thought impractical. Recent experiments with LIGO suggest this should be possible. [F][R]
http://www.physorg.com/news166941860.html

Possible discover of an intermediary-mass black hole   Black holes come in two sizes: super-massive black holes that are several million to several billion times the mass of the Sun and are located in the centres of galaxies, and stellar-mass black holes of between 3 and 20 solar masses. The latter are created by the gravitational collapse of massive stars at the end of their lives. But it is still not clear how a super-massive black hole is formed. One theory is that it may be from merging of black holes with many hundreds or thousands of times the mass of the Sun. Astronomers have been looking for such intermediary-mass black holes for a long time without success. Now, however, they believe they have discovered one. It appears as a very intense x-ray source in a galaxy about 290 million light years from Earth. It is more than 500 times the mass of the Sun and is not at the centre of its galaxy. [F][A]
http://www.physorg.com/news165675129.html

What does not finding gravitational waves reveal   The Big Bang is believed to have created a flood of gravitational waves that still fill the universe. These waves should now form a "stochastic background," analogous to a superposition of many waves of different sizes and directions on the surface of a pond. So far, gravitational wave detectors have not yet detected this background and this sets upper limits on the amount of gravitational waves that were generated. Measurements of the cosmic microwave background have placed the most stringent upper limits on the background at very large distance scales and low frequencies. Now new measurements by LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) have set limits for the background at higher frequencies, which relate to the first minute after the Big Bang. The non-observation rules out some early-universe models that predict a relatively large stochastic background. It also constrains models of cosmic strings that are thought to have been left over from the beginning of the universe and subsequently stretched to huge lengths by the universe's expansion, emitting gravitational waves as they decay. [F][A][R]
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/ligo-0820.html

Strategy for renewable energy and related technologies   The UK government has published a strategy for renewable energy together with a suite of impact assessments and supporting analytical consultancy reports. These discuss the key technologies needed to achieve the UK low-carbon goals for 2020 and how these technologies are to be developed successfully. [T][C][E][I][M][N][O][P][W]
http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/what_we_do/uk_supply/energy_mix/renewable/res/res.aspx