tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20985564025624156932024-03-05T13:35:04.519-08:00New scientistefrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.comBlogger689125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-57098689271265586822012-02-19T14:53:00.000-08:002012-02-19T14:53:39.124-08:00Single atom transistor gets precise position on chip<br />
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<img alt="" src="http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/jj520/rojik1/sing.jpg" /></div>
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The basic unit of matter could become the basic unit of computing. A
lone atom of phosphorus embedded in a sheet of silicon has been made to
act as a transistor.</div>
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</div>
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It is not the first single-atom transistor, but it can be much more
precisely positioned than its predecessors, potentially making it a lot
more useful.</div>
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</div>
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“It’s an absolutely fantastic piece of engineering,” says physicist
Bruce Kane at the University of Maryland, who was not involved in the
work.</div>
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</div>
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Elaborate production methods would initially prevent single-atom
phosphorus transistors from being a worthwhile addition to traditional
computers, but they may be necessary one day. The devices could also
find an application in futuristic, super-speedy quantum computers.</div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A transistor is essentially a lump of conducting material sitting
between two electrodes that acts as a switch. A pulse of voltage is
supplied by a further electrode,”opening” the switch and allowing
current to flow through the transistor.</div>
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</div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
Wiggling atom</h3>
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</div>
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Combining transistors on a chip produces logic circuits that can
carry out computations. A goal shared by computer chip makers is to
keep shrinking the transistor: squeeze ever more onto a single chip and
you increase its computational power.</div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To dictate the exact position of their single atom, Michelle Simmons
at the University of New South Wales, Australia, and colleagues started
by covering a silicon sheet with a layer of hydrogen. Then they used
the tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope to remove hydrogen atoms
according to a precise pattern. They exposed two perpendicular pairs of
exposed silicon strips plus a tiny rectangle made of just six silicon
atoms that sat at the junction between these strips (see diagram,
right).</div>
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</div>
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Adding phosphine gas (PH<sub>3</sub>) and heating caused phosphorus
atoms, which are conducting, to bind to these exposed areas of silicon.
In the case of the rectangle only one atom inserted itself into the
silicon network.</div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The result was four phosphorus electrodes and a single phosphorus atom.</div>
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</div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
Boutique operation</h3>
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</div>
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One pair of electrodes was separated by a 108-nanometre gap.
Creating a voltage between them allowed current to flow between the two
perpendicular electrodes – separated from each other by just 20
nanometres, through the single phosphorus atom, which acted as a
transistor.</div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Kane points out that the atomic transistor works at temperatures
below 1 kelvin and that fabrication is difficult. “It’s a very slow,
boutique operation to make one of these,” he says.</div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Simmons agrees, but counters that the traditional computer makers
may be forced to adopt this technology if they want to make ever
smaller chips. “This is one of the only techniques that allows you to
make single atom devices,” she says.</div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Physicist Jeremy Levy of the University of Pittsburgh in
Pennsylvania reckons the future of single atom transistors lies in
quantum computers. The spin of the electrons in isolated phosphorus
atoms could serve as qubits, the quantum equivalent of the bits in
today’s computers. Controlling the interaction between qubits requires
knowing the exact location of each one. Now that the location of
individual atoms can be controlled, the next challenge is to link two
of these transistors, Levy says.</div>
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</div>
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<br /></div>
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</div>
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Journal reference: <em>Nature Nanotechnology</em>, DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2012.21</div>
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<a href="http://newscient.crispytime.com/" target="_blank">http://newscient.crispytime.com/ </a></div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-56302516089321871252012-02-19T14:50:00.001-08:002012-02-19T14:51:29.257-08:00How fresco-wrecking salty towers build themselvesCORAL-like formations of salt sometimes sprout up on walls, damaging frescoes and other artwork, and now researchers know why.<br />
Experiments and simulations by Marc Prat at the University of
Toulouse in France and colleagues show how salty water evaporating from
the pores in these materials leaves behind patches of salt crystals
that grow into towers rather than a uniform film.<br />
The towers are themselves porous and suck in more salty water. As
they grow, water evaporating from their sides inhibits evaporation from
surrounding areas, preventing crystal growth around the towers (<i>Physical Review Letters</i>, DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.108.054502).<br />
The work suggests that maintaining the right distribution of
humidity over delicate frescoes may prevent such structures from
forming.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://newscient.crispytime.com/" target="_blank">http://newscient.crispytime.com/ </a>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-54320526300287830012012-02-15T20:16:00.000-08:002012-08-09T23:53:02.993-07:00Uncharted waters: Probing aquifers to head off war<div style="text-align: center;">
<i> </i><img alt="The water's edge <i>(Image: George Steinmetz/Corbis)</i>" src="http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/mg21328512.200/mg21328512.200-1_300.jpg" title="The water's edge <i>(Image: George Steinmetz/Corbis)</i>" />
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The water's edge <i>(Image: George Steinmetz/Corbis)</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>Nearly all our fresh water comes from obscure underground
deposits – now satellites and radioactive isotopes are telling us how
much we have to go round</i></div>
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</div>
<br />
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</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
DEEP
beneath the eastern Sahara, the Nubian Sandstone aquifer was in
trouble. By the early 2000s, the aquifer - one of the largest and
oldest groundwater deposits in the world, which supplies Libya, Egypt,
Chad and Sudan - was emptying fast. Egypt was tapping the aquifer to
feed its growing desert cities far from the Nile. Libya, whose only
other water source is the salty Mediterranean, was drawing water off by
way of an underground network of pipes and aqueducts known as the Great
Man-Made River, which Libyans describe as the eighth wonder of the
world.</div>
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</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Soon
the Sahara's oases began to dry up, causing water shortages for nomadic
groups and wildlife. But no one could agree on who was to blame. The
ancient aquifer system was just too complicated: it was impossible to
pinpoint who was taking too much water, or even estimate when it would
run out.</div>
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</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Because
none of the countries trusted the others to provide an unbiased
analysis, they couldn't agree on what steps, if any, to take to protect
the aquifer. Mistrust and a lack of cooperation threatened to spiral
into something worse.</div>
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</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
This
conflict exposed an ordinary truth that had somehow been forgotten:
most of the world's drinking water is hidden underground, and we don't
have a clue what's happening to it. But as global populations grow and
climate change kicks in, one thing is certain: we can no longer count
on the water to be where we expect to find it. Our groundwater is
dissipating into the ocean, being consumed at record rates and being
irreversibly contaminated; even as claims to what remains become
increasingly contentious. It won't be long before shortages cause
widespread droughts and the first water war begins.</div>
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</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
How
can we stop this? The first step is knowing where the water is.
Conventional maps are no longer enough when you're dealing with an
invisible, moving target. But there is hope. Impressive new physics and
engineering tools are beginning to yield the first clear pictures of
the world's hidden water. These have already revealed some unexpected
good news, but their real promise is in the possibility of a world map
of a resource more precious than oil.</div>
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</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>See graphic:</b> "Mapping the world's unseen water"</div>
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</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Although it comprises 97 per cent
of the world's accessible fresh water - the UN Environment Programme's
latest estimate - we have never really bothered to get a clear picture
of the water beneath our feet. Most hydrologists prefer to study the
water on the Earth's surface. "Certainly groundwater has suffered from
an 'out of sight, out of mind' problem," says Peter Gleick, a hydroclimatologist who runs the Pacific Institute, an independent think-tank based in Oakland, California.</div>
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</div>
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Most
people would be surprised to hear that. After all, it's been easy
enough to exploit the water hidden in aquifers. These underground
stores are vast; the 40,000 cubic kilometres of water in the Guarani
aquifer in South America, for example<a href="http://fourseasonnews.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">,</a> far exceeds what's in all five
of North America's Great Lakes. But this water isn't held in a vast
underground lake. Instead, it moves, often slowly, through complex
layers of permeable rock, sand and other geology. And unlike a lake,
how useful it is depends not only on how much water it contains, but on
how quickly it is refilled by rainwater or snowmelt.</div>
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</div>
<h3 class="crosshead" style="text-align: justify;">
Parched landscapes</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Plenty
of maps show where the world's aquifers are located, but they make no
mention of how much water they contain, how fast the water levels are
changing, or even whether the water is safe to drink. As the world's
population increases, so too does demand<a href="http://www.fourseasonnews.com/" target="_blank">,</a> but that isn't the only cause
for concern. Climate change is gradually redistributing the world's water.
As the Earth warms, precipitation is shifting from the mid-latitudes to
the low and high latitudes. Wet areas are becoming wetter and dry areas
drier, which may account for the record-breaking droughts in east
Africa and Texas last year. Less rainfall in these mid-latitudes means
less new water to refill the aquifers that are being depleted the
fastest, and that means more aquifers will become like the Nubian - a
precarious source in a parched landscape.</div>
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</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
To
figure out how much water we can sustainably take from such a fragile
system, we need to know two things: how old the water is, and how
quickly it is being replenished.</div>
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</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Until
recently, the only way to get that kind of data was with costly and
time-consuming borehole studies. These involve digging lots of narrow
wells in order to monitor the speed and direction of the water flow,
and then using that data to construct a model of the aquifer.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
In
the case of the Nubian aquifer, however, such a study was out of the
question. For one thing, it would have been too expensive, and many of
the drilling sites would be in remote desert. More than anything,
however, such intensive studies require a political appetite to set
them in motion, and since previous borehole studies had met with
scepticism, a dense network of boreholes across four countries would be
hard to justify.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The
solution came from an unexpected corner: the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA). Alongside its work with nuclear energy and
weapons, the organisation also uses isotopes for water analysis.
Pradeep Aggarwal, who runs the IAEA's isotope hydrology division,
had been using isotopes to test surface water for decades, and he saw
an opportunity to help the Nubian aquifer. In 2006, Aggarwal and Zheng-Tian Lu, a physicist at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, launched a major project with The UN Development Programme
and other agencies to create a comprehensive map of the aquifer. Not
only is isotope testing much cheaper, because it only requires taking a
few water samples from existing wells, but this handful of samples can
reveal the state of the whole aquifer. "Measuring isotopes in one
location can tell you what is happening tens, and even hundreds of
kilometres away," says Aggarwal.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
First,
they needed to work out how old the aquifer was, and for that, the team
turned to carbon-14. Just like ancient artefacts, water can be dated
using this radioactive isotope. Above ground, water absorbs some of the
gases in the atmosphere, including carbon dioxide, causing it to take
on the atmosphere's signature cocktail of isotopes. When the water
later disappears into an aquifer, it takes this unique signature with
it. As time passes, the carbon-14 undergoes radioactive decay. The
amount that remains in a sample of water can reveal the water's age.</div>
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</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
It turned out that there was practically no carbon-14 left in their samples. That meant the water was extremely old.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The
finding squared with previous carbon-14 studies, which had suggested
the Nubian aquifer was 40,000 years old. But Aggarwal realised this
figure was close to the isotope's 50,000-year dating limit, raising
doubts about its accuracy. So he turned to krypton-81, a rare isotope
that researchers have only recently learned how to trap and count,
which can accurately determine the age of water back to 2 million
years. Lu discovered that indeed, the carbon-14 studies had been way
off: a good portion of the water in the Nubian aquifer is closer to a
million years old (<i>Geophysical Research Letters</i>, vol 31, p L05503).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
But
simply knowing the water's age wasn't enough. To get a complete picture
of the aquifer, Aggarwal needed to understand whether any part of it
was being refilled with new water.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The
team did this by looking at two isotopes of the atoms that make up the
water molecule - deuterium and oxygen-18. Every drop of water has a
telltale ratio of these two isotopes, which offers clues to the climate
at the water's source. Both of these heavy isotopes decreases in cooler
climates. Therefore, a sample with a lower concentration of oxygen-18
and deuterium would suggest that the last time new water was being
deposited, the climate around the Nubian aquifer was cooler.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Sure
enough, the deuterium and oxygen-18 in the samples confirmed that no
new water had been deposited there during modern times. The aquifer
contained only "fossil water" that had been trapped underground long
ago. In other words, this aquifer was not being refilled and would one
day run dry.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
This
was bad news. However, thanks to the isotope studies, Aggarwal was also
able to calculate how much total water remained in the aquifer. It may
be old, but it turned out that enough fossil water remains in the
aquifer to last at least several centuries. Not only that, but the
water flows so slowly that one country's pumping doesn't immediately
affect another. "So Chad doesn't have to worry about Libya stealing its
water," says Aggarwal.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
In
the wake of the IAEA's conclusions, the countries that rely on the
Nubian aquifer finally agreed that they need to work together to
protect it, which broke decade-long tensions. "We were able to build a
model that all four countries accepted as a reliable simulation,"
Aggarwal says. The IAEA has nearly completed a world atlas that extends
the work they did on the Nubian Sandstone aquifer, and Aggarwal
ultimately hopes to map the world's groundwater according to age and
recharge rate <figref refid="mg28512201.jpg">(see map)</figref>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
But
none of that will help the local oases, which are still drying up -
along with a lake in Libya. That's because political tensions are not
the only problem in the global water picture.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Even
when an aquifer supplies only a single country, it's not always clear
who is using the water or for what purpose. "We've been overpumping
groundwater and we've known about it for decades," says Gleick. "But
policies still can't get a handle on it." A complete account of
groundwater use would require nations and industries to measure their
indirect as well as real water use, which few do.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Now Jay Famiglietti
and his team at the University of California at Irvine have found a way
around this: tracking real-time changes to the world's groundwater from
space. To do this they rely on data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment
(GRACE), which measures variations in Earth's gravitational field.
GRACE uses two satellites orbiting about 220 kilometres apart. When the
first satellite flies over a spot where gravity becomes stronger - a
mountain, say, or massive aquifer - it is temporarily drawn closer to
the Earth and away from the trailing satellite. By measuring the
changes in the distance between the two satellites, they can create a
detailed map of the Earth's gravitational field.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Famiglietti's
group has taken this idea one step further. They have been able to
correlate the satellites' gravity data with significant changes to
underground aquifers caused by wet and dry seasons, long-term droughts
and water extraction for mining and agriculture.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<h3 class="crosshead" style="text-align: justify;">
A radical new map</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The
team raised eyebrows in 2011 when they published a controversial study
showing that a major aquifer beneath California's Central Valley was
being depleted much faster than anticipated, due to water-thirsty
lettuce farms (<i>Geophysical Research Letters</i>, vol 38, p L03403). Last year, Famiglietti told <i>New Scientist</i> that if the unregulated nature of the farming continued, the aquifer would be depleted by 2100.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Like
Aggarwal, Famiglietti is now putting together a global map based on the
information he gathered from GRACE. His findings are sobering. We are
depleting every one of the world's major mid-latitude aquifers. As in
California, the main culprit is agriculture, which uses massive amounts
of water.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Agriculture
is not the only industry taking a toll. In Australia, Famiglietti and
his team says their map may indicate serious depletion of the
groundwater in areas where mining takes place. "Yes, we know that
mining is intensive. But has anyone ever shown them a map like this?
No," he says. Changes in rainfall are also playing a role, though his
team has yet to worked out precisely how much. But the water is moving,
that much is certain. "When you see this big-ass red spot that covers a
fifth or a sixth of the continent, it raises your eyebrows," he says.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
GRACE
can only track changes in aquifers with areas greater than 150,000
square kilometres. But even so, multiplying GRACE's water output data
with the isotope studies' age calculations gives us a rough estimate of
the total amount of water in a given aquifer. Do this for all aquifers,
Famiglietti says, and we can get the first good picture of how much
fresh water is stored underground and where it's going. What's more,
this information could allow us to predict water shortages, possibly
with enough warning for countries to mitigate their effects or even
stave them off altogether.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Such
projects are still in their infancy. One is being carried out by
Famiglietti's former graduate student, Matt Rodell, who analyses US
water data at NASA. In December, Rodell's group showed that the
record-breaking drought in Texas - the driest 12-month period on record
since the 1890s - reduced groundwater levels in much of the state to
their lowest in 60 years. Their prediction that recharging the aquifer
would take months was enough to motivate the state to develop more
effective water conservation methods.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
In
some cases, for example, it's possible to counter droughts by
artificially recharging an aquifer with purified wastewater to keep it
filled. California has done this for decades, and Egypt is
experimenting with doing the same in a shallow, young part of the
Nubian aquifer by feeding it with water from the Nile.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Develop
a thorough enough understanding of the world's water, and we might even
be in for a few pleasant surprises. Though finding large amounts of new
fresh water is not on the cards, it is possible that such a map could
unearth small supplies. On the parched Santa Elena peninsula in
Ecuador, for example, residents had only three wells that gave water
sporadically. But after an IAEA isotope investigation in 2009,
residents dug four sustainable wells that now give water 24 hours a
day. And in Bangladesh, where arsenic in the water was poisoning
millions of people, isotope studies identified previously unknown
aquifers whose waters were safe.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Maps
alone won't refill the oases in the desert, but they are key to making
sure everyone has enough. Ultimately, preventing water conflicts will
be less about absolute amounts of water than about the fair
distribution of what's there. The first step is knowing where it's
going and who's taking it. Even amid all the bad news, there are bright
spots: As more countries - from Canada to India to Australia - wake up
to the problem and begin to track their hidden water, the tools to help
them do so keep getting better.</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><b>Chelsea Wald</b> is a freelance writer based in Vienna, Austria</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>http://www.newscientist.com/ </i></div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-34107538640432718252012-02-15T20:11:00.000-08:002012-08-09T23:54:59.325-07:00The internet shows the messy truth about knowledge<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div id="artImg">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="Our old idea of knowledge shaped itself around the strengths and limitations of its old medium, paper <i>(Image: Fahid Chowdhury/Flickr/Getty Images)</i>" src="http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/mg21328510.500/mg21328510.500-2_300.jpg" title="Our old idea of knowledge shaped itself around the strengths and limitations of its old medium, paper <i>(Image: Fahid Chowdhury/Flickr/Getty Images)</i>" /> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Our old idea of knowledge shaped itself around the strengths and limitations of its old medium, paper <i>(Image: Fahid Chowdhury/Flickr/Getty Images)</i></div>
<div class="lowlight">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Books and formal papers make knowledge look finite, knowable. By
embracing the unfinished, unfinishable forms of the web we are truer to
the spirit of enquiry – and to the world we live in</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
IN
RECENT years, controversies over issues ranging from the possibility of
faster-than-light neutrinos to the wisdom of routine screening for
prostate cancer have increasingly raged outside the boundaries of
peer-reviewed journals, and involved experts, know-nothings and
everyone in between. The resulting messiness is not the opposite of
knowledge. In the internet age it is what knowledge looks like, and it
is something to regret for a moment, but then embrace and celebrate.
Knowledge is fast reshaping itself around its new, networked medium -
thereby becoming closer to what it truly was all along.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Our
old idea of knowledge shaped itself around the strengths and
limitations of its old medium, paper. We all understand those
strengths: paper is cheap, displays text and graphics, lasts a lot
longer than hard drives, and no technology is needed to make it work.
But there's a price: paper doesn't scale or link, which has made
knowledge and science both what they are and less than they could be.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Paper
fails to scale in two directions. First, there are limits on what can
be published: if it is not considered important enough, even good
science is rejected. That is a reasonable response to the cost of
journal printing and shelf space but it is far from the ideal of
science, where all data and all hypotheses are welcome. With such
limitations, regimes emerge to dole out the scarce resource. Second,
printed articles rarely contain all the data on which their conclusions
are based, and literature reviews are kept to a reasonable length -
reasonable being dictated by the economics of atoms.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The
other limitation has an arguably greater effect: printed matter does
not link. Each book is its own thing. The references to other books
don't work, no matter how hard you click them. That means the author
has to cram everything the reader needs into one volume, summarising
references to other books in a single paragraph, and pulling sentences
out of their rich context.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Printed
books are also disconnected from the discussions that appropriate them
into the culture - and that correct them. Authors must anticipate
objections because once published, books cannot be altered. In the Age
of Paper<a href="http://fourseasonnews.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">,</a> knowledge looks like that which is settled, or settled enough
to be committed to paper.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
These
limitations led to the typical rhythm of scientific discourse. Do your
research. When you're as sure of it as you're going to be, make it
public. Only then is it officially yours. If someone publishes before
you, you lose. And once it is public, it becomes hard - and often
embarrassing - to change even a word.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Science's
new medium overcomes both limitations. We have scarcely plumbed its
capacity, and it is so hyperlinked that if digital content is not
linked, it is essentially unpublished. This fundamentally changes the
understanding of the nature of knowledge and science prevailing in the
west for the past 2500 years: to know X was to know its essence, its
place in the rational order. That order consisted of a set of
coordinated definitions based on essential differences and
similarities. That's one reason Charles Darwin spent seven years
discovering whether barnacles were molluscs, as Linnaeus said, or
crustaceans. The result was a two-volume work to establish a single
fact: they are crustaceans.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
These
days we don't care nearly as much, in part because we recognise that
how we classify things depends on our interests. Studying the evolution
of marine creatures? Classify them based on their genetic history.
Studying how to keep hulls smooth? Then lump barnacles with rust. The
internet has decisively moved us from belief in a knowledge of
universal essences because it has made plain two facts: we don<a href="http://fourseasonnews.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">'</a>t agree,
and we can't let that stop us.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
For
example, at the online Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), you can look up an
organism by any name you want, and obtain information about it within
any of the taxonomies it supports. So two scientists who disagree can
collaborate because they know they are both talking about the creature
on the same page of the EOL. This is an example of "namespaces<a href="http://www.fourseasonnews.com/" target="_blank">"</a>;
domains that bestow a set of unique identifiers on their objects. These
names can be mapped so we can work together without having to agree.
The result is a sloppy mess with names and categorisations overlapping
unevenly. But the different schemes add information and meaning: so
long as we can map them, we are better off not waiting for resolution.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
We
see the same approach with another promising development: the rise of
"big data". Organisations are releasing gigantic clouds of data for
public access. Since these are too voluminous for cranial processing,
the data is increasingly released in the linked data format recommended
by Tim Berners-Lee. In this format, data consists of "triples":
subject, object and a relationship connecting them.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
This
might look like a further atomisation of facts and information, but it
is the opposite since each element of a triple should ideally consist
of a link pointing to some spot on the web. For example, in the triple
<a href="http://www.fourseasonnews.com/" target="_blank">"</a>barnacles have shells", the word "barnacle" might link to an EOL
entry, "have" to a site that explains how creatures can have
components, while "shell" might point to the relevant Wikipedia entry.
This technique helps computers see that the triple "Cirripedia are
crustaceans" refers to the same thing as triples calling them
"barnacles". Linked data are facts literally consisting of links. The
resulting tangle of pointers is quite unlike our old view of facts as
well-defined building blocks.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
And these clouds of data are being released without being thoroughly vetted. For example, the US government website, Data.gov,
says that the data it has gathered from federal agencies is raw. We
might prefer tidy, vetted data, but that doesn't scale; we do better to
have lots of data, even if it's not perfectly structured or completely
reliable. Messiness is the price of scaling.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Further,
rather than working in private and publishing to a select group, we are
finding tremendous value in posting early on non-peer-reviewed sites,
and letting everyone chime in. We saw this when the scientists who
discovered what might be faster-than-light neutrinos posted their work
at arxiv.org,
the pre-print site. The discussion sprawled across the internet, with
amateurs and professionals weighing in, with kind-hearted experts
explaining it to lay people, with insightful and pointless ideas
stirred together - and all without prior peer review and outside the
standard journals.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The
result was that if you wanted to see where the knowledge about
neutrinos "lived", you wouldn't go to the library or online versions of
the standard journals. The knowledge lived in the loose web of
discussion and debate. All this happened faster, wider and deeper than
if science had stayed in its paper comfort zone. Even after the
question is settled, the knowledge will live not in the final article
but in that web of discussion, debate, elucidation and disagreement.
It's messy, but messiness is how you scale knowledge.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Knowledge
has inherited many other of the web's properties. It is now linked
across all boundaries, it is unsettled, it never comes fully to rest or
agreement, and we can see that it is bigger than any of us could ever
traverse. But doesn't that make internet-based knowledge and science
more like the very human world into which we have been thrown?</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><b>David Weinberger</b>
is a senior researcher at Harvard University's Berkman Center for the
Internet and Society. This essay is based on his new book, <i>Too Big to Know</i> (Basic Books)</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>http://www.newscientist.com/ </i></div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-71515280630396274412012-02-15T20:07:00.000-08:002012-02-15T20:07:36.689-08:00Latest US drug shortage hits children with leukaemia<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Stocks of a vital cancer drug are running low in the US, which could affect children with leukaemia within weeks.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The US Food and Drug Administration says a number of drug manufacturers are flagging up shortages in methotrexate – which slows the growth of white blood cells in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, a cancer that typically affects young children.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Manufacturing
delays and unexpectedly high levels of demand are blamed for the
shortfall, together with the voluntary closure of Ben Venue
Laboratories, one of the nation's largest suppliers of the drug.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Oncologists
are concerned supplies could run out in some areas within weeks.
Reports suggest that the FDA is seeking a foreign supplier to provide
emergency imports until domestic ones can meet demand.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Legislation designed to give an early warning of drug shortages was passed to a government committee last summer.</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
http://www.newscientist.com/ </div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-50955456242293004542012-02-15T20:04:00.002-08:002012-02-15T20:04:25.107-08:00The insect survival guide<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Rowan Hooper, news editor</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<img alt="9780520269125.jpg" class="mt-image-left" height="259" src="http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2012/02/15/9780520269125.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 20px 20px 0pt;" width="175" />INSECTS
make up 75 per cent of all known animal species. That's about 900,000
of them, with at least 3 million yet to be identified. It's a vast
subject area, but veteran entomologist Gilbert Waldbauer brings it to
life by exploring insect warfare - the strategies these creatures
employ to protect themselves from predators.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There are times when <i>How Not to Be Eaten</i>
feels like one long list of examples, but on the whole this is a rich
and detailed book that roams across time and space. Waldbauer cites the
work of Victorian naturalists alongside recent studies - examples
include the way tiger moths generate ultrasonic sounds to repel hunting
bats just as butterflies display don't-eat-me colours.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The
book describes insects from all over the world, interspersed with
anecdotes from Waldbauer's own field trips. Some of my favourites
include the spider in South America that catches moths by swinging a
bolus of sticky glue on the end of a silk thread - humans are the only
other species to use a similar weapon. Then there are the burrowing
owls in southern Florida that hunt beetles by scattering lumps of
cattle dung as bait. Or the Burnet moth, common in Europe, which
secretes deadly hydrogen cyanide stored in its exoskeleton.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Chemical warfare, camouflage, ambush. Sun Tzu could have learned a lot from insects when he wrote <i>The Art of War</i>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
http://www.newscientist.com/ </div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-42866737456166205872012-02-15T20:00:00.000-08:002012-02-15T20:00:56.963-08:00Eat rich or die trying: just desserts<div style="text-align: justify;">
<em>Helen Thomson, biomedical news editor</em><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<img alt="" src="http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/jj520/rojik1/CL.jpg" /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I can’t quite describe what’s in my
mouth. It’s sort of savoury, but with a hint of sour, a bit oat-like
too. It’s overwhelmingly delicious. Luckily for me, this is the first
of six puddings that not only use science to boost my sensations, but
are also designed to reveal to me my true love and even how many years
it will be until I marry.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I’m at Eat Rich or Die Trying, a quarterly dining club dedicated to
desserts, located at the Kemistry Gallery in Shoreditch, London. Given
it’s just around Valentine’s Day, they’ve pointed cupid’s arrow into
the kitchen to produce a sugary feast that promises to guide diners
from love at first sight to romance’s bitter end.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And that’s why words are failing me. My first course has been
created by Blanche and Shock, a design studio and catering company in
London who describe their dessert “as tingly and difficult to pin down
as the first inkling of love.” By incorporating an umami element into
the concoction – in this case using porcini crème fraiche – these
clever chefs designed a puzzling plate that is disconcertingly
delicious but difficult to work out why. Umami is the taste of
glutamates and nucleotides that is now widely accepted as the fifth
sensation alongside bitter, sweet, sour and salty. Together with a
spiced cox apple, tea bread and honey, the mixture creates a blend of
flavours that everyone around my table agrees cleverly mirrors the
experience of being attracted to someone, though none of us quite knows
why.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As your granny will tell you, any decent relationship must next
involve “courtship”. Andrew Stellitano from food design company
Astarism is fascinated by the evolution of the love story. Tonight, for
the second course, he incorporates a selection of ingredients prized
for their power to stimulate or attract love. Central to the plate is a
rice milk ice cream. Experiments in rats have shown that a chemical
found in rice called cadmium mimics the effect of oestrogen in women,
and females with high levels of oestrogen are perceived as more
healthy, feminine and attractive, so perhaps he’s onto something here.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Stellitano’s dessert is garnished with a tuile, which I am
encouraged to shatter and count the pieces – apparently to reveal how
many years I will wait until marriage. Delicately, I tap my tuile. It
cracks into four. I glance to my right, just in time to see my dining
partner Sarah smash her spoon into the dessert, her tuile splitting
into a thousand tiny pieces. Some fly off her plate and scatter across
the tablecloth, others land on the floor. Snorts of laughter erupt
around the table.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One after another, more love-themed desserts are placed in front of
us. A soot and salt drop scone by ‘The Curious Confectioner’ is a
highlight. With the prospect of six puddings on the menu, I’m pleased
to hear that its ingredients include activated charcoal, a highly
absorbent element thought to help aid digestion.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Is it weird that I’m slightly nervous?” asks Sarah as we move onto
the fourth desert, called ”The Marriage”, before tucking into the
fifth, which supposedly represents the bitter sufferings of love. While
spiced chocolate ganache does give a bitter twist to the meal,
chocolate has another connection with love and attraction. Early in a
relationship dopamine-rich brain regions associated with motivation and
reward become highly active, and supposedly the more intense the
relationship the greater the activity. The same regions are active when
a person enjoys chocolate, according to Helen Fisher, an anthropologist
from Rutgers University in New Jersey. It appears tonight’s molecular
sorcerers have at last hit upon a dessert that really might entice
feelings of love and attraction. It’s certainly very tasty.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Like all good fairy tales, my dessert reverie ends as the clock
strikes midnight. The final treat is cookie dough cooked three ways,
including sous-vide, in which the food is placed in a vacuum bag and
heated gently in water. The chef says the idea is that the dough is
cooked but retains much of the experience of eating dough from the
bowl. Unfortunately the overwhelming flavour of aniseed and the
resemblance of scrambled egg on my plate were just too much for my
stomach to handle this late into the night.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
For someone with a sweet tooth, love of science and food, and an
overactive imagination, the majority of this evening was a delight.
It’s just a shame this love story, like many in the past, left me
tired, emotionally drained and with a bitter taste in my mouth.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
http://www.newscientist.com/</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<!-- .entry-content --> <footer class="entry-meta"><span class="cat-links"></span><span class="edit-link"></span> </footer></div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-47206858436851642212012-02-14T15:23:00.000-08:002012-02-14T15:23:27.236-08:00Heart struck by CERN proton beams for Valentine's day<i>Jacob Aron, reporter</i><br />
<img alt="whoneedsthehiggs.jpg" class="mt-image-none" height="460" src="http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2012/02/14/whoneedsthehiggs.jpg" width="600" /><i> </i><br />
<i>(Image: Tom Whyntie/CMS/CERN )</i><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Love
may be all about chemistry, but that hasn't stopped particle physicists
from making their own special Valentines. This heart has been pierced
not by Cupid's arrow, but two proton beams smashing together within the
CMS detector at the Large Hadron Collider.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Imperial College London researcher Tom Whyntie took data from one of the earliest collisions at the LHC and added simulated data that followed the path of a heart-shaped equation. He gave the picture to his girlfriend as a Valentine's day card in 2010 - they are now happily married.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Whyntie isn't the only one to mix particles with passion - Suzie Sheehy, a researcher at the
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, UK wrote a Valentine's day poem inspired by a heart-shaped simulation of 629 protons torn apart by a particle accelerator.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
http://www.newscientist.com/ </div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-16510278382093865952012-02-14T15:22:00.000-08:002012-02-14T15:22:22.156-08:00Photo app gets rid of bystanders in your holiday snaps<i>Niall Firth, technology editor</i>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/flNomXIIWr4" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It's the same scene played out at tourist sites the world over:
You're trying to take a picture of a partner or friend in front of some
monument, statue or building and other tourists keep striding
unwittingly - or <i>so they say </i>- into the frame. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Now a new
smartphone app promises to let you edit out these unwelcome intruders,
leaving just leave your loved one and a beautiful view intact.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Remove, developed by Swedish photography firm Scalada,
takes a burst of shots of your scene. It then identifies the objects
which are moving - based on their relative position in each frame.
These objects are then highlighted and you can delete the ones you
don't want and keep the ones you do, leaving you with a nice, clean
composite shot.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Loud party of schoolchildren stepping in front of the Trevi Fountain? Select and delete. Unwanted, drunken stag party making the Charles Bridge in Prague look untidy? See you later.</div>
<span id="more"></span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Remove uses similar technology to the firm's Rewind app, launched last year, which merges composite group shots to create the best single image.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The app is just a prototype at the moment - as is the video above - but Scalado will demonstrate a full version at the 2012 Mobile World Conference in Barcelona later this month. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
http://www.newscientist.com/ </div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-31085908356040511482012-02-14T15:19:00.000-08:002012-02-14T15:19:59.272-08:00US to resume building nuclear plants<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div id="artImg">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="A modest new dawn for US nuclear energy <I>(Image: Southern Company)</I>" src="http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn21476/dn21476-1_300.jpg" title="A modest new dawn for US nuclear energy <I>(Image: Southern Company)</I>" /> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
A modest new dawn for US nuclear energy <i>(Image: Southern Company)</i></div>
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
For the first time since 1978, the United States has
approved the construction of nuclear reactors. While the decision could
herald a new dawn for nuclear power there, the major growth in the
sector is likely to be elsewhere.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The nuclear industry had been expecting a renaissance in the next few years, until a major setback occurred – last year's Fukushima Daiichi disaster in Japan. In the aftermath, Japan closed most of its reactors for safety tests, Germany announced it was abandoning nuclear and other countries elected to review their plans.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The situation may now be changing. On 9 February the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a licence for Southern Company, an energy utility based in Atlanta, Georgia, to build a pair of reactors at its Vogtle site. No new reactors have been built in the US since before the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The Georgia plant will probably soon be followed by a second pair of reactors which the South Carolina Electric and Gas Company wants to build at its VC Summer Nuclear Station in Jenkinsville, subject to licences being granted. The Florida Power & Light Company also hopes to build two new reactors.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<h3 class="crosshead" style="text-align: justify;">
Passive safety system</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The Fukushima plant overheated when last year's tsunami flooded the engines that powered its cooling pumps. By contrast the Georgia site, along with the other two US sites awaiting approval, will use new AP1000 reactors,
built by Westinghouse. These are fitted with passive safety systems
that need no power – for instance, a rooftop water tank that can keep
the reactor cool for 72 hours.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The
US decision suggests the nuclear renaissance may be back on track,
though at a slower pace than first expected, according to Tim Abram of the University of Manchester, UK.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
He says the real nuclear revival will be in emerging economies, not the US or Europe. "They will build numbers of plants that will dwarf anything we'll ever see in the UK."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
China
was the first country to commission AP1000 reactors, ordering two
pairs. India is also forging ahead, with six reactors under
construction to a different design from the AP1000, and more planned.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Abram
suspects Japan will also end up building new reactors, despite the
government's announcement last year that it would not. The country has
almost no energy resources of its own, and has been forced to increase its imports of oil and gas massively over the last few months while its nuclear reactors remain idle. "They are living hand-to-mouth," Abram says.</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
http://www.newscientist.com/ </div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-34898601560007742622012-02-14T15:18:00.000-08:002012-02-14T15:18:17.524-08:00Quantum dots control brain cells for the first time<div class="infuse" style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="Nerve cells like these could be controlled by quantum dots <i>(Image: CNRI/Science Photo Library)</i>" src="http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn21475/dn21475-1_300.jpg" title="Nerve cells like these could be controlled by quantum dots <i>(Image: CNRI/Science Photo Library)</i>" />
</div>
<div class="lowlight" style="text-align: center;">
Nerve cells like these could be controlled by quantum dots <i>(Image: CNRI/Science Photo Library)</i></div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
In an unlikely marriage of quantum physics and
neuroscience, tiny particles called quantum dots have been used to
control brain cells for the first time.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Having
such control over the brain could one day provide a non-invasive
treatment for conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, depression and
epilepsy. In the nearer term, quantum dots could be used to treat
blindness by reactivating damaged retinal cells.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
"Many brain disorders are caused by imbalanced neural activity," says Lih Lin
at the University of Washington, Seattle. "Manipulation of specific
neurons could permit the restoration of normal activity levels."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Methods
to stimulate the brain artificially already exist, though each has its
drawbacks. Deep brain stimulation is used in Parkinson's disease to
trigger brain cell activity and prevent the abnormal signalling that
causes debilitating tremors, but placing the electrodes required is
highly invasive. Transcranial magnetic stimulation can stimulate brain
cells from</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
outside
the head, but is not highly targeted and so affects large areas of the
brain at once. Researchers in optogenetics can control genetically
modified brain cells using light but because of these modifications,
the technique is not yet deemed safe to use in humans.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Lin's
team has now come up with an alternative using quantum dots –
light-sensitive, semiconducting particles just a few nanometres in
diameter.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
First,
they cultivated prostate cancer cells on a film covered with quantum
dots. The cell membranes of the cancer cells were positioned next to
the dots. The team then shone light onto the nanoparticles.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Energy from the light excites electrons within the quantum dot which causes the surrounding area to become negatively charged (see diagram).
This caused some of the cancer cells' ion channels, which are mediated
by a voltage, to open, allowing ions to rush in or out of the cells.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
In
nerve cells, opening ion channels is a crucial step in generating
action potentials – the signals by which the cells communicate in the
brain. If the voltage change is large enough, an action potential is
generated.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
When
Lin's team repeated their experiment with nerve cells, they found that
stimulating the quantum dots caused ion channels to open and the nerve
cell to fire.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
In
humans, quantum dots would need to be delivered to brain tissue. Lin
claims this shouldn't be a problem. "A significant advantage is that
their surface can be modified with various molecules," she says. These
molecules could be attached to the quantum dots in order to target specific brain cells and could be administered intravenously.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
A
key hurdle would be delivering the light source to the brain. For this
reason, Lin reckons the first use for the technique would be in
reactivating damaged cells in the retina, which naturally absorb light.
Co-author Fred Reike, who specialises in retinal disease, says that
quantum dots have great potential in this area because they directly
affect ion channels, which play a key part in the signalling pathways
of vision.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
"Quantum dots have a great future for biomedical applications," agrees Kevin Critchley at the University of Leeds, UK, but adds that there are limitations such as potential toxicity issues.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
"Based
on what we have observed, we are optimistic about the potential of this
technology in helping us [answer] biological questions, and eventually
diagnose and treat human diseases," Lin says.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Journal reference: <i>Biomedical Optics Express</i>, DOI: 10.1364/boe.3.000447</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
http://www.newscientist.com/ </div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-68147703646419085372012-02-14T15:16:00.000-08:002012-02-14T15:16:51.125-08:00Animation reveals the world's hidden equations<i>MacGregor Campbell, contributor</i>
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<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Although they don't actually exist in the physical world, our most
powerful tools could be mathematical equations. They underlie much of
modern technology, from radio to power generation, to photo compression
and electronic musical instruments.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In our latest animated explainer, we look at how the wave equation,
Maxwell's equations and the Fourier transform came to rule the modern
world. To find out more, read our full-length feature, Seven equations that rule your world. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
For more math-related viewing check out our archive of One-Minute-Math<br />videos, or watch our previous animations to find out, for example, if supersymmetry could explain everything or why there is no such thing as empty space</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
http://www.newscientist.com/. </div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-24747693169413656482012-02-14T15:15:00.000-08:002012-02-14T15:15:04.645-08:00A little bit of sin does you good<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Jamie Condliffe, contributor</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<img alt="41Z6n09DjGL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" class="mt-image-left" height="271" src="http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2012/02/14/41Z6n09DjGL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 20px 20px 0pt;" width="175" />FORGIVE me, reader, for I have sinned: I overslept, argued, and stuffed my face with food.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The
concept of sin is so ingrained in our culture that it is difficult for
most people, myself included, to go a day without indulging in one of
the seven deadliest. But in <i>The Joy of Sin</i>, Simon Laham aims to
convince us that, contrary to what folklore, Christianity or even
Hollywood may tell us, activities often branded sinful may in fact be
good for us.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
His evidence draws largely on experimental
psychology, and it is clear that Laham has an impressive understanding
of the material. In particular, he has a knack for describing complex
social science with great lucidity. His writing is witty, edgy, itself
almost sinfully provocative at times, promoting the occasional wince
and, more frequently, an approving chuckle.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The only
problem is that sometimes you feel his case studies have been
shoehorned in. While some chapters provide a convincing argument,
leaving you in little doubt that a small dose of anger or greed is good
for you, others read like a round-up of research loosely related to the
sin under discussion, and end up providing no firm conclusions. Laham
certainly encourages us to reject a simplistic approach to sin - but at
times, just a little too much is left to the reader.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ultimately,
this struggle to convince isn't a function of any sloth on Laham's
part; rather, it's the result of the need for the content to fit the
title.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fortunately, even if such ambition makes for a
slightly dissatisfying read at times, the enviably good writing and
thorough research make this book difficult to dislike.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
http://www.newscientist.com/ </div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-16533199254498578522012-02-14T07:13:00.000-08:002012-02-14T07:13:42.573-08:00Dark side of the love hormone<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,47,0" height="412" id="flashObj" width="486"><param name="movie" value="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1" />
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<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>The "cuddle chemical" oxytocin bonds mothers to their babies and
sniffing it makes adults nicer – but can also foster gloating and racism</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
FEW
chemicals have as glowing a reputation as oxytocin. Billed as the "love
hormone" or the "cuddle chemical", it has been linked to almost every
positive aspect of the human psyche. One whiff of it can make a person
more trusting, empathetic, generous and cooperative. Such is its
popular appeal that you can even buy it as a spray from dubious
internet dealers.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
It
is time to revise this rose-tinted view. A new wave of studies is
showing that oxytocin is neither the cause of our better angels nor a
panacea for the world's social ills. In fact, its effects vary greatly
depending on the person and the circumstances, and it can tweak our
social interactions for worse as well as for better. The "love
hormone", it turns out, has a dark side, one that is only just starting
to come to light. "It isn't the wonder drug that makes everyone happy
and social," says Markus Heinrichs at the University of Freiburg,
Germany, who pioneered work on oxytocin.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
We
first became aware of the hormone's social influence through animal
studies. It helps to cement the bonds between prairie voles, which mate
for life, and triggers the motherly behaviour that sheep show towards
their newborn lambs. It is also released in humans during childbirth,
strengthening the attachment between mother and baby.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Its
wider role in human behaviour only emerged in 2005 when, in a
groundbreaking experiment, Heinrichs and colleagues asked volunteers to
play a game in which they could invest money with an anonymous trustee,
who was not guaranteed to be honest. The team found that participants
who had sniffed oxytocin via a nasal spray beforehand invested more
money than those given a placebo (<i>Nature</i>, vol 435, p 673).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The
study kick-started research into the effects of oxytocin on human
behaviour. "For eight years, it was quite a lonesome field," Heinrichs
recalls. "Now, everyone is interested." Many of the follow-up studies
came from the same mould as the original experiment, involving groups
of volunteers being given either oxytocin or a placebo and then
carrying out a task to test their social skills. Such studies have
shown that after a sniff of the hormone, people donate more money to
charity, become better at reading emotions on other people's faces,
communicate more constructively during arguments, and perceive others
to be more trustworthy, attractive and approachable. Together, the
results fuelled the view that oxytocin universally enhances the
positive aspects of our social nature.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Then,
a couple of years ago, contrasting findings began to emerge. Simone
Shamay-Tsoory at the University of Haifa, Israel, showed that as well
as promoting trust and generosity, oxytocin can heighten feelings of
envy and schadenfreude (<i>Journal of Biological Psychiatry</i>, vol
66, p 864). When volunteers played a gambling game, those who inhaled
the hormone gloated more when they beat other players. They also felt
sharper stabs of jealousy when the tables were turned. Clearly,
oxytocin can produce antisocial as well as social behaviour.<br />
<br />
<div id="artImg">
<div class="lowlight">
<br /><i></i></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="A new wave of studies is showing that oxytocin is neither the cause of our better angels nor a panacea for the world's social ills <i>(Image: Phil Ball/Rex Features)</i>" src="http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/mg21328512.100/mg21328512.100-1_300.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="A new wave of studies is showing that oxytocin is neither the cause of our better angels nor a panacea for the world's social ills <i>(Image: Phil Ball/Rex Features)</i>" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A
new wave of studies is showing that oxytocin is neither the cause of
our better angels nor a panacea for the world's social ills <i>(Image: Phil Ball/Rex Features)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
That's
not all. The hormone also has sharply contrasting effects depending on
a person's disposition. Jennifer Bartz from the Mount Sinai School of
Medicine, New York, found that it improves people's ability to read
emotions, but only if they are not very socially adept to begin with (<i>Psychological Science</i>, vol 21, p 1426).
Her team also showed that oxytocin actually reduces trust and
cooperation in people who are particularly anxious or sensitive to
rejection (<i>Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience</i>, vol 6, p 556).
It can even alter our memories in different ways. It gives people
fonder recollections of their mothers, but only if they are secure in
their personal relationships. If they are socially anxious, oxytocin
makes them remember their mums as being less caring and more distant (<i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</i>, vol 107, p 21371).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The
effects of oxytocin can also depend on a person's culture. Although we
have yet to fully unravel the complex biochemical pathways by which
this hormone shapes behaviour, we do know that it starts off by docking
onto a protein found throughout the nervous and reproductive systems,
one encoded by the <i>OXTR</i> gene. A change in one of the gene's DNA
letters, from A to G, makes people more socially sensitive. G-carriers
tend to be more empathetic and less lonely. They are also more likely
to turn to their friends in times of trouble, but only if they live in
a culture where it is customary to seek companionship when distressed.
Heejung Kim of the University of California, Santa Barbara, found that
in South Korea - where it is often a faux pas to burden friends with
your problems - G-carriers are no more likely, and may in fact be
slightly less likely, to seek solace from their social circles than
A-carriers (<i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</i>, vol 107, p 15717). So a single trait, social sensitivity, plays out in radically different ways against the backdrops of different cultures.</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Another discovery is that oxytocin's effects vary
depending on who we interact with. Carolyn DeClerck of the University
of Antwerp, Belgium, found that people under the hormone's influence
become more cooperative only if they have some information about their
partner. When paired with anonymous strangers, they become less
cooperative. Meanwhile, Carsten de Dreu at the University of Amsterdam
in the Netherlands discovered that oxytocin-sniffers show more trust
and cooperation towards their compatriots, but not people of other
nationalities (<i>Science</i>, vol 328, p 1408).
They also showed favouritism: Dutch men became quicker to associate
positive words with Dutch names than with German or Arabic ones, for
example. De Dreu says that oxytocin promotes a "tend and defend"
response, one that drives people to care for those in their social
circles and protect them from outside dangers. "It's what we call the
mama-bear effect," he says. So, rather than promoting blanket goodwill,
oxytocin strengthens biases.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
There
were signs of these subtleties from the start. Bartz has recently shown
that in almost half the existing studies, oxytocin held sway only over
certain individuals or in particular circumstances (<i>Trends in Cognitive Sciences</i>, vol 15, p 301).
Where once researchers ignored such findings, now a more nuanced
understanding of oxytocin's effects is propelling investigations down
new lines.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
To
Bartz, the key to understanding what the hormone does lies in
pinpointing its core function rather than in cataloguing its seemingly
endless effects. There are several hypotheses, which are not
necessarily mutually exclusive. Oxytocin could help to reduce anxiety
and fear. Or it could simply motivate people to seek out social
connections, which would account for a rise in trust and cooperation,
but also explain why oxytocin-sniffers gravitate towards others
resembling themselves, and why people who fear social rejection are not
necessarily better off with more of the hormone.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
For
her part, Bartz favours the social salience hypothesis. The idea here
is that oxytocin acts as a chemical spotlight that shines on social
cues - a shift in posture, a flicker of the eyes, a dip in the voice -
making people more attuned to their social environment. This would
explain why it makes us more likely to look others in the eye and
improves our ability to identify emotions. For people with autism who
are less able to pick up on social cues, oxytocin could bring those
subtle signs into sharp focus (see "Treat with care").
But it could make things worse for people who are overly sensitive and
prone to interpreting social cues in the worst light. "People may
become more empathic or protective, but they may also become more
vigilant or competitive," says De Dreu. "It depends on who they are and
the other people that they're dealing with."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Perhaps
we should not be surprised that the oxytocin story has got more
complicated. The hormone is found in everything from octopuses to
sheep, and its evolutionary roots stretch back half a billion years.
"It's a very simple and ancient molecule that has been co-opted for
many different functions, from lactation to social behaviour," says Sue
Carter at the University of Illinois, Chicago, who did many of the
early studies in animals. "It affects primitive parts of the brain like
the amygdala, so it's going to have many effects on just about
everything." Bartz agrees. "Oxytocin probably does some very basic
things, but once you add our higher-order thinking and complex
behaviours and social situations, these basic processes could manifest
in different ways depending on individual differences and context."</div>
<div class="artbx bxbg">
<h3 id="bx285121B1">
Treat with care</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
With
around 40 clinical trials under way using oxytocin to treat conditions
such as autism and schizophrenia, there is a lot of optimism that the
hormone could help people by boosting trust and reducing social
anxiety. However, there is also a growing realisation that under
certain circumstances oxytocin can make people more antisocial (see
main story). Understanding these subtle effects could mean the
difference between helping someone and making things worse.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
"From
the early data, it's very clear that oxytocin alone will do nothing,"
says Markus Heinrichs at the University of Freiburg, Germany. "If you
sit at home with a social phobia and someone prescribes a nasal
oxytocin spray, I bet that the only effect you'd get would be a
dripping nose." The trick is to work out when and in whom oxytocin
would be expected to improve social behaviour, undermine it, or do
nothing. For example, people might respond differently depending on how
much of the hormone naturally courses through their blood, their
emotional state at the time of inhalation, or which version of a gene
called <i>OXTR</i> they have. Combining treatment with counselling
should help get the best results, provided people identify with their
therapist and so are likely to experience the positive side of
oxytocin's effects.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Researchers
are addressing these issues, but meanwhile oxytocin sprays are readily
available online. "We know people are buying it off the internet and
trying to use it to treat children with autism," says Sue Carter at the
University of Illinois, Chicago. In most cases, the amount of hormone
in the sprays is so low that they cannot be effective. Still, Carter
points out that no one knows the long-term consequences of inhaling
oxytocin, or what happens when you give it to young children. "This is
very worrying," she says.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><b>Ed Yong</b> is a science writer based in London</i></div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
http://www.newscientist.com/ </div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-49330992391185162692012-02-14T07:08:00.000-08:002012-02-14T07:08:44.876-08:00App's glowing arrows guide you around a new building<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
WHETHER it's a cavernous department store or a rabbit
warren of offices, finding your way around an unfamiliar building can
be a struggle. But now an augmented reality app can point you in the
right direction.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Developed by Jaewoo Chung
at MIT's Media Lab, Guiding Light consists of a wearable badge with
magnetic sensors and a software app that makes use of a projector built
into many Samsung smartphones to cast arrows onto the ground in front
of you as you walk.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The
system relies on a map of the building based on fluctuations in its
magnetic field, created by the presence of steel in the walls, floor
and ceiling. In tests, Guiding Light was able to determine a user's
position to within a metre.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div id="artImg">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="<i>Look for the arrow (Image: Jack Wild/Getty)</i>" src="http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/mg21328516.200/mg21328516.200-1_300.jpg" title="<i>Look for the arrow (Image: Jack Wild/Getty)</i>" />
</div>
<div class="lowlight" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Look for the arrow (Image: Jack Wild/Getty)</i></div>
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
To
create the map, someone walks through a building wearing a badge that
contains four magnetic sensors, which record changes in the magnetic
field at each point in the building. The map is then loaded onto a
phone. To navigate around the building, the user must wear a similar
badge that "talks" to the map on the phone, confirming the user's
position.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
If
the user wants to reach a specific location, they can key it into the
app and Guiding Light will project an arrow onto the floor ahead. Like
a compass, the arrow changes direction as the sensors in the badge
shift in orientation. The projection can also give extra information:
if you point your phone at an office door, say, the phone's
accelerometer detects the change and the projection tells you the name,
photo and job title of the occupant (see video: newscientist.com/article/dn21419).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Several technology companies have recently unveiled indoor positioning systems (IPS)
that work with mobile phones - but these rely on nearby Wi-Fi nodes or
Bluetooth sensors embedded in walls throughout a building to locate the
user. Chung says his system is cheaper and easier to use, because all
that is needed is a badge. What's more, he says, other systems require
the user to stare at maps on their phones to see where they are headed,
whereas Guiding Light does not. "We wanted people's eyes to be on their
environment."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Professor Babak Parviz at the University of Washington in Seattle, who has worked on an augmented reality contact lens,
says the system is a "creative" app. "If someday the [sensors] can be
integrated into the phone for indoor navigation it becomes even more
compelling," he says.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
http://www.newscientist.com/ </div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-89953368260587406732012-02-14T07:05:00.000-08:002012-02-14T07:05:29.334-08:00Why full disclosure is healthy<div id="artImg">
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div id="artImg">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="<i>(Image: Andrzej Krauze)</i>" src="http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/mg21328510.200/mg21328510.200-1_300.jpg" title="<i>(Image: Andrzej Krauze)</i>" />
</div>
<div class="lowlight" style="text-align: center;">
<i>(Image: Andrzej Krauze)</i></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Do British people know enough about the financial interests of those writing health articles? Time to toughen editorial codes</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
LAST
year, the BBC News website published an article that questioned if
psychological therapies were enough to tackle the rise of depression in
the UK. "Is it time," asked the author, "to question our seeming
obsession with talking treatments? I want to stand up for the very
important role medication can play in the treatment of mental illness."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
What
stood out for me was not just the pro-pill stance, but an endnote that
its author, Richard Gray, a professor in nursing research at the
University of East Anglia, Norwich, had "given lectures on behalf of a
number of pharmaceutical companies". It did not state he had been paid
for them, or that he had received fees and honoraria from
antidepressant manufacturers, including AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly, for
consultancy work.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
This
kind of omission happens all the time, so why single out this case?
Primarily because the site is run by the BBC, a global media
corporation. And the thousands reading the article could not judge its
impartiality because they did not know about the payments.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
After trying to get a comment for some time, the BBC agreed to amend the endnote. But at medical journals such as <i>The Lancet</i>
failure to disclose payments would have breached editorial codes. In
the UK, we rely on codes, in the US, media outlets are legally obliged
to declare potential vested interests.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Sophie
Corlett of Mind, a UK mental health charity, thinks we should take this
seriously. "People experiencing mental health problems look to
professionals... for many, this includes information that filters
through the media. The responsibility to inform readers of issues which
may affect the impartiality of a published piece lies with... news
outlets and contributing authors. Mind has long campaigned for medical
information to be conveyed in an open and balanced manner... we
encourage... disclosure of interests."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
This
is happening at a time when concern is mounting over industry influence
on psychiatric research and practice, and on public opinion. Trials of
antidepressants are mostly funded, and often analysed and directed, by
pharmaceutical companies. Some 60 per cent of the task force behind <i>DSM-IV</i>
(the psychiatrists' diagnostics handbook) received money from pharma,
as have most research centres and many heads of psychiatry schools. Of
the 29 experts writing <i>DSM-5</i>, 21 received honoraria, consultancy fees or funding from pharma.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The
BBC defends its coverage: "It's common for the BBC to speak to people
with expertise in a particular subject. We do so under clear editorial
guidelines that contributors associated with a particular viewpoint or
with a commercial interest in a subject should be clearly signposted...
Nothing has been put to us which suggests that there has been any
conflict of interest."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
So
the BBC aims to ensure articles are signposted. In this case one
slipped through the net and was duly amended. But it must be more alert
to contentious topics and conflicts of interest. Perhaps its code needs
tightening - or we should consider a law.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><b>James Davies</b> is a senior lecturer in social anthropology and psychotherapy at the University of Roehampton, London</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>http://www.newscientist.com/ </i></div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-31937163686484990192012-02-14T07:03:00.000-08:002012-02-14T07:03:39.622-08:00Google algorithm picks funniest YouTube clips<div class="asset-content entry-content" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i>Wendy Zukermann, Asia-Pacific reporter</i>
<img alt="117148195.jpg" class="mt-image-none" height="306" src="http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/02/14/117148195.jpg" width="400" /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
When it comes to humour, there's no accounting for taste.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A research team at Google has created an algorithm to rank the best comedy videos
on YouTube. While the list keeps changing, the algorithm seems to be
drawn towards the slapstick end of the spectrum. For example, a video
called Ceiling Fan Trick Knockdown
is top of last week's top clips. Clocking over 1.6 million hits it
shows a man whacking his head on a moving ceiling fan as he tries to
retrieve a tomato hanging on a string. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The Google comedy scale was devised to help with YouTube's Comedy Slam, which asks voters to pick the funniest clips on their website. In a recent blog post, Google researcher Sanketh Shetty described how the algorithm was created.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span id="more"></span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The algorithm analysed clips uploaded on the site's comedy category. The
video's title, description, and viewers' comments as well as
audiovisual information, such as shaky camera motion or audible
laughter, were used to teach the algorithm what humans regard as funny.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
According
to Shetty, viewers' comments were particularly informative. For
example, the algorithm learned that sounds associated with laughter such
as hahaha, hehehe, jajaja (Spanish laughter), kekeke (Korean giggles)
were associated with funnier clips, as did web acronyms such as lol and
rofl, and emoticons such as :) and ;-). <br /><br />The algorithm also
picked up nuances in the comments - such as capitalisation (LOL),
elongation (loooooool), repetition (lolololol), and exclamations
(lolllll!!!!!) - to decipher the funnier clips. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
According to the Google comedy scale, the funniest clip of all time is spoon hit head: a clip that stars three New Zealanders hitting each other on the head with wooden spoons.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
http://www.newscientist.com/ </div>
</div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-22674046410491927932012-02-14T07:00:00.000-08:002012-02-14T07:00:55.405-08:00NASA scales back hunt for life on Mars<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div id="artImg">
<div id="artImg">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="The Exomars rover was going to drill into Martian soil to look for life <i>(Image: ESA)</i>" src="http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn21472/dn21472-1_300.jpg" title="The Exomars rover was going to drill into Martian soil to look for life <i>(Image: ESA)</i>" />
</div>
<div class="lowlight" style="text-align: center;">
The Exomars rover was going to drill into Martian soil to look for life <i>(Image: ESA)</i></div>
</div>
<div class="lowlight">
<i></i></div>
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Is there life on Mars? We might not find out for some
time. The search has hit a major hurdle because NASA has cancelled
plans for ambitious new missions to the Red Planet.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) were planning a pair of joint missions to Mars that could have made important strides in the search for past or present life.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, which was to launch in 2016, would have followed up on hints of methane
discovered in the Martian atmosphere by previous missions. The gas is
of particular interest as it is commonly produced by microbes on Earth.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The ExoMars rover, which had been slated for launch in 2018, would have drilled beneath the Martian surface
to get samples of pristine material, possibly including complex
carbon-based molecules that could have provided clues to past Martian
life.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
But NASA has told ESA that it can no longer afford to participate in those missions, agency officials confirmed today.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<h3 class="crosshead" style="text-align: justify;">
Russian rescue?</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The missions may end up being cancelled or at least drastically scaled back, although ESA is reportedly trying to bring the Russian space agency on board instead.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
NASA
administrator Charles Bolden and other officials explained in press
briefings today that they had to make tough choices in crafting NASA's
budget for 2013.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The White House's proposed 2013 budget for NASA was released on Monday 13 February along with those of all other departments and agencies.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
If
approved by Congress, the budget will give NASA $17.7 billion in 2013,
about the same as it got in 2012, but around $1 billion less than it
had been projecting for 2013 when making plans over the last few years.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<h3 class="crosshead" style="text-align: justify;">
No more flagship</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The Mars budget was slashed as a result, with NASA's contribution to the flagship ExoMars mission the main casualty.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
"We
just could not do another flagship right now," Bolden said. "It was not
in the cards … in these very difficult fiscal times."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
NASA
still hopes to mount a less costly mission to Mars in 2018, but it
might not land on the surface. The agency has not specified exactly
where it would go, but orbiters tend to be less expensive than rovers.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The proposed budget also confirms that NASA plans to continue building the James Webb Space Telescope with a launch targeted for 2018, and continue payments to private space companies like SpaceX to help them develop space taxis that could take crew to the International Space Station.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
NASA wants $830 million for space taxi development in 2013. It asked for a similar amount in 2012, but Congress cut it by more than half, to about $400 million.</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
http://www.newscientist.com/ </div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-1705984933802295842012-02-14T06:58:00.000-08:002012-02-14T06:58:50.911-08:00Tiger Valentine: Zoos' erotic perfume tempts big cats<div style="text-align: center;">
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The renowned London Zoo
in Regent's Park has released some suitably erotic photos in time for
Valentine’s day. Starring in the images are Raika and Lumpur, the zoo’s
Sumatran tigers, a subspecies so endangered that only a few hundred
still exist in the wild - a situation which, to judge from these
pictures, isn’t the tigers’ fault.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In fact the zoo is trying hard to get the pair to breed
successfully. In new film footage, they certainly seemed in the mood,
going crazy over bits of fabric scattered with Valentine hearts.
“Raika, the female, rubbed her face and body all over the hearts, which
seemed to make her irresistible to Lumpur,” says zoo spokesperson
Rebecca Smith.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
No wonder. They were laced with Calvin Klein’s Obsession for Men, which in the 1980s became famous (or infamous)
for over-the-top erotic advertising. It probably wasn’t the ad
campaigns that inspired Lumpur this morning - more likely, it was an
animal he would regard as lunch.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In their quest to make caged animals’ lives less boring, zoos spritz
perfumes around the enclosures of species whose sensory world is
dominated by smell - and every cat owner knows how odd scents perk up a
puss. (I had an otherwise fastidious Siamese who drooled off-puttingly
on the collars and cuffs of anyone who wore certain top-of-the-range
perfumes.)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The Bronx Zoo in New York discovered a few years ago that big cats adore Obsession for Men. Researchers now even use it in the jungle to bait camera traps,
which take pictures in response to motion, and are getting lots more
shots of inquisitive, otherwise secretive cats like jaguars and
ocelots. It must work pretty well if the wildlife crowd will spend
research budgets on it: a 200 ml bottle of that stuff will set you back
fifty bucks.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It turns out that these romantic human scents pack chemicals of
great interest to species that regularly sniff their friends’ anal
glands. In many species, these glands secrete grease containing
chemicals used for scent marking, and a wide range of animals, from
muskrats to musk ox to musk deer - note the recurring theme - pack a
chemical with a ketone ring structure that smells like what humans
call, well, musk.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Civets, a relative of the mongoose (which also eat, then poop, the world’s most expensive coffee), produce especially powerful stuff containing a musk-related molecule called civetone, with a rank odour comparable to faeces, or very unpleasant cheese.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And our ancient olfactory brain circuits recognise it. Diluted, the
stuff apparently smells great. It is perhaps the world’s oldest perfume
- the Queen of Sheba is said to have given some to King Solomon, just
before they disappeared into the king’s bedroom. It sells for around
$500 a kilo.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Civetone can be made artificially from plant oils. But around a
tonne of the natural stuff is harvested yearly, mainly by Ethiopian
farmers, who hold captive civets in squalid wooden cages, and scrape
out their anal glands with a horn spoon every week or two. It isn’t a
great life for the civets. The World Society for the Protection of
Animals investigated in 1998, and recommended that perfume makers
switch to artificial civetone.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
More recent studies
by wildlife conservationists advise instead making the trade more
humane and sustainable, by moving to captive-bred, well-treated civets.
This seems reasonable: impoverished farmers aren’t likely to stop, as
current production doesn’t begin to cover demand.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Which is odd, as 31 leading perfume companies,
including Calvin Klein, told the WSPA in 1998 that they don’t use the
real stuff. Only Chanel, Lancôme and Cartier admitted it. Last year
Calvin Klein described its civet as “synthetic”.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Real or fake, as far as Raika and Lumpur are concerned, the stuff
works fine. It’s not clear what this means for the future of Africa’s
civets, which are not endangered - yet. The zoo says it will let us
know if Calvin Klein’s Valentine’s gift to the world is a litter of
baby Sumatran tigers.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
http://www.newscientist.com/</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span id="more"></span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="display: none; text-align: justify;">
</div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-20992948096952670922012-02-13T21:06:00.000-08:002012-02-13T21:06:36.462-08:00Falling in love makes men broody<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div id="artImg">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="Children on their minds? (<i>Image: Aurelie and Morgan David de Lossy/Getty</i>)" src="http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn21466/dn21466-1_300.jpg" title="Children on their minds? (<i>Image: Aurelie and Morgan David de Lossy/Getty</i>)" /> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Children on their minds? (<i>Image: Aurelie and Morgan David de Lossy/Getty</i>)</div>
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Falling in love really does make you broody –
especially if you are a man. New lovers show greater activation of
brain areas related to parental attachment when they see a baby than single people.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
This was particularly pronounced in men,
hinting that babies may be on their mind from the outset of a
relationship. Alternatively, "men may be worried about their partner's
desire for children, and their increased attention to infant stimuli is
based on apprehension and the need to be more guarded", says Ruth Feldman of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, who led the research.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Feldman's
team used electroencephalography to monitor the brain activity of 65
volunteers, including new parents, new lovers and singles as they
viewed pictures of infants – including the parents' own babies – along
with neutral pictures.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
When
viewing unfamiliar babies, parents and new lovers showed greater
activation of brain areas associated with parenting, such as the
nucleus accumbens, anterior cingulate and amygdala, than singles. The
response was even greater in parents viewing their own child.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Mothers and male lovers showed slightly greater activation of these brain areas than fathers and female lovers (<i>Biological Psychiatry</i>, DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.11.008).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
"This suggests that even though the lovers don't know it, they are physiologically getting ready to respond to infants," says Helen Fisher of Rutgers University in New York, author of <i>Why We Love</i>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
It
also overturns a common assumption that men are less interested in
babies than women. "It shows that we really don't understand men," says
Fisher.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<h3 class="crosshead" style="text-align: justify;">
Personality counts</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Fisher has just published the results of a survey
of 6000 men and women in the US, which found that men are significantly
more likely to make a long-term commitment with someone they didn't
feel sexually attracted to if that person has all the other qualities
they were looking for.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
"Men
fall in love faster than, and just as often as, women," says Fisher.
"They're more likely to want to move in and start a more socially
visible relationship in the first year than women, and men are 2.5
times more likely to kill themselves when a relationship ends."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
In a separate study, Feldman and her colleagues found that falling in love
also appears to buffer people from negative emotions. They showed 55
new lovers and 57 single people six video clips, including two selected
to trigger positive emotions and two that would trigger negative
emotions. Electrodes were used to monitor the volunteers for signs of
stress.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
While single people showed signs of stress when watching the negative films, new lovers seemed to be unaffected by them (<i>Emotion</i>, DOI: 10.1037/a0024090).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
"There
is something about this euphoria of falling in love that is like a
protective buffer, so we don't really respond to negative emotions,"
says Feldman.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
This
may have evolutionary significance: by suppressing negative emotions,
new couples find it easier to form a trusting bond with one another.
"We need a calm state to allow ourselves to fall in love, otherwise
there's no sense of safety," says Feldman.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
"It shows that love is important and can reduce stress," adds Paul Zak of Claremont Graduate University in California. He suggests that high levels of the hormone oxytocin<img alt="Movie Camera" class="artxicon" src="http://www.newscientist.com/img/icon/artx_video.gif" title="Contains video content" />, which has calming effects, are probably responsible.</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
http://www.newscientist.com/ </div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-90722990119864024442012-02-13T15:43:00.000-08:002012-02-13T15:43:14.646-08:00Russian hot springs point to rocky origins for life<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div id="artImg">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="Kamchatka peninsula, a perfect place for life (<i>Image: Anna S. Karyagina)</i>" src="http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn21471/dn21471-1_300.jpg" title="Kamchatka peninsula, a perfect place for life (<i>Image: Anna S. Karyagina)</i>" /> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Kamchatka peninsula, a perfect place for life (<i>Image: Anna S. Karyagina)</i></div>
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
It's a question that strikes at the very heart of one
of the deepest mysteries in the universe: how did life begin on Earth?
New evidence challenges the widespread view that it all kicked off in
the oceans, around deep-sea hydrothermal vents.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Instead,
hot springs on land, similar to the "warm little pond" favoured by
Charles Darwin, may be a better fit for the cradle of life.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The controversial new theory suggests the search for extraterrestrial life must go beyond a hunt for alien oceans (see <i>Land ho! The search for ET</i>, below).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Life appeared sometime before 3.8 billion years ago,
towards the end of a turbulent phase in our planet's early history
dubbed Hadean Earth. Exactly where and how this happened is still a
mystery. The first fossils are about 3.4 billion years old, and all we know about life's very first stages comes from chemical signatures in rocks.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
This
hasn't stopped endless speculation. Conventional wisdom has it that
hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor offered an ideal chemical
environment for the earliest life. Deep, dark oceans would also have
protected the delicate cells from the harmful ultraviolet light that
bathed early Earth before the ozone layer formed.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Case closed? Not quite. Armen Mulkidjanian
at the University of Osnabrück in Germany says there is a fundamental
problem with the ocean floor hypothesis: salt. The cytoplasm found
inside all cells contains much more potassium than sodium. Mulkidjanian
thinks that chemistry reflects the chemistry of the water life first
appeared in, yet salty seawater is sodium-rich and potassium-poor.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
"The
ancient sea contained the wrong balance of sodium and potassium for the
origin of cells," says Mulkidjanian. Now, after extensive field
studies, he claims to have found the one place on Earth where that
balance is right: in the thermal springs of Kamchatka in far-east
Siberia. Mulkidjanian found that puddles condensing from the
hydrothermal vapour at Siberia's Mutnovsky thermal springs are
potassium-rich, just like cell cytoplasm (Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073.pnas.1117774109). Life first appeared
in similar pools, says Mulkidjanian.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
And
while early life would have been damaged if over-exposed to UVs,
Mulkidjanian's theory solves another puzzle. Most evolutionary
biologists agree that life at this stage would have been little more
than floating strands of DNA and RNA. The nucleotides that make up DNA
and RNA are all surprisingly stable when exposed to UV light,
suggesting they evolved in an environment where UV exposure weeded out
all but the most photostable molecules. "You don't get UV light around
deep-sea vents," says Mulkidjanian.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
"I
do not think the oceans were a favourable environment for the origin of
life – freshwater ponds seem more favourable," says Nobel laureate Jack
Szostak at Harvard University, a key player in the field. "Freshwater
ponds have lower salt concentrations, which would allow for fatty acid
based membranes to form."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
While
Darwin's warm little ponds appear to be coming back in vogue, this is a
highly polarised field of research and many origin-of-life researchers
are not convinced. Nick Lane at University College London disputes the
claims that the first cells couldn't cope with life in sodium-rich
water. Early cells could have actively pumped out sodium ions, he says.
"This is exactly what many methanogens and acetogens do," he points
out, referring to microbes that are thought to be among the earliest
cellular life forms. This, says Lane, is good evidence that the
earliest living cells did indeed actively pump out sodium ions.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Carrine
Blank, a geologist at the University of Montana in Missoula says life
was unlikely to survive on land 3.8 billion years ago, at a time when
meteorites were pummelling Earth. Mulkidjanian counters that some
geologists now question whether the late heavy bombardment, as it is
known, really happened at that time (Elements, DOI:
10.2113/gselements.5.1.23).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Others
contacted by New Scientist labelled Mulkidjanian's ideas absurd and
declined to comment. Undoubtedly, most researchers still favour the sea
as the cradle of life. Still, Mulkidjanian is not alone in looking for
a land-based alternative.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Paul
Knauth, a geologist at Arizona State University in Tempe, also thinks
life may not have begun in the sea – which he says has ramifications
for the search for extraterrestrial life. He has analysed the oxygen
isotopes in the silica-rich rocks deposited early in Earth's history,
from which you can work out temperatures at the time the rocks formed.
He says that the entire planet was much hotter than anyone suspected –
surface temperatures of 50 to 80 0C may have been common. The seas were
also twice as salty as today, because so-called "evaporitic" deposits -
which locked away vast quantities of salt - had not begun to form. "The
early ocean was a deathtrap of hot salty water," he says. "I like the
idea of a non-marine origin."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Then
there is the fossil evidence. Although the fossil record doesn't
capture events at the origin of life, it does record some slightly
later chapters in life's history, which origin-of-life researchers
"ignore at their peril", according to Martin Brasier at the University
of Oxford. Last year Brasier unearthed the oldest fossils so far:
3.43-billion-year-old bacteria. He found them in Australia, in
non-marine rocks that formed on a beach. "I am coming round to the
opinion that we may be wrong about the ocean as the mother of life,"
says Brasier.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
This
doesn't mean that Mulkidjanian has all the details correct, though.
Brasier agrees with Lane that early cells probably could pump out
enough sodium from their cytoplasm to survive in sodium-rich
environments – so life might have emerged in salty pools or shorelines
rather than in Siberian-style thermal springs.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Using
observations from living cells to work out what the first cells could-
– and could not – do underpins most models for life's beginnings. But
there will always be a degree of interpretation in how we re-construct
history based on observations of living things, and that leaves room
for alternative explanations.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
This
situation might soon change, though. Brasier's discovery last year
paves the way for fossil hunting in even older non-marine rocks –
something previously considered a waste of time. Studies of early rocks
will take some big steps forward in the coming decade, predicts
Brasier. The evidence locked inside them might help settle the debate –
and say whether Darwin's hunch was correct after all. "The rock
record," says Brasier, "is the only safe witness we have."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="artbx bxbg" style="text-align: justify;">
<h3 id="bxdn21471B1">
Land ho! The search for ET</h3>
"<i>Follow
the water," NASA astrobiologists like to say in conversations about the
search for extraterrestrial life. "The problem," says Paul Knauth, a
geologist at Arizona State University in Tempe, "is that chlorine
follows the water better than any astrobiologist."</i><br />
<i>Knauth
says chlorine-rich salts made the seas on early Earth far too saline
for life to emerge. Only once large quantities of salt had evaporated
and were locked safely away in land-based deposits could complex life
take off in the oceans, suggesting rocks played a key role in life's
early stages.</i><br />
<i>What's
more, many of the elements life relies on probably came from the
weathering of rocks, like granite, that form only on continents, says
Martin Brasier at Oxford University. "If so, the prospects for life on
Mars and Titan [where such rocks aren't found] seems a bit bleak."</i><br />
<i>The
same rules probably apply elsewhere in the galaxy. "So, a pale blue dot
would be an exciting discovery," says Knauth. "But one with brown spots
would be more encouraging."</i><br />
<br />
<i>http://www.newscientist.com/ </i><br />
</div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-78591366863701576422012-02-13T15:41:00.000-08:002012-02-13T15:41:29.431-08:00Hurricanes deliver fatal blows to wind turbines<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div id="artImg">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="Problems brewing <i>(Image: Miguel Navarro/Stone/Getty Images)</i>" src="http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn21468/dn21468-1_300.jpg" title="Problems brewing <i>(Image: Miguel Navarro/Stone/Getty Images)</i>" />
</div>
<div class="lowlight" style="text-align: center;">
Problems brewing <i>(Image: Miguel Navarro/Stone/Getty Images)</i></div>
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Gone with the wind? Hurricanes could destroy the
offshore wind farms the US is planning to build in the Atlantic and the
Gulf of Mexico.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The
US Department of Energy set a goal for the country to generate 20 per
cent of its electricity from wind by 2030. One-sixth is to come from shallow offshore turbines that sit in the path of hurricanes.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Stephen
Rose and colleagues from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, modelled the risk hurricanes might pose to turbines at
four proposed wind farm sites. They found that nearly half of the
planned turbines are likely to be destroyed over the 20-year life of
the farms. Turbines shut down in high winds, but hurricane-force winds
can topple them.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
In 2007, Texas granted a multimillion-dollar lease for a wind farm site near Galveston, Texas. Rose found it was "the riskiest location to build a wind farm of the four locations examined".</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Each
turbine costs $175 million. "We want these risks to be known now before
we start putting these wind turbines offshore," says team member
Paulina Jaramillo. "We don't want any backlash when the first one goes
down and it costs a lot to replace."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Journal reference: <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</i>, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1111769109</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
http://www.newscientist.com/ </div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-15446586850764506162012-02-13T15:39:00.000-08:002012-02-13T15:39:39.304-08:00Child abuse shrinks key brain memory centre<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Maltreatment of children may stunt growth of the
hippocampus, a brain region vital for memory. That's the conclusion of
a study of 193 outwardly healthy adults aged 18 to 25 from the Boston
area.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The
stunted hippocampi could help explain how childhood stress raises the
risk of psychiatric disorders in adulthood, ranging from depression,
schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder to personality
disorders, drug addiction and even suicide.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Martin Teicher
of McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, and colleagues used
standard questionnaires to reveal which volunteers had suffered abuse
as children, and found size differences in regions of the hippocampus
through detailed MRI brain scans.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Big
differences were seen in people who said that as children they had
experienced verbal, physical or sexual abuse, physical or emotional
neglect, bereavement, parental separation or parental discord. Three
sub-regions of the hippocampus were between 5.8 and 6.5 per cent
smaller in such volunteers, compared with those who reported no
maltreatment.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<h3 class="crosshead" style="text-align: justify;">
Stress strike</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The
three sub-regions – the dentate gyrus, the cornu ammonis and the
subiculum – are all known to be vulnerable to the effects of stress
hormones, which probably interfere with the formation of cells and new
tissue as the immature brain develops.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
"These
findings support the hypothesis that exposure to early stress in
humans, as in other animals, affects hippocampal development,"
concludes Teicher's team. They say that the study is the largest and
most detailed yet to examine the phenomenon in people, and the results
echo those seen in the hippocampi of rats and monkeys subjected to
stress as infants.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Child abuse or poverty can also alter which genes are active in the developing brain through a process called epigenesis. These changes can lead to diseases such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
"Childhood maltreatment is like a surgical strike on the brain," says Carmine Pariante,
who studies the effects of stress on child development at the Institute
of Psychiatry, Kings College London. "This explains why these
individuals are at risk of developing a host of stress-related
disorders later in life – because they have an impaired ability to cope
with stress."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
"Findings like this indicate that maltreatment can leave damage hidden deep inside the body that persists for many years," says Terrie Moffitt
of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. "Once we appreciate that
child maltreatment brings hidden damage that can resurface years later
as memory problems, preventing child abuse seems like a very good deal."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Journal reference: <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</i>, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1115396109</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
http://www.newscientist.com/ </div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-83559420474187816402012-02-13T15:38:00.000-08:002012-02-13T15:38:26.184-08:00LHC boosts energy to snag Higgs – and superpartners<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div id="artImg">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="No hiding place, Higgs <i>(Image: Simon Hadley/Rex Features)</i>" src="http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn21470/dn21470-1_300.jpg" title="No hiding place, Higgs <i>(Image: Simon Hadley/Rex Features)</i>" />
</div>
<div class="lowlight" style="text-align: center;">
No hiding place, Higgs <i>(Image: Simon Hadley/Rex Features)</i></div>
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
It has already broken the record for the most
energetic particle collisions, but the world's largest particle smasher
is boosting its energy still further. Physicists at the Large Hadron
Collider hope this will confirm or rule out tantalising hints of the
elusive Higgs particle.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Although
the Higgs is the LHC's main quarry, the biggest advantage from the
boost in energy goes to searches for signs of supersymmetry, or SUSY.
Many researchers had hoped that by now this elegant theory would have left traces in LHC, which is at the CERN particle physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The LHC has already seen many events that could be signs of the decay of the long-sought Higgs boson, which is thought to endow other particles with mass. But more mundane reactions can also produce such events, so more experiments are needed to confirm or rule out the Higgs explanation.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Now the LHC's management has decided to boost the energy of collisions to get a better chance of flushing the Higgs out into the open.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<h3 class="crosshead" style="text-align: justify;">
Higgs boost</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Last
year, the LHC smashed two beams of protons together at an energy of
3.5 teraelectronvolts (TeV) each, resulting in collisions with a total
energy of 7 TeV.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The machine's managers have decided to increase the energy of collisions to 4 TeV per beam, for a total energy of 8 TeV.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The
probability of a collision producing heavy particles rises very fast as
its energy increases, so even a small rise in energy will provide a big
boost to the number of Higgs bosons made – and therefore the
probability of glimpsing them or other <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21409-lazy-photon-among-the-missing-in-exotic-lhc-roll-call.html" onclick="s_objectID="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21409-lazy-photon-among-the-missing-in-exotic-lhc-roll-call_1";return this.s_oc?this.s_oc(e):true">exotica</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Running
at 8 instead of 7 TeV should boost the machine's sensitivity to Higgs
particles – assuming they are really there – by 30 to 40 per cent, says
Greg Landsberg of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, who is involved in CMS, one of the LHC's two main detectors.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<h3 class="crosshead" style="text-align: justify;">
Heavy partners</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The boost in energy also increases the chances that signs of SUSY will emerge.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The
theory posits the existence of heavy partners for each of the subatomic
particles already known. The move to 8 TeV could boost the production
of these "superpartners" as much as four times, says Landsberg.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
"We could get a little hint of existence at 7 TeV versus discovery at 8 TeV," he says.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
Researchers
want to maximise the potential for new discoveries this year because at
the end of it the LHC will shut down for two years. Upgrades will then
allow it to run at its full design energy of 14 TeV.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
The
Higgs boson should have already been confirmed or ruled out before
then. The higher energy will allow a thorough search for the heavy
particles predicted by SUSY, among other things.</div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="infuse" style="text-align: justify;">
http://www.newscientist.com/ </div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2098556402562415693.post-80837258705551543582012-02-13T15:37:00.000-08:002012-02-13T15:37:06.142-08:00Google Earth spots fish farms from the air<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Caroline Morley, online picture researcher </i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<img alt="Med1.jpg" class="mt-image-none" height="449" src="http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2012/02/13/Med1.jpg" width="600" /><i> </i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>(Image: Google Earth)</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
An
array of rings and squares bob gently in the blue Mediterranean waters
of this sun-drenched Greek inlet. These fish enclosures, seen using
Google Earth, show that aquaculture can be monitored from far above. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Researchers from the University of British Columbia in
Vancouver, Canada, used Google Earth to scour 91 per cent of the
Mediterranean coastline. They counted a total of 21,324 fish cages
within 10 kilometres of the shore. Using these figures, and assumptions
about fish density and harvesting, the researchers estimated that
225,736 tonnes of fish were raised in these cages in 2006. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The lead producer of farmed fish was Greece. With over 10,000 cages, the country netted an estimated 103,800 tonnes of fish. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
http://www.newscientist.com/ </div>efrottthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02066850660493297441noreply@blogger.com0