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A wall-sized periodic table with backlit samples of the elements. Photograph: mezzoblue, Flickr.com

A wall-sized periodic table with backlit samples of the elements. Photograph: mezzoblue, Flickr.com

Issue no. 20, 2009 Published: Jun 12, 2009
First new element for five years makes periodic table
Solar greenhouses bring vegetables in from the cold
Public asked to help monitor life on Earth
GPS shoe to track Alzheimer's patients
Metal pumps liquid uphill
Bacteria from the deep can clean up heavy metals
Beetle shell inspires brilliant white paper
Study identifies the web's most dangerous search terms
Pirates voted into the European Parliament

First new element for five years makes periodic table
A new 'superheavy' element is being added to the periodic table. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has decided that the as-yet-unnamed element finally meets the conditions for official recognition, 13 years after it was first made. The new element will be heaviest yet - and the first new element for five years. The heaviest known naturally occurring element is uranium, with an atomic number of 92: the number of protons in its nucleus. But since 1941, physicists have been synthesising heavier elements by fusing atoms together. Currently, the heaviest named and recognised element is roentgeniuim at position 111, which was officially named in 2004. For years, the space next to it has been unceremoniously occupied by the letters Uub, which stand for ununbium, the Latin word for 112 that has stood as a placeholder. That name is soon to change. In 1996, a team at the GSI Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany, made the first atom of 112 by fusing atoms of zinc and lead. They repeated this feat in 2000, making a second atom. However, it wasn't until other independent teams had made the element that it met the IUPAC conditions for entry into the periodic table. Because the GSI team made 112 first, they will get to choose its name.
New Scientist / Pure and Applied Chemistry Jun 11, 2009	back to top

Solar greenhouses bring vegetables in from the cold
Solar greenhouses that nurture vegetables despite outside temperatures as low as minus 25 degrees Celsius are among the innovations recognised by international energy awards this week. The greenhouses, developed by the French NGO GERES, are used in the Indian Himalayan region of Ladakh. The region's high altitude of 3,500 metres and low rainfall result in an outdoor growing season of just 90 days a year but there is abundant sunshine 300 days a year. Nearly 600 family-owned greenhouses were installed by the end of 2008, which also increased incomes by almost a third. Farmers sell or exchange surplus vegetables and seedlings locally - an estimated 50,000 people are thought to have benefited from the fresh produce. And because the locals transport fewer vegetables, 460 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions are avoided every year. The greenhouses consist largely of local materials. Each has a long, south-facing side of heavy-duty polythene; thick mud-brick walls to absorb heat during the day and release it at night; and insulated walls and roof. Some of the walls are painted black to absorb heat. Natural ventilation prevents over-heating and excessive humidity. Farmers grow food ranging from spinach to strawberries in the winter and seedlings in the spring. In autumn, the greenhouses extend the growing season of crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers and grapes.
SciDev Jun 11, 2009	back to top

Public asked to help monitor life on Earth
Scientists ask people around the world to help compile an internet-based observatory of life on earth as a guide to everything from the impact of climate change on wildlife to pests that can damage crops. The Encyclopedia of Life (http://www.eol.org/) based at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington is a 10-year project. Scientific organisations are working to link up thousands of computer databases of animals and plants into a one-stop 'virtual observatory' that could be similar to global systems for monitoring the weather or earthquakes. People in many countries already log observations on the internet, ranging from sightings of rare birds in Canada to the dates on which flowers bloom in spring in Australia. The new system, when up and running, will link up the disparate sites. A biodiversity overview could have big economic benefits, for instance an unusual insect found in a garden might be an insect pest brought unwittingly in a grain shipment that could disrupt local agriculture, according to the scientists behind the project. Among health benefits could be understanding any shifts in the ranges of malaria-carrying mosquitoes linked to global warming. The observatory could give a benchmark for monitoring the rate of extinctions, for instance, to threats led by loss of habitats to farms, cities and roads. It could also help people in their everyday lives -- anyone planning to visit a local forest could study trees, flowers, animals or insects that might be seen on a hike.
ABC News / Reuters Jun 01, 2009	back to top

GPS shoe to track Alzheimer's patients
A new shoe outfitted with a GPS chip aims to offer peace of mind to Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers. The embedded GPS tracking system will allow the wearer of the shoe to be located instantly online and for their whereabouts to be monitored in real time. The shoe may offer hope to the growing number of people with Alzheimer's disease. More than 26 million people worldwide live with Alzheimer's, and the figure is set to exceed 106 million by 2050, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health. Patients of Alzheimer's, the leading cause of dementia, can easily become confused or disoriented, and it's common for them to wander from their home and not be able to find their way back. The shoe is the latest in a wave of assisted-living devices, from home sensor systems to pill boxes that remind people to take their medication, targeted at keeping Alzheimer's patients safe. The shoe is a collaboration between GTX Corp., a firm that specialises in miniaturized GPS tracking devices, and footwear company Aetrex.
CNN Jun 10, 2009	back to top

Metal pumps liquid uphill
Researchers at the University of Rochester, New York, have discovered a way of modifying metal surfaces so that they 'pump' liquids uphill. The method, which involves exposing the surfaces to pulses of intense laser light, could be exploited in the future for analysing fluids 'on-chip' or for biological sensing. The researchers used a horizontally-polarised laser, which sends pulses of light 65 femtoseconds long at a wavelength of 800 nm onto the metal surfaces. They scanned the laser horizontally and vertically until they had treated a circular area 24 mm in diameter. Images from a scanning electron microscope showed a resultant structure of fine pits and globules superimposed on larger, periodic grooves. The researchers found these grooves could suck up methanol when the surface was horizontal, vertical or inclined at 45°. The distance between the grooves, at just 100 µm, means that molecules in the methanol can find themselves more attracted to the metal than to neighbouring methanol molecules, and therefore tend to creep forwards. Applications of the treated metals could include microfluidics wherein fluids could be manipulated on sub-millimetre scales. They also highlight a potential medical application because blood could be directed precisely along a defined path to a sensor for disease diagnosis.
PhysicsWorld Jun 05, 2009	back to top

Bacteria from the deep can clean up heavy metals
A species of bacteria, isolated from sediments deep under the Pacific Ocean, could provide a powerful clean-up tool for heavy metal pollution. Researchers from Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan, China describe how a particular strain of Brachybacterium, strain Mn32, proved to be highly effective in removing manganese from solutions, converting it into insoluble manganese oxides. Not only did the bacterium directly oxidize the manganese but the resulting oxides themselves also absorbed the metal from the culture solution, making Brachybacterium sp Mn32 a potentially useful candidate for use in bioremediation and cleaning up pollution. As well as removing manganese from its environment, the Brachybacterium also absorbed significant amounts of zinc and nickel. All of these metals are found as pollutants in water and soils contaminated by heavy industries such as steel-making. Manganese oxides can be manufactured chemically and are known to absorb zinc and nickel; but the oxides produced by this bacterium absorbed two- to three- times more metal. The team showed that the crystal structure of the bacterial manganese oxides is different to that of the chemically produced ones, with a greater surface area which enables more of the metal ions to be absorbed.
ScienceDaily / Microbiology Jun 05, 2009	back to top

Beetle shell inspires brilliant white paper
An obscure species of beetle has shown how brilliant white paper could be produced in a completely new way. A team from Imerys Minerals and the University of Exeter has taken inspiration from the shell of the Cyphochilus beetle to produce a new kind of white coating for paper. The Cyphochilus beetle has a unusual brilliant white shell. Previous research revealed how the beetle produced its brilliant whiteness using a unique surface structure. Now the team shows how some of the beetle's shell structure can be mimicked to produce coatings for white paper. The beetle's scales are ten times thinner than a human hair. Good quality white paper is coated with a mixture of white mineral particles such as calcium carbonate and kaolin. Using conventional production methods, industrial mineral coatings for high quality paper would need to be twice as thick as the beetle shell to be as white. The team has now shown that through careful mineral selection and processing, it is possible to mimic some of the structure of the white beetle's shell to produce an enhanced bright white coating for paper. This higher performance could result in lighter weight paper with a very high degree of whiteness. Lighter paper would also reduce transportation costs, simultaneously reducing the cost of manufacture.
ScienceDaily / Applied Optics Jun 11, 2009	back to top

Study identifies the web's most dangerous search terms
If you like to search for 'music lyrics' or 'free' things, you are engaging in risky cyber behaviour. And 'free music downloads' puts 20% of Web surfers in harm's way of malicious software, known as 'malware'. A new research report by US-based antivirus software company McAfee has identified the most dangerous search words that place users on pages with a higher likelihood of cyber attacks. The study examined 2,600 popular keywords on five major search engines - Google, Yahoo, Live, AOL and Ask - and analysed 413,000 webpages. Categories that had the highest risk of run-ins with malware: screen savers, free games, work from home, Olympics, videos, celebrities, music and news. Riskiest terms: word unscrambler, lyrics, myspace, free music downloads, phelps, game cheats, printable fill-in puzzles, free ringtones and solitaire.
CNN Jun 10, 2009	back to top

Pirates voted into the European Parliament
A Swedish political party made up of copyright patent liberators and privacy campaigners has won a seat in the European Parliament. The Pirate Party campaigned on a number of issues, including free online content. It managed to secure 7.1% of the vote in Sweden in the 2009 European Parliament elections, guaranteeing it at least one seat. The Pirate Party has strong support in Sweden, where two similar parties also exist, and is gradually expanding its message across the globe. At its launch in 2006, the party's leader, Rickard Falkvinge, said in an interview with Wikinews that publicity surrounding anti-piracy initiatives is having a dramatic effect on its membership. An exit poll carried out in Sweden suggested that 12% of men and 4% of women, and almost 20% of all voters under 30, had voted for the Pirate Party.
VNUnet UK Jun 08, 2009	back to top