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Issue no. 4, 2006 Published: Jan 27, 2006
Microsoft to give access to code
UN lends backing to the $100 laptop
UN reports rise in cybersquatting
Scientists build first 3D HIV map
Researchers use grid computing to tackle malaria
Scientists follow the money to predict epidemics
Intel makes first chip at tiny new scale
Researchers concoct self-propelled nano motor
Spacecraft skin 'heals' itself
Invention: The moody media player

Microsoft to give access to code
Microsoft has said it will give rival software companies access to parts of the source code for its Windows operating system. The concession was made in response to a 2004 EU anti-trust ruling which ordered the company to share its code with competitors. It came three weeks ahead of the EU's compliance deadline, which threatened fines of EUR 2m a day. The deadline was set in December when the European Commission said that Microsoft's offer of 12,000 pages of documentation and 500 hours of free technical support was not adequate. The landmark 2004 ruling said Microsoft was guilty of abusing its position and hit Microsoft with a record EUR 497m fine, telling it to open up its operating systems. Microsoft said that the latest concession went 'far beyond' the 2004 decision. It maintains that it has tried to comply with the EU's demands, but says that Brussels keeps changing it guidelines. The code that the company has promised to release will help rivals make their software compatible with Microsoft's.
BBC News Jan 26, 2006	back to top

UN lends backing to the $100 laptop
The United Nations will lend its support to a project which aims to ship inexpensive laptops to children worldwide. Kemal Dervis, head of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), will sign a memorandum of understanding Saturday with Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of One Laptop per Child, on the $100 laptop project, at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting. The programme aims to ship 1 million units by the end of next year to sell to governments at cost for distribution to school children and teachers. UNDP will work with Negroponte's organisation to deliver 'technology and resources to targeted schools in the least developed countries,' the UN agency said in a statement. The aim is to have governments or donors buy the laptops and give full ownership to the children. Negroponte, who is also chairman of the MIT Media Lab, has said he expects to sell 1 million of them to Brazil, Thailand, Egypt and Nigeria. The laptop will run on an open-source operating system. Its colour will be lime green, with a yellow hand crank, to make them appealing to children and to fend off thieves.
Mercury News / AP Jan 26, 2006	back to top

UN reports rise in cybersquatting
The UN copyright agency on Wednesday reported a 20 per cent jump in 'cybersquatting' complaints last year, coming mainly from top tech firms, trendy fashion brands, Hollywood stars and sports personalities. The agency registered 1,456 complaints for cybersquatting or abusive registration of trademarks as internet domain names and the practice appears to be on the rise, according to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). WIPO handles arbitration for over half of the world's cybersquatting disputes each year. Most of last year's disputes have since been resolved. Cybersquatters often demand great amounts of money for the sale of internet sites to people or firms with registered trademarks. The UN arbitration system, which started in 1999, allows those who claim the right to a domain name to get it back without having to fight a costly legal battle or pay large sums of money. It costs about $1,500 to file a claim at WIPO. The arbitration system cannot award financial penalties.
ABC News / AP Jan 25, 2006	back to top

Scientists build first 3D HIV map
Scientists at the Max Planck Institut fuer Biochemie in Martinsried, Germany, and at Oxford University, UK, have used computer rendering to build the first 3D model of HIV. The virus, which is 60 times smaller than a human red blood cell, has been notoriously difficult to map because of its variable size and flattened appearance. By using a rotating X-ray, similar to that used in computerised axial tomography scans, the basic structure of the virus has been imaged. Computer rendering was then used to build the 3D model. The imaging has answered one of the central questions about HIV: how it remains effective while appearing in such a variety of sizes. Instead of the central core of the virus organising its growth, as in most viruses, the HIV outer membrane and core interact so that the core stops growing only when it reaches the membrane's limit.
VNUnet UK Jan 26, 2006	back to top

Researchers use grid computing to tackle malaria
European scientists have turned to grid computing in a bid to find cures for subtropical diseases such as malaria that kill millions of people each year. Dr Vincent Breton, research associate at the Corpuscular Physics Laboratory at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Clermont-Ferrand, said that he was looking for a biomedical project to run on the EU-funded Enabling Grids for E-sciencE (EGEE) network. 'Quite often it's just the developed world that benefits from high-technology like grid computing. I wanted grids to benefit Africa, where research is urgently needed,' said Dr Breton. Records from last year show that there were between 350 million and 500 million infections, and approximately 1.3 million deaths, due to malaria, mainly in the tropics. The grid research is particularly important because these diseases are comparatively neglected by large pharmaceutical companies.
VNUnet UK Jan 24, 2006	back to top

Scientists follow the money to predict epidemics
A popular US website that tracks the geographical circulation of money could offer new insights into predicting the spread of infectious diseases like bird flu. Money, like diseases, is carried by people around the world, so what better way to plot the spread of a potential influenza pandemic than to track the circulation of dollar bills?. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self- Organisation in Gottingen, Germany developed a mathematical model of human travel that can be used to plot the spread of future pandemics. The scientists analysed information from www.wheresgeorge.com, an online bill-tracking internet site. Users register on the site and follow the trail of their money after they spend it. Around 50 million banknotes have been registered on the site. The information from the site enabled the researchers to develop a mathematical theory of human travel behaviour. When they compared their results with traffic flow of aviation networks in the US, they found it correlated very closely.
ABC News / Reuters Jan 25, 2006	back to top

Intel makes first chip at tiny new scale
Intel said Wednesday it had made the world's first microchip using tiny new manufacturing methods that promise more powerful, efficient processors. The fingernail-sized memory chip is etched with 1 billion transistors that are only 45 nanometres wide. Intel plans to start making computer processors with the technology in the second half of 2007. Intel last year began making chips using 65-nanometre technology that represents the current state of the art in the semiconductor industry. The new chip makes good on Moore's Law, an industry maxim set forth by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that stipulates the number of transistors on a chip - and therefore its processing power - doubles roughly every 18 months to two years.
MSNBC / Reuters Jan 25, 2006	back to top

Researchers concoct self-propelled nano motor
Researchers at UCLA and the University of Bologna have come up with a nano-size vehicle that can inch its way forward on sunlight and one day could be used to shuttle medicines or other small particles around. The motor in chemical terms is a rotaxane, a mechanically interlocked molecule consisting of a ring trapped on a rod by bulky stoppers at both ends in the same way that rings are kept on an abacus. The ring in a sense serves as the foot. It is attracted to one end of the rod, called Station A, and moves toward it until it hits the stopper. The ring then moves to the second port of call, Station B, and moves toward it until halted by the opposite stopper. By alternating between Stations A and B, the ring pulls the whole contraption forward. The attraction and repulsion is accomplished through electron harvesting. One of the ends of the barbell harvests an electron from sunlight and transfers them to Station A. When Station A contains an electron, the ring moves toward Station B. When Station A returns the electron to the barbell, the ring moves toward it. A full cycle is carried out in less than a thousandth of a second, which means that the motor can operate at a frequency of 1,000 Hertz.
CNET News Jan 25, 2006	back to top

Spacecraft skin 'heals' itself
A material that could enable spacecraft to automatically 'heal' punctures and leaks is being tested in simulated space conditions on Earth. The self-healing spacecraft skin is being developed by researchers at the University of Bristol, UK, as part of a European Space Agency (ESA) project. The researchers have taken inspiration from human skin, which heals a cut by exposing blood to air, which congeals to forms a protective scab. They fabricated a composite laminate material containing hundreds of hollow glass filaments 60 microns wide, each with an inner chamber of 30 microns in diameter. Half of the filaments are filled with an epoxy polymer or resin and the other half filled with a chemical agent that reacts with the polymer to form a very strong and hard substance. The glass filaments are designed to crack easily when the overall composite material is damaged, which causes both chemicals to leak out and rapidly plug the resulting crack or hole.
New Scientist Jan 23, 2006	back to top

Invention: The moody media player
Walt Disney would surely be pleased with some of the new ideas being patented by Disney's Californian headquarters. Alongside digital downloads for fast food restaurants, the company has devised a media player that selects songs based on its owner's latest mood. The device has wrist sensors that measure body temperature, perspiration and pulse rate. It uses these measurements to build a profile of what music or video the owner plays when they are hot, cold, dry or sweaty, and when their pulse is racing or slow. The device then comes up with suggestion to fit each and every profile, either using songs or videos in its library or downloading something new that should be suitable. If the owner rejects the player's selection it learns and refines the profile. So, over time the player should get better and better at matching body measurements with the owner's moods.
New Scientist Jan 24, 2006	back to top