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Issue no. 17, 2006 Published: May 12, 2006
USD 10m prize for hydrogen fuel technology
EU orders battery recycling
Dwarf grass in scientists' sights
Mobile masts signal rain showers
Blueprinting the human brain
Robo-roach could betray real cockroaches
Researchers invent landmine-proof robo-shoe
Patent filing: Apple gesture control
Scientists make water run uphill
Old computers harm office morale
Lego builds open source robotics toy

USD 10m prize for hydrogen fuel technology
Scientists, inventors and entrepreneurs will be able to vie for a grand prize of USD 10m, and smaller prizes, under new US legislation to encourage research into hydrogen as an alternative fuel. The measure would award four prizes of up to USD 1m every other year for technological advances in hydrogen production, storage, distribution and utilisation. One prize of up to USD 4m would be awarded every second year for the creation of a working hydrogen vehicle prototype. The grand prize, to be awarded within the next 10 years, would go for breakthrough technology. The US Department of Energy will put together a private foundation to set up guidelines and requirements for the prizes. Anyone can participate, as long as the research is performed in the US and the person, if employed by the government or a national lab, does the research on his own time.
ABC News / AP May 10, 2006	back to top

EU orders battery recycling
EU member states have agreed to a new directive that will mandate the recycling of batteries throughout the region. The new rules require public collection points where consumers and businesses can drop off used batteries. Four years after the rules become effective, 25 per cent of all batteries are to be reclaimed at such sites, rising to 45 per cent in a further four years. Battery makers will also have to provide information on any unit's capacity, allowing consumers to gauge the performance of different brands. At least 50 per cent of the collected batteries have to be recycled, while the requirements for units containing cadmium or lead are set at 75 per cent and 65 per cent respectively. The directive mandates that producers pay for the recycling programmes. Device makers will also be required to produce appliances in a way that batteries can be removed. Currently only Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden have recycling programmes.
VNUnet UK May 04, 2006	back to top

Dwarf grass in scientists' sights
Imagine if your lawn was always green and never needed mowing. That is the goal of new research at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, where scientists have mapped a hormone-signalling pathway that regulates plant height. The work could lead to sturdier rice, wheat, corn and soybean crops, as well as grass that rarely if ever needs mowing. The researchers studied a family of plant hormones known as brassinosteroids. Without these hormones plants are dwarfed and infertile with reduced vasculature and roots. The hormones govern cellular development. Reshaping the chain of command could force plants to grow in certain ways. The researchers aim to dwarf grass and keep it green by limiting brassinosteroids or increase the yield of rice by having more brassinosteroids in seeds. Humans have for centuries manipulated plant size and other characteristics by selective breeding. Controlling hormones presents a modern method of achieving further change.
MSNBC / Nature May 08, 2006	back to top

Mobile masts signal rain showers
Signals from mobile phone masts have been used to measure rainfall patterns in Israel, scientists report. A team from the University of Tel Aviv analysed information routinely collected by mobile networks to make their estimates. The researchers say their technique is more accurate than current methods used by meteorological services. To make the measurements the researchers analysed data collected automatically at mobile base stations around Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem. The data is a by-product of mobile network operators' need to monitor signal strength. If bad weather causes a signal to drop, an automatic system analysing the data boosts the signal to make sure that people can still use their mobile phones. The amount of reduction in signal strength gave the researchers an indication of how much rain had fallen. When they compared their estimates with measurements from traditional monitoring methods, such as radar and rain gauges, they discovered that the readings from all three closely matched. But overall the new technique seems to give more precise measurements than radar and was able to monitor a greater area.
BBC News / Science May 05, 2006	back to top

Blueprinting the human brain
A 3D computer simulation of 10,000 neurons firing in the human brain produces a terabyte of data - a fraction of what it would take to map the brain's billions of neurons in algorithms, according to scientists working on the Blue Brain project, a collaboration of IBM, the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, or EPFL, in Lausanne, Switzerland, and others. The project is an attempt to create a blueprint of the human brain to advance cognition research. Last year, EPFL bought an IBM Blue Gene/L supercomputer for the two-year project, which is being conducted in Switzerland. The group only recently simulated the firing of 10,000 neurons in a single column in the neocortex, the largest area of the human brain governing high-level thinking and action. A column typically contains 100,000 neurons. To deal with the enormous amount of data generated from the project, the group relies on visualisation tools to locate and earmark interesting results in the computations for further research. Blue Brain bought a supercomputer from SGI to create a small media centre to display the 3D simulations, which is like sitting inside the brain.
CNET News May 10, 2006	back to top

Robo-roach could betray real cockroaches
A matchbox-sized robot that can infiltrate a pack of cockroaches and influence their collective behaviour has been developed by European scientists. The robot smells and acts just like a roach, fooling the real insects into accepting it as one of their own. Through its behaviour, the robot can persuade a group of cockroaches to venture out into the light despite their normal preference for the dark. Cockroaches and other insects display 'collective intelligence'. This means that complex group behaviour emerges from simple individual action and interaction. Researchers from France, Belgium and Switzerland created a robot capable of controlling a group of cockroaches by exploiting this emergent behaviour. They came up with 'Insbot', a wheeled robot containing processors hooked up to a camera and infrared proximity sensors that allow the bot to identify obstacles and real cockroaches. The team developed a mathematical model of cockroach behaviour by observing real ones. Tweaking this model suggested ways that the bot infiltrator might steer the behaviour of the whole group by exploiting the creatures' tendency to follow one another. The researchers believe robots could one day work on farms controlling flocks of sheep and chickens by similar means.
New Scientist May 09, 2006	back to top

Researchers invent landmine-proof robo-shoe
Scientists at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University have developed a robotic shoe that will allow people to walk through minefields unharmed. People wearing the robotic shoe would be able to step directly onto an anti-personnel mine, an action which would normally result in the loss of a limb or worse. The six-legged shoes protect the wearer by lifting up a leg if it is over a mine so that the device is not triggered. The other five legs continue to support the wearer's weight. Each of the shoe's six legs has a metal detector in its base. The detectors trigger solenoids which unlock the leg as soon as it is over a mine, allowing it to lift up freely when it touches the ground and put no pressure on the mine. The leg is connected to the shoe with a hinge which locks again as soon as it is clear of the mine.
VNUnet UK Apr 28, 2006	back to top

Patent filing: Apple gesture control
Apple is notoriously secretive about forthcoming products, but its patent filings provide a fascinating insight into what the future may hold. A team of eight at Apple recently filed a lengthy patent for a new concept called 'gesture control' that could make a handheld computer, tablet PC or portable music player a whole lot easier to operate. The idea is for the device to have a touchscreen that behaves normally when touched by a single finger. But when more than one finger is used it completely changes its response, depending on the program running. The patent suggests that holding a thumb in one corner of the screen while making a circular motion with the forefinger near the centre could bring up a rotary dial icon. This could be used to scroll through songs or turn up the volume on a music player. Putting two fingers over a map and moving them apart could zoom the image in and out. And swiping two fingers across a screen could turn two pages of an electronic book. Going back to using a single finger would return the screen to conventional touch and tap mode.
New Scientist May 08, 2006	back to top

Scientists make water run uphill
Physicists have made water run uphill quite literally under its own steam. The droplets propel themselves over metal sheets scored with a carefully designed array of grooves. The US scientists did the experiment to demonstrate how the random motion of water molecules in hot steam could be channelled into a directed force. The physics at work here has been witnessed by all of us in the kitchen. Leave an empty pan on the stove for too long, and water, when you drip it over the scorching pan bottom, will hover over the surface on a bed of steam. The heat is so intense, it boils the underside of the water droplet without any physical contact with the pan. Instead of using a smooth surface, the team scored it with a series of skewed triangular grooves. Now the water droplets appear to push themselves off the long-slope side of the grooves and rocket across the heated surface. The researchers think there may be a use for the effect in cooling computer microchips. The electrical currents passing through processors are so large the heat they generate can limit performance. Many chips have cooling circuits, but these require pumps to drive the coolant. Suitably micro-patterned channels would make the coolant flow automatically, the researchers believe.
BBC News / Physical Review Letters Apr 30, 2006	back to top

Old computers harm office morale
Ageing and unreliable office computers are making workers unhappy and more likely to claim sick leave. A poll conducted by Tickbox.net of more 2,700 European office workers from Britain, France and Germany found that workplace dissatisfaction increased significantly with the age of computer equipment. British and French respondents said working on outdated computers was the most irritating aspect of office life. Almost 40 per cent of the workers surveyed in the three countries were using computers at least three years old. Clerical and administrative workers often had the oldest equipment. The survey said workers dealing with outdated equipment were 35 per cent more likely to take six or more sick leave days a year compared with the average worker. In France, where more workers use older computers, the likelihood jumped to 55 per cent. About two-thirds of those polled also complained of problems like eye fatigue, headaches, and repetitive strain injury (RSI). The number was highest in France. Results also showed that women in all three countries were consistently more likely to be using outdated equipment.
The Age / Reuters May 10, 2006	back to top

Lego builds open source robotics toy
Lego has announced plans to release the source code of its forthcoming Mindstorms NXT toys. Mindstorms NXT is a set of robotics tools including sensors and a central computer unit that allows Lego builders to create structures that sort items based on their colour or that can move around obstacles. Lego will also publish developer kits that allow individuals to create their own software and hardware that work with the set. Lego will release specifications that allow children to use a Bluetooth mobile phone or other device to control or communicate with their creations.
VNUnet UK May 03, 2006	back to top