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Issue no. 22, 2006 Published: Jun 23, 2006
UN launches global tech alliance
China to assess its wind and solar energy potential
Chilly chip shatters speed record
Neurons self-organise to make brain chips
Scientists develop MRI for fuel cells
Magnets zap migraines
US scientists invent digital camera blocking device
Bacteria coat offers metal protection
Philips rolls out next-gen RFID chip for libraries
Car-to-car chit-chat
Spinning touchdown

UN launches global tech alliance
The United Nations this week launched a Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development. The alliance is chaired by Intel Board Chairman Craig Barrett, who advocates improving education worldwide and using technology to raise global social and economic standards. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan approved the alliance in April as part of a larger effort to stress that information and communication technologies are essential for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, which include eradicating extreme hunger and poverty, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowerment of women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, fighting HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other disease, ensuring environmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development. In another technology initiative, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific opened the UN's first Information and Communications Technology for Development and Training. Microsoft pledged support for the facility, which will be a resource for policy-makers, ICT professionals and trainers from developing nations.
Information Week Jun 19, 2006	back to top

China to assess its wind and solar energy potential
China has opened a new centre to assess its potential to generate wind and solar energy. The Centre for Wind and Solar Energy Assessment, part of the China Meteorology Administration, opened last week. The centre will assess how much energy can be generated through wind and solar power in key Chinese regions, generate estimates of the wind energy potential at specific locations to help plan for wind power plants, and evaluate the impact of natural disasters, such as sand storms, on the operation of the wind power plants. It will also carry out nationwide surveys of China's solar energy potential. China's current wind forecasts are not precise enough to allow scientists to estimate how much wind energy could be generated in various regions. The new centre will seek to refine the geographical aspect of wind forecasts. Currently, the smallest area that forecasts can resolve is 100 square kilometres. The new centre will try to develop and improve the resolution down to five square kilometres. In 2005, China generated 1.26 million kilowatts in wind energy. Scientists estimate that this number could be increased to 3.3 billion kilowatts for land-based wind energy alone.
SciDev Jun 20, 2006	back to top

Chilly chip shatters speed record
IBM has built a transistor that runs around 100 times faster than current chips, a development that could pave the way for ultra-fast computers and wireless networks, the computing giant said on Monday. Transistors are the basic building blocks of the processors found in everything from supercomputers to digital music players, and IBM achieved the record speeds by building one from silicon laced with exotic chemical element germanium. The transistor achieved a speed of 500 gigahertz, which is more than 100 times speedier than the fastest PC chips sold today. That speed was hit only when IBM researchers, working with counterparts from the Georgia Institute of Technology, cooled the transistor to near absolute zero using liquid helium, but the device still ran at 300 gigahertz at room temperature.
CNN / Reuters Jun 21, 2006	back to top

Neurons self-organise to make brain chips
Brain cells can be enticed into forming uniform functioning patterns using a nano-engineering trick. The technique could allow the development of sophisticated biological sensors that use functioning brain cells, the researchers say. This type of device would identify a compound - a deadly nerve agent or poison, for example - by measuring its effect on a functioning network of neurons. Researchers from Tel Aviv University in Israel used 100-micrometre-wide bundles of nanotubes to coax rat neurons into forming regular patterns on a sheet of quartz. The neurons cannot stick to the quartz surface but do bind to the nanotube dots, in clusters of about between 20 and 100. Once attached, these neuron bundles are just the right distance from one another to stretch out projections called axons and dendrites to make links with other clusters nearby. The electrical activity of the neural network can easily be measured because carbon nanotubes conduct electricity and so can function as electrodes. The process makes it possible to create more uniform neural networks, according to the researchers. In experiments they last longer than other artificial networks, surviving for up to 11 weeks. This could be crucial for building biosensors using the cells.
New Scientist / Journal of Neural Engineering Jun 22, 2006	back to top

Scientists develop MRI for fuel cells
A US research team at Northwestern University has produced the first three-dimensional images of the interior of a fuel cell. The technology is expected to become a new tool for the study and development of fuel cells. The dual-beam focused-ion-beam microscope used in the study provides much higher resolution than an MRI, showing nanometre-scale features. These pictures might help researchers to unravel how fuel cells work so they can eventually be improved and made to work longer without failing, according the researchers. The imaging technique also will enable manufacturers to maintain quality by checking batches of fuel cells for structural changes that might hurt the fuel cells' characteristics.
UPI / Nature Materials Jun 19, 2006	back to top

Magnets zap migraines
Migraine sufferers might soon be able to block an imminent attack using a device that targets the brain with a powerful magnetic field. The technique, called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), triggers activity in the brain's nerve cells and is already being tested as a way to treat depression. Two small clinical trials have now shown that delivering TMS to the brain in the early stages of a migraine seems to halt it in its tracks. The test results back the idea that the aura of a migraine is caused by a slow-spreading region of intensely excited neurons in the brain's cortex, which then become exhausted. The highly active neurons are thought to trigger a cascade of events that activate pain sensors in the brain. The magnetic fields created by TMS suppress the activity of the neurons and seem to prevent the excitation spreading, so that the aura is halted, aborting the imminent headache. NeuraLieve, a company based in Sunnyvale, California has now built a portable TMS device the size of a large hairdryer that people could use out and about.
Nature Jun 22, 2006	back to top

US scientists invent digital camera blocking device
Photographers should avoid throwing out their film cameras just yet. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have built a prototype device that can block digital-camera function. The device has been developed ostensibly to aid development of anti-piracy products for the film industry. However, according to the developers, commercial versions of the technology could be used by camera-shy industries, or in areas sensitive to publicity, to prevent video or still digital images being taken. The device uses visible light and cameras to find charge-coupled devices (CCDs), the images sensors used in digital cameras. Once detected, it then flashes a thin beam of light directly at the CCD to overwhelm the camera and render the recorded image unusable. However, the system may never actually work against single-lens-reflex cameras (SLRs), as they use a folding-mirror viewing system that masks the CCD except when a photograph is actually being taken.
Journalism.co.uk Jun 20, 2006	back to top

Bacteria coat offers metal protection
A layer of living bacteria could protect metal structures against corrosion and reduce the environmental damage caused by conventional protective coatings, according to researchers at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. Metals corrode when exposed to oxygen and water, a process known as chemical oxidation, or rusting. Some bacteria speed up this corrosion by attaching to the surface of the metal and producing chemicals that accelerate oxidation. But a few types of bacteria have the opposite effect, slowing down corrosion and protecting metals against decay. The researchers added two such species - Pseudomonas fragi and Paenibacillus polymyxa - to a gel. They applied it to samples of stainless steel and aluminium alloy and submerged these, along with untreated samples, in water. Over 30 days, levels of corrosion were measured by testing the resistance of each sample to an alternating current. The uncoated samples were found to corrode three times as much as those coated with the bacteria. Examination of the samples showed that the bacteria had continued to grow within the gel coating.
New Scientist Jun 21, 2006	back to top

Philips rolls out next-gen RFID chip for libraries
Royal Philips Electronics Wednesday introduced a new RFID chip, geared to the library industry, offering enhanced, password-protected security and privacy features. According to Philips, the chip, ICODE-SLI S, addresses many of the challenges facing library management, including reader logistics, material identification and inventory and information storage. ICODE SLI-S also offers increased read performance and is specifically suited for automated management of media in libraries. The chip offers added convenience for library users, providing faster check-out of books, CDs and DVDs. The technology also enables consumers to do self-service returns.
Information Week Jun 21, 2006	back to top

Car-to-car chit-chat
How often have you been driving and wished you could communicate with another driver? Perhaps you'd like to give them advance warning that you intend to slow down, say thanks when they have given way or issue a gentle rebuke for some lapse of road manners on their part. Sony is patenting a simple way to make this possible. It could even let traffic lights pass messages to your car, perhaps to let you know just how long they will be stuck on red. The system will rely on high-power LEDs built into car headlights. These can produce an apparently continuous beam that is in fact flashing very rapidly to communicate encoded messages. A car's headlight could then transmit a pre-programmed message at the press of a button to the car in front. A light sensor on the target car would then decode the message and display it on a screen or using a voice synthesiser inside the car. The system could also be used to relay emergency messages via many different cars to a police vehicle or ambulance.
New Scientist Jun 20, 2006	back to top

Spinning touchdown
An inventor from Bangkok is patenting an outlandish emergency landing system for aeroplanes. Normally, when a crash landing is inevitable and no runway is in sight, a pilot would make a controlled belly flop to prevent the plane from ploughing into any buildings nearby. But Polchai Phanumphai's idea is for aircraft to spin their way down instead. As a suitably fitted-out plane prepares to crash down, an altimeter would trigger explosive charges to make one wing break away from the fuselage and kick the one-winged plane into a horizontal spin. Phanumphai says the spinning motion would produce lift in the same way as a helicopter's blades, while the centrifugal force should keep the body level. So, the inventor says, the falling plane ought to hit the ground relatively slowly. The result, in theory at least, is a 'reduced loss of life'. But the inventor gives no clue whether the rapid spin might do more harm to the passengers than the crash landing itself. Any volunteers for a test flight?
New Scientist Jun 20, 2006	back to top