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Issue no. 27, 2006 Published: Aug 18, 2006
Open source heads for global domination
'Electron-spin' trick boosts quantum computing
Digital DNA detector spots single molecules
Gene discovery could lead to flood-resistant rice
Comments sought on African science funding body
Plasmas move into dentistry
Seeing by sound
GM to show off fuel cell-powered car
File-sharing 'darknet' unveiled
Voice shifting improves conference calls
Half of IT managers admit to hating their users

Open source heads for global domination
The open source software phenomenon has spread far beyond Linux and is gaining enormous momentum, according to a report from IDC. Analysis of surveys from over 5,000 developers in 116 countries found that open source software represents the most significant all-encompassing and long-term trend that the software industry has seen since the early 1980s. IDC believes that open source will eventually play a role in the life-cycle of every major software category, and will fundamentally change the value proposition of packaged software for customers. The study noted that, of the 5,000 survey respondents, open source software is being used by 71 per cent of the world's developers and is in production at 54 per cent of their organisations. IDC contends that, despite the proliferation of open source licences, only three business models are important from an industry and an individual vendor success point of view: the software revenue model, the public collective model, and the service broker model. Competitive success among vendors' open source markets will be determined by a different set of core competencies than those required to invent and market a new product, the analyst firm believes.
VNUnet UK Aug 15, 2006	back to top

'Electron-spin' trick boosts quantum computing
Researchers at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands has created a device that can manipulate a single electron using conventional microchip fabrication technology. The breakthrough could ultimately allow futuristic quantum computers to be built using conventional electronic technology. In the past researchers have created quantum bit or qubits from the 'up' or 'down' spin-states of electrons on quantum dots. But they lacked the ability to control the state of a single electron well enough to perform calculations using them. The Dutch team's device was made using conventional microchip lithography. It consists of two electrodes that apply voltage across two semiconducting quantum dots to form a simple circuit. The voltage causes electrons to hop between the dots. Each dot can accommodate two electrons but only if they have opposite spin. This causes two electrons, with matching spin states, to become jammed - one on each dot. The researchers then isolated the dots from the circuit and used a magnetic field to alter the spin of the electron on the first dot. Once plugged back into the circuit, current will only flow if the first electron has been switched to a different spin-state to the second, proving it has been switched.
New Scientist / Nature Aug 16, 2006	back to top

Digital DNA detector spots single molecules
A modified nanoscale transistor could dramatically speed up the detection of DNA sequences, according to researchers at Quantum Logic Devices in Texas. The detector consists of a quantum dot with a piece of DNA attached. It only allows current to flow when a matching sequence of DNA binds to the attached piece and could provide a simple, faster way to detect viruses or to track gene expression. The researchers constructed the detector by modifying an existing transistor design. This features a 5-nanometre-wide gold particle flanked by three electrodes. One of the electrodes switches the transistor on and off while the other two connect it to a larger circuit. The researchers simply removed the controlling electrode and attached a 36-letters-long sequence of DNA to the particle instead. Attaching the DNA molecule means that the device now switches on and off when a matching sequence of DNA becomes attached. The new detector can detect a piece of DNA in less than 30 minutes. By contrast, researchers currently label DNA molecules using fluorescence, which can take around 24 hours to produce a result.
New Scientist / Journal of the American Chemical Society Aug 14, 2006	back to top

Gene discovery could lead to flood-resistant rice
Scientists have identified a gene that enables rice to survive for up to two weeks underwater, raising the possibility of breeding varieties that can withstand what would otherwise be damaging floods. A quarter of the world's rice grows in areas prone to flooding, which costs rice farmers in South and South-East Asia more than USD 1bn a year. Although rice thrives in standing water, most varieties die within a week of being completely submerged. But others can tolerate being totally submerged for up to two weeks. An international team of researchers studied the DNA of one such variety. They found it has a gene that intolerant varieties lack. When they introduced the gene into a high-yielding rice variety grown widely in Asia, they found it kept its high yield but could also tolerate being totally submerged. Scientists will be able to crossbreed submergence- tolerant rice with varieties that are already popular with farmers.
SciDev / Nature Aug 10, 2006	back to top

Comments sought on African science funding body
African scientists, politicians, and policy advisors are being asked to make suggestions on the design of a proposed mechanism for funding regional research facilities across the continent. The request has come from the science and technology office of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), which is drawing up the proposal at the request of African science and technology ministers. At a meeting in September last year the ministers asked NEPAD to explore options for creating an African Science and Innovation Facility (ASIF). This funding body would mobilise African and international technical and financial resources to implement a 'consolidated plan of action', which the ministers also approved. The plan lists initiatives for building capacity in various scientific fields. It would cost USD 159m to implement between 2006 and 2010, and already has the support of donor agencies. The idea is that, through the ASIF, donors would be asked to support the complete range of initiatives, rather than those most attractive to them. Plans for the ASIF will be presented to African heads of state for approval in January 2007 at the next African Union summit.
SciDev Aug 14, 2006	back to top

Plasmas move into dentistry
Physicists at the University of Iowa have shown that plasmas can be used to kill the bacteria that cause tooth decay. The researchers have used a hand-held 'plasma needle', which works at room temperature, to kill Streptococcus mutans grown in a glass dish. Although the needle is only an experimental device at the moment, the researchers say it could one day be used by dentists to replace mouthwash as a much more efficient way of eradicating oral bacteria. Plasmas are ionised gases that are routinely used in materials processing and the semiconductor industry. Unfortunately, the temperatures in most plasmas are so high that they would immediately kill living cells, which has ruled them out for biological applications. Three years ago, however, Dutch physicists at the Eindhoven University of Technology developed a plasma needle that works at room temperature. The researchers have now used an almost identical device to kill a colony of S. mutans bacteria that were grown on a glass Petri dish. The researchers say that oxygen and hydroxide radicals in the plasma, which survive for less than a millisecond, are responsible for killing the bacteria.
Physicsweb Aug 16, 2006	back to top

Seeing by sound
A new wearable computer can transform cities and buildings into soundscapes, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology say, helping visually impaired people get around more easily. The system's hardware includes two GPS receivers, a laptop, head and body compasses, a gyroscope-based tracker that measures the head's tilt, and four small cameras mounted on a helmet. For audio, users listen to 'bone phones', which fit behind the ears and transmit sound by vibrating against the skull. A user's ears are thus free to listen to important ambient noise, such as city traffic. It weighs around 1.5kg in total, and most parts tuck neatly into a backpack. The device uses GPS and digital maps to guide the wearer to a destination. Outdoors, GPS pinpoints a user's location. Users verbally tell the device where they want to go, and the system wirelessly extracts an area map, which includes everything from businesses to bushes, from a remote Geographic Information System (GIS) database. Then, 'sound beacons', soft tones emanating in stereo through the bone phones, guide the person to a destination.
Technology Review Aug 16, 2006	back to top

GM to show off fuel cell-powered car
General Motors has achieved a milestone in its quest to bring a hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicle to market, announcing that it now has a drivable version of its Sequel concept car. The Sequel, which looks like a shrunken minivan and has a range of 480km, will be shown to reporters next month in California. But production and sale of the Sequel is still a long way off. The pollution-free technology holds the potential of zero emissions and a sustainable source of energy produced when hydrogen and oxygen are mixed. Experts say they could begin arriving in showrooms by 2020, or perhaps earlier. But many obstacles exist, including the high cost, relatively short range and a lack of fueling stations.
MSNBC / AP Aug 11, 2006	back to top

File-sharing 'darknet' unveiled
A 'darknet' service that allows users to share music files anonymously on the web has been launched in Sweden. Relakks, as the service is known, allows users to send and receive files through a heavily-encrypted connection. It is the first commercial example of a darknet, a virtual network set up to share files between trusted users. The service is endorsed by political group the Pirate Party which is running for election in Sweden under a banner to reform the country's copyright laws. The new system claims to be the world's first commercial darknet. It works by giving a user's computer a new IP address, the unique number the machine uses to identify itself and communicate with other machines over the net. IP numbers allocated by your internet service provider (ISP) can be used to trace and identify a specific computer on a network. Computers using the Relakks system look like they have a Swedish IP address, no matter where they are in the world.
EJC Medianews / BBC News Aug 17, 2006	back to top

Voice shifting improves conference calls
Conference calls are getting easier and cheaper to set up but, with several different people speaking at the same time, it can be hard to know just who is saying what. Motorola has cooked up an interesting idea to help reduce conference call confusion – augment each caller's voice so they sound much more distinct. At the start of a new call everyone involved would say a few words. Software would analyse these to identify whether any voices sound particularly alike. If they do, one of these voices is left as it is but the other is shifted slightly in pitch, using the same technology employed in recording studios to artificially keep poor singers in tune. A pitch shift of one or two semitones should be enough to make two near identical voices sound different enough to those on the other end of the line. Motorola says each pitch-shifted caller would need to identify themselves before everyone starts chatting again.
New Scientist Aug 14, 2006	back to top

Half of IT managers admit to hating their users
Half of all UK IT managers are so fed up with their jobs that they deliberately make life difficult for their users, new research has claimed. According to an online poll of 2,800 employees conducted during June and July 2006, 75 per cent of IT workers go to work wishing they were in another job. The survey suggests that those working in non-managerial IT roles are the most dissatisfied of all the professions surveyed. One third indicated that they are either 'not happy at all' or 'not very happy' at work. More than one in 10 respondents have been so fed up that they have been deliberately unhelpful or obstructive to a manager, colleague or customer. IT managers are the worst culprits, with 50 per cent admitting to being unhelpful and/or obstructive to a colleague recently.
VNUnet UK Aug 15, 2006	back to top