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Issue no. 10, 2007
Published: Mar 16, 2007 |
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 EU warns against further delays to Galileo satellite system | | Photon's life cycle 'watched' in full | | Hydrogen injection could boost biofuel production | | Catalyst could help turn CO2 into fuel | | Project will cable up ocean floor | | Researchers building computer that runs on light | | Stealth umbrella has users singing in the rain |
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| EU warns against further delays to Galileo satellite system |
The European Commission warned Thursday that it would examine new ways
to complete the Galileo satellite navigation system after the project
stalled amid doubts about profitability.
The system, worth around EUR 1.5bn and meant to be in space in 2010, is
aimed at breaking Europe's dependence on the free US Global Positioning
System (GPS), used aboard many cars, boats and aircraft.
In a letter to the EU's German presidency, Transport Commissioner
Jacques Barrot requested a mandate to study 'reasonable alternatives' to
the current Galileo consortium of eight private contractors. Stepping up
the rhetoric, he accused industry giants AENA, Alcatel, EADS,
Finmeccanica, Hispasat, Inmarsat, TeleOp and Thales of being responsible
for delays in the project.
The Financial Times said there was concern about Galileo's ability to
attract enough revenues, as people within the project doubted whether it
would restart unless there were guarantees it could win business from
the free GPS. |
| Yahoo / AFP / FT
Mar 15, 2007 |
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| Photon's life cycle 'watched' in full |
For the first time the birth, life and death of a single photon - a
particle of light - has been 'watched' in real time. Previously,
scientists were restricted to momentary glances because the mere act of
measurement absorbed and destroyed the delicate quantum particles. Now,
researchers at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, France, have
succeeded in tracking photons over an average lifetime of 0.13 seconds.
At the heart of their remarkable achievement lies a small box-like
cavity, walled with ultra-reflective, superconducting mirrors, which is
cooled to just 0.5° above absolute zero (-273.15°C). Photons appear and
disappear randomly within the cavity due to tiny energy fluctuations in
space that cause quantum particles to blink in and out of existence.
However, once there, the photon is trapped, bouncing billions of times
between the mirrored walls before it decays.
To observe the photon, the researchers passed rubidium atoms across the
cavity one at a time. A single rubidium atom is unable to absorb a
single photon, because the photon is not the correct package of energy
to boost the rubidium atom to a different energy state. However, the
photon's electric field slightly shifts the atom's energy levels by a
measurable amount (once the atom has emerged), which the team used to
determine whether there were any trapped photons. |
| New Scientist / Nature
Mar 14, 2007 |
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| Hydrogen injection could boost biofuel production |
A proposed new process for creating fuel from biomass could eliminate
two major obstacles to producing sustainable biofuels - the low
efficiency of conversion and the need for vast areas of land to grow
biomass on.
The new method requires two-thirds less biomass to produce one litre of
fuel than conventional methods. It is a variant on traditional
gasification, which is the partial combustion process that converts
biomass into biofuel, plus carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and hydrogen.
In current systems, only a third of the carbon ends up as biofuel, while
the rest is lost as CO2 and CO. The team propose adding more hydrogen to
the gasification process. The additional hydrogen will react with carbon
dioxide to produce carbon monoxide, which in turn reacts with more
hydrogen to make extra biofuel and water.
Making the modified gasification viable on a large scale, a cheap method
for producing hydrogen is needed, for instance using solar cells. The
researchers say they are very close to producing 'spray-on' solar cells
using nanotechnology. These would be cheaper and faster to manufacture
then current solar cells. |
| New Scientist / Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Mar 12, 2007 |
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| Catalyst could help turn CO2 into fuel |
A new catalyst that can split carbon dioxide gas could allow us to use
carbon from the atmosphere as a fuel source in a similar way to plants
according to researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and
Interfaces in Potsdam, Germany.
Plants use the energy of sunlight to cleave the relatively stable
chemical bonds between the carbon and oxygen atoms in a carbon dioxide
molecule. In photosynthesis, the CO2 molecule is initially bonded to
nitrogen atoms, making reactive compounds called carbamates. These less
stable compounds can then be broken down, allowing the carbon to be used
in the synthesis of other plant products, such as sugars and proteins.
In an attempt to emulate this natural process, the researchers developed
their own nitrogen-based catalyst that can produce carbamates, using a
mixture of CO2 and benzene. In a first step, the catalyst enabled the
CO2 to form a reactive carbamate, like that made in plants. The
catalyst's next step was to enable the benzene molecules to grab the
oxygen atom from the CO2 in the carbamate, producing phenol and a
reactive carbon monoxide (CO) species. |
| New Scientist / Angewandte Chemie
Mar 15, 2007 |
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| Project will cable up ocean floor |
Electricians prefer to keep power cords dry as a rule. But in Monterey,
California, scientists and engineers are hopeful that immersing
electrical cable off the coast will profoundly improve how the oceans
are studied.
This week, a team from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
(MBARI) will lay 52km of electrical cable from a research station on
shore to a shelf 900m below the sea's surface. The thick cable will send
power to, and return data from, a variety of research instruments - to
be added later this year - that will sit on Smooth Ridge, a plateau at
the edge of Monterey Canyon, the largest and deepest submarine canyon
off the continental West Coast.
After years of planning, it is the first real step in the building of
the USD 12m Monterey Accelerated Research System (Mars), a pioneering
underwater observatory that will influence the construction of similar
networks elsewhere in the ocean. Mars frees scientists from the
limitations of batteries and hooks them up to fibre optics. They will be
able to conduct experiments and communicate directly with underwater
machines, then monitor the results in real-time from PCs on shore. |
| BBC News
Mar 13, 2007 |
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| Researchers building computer that runs on light |
Physicists at the University of Bath, UK, are working on a project to
create computers that run on light rather than traditional electronics.
The research project will look at developing technology to send light in
a continuous series of pulses that last only an attosecond, or one
billion billionth of a second. The research could help in the
development of photonics, and may give physicists a chance to look very
closely at the world of atomic structure for the first time.
Chip makers are rapidly approaching the point where chips cannot get any
smaller as electro-magnetic fields created by one transistor start to
play havoc with nearby transistors. As a result engineers are looking to
the science of photonics, which uses light to convey information, as a
much more powerful alternative. But photonics can only use light with a
sinuous waveform, which has limited value for the communications needed
to run a computer. The Bath researchers want to allow photonics to
create waveforms in a variety of patterns. |
| VNUnet UK
Mar 15, 2007 |
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| Stealth umbrella has users singing in the rain |
Dutch scientists claim to have invented a windproof umbrella that will
not turn inside out even in gale-force winds. The umbrella looks more
like a stealth fighter jet than a traditional umbrella, but the makers
say that the unique combination of materials and design means that it
will not turn inside out, break, or make you walk into a lamppost, even
in force 10 winds.
The Senz Umbrella's asymmetric shape is designed to find the best
position to adopt in the wind. It features a cutaway front to allow
better vision while negotiating streets, and its extended rear gives
better rain protection for the back.
According to Senz Umbrella co-founder Philip Hess, it all began out of
frustration. 'We have all the technology in the world. We can go to the
moon and beyond, but we can't create a functional umbrella,' he said.
'Basically, we tried to eliminate all annoyances of your typical
umbrella. Our shape is different. The circular shape is the worst shape
for an umbrella, so ours is asymmetrical. We have a new patented
construction that better distributes pressure throughout the device so
it won't break. And we've added what we call 'eye-savers' so there'll be
no more nasty eye poking.' |
| VNUnet UK
Mar 09, 2007 |
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