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Issue no. 13, 2008 Published: Apr 25, 2008
New source for biofuels discovered
'Planetary sunshade' could strip ozone layer by 76%
'Flammable ice' could be mined for fuel
Researchers take the long view on digital storage
Bionic eye returns sight to blind
High-tech armband puts your fingers in control
Microsoft unveils cloud computing platform
LED lightbulbs: Are you ready to make the switch?

New source for biofuels discovered
A newly created microbe produces cellulose that can be turned into ethanol and other biofuels, report scientists from the University of Texas at Austin who say the microbe could provide a significant portion of the nation's transportation fuel if production can be scaled up. Along with cellulose, the cyanobacteria secrete glucose and sucrose. These simple sugars are the major sources used to produce ethanol. The researchers say their cyanobacteria can be grown in production facilities on non-agricultural lands using salty water unsuitable for human consumption or crops. The new cyanobacteria use sunlight as an energy source to produce and excrete sugars and cellulose. Glucose, cellulose and sucrose can be continually harvested without harming or destroying the cyanobacteria. The researchers created the new cyanobacteria by giving them a set of cellulose-making genes from a non-photosynthetic 'vinegar' bacterium, Acetobacter xylinum, well known as a prolific cellulose producer. The new cyanobacteria produce a relatively pure, gel-like form of cellulose that can be broken down easily into glucose. The researchers think that by using the new bacteria they would need an area half the size of the surface needed to produce ethanol with corn.
PhysOrg / University of Texas Apr 23, 2008	back to top

'Planetary sunshade' could strip ozone layer by 76%
Planetary engineering projects to cool the planet could backfire quite spectacularly: a new model shows that a 'sulphate sunshade' would punch huge holes through the ozone layer above the Arctic. To make matters worse, it would also delay the full recovery of the Antarctic ozone hole by up to 70 years. Pumping tiny sulphate particles into the atmosphere to create a sunshield that would keep the planet cool was first suggested as a solution to global warming by Edward Teller. Simone Tilmes of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, US, used computer models to see how a sulphate sunshade would affect the ozone layer, which protects us from harmful UV rays. Tilmes modelled two different scenarios: one in which 'large' particles measuring 0.43 microns in diameter are used, and one where the particles are two-and-a-half times smaller. She found that injections of small particles over the next 20 years could thin the wintertime ozone layer over the Arctic by between 22 and 76%. Large particles, which would have less of a cooling effect, would still reduce Arctic ozone by 15 to 50% during the winter. In the Antarctic, the injections would delay the recovery of the existing ozone hole by 30 to 70 years.
New Scientist / Science Apr 24, 2008	back to top

'Flammable ice' could be mined for fuel
They call it flammable ice, and it could be the world's last great source of carbon-based fuel - assuming we can mine methane hydrates, crystal lattices of ice that trap methane beneath ocean beds and permafrost. One problem with extracting this methane is that the ice must be melted to bring the gas to the surface. A team of geologists from Canada and Japan has succeeded in extracting methane by pumping air out of drill holes in the frozen structures. This reduced the pressure, and so raised the melting temperature of the ice so the methane could be removed. The state-owned Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation, which announced the test results, wants to extract the 7 trillion tonnes of methane thought to be trapped in hydrates in Japanese coastal waters. It hopes this will be the answer to Japan's century-long search for an indigenous source of fuel. Last month, the government approved a plan to commercialise the extraction of the fuel within a decade.
New Scientist Apr 23, 2008	back to top

Researchers take the long view on digital storage
There is a risk that an entire generation's cultural history could be lost if people are not able to retrieve that data. Now, computer scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have unveiled details of a project to develop technology for the long-term storage of digital data. The group has come up with a new approach to replace technologies such as tape libraries. The Pergamum technology uses hard disk drives to provide energy-efficient and cost-effective storage. The declining cost of hard drives has made them competitive compared with tape, and they offer numerous advantages for searching and retrieving data. Pergamum, named after the ancient Greek library that made the transition from fragile papyrus to more durable parchment, is a distributed network of intelligent, disk-based storage devices. The researchers designed the system to provide reliable, energy-efficient data storage using off-the-shelf components. It also has the ability to evolve over time as storage technologies change.
VNUnet UK Apr 22, 2008	back to top

Bionic eye returns sight to blind
A 'bionic eye' may hold the key to returning sight to people left blind by a hereditary disease, experts believe. A team at London's Moorfields Eye Hospital have carried out the treatment on the UK's first patients as part of a clinical study into the therapy. The bionic eye, known as Argus II, works via the camera on a pair of glasses, which transmits a wireless signal to an ultra-thin electronic receiver and electrode panel that are implanted in the eye and attached to the retina. The electrodes stimulate the remaining retinal nerves allowing a signal to be passed along the optic nerve to the brain. The trial aims to help people who have been made blind through retinitis pigmentosa, a group of inherited eye diseases that affects the retina. The disease progresses over a number of years, normally after people have been diagnosed when they are children.
BBC News Apr 21, 2008	back to top

High-tech armband puts your fingers in control
A novel way of interacting with computers and other gadgets could make twiddling your thumbs a productive activity. Microsoft researchers are developing an armband worn on the forearm that recognises finger movements by monitoring muscle activity. They have called it MUCI, which stands for muscle-computer interface. The aim is to make controlling computers and gadgets easier in situations where the user is otherwise engaged - for example, when driving a car or taking part in a meeting. Hands-free alternatives like speech recognition or cameras that recognise gestures are still too error-prone and indiscreet, say researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle, and Microsoft's lab. Their alternative is to use MUCI to detect and decode the voltages generated by twitching forearm muscles that move a person's fingers. Users of MUCI just slip the armband onto their forearm, without worrying about how its 10 sensors are positioned. Instead, a series of calibration exercises teach the device's software how to recognise different movements. Tests on 10 volunteers showed that, after calibration, the system can recognise the position and pressure of all 10 digits with 95% accuracy. It can even detect three different degrees of pressure exerted by a finger.
New Scientist Apr 24, 2008	back to top

Microsoft unveils cloud computing platform
Forget monster hard drives, backing up your PC and shrink-wrapped software - the future of computing is up in the 'cloud'. Microsoft this week brought the cloud computing concept - whereby all of our data and applications are stored on the internet as opposed to on the PC - a step closer to reality with the unveiling of its Live Mesh platform. Live Mesh is essentially a web-based operating system, letting users connect all of their devices into their own personal mesh. Files and applications can be placed into a 'Mesh folder', which lives on the internet and can be accessed by all devices. The Mesh is updated with any changes made to the files or folders the next time the users is connected to the web. As the internet supplants the PC as the centre of our digital world, Microsoft suddenly appears far more capable of tackling the Google juggernaut than ever before. The platform - part of Microsoft's concerted push into the web as its software stranglehold on PC users loosens - is still in beta, but will soon allow users to work with online applications while offline and house their regular offline applications on the web, to be accessed by multiple devices.
Sydney Morning Herald Apr 24, 2008	back to top

LED lightbulbs: Are you ready to make the switch?
LED bulbs for household use have already been around for some time, but their success has been limited. The main obstacles have been that they cost more than incandescent lightbulbs and emit a sometimes unnerving colour of light. Lighting Science Group this week plans to introduce a portfolio of LED replacement white lightbulbs that it hopes will attract more consumer interest. The product line uses the same sockets as Edison bulbs. The bulbs perform well on a warmth and colour rendering index, they have a long life cycle, and consume 80% less energy than incandescent bulbs. At USD 40 to USD 110 apiece, the LED 'in-screw' bulbs may still seem too pricey for a lot of consumers. But Lighting Science Group's pitch is that a 50 cent Edison bulb will last for 750 to 3,000 hours, while an LED has to be replaced only every 50,000 hours (or 10 to 30 years). The company says the cost savings is almost USD 740 over a lifetime due to much lower energy consumption.
CNET News Apr 22, 2008	back to top