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Issue no. 41, 2008 Published: Dec 19, 2008
Publish in Wikipedia or perish
Platinum-free fuel cell promises cheap, green power
US government lab, 14 firms team up on lithium battery
One Laptop Per Child project reaching 600,000 children
Gas memory could send spooky messages the full distance
Scientists write guide to build supercomputer from Sony Playstation3
How to make cheap wine taste like a fine vintage

Publish in Wikipedia or perish
Wikipedia, meet RNA. Anyone submitting to a section of the journal RNA Biology will, in the future, be required to also submit a Wikipedia page that summarizes the work. The journal will then peer review the page before publishing it in Wikipedia. The initiative is a collaboration between the journal and the RNA family database (Rfam) consortium led by the UK Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton. The aim is to boost the quality of the scientific content on Wikipedia while using the entries to update the Sanger database. RNA Biology will require Wikipedia pages from all authors who submit work to a new section of the journal that describes families of RNA molecules. The goal is to encourage more scientists who work on RNA to get involved in creating and updating public data on RNA families, while being rewarded by the traditional method of a citable publication. The Sanger Institute created the Rfam database in 2005, and it now contains data on about 1,200 RNA families from some 200 complete genome sequences. Sanger last year started to experiment with the idea of using Wikipedia to improve the database. It set up an RNA subsection on the encyclopaedia, called RNA WikiProject 2, which has the same entries as those on the Rfam database. The database is synchronized each night with Wikipedia, so that any changes made to the Wikipedia pages are transferred to the corresponding entries in the Rfam database.
Nature Dec 16, 2008	back to top

Platinum-free fuel cell promises cheap, green power
Doing away with the use of the precious metal platinum could lead to a new class of low-cost fuel cells, engineers at Wuhan University claim. In a standard fuel cell, a platinum catalyst at one electrode breaks down hydrogen into protons and electrons. The protons pass through a proton exchange membrane to a second electrode where they react with oxygen to produce water. The electrons are siphoned off as electric current. Platinum has so far been the metal of choice because the membranes used in fuel cells create a very acidic environment, and the metal is stable in such corrosive conditions. Now, though the Chinese team has designed a new membrane that is alkali, not acidic - making it possible to use a much cheaper, nickel, catalyst. The team's new polymer proves easy to make into fuel-cell membranes, and can also be mixed with the catalyst itself - this increases the contact between the two components and boosts efficiency. A working prototype of the new low-cost fuel cell shows a 'decent' performance of 50 milliwatts per square centimetre at 60 °C, according to the researchers.
New Scientist / Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Dec 15, 2008	back to top

US government lab, 14 firms team up on lithium battery
Aiming to mass-produce a lithium battery for vehicles, 14 US companies with expertise in batteries and advanced materials have formed an alliance with Argonne National Laboratory. The alliance, which includes battery industry giants such as 3M Co and Johnson Controls-Saft, intends to secure USD 1bn-2bn in US government funding over the next five years to build a manufacturing facility with an 'open foundry' for the participants to pursue the goal of perfecting lithium-ion batteries. China, Japan and South Korea are the current leaders in lithium battery research. The best-selling hybrid vehicles such as Toyota's Prius use a nickel metal hydride battery. Lithium batteries are widely considered to be the next technological leap forward for electric-powered vehicles, as they can be recharged in a wall socket like a computer battery. The National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Battery Cell Manufacture was modelled after SEMATECH, the successful public-private venture created in the late 1980s to restore US prominence in computer semiconductor technology.
Reuters Dec 18, 2008	back to top

One Laptop Per Child project reaching 600,000 children
The ultra-cheap XO computer from the One Laptop Per Child project is now being used by 600,000 children in the developing world. The XO is a small, 'netbook'-sized laptop built into a very tough, clamshell casing. It runs Sugar, a Linux-based operating system developed especially for the XO, and around 30 applications that cover everything from word processing to games and music making. Twin Wi-Fi antennas flank a rotating LCD screen, which has a low-power, black-and-white mode which can be read in direct sunlight. That is a valuable feature in places where school takes place outdoors. The laptop's green and white livery is drawn from Nigeria's national flag, the president having been an early supporter of the project. The next OLPC model - XO2 - will be launched in 2010. Users so far are spread across 31 countries, including Peru, Rwanda, and Cambodia. Palestine will be the next nation to receive a shipment. An interview with the project's founder, former MIT Media Lab director Nicholas Negroponte can be read by clicking the link below.
New Scientist Dec 18, 2008	back to top

Gas memory could send spooky messages the full distance
Quantum entanglement would be the perfect way to communicate data - if technical hurdles could be overcome. The method involves linking the quantum properties of two objects such that a change to one is instantly reflected in the other - offering a whole new way to transmit information from opposite sides of the globe. Entanglement has already been exploited as a way to securely share pass phrases for secret communications, but only over distances of less than 200 kilometres. The inability of the gas-based quantum computer memory used to hold onto information for more than a fraction of a second is to blame. Now Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have succeeded in creating quantum memories that last for 7.2 microseconds - more than two orders of magnitude longer than previously reported, and time enough to transmit quantum information over 1000 kilometres. The team's qubits are stored in gas atoms, encoded into a magnetic property known as 'spin'. The key to lengthening the attention span of gas qubits is to shield them from magnetic fields that can distort their spin and dissolve the stored state. The team has done just that by encoding the spin information into particular energy levels within the atoms that are relatively immune to magnetic disturbances.
New Scientist / Nature Physics Dec 16, 2008	back to top

Scientists write guide to build supercomputer from Sony Playstation3
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, US, have created a step-by-step guide to building a home-brewed supercomputer that can reduce the cost of university and general computing research. The resource fully illustrates how to create a fully functioning and high performance supercomputer with the Sony Playstation 3. Last year, the researchers' construction of a small supercomputer using eight Sony-donated Playstation 3 gaming consoles made headlines nationwide in the scientific community. The consoles are used to solve complex equations designed to predict the properties of gravitational waves generated by the black holes located at the centre of the galaxies. Typically, scientists rent supercomputer time by the hour. A single simulation can cost more than 5,000 hours at USD 1 per hour on the National Science Foundation's TeraGrid computing infrastructure. The guide is freely available to the public under an open source license at www.ps3cluster.org.
PhysOrg.com / University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Dec 17, 2008	back to top

How to make cheap wine taste like a fine vintage
Most people have got one lying around somewhere: a bottle of cheap, nasty wine left over from a dinner party just waiting to be offloaded on someone else. But what if you could turn that bargain-basement plonk into fine wine in minutes? The secret is an electric field. Pass an undrinkable, raw red wine between a set of high-voltage electrodes and it becomes pleasantly quaffable. Researchers at the South China University of Technology in Guangzhou treated wine with fields of different strengths for different periods of time. Batches of wine spent 1, 3 or 8 minutes in various electric fields. The team then analysed the treated wine for chemical changes that might alter its 'mouth feel' and quality, and passed it to a panel of 12 experienced wine tasters who assessed it in a blind tasting. The results were striking. With the gentlest treatment, the harsh, astringent wine grew softer. Longer exposure saw some of the hallmarks of ageing emerge- a more mature 'nose', better balance and greater complexity. The improvements reached their peak after 3 minutes at 600 volts per centimetre: this left the wine well balanced and harmonious, with a nose of an aged wine and, importantly, still recognisably a cabernet sauvignon.
New Scientist / Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies Dec 17, 2008	back to top