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Issue no. 1, 2010 Published: Jan 08, 2010
Cellphone radiation is good for Alzheimer's mice
EU satnav system to begin operations in 2014
Solar-powered irrigation a shining success in Benin
New solar pond distillation system devised
Your keyboard knows that it's you and you're stressed

Cellphone radiation is good for Alzheimer's mice
Despite years of demonisation, mobile phones might actually do us more good than harm, according to neuroscientist at the University of South Florida. Regular exposure to an electromagnetic field identical to the ones produced by mobile phones seems to improve memory in mice with symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. The team placed an antenna that generated electromagnetic waves of the same wavelength as those produced by mobile phones in the centre of a room, and the mice in cages around it. This was designed to give the mice a similar dose of radiation as a person talking on a mobile phone. The group also placed normal, healthy mice in cages in the same room. To mimic human phone use, the researchers turned on the antenna for 1 hour twice a day for nine months. Over this period, they regularly tested the mice's memory. To the researchers' surprise, the memory of both normal and transgenic mice exposed to the electromagnetic field (EMF) seemed better by the end of the experiment than that of a control group of mice that were not irradiated. The team examined the brains of the mice for plaques made of beta-amyloid protein, which are characteristic of the disease. They found that the brains of transgenic mice that had been exposed to the EMF from two months old did not contain as many plaques as transgenic control mice of the same age that had not been exposed to the EMF. What's more, in the older transgenic mice, which had already developed brain plaques before the experiment began, the EMF exposure seemed to have broken up and shrunken the plaques.
New Scientist / Journal of Alzheimer's Disease Jan 07, 2010	back to top

EU satnav system to begin operations in 2014
The EU's much-delayed satellite navigation network Galileo will begin operations in 2014, the European Commission said Thursday as it awarded key contracts to Germany's OHB System and France's Arianespace. OHB System beat out larger rival EADS-Astrium for the contract to build the first 14 satellites for the 30-satellite system, with Arianespace providing the launch services. The first launch is planned for October 2012. At the same time Thales Alenia Space was handed the contract to provide system support services. Remaining procurement contracts, for the ground mission infrastructure, the ground control infrastructure and the operations should be awarded by mid-2010. With the scheme making this important move forward the commission was able to announce that some services would be available by early 2014, including the 'open service', which will be freely available to the public in Europe, just as the US GPS system is. Also among the first services available will be the search and rescue service.
Yahoo / AFP Jan 07, 2010	back to top

Solar-powered irrigation a shining success in Benin
Solar-powered irrigation systems can boost food and income levels in rural Sub-Saharan Africa, researchers from Stanford University, USA, have found. Irrigation is known to reduce poverty in Asia but the success of the technique is not well-documented in Sub-Saharan Africa. The team, installed and analysed solar-powered drip irrigation systems - which use photovoltaic pumps to deliver groundwater to the surface - in arid Benin, where most farmers rely on a 3-6 month rainy season and irrigate by hand. The researchers installed the solar pumps in two villages. Compared with villages using hand irrigation, the pumps led to more vegetables being produced and farmers earning more money. Vegetable intake increased by 500-750 grams per person per day - equivalent to 3-5 servings of vegetables - during the rainy season in villages with solar systems, and people in control villages ate 150 grams more, suggesting that extra vegetables grown in the two villages were being sold in local markets. Solar-powered drip irrigation could provide substantial economic, nutritional and environmental benefits, according the researchers.
Science Daily / Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jan 06, 2010	back to top

New solar pond distillation system devised
Ecosystems of terminus lakes around the world could benefit from a new system being developed at the University of Nevada, Reno to desalinate water using a specialized low-cost solar pond and membrane distillation system powered by renewable energy. The lakes see a decline in water levels and an increase in salinity from both human and natural processes. The high levels of salinity are dangerous and unsustainable for aquatic life. The researchers are developing an artificial salt-gradient stratification process that traps solar heat at the bottom of the solar pond and uses the energy to power the membrane distillation system recently patented by the University. The system is designed to help sustain the ecosystems of these closed-basin regions where there is no outflow for the water and a high evaporation rate, leaving a high concentration of minerals and salts. The hot brine in the lower storage zone of the pond may then be used directly for heating, thermal desalination, or for other low-temperature thermal applications. The cost to run the system is negligible because it uses the renewable energy of the sun, trapped as heat in the bottom, to power most of the system. The new technology could be applied to declining water systems anywhere, with preference to areas with good solar capabilities and adequate freshwater flows.
ScienceDaily Jan 06, 2010	back to top

Your keyboard knows that it's you and you're stressed
Next time you enter a username and password, think about the rhythm of your typing. Not only can it be used to identify you, it can reveal if you are in a stressful environment. Psychologists at the University of Abertay, UK, asked 35 people to log into a computer 36 times over three separate sessions up to a month apart, using the same user name and password. People were put into stressed and neutral states alternately by listening to a range of sounds known to elicit particular emotions and heard either heard gentle paper crumpling or arguing couples and emergency sirens. The length of time each key was held down and the interval between one being released and another pressed was recorded to generate a typing 'fingerprint' for each person. Electrodes were attached to the typists' hands to detect sweating - a sign of stress. The team used the data to develop software that identifies a person from their typing style alone. Using just the 36 characters of the login details it was able to correctly identify users 97.2% of the time in a total of 42,840 login attempts. The data also showed that stress can be detected in a person's typing because it changes the pattern of timings - for example by making key-presses shorter on average - although typists retained enough of their style to be identifiable.
New Scientist Jan 07, 2010	back to top