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Issue no. 2, 2010 Published: Jan 15, 2010
Chemical computer that mimics neurons to be created
Gene map of anti-malaria plant could boost supply
CO2 in the air could be green fuel feedstock
Solar cells made through oil-and-water 'self-assembly'
Africa launches continent-wide physics society

Chemical computer that mimics neurons to be created
A promising push toward a novel, biologically-inspired 'chemical computer' has begun as part of an international collaboration The 'wet computer' incorporates several recently discovered properties of chemical systems that can be hijacked to engineer computing power. The team's approach mimics some of the actions of neurons in the brain. The project, funded by an EU emerging technologies programme, will make use of stable 'cells' featuring a coating that forms spontaneously, similar to the walls of our own cells, and uses chemistry to accomplish the signal processing similar to that of our own neurons. The goal is not to make a better computer than conventional ones but rather to be able to compute in new environments. The group's approach hinges on two critical ideas. First, individual 'cells' are surrounded by a wall made up of so-called lipids that spontaneously encapsulate the liquid innards of the cell. Recent work has shown that when two such lipid layers encounter each other as the cells come into contact, a protein can form a passage between them, allowing chemical signalling molecules to pass. Second, the cells' interiors will play host to what is known as a B-Z chemical reaction. Simply put, reactions of this type can be initiated by changing the concentration of the element bromine by a certain threshold amount. What is important for the computing application is that after the arrival of a chemical signal to start it, the cell enters a 'refractory period' during which further chemical signals do not influence the reaction. That keeps a signal from propagating unchecked through any connected cells. Such self-contained systems that react under their own chemical power to a stimulus above a threshold have an analogue in nature: neurons.
BBC News Jan 12, 2010	back to top

Gene map of anti-malaria plant could boost supply
Global supply of a key, plant-based, anti-malaria drug is set to be boosted by a genetic study, scientists at the University of York, UK, say. The researchers have mapped the genes of Artemisia annua to allow selection of high-yield varieties. The study aims to make growing the plant more profitable for farmers. Artemisinin combination therapies, or ATCs, are used widely to treat malaria and are seen as the best solution to the parasite's increasing resistance to anti-malarial drugs. The researchers hope that new higher yielding and more robust varieties could increase global supply of the malaria treatment within three years. To identify the best plants for hybrid seed production, researchers measured characteristics of individual plants, for example, the number of artemisinin producing glands on the leaf. They also performed tests to find the plants with the best genetic make-up. The resulting seeds are being planted in field trials in China, East Africa, India and Madagascar. The study is the culmination of three years work funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the genetic maps and markers the researchers have identified will be made available for free all over the world.
BBC News / Science Jan 14, 2010	back to top

CO2 in the air could be green fuel feedstock
Carbon dioxide could soon be ready for a PR makeover. With a bit of clever chemistry, the gas could become a feedstock for alternative fuels or find a role in cooling freezers rather than warming the atmosphere. Scientists at the University of Oxford think CO2 could be captured from industrial chimneys and converted into methanol for use as fuel. The trouble is that the molecule is so stable, it is hard to find chemicals reactive enough to target CO2 but specific enough to ignore other components of the atmosphere such as carbon monoxide and oxygen. Now the researchers have demonstrated how to do it at the relatively low temperature of 160 °C and at standard pressure. The technique is based on molecules called Lewis bases, which carry a lone pair of electrons and can bond with so-called Lewis acids to form a molecule called an adduct. In previous research Lewis bases and Lewis acids were modified to make them too big to get close enough to form the adduct, creating 'frustrated' molecules. The frustrated Lewis pair are so reactive that when hydrogen gas is added to the mix, the molecules tear apart the hydrogen molecules and bond with the hydrogen ions. The reaction eases the frustration but still leaves two highly reactive molecules reactive enough to bond with CO2 to form methanol and water.
New Scientist / Angewandte Chemie Jan 14, 2010	back to top

Solar cells made through oil-and-water 'self-assembly'
Researchers at the University of Minnesota have demonstrated a simple, cheap way to create self-assembling electronic devices using a property crucial to salad dressings. It uses the fact that oil- and water-based liquids do not mix, forming devices from components that align along the boundary between the two. The team built their two-dimensional sheets at the border between oil and water. They first built a "blank" device etched with depressions lined with low-temperature solder, designed for individual solar cell elements. They then prepared the elements - each a silicon and gold stack a few tens of millionths of a metre across - and put different coatings on each side. On the silicon side, they put a hydrophobic molecule, one that has a strong tendency to evade contact with water. On the gold side, they put a hydrophilic molecule, which has the converse tendency to seek out water. By getting the densities of the oil- and water-based parts of the experiment just right, a 'sheet' of the elements could be made to 'float' between the two, pointing in the right direction thanks to their coatings. The conveyor belt process is to simply dunk the device blank through the boundary and draw it back slowly; the sheet of elements rides up along behind it, each one popping neatly into place as the solder attracts its gold contact. The team made a working device comprising 64,000 elements in just three minutes.
BBC News / Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jan 12, 2010	back to top

Africa launches continent-wide physics society
Physicists in Africa have launched a cross-continent society to support and represent physicists in the region. At a ceremony held in Dakar, Senegal, researchers from across Africa came together to celebrate the launch of the African Physical Society (AfPS) which is expected to have around 1000 individual members. The AfPS will support the work of existing physical societies in Africa as well as helping physicists who are working or studying in an African country that does not have its own society. The AfPS will also help to bring together physicists in different countries in Africa to collaborate with each other. Francis Allotey, a condensed-matter physicist from Ghana who is interim president of the AfPS, hopes that the new society will spur more countries in Africa to set-up their own physical society. One of the reasons for setting up the AfPS is that no African country ranks in the top 20 as measured by the average number of citations that papers from Africa get. Yet each country that is in the top 20 has national and regional structures for supporting physics and astronomy. The AfPS has also launched the African Association of Physics Students (AAPS). All student members of the AfPS will immediately become members of the AAPS, which will help to establish relations between physics students from Africa and all over the world.
PhysicsWorld Jan 15, 2010	back to top