UNU-MERIT: I&T Weekly

	Search \| Sitemap \| Intranet \| PhD Intranet

Subscribe to I&T Weekly A free e-zine about Innovation & Technology developments

text html Please type the above code:
	RSS feed

Previous Issues I&T Weekly

>> back to archive

Previous issues of I&T Weekly:

2013: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]

2012: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37]

2011: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44]

2010: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42]

2009: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42]

2008: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41]

2007: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40]

2006: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44]

2005: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40]

2004: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43]

2003: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47]

2002: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47]

2001: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19]

Issue no. 38, 2010 Published: Nov 26, 2010
Einstein's 'blunder' turns out to be right
Neutrinos could detect secret fission reactors
Test tells age from blood drops
Experts find bacteria that help pests change colour
NASA's spare solar sail reaches orbit
Researchers drill for secrets hidden under Dead Sea
Breakthrough could lead to disposable e-readers
Chip implant developed to help the paralysed exercise
Glowing trees could light up city streets
PC rebuilds Rome in a day using pictures from Flickr

Einstein's 'blunder' turns out to be right
In 1917, Einstein inserted a term called the cosmological constant into his theory of general relativity to force the equations to predict a stationary universe in keeping with physicists' thinking at the time. When it became clear that the universe was actually expanding, Einstein abandoned the constant, calling it the 'biggest blunder' of his life. But lately scientists have revived Einstein's cosmological constant to explain a mysterious force called dark energy that seems to be counteracting gravity - causing the universe to expand at an accelerating pace. A new study confirms that the cosmological constant is the best fit for dark energy, and offers the most precise and accurate estimate yet of its value, researchers said. Physicists at the Universite de Provence in France found a new way to test the dark energy model that is completely independent of previous studies. Their method relies on distant observations of pairs of galaxies to measure the curvature of space. The researchers set out to calculate the contents of the universe by measuring its shape. Physics says the universe can either be flat, spherical or hyperbolically curved. The geometry of space-time can distort structures within it. The researchers studied observations of pairs of distant galaxies orbiting each other for evidence of this distortion, and used the magnitude of the distortion as a way to trace the shape of space-time. To discover how much the galaxy pairs' shapes were being distorted, the researchers measured how much each galaxy's light was red-shifted - that is, budged toward the red end of the visual spectrum by a process called the Doppler shift. The redshift measurements offered a way to plot the orientation and position of the orbiting pairs of galaxies. The result of these calculations pointed toward a flat universe, bolstering the cosmological constant model for dark energy over competing theories.
ABC News / Nature Nov 24, 2010	back to top

Neutrinos could detect secret fission reactors
Oil tankers fitted with heavy neutrino detectors could be floated offshore to check for undeclared nuclear fission reactors, according to physicists, who have proposed the Secret Neutrino Interactions Finder (SNIF) as a way of enforcing the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Currently, fission reactors over the world are monitored with 'near-field' tools, from CCTV-type cameras to metallic or fibre-optic networks that can detect when fuel is being loaded. Another, more fail-safe way to monitor reactors would be to detect the nearby levels of anti-neutrinos which are emitted in nuclear-fission reactions. However, Neutrinos have a small, finite mass and are able to oscillate from one type to another. This means that a detector looking for one type of anti-neutrino would always detect fewer than expected, because some of them oscillate into different types before arrival. But now researchers at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission have calculated how anti-neutrino fluxes fall with distance from a reactor, taking into account oscillations. They have then analysed all the other sources of anti-neutrinos to produce a map of background anti-neutrino levels. In a final calculation, the group showed that a neutrino detector would need to be sunk just 500 m or more underwater to prevent catching any cosmic rays, which would confuse the signal. The researchers think that, for monitoring fission reactions in a radius of 100-500 km, a detector would need a scintillator mass of 1034 free protons - in the order of a hundred thousand tonnes.
PhysicsWorld / arXiv Nov 24, 2010	back to top

Test tells age from blood drops
Scientists at the Erasmus MC University Medical Centre Rotterdam in the Netherlands have developed a technique to estimate the age of a suspect from blood left at a crime scene. Experts say the profiling method could be put to immediate use by forensic scientists where age information can provide investigative leads. The technique exploits a characteristic of immune cells carried in the blood known as T cells. T cells play a key role in recognising foreign 'invaders' such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, or tumour cells. As part of the process these cells use to recognise these invaders, small circular DNA molecules are produced. The number of these circular DNA molecules - known as signal joint TCR excision circles (sjTRECs) - declines at a constant rate with age. The researchers say this biological phenomenon could be used for estimating the age of a human individual accurately and reliably. The approach enables scientists to estimate a person's age, give or take nine years, the researchers report. This would allow individuals to be placed into generational categories spanning about 20 years. Predicting human 'phenotypes' - a person's outward traits - from DNA information is a newly emerging field in forensics. But only a few phenotypic traits can currently be identified from DNA information with enough accuracy to have practical applications. The researchers say their test currently has the highest accuracy of any designed to estimate a 'phenotypic' human trait from DNA information.
BBC News / Current Biology Nov 23, 2010	back to top

Experts find bacteria that help pests change colour
Scientists in Japan and France have identified a bacterium which appears to turn red plant lice green, enabling them to evade predators and thrive on crops. The discovery has important implications for pest control as these lice, or aphids, are among the most destructive insects in temperate regions, sucking on the sap of cultivated plants. There are 4,400 species of aphids - small, soft-bodied insects with long, slender mouths that pierce stems, leaves, and other tender plant parts to suck out fluids. They may be green, yellow, brown, red or black, depending on the species and the plants they feed on. Almost every plant has one or more species which feed on it. Well adapted and difficult to eliminate, aphids cause 30% of losses in wheat crops in France and 50% in barley. The researchers were studying aphids feeding on peas in France when they found green aphids producing red offspring that later turned green as they matured. Using antibiotics, they eliminated a string of other bacteria from the aphids and singled out a new bacterium, Rickettsiella, which appeared to turn red aphids green. The researchers say this effect of colour change may be transferable to baby aphids through the ovaries - which explains why the offspring appear red at first but turn green. The team has already begun work to try to thwart the effects of the bacteria on aphids but this will take time.
ABC News / Reuters / Science Nov 18, 2010	back to top

NASA's spare solar sail reaches orbit
For years, solar sail tests have met with nothing but stormy weather. But the path forward finally seems to be clearing up. More than two years after a rocket failure destroyed a new experimental solar sail, NASA has successfully launched a spare into orbit. NanoSail-D launched last Friday from Alaska. If the sail unfurls as planned, it will be the first NASA sail to be opened in space. Solar sails, which can harness the force of sunlight to propel themselves, have the potential to carry spacecraft vast distances without fuel. But attempts to the test the technology in Earth orbit have met with repeated setbacks. In 2001 and 2005, launch failures scuppered two solar sail missions spearheaded by the Planetary Society, a space advocacy group based in California. And NASA's original NanoSail-D, which was slated to launch in August 2008, was lost when its ride, a Falcon 1 rocket, failed to reach orbit. In May, Japan's space agency JAXA successfully launched an interplanetary solar sail called IKAROS, which piggybacked on a robotic mission to Venus. JAXA later announced that the sail had succeeded in using sunlight to propel and steer itself. But the effect of sunlight may be hard to discern on the newly launched NanoSail-D. Even at its altitude of about 650km, NASA says the drag of Earth's atmosphere may overwhelm the push of solar radiation. However, the atmospheric drag itself should help test whether solar sails could act as 'orbital brakes' to pull space debris out of orbit. The drag should pull the sail out of orbit within 70 to 120 days.
New Scientist / Spaceflight Now Nov 22, 2010	back to top

Researchers drill for secrets hidden under Dead Sea
From a barge floating above the deepest point on earth, an international research team hopes to drill through half a million years of history to uncover secrets of climate change and natural disasters. Boring into the bed of the Dead Sea, the group of scientists began extracting layers of the earth's core on Sunday, and will continue for about two months until they reach a depth of 1,200 metres below sea level. The Dead Sea collects water run-off from the Sinai desert up to the Golan Heights, an area of about 42,000 km2, providing plenty of material for climate research. It is also on a fault line between two continental plates moving at different speeds, causing much tectonic activity. Like trees have rings, the sea bed adds two layers of sediment every year. The team will analyse 500,000 years of geological history, deciphering patterns and using them to help understand the future. They will extract information on ancient rainfall, floods, droughts and earthquakes that can then be used in studies on how to best deal with global warming. The Dead Sea is a favourite spot for tourists because of the buoyant and healing properties of its extremely salty waters. But scientists and environmentalists have been scrambling in recent years to come up with a solution to the lake's receding shoreline, for which many blame regional water mismanagement. The team hopes the drilling may provide some historical insight.
ABC News / Reuters Nov 21, 2010	back to top

Breakthrough could lead to disposable e-readers
A breakthrough in a University of Cincinnati engineering lab that could clear the way for a low-cost, even disposable, e-reader is gaining considerable attention. The researchers demonstrated that paper could be used as a flexible host material for an electrowetting device. Electrowetting (EW) involves applying an electric field to coloured droplets within a display in order to reveal content such as type, photographs and video. The discovery that paper could be used as the host material has far-reaching implications considering other popular e-readers on the market rely on complex circuitry printed over a rigid glass substrate. Importantly, the performance of the electrowetting device on paper is equivalent to that of glass. The researchers imagine a future device that is rollable, feels like paper yet delivers books, news and even high-resolution colour video in bright-light conditions. Disposing of a paper-based e-reader is also far simpler in terms of the environmental impact, they say.
PhysOrg / ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces Nov 22, 2010	back to top

Chip implant developed to help the paralysed exercise
A tiny, implantable chip that delivers electrical impulses to aid in exercising paralysed limbs has been unveiled by scientists. Similar attempts to promote muscle stimulation have been developed before, but have been too bulky to implant. Thanks to advances in the fabrication of small electronics, the new unit from University College London researchers is smaller than a fingernail. The implants have a number of other possible uses in muscle rehabilitation. The devices, called Active Book because they slip around spinal nerves like the pages of a book, deliver electrical impulses directly to the spine from onboard electronics, unlike existing externally-operated devices that apply the impulses to the skin. Pilot studies of the Active Book should begin next year.
BBC News Nov 23, 2010	back to top

Glowing trees could light up city streets
Imagine taking a midnight stroll, your route lit by row upon row of trees glowing a ghostly blue. If work by a team of undergraduates at the University of Cambridge pans out, bioluminescent trees could one day be giving our streets this dreamlike look. The students have taken the first step on this road by developing genetic tools that allow bioluminescence traits to be easily transferred into an organism. Nature is full of glow-in-the-dark critters, but their shine is feeble - far too weak to read by, for example. To boost this light, the team modified genetic material from fireflies and the luminescent marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri to boost the production and activity of light-yielding enzymes. They then made further modifications to create genetic components or 'BioBricks' that can be inserted into a genome. The team produced a range of colours by putting these genes into the Escherichia coli bacterium. They found that a volume of bacterial culture the size of a wine bottle gave off enough light to read by. One major obstacle to harnessing bioluminescence is that the process relies on a class of compounds called luciferins. They emit light and are then converted into oxyluciferin, which cannot produce light. To counter this, the Cambridge team found a way to engineer BioBricks that would enable organisms to produce enzymes to recycle oxyluciferin. The team calculates that for a bioluminescent tree to compete with a street light, only 0.02% of the energy absorbed for photosynthesis would need to be diverted into light production.
New Scientist Nov 25, 2010	back to top

PC rebuilds Rome in a day using pictures from Flickr
3D models of famous landmarks such as Rome's Colosseum have been recreated using millions of pictures from photo-sharing websites such as Flickr by researchers at the University of North Carolina and ETH-Zurich. The images were analysed by a modified home PC and detailed models created in less than a day. The team think it may help preserve heritage sites, ensuring they don't end up swamped by tourists. The team used a home PC equipped with four powerful graphics cards. The first task was to identify pictures on Flickr tagged with the word 'Rome'. A basic image analysis tool then created groups of photographs that had captured the same image - the west side of the Colosseum, for example. By analysing how the object appeared from different viewing angles and distances, a rough 3D model of the object could be created. They then used detailed analysis of each pixel within the group of photos to study the target object's surface, allowing them to recreate very detailed models of the sites. As well as making eye-catching virtual models, the system can also highlight where tourists tend to congregate to snap the main attractions. That could help minimise the impact tourists have when visiting popular sites, by allowing officials to direct them to different parts of the attraction, according to the researchers.
BBC News Nov 25, 2010	back to top