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Issue no. 40, 2010 Published: Dec 10, 2010
Generating matter and antimatter from nothing
Nanoscale battering of charging battery seen on video
US gets medical isotope made from low-grade uranium
'Lightfoil' idea shows light can provide lift
Europe's supergrid gets a big boost
Private space capsule's maiden voyage ends with splash
China to lead world in innovation by 2020: survey
Smart wallet tells you when you overspend
World's oldest computer recreated in Lego

Generating matter and antimatter from nothing
Under just the right conditions - which involve an ultra-high-intensity laser beam and a two-mile-long particle accelerator - it could be possible to create something out of nothing, according to University of Michigan researchers. The scientists have developed new equations that show how a high-energy electron beam combined with an intense laser pulse could rip apart a vacuum into its fundamental matter and antimatter components, and set off a cascade of events that generates additional pairs of particles and antiparticles. At the heart of this work is the idea that a vacuum is not exactly nothing. Matter and antimatter destroy each other when they come into contact under normal conditions. But in a strong electromagnetic field, this annihilation, can be the source of new particles. In the course of the annihilation, gamma photons appear, which can produce additional electrons and positrons. A gamma photon is a high-energy particle of light. A positron is an anti-electron, a mirror-image particle with the same properties as an electron, but an opposite, positive charge. The researchers describe this work as a theoretical breakthrough, and a 'qualitative jump in theory'. An experiment in the late '90s managed to generate from a vacuum gamma photons and an occasional electron-positron pair. These new equations take this work a step farther to model how a strong laser field could promote the creation of more particles than were initially injected into an experiment through a particle accelerator.
ScienceDaily / Physical Review Letters Dec 08, 2010	back to top

Nanoscale battering of charging battery seen on video
If there is one thing stalling electric car development, preventing renewable energy sources from plugging into electricity grids and causing grief to smartphone users, it is poorly performing batteries. The first high-resolution video to show exactly how battery electrodes twist and distort during charging could be an important step towards designing the batteries that today's technologists are waiting for. A US-Chinese team of nanotechnologists used a specially outfitted transmission electron microscope to capture the footage, allowing the effect of electrical charging on nanostructures to be seen in action for the first time. For the experiment, the team built a tiny battery with a lithium-cobalt anode and a cathode made from tin oxide nanowires just 200 nanometres wide. Tin oxide is not much use in commercial batteries because it can only take a single charging, but in that charging it experiences dramatic effects. This makes it an excellent material for studying the subtle battery fatigue experienced by more commercially useful materials. In the time-lapse video, taken as the battery is charged by electrons pumping into the tin oxide, lithium ions can be seen streaming though the hollow nanowire to pair with the electrons. As they do, the nanowire contorts, lengthening by 90% and swelling to two-and-a-half times its former volume. Further microscopy of the nanowire showed that the structure of the tin oxide atoms had changed from an ordered crystalline arrangement to an amorphous glass-like form. However, nanowires were able to withstand the effects of charging better than bulk tin oxide, a finding that may influence the design of future batteries.
New Scientist Dec 09, 2010	back to top

US gets medical isotope made from low-grade uranium
A US company has received the first batch of medical isotopes made from low-grade uranium instead of weapons-grade material, a shift that could help cut the threat of nuclear proliferation, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The NNSA, part of the US Department of Energy, said NTP Radioisotopes Ltd in South Africa delivered a large shipment of the medical isotope molybdenum-99 made from low-grade uranium to privately held Lantheus Medical, which processes the material for medical tests. The shipment proves it is possible to make medical isotopes without using weapons-grade uranium, removing the potential threat that the material could be diverted by terrorists and undercutting arguments by Iran that it must produce highly enriched uranium to meet its need for medical isotopes, said Dr Robert Atcher, past president of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and chairman of the group's Medical Isotope Task Force. Technetium-99, a radioactive byproduct of molybdenum-99, is used in more than 14 million nuclear medicine procedures in the US each year, primarily to detect heart disease and cancer.
Reuters Dec 06, 2010	back to top

'Lightfoil' idea shows light can provide lift
Just as air causes lift on the wings of an aeroplane, light can do the same trick, according to researchers of the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). The effect, first shown in simulations, was proven by showing it in action on tiny glass rods. Like the aerofoil concept of wings, the approach works by making use of the radiation pressure of light. The results are of interest for steering 'solar sails', a spacecraft propulsion based on the same force. Each photon carries its own momentum, and this 'lightfoil' works by gathering the momentum of light as it passes through a material. This radiation pressure has been considered as a fuel-free source of propulsion for long-distance space missions; a 'solar sail' gathering up the momentum of the Sun's rays can get a spacecraft up to a significant fraction of the speed of light. But until now, no one thought to use the pressure in an analogue of an aerofoil. The RIT team ran computer simulations based on a semi-cylindrical glass rod to see what would happen when a beam of unfocused light was shone on it. They discovered not only that the rods experienced 'lift', but that there were several angles that the rod tended to align itself to. The team went on to design tiny glass rods to prove the principle. The rods were floated in water, through which a laser was shone. They behaved just as the simulations had predicted.
BBC News / Nature Photonics Dec 08, 2010	back to top

Europe's supergrid gets a big boost
Ten European countries have signed an agreement to generate electricity from the waters of the North Sea and deliver it across the continent. Such a supergrid would boost the development of offshore wind farms in a notoriously rough and stormy region - a resource that advocates say is 'enormous'. The deal may provide the EU with smoother sailing toward its ambitious goals of opening up electricity markets for cross-border competition and achieving a 20% cut in CO2 emissions. But first, engineers must overcome technical challenges - such as exactly how they will ship electricity through undersea cables for hundreds of kilometres. Traditional transmission grids operate on alternating current (AC), but a subsea grid would use direct current (DC), due to losses that occur when the aluminium or copper conductor is buried. Another problem is that circuit breakers do not exist for high-voltage DC. In addition to technical hurdles, the North Sea supergrid project must wrangle with political and regulatory issues. Some European nations are throwing more of their weight behind the Desertec project, which aims to bring solar and wind power generated in the Sahara to Europe.
MSNBC / Nature Dec 06, 2010	back to top

Private space capsule's maiden voyage ends with splash
A private US capsule that could soon be hauling cargo and even astronauts to the space station has splashed down after its maiden flight. The Dragon ship launched from Florida on a Falcon 9 rocket on Wednesday. The capsule separated about 10 minutes after launch, reaching its 300km-high orbit shortly after. After completing several manoeuvres some 300km above Earth, the capsule splashed down in the Pacific. Dragon and Falcon 9 are both products of California's SpaceX company. The firm has a $1.6bn 1contract with the US space agency NASA to provide 12 spacecraft with cargo capacity of at least 20 tonnes to resupply the International Space Station (ISS) through to 2016. The initiative is part of a much wider US policy to place the carriage of freight and crew transport to the ISS in the hands of the private sector. US President Barack Obama hopes the private sector can help fill the gap left by the retirement next year of the space shuttle fleet. He envisages commercial ships ferrying supplies and astronauts to low-Earth orbit destinations like the ISS, while NASA concentrates on developing a much more capable rocket and spaceship to venture out into the Solar System.
BBC News Dec 08, 2010	back to top

China to lead world in innovation by 2020: survey
China is set to become the world's most important centre for innovation by 2020, overtaking both the US and Japan, according to a public opinion survey to be published this week. China is already the world's second- largest economy, after establishing itself as the global workshop for manufacturing. Now it wants to move up the value chain by leading in invention as well. Today, the US ranks as the world's most innovative country, with 30% of people surveyed taking that view, followed by Japan on 25% and China on 14%. Fast-forward 10 years, however, and 27% of people think China will be top dog, followed by India with 17%, the US 14% and Japan 12%, according to the survey of 6,000 people in six countries done by drugmaker AstraZeneca. The shift is not because the US is doing less science and technology, but because China and India are doing more - a fact reflected in a spike-up in successful Asian research efforts in recent years. A study last month from Thomson Reuters showed China was now the second-largest producer of scientific papers, after the US, and research and development (R&D) spending by Asian nations as a group in 2008 was USD 387bn, compared with USD 384bn in the US and USD 280bn in Europe.
Reuters Dec 05, 2010	back to top

Smart wallet tells you when you overspend
Some of us might well be entering the season for giving, but that means it's also the season for spending too much on gifts, parties and new outfits. When we all used cash, it was easier to keep a track on spending, but with today's card culture, it's all too easy to overspend without even taking note of how quickly funds are dwindling. Luckily for spendthrifts, researchers at MIT Media Lab have come up with a solution: a wallet that warns you when you are getting dangerously carried away with your shopping. Called the 'Proverbial Wallet' the invention uses tactile feedback to physically communicate the state of your bank balance. The wallets use bluetooth to link up to your smartphone, which extracts details from your bank account using the phone's Internet connection. The MIT team has come up with three designs. 'The bumblebee' vibrates with every bank transaction. The length of the buzz is relative to the amount spent, and the pattern of the buzz tells you whether the transaction was a deposit or a withdrawal. 'The motherbear' wallet becomes harder to open the less money you have at your disposal, based on your monthly budget. Finally, 'the peacock' bulges and shrinks relative to how loaded you are.
New Scientist Dec 08, 2010	back to top

World's oldest computer recreated in Lego
It is the oldest known computer, a relic dating back 2000 years and rediscovered at the bottom of the ocean. Now designer Andrew Carol has brought it back to life - using Lego. That is not to say this project was child's play - making the device was an engineering feat that required specialist Lego, and a lot of patience. The Antikythera mechanism is an astronomical computer thought to have been built in 150BC. It was rediscovered on the Antikythera shipwreck in 1900 and has since astounded researchers by its mechanical complexity. It has been recreated numerous times, but this is the first time a working replica has been made from Lego.
New Scientist Dec 09, 2010	back to top