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Issue no. 12, 2011
Published: Apr 01, 2011 |
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 China leads challenge to 'scientific superpowers' | | Noise kills, and blights lives in Europe | | Microsoft files EU competition complaint vs. Google | | Japan's crowdsourced radiation maps | | How to fight fire with electricity | | Gravity's impact on Earth revealed in brilliant colour | | Biodegradable plastics made from waste chicken feathers |
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| China leads challenge to 'scientific superpowers' |
China and other emerging nations such as Brazil and India are becoming
leaders in science to rival traditional 'scientific superpowers' such as
the US, Europe and Japan, according to a report by the Royal Society
science academy in the UK. The report also found some rapidly emerging
scientific nations not usually associated with a strong science base,
including Iran, Tunisia and Turkey.
The report, entitled Knowledge, Networks and Nations: Global scientific
collaboration in the 21st century, stressed the growing importance of
international cooperation in the conduct and impact of science, and its
ability to tackle global problems like energy security, climate change
and loss of biodiversity.
The publication data analyzed by the report showed changes in the share
of the world's authorship of scientific research papers between the
periods 1993-2003 and 2004-2008. Although the US still leads the world,
its share of global authorship has fallen to 21% from 26%. Its closest
rival is now China, which has risen from sixth to second place with a
share of authorship rising to 10.2% from 4.4%. Britain is stable at
third place, although its share is down slightly at 6.5% from 7.1%.
Among big surprises in the report's findings were a handful of countries
whose scientific credentials have come almost from nowhere to feature
far more prominently in world science. Iran is the fastest growing
country in terms of numbers of scientific publications in the world,
growing from just 736 papers in 1996 to 13,238 in 2008. Turkey has also
dramatically improved its scientific performance, with R&D spending
increasing nearly sixfold between 1995 and 2007. |
| Reuters
Mar 31, 2011 |
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| Noise kills, and blights lives in Europe |
Western Europeans suffer a heavy toll of death and disability through
exposure to excessive noise, making it second only to air pollution as
an environmental cause of ill health. That's the conclusion of the
world's first comprehensive report on the health effects of noise,
published this week by the World Health Organization and the European
Commission's Joint Research Centre in Rome.
Between them, western Europe's inhabitants - with an estimated adult
population in 2001 of 340 million - were found to lose as much as 1.6
million years of healthy living per year. The authors reduced the
headline figure to 1 million to rule out the possibility of double
counting. The toll from air pollution is estimated at 4.5 million years
of healthy living lost per year.
The most dramatic effects are in heart disease, because exposure to
noise can kill people. Altogether, Europeans are estimated to lose a
total of around 61,000 years of healthy life annually through
noise-associated heart disease, and suffer an estimated 3000 deaths.
Although heart disease is the most serious cause of death from noise,
the largest single impact on health is through sleep disturbance, which
deprives Europeans of an estimated 903,000 years of healthy living
annually. Next comes annoyance - which impairs people's well-being even
if it has no direct impact on health - with a corresponding figure of
587,000 years, followed by learning deficits among schoolchildren
estimated at 45,000, and tinnitus with 22,000. |
| New Scientist
Mar 31, 2011 |
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| Microsoft files EU competition complaint vs. Google |
Microsoft stepped up its rivalry with Google, claiming in its first-ever
complaint to antitrust regulators that Google systematically thwarts
Internet search competition. The formal complaint to European Commission
regulators marks a role change for Microsoft, itself the target of
antitrust action for two decades in the US and Europe.
The complaint also underscores the erosion of Microsoft's near-monopoly
of the personal computer market as Apple has outgrown it in revenue.
Google controls over 90% of the Internet search advertising market in
Europe, well ahead of Microsoft's Bing. And web browsers such as Firefox
and Google's Chrome have eaten away at the market lead by Microsoft's
Internet Explorer.
In its complaint, Microsoft claims Google engages in a 'pattern of
actions' that unfairly impede competition. Google is already under
investigation by the European Commission after complaints from three
small companies, one of them owned by Microsoft.
EU Commission spokeswoman Amelia Torres said in an emailed statement
that 'the Commission takes note of the complaint and, as is the
procedure, will inform Google and will ask for its views on it. No
further information will be given.' |
| Reuters
Mar 31, 2011 |
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| Japan's crowdsourced radiation maps |
With high radiation levels now being reported far from the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear plant, people around the world are concerned about how
they might be affected - people such as Marcelino Alvarez, one of the
developers behind the crowdsourced radiation map, RDTN.org.
The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology (MEXT) is trying to keep people informed with regular updates
of radiation levels, but the data isn't particularly accessible to the
general public, so Alvarez decided to combine it with other data sources
in a simple map that anyone could use. The RDTN map went live last week
after just 72 hours of development time.
While RDTN pulls data from official sources such as MEXT and the US
Environmental Protection Agency, its main feature is the ability for
anyone to upload a radiation reading, provided they have the necessary
Geiger counter equipment.
Taking radiation readings with a Geiger counter is a fairly specialised
activity, so RDTN's 'crowd' is smaller and more niche than many other
collaborative websites. But since the site's launch, it has received
visitors from 154 countries and around a quarter of traffic is from
Japan. |
| New Scientist
Mar 30, 2011 |
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| How to fight fire with electricity |
Fire extinguishers may soon be a thing of the past: wave a magic
electric wand at a flame and you can snuff it out in milliseconds.
Researchers at Harvard University report that they have been able to
extinguish a 45 cm flame merely by using an electrified metal wire.
The beam of electricity came from a 600 watt amplifier, about the same
power as a car stereo system; so, the firefighter of the future would
only need an ultra-portable power pack and wire rather than a cumbersome
hose and large quantities of water or foam.
The technique is based on the observation made some 200 years ago that
electricity can change the shape of flames. Previous experiments
involved direct current, or DC. But the Harvard team used oscillating AC
voltage, and found that the effects were very different: the electrical
field charges the carbon particles (or soot) generated by the fire,
creating an organised 'flow' of charged particles inside the flame that
literally pushes the flame away from the fuel source, putting it out.
The researchers think the method could be a more sophisticated way of
putting out fires than 'just throwing water at them'. They are looking
at applications beyond firefighting: controlling flames at will in the
combustion process could, for example, lead to far more efficient coal,
oil and gas-fired energy production. |
| The Guardian
Mar 29, 2011 |
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| Gravity's impact on Earth revealed in brilliant colour |
A European spacecraft has mapped the Earth's gravity with unrivalled
precision - a feat that may ultimately help scientists predict
earthquakes. Scientists say the images will be crucial in measuring
ocean circulation, sea-level change and ice dynamics - all driven by
gravity - as the planet warms in response to climate change.
The five-metre Gravity and Ocean Circulation Explorer, or Goce, circles
the Earth at an altitude of 250km and uses an ion rocket to prevent it
losing height as it flies through wisps of atmosphere. It maps the
Earth's gravitational pulls as it orbits, recording its position with
GPS and measuring the gravity in 3D.
The data it collects shows how the pull of gravity varies minutely over
the different surfaces of the earth, from the depths of the oceans to
the highest mountains. From the measurements, scientists have created a
computer model called a geoid that shows what the Earth would look like
if its shape was altered to make gravity equal at every point - an
'ideal global ocean'.
The map shows the areas of strongest gravity in yellow and the weakest
in blue. And, because Earth's gravity is affected by any changes in its
structure and geography, scientists are also analysing information from
the Goce to get a deeper understanding of the geological processes that
cause earthquakes. |
| Sydney Morning Herald
Apr 01, 2011 |
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| Biodegradable plastics made from waste chicken feathers |
In a scientific advance literally plucked from the waste heap,
scientists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have described a key
step toward using the billions of pounds of waste chicken feathers
produced each year to make one of the more important kinds of plastic.
Thermoplastics are one of two major groups of plastics, and include
nylon, polyethylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, and dozens of
other kinds. They are used to make thousands of consumer and industrial
products ranging from toothbrush bristles to soda pop bottles to car
bumpers. Thermoplastics need heat or chemicals to harden from a liquid
into a final shape, and can be melted and remoulded time and again. The
other group, thermosetting plastics, harden once and cannot be remelted
again.
Both kinds of plastics are made mainly from ingredients obtained from
oil or natural gas. Because of concerns about petroleum supplies,
prices, and sustainability, scientists are working to find alternative
ingredients. Chicken feathers are an excellent prospect because they are
inexpensive and abundant. Chicken feathers are made mainly of keratin,
which that can lend strength and durability to plastics. The mechanical
properties of feather films outperform other biobased products, such as
modified starch or plant proteins.
To develop the new water-resistant thermoplastic, the researchers
processed chicken feathers with chemicals, resulting in films of
'feather-g-poly(methyl acrylate)' plastic. It had excellent properties
as a thermoplastic, was substantially stronger and more resistant to
tearing than plastics made from soy protein or starch, and had good
resistance to water. |
| Science Daily / American Chemical Society
Mar 31, 2011 |
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