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Issue no. 33, 2011 Published: Sep 30, 2011
Cosmic anti-matter enigma eyed in new CERN project
EC to test broadband performance across member states
'Antimagnet' joins list of invisibility approaches
Self-cleaning cotton breaks down pesticides, bacteria
Glowing bacteria encrypt codes
North Sea platforms are fish magnets: researcher

Cosmic anti-matter enigma eyed in new CERN project
Unravelling one of the great enigmas of the visible universe, why it is made up largely of matter, will be the target of a ground-breaking research project kicked off on Wednesday at a meeting of leading physicists from eight countries. More precisely, the program will aim to find why there is so little left of the anti-matter believed to have been present in equal quantities at the 'Big Bang' 13.7bn years ago but which then mysteriously disappeared, or all but. The program will be conducted with a new 'Extra Low Energy Antiproton Ring,' dubbed ELENA, which will begin delivering large numbers of tiny anti-proton particles by 2016. Attending this week's meeting at CERN, which is leading the project to begin in 2013 with the ring's installation, are scientists from Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Sweden and the United States. Anti-matter was discovered in 1932 after decades of theorising, and was quickly absorbed into science fiction with its capacity to destroy any ordinary matter it touches. One of the prime questions facing researchers is why matter and anti-matter did not destroy each other at the time of the Big Bang, making creation of the universe and the emergence of life impossible, and why matter came out on top.
Reuters Sep 28, 2011	back to top

EC to test broadband performance across member states
The European Commission is launching a major new study of broadband performance across Europe. The project, led by measurement firm SamKnows, aims to give a clear picture of speeds and reliability of net services in all member states. ISPs, regulators and consumers will have access to the results when they are completed. The European Commission is seeking 10,000 volunteers for the project. Volunteers will be sent a small device - known as the whitebox - which will plug into their home internet connection. When the broadband line is not in use, the whitebox will run a series of automated tests to measure the speed and performance of the connection. SamKnows conducted a similar project with Ofcom in the UK and found that broadband performance was less than 50% of advertised speeds. SamKnows said the test would be a large-scale version of the UK project.
BBC News Sep 27, 2011	back to top

'Antimagnet' joins list of invisibility approaches
Researchers at Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain have designed a 'cloak' that is invisible to magnetic fields both coming in and coming out. The new design could hide magnetic materials and find application in security or medical contexts, such as those surrounding MRI scans. The approach uses superconductor layers and the 'metamaterials' familiar from recent invisibility cloak research. Metamaterials are artificially designed materials designed to guide electromagnetic waves - like light or magnetic fields - in a way that natural materials do not. Much research in recent years has attempted to put metamaterials to work in invisibility cloaks that guide light waves around a cloak's wearer - although experiments have only demonstrated such effects on tiny items, or for a limited range of colours. But because light and magnetism are two facets of the same physical force, many of the same principles apply for demonstrating a magnetic cloak. The researcher's idea is to use an inner cloak of superconducting material, surrounded by layers of metamaterials whose response to the magnetic field varies in a prescribed way through the thickness of the cloak. The team is now working to produce a working model of such an antimagnet, which may eventually find application in allowing pacemaker or implant wearers to undergo MRI scans, or in a number of energy generation scenarios in which magnetic fields play a large part. The idea could also be put to use in hiding the 'magnetic signatures' of submarines to evade detection or underwater mines, or even to trick metal detectors.
BBC News / New Journal of Physics Sep 26, 2011	back to top

Self-cleaning cotton breaks down pesticides, bacteria
Scientists from UC Davis, US, have developed a self-cleaning cotton fabric that can kill bacteria and break down toxic chemicals such as pesticide residues when exposed to light. The new fabric has potential applications in biological and chemical protective clothing for health care, food processing and farmworkers, as well as military personnel, according to its developers. The team developed a method to incorporate a compound known as 2-anthraquinone carboxylic acid, or 2-AQC, into cotton fabrics. This chemical bonds strongly to the cellulose in cotton, making it difficult to wash off, unlike current self-cleaning agents. Unlike some other experimental agents that have been applied to cotton, it does not affect the properties of the fabric. When exposed to light, 2-AQC produces so-called reactive oxygen species, such as hydroxyl radicals and hydrogen peroxide, which kill bacteria and break down organic compounds such as pesticides and other toxins. Although 2-AQC is more expensive than other compounds, the researchers say that cheaper equivalents are available.
PhysOrg / Journal of Materials Chemistry Sep 28, 2011	back to top

Glowing bacteria encrypt codes
Scientists at Tufts University in Medford, US, are tweaking bacteria to send encrypted messages that can be shipped via snail mail on sheets of paper-like material called nitrocellulose. The recipient grows the bacteria with a select cocktail of nutrients and other chemicals. Once grown, each microbe glows one of seven colours when exposed to the right kind of light. Different coloured microbes are arranged to represent different letters and symbols. If you know the nutrient and chemical cocktail as well as the keys to the code, you can decipher the message. For an added layer of security, many glowing microbes can be sent along, but only those that survive a dose of a particular antibiotic will reveal the intended message when exposed to the right light. The team named this messaging 'Steganography by Printed Arrays of Microbes', or SPAM. The technology is rooted in funding from DARPA, the US military's high-tech research agency, which suggests real-world spies could be communicating with messages encoded in arrays of glowing bugs. However, practical applications are more likely to be found in the biotech world. For example, a biotech company that develops a high-yielding variety of genetically modified corn could use this technique to give the plant an easily-identifiable characteristic that thwarts attempts to steal it.
MSNBC / Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Sep 28, 2011	back to top

North Sea platforms are fish magnets: researcher
Oil platforms in the North Sea are attracting more cod and haddock than previously thought and wind farm installations could be designed with reefs in mind to help attract fish. Scientists have long been aware of the 'reef effect' whereby artificial structures in the sea act as havens for fish, but a two year study by Aberdeen University academic Toyonobu Fujii has found structures in the sea attract more fish than previously thought. Fujii, who has analyzed trawl survey data of fish distribution in relation to oil and gas platform locations, said the reason for the higher numbers of fish was that pipelines and other sub-sea structures were also acting as reefs. It is not yet known exactly why fish gather around the structures, Fujii said, calling for more research. With the North Sea set for a makeover as a source of wind power over the next decade - the British government expects offshore wind to make up most of the renewable electricity capacity needed to reach its 2020 target - Fujii said he would like to carry out further research looking at the relationship between wind turbine structures and fish populations.
Reuters Sep 29, 2011	back to top