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Image: Scientopia.org

Issue no. 37, 2011 Published: Oct 28, 2011
Connecting neurons to fix the brain
Nano-springs make skin-like sensor
Breakthrough in the production of flood-tolerant crops
UK scientists grow super broccoli
Robot Venus flytraps could eat bugs for fuel
US, Swedish researchers crack 250-year-old cipher

Connecting neurons to fix the brain
Each of the brain's 100bn neurons forms thousands of connections with other neurons. These connections, known as synapses, allow cells to rapidly share information, coordinate their activities, and achieve learning and memory. Breakdowns in those connections have been linked to neurological disorders including autism and Alzheimer's disease. Many scientists believe that strengthening synaptic connections could offer a way to treat those diseases, as well as age-related decline in brain function. To that end, a team of MIT researchers has developed a new way to grow synapses between cells in a laboratory dish, under very controlled conditions that enable rapid, large-scale screens for potential new drugs. Using their new technology, the researchers have already identified several compounds that can strengthen synapses. In the new setup presynaptic neurons (those that send messages across a synapse) are grown in individual compartments on a lab dish. The compartments have only one opening, into a tiny channel that leads to another compartment. The presynaptic neuron sends its long axon through the channel into the other compartment, where it can form synaptic connections with cells arranged in a grid. Using this technique, the researchers can create hundreds of thousands of synapses on a single lab dish, then use them to test the effects of potential drug compounds. This technique can detect changes in synaptic strength with 10 times more sensitivity than existing methods.
MIT / Nature Communications Oct 26, 2011	back to top

Nano-springs make skin-like sensor
Researchers at Stanford University have discovered a type of highly elastic, transparent thin film that conducts electricity extremely well. The film is made of wavy, spring-like carbon nanotubes and could be used as the electrode material in 'skin-like' pressure and stretch sensors. Such devices might one day be used to help restore touch and pressure sensitivity to amputees and burn victims, and also find applications in robotics and touch-sensitive displays. The team made their transparent elastic films by airbrushing a solution of carbon nanotubes onto the top and bottom surface of a flat silicone sheet. After coating, the researchers stretched the sheet. When the sheet then relaxed, the nanotubes naturally formed wavy, spring-like structures. These structures act as electrodes that can accurately measure the amount of force applied to the material. In fact, the set-up behaves like a capacitor, with the silicone layer storing electrical charge, as a battery does. When pressure is applied to the sensor, the silicone layer compresses, which alters the amount of electrical charge that it can store. This charge is measured by the carbon nanotubes on top and below the silicone. When the composite film is stretched again, the nanotubes straighten out in the direction they are stretched. The electrical conductivity of the thin film does not change as long as the material is not stretched beyond the initial stretch amount. When fully stretched, the film can detect a pressure of around 50 kPa, which roughly corresponds to that of a 'firm finger pinch'.
NanotechWeb / Nature Nanotechnology journal Oct 26, 2011	back to top

Breakthrough in the production of flood-tolerant crops
As countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Vietnam have fallen victim to catastrophic flooding in recent years, tolerance of crops to partial or complete submergence is a key target for global food security. Starved of oxygen, crops cannot survive a flood for long periods of time, leading to drastic reductions in yields for farmers. Experts at the University of California, Riverside and The University of Nottingham now report they have discovered how plants sense low oxygen levels to survive flooding - a finding that could lead eventually to the production of high-yielding, flood-tolerant crops, benefiting farmers, markets and consumers everywhere. Specifically, the researchers identified the molecular mechanism involved. This mechanism controls key plant proteins, causing them to be unstable when oxygen levels are normal. When roots or shoots are flooded and oxygen levels drop, these proteins become stable. The team expects that over the next decade scientists will be able to manipulate the protein turnover mechanism in a wide range of crops prone to damage by flooding.
PhysOrg / Nature Oct 23, 2011	back to top

UK scientists grow super broccoli
Scientists at the Institute for Food Research in Norwich, England, recently unveiled a new breed of the vegetable that experts say packs a big nutritional punch. The new broccoli was specially grown to contain two to three times the normal amount of glucoraphanin, a nutrient believed to help ward off heart disease. To create the vegetable, sold as 'super broccoli', the team cross-bred a traditional British broccoli with a wild, bitter Sicilian variety that has no flowery head, and a big dose of glucoraphanin. After 14 years, the enhanced hybrid was produced, which has been granted a patent by European authorities. No genetic modification was used. The super vegetable is part of an increasing tendency among producers to inject extra nutrients into foods, ranging from calcium-enriched orange juice to fortified sugary cereals and milk with added omega 3 fatty acids. In Britain, the new broccoli is sold as part of a line of vegetables that includes mushrooms with extra vitamin D, and tomatoes and potatoes with added selenium. The researchers are conducting human trials comparing the heart health of people eating the super broccoli to those who eat regular broccoli or no broccoli. They plan to submit the data to the European Food Safety Agency next year so they can claim in advertisements the broccoli has proven health benefits.
R&D Magazine / AP Oct 26, 2011	back to top

Robot Venus flytraps could eat bugs for fuel
Robots that mimic the Venus flytrap could run on live insects and spiders, snatching and digesting them for fuel. Now two prototypes have been developed that employ smart materials to ensnare their prey. Recreating the flytrap's method means finding materials that can not only detect the presence of an insect but also close on it quickly. At Seoul National University in South Korea, researchers have done this using shape memory materials. These switch between two stable shapes when subjected to force, heat or an electric current. The team used two different materials - a clamshell-shaped piece of carbon fibre that acts as the leaves, connected by a shape-memory metal spring. The weight of an insect on the spring makes it contract sharply, pulling the leaves together and enveloping the prey. Opening the trap once more is just a matter of applying a current to the spring. Mohsen Shahinpoor at the University of Maine took a different approach. His robot flytrap uses artificial muscles made of polymer membranes coated with gold electrodes. A current travelling through the membrane makes it bend in one direction - and when the polarity is reversed it moves the other way. Bending the material also produces a voltage, which Shahinpoor has utilised to create sensors. When a bug lands, the tiny voltage it generates triggers a larger power source to apply opposite charges to the leaves, making them attract one another and closing the trap.
New Scientist / Bioinspiration and Biomimetics Oct 26, 2011	back to top

US, Swedish researchers crack 250-year-old cipher
Scientists from the University of Southern California and Uppsala University in Sweden said they have used computer translation techniques to solve a 250-year-old mystery by deciphering a coded manuscript written for a secret society. The researchers have broken the Copiale Cipher, a 105-page, 18th century document from Germany. The handwritten, beautifully bound book didn't contain any sort of Da Vinci Code but rather a snapshot of the arcane rituals practiced by one of the many secret societies that flourished in the 1700s. It also recorded rites for some apparent sects of Freemasonry that showed political leanings. The Copiale Cipher was discovered in East Berlin after the Cold War. Most of the book was written in a cipher of 90 characters that included abstract symbols and Roman and Greek letters. The team used a computer program to automate a key code-breaking procedure - tallying the frequency and grouping of the letters and symbols - then automated the process of comparing the cipher to known languages. It's a method used by many automated translation programs. The researchers tried the Roman letters first, comparing them to some 80 languages. Eventually, they determined that the abstract symbols, not the unaccented Roman letters, bore the message. The first words deciphered were German for 'ceremonies of initiation' and 'secret section'.
Yahoo / AP Oct 27, 2011	back to top