A new way to make plastics out of sugar could help reduce the world’s reliance on petroleum. The technique could ultimately allow industry to make plastics from high-fructose corn syrups or other plant materials. Companies and research organisations around the world are experimenting with plant-based plastics in a bid to lower carbon dioxide emissions and reduce the use of petroleum as oil stocks decline.
Now researchers led by chemical engineer James Dumesic at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, have developed an efficient way to convert fructose into a polymer precursor.
The researchers were interested in a chemical called 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), which can easily be converted into furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA). This is similar in structure to a petroleum-based precursor for the type of plastic commonly used in plastic bottles.
A new way to make plastics out of sugar could help reduce the world’s reliance on petroleum. The technique could ultimately allow industry to make plastics from high-fructose corn syrups or other plant materials.
Companies and research organisations around the world are experimenting with plant-based plastics in a bid to lower carbon dioxide emissions and reduce the use of petroleum as oil stocks decline.
Now researchers led by chemical engineer James Dumesic at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, have developed an efficient way to convert fructose into a polymer precursor.
The researchers were interested in a chemical called 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), which can easily be converted into furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA). This is similar in structure to a petroleum-based precursor for the type of plastic commonly used in plastic bottles.
Bioengineers at Tufts University, who have been delving into silk's secrets for more than a decade, have created a new fusion protein that combines the toughness of spider-silk with the intricate structure of silica. Research leader David L. Kaplan, said the resulting nanocomposite could be used in medical and industrial applications, such as growing bone tissue. "This is a novel genetic engineering strategy to design and develop new 'chimeric' materials by combining two of nature's most remarkable materials - spider silk and diatom glassy skeletons that normally are not found together," he added.Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Kaplan describes how silica provides structural support to diatoms (single-celled organisms known for their remarkable nanostructural details) while silk proteins from spiders and silkworms are more flexible, stronger and able to self-assemble into readily defined structures. The researchers were able to design and clone genetic fusions of the encoding genes for these two proteins, and then generate these genetically engineered proteins into nanocomposites at ambient temperatures. This in itself is something of a breakthrough, as very high temperatures are usually required for the synthesis of silica in the laboratory.
More impressive is the size of the spider silk-silica composite. While past tests using silica have formed silica particles with a diameter between 0.5 and 10 nanometers, the silk-glass composite has a diameter size distribution between 0.5 and 2 nanometers. Kaplan says the smaller, more uniform size will provide better control and more options for processing, delivering "important benefits for biomedical and specialty materials."
According to Kaplan, the new chimeric protein could lead to a variety of biomedical materials that restore tissue structure and function, including bone repair and regeneration. Other applications may include areas of materials science and engineering.
Shedding light on a somewhat controversial subject, physicists from the G-Zero collaboration have found that strange quarks do indeed contribute to the structure of the proton. Their findings indicate that, as previous experiments had hinted, strange quarks in the proton's quark-gluon sea contribute to a proton's properties. The G-Zero collaboration is a multi-year experimental program designed to measure, through the weak force, the strange quark contribution to proton structure.
According to physics dogma, protons, found in the nucleus of the atom, are primarily built of particles called quarks, along with particles called gluons that bind the quarks together. There are three permanent quarks in the proton that come in two "flavors": two "up" and one "down." Up and down quarks are the lightest of the possible six flavors of quarks that appear to exist in the universe. In addition to the proton's three resident quarks, the peculiar rules of quantum mechanics allow other particles to spontaneously appear from time to time. These ghostly particles usually vanish in a fraction of a second, but it was believed possible that their brief existence might influence the structure of the proton. So the G-Zero physicists set out to catch some of these ghostly particles in the act; targeting the "strange" quark, believing it would be the most likely to have a visible effect.
Doug Beck, physicist and spokesperson for the G-Zero multi-nation collaboration, explained that one way to see these strange quarks is to measure them through the weak interaction. "If we look with photons via the electromagnetic interaction, we see quarks inside the proton. And then, if we do it with the weak interaction, we see a very similar, yet distinctly different view of the quarks. And it's by comparing those pictures that we can get at the strange quark contribution," he said.
All it takes is an optical microscope and a video camera to film carbon nanotubes being jostled by water molecules, researchers have found. The discovery could provide biologists with a relatively cheap and simple way to study how nanotubes interact with living cells and DNA.
Doctoral student Rajat Duggal of the Carbon Nanotechnology Laboratory at Rice University in Texas, US, came up with the idea while studying DNA fragments under an optical microscope. He realised the technique could be applied to carbon nanotubes.
Matteo Pasquali, also at Rice University, told New Scientist: “The diameter of DNA molecules and nanotubes is similar, so if you can see one in this way then you should be able to see the other.”
Nanotubes tend to clump together, so to film them individually, Pasquali and Duggal first put clumps of the tubes into a mixture of water and a surfactant called sodium dodecyl sulphate (SPS).
They bombarded the clumps with ultrasound waves to break them apart, allowing the SDS to surround and encase each tube.
The researchers then added a red fluorescent dye, which attached itself to the SDS coating and glowed under an optical microscope, making the nanotubes clearly visible.
Without the SDS molecules, the nanotubes are 3000 to 5000 nanometres long and about 1 nanometre in diameter, and 7 nanometres in diameter with the SDS. Watch a video of the moving nanotubes here (4.5MB wmv).
Desert ants have an internal system - like a pedometer - that keeps track of how many steps they take, according to a new study. The insects seem to rely on this system to find their way back to the nest after foraging. Other insects may also possess this pedometer-like system.
Some types of ant appear to use visual cues or leave scent trails to find their way home. But desert ants have a remarkable ability to retrace their steps from their nesting site even though they travel on flat terrain that is devoid of landmarks, and any odours quickly fade in the hot temperatures.
Previously, researchers have found evidence that ants use the position of the sun as a compass (see Nature, DOI: 10.1038/293731a0). But, as Harald Wolf at the University of Ulm, Germany, and his colleagues point out, for such a compass to be of use desert ants would need a way to track distance.
Wolf and his colleagues became interested in the mystery while studying Saharan desert ants (Cataglyphis fortis). When the researchers shortened the ants' legs the insects had trouble finding home.
Peruvian villager's ritual is shear delight. 
Archeologists on Wednesday fully unveiled the first tomb discovered in Egypt's Valley of the Kings in over 80 years, and cracked open the last of seven sarcophagi inside to reveal embalming materials and jewelry.
"This is even better than finding a mummy _ it's a treasure," said chief curator Nadia Lokma, beaming at the sarcophagus packed with fragile remains that would crumble into dust if touched.
A German/UK team has put the giant GEO 600 gravitational wave detector in a continuous observational mode.
The Hanover lab is trying to detect the ripples created in the fabric of space-time when black holes fall onto each other or massive stars explode.
Success would confirm fundamental physical theories and open a new window on the Universe, enabling scientists to probe the moment of creation itself.
GEO 600 is working alongside a US project known as Ligo (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory). It may also be joined in the hunt by an Italian lab within a year.
A confirmed detection would require the super-sensitive equipment at more than one of these widely spaced facilities to record an event simultaneously.
Compelling independent corroboration would come from a spacecraft that can see the burst of gamma-ray radiation expected to accompany the cataclysmic events that produce gravitational waves.
"If there is a supernova in our vicinity during the next couple of months, our chances of detecting and measuring the resulting gravitational waves are good," said Professor Karsten Danzmann, head of the International Centre for Gravitational Physics, which is jointly run by the Max Planck Society and the University of Hanover.
"The first step towards gravitational wave astronomy has been taken."
Researchers are extremely confident they now have the technology to detect gravitational waves.
Observatories such as GEO 600 bounce lasers down long tunnels, hoping to pick up the fantastically small disturbances the waves should generate as they pass through the Earth.
Unlike electromagnetic waves - the light seen by traditional telescopes - gravitational waves are extremely weak. If one were to pass through the Earth it would alternately stretch its space in one dimension while squashing it in another; but the changes are tiny.
Laser interferometers are looking for disturbances in their experimental set-ups that are equivalent to mere fractions of the diameter of a proton, one of the particles that make up the nucleus of an atom.
Getting GEO 600 to approach this level of sensitivity has been an immense challenge.
"There's more to come from GEO 600; I think we're still about a factor of three away from the design sensitivity over part of the frequency range. But the sensitivity we have makes it very worthwhile stopping improvement to run for an extended period," said Professor Jim Hough, from the Institute for Gravitational Research at Glasgow University, UK.
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa is hoping to stamp out the sex trade by taxing pimps and prostitutes, then jailing them when they don't pay.
The Senate Finance Committee is expected to vote Wednesday morning on the pimp tax. The bill also calls for more jail time for sex workers.
If passed, the provision will authorize at least $2 million toward the establishment of an office in the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation unit to prosecute unlawful sex workers for violations of tax laws.
"Recent headlines have focused on sex trafficking in connection with the World Cup in Germany," Grassley said. "This vile crime is under our noses in the United States, and it's a no-brainer to have the IRS go after sex traffickers. Prosecuting these tax code violations can get these guys off the street and yank from their grasp the girls and women they exploit."
Grassley said the problem is "especially horrible" when underage girls are involved.
Asked if taxing sex workers would legitimize their trade, a Grassley spokesman said the goal was simply to find "yet another alternative to track the money flowing in this industry to get at potential criminals."
Currently, the IRS has to prove a prostitute's or pimp's income to pursue a tax law violation. But under Grassley's proposal, a pimp could get up to 10 years in prison for each prostitute for whom the pimp hasn't filed a W-2, which means a pimp caught with 10 unregistered prostitutes faces a century in prison.
Carol Leigh, a representative of the Bay Area Sex Worker Advocacy Network in San Francisco, California, called the proposal short-sighted.
"Forced labor, kidnapping should be targeted. But this legislation broadly targets the sex trade in general, and could target your local strip club," Leigh said. "We want laws enforced against those who abuse us, against those who are violent, and enforcement of labor regulations. That is the only truly effective way to protect the welfare of the women who work in the industry."
A Newcastle University team monitored how much money people put in a canteen "honesty box" when buying a drink.
They found people put nearly three times as much in when a poster of a pair of eyes was put above the box than when the poster showed flowers.
The brain responds to images of eyes and faces and the poster may have given the feeling of being watched, they say.
Writing in the journal Biology Letters, the team says the findings could aid anti-social behaviour initiatives.
The experiment made use of a long-running honesty box scheme based in a canteen at Newcastle University.
Over the course of 10 weeks, an A5 poster listing hot drink prices was placed at eye-level above the honesty box.
Each week, the poster featured different images of either flowers or a pair of eyes looking directly at the observer.
At the end of every week, the team calculated the total amount of money collected and the amount of drink likely to have been consumed.
Processing faces
Dr Melissa Bateson, a behavioural biologist from Newcastle University and the lead author of the study, said: "We found that people paid 2.76 times as much money when we put a notice on the wall that featured a pair of eyes as opposed to when the image was of some flowers."
She believes this happens because the eyes on the poster may affect people's perception that they are being watched by other people.
"Although it was just a photocopied black and white poster, we know that people's brains are set up to process faces and eyes, and that is probably because it is very important for us to know if we are being watched by other people."
The scientists believe their findings may have applications in initiatives to curb anti-social behaviour or for law enforcement.
"It does raise the possibility that you could get people to behave more co-operatively or pro-socially by putting up pictures of eyes," said Dr Bateson.
"It would work particularly in instances where people have to make a choice between whether to behave well or badly."
She said CCTV or speed cameras might be a possible application.
Professor George Fieldman, an evolutionary psychologist from Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, said: "This paper beautifully demonstrates that people behave better when being watched.
"It would be interesting to know how one can apply these sorts of findings more generally in organisational structures and in society in general to maximise upon honourable and altruistic behaviour."
Iraq frees detainees under amnesty plan.
Soon Big Brother may be watching from the inside out. Like a Mars Orbiter beaming data back to Earth, a power-packed pill will soon be broadcasting from a stomach near you, transmitting both medical measurements and the device’s position as it travels through the body.
The 26-by-13-millimeter device, about the size of a multivitamin capsule, is designed to diagnose gastroparesis, or, in layman's terms, slow stomach emptying.
This condition, in which food stays in the stomach for more than four hours, is especially common in diabetics whose high blood sugar can destroy the stomach's vital vagus nerve, preventing stomach muscles from contracting. People who have gastroparesis can have such symptoms as a lack of appetite, vomiting, stomach spasms, bloating, and weight loss.
Better than ...
Currently, says David Barthel, president and CEO of the SmartPill Corporation, the company that makes the, err, smart pill, gastroparesis patients must endure a gauntlet of invasive, expensive, and often inconclusive tests.
"They would go anywhere from an endoscope [in which a tube is passed through the mouth to the stomach], to a barium test [in which a thick liquid that shows up on X-rays is swallowed and tracked], to a gastric emptying centrifugy test," Barthel explains. "These patients will often run through all these procedures [and others] and it could take anywhere from six months to two years to accurately diagnose a motility patient."
The company's bionic pill is designed to replace this hodgepodge of tests, helping doctors diagnose the condition within days.
As the plastic-sheathed pill passes through the stomach, intestines, and bowel, it transmits critical diagnostic information—such as pH, temperature, and the amount of pressure in the stomach and intestines—to a receiver that a physician later connects to a computer. Included in the digital signal is the pill's position in the body, giving doctors a clear picture of how effectively the stomach and other GI-tract components are pushing food toward the final destination.
Just passing through
The disposable $500 pill—which enters and exits the body through preexisting orifices—transmits data to a receiver that a patient wears either on a lanyard or attached to a belt.
But the transmitter's broadcast range is 300 feet, the length of a football field, so a patient can remove the receiver to sleep or shower. Two tiny batteries power all of the pill's components, which are etched onto a single, custom-made chip, for at least five days.
The SmartPill Corporation, which began developing the device in 2003, has completed clinical trials in the United States, the FDA-controlled process in which human volunteers in hospital settings serve as subjects for new medical technologies or medicines. Based on these promising results, Barthel says, the Boston-based company has applied for FDA approval to sell smart pills in the United States and is in the process of applying for approval in European markets as well.
Story:
An asteroid possibly as large as a half-mile or more in diameter is rapidly approaching the Earth. There is no need for concern, for no collision is in the offing, but the space rock will make an exceptionally close approach to our planet early on Monday, July 3, passing just beyond the Moon's average distance from Earth.
Astronomers will attempt to get a more accurate assessment of the asteroid's size by “pinging” it with radar.
And skywatchers with good telescopes and some experience just might be able to get a glimpse of this cosmic rock as it streaks rapidly past our planet in the wee hours Monday. The closest approach occurs late Sunday for U.S. West Coast skywatchers.
The asteroid, designated 2004 XP14, was discovered on Dec. 10, 2004 by the Lincoln Laboratory Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR), a continuing camera survey to keep watch for asteroids that may pass uncomfortably close to Earth.
Although initially there were concerns that this asteroid might possibly impact Earth later this century and thus merit special monitoring, further analysis of its orbit has since ruled out any such collision, at least in the foreseeable future.
Size not known
Asteroid 2004 XP14 is a member of a class of asteroids known as Apollo, which have Earth-crossing orbits. The name comes from 1862 Apollo, the first asteroid of this group to be discovered. There are now 1,989 known Apollos.
The size of 2004 XP 14 is not precisely known. But based on its brightness, the diameter is believed to be somewhere in the range of 1,345 to 3,018-feet (410 to 920 meters). That's between a quarter mile and just over a half-mile wide.
Due to the proximity of its orbit to Earth [Map] and its estimated size, this object has been classified as a “Potentially Hazardous Asteroid” (PNA) by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There are currently 783 PNAs.
The latest calculations show that 2004 XP14 will pass closest to Earth at 04:25 UT on July 3 (12:25 a.m. EDT or 9:25 p.m. PDT on July 2). The asteroid's distance from Earth at that moment will be 268,624-miles (432,308 km), or just 1.1 times the Moon's average distance from Earth.
Spotting 2004 XP14 will be a challenge, best accomplished by seasoned observers with moderate-sized telescopes.
On April 13, 2029, observers in Asia and North Africa will have a chance to see another asteroid, but without needing a telescope. Asteroid 99942 Apophis, about 1,000 feet (300 meters) wide, is expected to be visible to the naked eye as it passes within 20,000 miles (32,000 km). Astronomers say an asteroid that large comes that close about once every 1,500 years.
Observing plans
As 2004 XP14 makes its closest approach to Earth, astronomers will attempt to gauge its size and shape by analysis of very high frequency radio waves reflected from its surface.
Such radar measurements of the exact distance and velocity of the asteroid will allow for precise information on its orbit. From this scientists can also discern details of the asteroid's mass, as well as a measurement of its density, which is a very important indicator of its overall composition and internal structure.
Astronomers plan to utilize NASA's 70-meter (230-foot) diameter Goldstone radar, the largest and most sensitive antenna in its Deep Space Network. Located in California's Mojave Desert, the Goldstone antenna has been used to bounce radio signals off other Near-Earth asteroids many times before, and it is now being readied to “ping” 2004 XP14 on July 3, 4 and 5.
Augmenting the Goldstone observations will be radar observations scheduled at Evpatoria in the Ukraine, commencing several hours prior to the July 3 observations at Goldstone.
Editor's Note: A SPACE.com viewer's guide for 2004 XP14 will be presented in Joe Rao's weekly Night Sky column on Friday, June 30.
He said he was overjoyed as he spoke for the first time since revealing he would donate about $37bn (£20bn) to Bill Gates' charitable foundation.
"This has been coming for 50 years," Mr Buffett said. "There's never really been any other plan in terms of where the money should go."
The donation is thought to be the largest charitable gift ever in the US.
Giving people a chance
Mr Buffett will hand 10 million shares in his Berkshire Hathaway firm to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
News of the donation comes shortly after Mr Gates announced he is to step away from his day-to-day role at software giant Microsoft.
The man known as "the sage of Omaha" for his relentless success in investments said he always wanted to give the bulk of his fortune away.
However, he said the appropriate vehicle for doing so do had only become apparent in the past year.
"I am not an enthusiast of dynastic wealth, particularly when the alternative is six billion people having that much poorer hands in life than we have, having a chance to benefit from the money," he said.
Mr Gates said it was Mr Buffett's support for philanthropy which had persuaded him to set up the foundation in the first place.
"It is a big challenge to make sure this money gets used in the right way," he said of the donation.
"But it is one we are thrilled about."
The foundation aims to fight disease and promote education around the world.
By July 2008 Mr Gates, the world's richest businessman, will concentrate on the foundation, which is currently worth just under $30bn.
BBC business editor Robert Peston said the size of the foundation's cash pile dwarfed that of other organisations, and compared it with the $12bn annual budget of the United Nations.
He added that the foundation was "an extraordinary new force in the voluntary sector".
New will
Mr Buffett is worth an estimated $44bn, according to Forbes magazine.
As well as donating to the Gates foundation, he also pledged shares for his three children and a substantial gift for a foundation named for his late wife, Susan Thompson Buffett.
All the gifts will be awarded yearly, with 5% of each donation passed on each year, it was announced.
"It is a big challenge to make sure this money gets used in the right way," he said of the donation.
"But it is one we are thrilled about."
The foundation aims to fight disease and promote education around the world.
By July 2008 Mr Gates, the world's richest businessman, will concentrate on the foundation, which is currently worth just under $30bn.
BBC business editor Robert Peston said the size of the foundation's cash pile dwarfed that of other organisations, and compared it with the $12bn annual budget of the United Nations.
He added that the foundation was "an extraordinary new force in the voluntary sector".
New will
Mr Buffett is worth an estimated $44bn, according to Forbes magazine.
As well as donating to the Gates foundation, he also pledged shares for his three children and a substantial gift for a foundation named for his late wife, Susan Thompson Buffett.
All the gifts will be awarded yearly, with 5% of each donation passed on each year, it was announced.
She explained that Mr Buffett's largesse eclipses the charitable donations of such well-known givers as John D Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie.
Despite his huge wealth, Mr Buffett has modest tastes, is called a "cola and hamburger kind of guy", plays the ukulele, and still lives in the same house he bought in his home town of Omaha, Nebraska, in 1957.
Mr Buffett has stated that the death of his wife Susan was one of the reasons behind his donation to the Gates Foundation, because he had thought she would outlive him and handle the dispersal of his wealth.British health food shops will soon be offering customers iced cannabis tea, its Swiss distributor said.
Sold under the label "C-Ice Swiss Cannabis Ice Tea", the beverage contains five percent of hemp flower syrup and a tiny (0.0015 percent) quantity of THC, the active ingredient of marijuana.
Any ingredient that could put it in the drugs category has been removed and the tea will not lead to dependency.
But British anti-drug campaigners say that selling the tea is dangerous because it will give young people the impression that cannabis is commonplace.
The product was launched in Switzerland in 2003 and is already available in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
Writing in American Scientist, Biederman suggests that in seeking knowledge, scholars are almost like junkies. "While you're trying to understand a difficult theorem, it's not fun," said Biederman, a professor of neuroscience. "But once you get it, you just feel fabulous."
Interestingly, Biederman says the brain's craving for a fix motivates humans to maximize the rate at which they absorb knowledge. He hypothesized that knowledge addiction has strong evolutionary value because mate selection correlates closely with perceived intelligence. Only more pressing material needs, such as hunger, can suspend the quest for knowledge, he added. And apparently, the same mechanism may be involved in the aesthetic experience, providing a neurological explanation for the pleasure we derive from art.
Biederman's theory was inspired by a widely ignored 25-year-old finding that mu-opioid receptors (binding sites for natural opiates) increase in density along the ventral visual pathway, a part of the brain involved in image recognition and processing. The receptors are tightly packed in the areas of the pathway linked to comprehension and interpretation of images, but sparse in areas where visual stimuli first hit the cortex. Biederman's theory holds that the greater the neural activity in the areas rich in opioid receptors, the greater the pleasure.
To test his theory Biederman used magnetic resonance imaging on human volunteers who were exposed to a wide variety of images. The research group found that strongly preferred images prompted the greatest MRI activity in more complex areas of the ventral visual pathway. The researchers also found that repeated viewing of an attractive image lessened both the rating of pleasure and the activity in the opioid-rich areas. In his article, he explains this familiar experience with a neural-network model termed "competitive learning."
In competitive learning (also known as "Neural Darwinism"), the first presentation of an image activates many neurons, some strongly and a greater number only weakly. With repetition of the image, the connections to the strongly activated neurons grow in strength. But the strongly activated neurons inhibit their weakly activated neighbors, causing a net reduction in activity. This reduction in activity, Biederman's research shows, parallels the decline in the pleasure felt during repeated viewing.
"One advantage of competitive learning is that the inhibited neurons are now free to code for other stimulus patterns," Biederman explained. This preference for novel concepts also has evolutionary value, he added. "The system is essentially designed to maximize the rate at which you acquire new but interpretable [understandable] information. Once you have acquired the information, you best spend your time learning something else. There's this incredible selectivity that we show in real time. Without thinking about it, we pick out experiences that are richly interpretable but novel."
Source, -University of Southern Califonia
Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have created an "optically switchable" material that changes from sticky to slippery when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light. Describing their work in the journal Angewandte Chemie, the chemists involved said that the material could have a wide variety of applications, from a protein filter for biological mixtures, to a tiny valve for "lab-on-a-chip" devices.Problems inherent in the lab process of bioseparation drove the researchers to develop the new material. In bioseparation, synthetic polymer membranes are used to filter specific proteins from complex liquid mixtures of biological molecules. But proteins often stick to these membranes, clogging up their pores and severely limiting their performance. "Chemists need an inexpensive way to clean these membranes while they are still in place, rather than periodically removing them from the application environment," researcher Georges Belfort explained. But currently the only cleaning options available involve expensive chemicals or labor-intensive procedures that result in significant down-time.
Switchable stickiness can solve this problem, says Belfort. "We asked ourselves, can one use light to help the proteins hop-on and hop-off? We have shown that when one changes light, the proteins don't stick as well," Belfort explained.
To create the new material, Belfort attached spiropyran molecules to a widely used industrial polymer, polyether sulfone. Spiropyrans are a group of light-switchable organic molecules that exist in a colorless, "closed" form under visible light, but switch to a reddish-purple, "open" form when exposed to UV light. This change leads to an alteration of the new material's polarity, or the chemical structure of its atoms. In switching from non-polar to polar, the material becomes less attractive to proteins that might stick to its surface. Exposing the material to UV light is like flipping a molecular switch, causing sticky proteins to detach from the surface and wash away in the liquid.
Not only is the switching mechanism uncomplicated, but so is the patented procedure required to graft spiropyran molecules to polyether sulfone. "We used a relatively simple two-step process that could be easily incorporated into a commercial manufacturing process," Belfort said. And it's not just bioseparation applications that will benefit. Belfort envisions a number of potential applications for the materials, ranging from new membranes for treating polluted water to the targeted release of drugs in the body. "The relative ease of this grafting and switching process suggests many industrial opportunities," Belfort said in conclusion.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cell phone emissions excite the part of the brain cortex nearest to the phone, but it is not clear if these effects are harmful, Italian researchers reported on Monday.
Their study, published in the Annals of Neurology, adds to a growing body of research about mobile phones, their possible effects on the brain, and whether there is any link to cancer.
About 730 million cell phones are expected to be sold this year, according to industry estimates, and nearly 2 billion people around the world already use them.
Of these, more than 500 million use a type that emits electromagnetic fields known as Global System for Mobile communications or GSM radio phones. Their possible effects on the brain are controversial and not well understood.
Dr. Paolo Rossini of Fatebenefratelli hospital in Milan and colleagues used Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation or TMS to check brain function while people used these phones.
They had 15 young male volunteers use a GSM 900 cell phone for 45 minutes. In 12 of the 15, the cells in the motor cortex adjacent to the cell phone showed excitability during phone use but returned to normal within an hour.
The cortex is the outside layer of the brain and the motor cortex is known as the "excitable area" because magnetic stimulation has been shown to cause a muscle twitch.
The researchers stressed that they had not shown that using a cell phone is bad for the brain in any way, but people with conditions such as epilepsy, linked with brain cell excitability, could potentially be affected.
"It should be argued that long-lasting and repeated exposure to EMFs (electromagnetic frequencies) linked with intense use of cellular phones in daily life might be harmful or beneficial in brain-diseased subjects," they wrote.
A dog is seen with employees of Oracle Corp Japan at the company's office in Tokyo February 4, 2003. Millions of Americans believe pets on the job lower absenteeism and encourage workers to get along, according to the survey by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association. (Toshiyuki Aizawa/Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) - On a typical day at Tellme Networks Inc., Jackson snores, Penny spends time learning Chinese and the bosses and workers are delighted.
Penny, a Labrador Retriever, and Jackson, a bulldog, are part of an effort at many U.S. companies to allow pets in the workplace. One survey shows nearly one in five U.S. companies allow pets at work.
Millions of Americans believe pets on the job lower absenteeism and encourage workers to get along, according to the survey by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association.
Pets at Tellme, an Internet telecommunications company, help workers become friends, said Grant Shirk, whose dog Penny is learning Chinese commands from a colleague.
"She can do 'sit,' 'lie down' and 'shake hands,'" he said.
Tellme project manager Jaymer Delapena said co-workers know Jackson, famed for his loud snores, by name, and some like to take the dog into meetings.
"I'll be walking past a conference room and look inside and my dog is sitting in a chair around a table," he said.
Interest in pets at work is growing, say organizers of "Take Your Dog to Work Day," set for this Friday. Several thousand companies are expected to participate, up from a few hundred when the event began eight years ago.
Heather Galler believes in the concept so much that she founded her own company where workers are encouraged to work from home and be with their pets.
Pets build bonds among workers and clients, said Galler, head of JobKite.com, where all 28 employees work remotely from home offices, along with 18 dogs, 13 cats, a parrot and a dozen fish.
"When we first started doing it, we tried to hide the fact that we were telecommuting and that we were with our animals. Then it just dawned on me, 'Why should we hide it?" Galler said. "Most people have pets of their own, and it would be an icebreaker."
The policy has drawbacks, she conceded. "I'm talking to you in the bathroom because I don't want my dogs to start barking and interrupting our conversation," she said from her home office in Cape Coral, Florida. "They can get a little loud."
Dozens of dogs come to work with their owners at Replacements, Ltd., said Scott Fleming, president of the company that deals in china, crystal, silver and collectibles in McLeansville, North Carolina.
"They have not broken a single piece, which is more than I can say for the rest of us," Fleming said.
Pet-friendly environments can pay off in a competitive job market, said Phil Carpenter, vice president of marketing at Simply Hired, an online jobs database that has added an option for job-seekers to select a dog-friendly company.
More than 400 companies -- among them Google Inc. -- have listed themselves as dog-friendly, he said.
"Companies hire in-house masseuses to in-house chefs. Why not take this step and allow people to bring a companion that's really important to them in their lives?" he said.
A survey by Simply Hired and Dogster, an online site, found a third of dog-owners would take a 5 percent pay cut to take their pets to work, two-thirds would work longer hours and half would switch jobs.
"Take Your Dog to Work Day" is intended to raise awareness of animals in shelters that need homes, said John Long, spokesman for organizers Pet Sitters International.
"Certainly we encourage anyone who wants to take their pet to work, but that's not really the point of what we're doing," he said. "We want to focus on the animals that need good homes. If we can hook good people up with good pets, it's a beautiful thing."
Archaeologists have discovered that 100,000-year-old shells found in Israel and Algeria were decorative beads. This suggests that modern human forms of behaviour, such as language, developed earlier than previously thought. "Personal ornaments are a powerful tool of communication," says Francesco D’Errico at the Institute of the Prehistory and Geology of the Quaternary in Talence, France, one of the team that studied the beads. "They can indicate social or marital status, for example. But you need to have a complex system of language behind that. To me [these beads] are very powerful archaeological evidence that these people were able to speak like us."
In 2004 archaeologists unearthed 41 pea-sized shell beads in Blombos Caves, South Africa, dated at 75,000 years old. The shells were all punctured in the same place and showed signs of wear, as if they had been strung together. They were the oldest record of personal ornamentation ever found, suggesting that African humans from this time could think symbolically and were more culturally advanced than previously believed.
That find prompted Marian Vanhaeren at University College London and her colleagues to take a further look at shells mentioned in site excavation logs from Skhul in Israel and Oued Djebbana in Algeria. The team found three shells of the ocean gastropod Nassarius gibbosulus in museums in London and Paris. Two were from Skhul, dating from at least 100,000 years ago, and one was from Oued Djebbana and between 35,000 and 90,000 years old. The snail is of the same genus as those found in the Blombos Caves, and all the finds were too tiny to be collected as food. Each shell had a hole on the back, most likely punctured by humans, though such holes do occur naturally.
Full Aricle, -New Scientist
The location of the spider silk strands have been drawn on this image. Magnified images of a mite and bubbles attached to a strand are shown in boxes. The scale bar is 1 millimetre long. (Image: Science)The world's oldest spider web – complete with captured prey - has been discovered, preserved in 110-million-year-old amber
The world's oldest spider web – complete with captured prey - has been discovered, preserved in 110-million-year-old amber.
The web was trapped in the early Cretaceous period as sticky sap seeped from a tree in what is now Spain. It had hung from a tree so that it would catch insects on the wing.
The sap may have dripped onto the web, or the web may have blown onto its surface, says David Grimaldi of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, US. Then more sap covered it, forming a small amber "stalactite" 18 millimetres long and 7.5 millimetres wide.
Palaeontologists who found the amber sliced it into three thin sections, revealing at least 26 silk strands, some interconnected. The web is not complete enough to be firmly identified as an orb web, with a spiral strand wound on radial spokes. But Grimaldi says the fragments are consistent with orb webs. "It's a geometrically complex web, certainly not a random assortment of strands like a cobweb. It was certainly in one plane,"
 Dogs such as beagles can be trained to perform complex tasks |
Belle the beagle triggered a call to an ambulance crew by biting on her owner, Kevin Weaver's, mobile phone.
The dog was trained to detect potential diabetic attacks by licking and sniffing Mr Weaver's nose to check his blood sugar levels and pawing him.
Belle resorted to dialling for help when Mr Weaver fell unconscious.
The dog used her teeth to press the number nine key, which the phone was programmed to interpret as a "911" call to emergency services.
Ambulance workers answered the phone and, hearing nothing but barking at the end of the line, rushed to the caller's house in the city of Ocoee in Florida state.
The dog is the first animal to receive the Vita Wireless Samaritan Award.
"I am convinced that if Belle wasn't with me that morning, I wouldn't be alive today," Mr Weaver said.
"Belle is more than just a life-saver. She's my best friend." | Scientist Targets 2024 for China's First Moon Walk By Associated Press |
SHANGHAI, China (AP) – China plans a manned lunar mission by 2024 that will include a walk on the moon's surface, a top Chinese scientist was quoted as saying in a Hong Kong newspaper.
The program went into overdrive following China's first successful manned space mission in 2003 and may include a spacewalk by an additional manned mission next year.
Named “Chang'e'' after a mythical Chinese moon-inhabiting fairy, the lunar program will begin with the launch next spring of a 2-ton moon orbiting satellite, the program's chief scientist Ouyang Ziyuan was quoted as saying in the official Shanghai Daily newspaper.
The orbiter is due to stay in space at least a year and record images of the lunar surface, study lunar microwaves, the distribution of usable metals, and the thickness of lunar soil.
An agile Chinese orchid performs a floral version of sexual intercourse—with itself.
Researchers say an extension of the male flower part, or anther, turns an upside-down loop to deliver spermlike pollen spores directly into the female cavity.
The anther bends to enter the female chamber from below and is secured in place by a ring structure on its stalk to ensure fertilization.
The flower is the first known plant in which pollination is entirely self-directed, with no outside agents or forces—such as bees or breezes—playing a role.
Biologists observed the elaborate style of reproduction in the bisexual orchid Holcoglossum amesianum, a tree-dwelling plant found in the dry forests of China's southern Yunnan Province
LaiQiang Huang of Tsinghua University in Shenzhen and colleagues studied the unusual flower. The team's findings will appear in tomorrow's issue of the journal Nature.
Pollinating Alone
In more conventional plant sex, creatures such as insects or birds transport pollen from one plant to another, resulting in a fertilized embryo or seed.
Most orchids reproduce in this way, and many are known for their elaborate floral structures (photo: South African Disa uniflora orchid) designed to attract specialized insect pollinators.
But pollen may also be transferred from male to female flowers on a single plant, or from male to female parts on a single blossom. In such cases, plants can fertilize themselves.
While less common in orchids, many flowering plants are known to self-fertilize either some or all of the time. Most rely on wind or fluid secretions to move pollen around.
The latest research on water - still one of the least understood of all liquids despite a century of intensive study – seems to support the possibility that cells, tissues and even the entire human body could be cyropreserved without formation of damaging ice crystals, according to University of Helsinki researcher Anatoli Bogdan, Ph.D
Saturn's two largest moons have been captured together in a new image from the Cassini spacecraft.
Maoist's model revolution, shows rest of world what works. 
NPR Radio A California airplane hangar has been made into what might be the biggest camera ever imagined, ready to take the world's largest photo. Artist Rob Johnson and five colleagues came up with this challenge. He tells Liane Hansen how it will work.
Somers (NY) - IBM today claimed the crown for the world's fastest chip, at least in terms of clock speed: The company said it was able to achieve frequencies "above 500 GHz" by "cryogenically freezing" the chip. And the company apparently does not want to stop there: Using silicon-germanium (SiGe) technologies, IBM is aiming for near-THz speeds.
"A world lost for more than 100 million years was being revealed to us," -ABC NEWS| BREAKING NEWS! Anti-Aging Molecule Discovered | |||
 | By Kim Tae-gyu Staff Reporter A team of South Korean scientists on Sunday claimed to have created a ``cellular fountain of youth,’’ or a small molecule, which enables human cells to avoid aging and dying. The team, headed by Prof. Kim Tae-kook at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, argued the newly-synthesized molecule, named CGK733, can even make cells younger. The findings were featured by the Britain-based Nature Chemical Biology online early today and will be printed as a cover story in the journal’s offline edition early next month. ``All cells face an inevitable death as they age. On this path, cells became lethargic and in the end stop dividing but we witnessed that CGK733 can block the process,’’ Kim said. ``We also found the synthetic compound can reverse aging, by revitalizing already-lethargic cells. Theoretically, this can give youth to the elderly via rejuvenating cells,’’ the 41-year-old said. Kim expected that the CGK733-empowered drugs that keep cells youthful far beyond their normal life span would be commercialized in less than 10 years. Other researchers here heaped praises on the discovery but they were cautious about the practical therapeutic application of the new substance. ``Obviously, it is an innovative finding. But we need to see whether or not CGK733 could really rejuvenate cells inside human bodies without generating side effects,’’ Prof. Kim Sung-hoon at Seoul National University said. Prof. Kim Tae-kook, however, is confident about the commercial viability of CGK733, believing the efficiency of the material was created using state-of-the-art magnetic nano-probe technology. ``We have the magnet-associated technology to identify molecular targets inside living cells, which allowed us to examine the mechanisms of CGK733 directly,’’ Kim said. ``Unlike other research teams that must make candidates materials for drugs without being able to see their intra-cell activities, we know the precise mechanism of CGK733. So we have the better chance of making a success of the substance,’’ he continued. Indeed, Kim basked in global recognition last June when he and his associates developed a technology dubbed MAGIC, short for magnetism-based interactive capture. MAGIC uses fluorescent materials to check whether any drug can mix with targeted proteins inside the cell. The results were globally recognized by being printed by the U.S.-based journal Science at the time. ``MAGIC is kind of a source technology to see inside cells. Based on the method, we also found a pair of promising substances that can deal with cancers,’’ Kim said. | ||
 It is the first time Prachanda (centre) has met a serving premier |
The move was announced in the capital, Kathmandu, after landmark talks between rebel leader Prachanda and Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.
Prachanda said he wanted the new government set up within one month.
Friday's talks in Kathmandu were the first formal meeting between the government and the rebels.
Their joint statement formalised in writing an understanding reached at the height of widespread protests against the rule of King Gyanendra in April.
The talks are the latest step in moves to end Nepal's decade-long insurgency.
Hawking says humans close to finding answers to origin of universe
Acclaimed British physicist Stephen Hawking has said that humanity is finally getting close to understanding the origin of the universe.
Speaking at a lecture in Hong Kong, Hawking said that despite some theoretical advances in the past years, there are still mysteries as to how the universe began.
"Despite having had some great successes, not everything is solved. We do not yet have good theoretical understanding of the observation of the expansion of the universe," he told an audience of 2,500 at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Thursday.
"Without such understanding, we cannot be sure of the future of the universe.
"New observational results and theoretical advances are coming in rapidly; cosmology is a very exciting subject. We are getting close to answering these old questions: why are we here, where did we come from?"
The 64-year-old also said his unfulfilled ambitions, among many, were to find out what happens inside black holes, how the universe began and how the human race can survive in the next 100 years.
Above all, he joked, he wants to understand women.
On Tuesday Hawking said the human race should reach for the stars to survive as the Earth is at risk of being wiped out by a disaster.
He believes humans should settle in space, predicting a lunar settlement within 20 years and a Martian colony in 40.
Hawking, a Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, speaks with a voice synthesiser and has been in a wheelchair since developing motor neurone disease.
During his Hong Kong visit he also revealed he is writing a children's book with his daughter about theoretical physics.
Hawking is the author of international best seller "A Brief History of Time", which attempted to explain a range of subjects in cosmology, including the Big Bang, black holes, light cones and superstring theory.
He is on a six-day visit to Hong Kong and will meet Chief Executive Donald Tsang Friday before heading to Beijing Saturday where he will give a lecture on string theory.
The first pictures showing a live specimen of a rodent species once thought to have been extinct for 11 million years have been taken by a retired Florida State University professor and a Thai wildlife biologist. They took video and still photographs of the "living fossil," which looks like a small squirrel or tree shrew, in May during an expedition to central Laos near the Thai border.Known as Diatomyidae, scientists have nicknamed it the Laotian rock rat. The creature is not really a rat but a member of a rodent family once known only from fossils.The pictures show a docile, squirrel-sized animal with dark dense fur and a long tail but not as bushy as a squirrel's. It also shows that the creature waddles like a duck with its hind feet splayed out at an angle _ ideal for climbing rocks."I hope these pictures will help in some way to prevent the loss of this marvelous animal," said David Redfield, a science education professor emeritus.He and Uthai Treesucon, a bird-watching colleague, befriended hunters who captured a live rock rat after four failed attempts. 
Submitted by Rick Hamell: Israeli scientists said on Wednesday they had discovered a prehistoric ecosystem dating back millions of years. The discovery was made in a cave near the central Israeli city of Ramle during rock drilling at a quarry. Scientists were called in and soon found eight previously unknown species of crustaceans and invertebrates similar to scorpions."Until now eight species of animals were found in the cave, all of them unknown to science," said Dr Hanan Dimantman, a biologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.He said the cave's ecosystem probably dates back around five million years when the Mediterranean Sea covered parts of Israel. The cave was completely sealed off from the world, including from water and nutrients seeping through rock crevices above. 
