Daniyal Jahangir

Electric Cars Are Coming !!!

2009-12-27T17:51:00.002+05:00

Rapid Improvement in Battery Technologies combined with light weight materials for car construction are making electric-powered cars the vehicles of the future. Now the US manufacturer of Tesla electric sports cars has set a world record at the Global Green Challenge race in Australia, when the vehicle managed to travel a formidable 501 km on a single battery charge.

Its design resembles that of the Lotus Elan. Honda acheived a distance of 360 km on a single charge in the same race, but was more efficient in terms of distance travelled per watt hour of battery power. It achieved an efficiency of 85 watt hours per kilometre, which is claimed to make it the most energy efficient vehicle in the world.

Now it is no exaggeration to claim that electrical vehicles are going to be the part of our personal lives.

Global Economic Crisis Could not Stop Emissions Growth

2009-11-22T16:21:00.006+05:00

A study from Norwegian and Newzealand scientists provides updated number of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels. While the global financial crisis may have slowed down the emission growth, it has not been sufficient enough to stop it. From 2007 to 2008 global emissions from fossil fuels increased by 2.2 %. From 2003 to 2007, the average fossil emissions increased by
3.7 % a year.

According to study published in Environment Research Letters, coal in 2006 has bypassed oil as the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions. Emissions from gas and oil have had a rather constant growth since 1990. Coal is now the driver of the strong fossil fuel Carbon dioxide emission growth.

The growth rate of emissions has been a slightly higher in India the last two years. For the first time India's emissions now increase faster than the Chinese emissions.

According to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a large reduction of fossil emissions is required to reduce global warming. The concentration of CO2 in atmosphere has been increased from 280 ppm in 1750 to 383 ppm in 2007. Around 75 % of the increase until now is due to carbon dioxide emissions from fossil energy. 25 % is due to changes in land use.

All main IPCC scenarios of fossil fuel Carbon dioxide emissions show an increase over the next few decades with a large spread in emissions estimates upto 2100. And this increasing trend is driven by enhanced economic growth.

'Doomsday' 2012 Prediction Explained

2009-11-17T20:03:00.002+05:00

According to Ann Martin, a doctoral candidate in Cornell University's Department of Astronomy, the world will NOT end on December 21, 2012, contrary to what the latest Hollywood Blockbuster movie suggests. Her research focuses on the hydrogen contents of galaxies in the nearby universe.

She says that the Mayan calendar was designed to be cyclical, so the fact that the world will come to an end in December 2012 is really of no consequence. Simply, it is the end of great calendar cycle in Mayan society. It does not mean that the "world will end", she says.

For the past three years, Martin has been a volunteer with Cornell's "Curious? Ask an Astronomer" service, a website founded by Astronomy Graduate Students in 1997. This website features the answers to over 750 FAQ's regarding the field of astronomy.

For further information see:

http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=686

New DNA Method Makes It Easier To Trace Criminals

2009-11-01T17:14:00.000+05:00

DNA samples often convict criminals. But many of today's forensic tests are so polluted by soil, tobacco and food remains, for example, that they can not be used. Now researchers at Lund University in Sweden, working together with the Swedish National Laboratory of Forensic Science, SKL, have improved a critical part of the analysis process.

The first findings, published in the latest issue of the journal Biotechniques, indicate that the new method strengthens the DNA analysis so that previously negative samples yield positive and usable DNA profiles.

"The results are overwhelming. In my study I selected 32 truly difficult samples from the SKL archive, that is, with few cells, little DNA, and many so-called inhibitors, meaning lots of junk. With current methods it was impossible to get acceptable DNA profiles from any of them. But with the new method, 28 of the samples yielded more usable DNA profiles," says Johannes Hedman, an industrial doctoral candidate from SKL doing research at the Faculty of Engineering, Lund University.

Genetic information has become more and more common in forensic analyses. The analysis flow usually starts with taking a sample with a swab from a drinking glass or a blood spot, for example. The cells from the swab are then dissolved in water, and the DNA is extracted.
In forensics all over the world, much work has been done to improve the taking and handling of samples.

"The DNA analysis, on the other hand, has been something of a black box, since it is purchased as a finished product. No one has tried to improve it to be able to deal with dirty samples. But this is absolutely crucial, since the samples often have extremely small amounts of DNA. In this phase you copy certain parts of the DNA strands and then obtain a DNA profile that is unique to each person.

In the copying step, I have optimized the chemical environment and replaced a key enzyme, a so-called DNA polymerase. This yields a clearer genetic footprint, a DNA profile, to work with," explains Johannes Hedman. He has also devised a new mathematical model that makes it easy to interpret the DNA analysis.

If the copying phase is improved, stronger DNA evidence can be shown from crime scenes that today provide only partial or entirely blank DNA profiles. In other words, the chances are greater that a person can be found and linked to a particular crime.

The reason Johannes Hedman wound up at Lund is the fact that Peter Rådström, a professor of microbiological engineering, has been working since the late 1980s to improve DNA-based infection diagnostics and microbiological analyses for food. SKL was eager to find out whether these research findings could be applied to improving forensic DNA analysis.

"This collaboration opens new vistas for both SKL and Lund University, and we hope to be able to continue to work together with Peter Rådström's team. We have truly seen cross-fertilization," says Birgitta Rasmusson, research director at SKL.

Nanotech Protection

2009-10-22T20:28:00.000+06:00

Canadian engineers suggest that research is needed into the risks associated with the growing field of nanotechnology manufacture so that appropriate protective equipment can be developed urgently.

Patricia Dolez of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, at the École de technologie supérieure, in Montréal and colleagues point out that skin is not an impervious membrane. This is the reason that protective clothing and gloves, in addition to respirators, are often an essential and common sight in the chemical industry. However, they wonder if standard protection against chemical risks is enough for workers who are handling nanomaterials.

According to the most recent estimates from the U.S. National Science Foundation, the nanotechnology market could reach as much as $1 trillion by 2011/2012. This, says Dolez, corresponds to about 2 million workers involved in nano-related activities. She adds that it has already been shown that nanoparticles may affect biological activity through oxidative stress at the cellular and molecular levels, although these effects are yet to be manifest as health problems among workers.

The anticipated hazards associated with this incredibly diverse range of substances falling under the general and broad tag of "nanomaterials" remain largely unknown. And, some scientists have suggested that we are vigilant to emerging health problems associated with nanomaterials. The U.S. government recently updated its National Nanotechnology Initiative strategic plan to highlight the need for an assessment of nanomaterials toxicity before production begins.

Dolez and colleagues suggest that as this area of manufacturing grows it would be prudent to develop adequate workplace protection sooner, rather than later. Indeed, those workers most likely to be exposed to nanomaterials will be working in cleaning, bagging and formulation activities as well as surface functionalisation of nanoparticles.

They explain that current regulations and standards testing for protective clothing and equipment are almost devoid of references to nanomaterials specifically. Moreover, although some researchers have concluded that certified respirators offer an appropriate level of protection against nanoparticles, there remain large uncertainties, for example due to the increased potential of leaks at face seal because of the very small size of nanoparticles, a few billionths of a meter.

Computer Helps Deaf Children To Learn Sign Language

2009-10-21T18:34:00.001+06:00

Three PhD candidates have spent the last few years at TU Delft simultaneously working on sign language. One of these is Jeroen Arendsen: “Very little is known about the perception of sign language. The aim of this research was to expand our knowledge of human observation of signing. For instance, it turns out that sign language users only need to see a small part of a hand movement to know it is a sign and what it means.”

Automatic Recognition:

The insights obtained into human perception can subsequently be used for developing the technology for automatic sign language recognition by cameras and computers. In the TU Delft study, this led to a remarkable application of automatic sign language recognition: an Electronic Learning Environment (ELo) for children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Pictures:

In conjunction with the NSDSK (Dutch foundation for children who are deaf or hard of hearing), the TU Delft researchers developed a computer which can recognise sign language in real time and can therefore be used to teach children who are deaf and hard of hearing new signs more quickly.

When shown a picture, the children aged three to six were asked to make the correct sign. The computer then had to assess the sign. Arendsen: “And that is quite difficult, because a computer is more easily confused than people by irrelevant fidgeting.”

Comprehensible:

The task of fellow PhD candidate Jeroen Lichtenauer (EEMCS faculty) was to convert the signs into information which is comprehensible to a computer. As an Industrial Design Engineering student, Arendsen was more involved in the human aspects. Gineke Ten Holt was the third PhD candidate, who worked as a bridge between the two disciplines.

Sign Language Vocabulary:

Further research showed that the Electronic Learning Environment really does work. The sign language vocabulary of those children who had practised with it increased compared to that of a control group. This only applied to the slightly older children however.

New Technology Detects Chemical Weapons In Seconds

2009-10-20T19:22:00.001+06:00

Scientists at Queen's University Belfast are developing new sensors to detect chemical agents and illegal drugs which will help in the fight against the threat of terrorist attacks.

The devices will use special gel pads to 'swipe' an individual or crime scene to gather a sample which is then analysed by a scanning instrument that can detect the presence of chemicals within seconds. This will allow better, faster decisions to be made in response to terrorist threats.

The scanning instrument will use Raman Spectroscopy which involves shining a laser beam onto the suspected sample and measuring the energy of light that scatters from it to determine what chemical compound is present. It is so sophisticated it can measure particles of a miniscule scale making detection faster and more accurate.

Normally this type of spectroscopy is not sensitive enough to detect low concentrations of chemicals, so here the sample is mixed with nanoscale silver particles which amplify the signals of compounds allowing even the smallest trace to be detected.

It is hoped the new sensors will also be the basis for developing 'breathalyzer' instruments that could be of particular use for roadside drugs testing in much the same way as the police take breathalyzer samples to detect alcohol.

At present, police officers are only able to use a Field Impairment Test to determine if a person is driving under the influence of drugs. The accuracy of this method has been questioned because of concerns that it is easy to cheat.

To ensure the technology is relevant, senior staff members from FSNI (Forensic Science Northern Ireland) will give significant input into the operational aspects of the technology and give feedback as to how it might be used in practice by the wider user community.

Stan Brown, Chief Executive of FSNI said:

"We consider the work being carried out by researchers at Queen's University extremely important and potentially very useful in driving forward the effectiveness, efficiency and speed of forensic science practice. The combination of leading edge research and hands-on experience of FSNI's practitioners has already proven very fruitful and is likely to lead to significant developments in forensic methodologies across a range of specialisms."

In the future this technology could have a number of important applications and according to Dr Bell: "There are numerous areas, from medical diagnostics to environmental monitoring, where the ability to use simple field tests to detect traces of important indicator compounds would be invaluable."

Video Camera That Records At The Speed Of Thought

2009-10-20T19:13:00.003+06:00

European Researchers who created an ultra-fast, extremely high-resolution video camera have enabled dozens of medical applications, including one scenario that can record ‘thought’ processes travelling along neurons.

The Megaframe project scored a staggering number of breakthroughs to create the world’s first 1024 pixel, photon-resolution, million-frame-per-second CMOS camera.

Their work has pushed the boundaries of CMOS (a type of semiconductor) miniaturisation and sophistication. But it is in the application of their technology that the most stunning impacts of the Megaframe project will be seen, particularly in medical applications.

That is because the camera can detect a single photon at a million times a second, and so it can record molecular processes in unprecedented detail. “We need this sort of detail because biomedical scientists are studying processes at the intra-cellular and molecular levels,” underlines Edoardo Charbon, coordinator of the EU-funded Megaframe project.

Scientists have developed extremely ingenious ways to infer or deduce what is happening at the molecular level, and Megaframe could make that process even more detailed. Essentially, scientists use a variety of emissive materials to see what is happening in microscopic biomedical processes.

Take Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM). Here, a fluorescent material is introduced to the area of interest. Fluorescence has some interesting properties, for example a particular spectrum of emission and a rate of decay.

One particular fluorophore, Oregon Green Bapta (OGB-1), decays at a rate proportionate to the presence of calcium. Interestingly, calcium is an important indicator of neuron activity.

So it is possible, for example, to go inside neurons and look at their ion channels. These are the channels that allow neurons to communicate with other neurons. And you can basically see the amount of calcium that is present. You can probe optically how neurons communicate with other neurons just by looking at the concentrations of calcium in real time.

So scientists can use the OGB-1 to indicate the presence and concentration of calcium, and the whole process can be recorded in ultra-fine detail thanks to single-photon detectors, such as the ones present in the Megaframe camera. The camera is recording at the speed of thought.

“Biomedical scientists could in principle use this microscopic information about calcium to learn about macroscopic conditions like Parkinson’s, or Alzheimer’s or epilepsy,” Charbon stresses.

Megaframe could have a significant impact on any medical science that uses visible light emissive scanning technologies like FLIM. But it can even have an impact where visible light is not present.

Other Applications:

Other applications currently under exploration by Megaframe include intracellular DNA sequencing and proteomics, two huge areas for drug discovery, as well as basic scientific research for gene sequencing and protein-folding.

Other areas where Megaframe’s work could boost research results include cell membrane scanning, to discover what bacteria or other material are present, and this research could be extended to look at issues like water purity, and waterborne bacteria.

Exploring further Potential:

Another very promising technique is the combination of fluorescence imaging with MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging. “In MRI you need very strong magnetic fields in the cavity where you are performing the imaging, up to 10 Tesla, but conventional fluorescence technology won't work in these conditions,” says Charbon.

But Megaframe’s choice of photo detector – the Single-Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) – have been tested successfully in fields up to 9.4 Tesla, he reveals.

“Thus, it can be envisaged to have a system where fluorescence-enhanced imaging and functional MRI may be used simultaneously,” Charbon enthuses. “This is very useful in a number of biomedical applications, where one wants to monitor the correlation between the presence of certain molecules in organs, such as the brain, and their function.”

Again, pharmacology could benefit from this technique enormously, as well as epidemiological research.

“Our preliminary tests were conducted in an animal MRI, which in general has much higher fields than a human MRI. Human MRI tests will follow,” reveals Charbon, adding that the technique has been tested with other SPAD-based microsensors and has yielded good results.

“Even though we have not tested it with the Megaframe chip, it is a guaranteed success because the technology is in principle the same,” Charbon predicts.

The Megaframe project has just begun to explore the potential for their camera in biomedical applications, and the list just keeps on growing as their research continues. And that is just in the biomedical field. There are dozens of potential applications in fields as diverse as high-energy physics, entertainment and automotive diagnostics.

Unleashing The Power In Beer

2009-08-23T15:44:00.001+06:00

Wolfgang Bengel, the technical director at German biomass company BMP Biomasse Projekt, saw a business opportunity in solving the breweries’ grain waste headache. He reasoned that the leftover grain could be used to create steam and biogas, which would provide energy for the breweries, cheapening their energy costs as well as their costs of transporting grain to farms.

Bengel has successfully treated the residue from rice and sugar cane in boilers with atmospheric fluidized bed combustion systems, to produce energy in China and Thailand, and Bengel thought a similar process could be developed for the breweries’ spent wet grain. Water would first have to be removed from the wet spent grain, the grain would have to be dried and then burned to produce energy. “Beer making is energy intensive – you boil stuff, use hot water and steam and then use electric energy for cooling – so if you recover more than 50 percent of your own energy costs from the spent grain that’s a big saving,” says Bengel.

BMP turned to a long-standing business partner, fellow German biogas plant specialist INNOVAS, which had worked with it in China, to help develop the method as a EUREKA project. Germany’s BISANZ, which works on engineering projects, was also enlisted, as was Slovakian partner Adato, which designs boilers. By chance, BISANZ had been working on a boiler plant for a waste management company which entered bankruptcy, with assets being sold. The partners decided to buy the unwanted plant and to adapt the equipment to the process of burning spent grain.

Researchers had to add extra cleaning and filtering equipment to the combustion equipment they had bought. There are extremely high European standards for combustion and the team had to extend the research timetable as its initial burning tests failed to meet the requirements. “We had more than 50-60 test periods of burning mixtures of spent grain,” says Bengel.

They have managed to refine the process so that the burning met the requirements. They also perfected a process for the anaerobic treatment of the waste water from breweries, thereby producing a complete system for breweries to treat their complete waste stream, wet spent grain and waste water. One of Germany’s environmental protection agencies (TÜV) certified the burning process as up to standard.

Breweries who sign up could become greener breweries, creating their own energy and cutting down on lorries travelling to and from their factories. “Out of 100,000 tonnes of wet spent grain, you have 2,000 tonnes or even less of ashes,” says Bengel.

SOUTH AMERICA: Rich in Biodiversity, Lagging in Protection

2009-05-24T14:04:00.002+06:00

South America is the only region that has not submitted a report of its actions in the last year to implement the Convention on Biological Diversity, although it accounts for 40 percent of the world’s plant and animal species and the deadline was Mar. 30.

"These reports are very important in order to combat threats against biodiversity," David Cooper, Programme Officer at the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) told IPS, referring to the fourth annual report, which none of the 12 countries of South America have presented.

Without their reports, there is no record of the actions, strategies and progress they have made toward the protection of biodiversity, which holds up regional progress on the issue, the experts complained.

Cooper and more than 30 representatives of South American governments, environmental groups and other other civil society organisations are in Lima participating in a high-level meeting to assess the region's progress and interests in relation to the CBD's 2010 biodiversity target to significantly reduce the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level.

The two-day meeting at the headquarters of the Andean Community trade bloc ended Wednesday with a declaration on progress and limitations in reaching the target, and a list of priorities for action as the 2010 deadline looms.

The CBD, approved in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is the foremost instrument for stemming the loss of biological diversity and ensuring equitable and sustainable access to the resources and benefits of that wealth. To promote compliance with the Convention, the Countdown 2010 Initiative was created within the scope of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in 2004 for Europe and in 2007 for Latin America.

There are 150 partners in the initiative, including government representatives, private companies and organisations around the world committed to curbing the loss of biodiversity.

"Biodiversity is a local issue for each country, but we share a common responsibility," Sebastian Winkler, the head of the Countdown 2010 Initiative and an adviser on European policy, told IPS.

"But as a region, Latin Ameria has not lived up to the commitments made in signing the Convention because so far, the countries have not reported on their national strategies, unlike Africa, for example," he said.

Winkler stressed that the countries of Latin America must make an effort to "monitor the present state of biodiversity and play a more active part in international processes."

South America not only possesses 40 percent of the planet’s biodiversity, but also 25 percent of the forests and 26 percent of the fresh water sources. This vast natural wealth has also made it one of the most vulnerable regions. Among the main threats that were pointed out at the Lima meeting were the impact of climate change which causes animal and plant species to die out, the uncontrolled extraction of natural resources and the modification of land use in the Amazon - that is, the expansion of areas devoted to agriculture and other productive activities to the detriment of the jungle.

Statistics on damage to biodiversity worldwide are worrying. According to the IUCN's Red List, last updated in 2008, there are 16,928 species threatened with extinction, equivalent to 38 percent of the species catalogued. Thirty-six million hectares of pristine forests have been lost every year since 2000.

The Andean Community, made up of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, has encouraged countries to create a regional policy to make progress on their commitments, although those involved have admitted that they will not be able to meet the target.

On Tuesday, the first day of the Lima meeting, a review of progress was carried out, which was far from encouraging, and preliminary priorities for 2010 were proposed. Among these were strengthening alliances between government and civil society representatives, defining indicators to measure progress on the commitments, and enlisting the private sector in the defence of biodiversity. Another proposal was to create communication strategies to spread simple, non-technical information, in order to involve the public in this global problem.

Can One Inherit the Happiness ?

2009-05-18T14:12:00.000+06:00

A new study suggests that our feelings in our lifetime can affect our children.

Dr. Halabe Bucay suggests that a wide range of chemicals that our brain generates when we are in different moods could affect 'germ cells' (eggs and sperm), the cells that ultimately produce the next generation. Such natural chemicals could affect the way that specific genes are expressed in the germ cells, and hence how a child develops.

In his article in the latest issue of Bioscience Hypotheses, Dr Alberto Halabe Bucay of Research Center Halabe and Darwich, Mexico, suggested that the hormones and chemicals resulting from happiness, depression and other mental states can affect our eggs and sperm, resulting in lasting changes in our children at the time of their conception.

Brain chemicals such as endorphins, and drugs, such as marijuana and heroin are known to have significant effects on sperm and eggs, altering the patterns of genes that are active in them.
"It is well known, of course, that parental behavior affects children, and that the genes that a child gets from its parents help shape that child's character." said Dr. Halabe Bucay. "My paper suggests a way that the parent's psychology before conception can actually affect the child's genes."

"This is an intriguing idea" commented Dr. William Bains, Editor of Bioscience Hypotheses. "We wanted to publish it to see what other scientists thought, and whether others had data that could support or disprove it. That is what our journal is for, to stimulate debate about new ideas, the more groundbreaking, the better."

How Oil Gets Stuck Underground In Inaccessible Places

2009-05-17T16:01:00.001+06:00

It is a mystery to many people why the world is running out of oil when most of the world’s oilfields have only been half emptied. However some of the oil that has been located is trapped as droplets of oil in small cavities in the surrounding rock or is stuck to the walls of the underground cavity and cannot be accessed by the techniques currently used in the oil industry.

Now, new research may have come up with an explanation as to where and how North Sea oil clings to underground rocks. This explanation could turn out to be the first step on the way to developing improved oil production techniques with the intent of increasing oil production from Danish oil fields.

A research group at the Nano-Science Center, part of the Institute of Chemistry at University of Copenhagen has investigated drill cores collected from North Sea oil fields using an atomic force microscope. Their investigations show that the spaces which contain oil have totally different surface qualities than expected from our knowledge of the minerals which make up the rock. The rocks which contain oil in the Danish part of the North Sea are primarily chalk – the same type of rock that the cliffs of Stevns and Møns are made of. Assistant Professor Tue Hassenkam lead the research, whose preliminary results were published in the respected scientific publication PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) this week. He says that this is the first time that investigations of this type have been carried out on chalk from an oil field in the North Sea.

'Previous investigations were carried out on the surface properties of pure mineral crystals. But our investigation has shown that this chalk has a different and more complex structure' says Tue Hassenkam.

The oil bearing layers in the subsurface are reminiscent of a sponge. The oil "hides" in tiny pores and gaps and only some of the oil can be pressed out of the chalk and into the borehole by injecting water into the chalk layer. The rest is left behind as small droplets of oil surrounded by water either in small gaps in the rock or stuck to the walls of the pores. The chalk particles ought to repel oil if they act like particles of the mineral calcite, which chalk is almost 100% made up of. However the new investigations, carried out with a particularly powerful microscope, have shown that the surfaces of the pores in the chalk are partially covered in a material which oil can stick to. Ass. Prof. Hassenkam believes that the surprising behaviour of the material in the surface of the chalk can be explained by studying how the chalk was formed.

'Chalk is actually the casings of ancient algae. The algae gave their cases a type of "surface coating" to make them resistant to water. And it is probably this surface coating that we can see in action here, even 60 million years later' according to Ass. Prof. Hassenkam.

If we can manage to squeeze even a few percent more oil out of the seabed under the North Sea it could be worth millions of Danish crowns (DKK) for Denmark. Therefore Mærsk Oil and Gas AS on behalf of DUC (Dansk Undergrunds Consortium) along with Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation are supporting a project being carried out by Professor Susan Stipps' research group – the so-called Nano-Chalk Venture, which has been ongoing for the last two years. Tue Hassenkam originally became interested in chalk because he found the algae casings so beautiful. Today, after a year's work in front of a microscope, he is glad that his work also has a practical application. An understanding of how the oil clings to the chalk can possibly help develop a method to release it. And that will be the second part of the Nano-Chalk Venture.

High Blood Pressure Could Be Caused By A Common Virus

2009-05-17T15:58:00.000+06:00

A new study suggests for the first time that cytomegalovirus (CMV), a common viral infection affecting between 60 and 99 percent of adults worldwide, is a cause of high blood pressure, a leading risk factor for heart disease, stroke and kidney disease.

Led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and published in the May 15, 2009 issue of PLoS Pathogens, the findings further demonstrate that, when coupled with other risk factors for heart disease, the virus can lead to the development of atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries.

"CMV infects humans all over the world," explains co-senior author Clyde Crumpacker, MD, an investigator in the Division of Infectious Diseases at BIDMC and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "This new discovery may eventually provide doctors with a whole new approach to treating hypertension, with anti-viral therapies or vaccines becoming part of the prescription."

A member of the herpes virus family, CMV affects all age groups and is the source of congenital infection, mononucleosis, and severe infection in transplant patients. By the age of 40, most adults will have contracted the virus, though many will never exhibit symptoms. Once it has entered the body, CMV is usually there to stay, remaining latent until the immune system is compromised, when it then reemerges.

Previous epidemiological studies had determined that the CMV virus was linked to restenosis in cardiac transplant patients, a situation in which the heart's arteries "reblock." The virus had also been linked to the development of atherosclerosis, the hardening of the heart's arteries. But, in both cases, the mechanism behind these developments remained a mystery. This new study brought together a team of researchers from a variety of disciplines – infectious diseases, cardiology, allergy and pathology – to look more closely at the issue.

"By combining the insights of investigators from different medical disciplines, we were able to measure effects of a viral infection that may have been previously overlooked," explains Crumpacker.

In the first portion of the study, the scientists examined four groups of laboratory mice. Two groups of animals were fed a standard diet and two groups were fed a high cholesterol diet. After a period of four weeks, one standard diet mouse group and one high-cholesterol diet mouse group were infected with the CMV virus.

Six weeks later, the animals' blood pressures were measured by the cardiology team using a small catheter inserted in the mouse carotid artery. Among the mice fed a standard diet, the CMV-infected mice had increased blood pressure compared with the uninfected group. But even more dramatically, 30 percent of the CMV-infected mice that were fed a high-cholesterol diet not only exhibited increased blood pressure, but also showed signs of having developed atherosclerosis.

"This strongly suggests that the CMV infection and the high-cholesterol diet might be working together to cause atherosclerosis," says Crumpacker. In order to find out how and why this was occurring, the investigators went on to conduct a series of cell culture experiments.

Their first analysis demonstrated that CMV stimulated production of three different inflammatory cytokines – IL6, TNF, and MCP1 – in the infected mice, an indication that the virus was causing inflammation to vascular cells and other tissues.
A second analysis found that infection of a mouse kidney cell line with murine CMV led to an increase in expression of the renin enzyme, which has been known to activate the renin-angiotensin system and lead to high blood pressure. Clinical isolates of human CMV in cultured blood vessel cells also produced increased renin expression.

"Viruses have the ability to turn on human genes and, in this case, the CMV virus is enhancing expression of renin, an enzyme directly involved in causing high blood pressure," says Crumpacker. When the scientists inactivated the virus through the use of ultraviolet light, renin expression did not increase, suggesting that actively replicating virus was causing the increase in renin.

In their final experiments, the researchers demonstrated that the protein angiotensin 11 was also increased in response to infection with CMV. "Increased expression of both renin and angiotensin 11 are important factors in hypertension in humans," says Crumpacker. "What our study seems to indicate is that a persistent viral infection in the vessels' endothelial cells is leading to increased expression of inflammatory cytokines, renin and angiotensin 11, which are leading to increased blood pressure."

According to recent figures from the American Heart Association, one in three U.S. adults has high blood pressure, and because there are no known symptoms, nearly one-third of these individuals are unaware of their condition. Often dubbed "the silent killer," uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to stroke, heart attack, heart failure or kidney failure, notes Crumpacker.

"We found that CMV infection alone led to an increase in high blood pressure, and when combined with a high-cholesterol diet, the infection actually induced atherosclerosis in a mouse aorta," says Crumpacker. "This suggests that further research needs to be directed at viral causes of vascular injury. Some cases of hypertension might be treated or prevented by antiviral therapy or a vaccine against CMV."

This study was funded by grants from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

Helping Economy may Hurt Environment

2009-05-17T12:38:00.002+06:00

The European Economic Recovery Plan devised by the European Commission last year to help deal with the financial crisis is likely to fast-track environmentally damaging projects in the new member states.

One of the tenets of the European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP), launched in November 2008 by European Commission (EC) president Jose Manuel Barroso, is acceleration of payments to new EU member states from the European Structural and Cohesion Funds and the European Investment Bank.

The accelerated funds, amounting to about 23 billion euros, are destined mainly for infrastructure development, and are considered essential by the EC to creating employment and assisting the economic recovery of the Central and Eastern European countries.

The EERP, which was approved by the European Parliament in March 2009, stresses the need for "smart" investments through promotion of clean technologies, support for micro-enterprises, and programmes for re-training labour.

But environment groups warn that these payments could be used by the new member states for infrastructure projects that are environmentally costly, have better alternatives, or are not sustainable in the long run.

Bankwatch, an independent group monitoring the impact of investments by financial institutions and corporations Europe-wide, has published a map of 55 EERP projects that are "environmentally threatening and economically unsound." The list includes 22 incinerators - 12 of them in Poland - and several transport routes that pass through naturally protected areas.

These projects are high on the list of government priorities, and are the ones most likely to get financing through the EERP.

"EU funds granted to post-socialist states provide hard cash for heavy investments, but fail to deliver capacity building and knowledge transfer for small-scale projects, which usually have more development effect for local and regional communities," Keti Medarova from Bankwatch told IPS. "Because of this, the money allocated for small initiatives cannot be absorbed, and gets re-allocated towards the ever-growing costs of large infrastructures."

Medarova warns that the combination of "the Keynesian approach promoted around the crisis to pump in public money for big infrastructure" can have negative consequences in the new member states, where politicians are keen to use this opportunity to "undertake grand promises and plans at the expense of promoting local and regional developments."

The 55 controversial projects lined up for EERP funding are still to receive the green light. Medarova says the map is intended as "an early warning" for the EC, which has a say in granting the money, and could also monitor procedures such as the environmental impact assessment and public consultation.

Many of the 55 projects lined up for EU funding have drawn considerable local opposition. Ignoring protests against incinerators in places such as Warsaw or Krakow in Poland, the government increased the number of planned incinerators from eight to 12.

Regardless of technological progress achieved over the past years in making incinerators less damaging to health and the environment, most incinerators still run the risk of producing carcinogenic emissions such as dioxides and metal particles.

Bankwatch figures also show that the 12 Polish incinerators would use up 66 percent of the cohesion funds granted to the country for waste management, restricting investment in more environment friendly and cost-efficient forms of waste management such as collection and recycling schemes. The EU is in fact going against its own policy of promoting recycling, reduction and reuse, according to Bankwatch. Currently, the Polish recycle only 3 percent of municipal waste.

According to the independent Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), lobbying from companies building incinerators has led to a policy that is more permissive for investors. In June 2008, the group revealed that Caroline Jackson, Member of the European Parliament and rapporteur for the EU Waste Framework Directive, held a remunerated position in the environmental advisory board of waste industry company Shanks PLC.

It is not just incinerators that are controversial. The R52 motorway planned in the Czech Republic to connect Brno city with Vienna would affect several sites protected under the European framework Natura 2000. After evaluating the environmental impact of the route, as well as an alternative proposed to it, the Czech government decided in June 2008 to go ahead with both projects, even though they would service the same transportation needs.

In Bulgaria, the planned nuclear plant at Belene, prioritised by the government for EU funding, has been opposed by environmentalists and specialists for years, principally on the grounds that it would lie on a highly seismic area, making it more prone to accidents.

Bankwatch has sounded an additional warning over the public-private partnership formula being promoted for investment through the EERP. The EC says public-private partnerships have strong stimulus effects for economic recovery, but critics say fast access to this money encourages corrupted politicians and greedy companies. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cautioned that "the money received by private corporations in the current setting is more likely to be hoarded than reinvested."

"The economic crisis should not be used as a political momentum to push forward controversial infrastructure projects with little recovery effects for the economy," says Medarova. "Instead, what the EC should insist on is even stricter implementation of environmental legislation, especially as regards the impact assessment procedures, the evaluation of alternative solutions - both for waste and transport - and increased transparency and public debate over how the money for economic recovery and stimulus measures is spent."

More Investment in Production Won’t Cure African Food Crisis

2009-05-17T12:24:00.003+06:00

The food crisis in African states will not be solved by investment to spur agricultural production because the problem is not food output but poverty that is making food unaffordable for urban Africans.

This is the argument of Gilles Saint-Martin, the head of international relations for the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development, known by its French acronym CIRAD. CIRAD’s approach to sustainable development focuses on the long-term ecological, economic and social consequences of change in developing communities and countries.

Saint-Martin talks to Hilaire Avril about the dire need for investment in African agricultural research; the effects that the economic partnership agreements will have on food production; and whether the African Union should adopt its own Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Q: You recently wrote that, despite last year’s food riots in many developing countries, ‘‘African agriculture is not disaster-stricken, and […] agricultural production has steadily increased across Africa since the 1960s, picking up even more speed since the 1980s.’’ How do you explain the food crisis currently affecting several African countries?

Gilles Saint-Martin (GSM): First and foremost, the problem is poverty. Last year’s food riots were mainly urban crises, affecting city-dwellers who could not afford to buy basic food anymore. The problem is not agricultural output, which is sufficient, but poverty, which makes it unaffordable.

The solution to the crisis is to tackle both issues, that is, to increase agricultural production and to decrease poverty by fostering rural economic activity.

The problem is that, for several years now, the traditional solidarity system between the African countryside and the cities has been severely undermined by repeated crises and that it has now broken down. Therefore, city-dwellers bear the full brunt of rising food prices.

Several CIRAD studies show that agricultural production has significantly risen in several African countries. Cassava outputs in Central and West Africa, for instance, have increased. But the problem is that the demographic increase is faster. We, at CIRAD, do not believe massive foreign investments will solve the problem of African food security. We’re still waiting to see what the outcome of investments such as those made in Senegal last year will be.

For the moment all the examples we’ve seen are geared towards ensuring food security for rich countries, which invest in agriculture for their own food security (and) not to share the production with the African country hosting the investment.
However, there are some under-reported but interesting initiatives - mainly in the Indian Ocean. Mauritius, for instance, which faces significant food supply challenges, says it would consider investing in countries with a high agricultural potential such as Mozambique, and sharing the production between investors, producers and the global market.

But, again, the main problem remains that of urban populations accessing affordable food. It’s going to get worse as migrants send fewer remittances back home to urban Africans because of the global economic downturn

Q: The African Development Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and other organisations recently created an ‘‘Investment Fund for African Agriculture’’. Are such funds the solution to the food crisis?

GSM: There is currently a trend towards increasing agricultural output rather than implementing regional policies that foster rural activity to help urban populations access affordable food while regulating prices on a regional level. What worries us is that, whether public or private, these funds’ position seems to be ‘‘let’s simply produce more, and we’ll all be fine’’.

Q: How do you expect the proposed EPAs (the trade liberalisation deals that the European Union is pressing African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to sign) to affect this situation?

GSM: We at CIRAD tend to think these agreements should be signed with caution. But many countries have signed them anyway, as they would otherwise have lost access to European markets.

Our partners in Cote d’Ivoire and Cameroon recently told us ‘‘if we hadn’t signed the agreement, we would not have been able to keep selling our bananas in the European Union’’. Several countries signed these agreements essentially under the pressure of producers’ associations, who were afraid they would lose access to markets.

I haven’t followed the latest developments but, as they were proposed two years ago, EPAs seemed based on an outmoded model.

Q: What is CIRAD’s answer to the food crisis?

GSM: We’re very preoccupied with innovation, which is a key element in solutions for the North as well as the South. CIRAD focuses on research, so we naturally invest in innovation, whether in urban or rural environments, to mitigate poverty and to enhance food security and a more efficient use of resources.

Unfortunately, supporting innovation and research has never been considered a priority. Many donors tell us ‘‘we want immediate results, so you must implement innovating ideas urgently’’. But the period of time needed to implement innovating ideas in real social settings, with tangible objectives, are not compatible with the expected response time to a food crisis.

Our African research partners have been entirely de-structured by the (International Monetary Fund’s) structural adjustment policies in the 1980s and 90s. Most have still not recovered. We work mainly with young African scholars and researchers, but young recruits are scarce in Africa.

This is our main warning call. African research capacities need to be rebuilt, created or consolidated in order to foster innovations allowing us to cope with evolving societies, to preserve limited resources and to secure food supply.

Also, after several years of soul-searching, we have identified the development of the rural sector, by intensifying ecological production, as a priority. That means not relying on more fertilizers or herbicides, but optimising the use of ecosystems’ natural cycles and learning more about the way plants and soil work.

Q: Should Africa adopt its own version of the European Union’s (EU) Common Agricultural Policy?

GSM: Some versions of it already exist. In West Africa, the Economic Community of West African States and the West African Economic and Monetary Union have adopted regional agricultural policies which are not structured like the CAP but resemble it in that they harmonise national policies, including tariffs.

The Southern African Development Community and East African Community are also thinking of similar schemes. I think it’s unavoidable. Solutions can’t be found on a national level, they have to be regional.

The 2005 food crisis in Niger, for instance, was not a national but a regional emergency, which could have been solved if regional procedures had been put in place to share resources between Niger, Nigeria and Mali. This must be the priority for food security policies.

Q: What role could Europe play in constructing these regional clusters?

GSM: Europe’s organisational model for regional agriculture cannot be replicated but the EU could assist in setting up African region-wide systems.

But these regions’ agricultural products must also be protected, from time to time. The European CAP was built on these principles and still protects European farmers to some degree. The CAP so far focuses on markets, resources and consumer protection. In 2013, when the CAP is to be reformed, I think it should include food security as one of its main objectives.

European farmers, when you talk to them, are preoccupied by their production and purchasing power, of course. But they are also conscious of the food security problems the world faces. Incorporating world food security in the CAP’s objectives would be a positive evolution. It would help decompartmentalise the EU from global agriculture.

Scientists Warn: Two-Degree Rise Ever More Likely

2009-05-03T11:35:00.000+06:00

Climate scientists are calling for a phase-out of fossil fuels because humans are now pumping so much carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere that the '2-degree-C climate balloon' will burst otherwise, new studies show.

That 2-degree C climate balloon has a maximum capacity of less than 1,400 gigatonnes of CO2 total emissions from the year 2000 to 2050, Malte Meinshausen and colleagues report in the current issue of Nature. The European Union and others consider a global temperature rise of more than 2 degrees C as dangerous and potentially catastrophic. Temperatures are already 0.8 C warmer than the pre-industrial period.

The reality is that global emissions for the last seven years amounted to almost 250 gigatonnes of these long-lived greenhouse gases, meaning that the current and growing rates of fossil fuel emissions would burst the balloon in about 20 years – or less. Even if emissions are held to 1,400 gigatonnes maximum for the next 40 years, there is still a 50-percent probability of exceeding 2 degrees C, said Meinshausen, lead author of the study and climate researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

Indigenous peoples from around the world also called for a phase-out of fossil fuels at the conclusion of the first Indigenous Peoples' Global Summit on Climate Change in Anchorage, Alaska, that concluded last week.

"That call is well-supported by the evidence in this study," Meinshausen told IPS.

However, the world's future global carbon budget is likely less than 1,400 gigagtonnes. When other short-term warming gases like methane are included, then the total 'forcing', i.e. warming, could be 10 to 40 percent greater by the year 2100, said Meinshausen.

And some climate feedbacks - changes that will amplify or accelerate the warming - are absent from computer models. "Our modeling cannot account for emissions in methane from melting permafrost," he said.

Permafrost - permanently frozen bog and peatland - contains enormous amounts of organic carbon, perhaps enough to triple the amount currently in the atmosphere.

"Only a fast switch away from fossil fuels will give us a reasonable chance to avoid considerable warming," said Meinshausen. "We shouldn’t forget that a 2-degree C global mean warming would take us far beyond the natural temperature variations that life on Earth has experienced since we humans have been around."

This will be a serious challenge, he said, because there is plenty of carbon left in the ground. Proven reserves of oil, gas and coal represent four times the amount of carbon that would burst the 2-degree climate balloon. Burning just one quarter of what's left in the ground will bring humanity to the 50-50 point of tipping into dangerous climate change.

Delay is not an option when it comes to the fossil fuel phase-out, scientists stress. Even though a tonne of carbon is a tonne of carbon, whether released today or in 50 years' time, there is only so much the atmosphere can take before a 2-degree rise or more is inevitable, Meinshausen, Myles Allen of the University of Oxford and others write in a Nature Reports Climate Change commentary.

"Emitting CO2 more slowly buys time, perhaps vital time, but it will only achieve our ultimate goal in the context of a strategy for phasing out net CO2 emissions altogether," they conclude.

"Climate policy needs an exit strategy: as well as reducing carbon emissions now, we need a plan for phasing out net emissions entirely," Allen said in a release.

So what are the targets for the negotiators United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the Copenhagen this December?

If negotiators heed the scientific evidence, then a new global agreement's goal will be to reduce global emissions by 50 percent compared to 1990 and do that by 2050. To achieve this, the current three-percent annual growth in carbon emissions must flatline by 2015 and start the decline by 3 percent per year, reports Martin Parry of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London in another Nature study.

"If we do this it leaves an even chance of exceeding 2-degree C of warming," Parry and colleagues write.

If mitigation efforts are not substantial enough and emissions peak in the year 2025, then a 3-degree C rise in temperatures will likely occur. The damage from this level of warming could be substantial, placing billions more people at risk of water shortage and millions more at risk of coastal flooding. To avoid such damage will require massive investment in adaptation, such as improving water supply and storage, and protecting low-lying settlements from rising seas.

A final cautionary note: "The true sensitivity of the Earth system may well be higher, implying that any temperature-based target will become progressively harder to maintain as slower feedbacks kick in," write Gavin Schmidt, of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and David Archer of the University of Chicago in short article in Nature Wednesday.

"The bottom line? Dangerous change, even loosely defined, is going to be hard to avoid," they said.

Like an oil spill, it is far better and cheaper to avoid making the mess in the first place, they conclude

World Bank Provides Support to Improve Afghanistan’s Financial Sector‏

2009-05-01T22:04:00.002+06:00

The World Bank approved a US$8 million grant to help improve access to formal banking services in Afghanistan as well as strengthen Da Afghanistan Bank’s core function of banking supervision and regulation on April 30, 2009.

In 2002 after the fall of the Taliban regime, the formal financial sector in Afghanistan was almost inoperative and the legal framework was virtually non-existent. Since then, Afghanistan’s financial sector has gone through two phases of development. During the first phase (2002-04), a basic legal and institutional framework for a modern financial sector was introduced, which laid the foundation for the re-establishment of Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) as the central bank with autonomous regulatory authority to implement monetary policy and banking regulation and supervision.

In the second phase (2005-present), formal financial services emerged and a number of private commercial banks were established. Currently, there are 17 commercial banks operating in Afghanistan, which include 2 state-owned commercial banks, 10 private commercial banks, and 5 branches of foreign commercial banks. Despite these achievements, a weak financial sector still remains one of the major binding constraints to private sector development in Afghanistan.
The Financial Sector Strengthening Project supports Afghanistan National Development Strategy’s vision to establish a modern and competitive financial sector. The project will specifically strengthen the capacity of Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) in the areas of banking supervision, accounting, internal audit, and human resource management. It will also develop necessary financial infrastructure such as public credit registry, collateral registry and Afghanistan Institution of Banking.

"The legal and regulatory framework of Afghanistan’s financial sector has improved significantly. But many challenges remain, notably increasing access to financial services as well as ensuring sustainability of the sector,” said Md. Reazul Islam, World Bank Senior Private Sector Development Specialist and Project Team Leader. “To overcome these challenges, the government needs to enforce implementation of rules and regulation. The World Bank remains committed to provide technical as well as financial resources necessary to build a sustainable and accountable financial sector in Afghanistan.”

The project also supports some of the key areas that have been agreed by the Government of Afghanistan and its development partners at the Enabling Environment Conference Road Map in 2007.

The total cost of the project is estimated around US$9.46 million. In addition to IDA’s US$8 million grant, International Financial Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, has provided US$0.59 million in technical support. Some US$0.87 million have been contributed through counter funding by Da Afghanistan Bank, Afghanistan Bank’s Association and Microfinance Investment Support Facility for Afghanistan (MISFA).

For more information on the Bank’s work in Afghanistan, please visit: http://www.worldbank.org.af

World Bank Provides More Support to India’s Small and Medium Enterprises‏

2009-05-01T22:01:00.000+06:00

The World Bank approved a US$400 million additional financing loan to the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) on April 30, 2009, designed to improve access to finance for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). This additional financing will help scale up the fully disbursed original project which had been approved by the World Bank on November 30, 2004.

Access to adequate and timely financing on competitive terms, particularly longer tenure loans remains a challenge for Indian SMEs. This problem has been exacerbated by the current global financial crisis, the ensuing liquidity constraints and the slowdown in credit growth in the Indian financial sector. In particular, credit growth to SMEs has declined over the last year, which has held back the growth of SMEs and impacted overall growth and development.

"This Project is part of a larger program of support in response to the Government of India request for funding in light of the financial crisis. It is targeted particularly at SMEs, to help address the credit slowdown that has resulted from the financial crisis,” said Roberto Zagha, World Bank Country Director for India. “Achieving and sustaining growth and employment will require a sharp step up in industrial and services growth. This needs to be spurred by SMEs which have the greatest potential to provide employment.”

The credit facility supported by the Project will channel long-term and working capital loans for SMEs in geographical areas beyond those that were covered in the original Project. This includes expanding to new geographical areas, possibly to India’s low-growth states, thereby promoting inclusive growth.

Under the credit facility SIDBI will also explore refinancing other banks and financial institutions for on-lending to SMEs. In addition, this Project will build linkages with an on-going DFID financed technical assistance component which is helping banks enhance the quality of their SME loan portfolios, strengthening business development services and building market linkage programs. “This integrated Project will help SMEs improve their profitability and competitiveness, and become more creditworthy,” said Niraj Verma, World Bank Senior Financial Sector Specialist and project team leader.

Finally, the Risk Sharing Facility supported by the Project will expand the coverage of this innovative initiative launched under the parent Project.

The lending from the original project has covered 927 SMEs spread across 10 Indian states. A survey showed that nearly two-thirds of the SMEs financed upgraded their technology, which helped increase productivity.

The loan, from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), is backed by a Republic of India guarantee. It has a 15 year maturity which includes a 5-year grace period.

For more information on the Bank’s work in India, visit http://www.worldbank.org.in

Discovery of New Microorganisms In Earth's Stratosphere

2009-03-23T14:56:00.001+05:00

Three new species of bacteria, which are not found on Earth and which are highly resistant to ultra-violet radiation, have been discovered in the upper stratosphere by Indian scientists.

One of the new species has been named as Janibacter hoylei, after the distinguished astrophysicist Fred Hoyle, the second as Bacillus isronensis recognising the contribution of ISRO in the balloon experiments which led to its discovery and the third as Bacillus aryabhata after India’s celebrated ancient astronomer Aryabhata and also the first satellite of ISRO.

The experiment was conducted using a 26.7 million cubic feet balloon carrying a 459 kg scientific payload soaked in 38 kg of liquid neon, which was flown from the National Balloon Facility in Hyderabad, operated by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). The payload consisted of a cryosampler containing sixteen evacuated and sterilised stainless steel probes.

Throughout the flight, the probes remained immersed in liquid Neon to create a cryopump effect. These cylinders, after collecting air samples from different heights ranging from 20 km to 41 km, were parachuted down and safely retrieved. These samples were analysed by scientists at the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad as well as the National Center for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune for independent examination, ensuring that both laboratories followed similar protocols to achieve homogeneity of procedure and interpretation.

The Findings

In all, 12 bacterial and six fungal colonies were detected, nine of which, based on 16S RNA gene sequence, showed greater than 98% similarity with reported known species on Earth. Three bacterial colonies, namely, PVAS-1, B3 W22 and B8 W22 were, however, totally new species. All the three newly identified species had significantly higher UV resistance compared to their nearest phylogenetic neighbours. Of the above, PVAS-1, identified as a member of the genus Janibacter, has been named Janibacter hoylei. sp. nov. The second new species B3 W22 was named as Bacillus isronensis sp.nov. and the third new species B8 W22 as Bacillus aryabhata.
The precautionary measures and controls operating in this experiment inspire confidence that these species were picked up in the stratosphere. While the present study does not conclusively establish the extra-terrestrial origin of microorganisms, it does provide positive encouragement to continue the work in our quest to explore the origin of life.

This multi-institutional effort had Jayant Narlikar from the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune as Principal Investigator and veteran scientists U.R. Rao from ISRO and P.M. Bhargava from Anveshna supported as mentors of the experiment. S. Shivaji from CCMB and Yogesh Shouche from NCCS were the biology experts and Ravi Manchanda from TIFR was in charge of the balloon facility. C.B.S. Dutt was the project director from ISRO who was in charge of preparing and operating the complex payload.

This was the second such experiment conducted by ISRO, the first one being in 2001. Even though the first experiment had yielded positive results, it was decided to repeat the experiment by exercising extra care to ensure that it was totally free from any terrestrial contamination.

How Brain Records Memories

2009-03-19T18:39:00.000+05:00

It may be possible to "read" a person's memories just by looking at brain activity, according to research carried out by Wellcome Trust scientists. In a study published in the journal Current Biology , they show that our memories are recorded in regular patterns, a finding which challenges current scientific thinking.

Demis Hassabis and Professor Eleanor Maguire at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL (University College London) have previously studied the role of a small area of the brain known as the hippocampus which is crucial for navigation, memory recall and imagining future events. Now, the researchers have shown how the hippocampus records memory.

When we move around, nerve cells (neurons) known as "place cells", which are located in the hippocampus, activate to tell us where we are. Hassabis, Maguire and colleagues used an fMRI scanner, which measures changes in blood flow within the brain, to examine the activity of these places cells as a volunteer navigated around a virtual reality environment. The data were then analysed by a computer algorithm developed by Demis Hassabis.

"We asked whether we could see any interesting patterns in the neural activity that could tell us what the participants were thinking, or in this case where they were," explains Professor Maguire, a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow. "Surprisingly, just by looking at the brain data we could predict exactly where they were in the virtual reality environment. In other words, we could 'read' their spatial memories."

Earlier studies in rats have shown that spatial memories – how we remember where we are – are recorded in the hippocampus. However, these animal studies, which measured activity at the level of individual or dozens of neurons at most, implied that there was no structure to the way that these memories are recorded. Hassabis and Maguire's work appears to overturn this school of thought.

"fMRI scanners enable us to see the bigger picture of what is happening in people's brains," she says. " By looking at activity over tens of thousands of neurons, we can see that there must be a functional structure – a pattern – to how these memories are encoded. Otherwise, our experiment simply would not have been possible to do."

Professor Maguire believes that this research opens up a range of possibilities of seeing how actual memories are encoded across the neurons, looking beyond spatial memories to more enriched memories of the past or visualisations of the future.

"Understanding how we as humans record our memories is critical to helping us learn how information is processed in the hippocampus and how our memories are eroded by diseases such as Alzheimer's," added Demis Hassabis.

"It's also a small step towards the idea of mind reading, because just by looking at neural activity, we are able to say what someone is thinking."

Professor Maguire led a study a number of years ago which examined the brains of London taxi drivers, who spend years learning "The Knowledge" (the maze of London streets). She showed that in these cabbies, an area to the rear of the hippocampus was enlarged, suggesting that this was the area involved in learning location and direction. In the new study, Hassabis, Maguire and colleagues found that the patterns relating to spatial memory were located in this same area, suggesting that the rear of the hippocampus plays a key role in representing the layout of spatial environments.

Reseach on How to Improve Individual Decesions

2009-03-15T15:53:00.001+05:00

Herd mentality. Angry mob. Mass hysteria. As these phrases suggest, we are not always confident that a large group of people will come up with the smartest decisions. So it may be surprising to learn that numerous studies have shown that a crowd of people usually gives more accurate responses to questions compared to a mere individual.

Averaging the responses provided from a group increases accuracy by canceling out a number of errors made across the board (such as over- and under-estimating the answer).

What happens when we are on our own? What if there is no one else around to consult with before making a judgment - how can we be confident that we are giving a good answer? Psychologists Stefan M. Herzog and Ralph Hertwig from the University of Basel wanted to know if individuals could come up with better answers using a technique they designed and called "dialectical bootstrapping."

Dialectical bootstrapping is a method by which an individual mind averages its' own conflicting opinions, thus simulating the "wisdom of the crowd." In other words, dialectical bootstrapping enables different opinions to be created and combined in the same mind. For example, in this study, participants were asked to identify dates of various historical events. After they gave their initial answer, the participants were asked to think of reasons why the answer may be wrong and were then asked to come up with an alternative second (dialectical) answer.

The results, reported in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, reveal that the average of the participants' first answer with the second answer was much closer to the correct answer, compared to the original answers on their own. In addition, the dialectical bootstrapping method (that is, thinking about why your own answer might be incorrect and then averaging across estimates) resulted in more accurate answers compared to simply making a second guess without considering why the first answer may be wrong.

These findings suggest that dialectical bootstrapping may be an effective strategy in helping us come up with better answers to many types of problems. The researchers note that while it may be frustrating going back and forth between two different answers, "as dialectical bootstrapping illustrates, being of two minds can also work to one's advantage." They conclude, "Once taught about the tool, people could make use of it to boost accuracy of their estimates across a wide range of domains."

Costa Rica Invests in Geothermal Power

2009-03-14T16:15:00.001+05:00

The government of Costa Rica hopes to increase its power generation by tapping into volcanic hot spots, and to that end it has introduced a controversial bill in Congress that would allow drilling into volcanoes in national parks.

In January, the governmental Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) announced that it is contracting equipment for the geothermal power station of Las Pailas, on the side of the Rincón de la Vieja volcano, in the northwest province of Guanacaste.

The plant is scheduled to become operational in 2011, adding 35 megawatts to the 163.5 that are already supplied by the five units of the Miravalles volcano power station, in operation since 1994. That same year, a third project, the Borinque, on the northeast side of the Rincón de la Vieja volcano, will be launched.

Geothermal power uses underground steam from volcanic regions. The energy is harnessed by extracting the heat from within the earth’s crust, in the form of a fluid that is used to move the turbines. Two holes are drilled in each case: one is used to draw hot water, and the flow of water is then cooled and re-injected into the other.

In Costa Rica’s case, high temperature wells (150 to 400 degrees Celsius) are used, but there are also medium and low temperature wells.

One of the goals of the ICE is to increase the percentage of geothermal energy that is channelled to the country’s power grid. ICE president Pedro Pablo Quirós told Tierramérica that several sites have been identified in northern Costa Rica, in an area stretching from the Poás volcano to the Nicaraguan border, from which up to 800 megawatts will be generated.

The problem is that these areas identified for geothermal power generation are located in national parks, and thus congressional authorisation is necessary, which explains the bill currently under consideration. Geothermal prospecting is similar to oil prospecting, with drilling usually penetrating 1.7 kilometres deep, but in some cases going down as far as 3.7 kilometres.

The opposition to the project comes from environmental organisations.

The president of the Wildlife Preservation Association (APREFLOFAS), Angeline Marín, told Tierramérica that she was "against the opening up of national parks for any purposes."

Marín believes that by opening the parks up to tourism and putting their habitats at risk, the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications has already demonstrated that it is incapable of implementing "precautionary" regulations. APREFLOFAS advocates other forms of power generation, such as solar and wind, "which are less harmful to the environment," she said. Marín fears the effects on wildlife, and suspects that the new power projects are not intended to meet domestic demand, but instead are export-oriented.

Quirós insists that the power generated by these plants will stay in Costa Rica. "We can’t tell the country to stop growing," he said.

The use of existing natural resources and the "definition of regulations to protect the environment" are both essential to growth, he said. He also defended the ICE by pointing out that it is the largest investor in reforestation and that it promotes "environmentally-friendly" projects.

"There wasn’t a single tree" in Miravalles, "and today it is completely reforested," Quirós said.

"If we can’t touch our natural sources, like water or steam, all we have left are nuclear plants," he said. I

n his opinion, geothermal power reduces the country’s dependency on imported fuel.

During the dry season, from December through April, the ICE consumes 90 percent of the national gas-fuel bill - some 260 million dollars - to keep its thermal plants running. Quirós claims that this expense will be cut in half as geothermal power generation increases.

Another advantage of geothermal power is that it is continuously generated, as it is not dependant on weather conditions, like hydroelectric power, which is stretched to its limits during the driest months, when water reserves are low.

Geologist Eddy Fernández, an expert on geothermal energy, says that it is "the ideal complementary source" for hydroelectric power, which accounts for around 80 percent of the country’s power generation.

There is a risk of pollution from toxic gas leakage, but safe operation can be achieved by re-injecting the gases, Fernández told Tierramérica.

Central America could become a leading geothermal power generator, as it is located in the Circum-Pacific Seismic Belt, an area of high volcanic activity in the Pacific coast, both in Asia and the Americas.

And, Fernández said, Costa Rica must position itself as the subregion’s leading geothermal producer, as "we have been researching this field since the late 1960s."

The North Volcanic Mountain Ridge, in Guanacaste, is the ideal region for geothermal power generation, with its Miravalles, Rincón de la Vieja and Tenorio volcanoes. These are rural areas, and geothermal production would foster "their development, without harming the population," he said.

Sports Injuries in 3D

2009-03-11T19:26:00.000+05:00

For several years now doctors have been using ultrasound scanning as a tool for diagnosing sports injuries. Medicine is now in the hands of technology to achieve a clear improvement in imaging quality, which will not only result in a better diagnosis, but also a more effective treatment and subsequent recovery.

This research, led by José Fernando Jiménez Díaz, a specialist in sports medicine from the University of Castilla la Mancha, analysed the usefulness of these new applications in injuries, particularly those produced in work or sports contexts. It has already been used for several years in specialist areas such as gynaecology for the diagnosis and monitoring of pregnancies.
To carry out the assessment, the study, published in the journal Advances in Therapy, compared two high definition ultrasound portable devices. One of the devices had the traditional applications and the other had in its system: harmonic imaging, real time ultrasound, panoramic view, 3D imaging and virtual convex.

Fives types of injuries were compared: muscle contusion, intrinsic muscle lesion, patellar tendonitis, calcified patellar tendonitis and partial rupture of the medial ligament of the knee. The results showed that the new systems incorporated improve the scanning of injured tissues in all types of injury analysed.

"Applications of this technology focus on both the diagnosis and treatment of injuries," Jiménez Díaz explained to SINC. "The new branch of ultrasound scanning, known as intraoperative ultrasound, makes it possible to avoid some of the surgeries that were previously unavoidable when applying ultrasound-guided treatment to the musculoskeletal system."

The promising future of 3-D technology:

While new technological applications have been adopted in major hospitals over the last three to four years, three-dimensional applications in portable or compact devices have only been applied since the beginning of 2007 in the diagnosis of soft tissue injuries (those on the skin, the subcutaneous tissue, the aponeuroses and muscles).

As the researcher indicated to SINC, "the idea behind an improvement in imaging quality is not to give the patient a prettier photo, but rather to improve the scanning of structures, particularly small injuries which are difficult to interpret. This is where the 3-D experience can help achieve optimum injury recovery".

Experts are optimistic about the future of these types of technologies. "The blooming of the ultrasound in diagnosing injuries is yet to come. I hope that applications for scanning structures which we still consider partially blind improve even more. The improvement will enable a safer diagnosis and the application of a more reliable treatment", concluded Jiménez Díaz.

Mobility of Birds due to Climate Change

2009-03-10T16:14:00.002+05:00

Researchers at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) have documented that a variety of North American bird species are extending their breeding ranges to the north, adding to concerns about climate change, according to a study published by the journal Global Change Biology.

In a study published on the journal’s web site, the SUNY-ESF researchers state the change in the birds’ breeding ranges “provides compelling evidence that climate change is driving range shifts.”

“There are a wide spectrum of changes that are occurring and those changes are occurring in a relatively short amount of time. We’re not talking centuries, we’re talking decades,” said William Porter, an ESF faculty member and director of the college’s Adirondack Ecological Center,
Porter worked on the study with Ph.D. student Benjamin Zuckerberg and AEC staff educator Annie M. Woods.

“The most significant finding is that this is the first time in North America that we’re showing the repeating pattern that’s been shown before in Europe,” Woods said. “It’s the first time we’ve been able to replicate those European findings, using the same kind of study.

Focusing on 83 species of birds that have traditionally bred in New York state, the researchers compared data collected in the early 1980s with information gathered between 2000 and 2005. They discovered that many species had extended their range boundaries, some by as much as 40 miles.

“They are indeed moving northward in their range boundaries,” Zuckerberg said.

“But the real signal came out with some of the northerly species that are more common in Canada and the northern part of the U.S. Their southern range boundaries are actually moving northward as well, at a much faster clip.”

Among the species moving north are the Nashville warbler, a little bird with a yellow belly and a loudly musical two-part song, and the pine siskin, a common finch that resembles a sparrow. Both birds have traditionally been seen in Northern New York but are showing significant retractions in their southern range boundaries, Zuckerberg said.

Birds moving north from more southern areas include the red-bellied woodpecker, considered the most common woodpecker in the Southeastern United States, and the Carolina wren, whose “teakettle, teakettle, teakettle” song is surprisingly loud for a bird that weighs less than an ounce.

The study compared data collected during the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Breeding Bird Atlas census, which engaged thousands of citizen volunteers to observe and report the birds they could identify. The first atlas was created between 1980 and 1985; the second was done between 2000 and 2005.

New York was the first state to complete two breeding bird atlases, Zuckerberg said, making it the only state that is able, at this point, to produce this kind of research.

Zuckerberg said similar changes were found in birds that breed in forests and those that inhabit grasslands, in both insectivores and omnivores, and even in new tropical migrants that are typically seen in Mexico and South America.

“What you begin to see is a systematic pattern of these species moving northward as we would predict with regional warming,” he said.

“New York citizens need to recognize that these changes are occurring,” Porter said. “Whether they are good or bad, whether they should be addressed, whether we should adapt to them, whether we should try to mitigate some of this, those are questions that really, rightfully, belong in the political arena.”

Woods said the innate mobility of birds made them an excellent animal to study in connection with adaptation to climate change.

Nutrition Problems for many Middle-aged & Old Americans

2009-03-09T18:12:00.000+05:00

A study determined that many middle-aged and older Americans are not getting adequate nutrition.

Using data drawn from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), a prospective cohort study designed to investigate the prevalence, correlates and progression of subclinical cardiovascular disease, researchers examined over 6200 participants from 4 ethnic groups, Caucasian, African American, Hispanic and Chinese. Dietary intakes were determined from food frequency questionnaires and respondents were asked to provide amounts and frequencies of micronutrient consumption using label information from their supplements. These data were used to calculate whether the RDAs or Adequate Intake (AI) levels were being met. The large sample size and multiple ethnic groups in this population gave investigators enough power to examine interactions between supplementation and ethnicity.

Over half of the population took supplements, and supplement users were more likely to be older, women, Caucasian and college-educated. Calcium and vitamin C supplements were most common. Although dietary intake of calcium, magnesium, potassium and vitamin C was similar between supplement users and non-users for both men and women, there were differences in median dietary intake levels between the different ethnic groups. Chinese Americans tended to have the lowest dietary intakes, particularly in calcium where both Chinese and African Americans had significantly lower dietary intakes of calcium than Caucasians and Hispanics.

The study also evaluated differences between multivitamins and high-dose supplements. While high-dose calcium was associated with meeting RDA/AIs for all ethnic groups, some high-dose supplements could also cause users to exceed their Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (ULs). For calcium, 15.0% of high-dose users exceeded the UL compared to 1.9% of multivitamin users and 2.1% of non-users. For magnesium, 35.3% of high-dose supplement users exceeded the UL compared to 0% of both multivitamin users and non-users. In addition, 6.6% high-dose vitamin C users exceeded the UL compared to 0% of both multivitamin users and non-users.

The study also found that potassium intake was very much below the RDA whether supplements were taken or not. This could point to a need to reformulate supplements to deliver higher potassium doses.

Writing in the article, Pamela J. Schreiner, MS, PhD, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, states, "The present study indicates a clear association between meeting RDA/AIs and supplement use for calcium, magnesium and vitamin C. However, even with the assistance of dietary supplements many middle-aged and older Americans are not getting adequate nutrition, and there was no association between supplement use and meeting the AI for potassium. In addition, those taking high-dose vitamin supplements were more likely to exceed the UL for that nutrient. Future studies should explore dietary supplementation along with other methods to improve nutrition in middle-aged and older Americans."

Designing Cockpit for World`s Fastest Car

2009-03-08T17:07:00.002+05:00

World land speed challenger Andy Green, OBE visited the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) on Thursday to try out for the first time a mock-up of the cockpit he will use in his 1000 mph record attempt. The cockpit test rig, designed and built by second-year product design students, will ensure that cockpit components such as chair and controls are in the optimum ergonomic position for the challenge.

UWE is a founder partner of the Bloodhound Project led by Richard Noble, a previous world land speed record holder. Product Design Senior Lecturer David Henshall said, “The challenge for the students was to consider the performance and ergonomics of the driver's position for a unique event that will take the driver across ten miles in 85 seconds.

“The test rig means that fine adjustments to the position and relationship of all components can be measured and fed into a computer, ensuring the cockpit functions as it should do at such high speeds.”

Twenty students designed and built the cockpit test rig as part of their design studio class during a five week project. The students formed teams of five and each team was allocated a particular part of the rig to work on - steering, controls, seating and pedals.

Product Design Senior Lecturer Drew Batchelor said, “The students worked in conjunction with the Bloodhound team and they have done an exceptional job. After an initial briefing from John Piper (JCB Dieselmax Chief Designer), Andy Green and the Bloodhound design team, the student groups then developed concepts in the product design studios. Drawing on ergonomic data and refining their ideas through prototypes, the various individual elements were then assembled to create the test rig unveiled today. Ensuring that all these components worked together to create a cockpit environment that would function safely at 1000 mph was the key challenge for the group."

Student Hywel Vaughan said, “It isn't often that you can go home at the end of the day and say that you have worked on a land speed record attempt vehicle. Everything had to be spot on. Andy Green (the driver)'s eye line needed to be dead on the 4 degree mark. Any lower and he wouldn't be able to see over the front of the car, any higher and it could interfere with the aerodynamics. It was an exciting challenge to build a rig that could deliver that level of accuracy.”

Driver of the 1,000mph car, Andy Green OBE, said: "There isn't a book to build a car like this and the students can't just look at their dad's car for guidance. The only requirement is to have four wheels. To be faced with a blank sheet of paper is quite frightening. That said, the students at UWE have done incredibly well and its the support of universities such as The University of the West of England that will make Bloodhound SSC possible.”

The Bloodhound Project was launched at the Science Museum in London in October 2008. Engineers from UWE have already produced a scale model for Bloodhound SSC, the car that aims not just to break the current land speed record but to achieve an astounding land speed of 1000 mph. The Bloodhound Design team is using the specialist facilities at UWE to help realise the formative stages of the project.

Making Plutonium Unsuitable for use in Nuclear Arms

2009-03-08T16:55:00.001+05:00

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev engineers have developed a technique to "denature" plutonium created in large nuclear reactors, making it unsuitable for use in nuclear arms. By adding Americium (Am 241), a form of the basic synthetic element found in commercial smoke detectors and industrial gauges, plutonium can only be used for peaceful purposes.

This technique could help "de-claw" more than a dozen countries developing nuclear reactors if the United States, Russia, Germany, France and Japan agree to add the denaturing additive into all plutonium. An article on the technique and findings will appear next month in the Science and Global Security journal.

"When you purchase a nuclear reactor from one of the five countries, it also provides the nuclear fuel for the reactor," explains Prof. Yigal Ronen, of BGU's Department of Nuclear Engineering, who headed the project. "Thus, if the five agree to insert the additive into fuel for countries now developing nuclear power -- such as Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Namibia, Qatar, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Yemen -- they will have to use it for peaceful purposes rather than warfare."

Ronen originally worked on Neptonium 237 for the purpose denaturing plutonium, but switched to Americium, which is meant for pressurized water reactors (PWRs), such as the one being built in Iran.

"Countries that purchase nuclear reactors usually give the spent fuel back to the producer," explains Ronen. "They wouldn't be able to get new plutonium for weapons if it is denatured, but countries that make nuclear fuel could decide not to denature it for themselves."

Nuclear fuel used in nuclear reactors has two isotopes of uranium. One is fissionable, while the other is not. The unfissionable component undergoes a number of nuclear reactions, turning some of it into plutonium. The plutonium also includes fissionable and unfissionable components. The amount of fissionable components created in nuclear reactors is enough to be used as nuclear weapons.

Hares are being Affected by Climate Change

2009-03-07T18:29:00.002+05:00

University of Montana researcher Scott Mills and his students have noticed an exceptional number of white snowshoe hares on brown earth. He contends that climate change and the color mismatch are causing much more hare mortality.

On an unseasonably warm May afternoon, University of Montana wildlife biology Professor Scott Mills treks into the shadowy forests above the Seeley-Swan Valley in pursuit of his quarry. He skirts the rivulets of water melting from snow patches. In one hand he holds an antenna and in the other a receiver that’s picking up signals from a radio-collared snowshoe hare. The beeps increase in volume as he draws nearer. Mills picks his way over downed branches, steps out from behind a western larch and spots the white hare crouched on the bare brown earth.

“That’s just an embarrassing moment for a snowshoe hare to think that it’s invisible when it’s not,” said Mills with a grin, quickly adding that seeing such mismatched colors is becoming all too common and disturbing.

For the past decade, Mills has directed teams of biologists and students to investigate snowshoe hares on more than 35 study sites in Montana, Wyoming and Washington, including just outside UM’s back door near Seeley Lake. His findings have led to improved forest thinning practices that maintain patches of dense trees for hares. He’s delved into population dynamics and genetics of hares in their southern range. His research has turned directly to lynx, too, as a key predator of snowshoe hares and a threatened species.

Increasingly Mills and his students have noted an exceptional number of white hares on brown earth. Radio telemetry data revealed spring and fall to be the most deadly seasons for hares and a bonanza for predators.

That leads Mills to the “sexiest part” of snowshoe hare research – how they respond to climate change. While a warming planet affects all wildlife, a cute white hare has the makings of the next version of the polar bear as poster animal for global warming.

Will hares continue to shift coat colors on cue regardless of the presence or absence of snow? Will this drive them to extinction? Or will they be able to adjust their seasonal pattern in time to fit new conditions?

“Climate trends for mountainous areas clearly show that while snow levels may vary from year to year, the number of days with snow on the ground is decreasing,” Mills said.

Snowshoe hares evolved with plentiful winter snow in the boreal forests that form a swath across Alaska and Canada and dip down into the lower 48 states. In winter, they grow long white guard hairs to match the snow. In summer, they shed white for mostly rusty brown coats to blend with trees and soil. They depend on their cryptic coloration to hide from predators that include lynx, coyotes, foxes, wolves, pine martens and birds of prey. A hare that’s the wrong color stands out like the emperor in his new clothes.

The signal for a hare to shift coat color comes from the pineal gland in the brain that senses changes in daylight length. Shortening days of autumn trigger the coat color change from brown to white. (People also have pineal glands that produce melatonin, the hormone that affects our waking and sleeping patterns and responses to seasonal day lengths.)

Like most subjects in science, the deeper you delve, the more complexities you find. Mills points out that in the Cascades, some snowshoe hares stay a mottled brown and white year-round. In the Olympic Mountains of Washington, snowshoe hares never turn white. Does this suggest some ability to evolve in response to temperature changes? If so, how quickly?

To find out, Mills will add an intensive genetic component to his fieldwork, teaming with the University of Porto in Portugal, where scientists are sequencing the rabbit genome. Together they will analyze the genetic drivers of coat color change. Mills will start with his core research areas and then expand his studies to compare coat color genetics as well as synchrony of hare cycles in southern versus northern ranges.

Mills isn’t starting from scratch. He and his team have collected genetic samples from thousands of hares and several generations for the past eight years. On a typical field day, they rise before dawn to check the 80 “have-a-heart” live traps that they’ve baited with alfalfa and apple. The traps are placed in prime snowshoe habitat such as moist forests of larch, lodgepole and Douglas fir with dense brush and overhanging branches.

Finding a hare in a trap calls for prompt action. Mills describes the process that has become routine. First, you put a pillowcase over the entrance to the trap, so the hare will run in. You keep the hare in the pillowcase while you weigh it, add an ear tag and take a tiny plug of tissue from the ear. That tissue contains DNA and is placed in a special vial. You also check the sex and assess the hare’s general health. You might add a radio collar as well, depending on the project. The whole procedure takes a matter of minutes.

Snowshoe hares seemed like a natural choice for study soon after Mills arrived at UM from the University of Idaho in 1995. They’re a local species with excellent opportunities for delving into their ecology and introducing students and the public alike to fieldwork. Hares also are known for a classic predator-prey relationship with the lynx. The two species are so closely associated that they even share a key attribute for winter living – thick furry hind feet for bounding atop snow.

Across Canada, snowshoe hares follow a synchronized population cycle of 10-year highs and lows. Hare numbers in the Yukon can peak at 200 to 300 per square kilometer and then drop to about seven. Lynx follow a cycle that’s just slightly behind the hares. When lynx numbers are down, hares start to go up. The more hares, the better the lynx do until finally the lynx drive the hare populations down again. Mills’ work has proven that those cycles are dampened in the southern range because hares don’t have the same vast, dense boreal forest, thus hares never reach the high peak counts. As their numbers rise, they disperse into habitat openings, where they become easy dinners for waiting predators. In Montana and other parts of the southern range, forests tend to be patchier naturally, with added challenges for hares from logging and thinning.

Today, as a result of Mills’ studies comparing survival rates in experimentally thinned forests, Plum Creek Timber Co. now leaves patches of unthinned trees to benefit hares, and in turn lynx.
His research has translated directly into useful management, a result that Mills always aims for and advocates in his widely used 2006 textbook, “Conservation of Wildlife Populations, Demography, Genetics, and Management.”

Until now, the lynx-hare relationship has proved Mills’ most high-profile research. After the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added lynx as a threatened species in 2000, his phone rang with calls from the National Park Service and timber companies alike on how to manage forests for lynx health. Mills’ subsequent studies led to findings that lynx are highly mobile in their southern range. One cat might travel 1,000 km (620 miles) in a season.

“Conserving where lynx are now is important, but it’s also important to conserve the places in between because lynx may move into those places as well,” Mills said.

Taking the next leap to examine snowshoe hare response to climate change is both a natural progression and an exciting new phase in his long-term research.

“Wildlife will either move, adapt or die in response to climate change,” explains Mills. “The study becomes important because we need to know how much natural selection will help animals deal with climate change that is happening at a very fast rate.”

That knowledge in turn will help managers focus their efforts to save species through such actions as conserving movement corridors from south to north.

“Hares are important because they are prey for almost everything in the forest that eats meat,” Mills said. “Without hares, the ecosystem unravels.”

Suppression of New Ideas & Innovations

2009-03-06T22:44:00.002+05:00

Human history is riddled with examples of innovations and research that had been suppressed and derogated by the leading science community and the accepted scientific conventions of the time. Throughout human history, many innovators became the victims of the insults of the skeptical scientific, governmental and corporate power elites.

Many innovators, scientists, and scholars know that disagreeing with the dominant view is risky, especially when that view is backed by powerful interest groups. When someone introduces a new innovation, presents an unconventional scientific view, or comes out with a new way of doing things that threatens a powerful interest group, typically a government, industry or professional body, representatives of that group attack the innovator's ideas and the innovator personally. Such attacks are carried out by censoring writing, blocking publications, withdrawing or denying grants, taking legal actions, and spreading false information or rumors.

What are the effects of suppression of new ideas, intellectual dissent, unconventional, or unpopular scientific views? Suppression is not only a denial of the open debate that is the foundation of a free society, it also creates artificial barriers and in effect retard innovation and creativity. Moreover, it has a chilling effect that breeds external censorship as well as self-censorship. If we can learn anything from the history of science, it is the dissidents and the unconventional thinkers who have spurred science on.

The following quotes and facts illustrate the initial hostile and trivializing attitude towards new ideas, scientific inquiries, and revolutionary innovations.

“I watched his countenance closely, to see if he was not deranged... and I was assured by other Senators after we left the room that they had no confidence in it." --Reaction of Senator Smith of Indiana after Samuel Mores demonstrated his telegraph before member of Congress in 1842.

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." --Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977.

Nobel Laureate Hans Krebs’ discovery of the metabolic cycle that would eventually bear his name was rejected from the journal Nature.

When Nobel Laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar presented his ideas at the Royal Astronomical Society in January 1935, most famous astronomer at that time, Arthur Eddington, ridiculed his ideas. It took decades before the Chandrasekhar Limit was accepted by all astrophysicists and eventually his idea became the foundation for the theory of black holes. Forty years later, Chandrasekhar was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in physics.

Galileo’s ideas about the universe were first dismissed as being impossible. The priests and aristocrats feared the worldview that his ideas were beginning to force upon people. Galileo was placed under house arrest.

Nobel prize-winning biochemist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi never got funded for his work on the relevance of quantum physics to living organisms.

As documented by Dr. Brian Martin of University of Wollongong, in his books and articles, many scientists pursuing research critical of pesticides or proposing alternatives to pesticides have come under attack and have been threatened with dismissal and in some cases had been dismissed. Government scientists critical of nuclear power have lost their staff and have been transferred as a form of harassment.

When Nobel laureate Hans Alfven came up with the idea of parallel electric fields he was ridiculed for his work.

When Nobel laureate Svante Arrhenius proposed his idea that electrolytes are full of charged atoms, it was considered a crazy notion.

“Mr. Bell, after careful consideration of your invention, while it is a very interesting novelty, we have come to the conclusion that it has no commercial possibilities." -- J. P. Morgan's comments on behalf of the officials and engineers of Western Union after a demonstration of the telephone.

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." --Western Union internal memo, 1876.

Luigi Galvani's experiments were ridiculed because they countered established views. He was called the "frogs' dance instructor." His innovative experiments eventually became the basis for the biological study of neurophysiology.

When Scanning-tunneling microscope was invented in 1982, it was met by hostility and ridicule from the specialists in the microscopy field. In 1986, the inventors won the Nobel prize.

George Ohm's initial publication was met with ridicule and dismissal and it was called "a tissue of naked fantasy." Ten years later, scientists recognized its great importance.

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" --David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" --H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." --Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

"So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'" --Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.

Stanford Ovshinsky's invention of glasslike semiconductors was attacked by physicists and ignored for more than a decade. Finally he got funding from the Japanese for his work. Consequently, the new science of amorphous semiconductor physics was born.

"Everything that can be invented has been invented." --Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

When Sherwood Rowland, Mario Molina and Paul Crutzen first warned that chemicals called cholorofluorocarbons or CFCs, were destroying the ozone layer they were ridiculed for their work. In 1995, Rowland, Molina and Crutzen, won a Nobel Prize.

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends upon the unreasonable man." --G. B. Shaw.

In 1908 Billy Durant, in trying to raise money to create an automobile trust, boasted to J.P. Morgan & Co. "that the time would come when half a million automobiles a year will be running on the roads of this country." This annoyed Morgan partner George W. Perkins who said "If that fellow has any sense, he'll keep those observations to himself." Unable to raise capital in Wall Street, Durant went home and put together something called General Motors.

When Warren and his team introduced a new facet to MRI theory, his colleagues at Princeton told him that his insane ideas were endangering his career. They held a mean-spirited bogus presentation mocking his work. After seven years, Warren was vindicated. His discoveries are leading to the development of new MRI techniques.

During 1903 to 1908, Wrights' claims about their airplane invention were not believed. Most American scientists discredited the Wrights and proclaimed that their mechanism was a hoax.

The inventors of the turbine ship engine, the electric ships telegraph, and the steel ship hull were initially met with disbelief and derision for their work.

When Thomas Edison became successful with a light bulb filament he invited members of the scientific community to observe his demonstration. Although many from the general public went to witness the lamp, the noted scientists refused to attend. Sir William Siemens, England's most distinguished engineer said "Such startling announcements as these should be deprecated as being unworthy of science and mischievous to its true progress." Professor Du Moncel said "The Sorcerer of Menlo Park appears not to be acquainted with the subtleties of the electrical sciences. Mr. Edison takes us backwards."

"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction." --Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology, 1872.

"Airplanes are interesting toys, but of no military value." -- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre

Wonderful Quotations on Innovation

2009-03-05T18:18:00.001+05:00

"If at first, the idea is not absurd, there is no hope for it." -- Albert Einstein.

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."--Arthur Schopenhauer.

“At their first appearance innovators have always been derided as fools and mad men.” -- Aldous Huxley.

"Every great advance in science has been issued from a new audacity of the imagination" --John Dewey.

"That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in the next" --John Stuart Mill.

"Problems cannot be solved by thinking within the framework in which the problems were created" --Albert Einstein.

"No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess"--Isaac Newton.

"That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of our time" --John Stuart Mill.

"The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false."--Paul Johnson

"Concepts which have proved useful for ordering things easily assume so great an authority over us, that we forget their terrestrial origin and accept them as unalterable facts. They then become labeled as "conceptual necessities", etc. The road of scientific progress is frequently blocked for long periods by such errors." --Albert Einstein

"All great truths began as blasphemies." --George Bernard Shaw

Amazing Facts About Success & Failure

2009-03-04T18:48:00.002+05:00

"Our greatest glory is not in ever falling but in rising every time we fall." --Confucius

Albert Einstein did not speak until he was 4 and did not read until he was 7. His teacher described him as "mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in foolish dreams." He was expelled from school and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School.

Sigmund Freud was booed from the podium when he first presented his ideas to the scientific community of Europe. He returned to his office and kept on writing.

Thomas Edison's teachers said he was "too stupid to learn anything." He was fired from his first two jobs for being "non-productive."

Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas." He went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland. In fact, the proposed park was rejected by the city of Anaheim on the grounds that it would only attract riffraff.

French acting legend Jeanne Moreau was told by a casting director that her "head was too crooked and she was not beautiful enough to make it in films." She said to herself, "I guess I will have to make it my own way." After making nearly 100 films her own way, in 1997 she received the European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Sidney Poitier was told by a casting director, "Why don't you stop wasting people's time and go out and become a dishwasher or something?" It was at that moment, recalls Poitier, that he decided to devote his life to acting.

Beethoven's teacher called him "hopeless as a composer." We all know that he wrote some of his greatest symphonies while completely deaf.

Van Gogh sold only one painting during his life. This did not stop him from completing over 800 paintings.

An art dealer refused Picasso shelter when he asked if he could bring in his paintings from out of the rain. Stravinsky was run out of town by an enraged audience and critics after the first performance of the Rite of Spring.

A young reporter asked Pablo Casals when he was 95 "Mr. Casals, you are 95 and the greatest cellist that ever lived, why do you still practice six hours a day?" Mr. Casals answered, "Because I think I'm making progress."

Leo Tolstoy flunked out of college. He was described as both "unable and unwilling to learn."

Emily Dickinson had only seven poems published in her lifetime.

English crime novelist John Creasey had 753 rejection slips before he published 564 books.

John Milton wrote Paradise Lost 16 years after losing his eyesight.

Engineers Tune A Nanoscale Grating Structure To Trap And Release A Variety Of Light Waves

2009-03-04T18:20:00.001+05:00

Light waves transmit data with much greater speed than do electrical signals, says Qiaoqiang Gan, a Ph.D. candidate at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. If they are guided with sufficient precision inside the tiny circuits of an electronic chip, they can bring about applications in spectroscopy, sensing and medical imaging. And they can hasten the advent of faster all-optical telecommunication networks, in which light signals transmit and route data without needing to be converted to electrical signals and back.

To enable light waves to store and transmit data with optimal efficiency, engineers must learn to slow or stop light waves across the various regions of the spectrum.

Gan and his adviser, Filbert J. Bartoli, department chair of electrical and computer engineering, made a major contribution to this effort last year when they developed a graded metal grating structure capable of slowing or stopping terahertz (THz) light waves. The achievement, said Bartoli, "opened a door to the control of light waves on a chip" that could help reduce the size of optical structures, enabling them to be integrated at the nanoscale with electronic devices.
Gan and Bartoli reported their results in June in Physical Review Letters (PRL). Their article was coauthored by Yujie J. Ding, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Zhan Fu, a Ph.D. candidate advised by Ding. The researchers are affiliated with Lehigh's Center for Optical Technologies.

Recently, Bartoli's team recorded a second major advance. Working again with Ding, they demonstrated that their grating structure could be scaled down in size to a dimension compatible with light waves in the telecommunications portion of the spectrum.

THz waves measure several hundred microns in length (1 micron is one-millionth of a meter) and are suitable for security applications. Wavelengths in the telecommunications range of the spectrum measure 1330 to 1550 nanometers (1 nm is one-billionth of a meter) and are suitable for optical communications.

The three researchers reported their progress in a second PRL article, titled "Rainbow Trapping and Releasing at Telecommunication Wavelengths." The article was published in the journal's Feb. 6 issue.

In the current article, the researchers also address a phenomenon called loss in metals, in which the metal materials of a chip, instead of simply propagating light, also absorb it and dissipate it as heat. Metal loss occurs more strongly with telecommunications light waves than with THz light waves.

To use trapped light waves for telecommunications, says Gan, it is necessary to release them from the grating structure. Gan and his colleagues accomplished this by covering the structure with dielectric materials.

"By tuning the temperature of the dielectric materials, we were able to change the optical properties of the metal grating structure," he said. "This in turn enabled the trapped light waves to be released."

The Lehigh researchers describe their structure as a "metallic grating structure with graded depths, whose dispersion curves and cutoff frequencies are different at different locations." In appearance, the grating resembles the pipes of a pipe organ arranged side by side and decreasing gradually in length from one end of the assembly to the other. The degree of grade in the grating can be tuned by altering the temperature and modifying the physical features on the surface of the structure.

The structure arrests the progress of light waves at multiple locations on the surface and at different frequencies. Previous researchers, Gan says, had been able "to slow down one single wavelength within a narrow bandwidth, but not many wavelengths over a wide spectrum."
Most of the initial work on this project has been theoretical, using mathematical equations and computer simulation. Bartoli's group has now moved to the next stage, which includes fabricating and characterizing the structures.

"It will be challenging," Gan says, "to achieve a grade of grating depths which range from very shallow to as much as 50 nanometers on a 200-nm substrate. To do this, we are using the focused ion beam milling facilities in the materials science and engineering department. We have already fabricated many structures and will now try to characterize the graded gratings with near-field scanning optical microscopy in Prof. Volkmar Dierolf's lab in the physics department.

"We are pursuing promising applications based on these structures. These include biosensing and bioimaging."

An article in the Feb. 14 issue of the British journal New Scientist said the results obtained by Bartoli's team "suggest that one day we might be able to slow down light long enough to store it as a 'rainbow' or colors – an advance that would revolutionize computing and telecommunication networks."

Light is stored for a few pico-seconds in the grating structure, the New Scientist article notes. But this, according to physicist Ortwin Hess of the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom, "is quite significant for many applications."

Its Urgent to get to Iraq's oil

2009-03-03T15:02:00.001+05:00

International companies have waited years to tap into Iraq's vast oil wealth and now Iraqi officials are working feverishly to make that happen soon.

There is growing apprehension about the cost of rebuilding the country with the price of crude, the nation's major source of revenue, nearing five year lows. Iraq must produce more oil and it is foreign oil majors that have the wherewithal to do that. Iraq recently sweetened the terms: increasing ownership percentages for foreign oil companies and making it easier to meet production targets. But the government wants production to begin quickly. The Associated Press reports that the country is now requiring any oil company that signs a contract to begin operating in the country within six months. Though low crude prices have not diminished interest in Iraqi oil, negotiations between the two sides have lingered over security concerns and the absence of a national law regulating Iraq's oil industry.

Prime Minister Al-Maliki said the government would form a committee to oversee development of the country's devastated oil industry and increase exports. He said Iraq must also work quickly to diversify its economy to cushion future spending from a drop in oil prices. But right now, the onus is on ramping up oil production, and fast. As violence has declined in Iraq, so to has the price of oil worldwide. The Iraqi government relies on oil sales for more than 90-percent of its revenue. Falling oil prices have reduced the projected 2009 budget from $79 billion to $64 billion and have forced Iraqi officials to slash rebuilding plans by 40-percent. U.S. officials have repeatedly warned any significant slowdown in reconstruction could imperil the security gains that have reduced violence in Iraq to a five-year low.

It remains to be seen how international firms will respond to Iraq's new carrot and stick approach. Iraq hopes the contracts-scheduled to be awarded in June-will boost oil production by 1.5 million barrels per day within four years. Iraq currently produces about 2.4 million barrels daily. The companies are bidding on long-term service agreements that would pay them fees depending on production levels.

Improved Solar Energy Performance with Plastic Solar Cells

2009-03-02T16:23:00.001+05:00

The University of Alberta and the National Research Council's National Institute (NINT) for Nanotechnology have engineered an approach that is leading to improved performance of plastic solar cells (hybrid organic solar cells). The development of inexpensive, mass-produced plastic solar panels is a goal of intense interest for many of the world's scientists and engineers because of the high cost and shortage of the ultra-high purity silicon and other materials normally required.

Plastic solar cells are made up of layers of different materials, each with a specific function, called a sandwich structure. Jillian Buriak, a professor of chemistry at the U of A, NINT principal investigator and member of the research team, uses a simple analogy to describe the approach: "Consider a clubhouse sandwich, with many different layers. One layer absorbs the light, another helps to generate the electricity, and others help to draw the electricity out of the device. Normally, the layers don't stick well, and so the electricity ends up stuck and never gets out, leading to inefficient devices. We are working on the mayonnaise, the mustard, the butter and other 'special sauces' that bring the sandwich together, and make each of the layers work together. That makes a better sandwich, and makes a better solar cell, in our case".

After two years of research, these U of A and NINT scientists have, by only working on one part of the sandwich, seen improvements of about 30 per cent in the efficiency of the working model. Michael Brett, professor of electrical and computer engineering, NINT principal investigator and member of the research team is optimistic: "our team is so incredibly cross-disciplinary, with people from engineering, physics and chemistry backgrounds all working towards this common goal of cheap manufacturable solar cells. This collaboration is extremely productive because of the great team with such diverse backgrounds, [although] there is still so much more for us to do, which is exciting." This multidisciplinary approach, common at the National Institute for Nanotechnology, brings together the best of the NRC and the University of Alberta.

The team estimates it will be five to seven years before plastic solar panels will be mass produced but Buriak adds that when it happens solar energy will be available to everyone. She says the next generation of solar technology belongs to plastic.

"Plastic solar cell material will be made cheaply and quickly and in massive quantities by ink jet-like printers."

Your Laser Printer is Dangerous!!! Beware of It

2009-03-01T16:18:00.001+05:00

The identity and origin of tiny, potentially hazardous particles emitted from common laser printers have been revealed by a new study at Queensland University of Technology.

Professor Lidia Morawska from QUT's International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health led the study which aimed to answer questions raised by earlier findings that almost one third of popular laser printers emitted large numbers of ultrafine particles.
These tiny particles are potentially dangerous to human health because they can penetrate deep into the lungs.

Professor Morawska said the latest study found that the ultrafine particles formed from vapours which are produced when the printed image is fused to the paper.

"In the printing process, toner is melted and when it is hot, certain compounds evaporate and those vapours then nucleate or condense in the air, forming ultrafine particles," she said.

"The material is the result of the condensation of organic compounds which originate from both the paper and hot toner."

The study compared a high-emitting printer with a low-emitting printer and found that there were two ways in which printers contributed to the formation of these particles.

"The hotter the printer gets, the higher the likelihood of these particles forming, but the rate of change of the temperature also contributes," Professor Morawska said.

"The high emitting printer operated at a lower average temperature, but had rapid changes in temperature, which resulted in more condensable vapour being emitted from the printer.
"The printer with better temperature control emitted fewer particles."

Professor Morawska said this research provided information which would help consumers better understand the risks of laser printers and would help the printer industry to design low or no emission printers.

3-D Visualizations for Cancer Diagnosis

2009-02-28T12:33:00.001+05:00

University of Washington researchers have helped develop a new kind of microscope to visualize cells in three dimensions, an advance that could bring great progress in the field of early cancer detection. The technique could also bridge a widening gap between cutting-edge imaging techniques used in research and clinical practices, researchers said.

Eric Seibel, a UW mechanical engineering associate professor, and his colleagues have worked in collaboration with VisionGate, Inc., a privately held company in Gig Harbor, Wash., that holds the patents on the technology. The machine works by rotating the cell under the microscope lens and taking hundreds of pictures per rotation, and then digitally combining them to form a single 3-D image.

The 3-D visualizations could lead to big advances in early cancer detection, since clinicians today identify cancerous cells by using 2-D pictures to assess the cells' shape and size.
"It's a lot easier to spot a misshapen cell if you can see it from all sides," Seibel said. "A 2-D representation of a 3-D object is never perfectly accurate -- imagine trying to get an exact picture of the moon, seeing only one side."

The new microscope, known by the trademarked name Cell-CT, is so named because it works similarly to a CT-scan -- though on a very small scale, and using visible light instead of X-rays. In a CT-scan, the patient is immobile while the X-ray machine rotates. In the Cell-CT microscope, each cell is embedded in a special gel inside a glass tube that rotates in front of a fixed camera that takes many pictures per rotation. The gel has similar optical properties to the tube's so that no light reflects off the glass. In both processes, the end result is that hundreds of pictures are assembled to form a 3-D image that can be viewed and rotated on a computer screen.

The new 3-D microscope also helps to bring imaging techniques from the lab to the doctor's office. Although great advances have been made in microscope technology through the years, clinicians have been using essentially the same technique for cancer diagnoses for the last 300 years, Seibel said. Pathologists today still use a cell stain invented in the 1700s to examine sections of suspected cancers. Pathologists do not use any of the newer fluorescent molecular dyes that produce the precise, detailed cellular portraits found in biology journals.

"Scientists have been using fluorescent dyes in research for decades, but these techniques have not yet broken into everyday clinical diagnoses," Seibel said. "There's a big gap between the research and clinical worlds when it comes to cancer, and it's getting wider. We're trying to bridge that gap."

Part of the reason for this gap, Seibel said, is that there is no way to accurately match an image taken using the fluorescent dyes with an image taken using the traditional stains that currently form the basis for cancer diagnoses, and for which diagnostic standards exist. The new 3-D microscope will allow that matchup -- Seibel and his colleagues have shown simultaneous fluorescent and traditional staining of the same cells. The new device is the first 3-D microscope that can use both traditional and fluorescent stains, Seibel said.

"Now that we have a way to compare these stains, we hope this will provide a way to get some of those sophisticated research techniques into clinical use," Seibel said.
The new microscope is also more precise than other 3-D machines currently available. All other microscopes producing 3-D images have poor resolution in the up-down direction, the direction between the sample and the microscope's lens, Seibel said.

Qin Miao, a UW bioengineering doctoral student, used a tiny plastic particle of known dimensions to show the microscope's resolution. He found that the UW group's machine has three times better accuracy in that up-down direction than standard microscopes used in cancer detection. Miao will present the group's findings for the microscope's performance Feb. 9 at the SPIE Medical Imaging conference in Orlando, Fla.

In another recent publication, Seibel and his colleagues describe a study comparing cancer detection using traditional methods with their 3-D microscope. Pathologists using 3-D technology detected cancer with one-third the error rate compared to those using the traditional microscope. The authors also describe using their microscope to discover a "pre-cancer" cell, a cell that was on the verge of turning cancerous.

A New Generation of Materials

2009-02-28T12:10:00.001+05:00

Scientists from the Madrid Institute of Advanced Studies in Materials (IMDEA Materiales)– in collaboration with a research group from CENIM, CSIC and the Iskra institute of Ufa, Russia – have developed a mechanical method to generate and stabilise at room temperature and atmospheric pressure crystalline phases of metals that until now have only been stable at very high pressures.

The atoms of metals are organized in ordered structures denominated crystal lattices. The geometry of the latter depends of the nature of the material as well as of temperature and pressure. At room temperature and atmospheric pressure, pure metals like gold, aluminium and copper have cubic lattices, and others like magnesium, titanium and zirconium have hexagonal structures (called alpha phases, a).

Increases in pressure occasionally cause changes in the geometry of the crystal lattice, resulting in the appearance of new phases. For example, in the case of titanium, the hexagonal a lattice, stable at 1 atm, transforms into a cubic structure (beta phase) when a hydrostatic pressure of approximately 1 million atmospheres is applied. If, once the cubic phase has been generated, the pressure is reduced down to 1 atm, the reverse transformation takes place, giving rise to the original hexagonal a phase. Due to the extreme pressure conditions needed to generate these new phases, the practical applications of these materials are very limited.

Scientists from (IMDEA Materiales) – in collaboration with the National Centre for Metallurgical Research] (CENIM) and the Iskra institute of Ufa, Russia – have developed a mechanical method to stabilise at room temperature and atmospheric pressure crystalline phases of metals that until now have only been stable at very high pressure. The method is based on simultaneously applying compression and shear strains. It has been proven that shear enhances the transformation kinetics significantly, eliminating the need for very high pressures. This technique has been successfully applied to pure titanium and zirconium and a patent application has been filed.

The high-pressure phases could have properties of great technological interest. For example, cubic titanium (beta phase) is very attractive for manufacturing bone implants, since its elastic modulus is more similar to bone than hexagonal titanium. Moreover, it is known that the critical superconducting temperature of beta titanium is also higher. This research therefore represents a first step towards manufacturing a new generation of materials with as yet unknown properties and opens the doors to their practical application.

Environment Ministers have Agreed to Negotiate Mercury Treaty

2009-02-27T14:17:00.004+05:00

Six thousand tonnes of mercury enter the environment every year, posing a threat to human and animal health. Environment ministers meeting in Kenya have agreed to negotiate a treaty to reduce the supply and use of mercury worldwide.

The ministers from 140 countries, attending UNEP's Governing Council meeting in Nairobi Feb 16-20, reached consensus to begin negotiating a legally-binding instrument to control mercury pollution next year, leading to a treaty for signature in 2013.

Governments also agreed to increase the budget of UNEP, support renewable energy and energy efficiency, and underlined the importance of investment in a "green economy" as part of worldwide economic recovery.

Mercury is found in thermometers and household products, and is used in plastic production and mining. UNEP says of the around 6,000 tonnes of mercury entering the environment annually, some 2000 tonnes comes from power plants and coal burned in homes. The dense and highly toxic metal stays in the environment once released, travelling across the globe on air and sea currents.

"This decision to develop a mercury treaty is the first step in addressing the global mercury crisis. Levels of mercury have increased two- to three-fold in the last 200 years, to the point where large fish such as tuna, swordfish, shark, are not safe [to eat]," mercury campaigner Michael Bender told IPS.

Mercury is a dangerous neurotoxin that makes its way up to the food chain into humans. Even slight exposure to its most toxic form, methylmercury, causes irreversible damage to developing brain of children. In some countries, women of child-bearing age are advised not to eat certain types of fish with high mercury levels, particularly large predatory fish which have been established to contain high levels of mercury.

Bender, director of the Mercury Policy Project, a U.S.-based organisation promoting policies to eliminate mercury use, said, "The main concern is that pregnant mothers and foetuses are at greater risk of developing complications from consuming mercury contaminated fish."

While public awareness of poisoning from fish contamination is crucial, questions are being raised over the practicability of this dietary suggestion. "Such dietary restriction is terrible and impossible for many fisher communities in the world. For some people, because of the poverty level, fish is all they can afford because they can get it very fast straight from the water," said a statement by the Women's Major Group, comprising women present at the UNEP governing council meeting.

Another source of mercury poisioning is the substantial amounts of mercury used in mineral processing, often in highly unsafe and environmentally hazardous conditions. It is estimated that in more than 50 developing countries across Asia, Africa and South America, there are about 15 million artisanal and small-scale miners.

Upwards of 100 million people may be affected, directly and indirectly, by mercury from this sector, according to a 2007 global mercury project undertaken jointly by the Global Environment Facility, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation and the United Nations Development Programme.

"The workers are working in mines handling mercury like water; without gloves, barefoot and almost naked. They go back home with traces of mercury on their hands, putting the lives of those they live with in danger of inhaling mercury vapour," said Hemsing Hurrynag, the Africa coordinator Zero Mercury Campaign, an international coalition of 75 non-governmental organisations advocating for mercury reduction.

He says there is little awareness of the dangers of mercury both to humans and the environment in communities surrounding mines, where extensive environmental degradation and ecosystem contamination has been recorded, going on for decades after mining activities have ceased.

A UNEP 2008 publication, Mercury Use in Artisanal and Small Scale Gold Mining, states that the rising price of gold - up from 260 dollars per ounce in March 2001 to over 1000 dollars per ounce in March 2008 - has seen a gold rush involving poverty-driven miners in many countries. Small-scale mining provides an important source of income in rural communities and regions where economic alternatives are limited.

Given that emissions from one country are transported through the air water, mercury emissions are a global issue. Earlier resistance to a legally-binding treaty came from countries that are heavily dependent on coal for power generation. India and China previously supported only voluntary cuts in emissions. The new government of the United States also reversed its position, clearing the way for negotiations to begin. Under the Bush administration, the U.S. opposed any international efforts to reach legally-binding agreements such as the one now proposed for mercury.

The intended treaty is expected to reduce production of mercury, provide for safe storage of existing stockpiles and establish awareness creation mechanisms that will inform populations about the threats posed by this toxic substance.

According to UNEP's executive director, Achim Steiner, the global nature of mercury pollution requires well-coordinated international efforts that compel countries to commit to each other. And his organisation is embarking straight away on action.

Acid Rain is Affecting a Major Portion of China since Last Few Years

2009-02-26T16:05:00.002+05:00

Acid rain caused by worsening air pollution now affects one-third of China’s landmass, threatening soil quality and food safety. In 2005, acid rain hit more than half of the 696 cities and counties under air-quality monitoring, with some cities receiving all of their precipitation as acid rain.

While air quality has improved in some areas of China as a result of adjustments in the nation’s energy structure and stricter vehicle emissions standards, 40 percent of urban air quality remains below even second-grade national standards, reflecting various levels of pollutants. Sulfur dioxide and inhalable particulate matter are the two major acid rain-causing substances.

More than 25 million tons of sulfur dioxide belched from China’s coal-fired power and coking plants last year, double the level deemed safe for the facilities` environmental capacity. The desulfurization facilities in these plants have a combined capacity of 53 million kilowatts, representing only 14 percent of total installed capacity. Shanxi Province in northeastern China, famous for its local coking industry, produced more than 80 million tons of coke (a solid carbon residue used in making steel) in 2005, emitting high levels of sulfurous compounds. Of the more than 680 coking enterprises province-wide, only 65 have applied for environmental protection examination and approval; of these, only 30—or about 5 percent of all coking enterprises—currently meet national sulfur emission standards.

Inhalable particulate matter (PM) is the primary pollutant affecting human health and urban air quality in China. In 2005, 35.8 percent of the nation’s cities suffered from PM pollution at levels below the second-grade national standards; the most polluted regions are northern Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, and southwestern Sichuan provinces. Inhalable PM is caused by emissions of soot (fine black particles composed chiefly of carbon, produced by incomplete combustion of coal, oil, wood, or other fuels) and industrial powders. In 2004, Chinese soot emissions topped 11.8 million tons and industrial powder emissions totaled 9.11 million tons.

Intelligent Molecules are Designed for Treatment of Diseased Cells

2009-02-25T16:11:00.002+05:00

Current treatments for diseases like cancer typically destroy nasty malignant cells, while also hammering the healthy ones. Using new advances in synthetic biology, researchers are designing molecules intelligent enough to recognize diseased cells, leaving the healthy cells alone.

We basically design molecules that actually go into the cell and do an analysis of the cellular state before delivering the therapeutic punch," said Christina Smolke, assistant professor of bioengineering who joined Stanford University in January.

"When you look at a diseased cell (e.g. a cancer cell) and compare it to a normal cell, you can identify biomarkers—changes in the abundance of proteins or other biomolecule levels—in the diseased cell," Smolke said. Her research team has designed molecules that trigger cell death only in the presence of such markers. "A lot of the trick with developing effective therapeutics is the ability to target and localize the therapeutic effect, while minimizing nonspecific side effects," she said.

Smolke will present the latest applications of her lab's work at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting in Chicago on Feb. 13.

These designer molecules are created through RNA-based technologies that Smolke's lab developed at the California Institute of Technology. A recent example of these systems, developed with postdoctoral researcher Maung Nyan Win (who joined Smolke in her move to Stanford), was described in a paper published in the Oct. 17, 2008, issue of Science.

"We do our design on the computer and pick out sequences that are predicted to behave the way we like," Smolke said. When researchers generate these sequences inside the operating system of a cell, they reprogram the cell and change its function. "Building these molecules out of RNA gives us a very programmable and therefore powerful design substrate," she said.

Smolke's team focuses on well-researched model systems in breast, prostate and brain cancers, including immunotherapy applications based on reprogramming human immune response to different diseases. The researchers work directly with clinicians at the City of Hope Cancer Center (a National Cancer Institute designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif.) that have ongoing immunotherapy trials for treating glioma, a severe type of brain cancer.

"Our goal is to make more effective therapies by taking advantage of the natural capabilities of our immune system and introducing slight modifications in cases where it is not doing what we would like it to do," Smolke said. She hopes to translate her technologies into intelligent cellular therapeutics for glioma patients in the next five years. "That's a very optimistic view," she said. "But so far things have been moving quickly."

The broader implications for using intelligent molecules in immunotherapy and gene therapy seem limitless. Researchers and doctors can use this approach by targeting a specific cellular function or behavior they want to control in a particular disease. Then they can identify signals indicative of viral infection, host immune response, or drugs the clinician is administering and engineer the molecules to change the cell function in response to those signals.

"In a lot of therapies, you have nonspecific side effects or you're balancing the desired effect of the therapy on diseased cells or infection with its undesired effects on the entire host," Smolke said. Current chemotherapy treatments for cancer, and even many gene therapies, have drastic and debilitating consequences for patients. The designer molecules provide a whole new targeting accuracy that should mitigate these side effects.

"This is all very front-end work," Smolke said. "We've just started to move these foundational technologies into these sorts of downstream medical applications, and so there is a lot to learn … which makes it that much more exciting."

Raw Biomass can be Turned into Biofuels by a Two-Step Chemical Process

2009-02-24T17:51:00.003+05:00

The key to the new process is the first step, in which cellulose is converted into the "platform" chemical 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), from which a variety of valuable commodity chemicals can be made.

Raines and graduate student Joseph Binder, a doctoral candidate in the chemistry department, developed a unique solvent system that makes this conversion possible. The special mix of solvents and additives, for which a patent is pending, has an extraordinary capacity to dissolve cellulose, the long chains of energy-rich sugar molecules found in plant material. Because cellulose is one of the most abundant organic substances on the planet, it is widely seen as a promising alternative to fossil fuels. This solvent system can dissolve cotton balls, which are pure cellulose and it's a simple system—not corrosive, dangerous, expensive or stinky.

This approach simultaneously bypasses another vexing problem: lignin, the glue that holds plant cell walls together. Often described as intractable, lignin molecules act like a cage protecting the cellulose they surround. However, Raines and Binder used chemicals small enough to slip between the lignin molecules, where they work to dissolve the cellulose, cleave it into its component pieces and then convert those pieces into HMF.

In step two, Raines and Binder subsequently converted HMF into the promising biofuel 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF). Taken together, the overall yield for this two-step biomass-to-biofuel process was 9 percent, meaning that 9 percent of the cellulose in their corn stover samples was ultimately converted into biofuel.

DMF has the same energy content as gasoline, doesn't mix with water and is compatible with the existing liquid transportation fuel infrastructure. It has already been used as a gasoline additive.

In addition to corn stover, Raines and Binder have tested their method using pine sawdust, and they're looking for more samples to try out. "Our process is so general I think we can make DMF or HMF out of any type of biomass," he says.

Scientists Map CO2 Emissions with Google Earth

2009-02-23T19:05:00.001+05:00

The U.S. accounts for 25% of global emissions of carbon dioxide.

A team of U.S. scientists led by Purdue University unveiled an interactive Google Earth map on Feb. 19 showing carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels across the U.S. The high-resolution map, available at www. purdue.edu/eas/carbon/vulcan/GEarth, shows carbon dioxide emissions in metric tons in residential and commercial areas by state, county or per capita.

Called "Vulcan" after the Roman god of fire, the project, which took three years to complete, quantifies carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels such as coal and gasoline. It breaks down emissions by the sectors responsible including aircraft, commercial, electricity production, industrial, residential and transport.

"This will bring emissions information into everyone's living room as a recognizable, accessible online experience," said Kevin Gurney, the project leader and an assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Purdue. "We hope to eventually turn it into an interactive space where the public will feed information into the system to create an even finer picture of emissions down to the street and individual building level."

The U.S. for some 25% of global emissions of carbon dioxide, which scientists have identified as the most important human-produced gas contributing to global climate change.

Simon Ilyushchenko, an engineer at Internet search giant Google who worked on the project, said "integrating the data with Google Earth was a way to advance public understanding of fossil fuel energy usage. Dynamic maps of the data, broken down by the different sources of emissions, easily show where people burn more gasoline from driving or where they use more fuel for heating and cooling homes and businesses."

Vulcan integrates carbon dioxide emissions data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Energy. The current data is from 2002, but the scientists said they plan to incorporate more recent data. Besides Purdue, the project also involved researchers from Colorado State University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. It was funded by NASA, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Purdue Showalter Trust and Indianapolis-based Knauf Insulation.

Technology Can Help US to Search for Bin Laden`s Hide-out in Pakistan

2009-02-23T18:03:00.004+05:00

In a new study published online February 17 by the MIT International Review, the geographers report that simple facts, publicly available satellite imagery and fundamental principles of geography place the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks against the U.S. in one of three buildings in the northwest Pakistan town of Parachinar, in the Kurram tribal region near the border with Afghanistan.

Despite keen interest in the terrorist recluse and a $25 million reward for information leading to his capture, academics have shied away from getting involved in the quest to find him, the researchers contend. Meanwhile, dramatic improvements in remote-sensing imagery have improved the odds of civilians doing so.

"We believe our work represents the first scientific approach to establishing bin Laden's current location," said John A. Agnew, study co-author and UCLA geography professor. "The methods are repeatable and could easily be updated with new information obtained by the U.S. intelligence community."

The researchers advocate that the U.S. investigate — but not bomb — the three buildings. They warn that if bin Laden indeed remains to this day in the tiny city of Parachinar, or even elsewhere in the relatively thinly populated tribal area of Kurram, he may move to the city of Peshawar (population 1.4 million) in the neighboring tribal area of North-West Frontier Province if Peshawar falls to the Taliban. News reports have warned of that possibility since last summer.
"If bin Laden were to move to Peshawar, which would become an option if the Taliban were in control there, the search would become much more complicated," Gillespie said. "It's the difference between looking for someone in L.A. versus in Big Bear," he added, referring to a mountain resort town 90 miles east of Los Angeles.

The findings are based on the last information on bin Laden's whereabouts to be made public by U.S. intelligence sources, which have closely guarded the details of any efforts to locate him. One and a half months after the coordinated attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon claimed the lives of more than 3,000 people, a walkie-talkie radio broadcast placed bin Laden in Tora Bora, a cave complex in eastern Afghanistan. In an unsuccessful attempt to capture bin Laden, U.S. forces attacked the caves the following month.

The UCLA findings rely on two principles used in geography to predict the distribution of wildlife, primarily for the purposes of designing approaches to conservation. The first, known as distance-decay theory, holds that as one travels farther away from a precise location with a specific composition of species — or, in this case, a specific composition of cultural and physical factors —the probability of finding spots with that same specific composition decreases exponentially. The second, island biogeographic theory, holds that large and close islands have larger immigration rates and will support more species than smaller, more isolated islands.
Inspired by distance-decay theory, the seven-member team started by drawing concentric circles around Tora Bora on a satellite map of the area at a distance of 10 kilometers — or 6.1 miles — apart.

"The farther bin Laden moves from his last reported location into the more secular parts of Pakistan or into India, the greater the probability that he will be in an area with a different cultural composition, thereby increasing the probability of his being captured or eliminated," Gillespie said.

Then, informed by island biogeographic theory, the researchers scoured the rings for "city islands" — or distinctly separate settlements of considerable size.

"Island biology theory predicts that he would find his way to the largest but least isolated city of that area," said Gillespie, an authority on measuring and modeling biodiversity on Earth from space. "If you get stuck on an island, you would want it to be Hawaii rather than one with a single palm tree. It's a matter of resources."

The approach netted 26 cities within a 12.4-mile radius of Tora Bora on imagery from Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), a global archive of satellite photos managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. With a 2.7-square-mile footprint, Parachinar turned out to be the largest and fourth-least isolated city, the team determined.

"Based on bin Laden's last known location in Tora Bora, we estimate that he must have traveled 1.9 miles over a 13,000-foot-high pass into Kurram and then headed for the largest city, which turns out to be Parachinar," said Agnew, who is the current president of the Association of American Geographers, the field's leading scholarly organization.

The researchers ruled out cities on the Afghanistan side of the border because the country was occupied at the time by U.S. and international forces and has been particularly unstable ever since.

"The Pakistan side of the border is much better for hiding because of its ambiguous political status within the country and the formal absence of U.S. or NATO troops," Agnew said.
Faced with the prospect of picking from more than 1,000 structures clearly portrayed in the satellite imagery of Parachinar, the team decided to come up with a short list of the criteria that bin Laden would need for housing, based on well-known information about him, including his height (between 6'4" and 6'6", depending on the source), his medical condition (apparently in need of regular dialysis and, therefore, electricity to run the machine) and several basic assumptions, such as a need for security, protection, privacy and overhead cover to shield him from being spotted by planes, helicopters and satellites.

So they looked for buildings that could house someone taller than 6'4" and were surrounded by walls more than 9 feet tall (both as judged by mid-afternoon shadows depicted on the satellite imagery), and that had more than three rooms, space separating them from nearby structures, electricity and a thick tree canopy.

Only three structures fit the criteria. The buildings also appeared to be the best fortified and among the largest in Parachinar. Two are clearly residences, the study states. The third may be a prison. But whatever the third structure is, it has "one of the best maintained gardens in all of Parachinar," the study says.

While the three structures meet all six of the criteria that the researchers believe would be required for lodging bin Laden, an additional 16 structures in Parachinar appear to meet five of the six criteria. If bin Laden is not in the first three structures, the U.S. military should investigate these other buildings, the study urges.

The outgrowth of an undergraduate geography course in remote sensing, the study lists five 2008 UCLA graduates as co-authors. The students have since gone on to a range of endeavors, from selling real estate and attending law school to earning a master's degree from Oxford University. One now works for a remote-sensing company.

Undergraduates had attempted to take on the same study in 2006, but at 30 x 30 meters — or nearly 100 x 100 feet — the resolution of publicly available satellite images of the area at the time was insufficient. In contrast, today's resolution is 0.6 meters, or just under 2 feet, Gillespie said. The remote-sensing company that employs one of the alumni authors plans soon to unveil a 0.4-meter resolution of the entire world.

"Technology has caught up to the question," said Gillespie, who serves as the director of the Spatial Demography Group for the UCLA-based California Center for Population Research.
"Finding Osama bin Laden: An Application of Biogeographic Theories and Satellite Imagery" is not the first attempt by Gillespie and Agnew to bring scientific analysis to nettlesome political issues. In September 2008, they received widespread attention for a satellite study of the density of lights in the night sky of Baghdad in the time leading up to, during and immediately following the U.S. military surge of 2007. The findings cast doubt on the role claimed by the U.S. military in quelling violence during that time and suggest instead that intra-sectarian conflict was responsible for clearing whole portions of the city, leaving them both dark and devoid of the objects of Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence.

Unfortunately!!! Most Wars Occur In Earth's Richest Biological Regions

2009-02-22T16:35:00.003+05:00

A new study published by in the journal Conservation Biology found that more than 80 percent of the world's major armed conflicts from 1950-2000 occurred in regions identified as the most biologically diverse and threatened places on Earth.

The study by leading international conservation scientists compared major conflict zones with the Earth's 34 biodiversity hotspots identified by Conservation International (CI). The hotspots are considered top conservation priorities because they contain the entire populations of more than half of all plant species and at least 42 percent of all vertebrates, and are highly threatened.

Russell A. Mittermeier, president of Conservation International (CI) and an author of the study, said, "This astounding conclusion – that the richest storehouses of life on Earth are also the regions of the most human conflict – tells us that these areas are essential for both biodiversity conservation and human well-being. Millions of the world's poorest people live in hotspots and depend on healthy ecosystems for their survival, so there is a moral obligation – as well as political and social responsibility - to protect these places and all the resources and services they provide."

The study found that more than 90 percent of major armed conflicts – defined as those resulting in more than 1,000 deaths – occurred in countries that contain one of the 34 biodiversity hotspots, while 81 percent took place within specific hotspots. A total of 23 hotspots experienced warfare over the half-century studied.

Examples of the nature-conflict connection include the Vietnam War, when poisonous Agent Orange destroyed forest cover and coastal mangroves, and timber harvesting that funded war chests in Liberia, Cambodia and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In those and countless other cases, the collateral damage of war harmed both the biological wealth of the region and the ability of people to live off of it.

In addition, war refugees must hunt, gather firewood or build encampments to survive, increasing the pressure on local resources. More weapons means increased hunting for bush meat and widespread poaching that can decimate wildlife populations – such as 95 percent of the hippopotamus slaughtered in DRC's Virunga National Park.

In total, the hotspots are home to a majority of the world's 1.2 billion poorest people who rely on the resources and services provided by natural ecosystems for their daily survival. Environmental concerns tend to recede or collapse in times of social disruption, and conservation activities often get suspended during active conflicts. At the same time, war provides occasional conservation opportunities, such as the creation of "Peace Parks" along contested borders.

The study concluded that international conservation groups – and indeed the broader international community – must develop and maintain programs in war-torn regions if they are to be effective in conserving global biodiversity and keeping ecosystems healthy. It also called for integrating conservation strategies and principles into military, reconstruction and humanitarian programs in the world's conflict zones.

Glaciers in China are Melting at an Alarming Rate

2009-02-22T16:31:00.001+05:00

A three-year study, to be used by the China Geological Survey Institute, shows that glaciers in the Yangtze source area, central to the Qinghai-Tibet plateau in south-western China, have receded 196 square kilometres over the past 40 years.

Glaciers at the headwaters of the Yangtze, China's longest river, now cover 1,051 square kilometres compared to 1,247 square kilometres in 1971, a loss of nearly a billion cubic metres of water, while the tongue of the Yuzhu glacier, the highest in the Kunlun Mountains fell by 1,500 metres over the same period.

Melting glacier water will replenish rivers in the short term, but as the resource diminishes drought will dominate the river reaches in the long term. Several major rivers including the Yangtze, Mekong and Indus begin their journeys to the sea from the Tibetan Plateau Steppe, one of the largest land-based wilderness areas left in the world.

“Once destroyed it will be extremely difficult to restore the high-altitude ecosystems,” said Dr Li Lin, head of Conservation Strategies for WWF-China. “If industrialized and developing countries do not focus their efforts on cutting emissions, some of this land will be lost forever and local populations will be displaced.”

Glacier retreat has become a major environmental issue in Tibet, particularly in the Chang Tang region of northern Tibet. The glacier melting poses severe threats to local nomads’ livelihoods and the local economy.

The most common impact is that lakes are increasing due to glacier melting and some of the best pastures are submerged. Meanwhile small glaciers are disappearing due to the speed of glacier melting and drinking water has become a major issue.

“This problem should convince governments to adopt a ‘mountain-to-sea’ approach to manage their rivers, the so-called integrated river basin management, and to ratify the UN Water Convention as the only international agreement by which to manage transboundary rivers,” said Li Lifeng, Director of Freshwater, WWF International.

“It should also convince countries to make more effort to protect and sustainably use their high altitude wetlands in the river source areas that WWF has been working on.”

Nuclear Explosion Can Cause Serious Environmental Problems

2009-02-22T12:33:00.004+05:00

What would happen to our lives, and those of other organisms, if there was an above-ground nuclear explosion, either incidental or accidental? Though the probability of such an apocalyptic event is relatively small, the impact has the potential of being so cataclysmic that it warrants serious discussion.

So let us try and recount what actually happens when a nuclear bomb explodes, such as the 13-kiloton bomb which exploded over Hiroshima in1945. Although this was a very primitive nuclear device, it managed to kill over 45,000 people within 24 hours of the blast and several generations continue to languish as casualties.

Unlike conventional explosives which rely on the energy generated by chemical combustion, nuclear weapons rely on the extreme energy which is generated when an atomic reaction takes place in which one element is converted into another element (for example when hydrogen is converted to helium). The difference in the energy which is generated is immense. For example a sphere of plutonium about the size of a cricket ball is capable of producing an explosion equivalent to 20,000tons of TNT. There are basically three types of nuclear bombs which have been developed. The first kind are atomic bombs which use fission reactions, or the splitting of atomic nuclei to generate energy. This is the kind of bomb which was dropped by the Americans on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The second variety are thermonuclear devices which use an atomic trigger and a uranium jacket to start a fusion reaction in which lighter elements such as hydrogen are forced to undergo a fusion reaction to combine and form a heavier element. The energy liberated from 0.5 kg (1.1 lb)of hydrogen-isotope fuel is equivalent to that of about 29 kilotons of TNT, or almost three times as much as from the uranium in an atomic bomb. The environmental impact of both these bombs would, however, be similar though the magnitude would be greater in the case of a thermonuclear device. The third kind of nuclear weapon is the neutron bomb which is a modified thermonuclear device that does not have a uranium jacket and thus reduces the chance of widespread radioactive fallout. The neutrons generated from the thermonuclear device can,however, generate radioactivity within a small impact radius, killing life but without causing widespread fallout destruction to building sand infrastructure (the neutron bomb is thus a tactical weapon).

The greatest devastation can be caused by a nuclear device when it is actually detonated slightly above ground rather than on the ground itself because the expanse of the damage can be dispersed more quickly. The detonation of a nuclear device about five hundred meters above land would first generate an enormous fireball, whose radiant energy would travel at the speed of light in all directions. The intense heat generated at several thousand degrees Celsius would incinerate all organic material within seconds. Even stable substances such as sand would be thermally changed to glass. The extreme temperatures would cause otherwise harmless combustion processes to release deadly pyrotoxins that would travel as gaseous clouds beyond ground zero. For example, a woolen suit when burned at extreme temperatures can release enough hydrogen cyanide to kill seven people.

The shockwave generated by the blast would travel at the speed of sound shaking the foundations of buildings and bringing them down within a matter of minutes. The damage radius increases with the power of the bomb, approximately in proportion to its cube root. If exploded at the optimum height, therefore, a 10-megaton weapon, which is 1000times as powerful as a 10-kiloton weapon, will increase the distance tenfold, that is, out to 17.7 km (11 mi) for severe damage and 24 km(15 mi) for moderate damage. Meanwhile, looming over the scene would be the proverbial mushroom cloud. Propelled by the intense pressure differentials, the cloud would suck up debris and hurl it several miles into the earth's atmosphere. This cloud, depending on the intensity of the blast would blanket the area with a pall that could last for several days, blocking out sunlight and causing severe micro climatic changes. After the extreme heat of the blast has dissipated, the debris cloud would block sunlight, thereby decreasing the proximate temperature below freezing. The effect would be similar to the global temperature decreases which occurred in 1991 when Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines. Even below ground nuclear test scan cause severe seismic variations that can lead to earthquakes and tremors within a thousand mile radius.

The most insidious environmental damage of a nuclear explosion would,however, result from the release of radioactive materials that would generate intensely penetrating energy capable of causing cellular damage for years to come. Carcinogenic (cancer-causing) and teratogenic (initiating birth defects) effects of radiation have been documented from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki blasts as well as the Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown. In the case of Chernobyl (which was not even a deliberate explosion), a study conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Yale University estimated that out of the 115,000 people evacuated as a consequence of the 1986 incident, 24,000would have a doubled risk of acquiring acute leukemia. This discussion may seem irrelevant to many people who believe that since we are simply developing the weapons as a deterrent, there is no point in thinking about their actual use. What we must remember is that there is always the chance of an accident. Indeed, there are documented cases of accidents involving nuclear weapons tests in manyparts of the world. Several islands in the South Pacific are uninhabitable for this very reason. Even the usually reticent US Defense Nuclear Agency has stated that "accidents have occurred...which released radioactive contamination because of fire or high explosive detonations".

Pakistan is in Urgent Need of Solar Energy

2009-02-21T14:27:00.002+05:00

During the last century world population increased near four folds and the energy usage multiplied about twenty times. According to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), one of the foremost challenges Pakistan will be facing in future is the supply of adequate energy. According to Vision 2030 of the Planning Commission, the reserves of natural gas, which contribute about 50% of energy to Pakistan, will start declining within the next decade and the storage capacity of dams is reducing due to silting e.g. the capacity of Tarbela Dam has decreased by 27 percent. Some careful estimates expect the demand and supply gap to reach up to 8,000 Mega Watts by 2010.

On the other hand, the dependency on electric power is also increasing with the projected usage of electronic equipments, cell phones being the major players. Since the introduction of Insta and Paktel mobile phones based on Analog Mobile Phone System (AMPS) technology in the second half of 1990’s, Pakistan is witnessing continued growth of cell phone subscribers. The operators have been constantly expanding network coverage in small cities, suburbia, countryside and mountainous areas.

With over twenty thousand towers erected throughout the country, cellular phone companies have access to only 61% of their target market according to estimates of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). The companies are in vigorous competition to get touched by the rest of 39% and it is a step toward development of country both technologically and economically. The total number of mobile-phone users projected from 22 million at beginning of 2006 to 77 million at the end of 2007.

London Business School estimates that an increase of 10 mobile phones per 100 people boosts GDP growth by 0.6% and telecommunication alone contributed to 27.92% of the total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of Pakistan in 2007-08, according to PTA.

Operating Power of Mobile Telecom Networks comes from either electric-grids run by Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), in the case of Pakistan or privately owned/leased diesel-fueled generators, called Gensets in telecommunication terminology. In the situation of power outages by WAPDA, which increased to 10 hours in summer of 2008, Gensets serve as alternate but they have typically limited life due to likelihood of poor fuel, transportation challenges, disposition to thefts and poor maintenance etc.

Humans have been using energy from sun for cooking and warmth for centuries. Due to technological advances solar energy is being used for heating, cooking, production of hydrogen and electric power generation, to name the few. To contribute toward tackling energy crises engineers and technologists are devising ways to power Base Stations, integral and the most power consuming equipments of a cellular network, through alternate and renewable energy resources.

Based on approximate figures, a typical Base Station costs nearly $100,000 and requires 3000 Watts to run, excluding the Base Station Controller (BSC) and Mobile Switching Center (MSC). One of the techniques, popular in telecom circles nowadays, for running the Base Stations is Solar Energy which in addition to renewable and everlasting is also green or eco-friendly. Some of the major advances in this regard are mentioned in the lines to be followed.

Alcatel-Lucent announced to have powered its 200th radio site including BTS, microwave and other electrical components with solar power in the first quarter of 2008. The site provides coverage to remote population on some islets of Senegal which had not any access to wireless communications previously. Easily deployable, the system stipulates only few solar panels and consumes low energy, comparatively.

Diesel generators are inefficient at places with high daytime humidity as in case of hot clime areas of Punjab and Sindh. Claiming to reduce fuel consumption by 75%, Maryland-based Integrated Power Corporation runs the equipment of Etisalat, the national telecommunication operator of UAE, by solar power during daylight hours and by diesel generator at night.

Engineers at Motorola Labs developed a power system making use of both solar and wind energy for powering remote Base Stations. The system can generate 1,200 Watts of electric power continuously, enough to run a mid-sized cell covering an operating radius of 120 km. The combined energy, after addition of 6,000 Watts from the wind turbine, is stored in a bank of specially designed lead-acid batteries which last up to three years before requiring replacement. Such hybrid power supply system is operational and is powering a cellular base station in a Namibian village to the date.

Vihaan Networks Limited (VNL), an Indian based network company, shocked everyone in July, 2008 when it announced its rural-centric WorldGSMTM , a GSM network deemed as a catalyst for emerging cellular services to far flung rural population of Africa, in particular. A Base Station in WorldGSM costs as low as $25,000 and requires less than 100 Watts of power which is provided by solar panels not larger than 8 square meters. It does not require any building and air conditioning and has functionally integrated BSC and MSC thus eliminating the need of skilled staff. In contrast, a typical Base Station demands skilled personnel including radio network planners, site engineers, civil engineers, and equipment specialists etc, and is housed in some building having capacity to accommodate three refrigerator-sized cabinets, dual air conditioning units and a roof site etc. Concurrently powering itself and recharging, the Base Stations of VNL have battery back-ups of about 72 hours and are designed to last eight years.

The whole story revolves around three solar-powered boxes: the BlueBox, as Base Transceiver Station (BTS); the GreenBox 160i, as Base Station Controller; and the OrangeBox 600i, as Mobile Switching Center (MSC). Based on geographic parameters, WorldGSM can be deployed in two main configurations: Rural Deployment which uses Cascading Star Architecture to cover an entire rural area, and Road Deployment which uses a series of bidirectional antennas to provide coverage along the roads.

In Pakistan also, some cellular operators are considering the solar option. Warid Telecom took initiative by deploying country’s first solar powered BTS site in late summer of 2008. The setup uses Huawei’s environmentally-friendly Solar Powered Macro Base Stations (BTS). Ufone launched its first Solar-Powered Cell Site at Haroonabad, Bhawalnagar in November, 2008.

Warid Telecom, for the second time deployed Solar-Powered BTS site at Lahore in January, 2009. Engineered at Pakistan, the BTS claims to show improved performance by saving thousands of liters of diesel per annum and eliminating the need of generator. Besides, Telenor has also been said working for alternate sources for powering Base Stations. These BTS eliminate the probability of power interruption on the operator’s part.

Fortunately, Pakistan is located in the sunny belt and can ideally utilize solar energy. The initiatives of VNL and the like suit to the situation of Pakistan’s less-populated rural areas particularly those of Balochistan and the Tribal Areas. In these areas population density is low and roads running hundreds of kilometer connect distant towns and villages. In such energy-deficient times of Pakistan’s history, there is an urgent need on government’s part to consider these environmentally-friendly and viable options.

China Unveils Electric Car

2009-02-20T19:13:00.001+05:00

China's largest independent carmaker Chery Automobile rolled off its first plug-in electric car this week, the latest Chinese automotive company to produce an alternative energy vehicle.

The all-electric car, S18, can go up to 150 kilometers (93 miles) on one charge and has a maximum speed of 120 kilometers (72 miles) an hour, the company said.

The battery can be fully charged within six hours using a 220-volt home outlet, while 80% of the battery can be charged within 30 minutes.

"The price will be very suitable for families," Yuan Tao, vice president of Chery said, without offering details.It was also unclear when the car would be available to buy.

Unlike another Chinese carmaker, the BYD Co., which began selling its plug-in electric hybrid car in China in December, Chery has not given the S18 the option of running on petrol.

BYD's plug-in hybrid, named the F3DM, can travel 100 kilometers on its battery, or 580 kilometers in hybrid mode with petrol.

Domestic manufacturers of clean vehicles are likely to get a boost from the government in the form of a policy package to help the car industry through the global economic crisis.

China's Ministry of Finance said the government planned to subsidise purchases of alternative energy vehicles to expand domestic demand, boost the domestic car industry and reduce pollution emissions.

Earth is Destined Towards Water Bankruptcy

2009-02-20T16:21:00.002+05:00

The acute droughts in Kenya, Argentina and the U.S. state of California are among the latest phenomena to illustrate that the global environment has been dangerously degraded. And participants in the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, heard that the planet could be destined towards "water bankruptcy".

It might surprise many to learn, then, that water issues are not directly included in the Kyoto protocol, the main international agreement on tackling climate change. Ensuring that this omission is not replicated in a follow-up accord scheduled to be finalised at talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, near the end of 2009, was one of the main topics addressed at a conference in Brussels Feb. 12 and 13. According to Maude Barlow, an adviser on water to the United Nations general assembly, the underlying assumptions made by many decision-makers have been misguided. Whereas they have tended to view water shortage as a consequence of climate change, the unsustainable exploitation of water is in fact "one of the major causes of climate change."

Pollution, the overstretching of rivers, and the mining of groundwater supplies are all contributing to this ecological and social calamity. So, too, is the way of life to which people in the wealthier parts of the world have become accustomed. Millions of roses sold in Europe to celebrate Valentine's Day this year have originated in Africa's Rift Valley. The habitat of the hippopotamus, an endangered species, its water supplies have been heavily drained by agri- business companies involved in the flower trade. While private entrepreneurs have profited handsomely from this situation, Africa contains some of the worst incidences of water-related diseases on earth. More children die from such diseases than the next three causes of death combined.

Data by the World Health Organisation suggests that 80 percent of infectious diseases in the world could be caused by dirty water. Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet president, said that the conventional model of economic development being followed in much of the world is in crisis. "The unsustainability of this model is reflected by the water problem," he added. "A recent report by the UN Development Programme said that at least 700 million people - until recently it was 1 billion - face a shortage of water. At the same time, demand for water is growing all the time."

During 2008 the UN's Human Rights Council decided to carry out a three- year investigation into how access to water relates to basic rights. About 1 billion people worldwide do not have access to an adequate supply of drinking water, and 2.5 billion are not guaranteed the amount of water they need for sanitation. Despite the underlying issues of justice, water has been increasingly viewed by policymakers as an economic good, rather than as a universal right over the past few decades. The bottled water industry, for example, registered global sales of 200 billion litres in plastic containers last year. Almost 90 percent of these bottles were dumped, rather than recycled.

"We need to re-commit to public water," said Barlow. "We must make it uncool to go around with a bottle of commercial water on our hips."

Next month, the key players in the private water industry will gather in Istanbul. Danielle Mitterrand, widow of the late French president François Mitterrand and a human rights campaigner in her own right, said that the 100 euro (129 dollars) per day admission fee for the event illustrated its elitist nature. "Managing water is not an industrial challenge," she said. "It is a democratic challenge." Luigi Infanti, a Catholic bishop in Chile, noted that a constitution introduced in his country in 1980 by the military dictator Augusto Pinochet promoted the privatisation of water. "Eighty percent of water was handed over to private hands," he said. "It was handed over for free and forever. In Chile, we have been fighting for years for human rights. We should fight with the same intensity for human rights relating to the environment." The European Union has been eager to promote privatisation in poor countries by negotiating free trade agreements with them. One such accord signed between the EU and the Caribbean region earlier this year, for example, is designed to give western firms the possibility of having a greater role in the provision of basic services. Oxfam is among the anti-poverty organisations to have expressed concern about how water could fall into private hands as a result. But Karl Falkenberg, director-general for environment in the European Commission and a former top-level EU trade negotiator, said: "We all agree that access to high quality water at a price affordable to all is important." A policy paper that his institution hopes to publish in late March will "begin to focus on the concrete actions necessary" to address global water issues, he added. Tony Allan, a scientist working in King's College in London, said that the world has enough water to meet the needs of its current population of 6 billion and the 9 billion to which it has been projected to rise by the middle of this century.

The problem, however, is that access to safe water is frequently tied to income. "Only poor people are short of water," he said. "Rich people can always access water for domestic uses, for their jobs and for their food."

Environmental Impacts Threatens Food Security

2009-02-20T14:41:00.003+05:00

Worldwide demand for food is expected to grow steadily over the next 40 years, but 25 percent of the world's food production may be lost to 'environmental breakdowns' by 2050 unless urgent action is taken.

This is the message in a document presented to environment ministers from more than 140 countries meeting in Nairobi, Kenya under the auspices of the United Nations Environmental Programme Governing Council to discuss climate change and other environmental challenges. The document, titled "The Environmental Food Crisis: The Environment's Role in Averting Future Food Crises" calls for an increase in food production to meet the needs of an estimated 2.7 billion more people. "Elevated food prices have had dramatic impact on the lives and livelihoods, including increased infant and child mortality, of those already undernourished or living in poverty and spending 70-80 percent of their daily income on food," it reads. The UNEP meeting comes as the host country Kenya is engulfed in a severe food crisis with up to 10 million people facing starvation due to poor rainfall and high fertiliser prices among other things.

Kenya's policies were criticised for failing to address the problem by developing systems geared at improving food production. "Kenya should be one of the countries rethinking how agriculture production systems should be improved. Kenya should not be facing food shortage. It needs to be able to feed itself not only today but in years to come even when population increases," Achim Steiner, UNEP executive director said. Maize flour, the staple food in Kenya, is now retailing at about 80 U.S. cents a kilogramme, way too high for a country where half the population lives on less than a dollar day. A year ago, maize cost the equivalent of 30 cents a kilo. Similarly steep price hikes led to riots in in Cameroon in February 2008, when protesters outraged by high food prices took to the streets demanding huge cuts in prices. The unrest was the worst in 15 years in the central African country. "People could not understand how a country which was previously food sufficient could suddenly be food insufficient, with high prices on basic food commodities," Mary Fosi, a senior official in the country's environment ministry told the meeting. "The main problem is that mechanised agriculture in the country is very small. There is need to focus on advanced agricultural systems that will increase food production," she noted. It emerges that lack of investment in agricultural development, including modern technology and machinery has played a role in reducing yields in Africa, where most farmers still use the hand hoe to till land. Critics contend that for the continent to achieve food security, it needs to move from the idea of carrying hoes and machetes to the farm and embrace a new era of technology-driven agriculture. But authorities are on the defensive, saying governments cannot afford to invest in new technologies and machinery just yet. "The technology is there; it is not that we do not want it, but our economies are poor," Bonaventure Baya, director of Tanzania's National Environment Management Council told IPS at the meeting. According to Baya, immediate measures to achieve food security must include educating farmers to diversify and plant alternative crops that are resistant to changing climatic conditions. This, he says, will also help conserve the environment. "Intensive land cultivation and growing of the same crop over a long period of time degrades the soil. Increasing food production and security must take into account protection of the environment, including the soil," he observed. As the meeting considers ways of increasing food production, farmers think they have the answer - government subsidies. Peter Andenje is one such farmer. As chairman of the Association of Small Scale Maize Growers in Kitale, western Kenya, he says the government needs to subsidise fertilisers and high-yielding seeds which are critical in getting increased harvests. "Many farmers cannot afford the high cost of fertilisers and seeds; some are now growing the plant without applying fertilisers. This has resulted in to very low yields. Some have abandoned growing the crop because of the high cost of inputs," he said in an interview with IPS. The UNEP document launched at the Nairobi meeting cites the issue of providing subsidies to farmers as a crucial safety net in achieving increased food production and security. But subsidies for African farmers have been vehemently opposed by donors and remain a contentious issue at international trade talks. "What we must not do is neglect the fact that we have an environmental crisis unfolding in the agricultural production sectors and we must tackle that alongside the trade agenda, not one after the other because we are running out of time for both," Steiner stated. "This is a reasonable, fair and appropriate measure now that we are facing the challenge of sustainability in agriculture production."

Math and Your Body

2009-02-19T16:39:00.002+05:00

Here are some statistics about your body (assuming you are adult, and reasonably “average”).

Blood, Sweat and Tears

We have around 42 billion blood vessels and if we were to put them all end-to-end, it would stretch about 160,000 km (4 times around the Earth’s equator, or almost half way to the moon).
The heart pumps around 8,000 liters (800 buckets) of blood each day and 219 ML (megaliters) during a lifetime (around 88 Olympic swimming pools).

We excrete 14,200 liters of sweat (or around 1,400 buckets’ worth), but this will vary depending on your climate and lifestyle.

Most of us will cry 68 liters of tears (7 buckets) and there will be gender differences with this statistic.

Scaffolding

We are constantly replacing our bones and will produce the equivalent of 12 skeletons of new bone during a lifetime.

Length of our DNA

Our DNA would stretch to the moon and back 8000 times.

The total length of DNA present in one adult human is calculated as:

(length of 1 base pair) × (number of base pairs per cell) ×(number of cells in the body)
= (3.4 × 10-10 m)(6 × 109)(1013)
= 2.0 × 1013 meters

That is the equivalent of nearly 70 trips from the earth to the sun and back.

2.0 × 1013 meters = 133.69 astronomical units
133.69 / 2 = 66.84 round trips to the sun

Air

We take around 500 million breaths and inhale around 300 million liters of air during our lifetime.

Population

There are over a quarter of a million extra people each day (almost 3 per second).

Population growth is one of the Earth’s major problems, since it is a major contributor to poverty, environmental degradation and global warming. I hope some of you (especially those in countries with high population growth) will study population issues and become activists in this area.

Learning

While in our mother’s womb, we produce something like 250,000 new brain cells every minute.
We have (almost) all of the neurons we are ever going to have at birth, although the brain continues to grow until we are in our early 20s. At birth, our brain is around 12% of our body weight and it drops to 2% of our body weight by our late teens

Tips for Learning Math Formulas

2009-02-19T16:29:00.002+05:00

Here are 10 tips you can do to improve your memory for learning math formulas.

1. Read ahead

Read over tomorrow’s math lesson today. Get a general idea about the new formulas in advance, before your teacher covers them in class.

As you read ahead, you will recognize some of it, and other parts will be brand new. That’s OK - when your teacher is explaining them you already have a “hook” to hang this new knowledge on and it will make more sense — and it will be easier to memorize the formulas later.

This technique also gives you an overview of the diagrams, graphs and vocabulary in the new section. Look up any new words in a dictionary so you reduce this stumbling block in class.
This step may only take 15 minutes or so before each class, but will make a huge difference to your understanding of the math you are studying.

I always used to read ahead when I was a student and I would be calm in class while all my friends were stressed out and confused about the new topic.

2. Meaning

All of us find it very difficult to learn meaningless lists of words, letters or numbers. Our brain cannot see the connections between the words and so they are quickly forgotten.

Don’t just try to learn formulas by themselves — it’s just like learning that meaningless list.
When you need to learn formulas, also learn the conditions for each formula (it might be something like “if x > 0″).

Also draw a relevant diagram or graph each time you write the formula (it might be a parabola, or perhaps a circle). You will begin to associate the picture with the formula and then later when you need to recall that formula, the associated image will help you to remember it (and its meaning, and its conditions).

During exams, many of my students would try to answer a question with the wrong formula! I could see that they successfully learned the formula, but they had no idea how to apply it.

Diagrams, graphs and pictures always help.

Most of us find it difficult to learn things in a vacuum, so make sure you learn the formulas in their right context.

When you create your summary list of formulas, include conditions and relevant pictures, graphs and diagrams.

3. Practice

You know, math teachers don’t give you homework because they are nasty creatures. They do it because they know repetition is a very important aspect of learning. If you practice a new skill, the connections between neurons in your brain are strengthened. But if you don’t practice, then the weak bonds are broken.

If you try to learn formulas without doing the practice first, then you are just making it more difficult for yourself.

4. Keep a list of symbols

Most math formulas involve some Greek letters, or perhaps some strange symbols like ^ or perhaps a letter with a bar over the top.

When we learn a foreign language, it’s good to keep a list of the new vocabulary as we come across it. As it gets more complicated, we can go back to the list to remind us of the words we learned recently but are hazy about. Learning mathematics symbols should be like this, too.
Keep a list of symbols and paste them up somewhere in your room, so that you can update it easily and can refer to it when needed. Write out the symbol in words, for example: ∑ is “sum”; ∫ is the “integration” symbol and Φ is “capital phi”, the Greek letter.

Just like when learning whole formulas, include a small diagram or graph to remind you of where each symbol came from.

Another way of keeping your list is via flash cards. Make use of dead time on the bus and learn a few formulas each day.

5. Absorb the formulas via different channels

I’ve already talked about writing and visual aids for learning formulas. Also process and learn each one by hearing it and speaking it.

An example here is the formula for the derivative of a fraction involving x terms on the top and bottom (known as the “Quotient Rule”). Then in words, the derivative is:

dy/dx = bottom times derivative of top minus top times derivative of bottom all over bottom squared.

6. Use memory techniques

Most people are capable of learning lists of unrelated numbers or words, as long as they use the right techniques. Such techniques can be applied to the learning of formulas as well.

One of these techniques is to create a story around the thing you need to learn. The crazier the story, the better it is because it is easier to remember. If the story is set in some striking physical location, it also helps to remember it later.

7. Know why

In many examinations, they give you a math formula sheet so why do you still need to learn formulas? As mentioned earlier, if students don’t know what they are doing, they will choose a formula randomly, plug in the values and hope for the best. This usually has bad outcomes and zero marks.

I encourage you to learn the formulas, even if they are given to you in the exam. The process of learning the conditions for how to use the formula and the associated graphs or diagrams, means that you are more likely to use the correct formula and use it correctly when answering the question. This is also good for future learning, because you have a much better grasp of the basics.

8. Sleep on it

Don’t under-estimate the importance of sleep when it comes to remembering things. Deep sleep is a phase during the night where we process what we thought about during the day and this is when more permanent memories are laid down. During REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, we rehearse the new skills and consolidate them.

Avoid cramming your math formulas the night before an exam until late. Have a plan for what you are going to learn and spread it out so that it is not overwhelming.

9. Healthy body, efficient brain

The healthier you are, the less you need to worry about sickness distracting from your learning. Spend time exercising and getting the oxygen flowing in your brain. This is essential for learning.

10. Remove distractions

This one is a problem for those of us that love being on the Internet, or listening to music, or talking to our friends. There are just so many things that distract us from learning what we need to learn.

Turn off all those distractions for a set time each day. You won’t die without them. Concentrate on the formulas you need to learn and use all the above techniques.

Tips for Understanding Math Formulas

2009-02-19T16:23:00.002+05:00

Many people reported that they find math difficult because they have trouble understanding math formulas. I wrote some tips on learning math formulas here:

a. Understanding Math is like understanding a foreign language:

Say you are a native English speaker and you come across a Japanese newspaper for the first time. All the squiggles look very strange and you find you don’t understand anything.
If you want to learn to read Japanese, you need to learn new symbols, new words and new grammar. You will only start to understand Japanese newspapers (or manga comics ^_^) once you have committed to memory a few hundred symbols & several hundred words, and you have a reasonable understanding of Japanese grammar.

When it comes to math, you also need to learn new symbols (like π, θ, Σ), new words (math formulas & math terms like “function” and “derivative”) and new grammar (writing equations in a logical and consistent manner).

So before you can understand math formulas you need to learn what each of the symbols are and what they mean (including the letters). You also need to concentrate on the new vocabulary (look it up in a math dictionary for a second opinion). Also take note of the “math grammar” — the way that it is written and how one step follows another.

A little bit of effort on learning the basics will produce huge benefits.

b. Learn the formulas you already understand:

All math requires earlier math. That is, all the new things you are learning now depend on what you learned last week, last semester, last year and all the way back to the numbers you learned as a little kid.

If you learn formulas as you go, it will help you to understand what’s going on in the new stuff you are studying. You will better recognize formulas, especially when the letters or the notation are changed in small ways.

Don’t always rely on formula sheets. Commit as many formulas as you can to memory — you’ll be amazed how much more confident you become and how much better you’ll understand each new concept.

c. Always learn what the formula will give you and the conditions:

I notice that a lot of students write the quadratic formula as

[−b ± √(b2 − 4ac)]/2a

But this is NOT the quadratic formula! Well, it’s not the whole story. A lot of important stuff is missing — the bits which help you to understand it and apply it. We need to have all of the following when writing the quadratic formula:

“The solution for the quadratic equation

ax2 + bx + c = 0
is given by
x = [−b ± √(b2 − 4ac)]/2a”

A lot of students miss out the “x =” and have no idea what the formula is doing for them. Also, if you miss out the following bit, you won’t know how and when to apply the formula:

ax2 + bx + c = 0

Learning the full situation (the complete formula and its conditions) is vital for understanding.

d. Keep a chart of the formulas you need to know:

Repetition is key to learning. If the only time you see your math formulas is when you open your textbook, there is a good chance they will be unfamiliar and you will need to start from scratch each time.

Write the formulas down and write them often. Use Post-It notes or a big piece of paper and put the formulas around your bedroom, the kitchen and the bathroom. Include the conditions for each formula and a description (in words, or a graph, or a picture).

The more familiar they are, the more chance you will recognize them and the better you will understand them as you are using them.

e. Math is often written in different ways — but with the same meaning:

A lot of confusion occurs in math because of the way it is written. It often happens that you think you know and understand a formula and then you’ll see it written in another way — and panic.
A simple example is the fraction “half”. It can be written as 1/2, and also diagonally, as ½ and in a vertical arrangement like a normal fraction. We can even have it as a ratio, where it would be written 1:1.

Another example where the same concept can be written in different ways is angles, which can be written as capital letters (A), or maybe in the form ∠BAC, as Greek letters (like θ) or as lower case letters (x). When you are familiar with all the different ways of writing formulas and concepts, you will be able to understand them better.

Every time your teacher starts a new topic, take particular note of the way the formula is presented and the alternatives that are possible.

Fifth Largest Ozone Hole was seen in 2008

2009-02-19T16:08:00.003+05:00

The Antarctic ozone hole reached its annual maximum on Sept. 12, 2008, stretching over 27 million kilometers, or 10.5 square miles. The area of the ozone hole is calculated as an average of the daily areas for Sept. 21-30 from observations from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA’s Aura satellite.

NOAA scientists, who have monitored the ozone layer since 1962, have determined that this year’s ozone hole has passed its seasonal peak for 2008. Data is available at online.
The primary cause of the ozone hole is human-produced compounds called chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which release ozone-destroying chlorine and bromine into the atmosphere. Earth’s protective ozone layer acts like a giant umbrella, blocking the sun’s ultraviolet-B rays. Though banned for the past 21 years to reduce their harmful build up, CFCs still take many decades to dissipate from the atmosphere.

According to NOAA scientists, colder than average temperatures in the stratosphere may have helped play a part in allowing the ozone hole to develop more fully this year.

“Weather is the most important factor in the fluctuation of the size of the ozone hole from year-to-year,” said Bryan Johnson, a scientist at NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, which monitors ozone, ozone-depleting chemicals, and greenhouse gases around the globe. “How cold the stratosphere is and what the winds do determine how powerfully the chemicals can perform their dirty work.”

NASA satellites measured the maximum area of this year’s ozone hole at 10.5 million square miles and four miles deep, on Sept. 12. Balloon-borne sensors released from NOAA’s South Pole site showed the total column of atmospheric ozone dropped to its lowest count of 107 Dobson units on Sept. 28. Dobson units are a measure of total ozone in a vertical column of air.

In 2006, record-breaking ozone loss occurred as ozone thickness plunged to 93 Dobson units on Oct. 9 and sprawled over 11.4 million square miles at its peak. Scientists blamed colder-than-usual temperatures in the stratosphere for its unusually large size. Last year’s ozone hole was average in size and depth.

Starting in May, as Antarctica moves into a period of 24-hour-a-day darkness, rotating winds the size of the continent create a vortex of cold, stable air centered near the South Pole that isolates CFCs over the continent. When spring sunshine returns in August, the sun’s ultraviolet light sets off a series of chemical reactions inside the vortex that consume the ozone. The colder and more isolated the air inside the vortex, the more destructive the chemistry. By late December the southern summer is in full swing, the vortex has crumbled, and the ozone has returned—until the process begins anew the following winter.

The 1987 Montreal Protocol and other regulations banning CFCs reversed the buildup of chlorine and bromine, first noticed in the 1980s.

“These chemicals—and signs of their reduction—take several years to rise from the lower atmosphere into the stratosphere and then migrate to the poles,” said NOAA’s Craig Long, a research meteorologist at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction. “The chemicals also typically last 40 to 100 years in the atmosphere. For these reasons, stratospheric CFC levels have dropped only a few percent below their peak in the early 2000s.“

Effects of Climate Change on Water Cycle

2009-02-18T17:54:00.001+05:00

Climate change is having an impact on the water cycle, raising the issue of whether we should be investing in adapting to these impacts or focusing on more pressing water resource issues, such as providing water and sanitation for increasing populations? If investment in adapting to climate change is a priority, then is it best to invest in protecting natural ecosystems or developing engineered infrastructure?

The traditional way of handling extreme events such as floods and droughts, with engineering works should be complemented with the ecosystems approach which integrates the management of land and water that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way”, says Dr. Max Campos, Review Editor for the Latin American Chapter for IPCC Impacts and Adaptation Report .

“Climate change is indeed an important issue, but it needs to be seen in context of the many other global challenges affecting water resources such as population growth, urbanization and land use change. Adaptation is vital – but we need to adapt to the full range of factors that are stressing water resources, and not focus on human-forced climate change to the exclusion of everything else”, says Oliver Brown from the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).

“It should be a must for vulnerable communities whether in the developed or developing world to ensure that their development ambitions are prepared for climate change. Adaptation should not be limited to the rich”, said Dr. Henk Van Schaik, Deputy Programme Coordinator UNESCO-IHE. He argued that vulnerable communities in the developed world are preparing and investing to protect their societies, economies and environments to the impacts of climate change. This is not so in transition economies nor in developing countries.

Going beyond the issue of investment in pressing development issues or adaptation measures, is the question of looking at natural versus engineered solutions.

“Conventional approaches to climate change adaptation range from water conservation and efficient use to new operational techonologies”, says Dr Mark Smith, Head of the IUCN Water Programme. “Dams and reservoirs are still considered as the most effective structural means of risk management. But we need to start thinking of the environment as infrastructure for adaptation as well. Health and intact river basins, wetlands and floodplains make us less vulnerable to climate change. Lowering risk is a good reason for investing in watersheds and the environment.”

Dont Take Stress during Pregnancy!!

2009-02-18T17:50:00.002+05:00

Stress during a mother's pregnancy can cause developmental and emotional problems for offspring has long been observed by behavioral and biological researchers, but the objective measuring and timing of that stress and its results are difficult to prove objectively in humans, since the evidence is based to a large extent on anecdotal recollections and is also strongly influenced by genetic and other factors.

One researcher who has long wrestled with the problem of how to prove the connection between prenatal stress and its effects on offspring is Prof. Marta Weinstock-Rosin of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem School of Pharmacy, who in her experimental work with rats has been able to demonstrate that relationship in a conclusive, laboratory-tested manner.

She says, "There is an enormous advantage in working with rats, since we are able to eliminate the genetic and subjective element." The researchers were able to compare the behavior of the offspring of stressed rat mothers with those whose mothers were not stressed. They also were able to compare the results of administering various types of stress at different periods during the gestation process to see which period is the most sensitive for the production of different behavioral alterations.

Weinstock-Rosin's work, along with that of colleagues from Israel, the UK and elsewhere, will be presented at an international conference, "Long Term Consequences of Early Life Stress," which she is co-chairing with Dr. Vivette Glover of the Imperial College, London, and that will be held at Mishkenot Sha'ananim in Jerusalem on October 29 and 30.

Weinstock-Rosin has been able to show through her laboratory experiments that when rat mothers were subject to stressful situations (irritating sounds at alternating times, for example), their offspring were later shown to have impaired learning and memory abilities, less capacity to cope with adverse situations (such as food deprivation), and symptoms of anxiety and depressive-like behavior, as compared to those rats in control groups that were born to unstressed mothers. All of these symptoms parallel the impairments that have been observed in children born to mothers who were stressed in pregnancy, she points out.

Further experiments by Weinstock-Rosin and her students have shown the crucial effect of excessive levels of the hormone cortisol that is released by the adrenal gland during stress and reaches the fetal brain during critical stages of brain development. Under normal conditions, this hormone has a beneficial function in supplying instant energy, but it has to be in small amounts and for a short period of time. Under conditions of excessive stress, however, the large amount of this hormone reaching the fetal brain can cause structural and functional changes. In humans, above-normal levels of cortisol can also stimulate the release of another hormone from the placenta that will cause premature birth, another factor that can affect normal development.
Weinstock-Rosin says that further experimental work is required in order to study possible other effects on the offspring resulting from raised hormonal levels. What does seem to be obvious already is that avoidance of stress to as great an extent as possible is a good prescription for a healthy pregnancy and healthy offspring.

Light can be Harnessed to Drive Nanomachines

2009-02-17T18:02:00.003+05:00

Science fiction writers have long envisioned sailing a spacecraft by the optical force of the sun's light. But, the forces of sunlight are too weak to fill even the oversized sails that have been tried. Now a team led by researchers at the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science has shown that the force of light indeed can be harnessed to drive machines — when the process is scaled to nano-proportions.

Their work opens the door to a new class of semiconductor devices that are operated by the force of light. They envision a future where this process powers quantum information processing and sensing devices, as well as telecommunications that run at ultra-high speed and consume little power.

The research demonstrates a marriage of two emerging fields of research — nanophotonics and nanomechanics. – which makes possible the extreme miniaturization of optics and mechanics on a silicon chip.

The energy of light has been harnessed and used in many ways. The "force" of light is different — it is a push or a pull action that causes something to move.

"While the force of light is far too weak for us to feel in everyday life, we have found that it can be harnessed and used at the nanoscale," said team leader Hong Tang, assistant professor at Yale. "Our work demonstrates the advantage of using nano-objects as "targets" for the force of light — using devices that are a billion-billion times smaller than a space sail, and that match the size of today's typical transistors."

Until now light has only been used to maneuver single tiny objects with a focused laser beam — a technique called "optical tweezers." Postdoctoral scientist and lead author, Mo Li noted, "Instead of moving particles with light, now we integrate everything on a chip and move a semiconductor device."

"When researchers talk about optical forces, they are generally referring to the radiation pressure light applies in the direction of the flow of light," said Tang. "The new force we have investigated actually kicks out to the side of that light flow."

While this new optical force was predicted by several theories, the proof required state-of-the-art nanophotonics to confine light with ultra-high intensity within nanoscale photonic wires. The researchers showed that when the concentrated light was guided through a nanoscale mechanical device, significant light force could be generated — enough, in fact, to operate nanoscale machinery on a silicon chip.

The light force was routed in much the same way electronic wires are laid out on today's large scale integrated circuits. Because light intensity is much higher when it is guided at the nanoscale, they were able to exploit the force. "We calculate that the illumination we harness is a million times stronger than direct sunlight," adds Wolfram Pernice, a Humboldt postdoctoral fellow with Tang.

"We create hundreds of devices on a single chip, and all of them work," says Tang, who attributes this success to a great optical I/O device design provided by their collaborators at the University of Washington.

It took more than 60 years to progress from the first transistors to the speed and power of today's computers. Creating devices that run solely on light rather than electronics will now begin a similar process of development, according to the authors.
"While this development has brought us a new device concept and a giant step forward in speed, the next developments will be in improving the mechanical aspects of the system. But," says Tang, "the photon force is with us."

Conversion of Methane Gas to Powder Form

2009-02-17T17:58:00.002+05:00

Scientists have developed a material made out of a mixture of silica and water which can soak up large quantities of methane molecules. The material looks and acts like a fine white powder which, if developed for industrial use, might be easily transported or used as a vehicle fuel.

Methane is the principal component of natural gas and can be burnt in oxygen to produce carbon dioxide and water. The abundance of the gas and its relatively clean burning process makes it a good source of fuel, but due to its gaseous state at room temperature, methane is difficult to transport from its source.

Many natural gas reserves are geographically remote and can only be extracted via pipelines, so there is a need to look for other ways to transport the gas. It has been suggested that methane gas hydrate could be used as a way of containing methane gas for transportation. The disadvantage of methane gas hydrate for industry use is that it is formed at a very slow rate when methane reacts with water under pressure.

To counteract these difficulties the team used a method to break water up into tiny droplets to increase the surface area in contact with the gas. The Team did this by mixing water with a special form of silica – a similar material to sand – which stops the water droplets from coalescing. This ‘dry water’ powder soaks up large quantities of methane quite rapidly at around water’s normal freezing point.

The team also found that ‘dry water’ could be more economical than other potential products because it is made from cheap raw materials. The material may also have industrial applications if methane could be stored more conveniently and used to power clean vehicles.
Chemists at Liverpool are now investigating ways to store larger quantities of methane gas at higher temperatures and lower pressures as part of a project funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Helium Can be Solid and Perfect Liquid at Same Time

2009-02-16T18:09:00.001+05:00

At very low temperatures, helium can be solid and a perfect liquid at the same time. Theoreticians, though, have incorrectly explained the phenomenon for a long time. Computer simulations at ETH Zurich have shown that only impurities can make this effect possible.

Matthias Troyer and his team carry out experiments at their computers. Troyer is Professor of Computational Physics at ETH Zurich’s Institute of Theoretical Physics. He simulates quantum phenomena such as “supersolid” structures. Supersolidity describes a physical phase which can occur at very low temperatures and where a material appears to be solid and “superfluid” at the same time.

Enquiries from the armed forces
However, the word can be misunderstood, as was discovered by one of Troyer’s colleagues who works on the phenomenon in the USA. The US Navy thought that “supersolid” meant “extremely hard” and so asked the physicist whether such a material could be used to armour ships or at least put into a spray can or be used to kill someone. The physicist answered “No” – because “supersolid” does not mean super-hard. After that, the army showed no further interest.

The researchers carry out fundamental research and no direct applications for “supersolidity” are yet on the horizon. At the same time, a group of physicists led by Matthias Troyer has shed light on how the phenomenon occurs. Their results have been published in a series of articles in Physics Review Letters. The first author of the article is post-doctoral researcher Lode Pollet, who has since moved from ETH Zurich to the Universities of Massachusetts and Harvard University in the US. He is in discussions for a professorship, even though he is not yet thirty.

An incorrect explanation
Theoreticians first predicted the “supersolidity” phenomenon in 1969. Their explanation was incorrect, but this escaped notice for some time. The first evidence for “Supersolidity” was measured in an experiment only in 2004. This involved attaching a disc-shaped helium crystal to a spring and rotating it to and fro. In this arrangement, the vibration frequency depends on the rotating mass. The researchers found that the frequency became higher if they cooled the apparatus down to below 0.2 Kelvin – almost down to absolute zero. Part of the mass no longer participated in the rotation; it behaved as a superfluid, meaning it behaved like a friction-free liquid. In other words, it had become “supersolid”.

Up to this point, the measurements were still in line with the theory, but further experiments showed that the proportion of the crystal that became supersolid increased with the number of defects in the crystal. However, the theoreticians who predicted the phenomenon had done their calculations using perfect crystals, ones totally free from defects.
No effect with perfect crystals

At this juncture, the problem became interesting for the computer-assisted physics group led by Matthias Troyer at ETH Zurich and their colleagues in the US and Canada. Although the physicists also carry out experiments, they do so on computer models rather than on the material itself. This allows them to monitor the crystal more closely. For example, they experimented with crystals free from impurities, i.e. perfect crystals of the kind that cannot be grown in the laboratory. No “supersolidity” occurred here.

However, the scientists also grew virtual crystals with defects, for example by orienting the structure of one half of the crystal in a different direction to the other half. They performed this experiment using about one hundred variations with different temperatures and orientations. The result: “supersolidity” occurred where the layers of atoms with different orientations came together, and did so only if the layers did not fit together particularly well. This meant that it depended on the defects, exactly as in the laboratory experiments.
At US customs

Initially, these results were met with rejection from a few scientists. The fact that the phenomenon was possible only when impurities were present did not fit with the view held by the theoreticians, who usually ignore impurities in their considerations. However, the explanation has since gained wide acceptance.

Scientists are not the only people interested in the physicists’ results. When Lode Pollet arrived in the US, a customs officer asked him whether he was the man who worked on this material that was solid and liquid at the same time. Clearly, the American government has not yet lost interest completely

Girls are More Likely to Learn New Technologies than Boys

2009-02-15T17:54:00.001+05:00

The Learning in the Family report which looked at how families are involved in children’s learning, was funded by Becta, commissioned by Intuitive Media Research Services and co-authored by Robert Hart of Intuitive Media and Professor Karen Pine, at the University’s School of Psychology. They conducted two online surveys with a sample of 4,606 children aged six to fourteen, going into more depth with a further 2,535 children and then interviewed twelve families.

The aim was to assess how parents engage with children learning new technology and how parents could better support their children’s learning.

The survey found that 94 per cent of the girls said that they used a computer or laptop compared with only 88 per cent of the boys. It also found that 50 per cent of children chose their mothers to help them to use new technologies, versus 22 per cent, which chose their fathers.
“What is clear from these results is that mothers are taking the lead,” said Professor Pine. “Overall, mothers are more likely to engage with their children using new technologies especially when it comes to formal learning or research. The mothers were also the most experienced and capable computer and Internet users.”

Another key finding was that 40% of children surveyed wanted to see an improvement in parental involvement and many of the parents interviewed said that they would like to learn more through online courses, through the television or through their local school or college.
Robert Hart, Research Director said, "It is clear from results that the Internet has gained a significant place in children's daily lives. Almost all of the children surveyed use the Internet at home with their parents. Their mothers are particularly engaged with their homework and formal learning and take an interest in their online safety. Fathers join in to a lesser extent but encourage children with the fun aspects and help them with their hobbies."

Video Games are Weakening Relationships

2009-02-15T17:51:00.002+05:00

Brigham Young University undergrad Alex Jensen and his faculty mentor, Laura Walker, publish their results Jan. 23 in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

The research is based on information collected from 813 college students around the country. As the amount of time playing video games went up, the quality of relationships with peers and parents went down.

"It may be that young adults remove themselves from important social settings to play video games, or that people who already struggle with relationships are trying to find other ways to spend their time," Walker said. "My guess is that it's some of both and becomes circular."
For the record, Walker did not stand in the way of her family's wish for a Nintendo Wii. Jensen had hoped to find some positive results as justification for playing Madden NFL.

Study participants reported how often they play video games. They also answered a battery of questions measuring relationship quality, including how much time, trust, support and affection they share with friends and parents.

But the researchers say video games do not themselves mean "game over" for a relationship because the connection they found is modest.

"Relationship quality is one of a cluster of things that we found to be modestly associated with video games," Walker said. "The most striking part is that everything we found clustered around video game use is negative."

Statistical analyses also revealed that the more young adults play video games, the more frequent their involvement in risky behaviors like drinking and drug abuse. Young adults who played video games daily reported smoking pot almost twice as often as occasional players, and three times as often as those who never play.

For young women, self-worth was low if their video game time was high.

And despite heavy involvement with the research, Jensen does not admit the results to his own family. For now he holds out hope that future research will exonerate consoles or games designed for multiple players.

He's also curious how video games may affect young couples. Nearly three-fourths of college-aged men in the study played video games regularly. By comparison, just 17 percent of their female counterparts played more than once a month.

"The gender imbalance begs the question of whether chasing a new high score beats spending quality time with a girlfriend or wife," Jensen said.

Walker teaches in BYU's School of Family Life. Her colleagues Larry Nelson and Jason Carroll are co-authors on the study

Stanford Writes In World's Smallest Letters

2009-02-15T17:47:00.001+05:00

Stanford researchers have reclaimed bragging rights for creating the world's smallest writing, a distinction the university first gained in 1985 and lost in 1990.

How small is the writing? The letters in the words are assembled from subatomic sized bits as small as 0.3 nanometers, or roughly one third of a billionth of a meter.

The researchers encoded the letters "S" and "U" (as in Stanford University) within the interference patterns formed by quantum electron waves on the surface of a sliver of copper. The wave patterns even project a tiny hologram of the data, which can be viewed with a powerful microscope.

"We miniaturized their size so drastically that we ended up with the smallest writing in history," said Hari Manoharan, the assistant professor of physics who directed the work of physics graduate student Chris Moon and other researchers.

The quest for small writing has played a role in the development of nanotechnology for 50 years, beginning decades before "nano" became a household word. During a now-legendary talk in 1959, the remarkable physicist Richard Feynman argued that there were no physical barriers preventing machines and circuitry from being shrunk drastically. He called his talk "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom."

Feynman offered a $1,000 prize for anyone who could find a way to rewrite a page from an ordinary book in text 25,000 times smaller than the usual size (a scale at which the entire contents of the Encyclopedia Britannica would fit on the head of a pin). He held onto his money until 1985, when he mailed a check to Stanford grad student Tom Newman, who, working with electrical engineering Professor Fabian Pease, used electron beam lithography to engrave the opening page of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities in such small print that it could be read only with an electron microscope.

That record held until 1990, when researchers at a certain computer company famously spelled out the letters IBM by arranging 35 individual xenon atoms.

Now, in a paper published online in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, the Stanford researchers describe how they have created letters 40 times smaller than the original prize-winning effort and more than four times smaller than the IBM initials.

Working in a vibration-proof basement lab in the Varian Physics Building, Manoharan and Moon began their writing project with a scanning tunneling microscope, a device that not only sees objects at a very small scale but also can be used to move around individual atoms. The Stanford team used it to drag single carbon monoxide molecules into a desired pattern on a copper chip the size of a fingernail.

On the two-dimensional surface of the copper, electrons zip around, behaving as both particles and waves, bouncing off the carbon monoxide molecules the way ripples in a shallow pond might interact with stones placed in the water.

The ever-moving waves interact with the molecules and with each other to form standing "interference patterns" that vary with the placement of the molecules.
By altering the arrangement of the molecules, the researchers can create different waveforms, effectively encoding information for later retrieval. To encode and read out the data at unprecedented density, the scientists have devised a new technology, Electronic Quantum Holography.

In a traditional hologram, laser light is shined on a two-dimensional image and a ghostly 3-D object appears. In the new holography, the two-dimensional "molecular holograms" are illuminated not by laser light but by the electrons that are already in the copper in great abundance. The resulting "electronic object" can be read with the scanning tunneling microscope.
Several images can be stored in the same hologram, each created at a different electron wavelength. The researchers read them separately, like stacked pages of a book. The experience, Moon said, is roughly analogous to an optical hologram that shows one object when illuminated with red light and a different object in green light.

For Manoharan, the true significance of the work lies in storing more information in less space. "How densely can you encode information on a computer chip? The assumption has been that basically the ultimate limit is when one atom represents one bit, and then there's no more room—in other words, that it's impossible to scale down below the level of atoms.

"But in this experiment we've stored some 35 bits per electron to encode each letter. And we write the letters so small that the bits that comprise them are subatomic in size. So one bit per atom is no longer the limit for information density. There's a grand new horizon below that, in the subatomic regime. Indeed, there's even more room at the bottom than we ever imagined."
The research was supported by the Department of Energy through SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science (SIMES), the Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation and the Stanford-IBM Center for Probing the Nanoscale

Follow-up of Lifestyle Recommendations before Pregnancy is Rare in Women

2009-02-15T17:41:00.001+05:00

Nutrition and lifestyle advice is widely available for women during pregnancy, but much less emphasis is given to advice for women who may become pregnant. Yet promoting good health and nutrition before pregnancy may be at least as important as during pregnancy as the time around conception is vital for the development of the baby.

So researchers at the MRC Epidemiology Resource Centre at the University of Southampton set out to examine the degree to which women comply with these recommendations before they become pregnant.

Between 1998 and 2002, they interviewed 12,445 non-pregnant women aged 20-34 years as part of a general survey on health. Information on their diet, physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption and nutritional supplement use over the past three months was recorded.
A total of 238 women became pregnant within three months of interview. These women were compared with those who did not become pregnant.

The women who became pregnant were only marginally more likely to comply with the alcohol and folic acid recommendations than those who did not become pregnant. Among those who became pregnant only seven (2.9%) were taking the recommended daily dose of 400µg folic acid and drinking no more than four units of alcohol per week, compared with 0.66% of those who did not become pregnant.

The women who became pregnant were slightly less likely to smoke than those who did not become pregnant (74% v 69% were non-smokers) but this difference was not statistically significant.

Women in both groups were equally likely to consume five or more portions of fruit and vegetables per day, but only 57% of those who became pregnant had taken any strenuous exercise in the past three months compared with 64% of those who did not become pregnant.
At interview, 55 (23%) of the 238 women who became pregnant said that they did not anticipate trying for a baby in the next 12 months. Among this 'unplanned' group only one woman (1.8%) who became pregnant complied with the alcohol and folic acid recommendations, but among the remainder, who were, in some sense, 'planning' a pregnancy, the percentage was only slightly higher at 3.3% (six women).

In conclusion, our data show limited evidence of changes in health behaviours before pregnancy, say the authors. They call for greater publicity for pre-pregnancy recommendations, but point out that substantial unplanned pregnancy rates mean that greater efforts are needed to improve the nutrition and lifestyles of all women of child-bearing age.

In an accompanying editorial, public health experts from the University of Southern Denmark believe there is a need to reconsider the timing and setting for public health campaigns aimed at improving the conditions for the developing fetus. They also suggest that it is time to not only focus on women, but include men as targets for health promotion too.

Can we Harness Energy from Outer Space?

2009-02-15T13:16:00.000+05:00

The Earth today is a giant laboratory in which humans are conducting thoughtless experiments which requires a huge amount of energy, but unfortunately, now we are living in a world with depleting energy resources.

People have been searching for clean alternative energy resources for decades to no avail. As soon as one source seems to pass the test, someone uncovers its fatal flaws. Nuclear, wind, solar and hydropower have all been dragged thorugh the mud to some degree. Traditional Nuclear Fission is too risky, winds are not consistent, the sun does not always penetrate the clouds and hydropower dams disrupt natural environment.

It seems like any workable solution is light-years away. Some researchers think the answer to our energy needs rests in the stars. From wind turbines on Mars to helium-3 fusion, researchers are increasingly looking to extraterrestrial sources for Earth`s energy needs.

One of the sources they are looking at is helium-3 to use in nuclear fusion reactions. As opposed to nuclear fission, which splits an atom`s nucleus in half, nuclear fusion combines nuclei to produce energy. While nuclear fusion has already been tested with the hydrogen isotopes deutrium and tritium, those reactions give off the majority of their energy as radioactive neutrons, raising both safety and production concerns. Helium-3, on the other hand, is perfectly safe. It does not give off any pollution or radioactive waste and poses no danger to surrounding areas.

An isotope of the element helium, helium-3 has two protons but only one neutron. When it`s heated to very high temperatures and combined with deutrium, the reaction releases incredible amounts of energy. Just 2.2 pounds (1 Kg) of helium-3 combined with 1.5 pounds (0.67 Kg) of deutrium produces 19 MW-years of energy. Roughly 25 tons of the stuff could power the USA for an entire year.

The only problem is we don’t have just enough quantity of helium-3 just lying around. But conveniently, the moon does. In fact, scientists estimate our lunar rock contains more than 1 Million tons of the element. The energy stored in that much helium is 10 times the amount of energy we find in all the fossil fuels on Earth (Source: Artemis). If we put a cash value on it, helium-3 would be worth Rs.305 Billion a ton in terms of its energy equivalent in oil. (Source: Wakefield).

Now the only question, we are left with, is that how we can extract and use the energy contained by this precious isotope, in order to meet our gigantic energy needs. Ofcourse scientists and researchers are doing their best to harness this mammoth amount of energy from the outer space and the source is without any fatal flaw, as the study suggests so far. If the scientists turns successful then we would be able to meet our energy needs by means of an extraterrestrial source and we would be able to live on Earth in the same way as we are living now, otherwise our planet can see another stone age in the future.

Obesity During Pregnancy is Dangerous for Baby

2009-02-15T01:32:00.002+05:00

Obese women are more likely to have babies with rare but serious birth defects, including spina bifida and other neural tube defects, and to a lesser degree heart anomalies, cleft palate and hydrocephaly, a new study confirms.

The latest research, which pooled and analyzed dozens of earlier studies, found that the risk of spina bifida was 2.2 times higher for babies of obese mothers compared to infants of normal weight women, while the risk of other neural tube defects was 1.8 times higher. The babies of obese mothers faced smaller increases in risk for heart defects, stunted limbs, a congenital malformation of the anal opening, and hydrocephaly, also called water on the brain.

The paper appeared on Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“Our findings confirm what studies have been finding with regard to neural tube defects, particularly spina bifida, and some heart anomalies,” Judith Rankin, senior author of the study and a researcher at the Institute of Health and Society at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, said in an e-mail message. “However, we were surprised at the range of birth defects that were found to have an increased risk in mothers who were obese.”

The researchers analyzed the results of 39 previously published articles and pooled the results in order to compare risks among babies born to women who were at the recommended weight, overweight or obese.

They noted a slightly higher risk for neural tube defects and heart anomalies among babies born to women who were merely overweight but not obese, but said more research should be done to confirm these findings.

Dr. Laura Riley, medical director of labor and delivery at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said she was skeptical of the findings regarding babies of overweight women. She pointed out that pre-pregnancy weight is often self-reported in studies, adding, “People lie about their weight.”

If obese women underestimated their pre-pregnancy weight in their reports, they may have inadvertently been included in the category of overweight rather than obese mothers, skewing the results, she said.

Women who are planning a pregnancy are advised to take folic acid supplements even before conception, in order to reduce the risk of potentially serious neural tube defects, including spina bifida. But Dr. Rankin suggested that insulin resistance and undiagnosed diabetes, rather than insufficient folic acid, may be playing a causative role in birth defects among babies born to obese women, though the precise mechanism is not known.

“This confirms what we know and certainly tells us the association between obesity and neural tube defects is real,” said Dr. Riley, adding that she routinely advises her obese patients to lose weight or consider bariatric surgery before becoming pregnant.

The desire to have a healthy baby can be very motivating, she noted. “The mother’s instinct is to be very concerned about her baby,” she said. Telling women who want to have children about the risks related to obesity “really perks people up," she added. "They stop and think about it.”

Fighting Cold and Flu

2009-02-14T14:49:00.000+05:00

New research at the Centre has found that a simple hot drink of fruit cordial can provide immediate and sustained relief from symptoms of runny nose, cough, sneezing, sore throat, chilliness and tiredness.

Published in the December 2008 edition of the clinical journal Rhinology, the research compared the effects of a commercially produced cordial apple and blackcurrant drink either 'hot' or at room temperature in 30 volunteers with common cold symptoms.

The Centre's Director, Professor Ron Eccles, is urging people suffering from colds or flu to have a hot drink to help reduce their symptoms.

Professor Eccles said: "It is surprising that this is the first scientific research on the benefit of a hot drink for treating cold and flu symptoms.

"With temperatures falling and Christmas just round the corner, cold viruses love this time of year. Having a bottle of fruit cordial in the cupboard and making a hot drink could help fight off the symptoms of festive cold and flu. The big advantage of this type of treatment is that it is cheap as well as safe and effective."

The Common Cold Centre is the world's only centre dedicated to researching and testing new medicines for treatment of the symptoms of flu and the common cold. It is based in Cardiff University's School of Biosciences.

Son or a Daughter? Men Determine the Sex of a Baby

2009-02-14T14:33:00.003+05:00

The work by Corry Gellatly, a research scientist at the university, has shown that men inherit a tendency to have more sons or more daughters from their parents. This means that a man with many brothers is more likely to have sons, while a man with many sisters is more likely to have daughters.

The research involved a study of 927 family trees containing information on 556,387 people from North America and Europe going back to 1600.

"The family tree study showed that whether you’re likely to have a boy or a girl is inherited. We now know that men are more likely to have sons if they have more brothers but are more likely to have daughters if they have more sisters. However, in women, you just can’t predict it," Mr Gellatly explains.

Men determine the sex of a baby depending on whether their sperm is carrying an X or Y chromosome. An X chromosome combines with the mother’s X chromosome to make a baby girl (XX) and a Y chromosome will combine with the mother’s to make a boy (XY).

The Newcastle University study suggests that an as-yet undiscovered gene controls whether a man’s sperm contains more X or more Y chromosomes, which affects the sex of his children. On a larger scale, the number of men with more X sperm compared to the number of men with more Y sperm affects the sex ratio of children born each year.

Sons or daughters?

A gene consists of two parts, known as alleles, one inherited from each parent. In his paper, Mr Gellatly demonstrates that it is likely men carry two different types of allele, which results in three possible combinations in a gene that controls the ratio of X and Y sperm;
Men with the first combination, known as mm, produce more Y sperm and have more sons.
The second, known as mf, produce a roughly equal number of X and Y sperm and have an approximately equal number of sons and daughters.

The third, known as ff produce more X sperm and have more daughters.
“The gene that is passed on from both parents, which causes some men to have more sons and some to have more daughters, may explain why we see the number of men and women roughly balanced in a population. If there are too many males in the population, for example, females will more easily find a mate, so men who have more daughters will pass on more of their genes, causing more females to be born in later generations,” says Newcastle University researcher Mr Gellatly.

More boys born after the wars

In many of the countries that fought in the World Wars, there was a sudden increase in the number of boys born afterwards. The year after World War I ended, an extra two boys were born for every 100 girls in the UK, compared to the year before the war started. The gene, which Mr Gellatly has described in his research, could explain why this happened.
As the odds were in favour of men with more sons seeing a son return from the war, those sons were more likely to father boys themselves because they inherited that tendency from their fathers. In contrast, men with more daughters may have lost their only sons in the war and those sons would have been more likely to father girls. This would explain why the men that survived the war were more likely to have male children, which resulted in the boy-baby boom.
In most countries, for as long as records have been kept, more boys than girls have been born. In the UK and US, for example, there are currently about 105 males born for every 100 females.
It is well-documented that more males die in childhood and before they are old enough to have children. So in the same way that the gene may cause more boys to be born after wars, it may also cause more boys to be born each year.

Calculator for Working Out Heart Attack Risk

2009-02-13T14:39:00.000+05:00

Greek researchers have developed a quick and easy artificial intelligence approach to working out heart attack risk. Physicians could use their system to provide patients with a personal risk factor and so advise on lifestyle changes or medication to lower their risk.

It is well known that lifestyle factors including depression, education, smoking, diet, and obesity, play a part in the risk of cardiovascular disease. However, epidemiologists who study how health risks vary through populations have not found a way to extrapolate from such broad studies to individual risk levels.

Now, Hara Kostakis of the TEI Piraeus Research Centre, in Methonis, Greece, and colleagues have investigated patterns of cardiovascular risk factors in a large population. They obtained data for almost 1000 patients enrolled in the CARDIO 2000 study who had been hospitalised with the first symptoms of ACS, acute coronary syndrome. They recorded details of body mass index, family history, physical activity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes were recorded. They then matched the data against healthy individuals as a scientific control.

Rather then using conventional methods for analysing statistics, the researchers borrowed an approach from the computer science field of artificial intelligence, OLAP. Online analytical processing was developed in the early 1990s and was exploited primarily in industrial and commercial applications, for financial and marketing analysis.

Fundamentally, OLAP provides a multidimensional view of data that allows patterns to be discerned in even the largest datasets that remain invisible even to the most expert user of spreadsheets. In a standard model, sales, purchases, pricing, customer base, and other economic measurements are used, Kostakis' colleagues at the University of Patras have adapted this system instead to accommodate the risk factors of heart disease.

The team points out that the CARDIO2000 study explored the association between several demographic, nutritional, psychological, lifestyle and medical risk factors, but did not necessarily provide epidemiologists and physicians with a way to visualise the results and so provide patients with a personal risk factor based on their particular circumstances.

Kostakis and his colleagues add that their approach works much more quickly than conventional statistical analysis, reveals hidden risk factors and associations and makes none of the assumptions of standard approaches to assessing risk of heart attack.

"Due to the ease of use of the methodology, a physician has the advantage of easily identifying high-risk patients by simply entering their personal data in the model," the researchers conclude. They can then advise their patient on lifestyle and psychological. They can also prescribe more appropriate medication depending on the specific risk factors.

India Needs To Look Forward in Agriculture

2009-02-12T20:04:00.002+05:00

Food security experts say India must wean itself away from dependence on wheat and rice and look to the sub-continent’s rich agro-diversity in order to address the kind of food crisis that hit the country last year - as well as longer-standing nutrition deficiency issues. Traditionally Indians have depended on a vast variety of grains and cereals such as millet, maize, corn, barley, rye and lentils, as well as a variety of temperate and tropical fruits and vegetables to keep themselves in good nutritional health, according to noted environmentalist Ashish Kothari. But a skewed agricultural policy and a subsidised public distribution system (PDS) has limited millions of poor and middle-class Indians to a diet that leans too heavily on wheat or rice, ignoring especially the nutritional value of coarse grains, said Kothari. "The reason only rice and wheat are promoted in the PDS system is because rice and wheat were promoted as chemical monocultures under the ‘Green Revolution’,’’ Vandana Shiva, the internationally-known, India-based food security expert told IPS. ‘’Every PDS unit should have all the grains necessary for health and should be procured as close to production sites as possible,'' said Shiva ''Inhibitions preventing a universal, decentralised, biodiverse PDS system are the ‘monocultures of the mind’, the tendency towards centralised systems, the pressures of agencies like the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation as well as the power and influence of agri-business,’’ Shiva said. Shiva pointed out that crops such as corn, maize, rye, and millets do not enjoy subsidies that come in the form of a minimum support price to the farmer. "Wheat and rice available through the PDS have been forcing a dietary pattern centred around these two commodities.’’ ‘’The production of these other cereals has become so negligible and is now spread over such a vast area that it will be difficult to procure and distribute and many consumers may not prefer it,’’ says Prof. R.S. Deshpande, director of the Bangalore-based Institute of Socio-Economic Change. This forced dietary change, according to experts, is now beginning to tell on the nutritional status of Indians with some linking it to the rising incidence of diabetes in the population.

According to the National Family Health Survey released in 2008 over 50 percent of under five children in India are stunted as a result of nutritional deficiencies. Anaemia alone affects 79 percent of children in the lowest economic strata and 64 percent in better-off families, according to the survey. "Policy changes are clearly required to make it possible for people to adopt a healthier lifestyle. This should include making healthy food available at reasonable cost," reasons Dr. Ammini Ariachery, head of the department of endocrinology at the premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. "Indian agro-biodiversity is the basis of health and nutrition. The practice of cultivating crops in mixtures and rotations does not just ensure ecological balance, it also ensures health and nutritional balance,’’ Shiva asserts. She pointed to ‘Baranaja’, the 12-seed cropping practiced since ancient times where different cereals are sown for multiple cropping complementing agro-climatic zones. "Soil fertility is continuously recharged by the use of leguminous plants like pulses.’’ ‘’Baranaja gives higher overall productivity (apart from meeting nutritional and other needs)" according to Kothari. ‘’Baranaja is India’s traditional yet scientific response to monoculture and the commercialisation of agriculture.’’ Another traditional practice is ‘Navadanya’ which involves the packing of nine different types of cereals packaged as a wholesome food for used in different preparations including in the making of bread. But there are problems. "Inclusion of all crops in the minimum support price scheme may cripple the natural market functioning. Therefore, it can only be used selectively,’’ says Deshpande. Specialists like Deshpande also say that given the vast diversity of agro-climatic regions in India, ranging from the temperate to the tropical and arid desert to humid coastal, calls for an agricultural policy that is specific to each state or region.

According to studies carried out by the Deccan Development Society (DDS), a major non-government organisation (NGO), sorghum lost 35 percent of its cropping area (from 18.56 million hectares in 1964-65 to 11.75 million hectares in 1994-95). Little millet lost nearly 60 percent, finger millet (ragi) lost 30 percent and pearl millet (bajra) 16 percent of its cropping area. ‘’It is significant that in the cases of sorghum, little millet and finger millet a drop in the cultivated area to the tune of 50 percent came about during a period that corresponds to the processes of structural adjustment and globalisation,’’ says P.V. Satheesh of the DDS. A direct reason for the slow death of coarse grain production is India’s agricultural financing policy which is unsupportive or even hostile to rain-fed crops - and most coarse grains fall under this category. Coarse grain farmers have little irrigation support, have no subsidies for farmyard manure or other inputs. Because they are not covered by crop insurance or by government support prices they are vulnerable to the vagaries of the market.

M.S. Swaminathan, one of the architects of India’s green revolution, believes that rehabilitating coarse grains - a classification of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) - starts with renaming the valuable resource as ‘nutritious grains’. ‘’The calamity of micronutrient deficiencies and shortages can be converted into an opportunity for agro-biodiversity conservation by reviving the cultivation of these nutritious grains and enlarging the food basket,’’ said Swaminathan. ‘’This calls for the revitalisation of on-farm conservation traditions, of tribal and rural families with reference to the cultivation of such grains, and their inclusion in semi-processed and processed food,’’ Swaminathan added.

Chile`s Interests in Biofuels

2009-02-12T20:00:00.001+05:00

Chile has set its sights on producing second-generation plant-based fuels from forest biomass within the next five years. But before that it must consider the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of such an endeavour, warn experts and activists.

Chile's heavy energy dependence and its continued increase in emissions of climate-changing gases have led this South American country to pursue renewable energy options like solar, wind, geothermal and biomass. Biomass - renewable organic material from plants and animals - serves to generate electricity, for thermal energy production and the output of liquid fuels like bioethanol or biodiesel. A law passed in April 2008 requires that as of 2010 at least five percent of Chile's electricity must come from non-conventional renewable sources, including biomass. Beginning in 2015, the proportion must increase 0.5 percent annually until reaching a full 10 percent in 2024. Two consortiums were created in October for research and development of lignocellulosic biofuels, that is, fuels based on woody fibres. The goal is to "surpass the expansion limits and the grave conflicts that the current crop-based fuels (made from foods like maize or sugarcane) can create," said Guilherme Schuetz, coordinator of the regional biofuels group of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Germany, United States and Sweden lead the world in researching these products in the laboratory or pilot project phase. In three to five years, Europe could be using second-generation biofuels on an important scale, "though some countries may be on the verge of doing so," Schuetz told Tierramérica. The International Energy Agency estimates that production costs of second-generation bioethanol and biodiesel today run 80 cents to one dollar per litre. That would be 100 to 130 dollars per 159-litre barrel, noted Schuetz - expensive given current petroleum prices. "However, those costs could be cut in half by 2030 if the new generation of biofuels is produced commercially," he said.

According to the 7th National Agricultural and Forestry Census 2006-2007, in Chile there are 15.8 million hectares used in farm production and 15.9 million hectares of forest: 2.7 million planted and 13.2 million of native forest. "With the premise of reconciling agroforest production" for the domestic and foreign market, and "maintaining sustainable farming activity that is also sustainable over time, preserving water and soil," producing second-generation biofuels is "a viable option" for Chile, Iván Nazif, director of the governmental Office for Agrarian Policy and Research, said in a Tierramérica interview. They would be generated from farming and forest waste and from plantations of poplar, paulownia and acacia trees or maiden grass. Also considered important sources are the microalgae found in northern Chile and the animal fats from livestock in the south, noted Schuetz. But the species of fast-growing plants would be cultivated at high density so would quickly use up soil nutrients in addition to requiring a great deal of water, warns Daniela Escalona, of the non-governmental Latin American Observatory for Environmental Conflicts, and the Action Network for Social and Environmental Justice. They also contain high caloric value and are the most appropriate for energy use. According to Nazif, "the production of second generation biofuels necessarily should include the experience of the first generation fuels," which is why the market has been regulated and there are pilot experiments under way in some regions, mainly with biodiesel. Second generation crop-based fuels "only bring good news" to a country with a consolidated forest industry, says Aldo Cerda, forestry expert with the Chile Foundation, a public-private institution dedicated to innovation and development of the country's human capital. "We will have more demand for wood fibre, with benefits for all owners, and more demand for management of native forests," and the recovery of degraded areas, Cerda told Tierramérica. He believes the industry will have "sophisticated actors" who will work with certified plots to avoid criticism from the environmental sector. The Chile Foundation is participating in Bioenercel, one of the two consortiums promoted by the government, along with the country's leading forestry companies - Masisa, CMPC and Arauco - and two public universities. With a five-year budget of 10 million dollars, the consortium is developing protocols to produce "cheap and competitive" bioethanol. However, activist Escalona expressed concern about the effects that these fuels would have on the environment and on the peasant and indigenous communities of Chile's forested regions. For Schuetz, the risks "depend on the scale of production and the availability of raw materials," which is why he sees advantages in biodiesel made from agricultural and forestry waste. "With respect to native forest, it is very important that legislation only permits using lignocellulosic waste that is obtained through forest maintenance," he stressed.

The loss of natural habitat as a result of monoculture and the possible spread of genetically modified trees with unknown impacts are other potential dangers to be studied, he said. The country needs to "carefully weigh the pros and cons" of this activity, including "the balance of carbon dioxide throughout the cycle, the repercussions on biodiversity, the nutrient cycle of the soils and the hydrological cycle," as well as its socioeconomic impacts, said Schuetz.

Nanotechnology and Food Safety

2009-02-12T18:11:00.001+05:00

A microscopic biological sensor that detects Salmonella bacteria in lab tests has been developed by an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist and university colleagues. The sensor could be adapted to detect other foodborne pathogens as well.

The sensor is part of an evolving science known as nanotechnology—the study and manipulation of materials on a molecular or even atomic level, measured in billionths of a meter, which is about 10 to100 times thinner than a human hair.

There are examples of biosensors in nature. Insects detect tiny amounts of sex pheromones in the environment and use them as a beacon to find mates. And fish use natural biosensors to detect barely perceptible vibrations in the surrounding water.

ARS engineer Bosoon Park at the Quality and Safety Assessment Research Unit in Athens, Ga., and cooperators at the University of Georgia used nanotechnology to develop the biosensor. The detection method may have great potential for food safety and security, according to Park.

The biosensors that Park and his university colleagues developed include fluorescent organic dye particles attached to Salmonella antibodies. The antibodies hook onto Salmonella bacteria and the dye lights up like a beacon, making the bacteria easier to see.

People who eat Salmonella-infected food products can get salmonellosis, a disease characterized by nausea, vomiting, severe diarrhea, and sometimes death.

For his research, Park recently received the prestigious first place Innovation Nano Research Award at the Sixth International Nanotech Symposium and Exhibition, in Ilsan, Korea.

Treatment of Kidney Cancer

2009-02-12T18:05:00.002+05:00

Kidney cancer is typically without symptoms until it has spread to other organs, when it is also the most difficult to treat. Newer chemotherapies show great promise for extending survival during later disease stages, but they can also be highly toxic.

In one of the first discoveries of its kind, UC Davis Cancer Center researchers have identified ways to block a cancer gene's own repair mechanism and, in so doing, help make chemotherapy for kidney cancer more effective and better tolerated.

"Cancer cells are notorious in their ability to rapidly create copies of themselves. While the latest medications slow down that process, they do not tend to be curative and have many side effects," said Robert Weiss, a UC Davis professor of nephrology and chief of nephrology at the Sacramento VA Medical Center. "We wanted to find ways to help make chemotherapeutics as effective as possible at the lowest doses possible."

Newer medications work by destabilizing cancer cells at the DNA level, which reduces their ability to replicate. Knowing that the p21 gene has an important role in restoring cancer cell DNA and potentially circumventing the benefits of those treatments, Weiss sought to identify compounds that could interrupt this pathway.

The team tested thousands of compounds and 12 were found to bind to the recombinant protein p21. Additional tests showed that three of those compounds decreased p21 expression, blocking kidney cancer cells' ability to mend and making them more responsive to DNA-damaging treatments.

"The results are very exciting, especially given how difficult kidney cancer has so far been to treat," Weiss said. "Our work offers hope that in the future these p21 inhibitors can be refined and used in concert with other conventional as well as novel cancer treatments to increase the comfort and life spans of patients with kidney cancer."

For future studies, Weiss will focus on the three candidate compounds to determine the lowest possible concentrations at which they remain effective and to further optimize their anti-cancer properties. He will then test those compounds with standard treatments in animal models and, ultimately, in human trials.

He said, "The goal is to find new approaches to treating a cancer for which few options currently exist and make those approaches available in clinical settings as quickly as possible"
The outcome is published in the current issue of Cancer Biology and Therapy. Other UC Davis study authors were See-Hyoung Park, Xiaobing Wang, Riuwu Liu and Kit Lam. Their research was supported by the National Cancer Institute, the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs, the Morris Animal Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

Extended Mercury Threat due to Climate Change

2009-02-11T18:39:00.001+05:00

Mercury pollution has already spurred public health officials to advise eating less fish, but it could become a more pressing concern in a warmer world.

So suggests a paper that appears in a recent issue of the journal Oecologia.
Sue Natali, a postdoctoral associate in botany at the University of Florida and the paper’s lead author, compared mercury levels in soils under trees growing in air enriched with carbon dioxide to soil beneath trees in ambient air. Carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, has increased nearly 40 percent since the industrial revolution and is expected to continue climbing unless power plant and other emissions are restricted or curtailed.

Natali’s main finding: Soil samples from the carbon dioxide-enriched soil contained almost 30 percent more mercury — apparently because the soil had greater capacity than soil in today’s atmosphere to trap and hold on to mercury.

On the one hand, Natali said, that increased capacity could slow the mercury’s release into water — its main conduit to aquatic wildlife and the fish that pose a hazard to people. On the other, it means that even if policy makers manage to ban or severely restrict mercury emissions, the metal will remain a source of pollution for a long time.

“From the time you cut off mercury emission to the time it positively affects fish, you might have this lag, because the soils hold on to the mercury better,” Natali said.

Global mercury emissions today range from 4,400 to 7,500 tons per year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Natural sources such as volcanoes account for about half, with coal-fired power plants, smelters and incinerators contributing the remainder.

When mercury is belched into the air, it returns to Earth via rain, with bacteria and other natural processes converting it to methylmercury in lakes, rivers and oceans. Methylmercury builds up through the food chain, with the flesh of the biggest, most sought-after predator fish — tuna, swordfish, king mackerel and so on — containing the highest concentrations. That’s why the federal government has advised pregnant women, children and other groups considered vulnerable to limit their consumption.

Natali said scientists have long recognized mercury levels in soil spike under trees, averaging four times the concentration in open areas.

That’s because trees effectively scavenge the poison from the atmosphere. Leaves and stems collect rainwater, and with it mercury; trees drop mercury-laden leaves on the ground, and trees take in the metal through their stomata, or breathing pores on leaves.

Scientists also have shown repeatedly that increased atmospheric carbon dioxide leads to increased plant and tree growth. Natali said she launched her research to find out whether that process would in turn have any effect on pollution from mercury and other metals.

Fortunately, two experimental sites were already in place: the free-air carbon dioxide enrichment experiments at forests in North Carolina and Tennessee, operated by Duke University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, respectively. These sites consist of plots in naturally growing forests surrounded by vertical pipes that constantly pump out carbon dioxide — and have done so since 1996, for the North Carolina site, and 1998, for the Tennessee site. The systems surround deciduous and coniferous trees in the plots with 200 parts per million more carbon dioxide than ambient air, or between 549 and 582 parts per million. That is the anticipated concentration in the air in 2050 without new emissions restrictions, Natali said.
Natali assessed mercury levels in rain that struck the canopy and then flowed down stems and trunks; in rain that fell directly from the canopy to the forest floor, and in leaves that fell below the trees, or “leaf litter.”

To her surprise, none contained particularly elevated levels of the poison. In fact, although the trees in the enriched plots produced more leaf litter, mercury concentrations in the leaves actually decreased. The uptick in mercury in the soil apparently happened instead because of “changes in soil properties” that occur in the enriched environments, according to the paper.
These changes increase the soils’ mercury storage capacity.

Johan Varekamp, a professor of earth science at Wesleyan University who also studies mercury and the environment, agreed that Natali’s results can be seen as both negative and positive. Mercury will stick around longer in a carbon-dioxide-enriched world, he said, but it also will remain bound to the soil for a longer period.

“I agree with her conclusion that with further cutbacks in mercury emissions, there will be a delay in delay in direct response,” he said. That said, “the mercury fluxes to the coastal zone related to past emissions may then be less damaging to the ecosystems.”

Young Blood Fights Cancer

2009-02-11T18:30:00.001+05:00

The Tel Aviv University researchers, led by Prof. Shamgar Ben-Eliyahu from the Department of Psychology’s Neuroimmunology Research Unit, discovered that a transfusion of “young” blood — blood which has been stored for less than 9 days — increased the odds of survival in animals challenged with two types of cancer. This finding, reported in the journal Anesthesiology, may solve an age-old mystery as to why some blood transfusions during cancer-related surgeries may lead to an increased recurrence of cancer and others do not.

“There is anecdotal evidence pointing to the fact that some surgeons really prefer to use younger blood units. They insist on it. Our research shows their reasoning might be sound,” says Prof. Ben-Eliyahu, explaining that the oldest blood in a blood bank usually sits on the shelf anywhere from 40 to 42 days before it expires.

Using an animal model, the researchers conducted tests on rats with leukemia and breast cancer. The odds of surviving the cancer, they found, were only compromised if the transfusion blood had been stored for nine or more days.

Can Transfusions Cause More Cancer?
“I don’t think this study will or should change the practices of surgeons in hospitals, but it is definitely something that needs to be investigated further in human clinical studies,” says Prof. Ben-Eliyahu. “It might have a serious impact on the survival of prostate or colon cancers — two cancers that are associated with a lot of bleeding. If our research proves to be true in human trials, it should revolutionize the way we look at transfusion in cancer patients.”
The study, Prof. Ben-Eliyahu points out, also led to one other interesting finding. Surgeons commonly transfuse blood from which white blood cells have been removed, believing that these cells can cause harmful effects in the recipient.

“However, we found that it was the red blood cells, not the white blood cells, which caused the negative effects,” he says. Because red blood cells carry oxygen to the body, transfusions cannot be withheld, but using fresher blood might be better for cancer patients, the professor maintains.

Banking your Own Blood may not be Useful:
While Prof. Ben-Eliyahu urges that further studies need to be done in this potentially life-saving practice, he believes that in most cases of cancer, donor blood might be healthier for the recipient than one’s own blood, because such a supply is commonly built up in a bank weeks before an operation. “The age of the blood itself impacts survival. The best recipe for transfusions might be fresh blood from other people. We found no differences between autologous blood and blood from other donors. The latter can be stored for much shorter durations before use.”

The idea that transfusions of “older” blood may increase cancer metastasis remains controversial, Prof. Ben-Eliyahu notes. Negative effects might be limited to specific cancers or special circumstances. He suggests that researchers investigate not just any database relating blood transfusions to cancer, but only those that include data in which the transfusion itself was a risk factor in metastasis.

In other words, Prof. Ben-Eliyahu recommends that one should first establish, in a given dataset, that blood transfusion is a risk factor for cancer progression, and only then it will make sense to test whether the storage duration of blood affects survival rates. Alternatively, it is possible that blood transfusion is a risk factor in some types of cancer, but not in others, and it will thus be wise to test whether the storage duration of blood affects survival rates only in these specific types of cancer, he says.

If proven true in human studies, Prof. Ben-Eliyahu’s research — done in collaboration with Shir Atzil, a doctoral student — could broadly impact the healthcare system. Blood banks are already dealing with severe blood shortages in America, and the increased use of fresher blood will make it even harder to keep blood on the shelf. Cost is another factor, but a lower mortality rate may outweigh the price in dollars and cents.

Spirituality is Linked with Kids` Happiness, Research says

2009-02-10T17:51:00.001+05:00

To make children happier, we may need to encourage them to develop a strong sense of personal worth, according to Dr. Mark Holder from the University of British Columbia in Canada and his colleagues Dr. Ben Coleman and Judi Wallace. Their research shows that children who feel that their lives have meaning and value and who develop deep, quality relationships - both measures of spirituality - are happier. It would appear, however, that their religious practices have little effect on their happiness. These findings have been published in the online edition of Springer's Journal of Happiness Studies.

Both spirituality (an inner belief system that a person relies on for strength and comfort) and religiousness (institutional religious rituals, practices and beliefs) have been linked to increased happiness in adults and adolescents. In contrast, very little work has been done on younger children. In an effort to identify strategies to increase children's happiness, Holder and colleagues set out to better understand the nature of the relationship between spirituality, religiousness and happiness in children aged 8 to 12 years. A total of 320 children, from four public schools and two faith-based schools, completed six different questionnaires to rate their happiness, their spirituality, their religiousness and their temperament. Parents were also asked to rate their child's happiness and temperament.

The authors found that those children who said they were more spiritual were happier. In particular, the personal (i.e. meaning and value in one's own life) and communal (i.e. quality and depth of inter-personal relationships) aspects of spirituality were strong predictors of children's happiness. Spirituality explained up to 27 percent of the differences in happiness levels amongst children.

A child's temperament was also an important predictor of happiness. In particular, happier children were more sociable and less shy. The relationship between spirituality and happiness remained strong, even when the authors took temperament into account. However, counter intuitively, religious practices - including attending church, praying and meditating - had little effect on a child's happiness.

According to the authors, "enhancing personal meaning may be a key factor in the relation between spirituality and happiness." They suggest that strategies aimed at increasing personal meaning in children - such as expressing kindness towards others and recording these acts of kindness, as well as acts of altruism and volunteering - may help to make children happier.

Research on Myths About Gifted Children

2009-02-10T17:42:00.002+05:00

Steven I. Pfeiffer is a professor in Florida State's Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems. He also is a licensed psychologist who works with gifted children and their families in counseling, and has long been recognized as one of the nation's leading authorities on issues related to gifted children.

"There is a view occasionally expressed by those outside of the gifted field that we don't need programs devoted specifically to gifted students," Pfeiffer said. "'Oh, they're smart, they'll do fine on their own' is what we often hear. And because of this anti-elitist attitude, it's often difficult to get funding for programs and services that help us to develop some of our brightest, most advanced kids -- America's most valuable resource.

"Giftedness is still not well understood, and children with advanced intellectual and academic abilities can perplex and challenge both educators and parents," Pfeiffer said.
A key problem in working with gifted children is one of definition. What exactly does it mean to be "gifted"?

"Even within the gifted field, there is considerable controversy regarding definitional, conceptual and diagnostic issues," Pfeiffer said. "However, as a generally agreed-upon definition, gifted children are those who are in the upper 3 percent to 5 percent compared to their peers in one or more of the following domains: general intellectual ability, specific academic competence, the visual or performing arts, leadership and creativity."

A key area of Pfeiffer's research has been finding ways to best identify children who are gifted. To that end, he led a group that developed a diagnostic test which complements the widely used intelligence test in identifying children who might be gifted. Pfeiffer's test is now being used in more than 600 school districts across the nation and has been translated for use in a number of other countries.

"For almost a hundred years, schools used one measure, the IQ test," Pfeiffer said. "Our own research indicates that the IQ test, although it works fairly well, is not without limitations in identifying giftedness. We launched a project to develop a test that would be a companion to the IQ test in helping educators better identify those children who have potential but perhaps are missed on IQ tests."

A diagnostic test developed by Pfeifer, the Gifted Rating Scales, measures students' aptitude in six areas:

Intellectual Ability: measures the child's verbal and nonverbal mental skills and intellectual competence. Items on this scale rate the child's memory, reasoning ability, problem solving and mental speed.

Academic Ability: measures the child's skill in dealing with factual and/or school-related material. Items rate readiness and advanced development/proficiency in reading, math and other aspects of the early childhood curriculum.

Creativity: measures the child's ability to think, act and/or produce unique, novel or innovative thoughts or products. Items rate the child's imaginative play, original thinking and inventive approach to situations or problems.

Artistic Talent: measures the child's potential for, or evidence of ability in, drama, music, dance, drawing, painting, sculpture, singing, playing a musical instrument and/or acting.

Leadership: measures the child's ability to motivate people toward a common goal.

Motivation: refers to the child's drive, tendency to enjoy challenging tasks, and ability to work well without encouragement or reinforcement. The motivation scale is not viewed as a type of giftedness, but rather as the energy that impels a young child to achieve.

9 Tips to Stop Snoring

2009-02-09T19:23:00.006+05:00

Snoring is a fairly common affliction, affecting 40 percent of men and 25 percent of women. If you snore, you make a raspy, rattling, snorting sound while you breathe during sleep. Older people are particularly prone to snoring: About one-third of people ages 55 to 84 snore. Despite its frequency, however, snoring is a sleep disorder that can have serious medical and social consequences. The tips that follow may help you sleep more peacefully.

1. Sleep on Your Side
You're more likely to snore if you're lying on your back, and sleeping on your stomach is stressful on your neck.

2. Lose Weight
Excess body weight, especially around the neck, puts pressure on the airway, causing it to partially collapse.

3. Avoid Alcohol and Tranquilizers
Both alcohol and sleeping pills can depress your central nervous system and relax the muscles of your throat and jaw, making snoring more likely. These substances are also known to contribute to sleep apnea, a dangerous condition that has been linked with cardiovascular disease. And they should never, ever be used together. If you have difficulty sleeping without sleeping pills (or if you use alcohol to help yourself fall asleep), discuss it with your doctor.

4. Get Your Allergies Treated
Chronic respiratory allergies may cause snoring by forcing sufferers to breathe through their mouths while they sleep. Taking an antihistamine just before bedtime may help. If your nose is stuffed up, try using an over-the-counter saline spray or a humidifier.

5. Buy a Mouth Guard
Your dentist or doctor may be able to prescribe an antisnoring mouth guard that holds the teeth together and keeps the lower jaw muscles from becoming too lax.

6. Stop Smoking Smoke damages the respiratory system.

7. Keep a Regular Schedule Get plenty of sleep.
Go to bed and get up at the same time each day.

8. See a Doctor if You Are Pregnant and Snoring
Sometimes, women who are pregnant will begin to snore. The snoring may begin because of the increased body weight and because the hormonal changes of pregnancy cause muscles to relax. Whatever the cause, snoring during pregnancy may rob your baby of oxygen. Talk with your doctor about it.

9. Elevate Your Head
Sleeping with your head raised may take some of the pressure off of the airway, making breathing easier. Raise the head of the bed by putting blocks under the bed posts, or prop up your upper body (not just your head, which can actually inhibit breathing) with pillows.

Global Impact of Climate Change on Biodiversity

2009-02-09T17:49:00.008+05:00

When three undergraduates set off on an expedition in 1965 to trap moths on Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, little did they realise that they were establishing the groundwork for a study of the impacts of climate change.

New research led by the University of York has repeated the survey 42 years later, and found that, on average, species had moved uphill by about 67 metres over the intervening years to cope with changes in climate.

This is the first demonstration that climate change is affecting the distributions of tropical insects, the most numerous group of animals on Earth, thus representing a major threat to global biodiversity.

University of York PhD student I-Ching Chen – first author of the new study – said:

“Tropical insects form the most diverse group of animals on Earth but to-date we have not known whether they were responding to climate change. The last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change AR4 Report showed a gaping hole in the evidence. Our new study is good in that it increases the evidence available, but it is potentially bad for biodiversity.”

Professor Thomas added:

“Large numbers of species are completely confined to tropical mountains, such as Mount Kinabalu: many of the species found by the expeditions have never been found anywhere else on Earth. As these species get pushed uphill towards cooler conditions, the amount of land that is available to them gets smaller and smaller. And because most of the top of the mountain is bare rock, they may not be able to find suitable habitats, even if the temperature is right. Some of the species are likely to die out.”

The New Expedition in 2007 was joined by Henry Barlow, one of the members of the original survey, whose life-long enthusiasm for moths helped I-Ching Chen, who is from Taiwan, to come to terms with the sheer diversity of moths she had to identify.

Jeremy Holloway, a Research Associate at the Natural History Museum in London, and another member of the 1965 expedition, devoted his career to the identification (taxonomy) of moths from South East Asia, enabling the research team to identify the new samples. Armed with the data from 1965, moth-trapping equipment, tents, sleeping bags and rations, I-Ching and colleagues set out to repeat the original survey.

“Photographs from the 1965 expedition led us back to exactly the same sites sampled 42 years ago”,

said Dr Suzan Benedick, expedition member, and Universiti Malaysia Sabah entomologist.

The new survey involved climbing the mountain and catching moths up to an elevation of 3,675 metres above sea level. Once all of the specimens had been caught and identified, then the team compared the heights at which each species had been found in 1965 and again in 2007. The results revealed a highly statistically significant shift, indicating that the moths are now found higher on the mountain than previously.

There is a more positive note, however. As the highest and coolest location between the Himalaya and New Guinea, Mount Kinabalu represents an extremely important “climate change refuge”. Species that begin to find conditions too hot (or dry) in the surrounding lowlands may be able to find suitable conditions by moving upwards on the slopes of this mountain.

“The critical thing is to protect the forests surrounding the mountain, so that the lowland species are able to reach the cooler conditions that they may need,”

said Dr Jane Hill, expedition member, and one of I-Ching Chen’s advisors.

Jasmine- As an Anti-Cancer Agent

2009-02-08T17:35:00.006+05:00

Professor Eliezer Flescher, of Tel Aviv University, and his colleagues have developed an anti-cancer drug based on a decade of research into the commercial applications of the compound Jasmonate, a synthetic compound derived from the Jasmine flower. Professor Flescher began to research the compound about a decade ago, and with his recent development of the drug, his studies have now begun to bear meaningful fruit.

Acetsalicylic acid (aspirin) is based on a plant stress hormone, which has been suggested by various studies, could prevent cancer, especially colon cancer. This provides an impetus to the researcher team to find a potent plant hormone that could fight cancer even better and they pinpointed jasmonate.

Both blood cancers and solid tumors seem to be responsive to the jasmonate compound, known also as methyl jasmonate. Professor Flescher is hopeful that an anti-cancer drug based on jasmonate could be on the shelf in America within four years through the activity of Sepal-Pharma which licensed his research from Ramot, the technology transfer arm of Tel Aviv University.

The jasmonate compound is used widely in agriculture and cosmetics. Proven to be non-toxic, it has the same regulatory status as table salt. It gives a good starting point for launching a new drug to the researcher team.

Dr. Flescher research receives optimistic response from peer researchers, who are taking notice. Since Professor started publishing papers on jasmonate (most recently in academic journal Oncogene), six new research groups around the world have initiated research on the subject. Peer commentary in Oncogene is positive about Professor Fleischer’s promising research. They comment that

“Methyl Jasmonate has already been shown to have selective anti-cancer activity in preclinical studies, and this finding may stimulate the development of a novel class of small anti-cancer compounds.”

Preparing For Climate Change

2009-02-08T16:41:00.009+05:00

The global climate is changing, and this change is already impacting food supply and security. People living in regions already affected by aridity need plants that can thrive / grow under dry conditions. One example is sorghum: Also known as milo, durra, or broomcorn, sorghum is a grass species that can grow up to five meters in height and is extremely resistant to aridity and hot conditions. The grass, which originates from Africa, can thrive under conditions and locations where other cereal plants cannot survive due to lack of water. In arid-warm and moderate regions of the Americas, Asia and Europe it is mainly utilized for food and fodder and is also gaining in significance as a basis for bio-fuel. The plant also provides fibers as well as combustible material for heating and cooking.

As part of an international consortium of scientists, researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München are analyzing the genes of sorghum, the first plant of African origin whose genome has been sequenced.

Dr. Klaus Mayer of the Institute of Bioinformatics and Systems Biology of the Helmholtz Zentrum München described the scientists’ research goal:

”We want to elucidate the functional and structural genomics of sorghum.“

He went on to explain:

”That is the prerequisite for making this important grain even more productive through targeted breeding strategies. As German Research Center for Environmental Health, sustaining the food supply is one of our most important research topics. That is why we are trying to learn something about the molecular basis of the plant’s pronounced drought tolerance in order to apply this knowledge to other crop plants in our latitude zone as well. “

The first results of the study have been published in the current issue of Nature.

What makes sorghum interesting as a model system is that it is more closely related to the predominant grains of tropical origin, for example maize, than it is to rice. Moreover, sorghum, unlike many other crop plants, has not undergone genome enlargement in the past millions of years. Its rather small genome – about one-fourth as large as the human genome – is a good starting point for investigating the more complex genomes of important crop plants such as maize or sugarcane, especially since sorghum - like these two plants –is a ”C4 Plant".

Due to biochemical and morphological specialization, such plants use a special kind of photosynthesis (in which first a molecule with four carbon atoms is formed, thus the name). They can assimilate carbon at higher temperatures and more efficiently than ”C3 plants“ and are especially suitable for the production of biomass for energy. Sorghum is the first cereal plant with C4 photosynthesis whose genome has been completely sequenced. The analysis of its functional genomics provides new insights into the molecular differences between C3 and C4 plants.Furthermore, the comparison with the C3 plant rice - likewise completely sequenced – gives us information about how these cereals became more divergent in the course of evolution.The data of the Munich scientists also allow a comparative analysis of sorghum, rice and maize. This analysis yields information about the evolution of the genome size, distribution and amplification of genes or recombination processes.

Last but not least, the researchers have validated a method in their study - whole genome shotgun sequencing – which is an especially fast and inexpensive method of sequencing complete chromosomes and genomes. In this method, the DNA is copied multiple times and then shredded into many small fragments by squeezing the DNA through a pressurized syringe. Finally the fragments are sequenced from both ends ans sub sequentially the millions of small DNA fragments are assembled by elaborate computational methods into complete chromosomes.

Education: Lessons To Learn

2009-02-08T12:12:00.013+05:00

The existing educational system of Pakistan is in a shambles and requires an urgent change. But why is it so?

There are a large number of schools, colleges and universities in our country yet our educational system does not provide us with people of true intelligence or intellect even though a huge number of students graduate each year. The role of educational system is to provide equipment and technique to meet various needs of life. It is the development of the power to think and not just an acquisition of information. Educational institutions should shape our attitudes and prepare us for behaving in a certain manner in a defined situation so we can realise our social goals and values prevalent in society.

To transform an individual into a useful member of the society, the educational system should provide social and cultural transmission, rational thinking, personal adjustment, patriotism, character building, understanding the metaphysical nature of religion, social integration, family living, future occupation and minimisation of materialistic pursuits.

The ground realities are that the syllabi and text books are hopelessly outdated. The students find themselves irrelevant to the present needs and future requirements. Students feel that their books and instruction by the teachers will not be useful to them later in life, hence they are unable to implement the bookish knowledge in the real world.

The degree and not the knowledge becomes the goal in our educational institutions, whether public or private. Examinations were meant for education; but now the whole educational process is geared for examination. This system develops neither the character nor discipline; includes neither initiative nor self reliance in our youth.

Education has become a formality, a status symbol and a doubtful investment for future gains. Education has become an industry where teachers are machines and students, the currency notes. Our educational structure hence produces no philosopher, historian, reformer, religious scholar, author, poet, scientist, nor people who can speak and write to change the attitudes of our undisciplined, confused and down-trodden masses.

If a student does not qualify for engineering, medical and civil service, he is not considered a “good” student and his abilities and skills are doubted. Almost all our science students opt for engineering or medicine, with little or no interest in natural sciences while many of our Art students opt for CSS/ PMS to become a part of the British legacy of the civil service.

Was Albert Einstein an engineer or Karl Marx a civil servant? Was Allama Iqbal a commissioner or was William Shakespeare a government official? Did all of them use their education to make a living?

Education has become a formality, a status symbol and a doubtful investment for future gains; industry where teachers are machines and students, the currency notes.

They used their education in its real terms and brought revolutionary changes in society. Das Kapital was Karl Marx’s major work which he spent about 30 years writing and it had such a great and lasting influence on the world. Allama Iqbal was a PhD and could have lived his life in a well off manner by joining civil service under the British government, but he knew too well about the real spirit of education.

That is how our students should use their education. Man has achieved lasting respect due to knowledge and vast study but we need a well defined, cause-oriented and an ideologically concrete educational system. We need specialists. We need strong and authentic philosophers, authors, orators, educated politicians, mathematicians, scientists, PhD religious scholars, not commissioners, to bring a revolutionary change in our people.

A historian is better than a doctor or an assistant director in Pakistan, if he has analytical skills in history and knows how to use historical knowledge to change the people in our country.

Biofuels: Think Outisde The Barrel

2009-02-08T11:56:00.021+05:00

Rising oil prices have led to an increased interest in biofuels as an alternative energy source.

Bioenergy is produced from organic matter or biomass. Biomass produced in a sustainable manner becomes a renewable energy source. It stores chemical energy that can be used to produce power and heat. Biofuels are energy carriers derived from biomass. Some historic and conventional sources of bioenergy are fuel wood, charcoal and animal dung. There are two generations of biofuels; First generation biofuels and second generation biofuels.

First generation Biofuels:

First generation bio-fuels are derived from food crops. Most important among them are;

Ethanol
Biodiesel

Ethanol can be made form sugars (e.g. sugar beets, sugarcane); grains (maize and wheat), cellulose and waste products. Sugar from Brazil and Maize from USA comprise around 80% of global ethanol production. In energy terms, ethanol accounts for almost 90% of current total biofuel use. Biodiesel is made from vegetable oil or animal fats biodiesel mostly produced and used in Europe.

Second Generation Biofuels:

Second generation biofuels are derived from the residual non-food parts of crops, such as stem, leaves and husks that are left behind once the food crop has been extracted. Second generation biofuels also include other crops that are not used for food purpose such as Switch Grass. Second generation biofuels are not likely to increase food prices. Also they are more helpful in mitigating climate changes as compared to first generation biofuels.

Rising oil prices have led to increased interest in biofuels as an alternative energy source. By April 2008 crude petroleum prices were as much as $120. The following section will describe the potential benefits of Bioenergy.

The potential benefits of bioenergy development are as under:

Its ability to compete with petroleum prices
Its ability to mitigate climate changes
Its capacity to reduce GHG emission
Its ability to enhance farmer’s income
Diversification of agriculture outputs
Domestic energy supply
Job creation in rural areas
Development of infrastructures

It is projected that biofuels will meet 3.2% of world road-transport fuel demand by 2030. (Source: World Energy Outlook) The primary motives behind promoting the development of bioenergy is climate change mitigation, energy security and agricultural and rural development. But can biofuels reality deliver? There is also a negative facet of the story. There are several challenges posed by the increased usage of bioenergy.

Growth of bioenergy sector may lead to:
Food shortages,
Water shortages,
Malnutrition
Rise in the food prices,
Soil erosion,
Deforestation
and many other challenges that are still unknown to us.

In the following section of this article, we will try to have a clear view of challenges of bioenergy.

CHALLENGES OF BIOENERGY

(A)-Diversion of Food to Fuel and Rise in Food Prices:

Availability of food can be threatened to the extent that land, land, water and other productive resources are diverted from food production to biofuel production. According to a study, in 2008, 24% of US maize crop projected to go into ethanol production. In 2007, 54% of Brazil’s sugar-cane crop production was used to produce ethanol. In the European Union, about 47% of vegetable oil production was used in the production of biodiesel causing higher imports of vegetable oil to meet domestic consumption needs.

There is another risk that food and feed production will be consigned to less productive land, which may result in lower yields, while the most fertile lands with be cultivated for high-value fuel crops. Agrofuel plantations in Brazil and Southeast Asia are being created on the territories of indigenous people and local subsistence farmers, who are being forced to give up their land, way of life, and food self sufficiency to grow fuel crops for export. The increased biofuel demand have accounted for a substantial increase in food prices.

A rise in food prices will tend to result in reduced access to food of higher value. As prices continue to rise, poor people (who represent a majority of net buyers of food) will experience a worsening of dietary quality and micronutrient intake and extremely poor people will experience an additional decrease in food energy consumption.

Decreased food consumption in terms of calories, proteins, fats and micronutrients can lead to:

Weight loss
Impaired development
Impaired mental and physical growth in children
Reduction in physical ability to do work for adults

A study suggests that in East Asian setting a 50% increase in price of food (holding income constant) will lead to decline of iron intake by 30%. As a result, prevalence of micronutrient deficiency among women and children will increase by 25%.

Recently “The Economist” Magazine editorialized:

“Roughly a billion people live on $1 a day. If, on a conservative estimate, the cost of their food rises 20% (and in some places it has risen a lot more), 100 Million people could be forced back to absolute poverty.”

(B)-Increased GHG Emissions Connected with Biofuel Production:

Biofuel production can disturb GHG emissions balance through increased GHG emissions that may result from burning forests to clear land for crop cultivation, which causes less absorption of carbon dioxide and hence GHG concentration increases in the biosphere, which may result in more global warming.

Key sources of emissions from bioenergy development are:

Land Conversion
Mechanization
Fertilizer use at feedstock production stage
Use of non-renewable energy in processing and transport

(C)-Expanded Bioenergy Sector Poses a Challenge of Water Scarcity:

Development of bioenergy sector may lead to water shortages.
Use of sugarcane as a feedstock is particularly water intensive.
Increased cultivation of biofuel crops could result into loss of availability of drinking water in many regions of Earth.
Water scarcity in countries of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa is a cause of concern for agricultural productivity, health and sanitation.

More Challenges:

(D)-Water Pollution and Soil Erosion:

Biofuel Crops such as soybean and corn contribute to soil erosion and water pollution and require large amount of fertilizer, pesticides and fuel to grow, harvest and dry. Also poorly managed input use in bioenergy crop cultivation could pollute drinking water, adversely affecting human and animal health.

(E)-Threat to Biodiversity:

Planning for expanding bioenergy sector involve the creation of large scale mono-cropping plantation, which threaten some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the Earth. The threat to wild biodiversity from bioenergy growth is associated with land-use change. When areas such as natural forests are converted for feedstock production, the loss of biodiversity may be significant.

FAO High Level Conference:

At June 3-5, 2008 Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) High Level Conference on “World Food Security: The Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy” took place. The conversion of foodstuffs like maize, sugar and palm oil into biofuels was one of the most controversial issues in that High Level Conference. During the summit the biofuel giants, USA and Brazil remarked against countries that fear the harmful effects of bioenergy and under their pressure, the final declaration avoided negative language on this issue. US and Brazil states that bioenergy present “Challenges and Opportunities” and call for an “International Dialogue” on the matter.

On the other hand, 3 member states of FAO, Argentine, Cuba and Venezuela did not adopt the declaration on the grounds that rich and powerful states want to block true solutions to world hunger and condemned monopolies on agriculture.

In the conference, a lack of focus on the development of second generation biofuels seemed a surprising aspect, because first-generation biofuels compete with food crops. Also first-generation biofuels contribute to climate change which is a serious challenge to food security.

Managing Bioenergy - The Global Perspective:

The different viewpoints on managing bioenergy sector globally can be summarized under three main options:

Business as usual
Moratorium
Intergovernmental Consensus Building

The “Business as usual” option focuses continuing along the path taken so far. The “Moratorium” option denotes a temporary prohibition of production. Intergovernmental Consensus building on sustainable bioenergy sector assumes that policy making on sustainable biofuels is necessary but may not be sufficient for sustainable bioenergy development.

Bioenergy and Climate Change- The Challenge of Sustainable Development:
To develop the full potential of bioenergy so as to mitigate abrupt global climate changes, growth has to be managed in a sustainable way to meet requirements related to socio-economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability. The emerging bioenergy market should build upon

following lessons to meet the above described challenges:
Proper management and appropriate policies can make bioenergy development more pro-poor and environmentally sustainable. Poor farmers might be able to grow energy crops on degraded lands, not suitable for food production. But appropriate fertilizer management, soil type and climatic conditions are to be considered in order to prevent soil erosion, environmental problems, GHG emissions and harmful climate changes.

Proper research and institutional arrangements can prevent a negative impact on food availability, climate and poverty. Bioenergy sector is labor intensive. Optimized production will open new vistas for employment (without disturbing ecosystems). A study shows that in 1997, in Brazil, the ethanol sector employed about 1 Million people.

Conclusion:

Taking all these factors into account, it is clear that International Community is facing difficulties in coping with the challenges posed by Climate change and Bioenergy. On one hand, climate changes and current bioenergy policies and practices run the risk of undermining food security and degrading ecosystems through deforestation and agrochemical pollution. On the other hand well-managed “second generation” biofuels can contribute to a more sustainable energy future and climate change adaptation. Thus it can be concluded that the challenges posed by Climate change and Bioenergy are grave, without any doubt, but research is underway to manage biofuels in a global perspective and it could help us in overcoming many problems including Climate Change Mitigation, if managed successfully.

Remedies for Improvement in Educational System of Pakistan

2009-02-08T00:12:00.009+05:00

Pakistan education system needs to improve instantly because it does not meet with the standard required for the progress and dignity in the world as well as for the survival in the modern world. Our children are a sacred trust provided to each generation. Maximizing the potential of each individual requires a system that enables each child to understand that she/he is respected, valuable, and capable of learning. We have to develop an effective strategy to empowering the next generation. The population of students in Pakistan is increasing day by day but the biggest challenge is to ensure that the education imparted to these students is effective in supplying them with the necessary skills to fully contribute to society and economy. Improving the quality of education system requires a multi-faceted approach in order to improve the effectiveness of the learning process.

Our entire educational system requires re-structuring. Political instability is one major reason of disastrous situation of educational system. Our political leader are running schools on business model, we have to get out of it, politicians should realize that they should work for the common goal of increasing the literacy rate in Pakistan than searching their own benefits. Since this government has been re-built there is observed huge rises in fee. We have to get the business model out of the schools, and put our culture behind the concept that learning enriches everyone for life. To love learning is the greatest gift a child can come away with. If it is internalize, children will use all the resources we can make available to them: other people, the internet, the real world, books, art, everything to learn. We need to develop, the academic and leadership skills in student at all levels whether high school, college, the workplace, and civic life which help them to succeed, through education.

Although many efforts have been put in this regard but we have to check whether we are putting right efforts or just striking in the dark. Some of the remedies are to pay children to do their homework or when they get a good grade! With that as their only incentive, education becomes merely a means to a goal, and learning cannot happen. We are running schools on a business model, as if children are objects that learn the same, can be molded the same, and if that doesn't happen, the teacher is to blame. Learning isn't a thing but a process taking time and practice that may not show up on test taking day but sometime down the road when the parts click together--just as w/ any of us when we try to really learn and understand something new. And we all learn differently because we are individuals.

Pakistan has been lagged behind in the world's technology. Computers and computer-based communications and information systems are opening up new opportunities in virtually every field of human endeavor. The urgent need of hour is to broaden access to computer and information science skills and, through those skills, to improve economic opportunities and more fruitful participation in virtually every dimension of modern life. The most talented students and people from Pakistan are attracted to foreign countries in thrust of research and development; this is the major force that can not be ignored. The greatest effect of brain drain on any country is what is seen in Pakistan today; rampant corruption, poor administrations, lack of motivation and a fast diminishing nationalism. We have to stop this continuous brain drain from our country for the sake of welfare of our nation. These great scholars after getting education from abroad must be attracted back to their motherland so that they may help in developing their own country than working abroad. If we help to achieve this benchmark, we can inspect a major positive change in our educational system and resulting financial and national development because “Education is the only way to restore the competitive edge of the nation as a whole”.

Education is a life-long asset. It should have exponential rewards as the students become members of the community with a civic conscience. We need to find out volunteer adults possessed with talent that can be shared with our young people to further educate them. In this way we can engage the youth talent in very efficient manner. Such volunteers should deliver their learning and experiences to the youth free of cost. Developed countries like USA are competing world today on basis of such talent sharing activities. Citizen Schools in USA is a real model in this regard which provide education for disadvantaged students where talented adults teach the youth free of cost. The rewards for all involved are lasting. We need the same reforms in order to improve our educational system. The government needs to encourage educated young adults to assist in nation's re-creation. The sprightly, energized, and inspired recent graduates and other adults who have grown tired of the endless search for an entry level position. Creating a web of mentors from professional fields supporting students to graduation is extremely important. We must reduce the high school dropout rate intelligently and efficiently, as well as support completion in higher education. We need institutions which make a difference in the lives of our country's children by providing them with invaluable learning experiences, mentorship and a hands-on exposure to the 21st century skills they will need in order to contribute to society as they join the workforce. One in four Pakistani students is dropping out of school and the situation is even more dismal for low-income and minority students. Our society must develop a capable workforce and, in order to accomplish that goal, education can't remain an insider's game. We need to inspire more talent in education - not only full-time teachers, but also volunteers who bridge the school day and after-school learning hours. Government efforts are always required in this regard. For poor or needy students government should provide special grant as decade of evidence shows that when disadvantaged students spend their afternoons on well-structured academics and real-world learning projects with community members, they outperform their peers across the board. We need to recognize that the dominant method of teaching—by feeding facts to students—needs to be replaced by a new method that engages youth in the learning process and develops minds by encouraging problem solving, decision making, and creativity Government should bring education to thousands of children who use to spend their days begging from train passengers on the platforms rather than attending schools. By establishing these “Platform Schools” at train stations, we can provide a creative atmosphere which offers children the basic levels of academic and life education necessary to allow them to work productively and contribute to their communities.

Female Education: A major problem in education in Pakistan has been the low rate of female participation and the substantial disparity between males and females in educational achievement. The governments in Pakistan have generally been less than enthusiastic in augmenting employment options for women or in providing legal support for women's participation in the labor force. Therefore, a majority of women end up doing domestic chores or making or marketing handicrafts or embroidery products, figures for which are not entered into the labor statistics of the country. Officially, therefore, only 13 percent of women were shown as a part of the labor force. In fact, false notions of "propriety" induce families to conceal the extent of employment or work among women. All these factors—social and religious conservatism, restriction on the mobility of women, fear of "losing honor", perceived loss of dignity and status—have contributed to the widely held perception among parents in conservative urban families and generally in rural areas that the academic curriculum in schools is irrelevant to women's future roles as homemakers. To raise the literacy level, it is urgently important to appreciate woman in every field of education. There are certain medical fields which typical associate to women so they must not be deprived of gaining the knowledge of those skills.

Another dilemma observed is that, all our educational institutions are either government or totally private with very little semi-government associations. The result is wide range of discrimination between the students. Those from private sector are found very efficient in most regards but they typically belong to high class families as private schools and colleges are affordable for them only, while most of those students which come from government institutions are found less efficient and lesser confident in comparison. It is very necessary for the government to make joint ventures with private sector to produce semi-government institutions accessible to middle-class students as well. In this way such institutions can be self-efficient to improve student’s learning process with a standard.

Examination System in Pakistan badly needs amendments. As Academics play a very important part in a country's welfare and development, our Examination System should be improved. To resolve discrepancies in examination system, people should have no access to the person checking the papers. Examination centres should be improved. High quality staff must be appointed. Rules should be made strict. Time limit must be made flexible i.e. a student should be allowed as much time as one requires for completing the exam. This might prove helpful for the prosperity of our country. We are not going to sit in exam to understand whatever we have studied but we want to qualify for the next class after learning exams with passing marks. We are not interested in getting something after one year in a class but we are keen to get admission in next class of high standard. It is our examination system which is spoiling the inner and real charm of students. It is not providing us real and practical people but studious ones. Government needs to work on this sector by the help of Higher Education Commission in a dedicated manner.

Teaching staffs require major alterations at all level to enhance the institutional capacity of all organizations. The lack of sufficient manpower is the most serious problem at the district and sub-district level. Here again government participation for rising educational budget is the requirement. At present, politicians hand out teaching jobs as patronage appointments. Federal and provincial funds provided for education sometimes remain unused, especially in rural areas, since feudal landowners are opposed to educating "their" people.

It is also required to continuously monitor the performance of system by collecting reliable information about the state of education is to conduct standardized testing that measures student performance against national curriculum goals. These can be used to compare learning achievement across schools, districts and regions over time. Pakistan currently has one institution that conducts research on educational issues, the Academy of Educational Planning and Management, which conducts research on basic education. However, its abilities are hampered by inadequate funds, no institutionalized basis for collecting, processing and analyzing data, no technical support staff and little influence in policy making. Student assessments which are credible and objective play an important role in this process by providing critical feedback on what and how well students are learning. The National Education Assessment System (NEAS) was established to undertake systematic evaluations of student learning achievement across Pakistan and share the analytical results with both policy makers and practitioners to inform the education quality reform process. With data that is comparable across regions and over time, NEAS can identify gaps and bring about improvements in the curriculum, teaching and classroom support practices, as well as in the development of learning aids. The longer term sustainability of NEAS will depend not only its establishment as an autonomous body and but also the degree of integration between the federal and regional assessment centers so that cross learning and implementation of best practice is facilitated.