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Nanotech could turn planes into birds
UPI -- Sometime in the not-too-distant future, if you look out the window of a brand-new airplane and see the wing flexing oddly, it might not be cause for alarm, but instead the product of nanotechnology research now underway by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Nanotechnology -- the science of manipulating individual atoms or molecules in order to build never-before-seen substances from the bottom up -- will help create aircraft that can sense and respond to the environment in ways more like birds than machines.

posted by West 9:52 AM

 

Gene therapy cures immune disease in kids
MILAN, Italy, June 27 (UPI) -- A new gene therapy technique has rewritten the DNA of bone marrow cells in two young children suffering from a rare and debilitating disease, boosting their severely weakened immune systems and offering them the promise of a more normal life, Italian researchers report. Not only does this technique offer immune-system-dysfunctional children a life outside the confines of their sterile "bubbles," the team that performed the procedure said, but it also could help combat a host of other blood system and immunodeficiency disorders. "The most immediate extension is going to be AIDS gene therapy," Claudio Bordignon, a gene therapist at the San Raffaele-Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy, told United Press International. "The trial is already approved by the Italian authorities and is expected to start in mid July."

posted by West 4:26 PM

 

Teleportation is Real
Australian scientist Ping Koy Lam has proved that teleportation is real and can actually be done. Scientists at the Australian National University (ANU) have made a beam of light disappear in one place and reappear in another a short distance away. . . . If teleportation is possible for sub-atomic particles, it may be possible for spacecraft in the future. It can definitely be used in communications, enabling faster transfer of data. . . . "What we have demonstrated here is that we can take billions of photons, destroy them simultaneously, and then recreate them in another place," Lam says. . . . Quantum teleporting is problematic for humans because the original would be destroyed in the process of creating the replica, meaning the astronaut himself wouldn’t make it to another solar system, but his “clone” would. Are there any astronauts who would accept those criteria?

posted by Lorenzo 7:21 AM

 

Researchers grow organ from stem cells
MELBOURNE, Australia, June 21 (UPI) -- Researchers have grown a functioning thymus from tissue-specific stem cells in the body of a mouse, opening the way for the treatment of AIDS and cancer. The thymus is a small organ crucial to the human immune system. Located above the heart, it creates, programs and distributes special white cells known as T-cells -- the "T" is for thymus-derived lymphocytes -- which fight infection by reacting against foreign organisms and tissues. It is the key to good health because, without it, the body has no protection against viruses. "It's one of the least glamorous but most essential organs," Dr. Jason Gill, an immunologist at Monash University and one of the lead researchers, told United Press International.

posted by West 7:35 PM

 

Scientist mix spiders with goats
news.com.au -- As comic book hero Spider-Man fills cinemas with his webby adventures, prepare to meet an equally astonishing creation - Spidergoat. Scientists have combined the DNA from a goat and spider to create an animal which produces silk that is five times stronger than steel. The fibre, derived from the goats' milk, harnesses the huge strength of silk spun by spiders. The breakthrough could be worth millions because the silkmilk fibre can be used to make body armour which is far tougher than normal bullet-proof vests – while weighing little more than a cotton shirt. The hybrid goats were created by the insertion of a single gene from an orb-weaving spider into a fertilised goat egg. The amazing genetically-engineered goats are outwardly normal, but carry the gene responsible for production of a spider silk protein. Each goat is only 1/70,000th spider, but when fully grown the females produce a milk which can be treated to produce a fibre with spider-silk strength. The animals are believed to be the first commercially-viable creatures made from the DNA of two species.

posted by West 7:29 PM

 

Cyborg: Digital Destiny and Human Possibility in the Age of the Wearable Computer
This book was written by the legendary Steven Mann of the University of Toronto. He has been working on Bio-Cyber interfaces for 20 years and has enhanced himself in many ways. He has camera implants, so he sees 360 degrees, is constantly attached to the internet & has developed sixth sense software that allows him to touch & sense
objects with his mind that are concealed from his view...& much more. . . . As if all that wasn't interesting enough, he recently became radically politicised when an AirCanada stripsearch put him in hospital when several of his implants were removed in a non surgical manner by the guards... He now is fighting the world's first Cyborg-Rights case. . . . cyborg, n. a person whose physiological functioning is aided by or dependent upon a mechanical or electronic device. Steve Mann is a cyborg, and the inventor of the wearable computer, called the WearComp. He sees the world as images imprinted onto his retina by rays of laser light. This allows him to transmit his viewpoint live to the Internet, block out billboards and other unwanted visual stimuli, and turn his world into a series of hyperlinks. Constantly connected to the WearComp system, Mann has all the capabilities of a standard office at his disposal, even as he utilizes shrinking technologies to turn himself into a portable movie studio. The first person to live in total constant intimate contact with the computer, Steve Mann exists at once in the real and virtual worlds, living an entirely videographic existence, seeing everything around him, including himself, through a wearable computer. Over the past twenty years, Steve Mann has been his own human guinea pig, testing his various wearable computer prototypes on himself. In Cyborg, he uses his own unique experiences to assess the state of wearable computers and their potential impact on our lives, articulating a vision for a tomorrow that sees humanity freer, safer, and smarter in ways most of us can only imagine. Mann is fascinated by the possibilities of the cyborg future, but he does not shrink away from frankly discussing the dangers of a post-human age in which our computers come to control us. In this unique ground-breaking book, Mann charts the development of a wearable computer industry, and warns of dangers to our liberty, privacy, and democracy. He contrasts those dangers with his own sweeping inclusive vision of a wearable computing age that brings about new ways to teach, learn, make art, communicate, and even think. Part biography, part breath-taking manifesto, part startling look into the very near future, Cyborg is a powerful book that challenges preconceptions and invites readers to enter the mind of one of the most fascinating thinkers of our time.

posted by Lorenzo 2:46 PM

 

Wet wiring humanity: Trade in your mobile phone for a MOLAR phone?
bbc.co.uk -- Soon you could be swapping your mobile phone for a molar phone. Royal College of Art students in London have developed a phone that fits inside a tooth. The concept device picks up signals with a radio receiver and uses a tiny vibrating plate to convey them as sound along the jawbone to a person's ear. The designers said the mini-molar phone could be implanted in a tooth during routine dental surgery.

posted by West 7:53 AM

 

Baby Star 'Winks,' Hints at Nascent Planet System
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Sun-like star just out of infancy has winked at astronomers, indicating its eclipse by cosmic dust and rocks, the stuff of which planets like Earth could possibly form, scientists reported on Wednesday. The star, located in the Unicorn constellation about 2,400 light-years from Earth, disappeared from view for regular periods of about 48 days over the past six years. Its disappearance suggested an eclipse, but not a typical one caused by an intervening planet, star or moon. Only a collection of smaller objects, like dust and rocks, could cause the long eclipse the astronomers saw. Known as KH 15D, the star is only about 3 million years old, a prime age for monitoring by astronomers interested in our solar system's planet-forming past. "We've monitored thousands of these stars over the years and this is the only that behaves this way," said astronomer William Herbst of Wesleyan University, in Connecticut.

posted by West 7:50 AM

 

Could bionic eye end blindness?
(Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Kristi Petersen, CNN, June 13, 2002)
"We are now at a watershed," Joseph Lazzaro, author of "Adaptive Technologies for Learning and Work Environments," told CNN. "We are at the beginning of the end of blindness with this type of technology." . . . The Dobelle Institute is among several institutions trying in essence to create a new cornea through technology. The cornea allows light into the interior of the eye. . . . Dobelle is using a digital video camera mounted on glasses to capture an image and send it to a small computer on the patient's belt: The images are processed and sent to electrodes implanted in the patient's visual cortex. The electrodes stimulate the brain, producing a pattern of bright spots that form an image. . . . said one of the first eight implant patients to test the technology, a man who asked to be identified only as Jens. "You are no longer blind. You might be blind to some objects, some situations, but you are not totally blind anymore," . . . A Canadian farmer and father of eight, Jens lost his sight 18 years ago in an accident. Now he's able to navigate through rooms, find doors and even drive a car to some degree. . . . The black and white image Jens sees is not solid, but resembles a dot matrix pattern. It's like looking at a sport scoreboard with different light patterns illuminated to show different scores. . . . "It may not work for people blinded as children or as infants, because the visual cortex did not develop normally," he says. "But I would say (it will work) for the vast majority of the blind -- 98 to 99 percent." . . . NASA hopes to begin human testing this year on ceramic detectors that could be implanted in the retina to take over the job of damaged retinal cells. And the Office of Naval Research goes one step further -- it says it is on the way to developing a chip that would replicate the entire nerve center of the retina.

posted by Lorenzo 12:16 PM

 

Who’s keeping your genetic keys? Is your DNA safe from Big Brother? Questions about DNA testing, confidentiality and ethics...
msnbc.com -- Your DNA holds the keys to many secrets: your identity, your true parentage, your inborn talents, your chances of falling prey to a wide range of diseases. How do you feel about handing those keys to someone else? The answer could determine how you proceed with the search for your family roots.

posted by West 9:41 AM

 

Questioning the Big Bang
msnbc.com -- How did the universe begin, and how will it end? Among cosmologists, the mainstream belief is that the universe began with a bang billions of years ago, and will fizzle out billions of years from now. But two theorists have just fired their latest volley at that belief, saying there could be a timeless cycle of expansion and contraction. It’s an idea as old as Hinduism, updated for the 21st century. THE “CYCLIC MODEL,” developed by Princeton University’s Paul Steinhardt and Cambridge University’s Neil Turok, made its highest-profile appearance yet Thursday on Science Express, the Web site for the journal Science. But past incarnations of the idea have been hotly debated within the cosmological community for the past year — and Steinhardt acknowledges that he and Turok have an uphill battle on their hands. “It will take people a while to get used to it,” Steinhardt told MSNBC.com. “This introduces a number of concepts that are quite unfamiliar, even to a cosmologist.”

posted by West 9:38 AM

 

Dr. Stephen Wolfram: Did This Man Just Rewrite Science?
The New York Times -- "A New Kind of Science" may be the scientific publishing event of the season, but whether it is a revolution in science as well must await the judgment of Dr. Wolfram's peers. So far, some seem amazed by his courage, others by his chutzpah. In the book Dr. Wolfram argues that the ability of such a simple system to engage in complicated-looking behavior means that scientists have underestimated nature, seeking complex reasons where simple ones will do.

posted by West 9:23 AM

 

Nanoscience offers the potential for a second Industrial Revolution
UPTON, N.Y., June 14 (UPI) -- Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said Friday the Brookhaven National Laboratory will be the nation's next center of research into nanoscience, where matter is manipulated on the atomic and molecular scale. The new Center for Functional Nanomaterials will help researchers create better solar cells, superconductors and other scientific advances at the nanoscale, Abraham told laboratory staff. "Nanoscience offers the potential for a second Industrial Revolution," Abraham said. "To realize this promise ... means that our scientists must work together as never before. You need major facilities for this kind of work, facilities with the best new technology and the best minds that America has to offer, and we believe we have all of that here at Brookhaven." The "Nanocenter" will work with industry and academic researchers to better understand the physical, chemical and magnetic properties of materials at the atomic scale, as well as determine what applications these nanomaterials can provide. One of the lab's existing research tools, the National Synchrotron Light Source, will be particularly useful as it generates intense X-rays that allow scientists to examine nanostructures as they develop.

posted by West 9:05 AM

 

Solar system similar to ours discovered
Yahoo! News -- US astronomers announced the discovery of a solar system similar to our own, at a press conference at NASA's headquarters here. Astronomers said they had identified an extra-solar planet orbiting this star at about the same distance Jupiter orbits the sun. They discovered a total of 15 extra-solar planets. University of California at Berkley astronomy professor Geoffrey Marcy discovered the star, named 55 Cancri, 15 years ago, jointly with his colleague at Washington's Carnegie Institution Paul Butler. In 1996, Marcy and Butler announced the discovery of a first planet orbiting 55 Cancri "in 14.6 days at a distance only one-tenth that from Earth to the sun." 55 Cancri is located 41 million light-years from the Earth, in the constellation of Cancer. The star, believed to be around five billion years old, is visible to the naked eye, astronomers said.

posted by West 3:42 PM

 

Computer 'life' said possible
TORONTO, June 12 (UPI) -- Scientists are on the verge of creating "life in a computer" -- a simulation of a bacterium so detailed it could partly replace living cells in drug research, researchers announced Wednesday. The so-called CyberCell project will have "a profound influence on the way we do life sciences in the future," said Michael Ellison, director of the Institute for Biomolecular Design at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. CyberCell, a consortium of Canadian and U.S. research groups and private companies, aims to create a model of the common bacterium E. coli, found in the bowels of most mammals, including humans, Ellison told attendees of the annual meeting of the Biotechnology Industry Organization. "We will see significant use of this technology within three years," Ellison told United Press International later. One possible application, he said, would be to use the electronic model to learn how to "re-program" living bacteria into what he called "smart pills," which could be used to deliver drugs to cure diseases.

posted by West 11:10 PM

 

Panoramic View of 'Pillars of Creation' Unveiled
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. telescope has snapped a high-resolution panoramic view of the "Pillars of Creation," the subject of one of the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope's most famous images. Located at the heart of the Eagle Nebula, a favorite feature for amateur astronomers, the Pillars are gaseous nurseries for newborn stars. The largest of the three Pillars in the 1995 Hubble image is about four light-years from base to tip. A light-year is about 6 trillion miles, the distance light travels in a year.

posted by West 11:05 PM

 

Advocates of Cloning Ban May Try New Approach
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With the U.S. Senate unable to agree on rules for a debate on human cloning, the lead proponent of a cloning ban said on Wednesday he may seek to force the issue by trying to include the legislation or parts of it in unrelated bills. President Bush has called for a ban on all forms of human cloning and the House has voted for one. The Senate is split in two camps, both cutting across traditional party and ideological lines. Both sides want to outlaw any attempt to create a cloned human baby. They are divided on whether to allow so-called therapeutic cloning to create embryos to mine stem cells for promising medical research. The embryos are destroyed in that process. Senate leaders had hoped to open the cloning debate this week, but Kansas Republican Sam Brownback, lead author of the broadest cloning ban bill, balked, saying the ground rules were "stacked against us."

posted by West 11:03 PM

 

Iceland Study Provides Detail Map of Human Genome
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Using a genetically pure pool of families from Iceland, genetics researchers said on Sunday they had created a more detailed map of the human genetic sequence -- one that can be used to help fill in the gaps in existing maps. It should help medical researchers looking for genes involved in disease and will help scientists who are mapping the human genome to fill in their many gaps, said the researchers, at Reykjavik, Iceland-based deCODE Genetics Inc.

posted by West 6:56 PM

 

TINKERING WITH 3-D: Trees next biotech crop?
TORONTO, June 10 (UPI) -- Genetically modified trees would grow faster and yield more wood, but like many other crops would be unable to reproduce without human help, scientists said Monday during the annual meeting of the Biotechnology Industry Organization. Such changes "will add significant value to trees once we are able to do that," said Purdue University Professor Charles Michler, director of the school's Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center. Other scientists attending the session warned biotech trees could rouse the kind of anger that has been aimed at genetically modified crops, such as corn and soybeans. "If it's not done right, this could be really controversial," Michael Fernandez, director of science for the Washington-based Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, told United Press International.

posted by West 6:51 PM

 

TINKERING WITH 3-D: Biotech aids farmers
TORONTO, June 10 (UPI) -- Genetically modified crops have increased yields, lowered farmers' production costs and prevented the use of millions of pounds of pesticides and herbicides, a study released Monday concludes. Critics of such crops -- which include corn, soybeans and cotton -- have argued that biotechnology does not improve the bottom line for farmers, said study author Leonard Gianessi, of the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy, a non-profit research organization in Washington, D.C. "It does and it has," Gianessi told a news conference during the annual meeting of the Biotechnology Industry Organization or BIO. In 2001, Gianessi said, the eight main crops that U.S. farmers grew showed a 4 million pound increase in yields. Combined with $1.2 billion in lower production costs, it contributed to an extra $1.5 billion in farmers' pockets, he said, adding the farmers used 46 million pounds less pesticide and herbicide.

posted by West 6:50 PM

 

US needs 'crisp' nanotech plan
WASHINGTON, June 10 (UPI) -- The National Nanotechnology Initiative, an effort to broaden understanding of how to manipulate matter at the atomic level, has had a good start but needs sharper focus, the National Research Council said Monday. Samuel Stupp, a materials science professor and chairman of the NRC committee that reviewed the NNI, said understanding the nanoscale, where individual atoms and molecules interact, cannot be limited to a single field of study. "To realize the potential of nanoscale science and technology in advanced medicine will require research at the interface between engineering, the physical sciences and biology," Stupp said in introducing the report. "(Developing such science) will require generations of interdisciplinary scientists and engineers who can learn and operate across traditional boundaries."

posted by West 6:43 PM

 

Retired neurologist dispels the myth of ADHD
Insight: You are among a small number of physicians publicly to challenge the psychiatric community about this diagnosis. Why do you think so many doctors are diagnosing ADHD when they, too, must know there is no scientific data to support it?

FAB: Most physicians, like the public, have bought into the whole psychiatric line. The populace at large has been so brainwashed by this "tyranny of the experts" that they cannot bring themselves to believe things are other than what the psychiatric industry and the pharmaceutical companies tell them. The population has been told again and again that these "diseases" exist, despite the fact that there is no scientific proof to back up their claims.

People have been lied to so often that they can't disabuse themselves of the notion that these so-called diseases are chemical abnormalities of the brain. Psychiatry never has proved that ADHD, let alone depression, anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder [OCD], even exists. Yet this hasn't stopped doctors from diagnosing them. It simply was decided during the early days of psychopharmacology — of psychiatric drugs — that these were nice theories and they were fed to the public as fact.

Insight: With the diagnosis comes the "fix," the prescription pills that reportedly help control these diseases.

FAB: Yes, that's right, and like the unscientific diagnosis no one really knows how these drugs work on the brain. It's all just theory at this point.

posted by West 7:16 PM

 

Genetic engineering, conservation and development. Who owns the building blocks of life?

As we tinker more and more with the building blocks of carbon based life, the human family will be faced with the age old issue of ownership. Who will lay claim to those blocks and new combinations of them, and more importantly, does anyone own them at all?

Earth Times -- Who is to own nature? Market society often bundles complex rights of access,transferability and control and calls it ownership. This bundle of rights is especially complicated in natural systems -- embedded in international treaties, national law, and local usage. Distribution of rights is vigorously contested. How rights -- public, private, and hybrid -- are defined and distributed present both dilemmas and opportunities for conservation and development. Preservation of biodiversity depends on the interaction of natural systems with human systems. Conservation in modern times typically relies on public authority, often ultimately on public ownership. But who is the public? Ranchers, foresters and miners in the American West contest the claims of Washington, D.C. and federal agencies, often in violent ways. "Indigenous peoples" in poor nations contest national parks and protected areas. The genomics revolution makes possible ownership of nature on a much smaller scale -- beginning with genes. Ownership of the "building blocks of life" is hotly debated globally, and increasingly in the United States as well -- a nation with a very strong property regime. It is crucial that social and policy scientists understand the technical implications of this transformation, just as scientists need to examine implications of the evolving property systems that affect both access to nature and the incentive structure surrounding inventions. Conflicts over ownerships in large landscapes are pervasive in history as in contemporary times. The results of conflicts are frequently inimical to both conservation and development. As the possible scale of ownership grows smaller with genomics, disputes move from landscapes to cells. Strong property-rights regimes are conventionally considered the sine qua non condition for innovation. The classic case is pharmaceutical,where lucrative "hits" are rare and development and testing costs very high. Patents on both process innovations and end products are seen as necessary to spur investment. Yet is it possible that in fields of rapidly changing technology, conventional theory is turned on its head: strong property rights stifle innovation by increasing transaction costs. The common analogy is to words in literature: surely one cannot establish intellectual property rights in the individual words used by a novelist, but it seems right that the paragraphs are worthy of protection. Perhaps even the sentences. But what if the sentences are derived from folk proverbs, street slang, remembered conversations -- so tangled over time that it is difficult to tell where innovation starts and heritage stops. Patenting of words would quickly put a halt to much creative work in literature.

posted by West 10:31 AM

 

Scientists link emerging diseases with environmental destruction.
Earth Times -- Of all the various brewing biological crises of our time, the issue of emerging diseases is among the more complex and far reaching. HIV/AIDS was unheard of just two decades ago, as was the West Nile Virus. The scientific community has been looking at how and why these new pathogens make their way into the human population, and has come up with little in the way of answers. Scientists at the Wildlife Trust are beginning to make the link between the emergence of new diseases and environmental degradation. Wildelife trust is a conservation organization with the mission of protecting endangered species from extinction and their habitats around the world. The groups' researchers have shown that habitat destruction and species loss are ecosystem disruptions that can alter disease transmission patterns. "The loss of species, the degradation of ecological processes and the contamination of the web of life are working in concert to diminish human and environmental health on this planet," said Dr. Alonso Aguirre, director of conservation medicine at Wildlife Trust. "The global loss of biological diversity affects the well being of both animal and people."

posted by West 10:25 AM

 

First Strike or Asteroid Impact? The Urgent Need to Know the Difference
space.com -- Military strategists and space scientists that wonder and worry about a run-in between Earth and a comet or asteroid have additional worries in these trying times. With world tensions being the way they are, even a small incoming space rock, detonating over any number of political hot-spots, could trigger a country's nuclear response convinced it was attacked by an enemy. Getting to know better the celestial neighborhood, chock full of passer-by asteroids and comets is more than a good idea. Not only can these objects become troublesome visitors, they are also resource-rich and scientifically bountiful worlds. Slowly, an action plan is taking shape. Noted asteroid and comet experts met here May 23-27, taking part in the National Space Society's International Space Development Conference 2002.

posted by West 9:20 AM

 

Universe is a computer
(Philip Ball, Nature, June 3, 2002)
Seth Lloyd, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, has estimated how much information the Universe can contain, and how many calculations it has performed since the Big Bang. . . . To simulate the Universe in every detail since time began, the computer would have to have 1090 bits - binary digits, or devices capable of storing a 1 or a 0 - and it would have to perform 10120 manipulations of those bits. Unfortunately there are probably only around 1080 elementary particles in the Universe. . . . scientists like to compare everything to computers. DNA is sometimes described as digital, and the human brain, consciousness and life itself are discussed as though they all involve computation. . . . complexity guru Stephen Wolfram suggests in his recent book A New Kind of Science that all of reality might result from a kind of algorithm, like a computer program, being enacted again and again on the underlying building blocks of space and matter. . . . What, then, is the Universe computing? "Its own dynamical evolution", says Lloyd. As the computation proceeds, reality unfolds.

posted by Lorenzo 3:28 PM

 

Monkey Think, Monkey Do in Brain Experiment
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Monkeys implanted with special electrodes moved a cursor on a computer screen just by thinking about it, and learned how to do it better with practice, scientists reported on Thursday. The experiment could eventually lead to the development of better prosthetic limbs for amputees and might even offer a way for paralyzed patients to move again. "They were able to move balls around, by thinking about it, in three-dimensional space," said Andrew Schwartz, a neural physiologist at Arizona State University who led the study. The new field, called neuroprosthetics, is small but active. In March, a team at Brown University in Rhode Island reported similar research in the journal Nature. In Schwartz's experiment, each tiny electrode was attached to a single neuron in the motor cortex, the part of the brain where movement is controlled. Two rhesus macaque monkeys were fitted with 50 to 100 electrodes, which consisted of minuscule wires about half the width of a human hair. The monkeys had been trained to play a computer game, at first using their arms, in which they had to move virtual balls around a three-dimensional virtual space. After the appropriate neurons were mapped, they were fitted with electrodes that sent signals to the computer. "We basically strapped the animals' arms down so they couldn't use their arms," Schwartz said. At first the monkeys strained to use their arms but as they learned their thoughts alone could move the cursor on the screen, they stopped trying to move.

posted by West 6:29 PM

 

Deep Vision: Increasingly available virtual-reality gear gives scientists, engineers, and planetarium visitors new perspectives... when walls become doors into virtual worlds
sciencenews.org -- A visitor to a CAVE sees—and, these days, sometimes hears, feels, and even smells—a three-dimensional world that seems to engulf him or her. That virtual world can include anything a computer can simulate, from the inside of an atom to an ancient Greek temple or the heart of the Milky Way. What's more, the CAVE dweller can move around the objects and experience them from all sides, just as he or she might in the real world. Today, 11 years after DeFanti's tailor-shop revelation, CAVEs and wall- or desk-size displays using the same technology are proliferating at universities, businesses, and military and government sites. Scientists use them to analyze data in new ways. Engineers use them to design new products with less reliance on physical prototypes. And many others, including artists, architects, and game designers, are using the systems to devise and display their creations. In short, CAVEs are coming out of the closet.

posted by West 9:48 PM

 

Dwarf galaxy swarms boost dark matter theory
cnn.com -- Scientists have discovered evidence that hordes of dark, miniature galaxies surround ordinary galaxies, lending credence to the theory that the universe is comprised mostly of cold, dark matter. The astronomers, who describe their work in an upcoming issue of the Astrophysical Journal, based their finding on an in-depth study of light from distant galaxies. The team took advantage of a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing, whereby galaxies closer to our cosmic neighborhood distort the light of galaxies farther away, much like a glass lens as it bends light. To account for light variations, the researchers concluded that hundreds of invisible dwarf galaxies must ring the background galaxies. An increasingly popular cosmological model holds that the universe contains large amounts of hidden dark matter because normal matter could not account for the mass needed to hold galaxies together.

posted by West 9:32 PM

 

Has time run out on Einstein's theory? Atomic clocks on the space station might reveal truth.
cnn.com -- Experiments with high-precision clocks in space could help shed light on whether Einstein's theory of relativity is ... well, relative. "I don't think it's really possible to throw Einstein's theory out entirely, because it certainly holds to a fantastic degree of precision," says Dr. Alan Kostelecky, professor of physics at Indiana University in Bloomington. "The question is whether at very small scales you would need to adjust the theory to account for adjustments in space-time." Atomic clocks that are scheduled to be placed on the international space station within the next few years could help researchers find out -- if station crews perform the tests Kostelecky and his colleagues are proposing. Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity postulates that the laws of physics and the speed of light are always the same to an observer moving at a constant speed. That means a coin will always fall straight down, whether you drop it while standing still or while inside a moving vehicle. Likewise, a clock on its side will tick at the same rate as a clock that is upright -- at least it will on earth. But newer theories involving gravity and particle physics have led some scientists to speculate that Einstein's idea may not hold true in space.

posted by West 9:30 PM

 

Rich Nations Have Higher Cancer Prevalence - Study
LONDON (Reuters) - Rich nations such as Sweden, Switzerland and Germany have the highest prevalence of cancer in Europe while Poland, Estonia and Slovakia have the lowest, according to a survey published on Thursday. Countries with low infant mortality and high gross domestic income tended to have higher cancer prevalence -- the number of patients with the disease at a given time -- than their poorer neighbors. The high prevalence in wealthier nations is linked, at least in part, to better detection and improved survival rates. Low prevalence is due to a low incidence of the disease but also a high mortality rate.

posted by West 4:28 PM

 

Repaired Space Camera Shows Four-Galaxy Collision
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (Reuters) - A Hubble Space Telescope camera that was broken for more than three years has roared back to life after repairs, peering through cosmic dust to snap a four-galaxy wreck and a golden star-forming ring, scientists said on Wednesday. The repaired camera is 30 percent to 40 percent more sensitive than it was before it broke, and one researcher said it will let astronomers do more science in less time. Astronomers were predictably ecstatic. "This is really fantastic. ... Studying star and planet formation ... with this new capability is going to revolutionize a very great deal of what we do," said Anneila Sargent, president of the American Astronomical Society, which is meeting this week in Albuquerque. "It really is like looking with a different kind of eye." "The Hubble Space Telescope is open again for infrared business," Ed Cheng of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center told a news conference.

posted by West 4:26 PM

 

Scientists seek superconductor secrets
UPI -- Shining extremely intense light on the two-faced behavior of certain subatomic particles, physicists are attempting to steal a revealing glimpse of the nature of substances that can act both as insulators thwarting electrical flow and conductors promoting it. This new, first-hand look at the machinations of electrons -- elementary particles with an electrical charge -- at the quantum or subatomic level where classical laws of physics are defied may help scientists gain new insight into superconductors, materials that permit electricity to flow without resistance or energy loss. The alluring potential of superconductivity, first observed in 1911, has galvanized a scientific stampede to this frontier. So far, however, all the efforts have produced are a stream of announcements of new metals, alloys and compounds that become superconducting below certain temperatures, but which are stiflingly cold from a marketing perspective. Thus nearly a century of attempts to achieve superconductivity at temperatures high enough to discard the current need for complex and expensive refrigeration remains unfulfilled. Their most valuable application so far has been in magnets for magnetic resonance imaging or MRI. But superconductors continue to give rise to grander, more far-reaching visions: of perpetual engines, trains that magnetically "float" above their tracks, super-fast computers, power lines that relay electricity with no loss of energy, and improved magnetic and electronic data storage. A better understanding of conducting-insulating materials -- whose dual role confounds traditional views of metallic conductivity -- might provide important clues and bring commercial superconductivity closer to reality.

posted by West 4:18 PM

 

Marijuana praised despite legal issues
UPI -- Marijuana appears to be very effective for treating pain and a variety of other conditions, particularly in patients who have not been helped by prescription drugs, its advocates claim, despite the debate about the legality of using the drug as a medication. "It's a very effective medication for many people who have failed to get good results from standard medications and that's why so many people are devoted to it and risking their lives and career to get this drug," Ethan Russo, a neurologist in private practice in Missoula, Mont., who has studied medicinal marijuana, told United Press International. Nine states -- Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington -- have legalized the drug for medicinal purposes, but the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has been raiding centers distributing the drug in California. This has resulted in patients, who the raids left unable to obtain marijuana, filing a lawsuit against DEA alleging the raids were unconstitutional. However, Adam Eidinger of Americans for Safe Access, which is organizing a protest at DEA offices around the country, told UPI he expects the decision, which could come as early as Thursday, to uphold the legality of the raids.

posted by West 4:16 PM

 

United Press International: 'Hydrogen economy' a decade away
ARLINGTON, Va., June 4 (UPI) -- Car buyers will see hydrogen-powered vehicles in showrooms within a couple of years, but replacing the nationwide gasoline distribution network will take much longer, experts said Tuesday. Speaking at the Future Car Congress 2002, fuel specialists discussed what sorts of national efforts are necessary to create a "hydrogen economy," in which many types of vehicles would use fuel cells to derive electricity, without creating greenhouse gases, using the universe's most abundant element.
[Hagerty comment: This is certainly a step in the right direction. However, there is much the auto companies can do right now to significantly improve gas mileage, which in turn will have many beneficial effects. Let's hope that this new fuel cell hype from Detroit isn't just another smoke screen like the promise of electric cars were ten years ago.]

posted by West 8:42 PM

 

United Press International: Fuel-cell car crosses North America
WASHINGTON, June 4 (UPI) -- Fuel-cell vehicle technology reached a durability and ruggedness landmark Tuesday as a car, running solely on electric current generated by the combination of hydrogen and oxygen, finished a cross-country trek at the Capitol lawn.

posted by West 8:40 PM

 

NASA Presses Its Search for Extraterrestrial Life
The New York Times -- One is the world of cold dark matter; the other is the world of warm wet matter. One is majestic, terrible in its bright furies of exploding stars and galaxies, abstract and far away. The other is squirmy and slithery, often gross, and as close as your fingernails. But without astronomy to provide the stage, in the form of galaxies, suns, planets, comets, sheets of cosmic radiation and that dark stuff that makes up most of the universe, there would be no place for biology, for life, to strut its stuff. The pursuit of that ancient heavenly connection has lately moved near center stage at NASA, which assembled some 100 astronomers, physicists, chemists, geologists and even a few biologists at the Space Telescope Science Institute on the Johns Hopkins University campus recently to talk about extraterrestrial life. In discussions on topics like the vagaries of interstellar weather and the reflective properties of vegetation, they debated the nature and history of life on Earth, which parts of the galaxy were suitable for life and laid plans for a generation of spacecraft that will prospect the cosmos for planets, sifting pinpoints of light for the signatures of life as humans know or can imagine it. "The search for life has come up as a major issue," said Dr. Kenneth Nealson, a professor of geobiology at the University of Southern California, which means financing, he said, which means in turn that a lot of very smart people will be looking at the problem.

posted by West 8:21 AM

 

Automakers: Fuel cell cars by 2010
ARLINGTON, Va., June 3 (UPI) -- Consumers will see attractive, affordable vehicles powered by fuel cells generating electricity from hydrogen without harmful emissions by the end of the decade, representatives from major automakers said Monday. Speaking at the Future Car Congress 2002, senior executives from General Motors, Ford, Toyota and BMW laid out some of the challenges facing fuel-cell car development. Now is the time to solve those challenges, since it would take about 20 years to replace a worldwide generation of cars, said Larry Burns, GM's vice president of research and development planning. "With the right focus, we can have affordable, profitable (fuel-cell) automobiles available by the year 2010," Burns told the conference. "From 2010 to 2020, I can envision a world where we (replace) the internal combustion engine at a significant rate."

posted by West 8:11 AM

 

Cloning used to create functioning kidney
WORCESTER, Mass., June 3 (UPI) -- Scientists have used cloning technology to create successfully functioning kidneys and implant them into cows for the first time, a major step toward proving the potential for therapeutic cloning to generate new tissues and organs for treating disease, researchers announced Monday. This opens the way to creating insulin-producing cells for treating diabetes, kidneys, hearts and even brain tissue, Robert Lanza, vice president of medical and scientific development at Worcester, Mass.-based Advanced Cell Technology and lead author of the research paper, told United Press International. It has "unlimited applications," he added.

posted by West 8:09 AM

 

Stories of modern science ... from UPI:

GLOBAL WARMING? WATCH OUT CALIFORNIA -- University of California at Santa Cruz researchers have produced a detailed picture of how the state's climate may change over the next century as a result of global warming. For example, researchers looked at the effects of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. They found CO2 will be twice the pre-industrial level well before the end of this century and possibly as soon as 2050. With CO2 doubled, the regional climate model shows higher average temperatures every month of the year in every part of the state.

PROTOZOAN NEXT UP FOR GENE SEQUENCING -- A microscopic protozoan has been targeted for genome sequencing by the National Human Genome Research Institute. Called Tetrahymena, the single-celled organism split off from an ancestor in common with humans about two billion years ago. Yet it carries many of the same genes as humans, and therefore can be used to understand the function of many human genes. Small as it is, Tetrahymena has about 30,000 genes, a similar number as humans. It reproduces quickly, doubling in numbers every two hours, which makes it inexpensive and easy to study.

posted by West 8:06 AM

 

Stories of modern science ... from UPI: SENSITIVE RAINFOREST ECOSYSTEMS; SENSITIVE RAINFOREST ECOSYSTEMS
RAINFOREST -- The slightest clearing in the vast rainforests of the Amazon can wreak havoc with the inhabitants, impeding the movement of species and disrupting their communities, the results of a 22-year investigation reveal. The study, published in the June issue of Conservation Biology, found that habitat fragmentation effects "the structure, composition and function of rainforests," researchers said. It "is far-reaching and widely felt ... increases local extinction rates for many plant and animal species; drastically alters species richness and abundance; and disrupts ecological processes, as well as creating opportunities for non-native species invasions, altering forest carbon storage and increasing vulnerability to fire."

HYDROGEN FUEL -- Automobiles powered by hydrogen fuel cells could eventually be pulling up to wastewater treatment plants for fill-ups, say Penn State University researchers, who have boosted hydrogen production 43 percent by using a continuous hydrogen release fermentation process. By using certain industrial wastewater as feedstock, the technique offers an abundant, "green," local source for hydrogen and potentially makes it a cheaper fuel than gasoline.

posted by West 11:45 AM

 

Yahoo! News - New Type of Drug-Resistant Bacteria Reaches England
LONDON (Reuters Health) - Britain's Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) on Friday reported the first case in England of a new type of antibiotic-resistant bacterium. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria are known as "superbugs" because they are so difficult to treat. The new bacterium is resistant to vancomycin as well as methicillin, and vancomycin has been one of the first-line drugs used to treat MRSA infections. While there are other drugs available to treat this new vancomycin-resistant superbug, the PHLS says the finding underscores the importance of using antibiotics carefully to minimise the development of resistance.

posted by West 11:38 AM

 

Polymer could form artificial tissue
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 31 (UPI) -- Mixing a cellular building block and an acid that normally oxidizes the body's fatty acids has yielded a "biorubber" polymer that mimics the elasticity of natural tissue until the body absorbs it, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said Friday. Reporting their work in the June issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology, a team lead by Robert Langer, professor of chemical and biomedical engineering at MIT, said biorubber is stable at body temperature and retains its qualities when soaked in water. The key finding is the polymer's ability to flex repeatedly and return to its original shape, Langer said. "(In its pure form) it would be most similar to ligaments and veins," Langer told United Press International. "You can make it as elastic as you want. The easiest way is just adjusting the (chemical) ratios."

posted by West 9:43 AM