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Home > All Sources > UNU-MERIT | Innovation & Technology news


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Weekly news from the Maastricht Economic and social Research and training centre on Innovation and Technology
1-25 > Next 25
Old violins reveal their secrets
03 10 2008 Why do the violins made by Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesù sound sogood? Now a study has finally identified a measurable sound quality thatdistinguishes these old violins from cheap, factory−made instruments. After spending ten years painstakingly measuring the acoustics ofviolins rated from 'bad' to 'excellent' by professional musicians,George Bissinger of East Carolina University says that the 'excellent'old Italian violins in his sample show a significantly stronger acousticresponse in the lower octaves than do the 'bad' violins, whereas thoserated merely 'good' have intermediate values. The high−quality tone iscaused by a single mode of vibration of air inside the body, whichradiates sound strongly through the violin's f−holes.Bissinger measured all manner of sound characteristics for the 17instruments in his sample, which ranged from legendary Stradivariinstruments to mass−produced beginners instruments. He focused on theproperties of the key vibrational resonances or 'modes' of theinstruments, recording the frequencies of these modes, the radiativity,the degree of focusing in specific directions (directivity), theflexibility of the wooden body plates, and the amount of damping of thesound. The two Stradivarius instruments showed respectively the highestand the lowest degrees of directivity in the sample. But crucially, thebest violins showed a more even radiation of sound across the range ofacoustic frequencies that they generate. In particular, the greaterstrength of their lowest−octave response can partially account for therichness and sweetness of tone that violinists say they detect.
Invisibility cloak for water waves
03 10 2008 It should be possible to protect coastlines from tsunamis by making theland invisible to the incoming waves. That is the claim of a group ofphysicists in France and the UK, which has built a cylindrical'invisibility cloak' that shields objects from water waves by directingthose waves around the object as if it were not there. The team from the University of Aix−Marseille and Liverpool University,explains that the mathematics behind the invisibility cloak involves ageometric transform – which takes a point, inflates it and rendersanything that lies inside the resulting bubble unreachable by the waves.The team's cloak is a shallow metal cylinder, measuring 10 cm across.The cylinder does not have solid walls but instead consists of a seriesof rods arranged in 100 identical sectors and seven concentric rings.The object functions just like a whirlpool. The liquid enters throughthe gaps between the rods, swirls around the concentric rings and thenenters the far side of the cylinder so as to leave the central regionentirely free of liquid. The trick is to transform the waves so thatthey have a greater velocity along the circumference of the rings thanalong the radii, therefore slowing down the liquid as it approaches thecentre and forcing it out the far side.
Scientists aim to deliver e−paper in full computerised colour
03 10 2008 Scientists in Cambridge have launched a three−year project to create thenext generation of e−paper, which may herald the arrival of fullyinteractive, all−colour computerised newspapers and magazines.Liquavista, spun out of the Philips Research Labs in Eindhoven two yearsago, has won part of the backing from the government−funded TechnologyStrategy Board. The project is also backed by Plastic Logic. The US technology company last month unveiled a prototype e−paper thatlooks much more like a sheet of A4 than the offerings of rivals such asAmazon's Kindle and Sony eReader, which resemble paperback books. ButPlastic Logic's device is only black and white, not very flexible andits screen updates quite slowly. Liquavista is working on a full−colourflexible screen that would allow newspapers and other publications toprovide a much more interactive product that could include video. The technology is based on a process called electrowetting, which useselectricity to manipulate a thin layer of liquid so that it changescolour. It uses far less power than a traditional LCD and, crucially,the individual cells change fast enough to run video.
Research aims for artificial nose
03 10 2008 Scientists at MIT say they are a step closer to developing a sensorwhich mimics the workings of the human nose. The researchers claim tohave overcome one of the biggest hurdles − mass production of proteinscalled 'olfactory receptors'. The human nose detects many different combinations of molecules, whichare then interpreted by the brain. It has around 300 varieties ofolfactory receptors in the membrane surrounding cells lining the nasalpassages, with each binding onto different kinds of molecule. Efforts tomanufacture artificial receptors in the numbers needed have previouslyfailed, as their structure simply breaks down if they are removed fromthe specific environment found in the membrane and exposed to moisture. But the MIT team was able to develop a detergent solution whichprotected them during the production process. They then carried outbasic tests which showed the manufactured proteins still had the abilityto lock on to the molecules they needed to detect. The researchers saidthat any device they developed could be used to aid diagnosis ofdiseases, such as bladder, skin and lung cancers which all can give offdistinctive molecules.
Invention: Osmotic power generation
03 10 2008 Osmosis − the way water automatically flows from a weak solution into astronger one – is a fundamental to biological life. Now the processcould also generate our electricity. Various researchers have tested theidea of using a semi−permeable membrane to separate freshwater andseawater, and using the pressure generated as water flows from one tothe other to drive a turbine. But several inefficiencies plague theprocess, and the river deltas and estuaries that offer the bestlocations are not suited to building power stations.Researchers from Yale University suggest an alternative design. Insteadof using salt− and freshwater, they buddy up their freshwater with asolution of ammonia and carbon dioxide in water. The osmotic pressureproduced can be an order of magnitude higher than that produced withsalt solution. Maintaining the difference between the solutions requiresonly a small amount of heat. Raising the temperature to just 40 °C isenough to evaporate off water from the ammonia−CO2 solution to maintainits concentration. Evaporating water from salt solution is much harder.The evaporated water is then condensed and fed back to the freshwaterside of the osmotic engine. The patent estimates each metre of membrane could produce 250 watts ofelectrical power, compared to the 4 watts typically produced by anequivalent area in an estuary−based plant.
Obama uses iPhone to win support
03 10 2008 US Democratic candidate Barack Obama is set to turn the iPhone into apolitical recruiting tool with an application aimed at getting the voteout. The most notable feature is a 'Call Friends' option to helporganise contacts in swing states. The free application was developed byvolunteers in less than three weeks. The campaign blog said that it hopes the 'Call Friends' feature willgenerate thousands of additional personal contacts − the aim being thatthese can be turned into votes. Other features include making notes onwhich friends have been called, who they are supporting, and if theyneed a reminder call on election day. Up−to−date news from the campaignwill also be included, as will video, photos and talking points that canbe used to convince friends to vote for the candidate. The website said the total amount of calls the application makes aretallied but no information leaves the phone, so the privacy of friendsand that of the user are protected.
Europe leading open source charge
03 10 2008 More than half of organisations now believe that the benefits of opensource software outweigh the negatives, according to new research bybusiness intelligence firm Actuate. The latest Annual Open Source Survey of around 1,000 business and ITprofessionals revealed that firms are more receptive to open sourcesoftware in Europe than elsewhere, attracted by lower total cost ofownership. The survey also found that the number of firms believing that thebenefits of open source outweigh the inhibitors rose from 45.3% in 2007to 54% this year. Persistent barriers to adoption remain, however,including lack of in−house skills to implement open source software, anda perception that there are difficulties with long−term support.
Scientists close to cracking wheat's genetic code
03 10 2008 French scientists believe they have found a way to map the hugelycomplex genetic code of wheat, the staple food for 35% of the world'spopulation. The move could lead to improved crop varieties that areresistant to drought and disease at a time when surging demand hasstoked fears over future grain supply, sending prices soaring to recordhighs earlier this year. Scientists from the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique inClermont−Ferrand, France, said they had constructed a map of the largestwheat chromosome, chromosome 3B, and demonstrated it should be possibleto sequence the plant's entire genetic code. In the past, the wheatgenome has been viewed as all but impossible to sequence because of itssheer size. It comprises 17bn base pairs of the chemicals that make upDNA − five times more than the human genome. The 3B chromosome alone ismore than twice the size of the entire genome of rice, which was thefirst major food crop to be sequenced six years ago.Once the whole wheat genome is sequenced, researchers say it will bemuch easier to identify genes that can be used either in conventionalplant breeding programs or to develop genetically modified cropvarieties. Scientists, meanwhile, are already using the genetic datacollected so far by the French team, with a team in Australia homing inon a gene involved in resistance to an alarming new form of stem rust.
Invention: Bat−style footstep detector
26 09 2008 Security services interested in automatically spotting people who may besecurity risks are also interested in systems that listen out forfootsteps. It should be possible to estimate someone's speed, footwearand perhaps build from the sound of their steps. But detecting footstepsis harder than you may think. Any airborne sounds of footsteps arequickly drowned out by noise from the wind, while the ground vibrationsare so distorted by materials they pass through that they are impossibleto detect more than a few metres away. Both those problems can be avoided at a stroke, says James Sabatier, aphysicist at the University of Mississippi, if you listen for theultrasonic signals associated with footsteps. Ultrasonic microphones arenot as badly affected by wind noise, says Sabatier. He also proposes anultrasonic sonar system that broadcasts a signal and listens for Dopplershifts that indicate echoes from a moving pair of feet. The strategy isalso used by bats to detect the flutter of insect wings. In addition to footsteps, Sabatier points out that the movement of awalking person's arms towards and away from the ultrasonic source shouldproduce the same effect. The inventors hope to interest groups involvedin various security applications such as border control.
Heavyweights team up on photo data standard
26 09 2008 Some of the largest names in photography hardware and software areteaming up on a new project to create a standard image metadata system.The Metadata Working Group has put forward the first specifications forthe embedding of metadata within image files. Founding members includeMicrosoft, Apple, Adobe, Sony, Canon and Nokia. The goal of the programme is to create a standard system for the data,which can then be used by image editing and indexing software toorganise and classify individual photos based on criteria such aslocation, date and subject. The metadata system is of special importanceto professional photographers whose photo archives will often includethousands of images. However, as family photo albums continue to godigital, metadata will also become increasingly important to the homeconsumer market. The first specifications offer guidelines to companies on how to storeand read metadata, as well as methods for dealing with overlappingstandards.
Scientists develop cheap fast water contamination test
26 09 2008 Natural disasters such as tsunamis often leave local water sourcestainted with harmful bacteria, and existing tests for contamination takeas long as three days to produce a result. Now a USD 30,00 test that takes just half an hour has been developed atAustralia's Environmental Biotechnology Cooperative Research Centre nearSydney. Antibodies attached to tiny magnets are added to the water sowhen bacteria in the sample bind to the antibodies, they can beconcentrated with a magnet. The sample is then injected into a 'bubble pack' containing chemicalsthat break open the bacteria, allowing their RNA to escape. An enzymespecially modified to work at close to room temperature then amplifiesthe RNA so that it can be detected by an electrochemical sensor even ifvery few bacteria are present.
Lift could take passengers straight into space
26 09 2008 Japanese scientists are attempting to build a lift that will takepassengers 100,000km into space. The project could see the realisationof a vision that has inspired science fiction writers for generations. The lift's carriages, which will themselves require new feats ofengineering, would move up and down 32,000km−long cables. Those cableswould need to be stronger and lighter than any material ever woven. Theywould be anchored to the ground and disappear into the sky, eventuallyreaching a satellite docking station orbiting above the Earth.Scientists hope that as well as carrying human passengers, the carriagescould also haul huge, solar−powered generators that could power homesand businesses back on Earth. It could also remove barrels of nuclearwaste, dumping them into space. Japan's promise to spend 6.3 billion on the project has sparked swiftreaction from other quarters: several competing space lift projects arenow believed to be under way, with NASA among those involved. Aninternational conference is to be held in Japan in November, aiming todraw up a detailed timetable for the machine's production. One of thebiggest challenges is to develop a fabric for the lift's cables. It mustbe extremely light while also resilient enough to resist the variousmatter that it will be struck by in space. It is expected that an answerwill be found in carbon nanotubes.
UN forecasts boom in 'green jobs'
26 09 2008 The UN says millions of new jobs will be created worldwide over the nextfew decades by the development of alternative energy technologies. Morethan a million people already work in biofuels, but a UN report saysthat could rise by 12 million by 2030. It says 'green jobs' depend on ashift of subsidies from oil and natural gas to wind, solar, andgeothermal power. New jobs could also include the expansion of recyclingand making environmentally friendly vehicles. The report, 'Green Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable,Low−Carbon World', was commissioned and funded by the UN's EnvironmentProgramme (UNEP). It says the manufacture, installation and maintenanceof solar panels should add 6.3 million jobs by 2030, while wind powershould add more than two million jobs. The report raised concerns for those involved in the manufacture ofbiofuels − fuels made from renewable sources such as plants orplant−derived material. 'Much of the employment on sugarcane and palmoil plantations in countries like Brazil, Colombia, Malaysia andIndonesia is marked by poor pay and dangerous working conditions,' itsaid. 'There is also concern that large−scale biofuels production mightdrive large numbers of people off their land in future years,' it said.
Campaign against software patents kicks off
26 09 2008 A global petition designed to raise awareness of software patents waslaunched this week as part of the World Day against Software Patents.Currently in draft format, the petition includes information about howsoftware patents can affect business, research and development. The Stop Software Patents organisation is asking interested parties tocomment, and anyone who signs the petition now will be asked to fill inan amended version at a later date. The effort is supported by acoalition of more than 80 software companies, associations anddevelopers in a bid to put an end to patents being awarded to software. 'Insufficient economic evidence supports an application of the patentsystem on software. But most studies hint that software patent regimesrestrain innovation,' the coalition argues.
Can rubber ducks help track a melting glacier?
26 09 2008 To help figure out what is happening inside the fastest−moving Greenlandglacier, a US rocket scientist sent 90 rubber ducks into the ice, hopingsomeone finds them if they emerge in Baffin Bay. The common yellowplastic bath toys are one part of a sophisticated experiment todetermine why glaciers speed up in the summer in their march to the sea,said Alberto Behar of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. The Jakobshavn Glacier is very likely the source of the iceberg thatsank the Titanic in 1912 and researchers focus on it because itdischarges nearly 7% of all the ice coming off Greenland. As the planetwarms, its melting ice sheet could make oceans rise this century.Scientists do not know how melting water moves through the ice. Onetheory is that the summer sun melts ice on the top glacial surface,creating pools that flow into tubular holes in the glacier calledmoulins. The moulins can carry some water all the way to the undersideof the glacier, where it acts as a lubricant to speed the movement ofice toward the coast. But because it cannot be seen, no one really knowswhat occurs. That is where the rubber ducks come in, along with a probeabout the size of a football loaded with a GPS transmitter andinstruments that can tell much about the glacier's innards. The ducks,if they are found and if somebody e−mails the discovery, would tellscientists where the water ends up.
Ultrasmooth mirror could herald birth of a new microscope
26 09 2008 A microscope that studies the most delicate materials by bouncing heliumatoms off their surfaces could be made within a year, thanks to thedevelopment of the world's smoothest mirror. That is the claim fromresearchers at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain, who havecreated the mirror by depositing a few atom−thick layers of lead onto analmost perfectly smooth silicon surface at 114 kelvin (−159 °C). The atomic microscope would allow the surface of biological samples, forexample, to be probed in a way that is impossible with otherstate−of−the−art microscopes. Electron microscopes can produce highlymagnified images, but they have serious drawbacks. The samples mustconduct electricity; electrons penetrate into the sample, leading to animage that doesn't accurately represent the surface; and, worst of all,the very−high−energy electron beams can obliterate the precious samples.An atomic microscope with a low−energy beam of helium atoms could getaround these problems. Neutral helium can bounce off any surface and thebeam would be deflected by the electrons at the very edge of the sample,giving a true image of the surface. But an atomic microscope demands afocused beam of helium atoms, which requires a mirror that reflects thebeam with very little scattering of the atoms. The new flat mirror isatomically smooth, even after it has warmed up to room temperature, andit can reflect 15% of incoming helium atoms.
Invention: Drug−delivering contact lenses
19 09 2008 Getting drugs into the eye is a tricky business. The eye is well adaptedat keeping foreign objects out, so most drugs are washed out by tears,disappear down the eye's drainage system, or simply spilled outside theeye. By some estimates, as little as 1% of any drug delivered to the eyeactually ends up inside it. One potential way round this is to use soft contact lenses steeped in asolution of drug that leach it into the eye. However, it is hard to crama dose large enough to be clinically significant into lenses, which alsotend to leak the drugs away too quickly. So Mark Byrne, a chemicalengineer at Auburn University in Alabama, has a developed a contact−lensmaterial that can hold much greater concentrations of drugs and releasethem more slowly. The trick is to design the molecular structure of the lens material tomimic tissue−receptor sites that the drug will target within the body.The goal is to make the dummy receptors strike a balance, not holdingthe drug too tight, but also only releasing it slowly into the eye.Byrne has set up a company – OcuMedic – to commercialise the idea and isalready developing anti−fungal contact lenses for treating eyeinfections in horses.
Satellites to bring speedy internet to developing world
19 09 2008 People across the developing world could have high−speed internet accessby late 2010, thanks to a new global satellite system. The system wasannounced last week by the Jersey−based O3b Networks, whose name standsfor the 'other three billion' people in developing countries who do nothave access to the internet. Their infrastructure will bring internetaccess to countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. Traditional communication satellites orbit the Earth at an altitude ofaround 35,000 km, which can limit signal strength and bandwidth. O3bwill use cheaper medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites with an altitude ofaround 10,000 km, which will provide a stronger signal. O3b has alreadybegun production of the 16 satellites. Once operational, it will providespeeds of up to ten gigabits per second, comparable to speeds availablein the developed world. As demand increases, more satellites will belaunched. O3b will deal with telecom companies in developing countries, who willthen provide services to individual users. Financial backers for thesystem are Google , Liberty Global and HSBC who aim to tap into large,emerging markets in developing countries.
Genetically modified crops protect wild−type neighbours
19 09 2008 A ten−year study in China shows that large−scale cultivation of cottonplants genetically modified to produce an insecticidal toxin isassociated with a reduction in pest populations in unmodified cropsnearby. The cotton bollworm is one of the most serious insect pests inAsia, attacking wheat, corn, soya beans, peanuts and vegetables as wellas cotton. In the early 1990s, repeated bollworm outbreaks in China werebarely contained. Researchers say that the heavy pesticide use thatcontrolled them killed thousands of people each year. Bollworm is susceptible to an insecticidal toxin made by the bacteriaBacillus thuringiensis, and China approved the commercial growth ofcotton plants modified to produce this toxin in 1997. This Bt cotton isnow grown on 4 million hectares in the country. Researchers from theCAAS Institute of Plant Protection in Beijing have monitored bollwormpopulations in an area of northern China since 1992. Their study areanow contains 3 million hectares of Bt cotton and 22 million hectares ofvarious other crops which the bollworm can infect. The researchers report that, after Bt cotton was introduced, bollwormpopulations gradually declined not just in Bt cotton, but also in othercrops. Using statistical analyses, the researchers found that the fallin bollworm populations correlated better with the amount of landdevoted to Bt cotton than with patterns of temperature or rainfall.
IBM unveils technology for 22nm chips
19 09 2008 IBM has unveiled its strategy to produce future chips using a 22nmfabrication process. The company is adopting a technique called'computational scaling' in order to manufacture circuits small enough todeliver more powerful and energy−efficient devices. While current chips such as Intel's are manufactured using a 45nmprocess, vendors are already looking ahead to succeeding generations.Intel plans to introduce 32nm chips in 2009, but chipmakers have hit aproblem in that current lithographic methods are not adequate fordesigns as small as 22nm owing to fundamental physical limitations. IBM said that computational scaling overcomes these limitations by usingmathematical techniques to modify the shape of the masks and thecharacteristics of the illuminating source used to image the circuitsfor each layer of an integrated circuit. The company is directly tying the development into its cloud computingstrategy, claiming that the process will enable the production ofsmaller, more powerful and energy−efficient devices that will berequired to deliver highly scalable web services.
Google and GE in energy deal
19 09 2008 Google has teamed up with technology multinational General Electric todevelop a 'smart' electric power grid and promote clean energy. Bothcompanies want to make renewable energy more accessible and useful.GE and Google said they would leverage their lobbying muscle inWashington to try and persuade politicians to push for major policychanges in energy. A statement by the two firms said that 'policy is amajor impediment to building a 21st century electricity system.' GE is now one of the biggest players in the wind power industry and isinvolved in developing hybrid locomotives, water reuse solutions andphotovoltaic cells. Google is also involved in clean energy initiativesthat include geothermal, solar and wind−generated electricity. Google has maintained that the benefits of renewable electricity can notbe fully realised without updating US power transmission lines into a'smart grid' that lets people track and control what types of power theyuse and when. GE and Google plan to work on technologies that willconvert geothermal power into electricity as well as prepare thenation's grid for plug−in vehicles.
Scientists find world's largest prime numbers
19 09 2008 Scientists in the US and Germany have found the two largest primenumbers ever calculated in a discovery which could dramatically increasethe effectiveness of cryptographic systems. The two numbers werediscovered within a fortnight of each other by the Great InternetMersenne Prime Search project, which has spent 12 years on the task. The largest prime number, which has a whopping 12,978,189 digits, wasdiscovered by a team from UCLA. The second, discovered by a computeruser in Germany, has 11,185,272 digits. The search for large primenumbers (those which can only be divided by themselves or one) wassponsored by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) as part of aneffort to build a near−unbreakable encryption system. The UCLA team will receive a USD 100,000 prize from the EFF for breakingthe 10,000,000 digit record. Further prizes are available, including USD150,000 for the first 100,000,000 digit prime and USD 250,000 for thefirst 1,000,000,000 digit number. Prime numbers are fundamental to cryptography systems, which take alarge part of their strength from the difficulty in factoring primes.The larger the prime the more secure the encryption.
Scientists fire up giant atom smasher
16 09 2008 Scientists Wednesday applauded as one of the most ambitious experimentsever conceived got successfully underway, with protons being firedaround a 27−kilometre tunnel deep beneath the border of France andSwitzerland in an attempt to unlock the secrets of the universe.The Large Hadron Collider − a EUR 6bn particle accelerator designed tosimulate conditions of the Big Bang that created the physical Universe −was switched on at 0732 GMT to cheers and applause from experts gatheredto witness the event. While observers were left nonplussed by theanticlimactic flashing dots on a TV screen that signalled the machine'ssuccessful test run, among teams of scientists involved around the worldthere were jubilant celebrations and popping champagne corks. In the coming months, the collider is expected to begin smashingparticles into each other by sending two beams of protons around thetunnel in opposite directions. The collider will operate at higherenergies and intensities in the next year, potentially generating enoughdata to make a discovery by 2009, experts say. They say the experimentcould confirm theories that physicists have been working on for decadesincluding the possible existence of extra dimensions. They also hope tofind a theoretical particle called the Higgs boson − sometimes referredto as the 'God particle', which has never been detected, but would helpexplain why matter has mass.
Europe's energy funding 'unbalanced'
16 09 2008 The European budget for fusion research is 'seriously flawed', and morefunds should be shifted instead towards non−nuclear energy fields,according to the leading intergovernmental advisory body on energypolicy. In its first review of the European Commission's energy policy,the International Energy Agency (IEA) also says that current Europeanfunding for energy research in all fields is insufficient. European funding for research is distributed through the frameworkprogramme. The current programme (FP7) runs from 2007 to 2013, andallocates just over EUR 5.1bn for energy research. By contrast, Europeplans to spend EUR 9.05bn on information and communication technologiesand EUR 6.1bn on health research. The IEA review says that it is questionable whether current fundinglevels for energy research are 'commensurate with the ambitions of thecommission in the energy field'. It calls on the commission to redirectmore funding to energy R&D during the lifetime of the FP7 programme.Funding for fusion research is singled out by the report as a'potentially serious flaw'. The IEA recommends that the commission actwith urgency to shift investment away from fusion research into otherforms of energy as, it says, developments in fusion will not mature intime to help meet the EU target of obtaining 20% of its energy fromrenewable sources by 2020.
Invention: Graffiti warning system
16 09 2008 Paint−based graffiti can usually be removed relatively easily frombuildings, bus shelters and other street furniture. But graffiti that isscratched into surfaces such as Perspex is much more difficult to copewith and usually requires the entire surface to be replaced at greatcost. So researchers at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia,have developed a device that can hear when graffiti is being carved intosurfaces. A set of microphones attached to the surface is connected to acomputer program that has been trained to distinguish background noisefrom the tell−tale signature of graffiti scratches. When the computerpicks up signs of vandalism in action, it triggers an alarm to scare offthe perpetrators and call the authorities to investigate.
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