Scientists are trying to use nanotechnology to cure diseases, ameliorate the energy crisis and reduce golf scores. Buffalo, New York-based NanoDynamics has come up with a golf ball that can correct its own flight path so it flies straighter than conventional balls. The ball won’t shift 45° in midair, but the design of the ball — and the materials it’s made of — serve to better channel the energy received from the club head and thus correct a wobble or slight drift
Proving yet again that little Johnny Coward‘s cult of loony fundies are firmly pushing the agenda, the Government has quietly backed a conservative push inside the UN to adopt a treaty banning all human cloning, including the replication of embryos for research into cures for Alzheimer’s and spinal cord damage. The global ban was proposed by Costa Rica and, aside from Australia, has been supported by the US and 59 predominantly Catholic and developing countries
Where there’s muck, there’s gas. Scientists have created genetically modified yeasts and fungi that can turn agricultural waste into fuel for cars and trucks. In future we may take to the roads in vehicles powered by left over plant remains. The technology — created with European Union money — uses corn stubble and other farm waste as basic ingredients for making ethanol. This can then be used as a substitute for petrol
A Brazilian woman who suffered a brain haemorrhage that left her paralysed on one side has regained her ability to walk and talk after undergoing a stem cell transplant. Doctors injected the stem cells into the brain of Maria da Graca Pomeceno, 54, five days after a brain haemorrhage left her a hemiplegic. The cells had been extracted from bone marrow in her pelvis. The new therapy is being tested for the first time in Brazil
A low-cost antibiotic which has performed well in tests should be given to all HIV children in developing countries to prevent infections such as pneumonia and reduce deaths. Dr Diana Gibb of Britain’s Medical Research Council said a trial involving HIV-infected children in Zambia was stopped early because it was so successful
Fuji, a 34-year-old mother dolphin that lost 75% of her tail due to a necrotic disease, is jumping once again with the help of what is believed to be the world’s first artificial fin
Scientists have discovered evidence of a second black hole in the centre of the Milky Way. The Institute of Astrophysics in Paris has announced it has discovered an object which appears to be an intermediate-sized black hole, with the mass of about 1,300 suns
American researchers claim to have found convincing evidence that locates the site of the lost kingdom of Atlantis off the coast of Cyprus
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Tennessee, the US Naval Research Laboratory and the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency have found a way to harness the energy that plants use during photosynthesis to convert light to energy. They are using the process to extend the life of batteries in mobile phones, laptop computers and other portable electronic devices
A Boeing-led team has successfully fired for the first time a powerful laser meant to fly aboard a modified 747 as part of a US ballistic missile defence shield. The test called First Light
has a budget of $474.3 million in the fiscal year 2005 and is part of a larger $10 billion dollar missile defence system
Mango growers in northern Australia are being urged to consider using green ants as an environmentally friendly alternative to chemical pesticides. A three-year study funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research has found the ferocious predators are a cost-efficient way to keep most pests away from the fruit
A device that automatically pushes electrodes into the brain to seek out the strongest signals is taking the idea of neural implants to a new level. Scary as this sounds, its developers say such devices will be essential if brain implants are ever going to allow paralysed people to control artificial arms or work a computer. The problem with fixed implants is that the signal fades after just a few months. The researchers expect to fit a paralysed person with a moving implant within a year
The first human trial of an artificial bio
kidney has shown encouraging results, offering hope of a working implant for patients. Ten kidney patients at the University of Michigan tested the device, which works in the same way as dialysis but is partly made of human cells. Eventually, scientists hope the device will become an implantable long-term replacement for failing kidneys
The Cleveland Clinic says it is the first institution to receive review board approval of human facial transplant for someone severely disfigured by burns or disease. Several independent medical teams around the world also are pursuing the procedure. The Cleveland Clinic said its approval on 15 October followed ten months of debate on medical, ethical and psychological issues. It has no current patients or donors for the procedure — via meta-roj blog
The colour LCD screens on mobile phones and PDAs can get badly scratched in pockets stuffed with loose change and keys. And CDs and DVDs become unplayable in no time when children use them as indoor frisbees. Now a tough, transparent polymer coating developed by chemists from TDK in Japan is set to make scratched phone screens and scuffed discs a thing of the past
UK experts believe that a vaccine that prevents infections known to cause cervical cancer could be available to women within three years. By guarding against human papilloma virus, it could save thousands of lives and may end the need for smears tests. The vaccine would be given to girls before they are sexually active. Trials have shown a jab can offer 100% protection against strains of HPV linked to about 70% of cervical cancers
Scientists at Singapore’s Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology have developed contact lenses that deliver eye medication to treat diseases like glaucoma. If the drug is water-soluble, it will be trapped within a network of tiny inter-connected, water-filled channels in the material. If it’s water-insoluble, it will be trapped within nano-spaces in the polymer matrix, and slowly leach out into the channels. In contact with fluid on the eyeball, these channels open up and release the drug
Aquatic training product manufacturer Finis has just released a waterproof digital music portable for swimmers and surfers that claims to solve a problem with such devices in the water. Regular earphones don’t work well because they need an uninterrupted air channel to function. What makes the SwiMP3 unique is that it uses bone conduction to stimulate the inner ear and deliver sound — via Slashdot
In the 1940s, Frances Glessner Lee constructed incredibly detailed and spooky crime scenes in dollhouses to teach forensics to a homicide investigation seminar. The founder of Harvard’s Department of Legal Medicine, Lee was named an honorary captain of the New Hampshire state police. The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death is a book collecting Corrine May Botz’s fantastic photographs of Lee’s macabre miniatures — via boingboing
Australian anthropologists have discovered a new human species that could rewrite the history of human evolution. They unearthed the skeleton of what is believed to be a fully-grown female, barely a metre tall, on the Indonesian island of Flores
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