Marriages between first cousins in some migrant groups in Sydney are resulting in high rates of infant deaths and an incidence of serious birth defects nearly three times that in the wider community
They’re neighbours on the periodic table of elements, but carbon and silicon are pretty much strangers in the worlds of physics and technology. Carbon is the main building block of life, while silicon is the foundation for semiconductors. But several promising research efforts are under way to combine the two realms, using organic polymers as material for the production of microelectronics, including transistors and displays.
SETI@home, the peer-to-peer computing project that ties together millions of computers to examine radio waves coming from space, has 3 million users — and thousands of new people sign up to crunch data each day — making the entire SETI@home network more powerful than the biggest of supercomputers. So powerful, indeed, that there is the possibility of running out of data to process. To solve this problem, SETI@home is installing a Linux-based, super-fast digital data recorder that was donated by Hewlett-Packard. According to the company, the new machine can record data 10 times faster than the previous recorder
The rotting remains from a sunken cargo ship carrying 3300 tonnes of frozen fish just off Norway’s western coast have been shipped to Denmark where the cargo is being used as biofuel
A clever gadget no bigger than a personal stereo can rapidly predict food poisoning. While the gadget, called ImmunoFlow, will at first be used by food-processing companies, it is so small and light that its inventors ultimately envisage health inspectors delivering on-the-spot justice to restaurateurs trading in spoilt chicken or buggy burgers
An underwater fuel cell that runs on seawater and subsea sediment can generate small amounts of power indefinitely. Plankton release energy by using oxygen to break down organic matter in seawater or sediment. Deeper down in the sediment there is no oxygen, so the plankton rely on different chemicals. These two reactions set up a potential difference between the seawater and the sediment a few centimetres beneath
British engineering group Mayflower Corporation unveiled a new engine which could increase fuel efficiency by at least 40 percent and decrease emissions by 50 percent
Harnessing nuclear fusion — the energy that makes the stars shine — may be possible soon because of a new approach
The semiconductor industry is in the midst of a massive technological change, converting to mass-producing chips with copper, rather than aluminium, wires. The weird part: Almost no one seems to be having major problems. Copper, which conducts electricity better than aluminium, gives designers an avenue to break through looming physical barriers that could prevent further boosts in chip performance
Scientists investigating brain function build a microscope which sees inside a rat’s head as it moves around
Looking somewhat like a huge, upturned golf tee, it would be the highest man-made structure on earth. It would also provide electricity to as many as 200,000 homes. If built, a proposed 200-megawatt solar chimney for rural Australia would become the most daring application yet of a quirky form of generating alternative, renewable electricity
Pyjamas based on space technology will help prevent cot deaths and understand how they occur. The pyjamas are based on the suits used to monitor the vital signs of European Space Agency astronauts
An ancient mechanism of the immune system may hold the key to controlling pesky parasites in the livestock industries. CSIRO Livestock Industries’ Dr Tim Doran, a winner of the AFFA Science Award for Young People 2001, says a biological technique that allows important genes be targeted and switched off has huge potential for wiping out parasites
Implanting minute electrodes in the brain is the most effective treatment for advanced Parkinson’s disease and has fewer side effects than widely used surgeries that destroy brain tissue
Using quantum entanglement effects, Danish physicists have made two samples of trillions of atoms interact at a distance. This has profound implications for quantum computing and communications — and could conceivably lead one day to instant transportation, Star Trek style. Entangled states have been demonstrated before, but this was done with trillions of atoms and laser light. The entangled spin state lasted 0.5 milliseconds, a long time in this context
A chemical originally obtained from urine might be able to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides from diesel engines by up to 80 per cent. A diesel truck has set off from a lab in the Netherlands to test the idea as it trundles around Europe’s roads
Ask most astronauts and cosmonauts what type of food they miss most on the International Space Station and they’ll tell you fresh salads are a culinary commodity craved in orbit
Australia cannot run a first world economy in a third world environment. With environmental problems now costing the nation an estimated $65 billion, there is a need for national co-operation and some uniquely Australian solutions, Dr Graham Harris, Chief of CSIRO Land & Water told the National Press Club in Canberra yesterday
Space enthusiasts know a thing or two about parabolic mirrors and dishes — the cupping of a reflective surface concentrates beams onto a focal point, whether it’s faintly visible starlight you’re gathering or radio waves that might carry a greeting from extraterrestrials. Now that same principal stands ready to cook your food during the autumn camping season
After a decade of planning and three years of construction, a northern gateway to space could see its inaugural use Friday as the Last Frontier State prepares to host its first-ever rocket launch into Earth orbit
RSS – Posts