Chloé Sharrocks

Quick story here about the World’s smallest letters that I have just read on Science Daily (you can guess what site I’ve just been looking at!)

It seems that Standford researchers have reclaimed the honour of creating the World’s smallest writing from the record held by IBM since 1990 when the corporation stole the title held by Standford University.

In 1959 the famous physicist Richard Feynman suggested that there were no physical boundaries which would prevent machines and circuitry  becoming smaller and smaller as technology developed.  Challenging scientists, he offered a prize of $1,000 to anyone who could rewrite a page from an ordinary book in text 25,000 times smaller – Science Direct have a nice analogy of “a sale at which the entire contents of the Encyclopedia Britannica would fit on the head of a pin”.

In 1985, the prize was won by a Standford grad student (Tom Newman) who had used electron beam lithography to write the the opening page of a Dickens’ tale so small that it could only be read through an electron microscope.  In 1990, IBM famously managed to spell out it’s name by arranging 35 individual xenon atoms.

However Standford University have now reclaimed their title by publishing a paper online in the journal Nature Nanotechnology in which they describe how they have encoded the letters ‘S’ and ‘U’ on the surface of a thin piece of copper.  The letters in the words are assembled from tiny bits as small as one third of a billionth of a metre (try and get your head around that!) and are contained within the interference patterns formed by quantum electron waves.  With electrons exhibiting wave/particle duality, the electron waves create the interference patterns that are capable of storing readable information as well as the wave patterns also project a tiny hologram of the data which can only be seen with a powerful microscope.

Science Daily has reported that scientists from the New York Institute of Technology have successfully destroyed two common strains of antibiotic resistant MRSA in laboratory in vitro experiments using blue light.

MRSA stands for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus and is an increasing public heath threat – currently more than 95% of staphylococcal strains are resistant to treatment with Penicillin and around 40-50% of Staph aureus are now resistant to newer antibiotics such as methicillin.

The authors of the study looked at two MRSA populations which are prominent in community and hospital acquired strains and were following on from previous research which demonstrated that use of 405nm light destroyed MRSA strains grown in culture.  Their latest study, which is due to be published in the journal ‘Photomedicine and Laser Surgery’ in April 2009, involved them exposing bacterial colonies of MRSA to wavelength of blue light (470nm) in a process known as photo-irradiation.   An important aspect of their experiment is that no UV radiation was emitted during the process – an overexposure of a specific type of UV radiation known as UVB can cause burning or skin cancer (hence the advice to use sunscreen when sunbathing) and in serious cases may damage DNA of cells.

Their investigation found that the higher the dose of blue light, the more bacteria were killed with high-dosages of photo-irradiation capable of destroying around 90% of colonies of the two strains.

Although the experiments were carrier out in vitro (ie. in a controlled environment and not in a living organism), the scientists are hopeful that the effectiveness of the blue light will also be valuable in the treatment of certain human cases of MRSA infections.

Chukuka Enwemeka, the first author of the study, told Science Direct: “It is inspiring that an inexpensive naturally visible wavelength of light can eradicate two common strains of MRSA.  Developing strategies that are capable of destroying MRSA, using mechanisms that would not lead to further antibiotic resistance, is timely and important for us and our patients.”

Since I was 7 years old I’ve ridden horses and for the last 9 years been the proud owner of my very own, so a knowledge of the gaits of horses and other four-legged animals is pretty much second nature to me now, so I was interested in this article on Science Daily which discusses the results of a new study that shows a rather alarming number of anatomists, taxidermists and, perhaps less surprisingly, toymakers do not get the walking gait of horses and other animals such as dogs correct.

The study which was published in Current Biology on 27th January, was carried out by Hungarian researchers following on from previous research which had discovered that horses’ limbs were often wrongly illustrated.  The scientists decided to see if such errors also applied to museums, veterinary books and toy shops by collecting hundreds of walking portrayals and seeing if the limbs were correctly positioned.

With the correct walking behaviour of quadruped animals described and published over 120 years ago by the pioneer Eadweard Muybridge in the 1880s, the researchers were rather alarmed to discover that over 50% of their samples showed errors:

We found that almost half of the depictions are wrong. This high error rate in walking illustrations in natural history museums and veterinary anatomy books is particularly unexpected in a time where high-speed cameras and the internet offer ideal possibilities to obtain reliable quantitative information about tetrapod walking.

[Horváth, G. et al, "Erroneous quadruped walking depictions in natural history museum", Current Biology 2009]

The method of walking is virtually universal between all four-legged animals since it provides maximum stability.  Small differences only in the exact timing of the steps exist between animals.  All four-legged animals step first with their left hindleg, then their left foreleg before finally their right hindleg and lastly their right foreleg.  When walking fairly slowly, the dog or horse’s body is supported by 3 of it’s feet – effectively forming a triangle.  They are more stable if their centre of mass is closer to the centre of the triangles 3 points.  If children’s toys followed the biomechanics more closely, it would be likely that they would fall over less. However, ignoring this practicality, it is rather more imperative that natural history museums and anatomical textbooks follow the scientific correctness more rigorously!

Interestingly, despite the carelessness of some toymakers, Horváth did observe that Holloywood movies, such as Lord of the Rings, generally do a more accurate job of depicting walking animals!

Anyone who would like to read a little more about the biomechanics should read the article on Discover Magazine’s website called “The Flesh of Physics” which has some great graphical illustrations and also some slow-motion video clips of horses galloping allowing their footfall to be accurately observed (NB. The footfall during galloping is obviously not the same as when walking despite them both being a four-beat movement)

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have been inspired by beetle larvae to construct a boat capable of moving without the aid of paddles, sails or motors.  Instead the boat relies on harnessing the energy contained within the surface of the water.

Various attractive intermolecular forces exist between water molecules and in the bulk of the fluid the overall net force on each molecule is zero since it is being pulled equally in all directions.  However, at the surface of the water, the overall intermolecular force is inwards (less of an attractive force exists between water and air molecules)  but this is balanced by the liquid’s resistance to compression so that the net force is zero.  However, the liquid surface resembles a stretched piece of elastic (such as the skin on a drum) since another driving force exists which attempts to minimise the surface area, by squeezing the liquid together.  This provides the water with a surface tension.

Sung Kwon Cho, a senior researcher at the University of Pittsburgh, and his colleagues managed to develop a technique which destabilised the water’s surface tension and use it to create their boat.

Cho read that beetle larvae move on water by altering it’s surface tension.  When resting in the water, like any other floating object, the larva causes the surface tension to pull equally on both sides.  However, if the larva lowers its back downwards, the tension direction is changed so that the larva moves forwards.  The scientists then replicated the experiment by constructing a boat that used an electric pulse to reproduce the effect of the larva’s back bending.  They went on to add a second electrode to the boat’s front side to act as a rudder.

Although the 2 cm long boat only moves at 4 mm/s, it is believed that this method of propulsion would be a useful low-maintenance mechanism for small aquatic devices, such as those used to monitor water quality.

A video of the boat is available here: http://www.pitt.edu/news2009/curving_top_cho.wmv

I can’t help but laugh at the content of the Metro sometimes as I’m sitting on the tube commuting.  However, today I came across a very alarming story on their website which was also covered by the Daily Mail.  It would seem that their editors have decided that a story becomes newsworthy prior to it ever happening.

According to the Metro:

Pregnant women who drink coffee could put their babies at a higher risk of cancer.

and the Daily Mail are reporting that:

Coffee may raise child cancer risk: New evidence that caffeine could damage babies’ DNA

and open their scare story with a statement suggesting that doctors believe that if pregnant women drink coffee there is a chance that their unborn child will have a higher risk of leukemia.

However, all is not as it seems and it isn’t until the third paragraph that the article finally makes it clear that there is currently no established link and that scientists at the University of Leicester are about to begin a study on whether there is a possible link.  It would seem that the newsworthy nature of this story is not exactly what the Daily Mail seems to suggest by it’s title.  Although admitedly they only use the word “may” in their headline the phrase “New evidence” does seem to imply that proof already exists, despite the Daily Mail later including the quote:

‘Although there’s no evidence at all of a link between caffeine and cancer, we’re putting two and two together and saying: caffeine can induce these changes and it has been shown that these changes are elevated in leukaemia patients,’ added Dr Cooke.

Rather more alarmingly however, is that the Metro doesn’t directly admit that the research hasn’t even been carried out yet, instead saying:

Caffeine might damage the DNA of unborn children and make them more vulnerable to leukaemia, research shows

According to other sources* such as Medical News Today ‘there are currently no convincing links between caffeine and cancer risks’ but the news story does admit that previous studies have linked alterations to DNA with increased risk of leukaemia and that separately caffeine has been shown to induce such changes in DNA.  They also go into further detail than both the Daily Mail and Metro articles, explaining that the Leicester study is only looking at the relationship between caffeine and DNA changes and that if a link is found further research will be required before any conclusions can be drawn.

So a good start to accurate and scientific reporting in this week’s national press then!

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*Interestingly, a virtually identical news story can also be found on Science Daily.

Having just written a news story as part of my Science Communication course, I thought I’d include it on here too:

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Researchers at Harvard University and the University of California have discovered that over 60 different climate models used by the IPCC have failed to predict hotter and earlier seasons between 1850 and 2007.

Analysing global temperature measurements compiled by colleagues at the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, the scientists discovered that winter temperatures have increased more rapidly than summer temperatures.  Winter temperatures have risen by about 1.8 degrees Celsius – almost double the summer rise.

“It indicates the models are missing some important process” said Professor Peter Huybers, assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences at Harvard.  “There could still be surprises”

Huybers and his colleagues also discovered that the seasons are on average coming 1.7days earlier over land than 50years ago.

Biologists, who have noticed sooner bird migration and the earlier arrival of spring buds, have also observed changes in the seasons.  Snow has been melting and sea ice breaking up earlier and these observations have all been explained by the fact that the Earth is warming up.  However, scientists now know that this is all as a result of earlier seasons as well as individual months warming at different rates.

The researchers, who published their work in the journal Nature, have examined possible mechanisms for the moving seasons.  However, they have currently only managed to explain part of the mechanism thought to be responsible.  They believe that a pattern of atmospheric circulation in the Northern Hemisphere known as the Northern Annular Mode may be part of the cause.

Just a quick post, to say that today would be the 448th birthday of Sir Francis Bacon, the great English philosopher whom some would argue is the founder of modern science.  Bacon is well renowned for his development of the scientific method and believing that science should be systematic.  A lawyer earlier in his life, Bacon believed that science should be organised and must involve practical experiments with religion excluded from all things scientific.

An important feature of Bacon’s philosophy was the process of induction which required scientists to collect lots of results and then use this data to develop a general rule or axiom; the famous example being that if you observe lots of white swans then from this you can develop the rule “All swans must be white”.

The problem with induction is of course that there are an infinite number of possible experiments (eg. if you carried out the swan experiment again you might find a black swan) and unless you were able to test all infinite possibilites the process of induction does not lead to the scientific certainty Bacon had hoped for.

Nevertheless, his work was very influential in the philosophy of science and for promoting the methodology which many scientists still use today.

Usually I’m the sort of person that defends most types of unusual scientific research, such as molecular gastronomy (read Patricia Gadsby’s “Cooking for Eggheads”), and I’m certainly not adverse to the funding of mathematical or theoretical research, but even I am at a loss as to the point of some scientific modelling carried out recently by scientists from UCL, University of Warwick and LSE.

Yesterday a press release came out called ‘Why you can’t hurry love’ which discussed a study in which researchers had used game theory to analyse male and female behaviour during courtship.

Game theory, for those of us mathematically-uninitiated, is a branch of applied maths used to model social situations (previously left to psychologists) and is a growing area being used in economics as well as the physical and natural sciences.

So what exactly did the researchers find in their study? Quite simply, they realised that a longer period of courtship allowed the female to screen her potential male to determine his suitability as a mate, ie. women like to take their time before making a decision.  Men who were a good potential partner for the female were more likely to wait around during a longer courtship period, whilst a ‘bad male’ would give up, thus allowing the women to determine his suitability without taking too much of a risk.  This conclusion arose through the use of lots of complicated mathematics and graphs (sadly beyond my level of expertise, but anyone interested who has an Athens account can download the short paper from here).

However, one must question the usefulness of this study.  What was the point of it exactly?  Most women would realise that a more suitable partner is more likely to stick around longer before mating (if they’re not really interested in you, then surely they won’t wait?!) and the mathematical manipulations certainly aren’t going to change this in built human behaviour.  The theory behind the study isn’t exactly new research – it’s just something that is ingrained knowledge in most women’s brains that’s been now written down in a mathematical manner, with no subsequent beneficial consequences!  Personally, I feel such research is rather a waste of time and money and I’m concerned that if such pointless research continues to be financially supported, concerns might be ignited in the public domain that large amounts of money are invested in science sometimes with very litle useful application.

Last week Science Daily published an interesting story about how technology was being implemented in such a way to possibly help protect many more innocent road users.

Drivers are frequently warned of the dangers of texting or using their mobile phones whilst driving, and the ongoing trial of Philippa Curtis should only serve to highlight the severity of the crime, but with many motorists chosing to ignore the warnings it is pleasing to see that researchers at the University of Utah are using their scientific know-how to help protect the lives of other motorists.

The Amercian scientists have developed a vehicle ignition key that prevents its user from making calls or texting on their phone whilst driving.   The key is enclosed in a case and must be released before it can be used to start the ignition.  When it is released from its casing a signal is sent to the driver’s mobile phone placing it in ‘driving mode’ with a ‘STOP’ sign shown on the handsets display.   The phone is prevented from making any calls apart from emergancy 911 calls and has the ability to warn those trying to contact that driver that they are currently unavailable:

Incoming calls and texts are automatically answered with a message
saying, “I am driving now. I will call you later when I arrive at the
destination safely.”

The device is also clever enough to withstand attempts to disarm it by turning the mobile phone on and off.

Although the researchers are currently aiming the product at teenage drivers in the US, I hope that it’s something car manufacturers worldwide will look into developing into something more suitable for everyday use by all drivers who don’t have handfree car kits.

Today two contrasting science news stories published on the Daily Mail website caught my interest with them both having very different uses of technology whilst also having a common ground: The story of a 21 year entrepreneur old who has developed a solar powered fridge suitable for use in Third World countries and the unveiling of a new £99 laptop available through one of the high street’s biggest clothing retailers.

The story of Emily Cummins tinkering away in her Grandfather’s shed and developing a innovative device to help keep food and medicines cool in hot climates is an inspiration to young people everywhere.  Since the age of 4 she has spent time creating her own inventions that don’t make our lives more entertaining but instead help those with a real need, such as her toothpaste squeezer for arthritis sufferers.

Her fridge works by making use of a mechanism our body only knows too well to keep itself cool – that of evaporation.  By using the evaporation of water from a sand-lining (between two cylinders), her device allows the inner cylindrical body containing the food or medicines to be kept at a cool temperature.  She’s clearly a very accomplished sustainable designer – her website gives further evidence of the scientific thought that has gone into the development process of this refrigerator:

I manufactured the fridge in a cylindrical shape as there are fewer areas where bacteria can build up

The design is clearly very workable, but I must confess that I have a query regarding it’s continued functionality – maybe I am being rather naive but water is not always readily available in developing regions of the world, and surely after a length of time all of the water will have evaporated from inside the refrigerator (it is able to escape through holes in the outer cylinder).  If anyone can see round this apparant problem, I’d be most interested in hearing your comments.

So how is this fridge that will help people in Third World countries preserve food cooler longer and aid workers keep medicines cold related to a £99 laptop aimed at the young female business woman?  Well, like Emily’s design the development of a small, cheap and yet still functional laptop for use in developing nations has been a core research topic for many electronic companies.  The hope of providing less-privilaged children with the opportunity to explore the web and use computer technologies is believed to be a big step forward in improving their education and their future prospects.  Now similar technology has led to the development of a £99 laptop soon to be available in Next stores up and down the country so that people are able to stay connected with their work and home life in an easier manner than using their Blackberry or iPhone.  The product is specifically aimed at women, who undoubtedly all want to still be able to do their work from their handbag whilst out shopping or having lunch with their friends!

This may seem all rather hypocritical of me (I am an avid and frequent user of my Blackberry!) but I suppose my concern really lies with what the ultimate aim is of all this technological development.  As new smaller laptops are developed, people in the UK and other wealthy countries are able to live more efficient lives and children in the Third World are able to explore a new range of educational prospects they couldn’t before have dreamed of.  This technology is certainly not unwelcome and is also a vital step forwards in the general development of science and technology – without research into consumer friendly technologies it is difficult to envisage the development of larger scale research equipment.  However, I can’t help but be slightly concerned that people like Emily Cummins, a girl who has developed a far more fundamentally practical device to help those in need is being pushed to one aside and urged into a commerce-driven world, when instead she could be providing help on a much more basic level.

Miss Cummins was reportedly turned down from engineering courses at Universities for being under-qualified and is now studying a Business Management course ; she is being funnelled into an industry where profit and gain is more important than using science and technology to help people live healthier and longer lives (a fundamental aim of her previous inventions).  Although I am reluctant to suggest that scientists need to become less academic or qualified it seems a shame that a girl with a useful mind for sustainable innovations will not be able to help the world quite in the way she should.  I only hope that she carries on with her engingeering exploits and that she inspires a new generation of young scientists hoping to change the world with truely useful technologies.