Walking with Dinosaurs and Shocking iPods

Physics Org

Automated tailgating cuts pollution - An automated way of allowing cars to drive much closer to each other in heavy moving traffic, so-called platooning, could cut congestion, save fuel and cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to research published in Inderscience's International Journal of the Environment and Pollution.

Chameleon for Optoelectronics - research team headed by Yadong Yin at the University of California, Riverside (USA) has now shared the secret of their wonderful liquid with the journal Angewandte Chemie: Nanoscopic particles made of tiny magnetic crystals coated with a plastic shell self-assemble in solution to form photonic crystals semiconductors for light. When a magnetic field is applied, the optical properties of the crystals change, allowing their color to be very precisely adjusted through variation of the strength of the field.

New lens device will shrink huge light waves to pinpoints - Scientists at the University of Michigan have developed a way to make a lens-like device that focuses electromagnetic waves down to the tiniest of points. The breakthrough opens the door to the next generation of technology, said Roberto Merlin, professor of physics at U-M. His research on the discovery will be published online July 12 in Science Express.

New Way to Target and Kill Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Found - Antibiotic resistance propagates in bacteria by moving DNA strands containing the resistance genes to neighboring cells. An enzyme called relaxase is essential for this process. Bisphosphonates, already approved to treat bone loss, have now been shown to potently disrupt the relaxase function. Some bisphosphonates prevent the transfer of antibiotic resistance genes and selectively kill bacterial cells that harbor resistance.

'Walking With Dinosaurs' Opens in Wash. - Are you brave enough to share an evening in the forest with a bunch of life-size dinosaurs with 6-inch teeth? How about spending time with a walking, growling 45-foot tall, 75-foot long Brachiosaurus that seems to be looking around for its next meal - perhaps among the spectators at "Walking With Dinosaurs," which opens its North American tour on July 11 in Tacoma. After five days in Tacoma, the show moves to Spokane, Wash., and then on to Edmonton, Alberta, St. Louis, Toronto, Philadelphia and Columbus, Ohio.

More muscle for the argument to give up smoking - Researchers at The University of Nottingham have got more bad news for smokers. Not only does it cause cancer, heart attacks and strokes but smokers will also lose more muscle mass in old age than a non-smoker. The effect of this predisposes smokers to an accelerated decline in physical function and loss of independence.

Scientists study how to make humanoid robots more graceful - Infants learn how to move by recognizing which movements and positions cause them physical discomfort and learning to avoid them. Computer science Professor Oussama Khatib and his research group at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory are using the same principle to endow robots with the ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously and smoothly.

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Robot tackles mystery of walking - Roboticists are using the lessons of a 1930s human physiologist to build the world's fastest walking robot.

Reuters: Science

Burned jogger shows lightning, headphones don't mix - Doctors at Vancouver General Hospital in Canada said a 37-year-old jogger wearing an iPod was burned on his chest, neck and face after the man and a nearby tree were struck by lightning in 2005. The burns traced the path of the earphones, they said.

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Semipermanent Tattoos - Getting inked is a big commitment. Whether you carefully choose a meaningful design or get one on a drunken whim, tattoos are meant to be permanent. Successfully removing one involves thousands of dollars in laser surgery, often with multiple procedures. In light of these costs, many people resign themselves to living with a tattoo they've outgrown, or they choose not to get one in the first place. Now scientists at Harvard Medical School, Brown University, and Duke University have engineered safe, permanent, and easily removable tattoo inks, made from tiny microcapsules of natural pigments. Researchers say these inks are designed to be removed with just one laser treatment, and they may also help reduce allergic reactions and other health problems commonly experienced with traditional inks.

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Secrets of Assassins' fort unearthed in Syria - Nestled at the foot of Syria's coastal mountains, an ancient citadel has been put on the tourist map by restoration and excavation that revealed mysteries of the medieval Assassins sect, once based here.

PopSci.com

Snot for 'Bots - The robotic schnozz can sniff for bombs and air pollution, along with other simple chemicals, but it still can't tell a smushed banana from a sprig of peppermint. Now researchers at the University of Warwick in England have hit upon a way to dramatically improve a robot's sense of smell: synthetic snot.

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Olive product slows spread of HIV in body - Olive oil has become part of the fight against the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) - the cause of AIDS - thanks to the research carried out by the Bionat team, from the University of Granada, headed by Prof. Andrés García-Granados, senior lecturer in Organic Chemistry. Their work shows that maslinic acid - a natural product extracted from dry olive-pomace oil in oil mills - inhibits serin-protease, an enzyme used by HIV to release itself from the infected cell into the extracellular environment and, consequently, to spread the infection into the whole body. These scientists from Granada determined that the use of olive-pomace oil can produce an 80% slowing down in AIDS spreading in the body.

Technique could confirm prion infection - Scientists have made significant advances towards the development of a technique that could be used to confirm whether someone is infected with variant CJD.

Drug fights alcoholism, study finds - A drug already approved for nicotine addiction also curbs alcohol dependence, a new animal study shows. One dose alone cut drinking in half. The finding is particularly encouraging, the researchers say, because the animals did not turn to drinking in excess after the drug was stopped, a common pattern when people take current drugs to curb alcohol consumption.

Late-night teens more prone to problems? - A propensity for activities in the evening rather than in the morning may offer clues to behavioral problems in early adolescence, according to psychologists who have found that kids who prefer evenings are more likely to exhibit antisocial behavior, rule-breaking, and attention problems.

Emotional memories can be suppressed with practice - A new University of Colorado at Boulder study shows people have the ability to suppress emotional memories with practice, which has implications for those suffering from conditions ranging from post-traumatic stress disorder to depression.

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Robot walks on water - Water striders, insects that walk on the surface of the water, may never set foot on land in their lives, and yet they’re not swimmers. Over the past million or so years, this insect - sometimes called a water skater - has optimized its use of surface tension to balance its 0.01-gram body on lakes, ponds, and even oceans.

Boosting key milk nutrients may help lower type 2 diabetes risk - Most Americans fail to get the calcium and vitamin D they need, but this shortfall could be affecting more than their bones. It may, at least in part, be one reason behind the epidemic of type 2 diabetes, suggests new research conducted at Tufts University.

The cell phone connects to the hip bone - U.S. scientists are developing a technology that allows mobile electronic devices to communicate by sending vibrations through bones.