Spidey suits and Insect pests

Physics Org

DNA used as a template for nanolithography - Adam Woolley and Héctor Becerril have developed a method to use DNA molecules as templates to define patterns on substrates. The researchers deposit metal films over DNA molecules aligned on a substrate. The DNA molecules essentially act as nanostencils to define sub-10-nm-sized patterns on the substrate. The researchers call this process “DNA shadow nanolithography” because the metal film is deposited at an angle and the shadow cast by the DNA molecules defines the dimensions of the features on the substrate.

SPACE.com

Zero-G Stresses Immune Organs - Scientists conducted an experiment with mice that simulated zero-gravity on the ground and showed that a protein called osteopontin (OPN), a stress hormone connected with bone loss in space, may also be connected with the dangerous wasting of the spleen and thymus organs. Although Denhardt isn't uncertain how the process works, his team found that lifting up mice's hind legs--a stressful simulation of weightlessness--for three days caused about a 70 percent reduction in spleen and thymus tissue, compared to normal mice. The breaking down of organ tissue, called atrophy, also occurred in mice that were stressed out due to isolation.

news@nature

Arsenic patent keeps drug for rare cancer out of reach of many - For thousands of years, arsenic has been known to have medicinal properties. It has been used at various times to treat syphilis and sleeping sickness, or occasionally to poison unsuspecting rats and husbands. In the past few decades, some scientists have discovered arsenic's ability to cure acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), a rare and fatal cancer that strikes relatively young people. But despite its abundance and long history, arsenic treatment is inaccessible to all but the richest of people—because an American company holds the patent on a drug called Trisenox, a soluble form of arsenic trioxide.

Flying insects threaten to deafen Japan - A cicada known as the kumazemi is descending on Japan en masse, deafening the citizens and wreaking havoc on the country's fibre-optic system. From the past three years' data, the scientists calculate that this year will be the four-year peak, with nearly 2.5 times as many cicadas as in 2006. The noise level is also set to climb. Measured at 90.4 decibels at another Osaka park last year, this year the same spot is expected to hit 94 decibels. The kumazemi are also cutting households off from their Internet. Apparently mistaking fibre-optic cables for withered branches, they have been punching their one-millimetre-diameter ovipositors into the cables and laying eggs.

Wired Science

Nanotech Discovery Could Lead to Spiderman Suit - A team of Italian scientists says their latest nanotech discovery is the secret to the wall-scaling Spiderman suit. Professor Nicola Pugno, an engineer and physicist at Polytechnic of Turin, Italy, has created a hierarchy of adhesive forces he claims are strong enough to suspend a person’s full body weight against a wall or on a ceiling. The adhesive is also easy to detach, according to the paper.

Scientists Study Out-Of-Body Experiences - Researchers in England and Switzerland have figured out ways to confuse the sensory signals received by the brain, allowing people to seem to be standing aside and watching themselves. seated volunteers were fitted with head-mounted video displays that allowed them to view themselves from behind, using a pair of video cameras, one for each eye. A researcher would stand behind them and extend a plastic rod which they could see toward the area just below the cameras. At the same time another plastic rod, which they could not see, touched their chest.The volunteers said they experienced the feeling of being behind their own body watching. Many found it "weird" and seemingly real, though not scary.

Fungi Make Biodiesel Efficiently at Room Temperature - Scientists at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology have found a much better way to make biodiesel. Their new method could lower the cost and increase the energy efficiency of fuel production. Instead of mixing the ingredients and heating them for hours, the chemical engineers pass sunflower oil and methanol through a bed of pellets made from fungal spores. An enzyme produced by the fungus does the work -- making biodiesel with impressive efficiency.

The New York Times

Rule to Expand Mountaintop Coal Mining - The Bush administration is set to issue a regulation on Friday that would enshrine the coal mining practice of mountaintop removal. The technique involves blasting off the tops of mountains and dumping the rubble into valleys and streams. The new rule would allow the practice to continue and expand, providing only that mine operators minimize the debris and cause the least environmental harm, although those terms are not clearly defined and to some extent merely restate existing law.

Technology Review Feed - Tech Review Top Stories

Two-Sided Touch Screen - Researchers at Microsoft and Mitsubishi are developing a new touch-screen system that lets people type text, click hyperlinks, and navigate maps from both the front and back of a portable device. A semitransparent image of the fingers touching the back of the device is superimposed on the front so that users can see what they're touching.

E-paper with Photonic Ink - Scientists in Canada have used photonic crystals to create a novel type of flexible electronic-paper display. Unlike other such devices, the photonic-crystal display is the first with pixels that can be individually tuned to any color. P-Ink works by controlling the spacing between photonic crystals, which affects the wavelengths of light they reflect.