Killer asteroids and stickless chewing gum

Physics Org

Asteroid heads for Earth, Russian astronomer claims - Boris Shustov, director of the Institute of Astronomy, said at a forum that the Apophis asteroid could have a bigger impact than an asteroid that hit Siberia in 1908, the Novosti news agency reported. Apophis' predicted track would take it within 17,000 miles of Earth in 2029, Shustov said.

Group Renames Asteroid for George Takei - An asteroid between Mars and Jupiter has been renamed 7307 Takei in honor of the actor, best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu in the original "Star Trek" series and movies. "I am now a heavenly body," Takei, 70, said Tuesday, laughing. "I found out about it yesterday. ... I was blown away. It came out of the clear, blue sky - just like an asteroid."

Technology Review Feed - Nanotech Top Stories

Display Technology Promises Cheaper Solar - The big manufacturing equipment that has helped bring down costs for flat-screen TVs based on liquid-crystal-display (LCD) technology may soon bring prices for solar electricity more in line with prices for electricity from the grid. Applied Materials, a company based in Santa Clara, CA, that supplies manufacturing equipment to LCD makers, as well as to major microchip makers, has converted its equipment to produce thin-film silicon solar cells that are cheap enough to compete with more conventional solar cells. This may eventually lead to much cheaper solar power.

Nonstick Chewing Gum - Most everyone has had the displeasure of stepping on chewing gum in a parking lot. Cleaning up the sticky mess might become easier, thanks to a new gum created by U.K.-based Revolymer. The gum easily comes off roads, shoes, and hair, and it barely sticks at all to some surfaces.

New Scientist - Energy and Fuels

Grass-munching bugs could charge rural phones - A bacteria-powered cellphone charger could keep people in developing countries talking, even when they live far from the grid. A team of students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, US, has designed a microbial fuel cell (MFC) that runs on plant waste.

Technology Review Feed - Biotech Top Stories

Deciphering Human Differences - Yale University molecular biologist Michael Snyder, along with colleagues Alex Eckehart Urban and Jan Korbel (from left to right), used new computer algorithms to identify hundreds of structural variations--chunks of shuffled DNA--in the human genome. Mapping and characterizing these structural variants could be key to understanding human diversity and the origins of many diseases.

BBC News | Science/Nature | World Edition

Chilli compound fires painkiller - A chemical from chilli peppers may be able to kill pain without affecting touch or movement. Conventional local anaesthetics affect all nerve cells. But the researchers Harvard team, writing in Nature, said that with capsaicin, the chilli chemical, they can target just pain receptors. However, a UK expert said it might be difficult to inject it safely.

Captive breeding 'weakens' beasts - Animals bred in captivity to help conservation programmes can quickly become less fit for survival in the wild, research suggests.

Mirrors 'could deflect' asteroids - Flying mirrors could save earth from a catastrophic asteroid collision, researchers have claimed. Up to 5,000 mirrors would be used to focus a beam of sunlight on to the asteroid, melting the rock and altering its orbital path away from earth. Orbiting mirrors would be used to focus sunlight on an area of the asteroid - heating the rock to around 2,100 degrees Celsius. This would create a thrust which would nudge the asteroid off course. For an asteroid on the scale of that which is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs, a 5,000-strong fleet of spacecraft would need to focus a beam on the surface for three or more years.

Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends

Identifying fingerprints in seconds - Researchers at the University of Warwick, UK, say they have developed a technology to identify damaged fingerprints in just a few seconds. Their approach neglects surface marks and focuses on underlying patterns. The researchers claim that their technique is fast and 100% accurate -- at least it was on 500 people tested at the London Science Museum in August 2007. Now, they want to introduce this technology, which uses sweat pores as comparison points, in ID cards or passports and to access sensitive buildings. Will this new technology enter our biometric future? Time will tell.