Tech stories for 15-October-2007

Among the stories in today's post: beaming energy from space, frog-inspired tape, building wormholes, women's preference for deep-voiced men, and 80 million years without sex.

New Scientist - Energy and Fuels

Pentagon backs plan to beam solar power from space - A futuristic scheme to collect solar energy on satellites and beam it to Earth has gained a large supporter in the US military. Space-based solar power would use kilometre-sized solar panel arrays to gather sunlight in orbit. It would then beam power down to Earth in the form of microwaves or a laser, which would be collected in antennas on the ground and then converted to electricity. Unlike solar panels based on the ground, solar power satellites placed in geostationary orbit above the Earth could operate at night and during cloudy conditions.

National Geographic News

Early Venus Had Oceans, May Have Been Habitable - Venus, not Mars, may have been the most likely planet in the solar system to have also developed life, scientists say. The cloud-shrouded planet most likely started with oceans much like Earth's, which evaporated as Venus heated up, according to new research.

Frog-Inspired Tape Reusable, Doesn't Lose Grip - The toe pads of tree frogs and crickets have inspired a new supersticky—yet reusable—adhesive, scientists report. Conventional tape cracks when it is pulled off a surface. The cracks enable removal, but usually also render the tape useless for reapplication, the authors said. The toe pads of tree frogs and crickets, on the other hand, contain microscopic channel patterns that prevent cracking. The researchers embedded the same type of microchannels in the new adhesive, which thwarted cracks, said study co-author Animangsu Ghatak.

BBC News | Science/Nature | World Edition

Test 'can spot Alzheimer's risk' - A newly developed blood test can identify those at risk of Alzheimer's disease up to six years before symptoms would become apparent, researchers say.

Eighty million years without sex - The mystery of how an animal has survived for 80 million years without sex has been solved by UK scientists. A Cambridge team says the creature owes its existence to a genetic quirk that offers some recompense for its prolonged celibacy. The animal is a tiny invertebrate known as a bdelloid rotifer. It lives in freshwater pools. If deprived of water, it survives in a desiccated state until water becomes available again. The secret to this novel survival mechanism lies in a twist of asexual reproduction, whereby the animal is able to make two separate proteins from two different copies of a key gene.

ABC News: Technology & Science

Women Dig 'Deep and Sexy' Voices - "We know in this society that women have a preference for men who have a lower or a deeper voice pitch," said Coren Apicella, a student researcher at Harvard University, explaining that there have been polls and studies on the subject.

Physics Org

'Electromagnetic Wormhole' Possible with Invisibility Technology - The team of mathematicians that first created the mathematics behind the "invisibility cloak" announced by physicists last October has now shown that the same technology could be used to generate an "electromagnetic wormhole." Last year, David R. Smith, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke's Pratt School, and his coauthors engineered an invisibility device as a disk, which allowed microwaves to pass around it. Greenleaf and his coauthors have now employed more elaborate geometry to specify exactly what properties are demanded of a wormhole's metamaterial in order to create the "invisible tunnel" effect. They also calculated what additional optical effects would occur if the inside of the wormhole was coated with a variety of hypothetical metamaterials.

Swedish Agency Develops Underwater Wireless Technology - The Swedish Defense Research Agency, FOI has developed an underwater wireless technology that has been tested for accurately predicting weather conditions, sea pollution and earthquakes. The new technology is a vast improvement over traditional echo sound technology.

Car Insurers' Devices Track Teen Drivers - Several U.S. auto insurers have begun offering in-car cameras or global positioning equipment to help parents monitor their teenagers' driving behavior, hoping to reduce the alarming number of crashes involving young new motorists. Under Teen Safe Driver, a camera records audio and video images of both the road and the driver when motion sensors detect swerving, hard braking, sudden acceleration or a collision. The footage goes to an analysis center where it is graded for riskiness and sent on to parents with comments and coaching tips. Teen drivers have mixed feelings about the technology; one in 20 even cover the camera after it is first installed, according to program officials.

Wired Science

New Algae-Growing Technique Could Lead to Earth-Friendly Fabric, Paint - Going green is fashionable, but dyeing our clothes has remained a decidedly eco-unfriendly practice. Now, British scientists have developed a way to grow harmless algae to add color to fabric and paint. The algae, called diatoms, are single-celled organisms that are unique because they pack iridescent shells. The hard silica shells act like crystals -- depending on the configuration of the holes in the shell, the color changes. The perception of color is maintained without altering the chemical composition of fabric, which is a fundamentally different way of producing color.