Musings and Mutterings

Diamond no longer nature's hardest material - tech - 16 February 2009 - New Scientist

What is the hardest known substance? Turns out it's lonsdaleite, which is made from carbon atoms but arranged in a hexagonal fashion. It's not even the second hardest, that title falls to wurtzite boron nitride, which also has the benefit of being more stable than diamond at high temperatures.Diamond, in fact, comes third.

Cheap, super-efficient LED lights on the horizon - tech - 29 January 2009 - New Scientist

Researchers in the UK have cracked a limitation to making LED lights as cheaply as compact fluorescent lights (CFL). The problem was the wide difference in temperatures at which gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon are deposited, which results in the GaN cracking during cooling. the group added an aluminum gallium nitride layer that takes up the stresses so that the GaN doesn't crack. As a result, they can produce LED lights, which have no warm-up time and can burn for more than 100,000 hours, as cheaply as CFLs.

Chameleon-like 'opal' can take on any colour - tech - 23 December 2008 - New Scientist

A new synthetic material has been developed that can adopt any colour in the visible spectrum. The material starts blue, but applying voltage causes the colour of the material to gradually become red, passing through the entire spectrum in the process. They hope to use the material to develop a full-colour electronic paper that requires little energy. Apply voltage changes the colour, but as soon as the voltage is removed it stays that colour. Given that the process is ultimately the oxidation of iron, it's not clear whether the process is reversible so you may want to take dreams of full colour electronic paper with a grain of salt.

A recent study showed that boys, but not girls, diagnosed with ADHD had smaller (by volume) and differently shaped basal ganglia than those not similarly diagnosed. They hope that these results will eventually lead to better diagnosis and treatment methods.

Moving from the brains of the young to the brains of the elderly, a recent study compared "super aged", people who display sharp mental faculties into their 80s and beyond, and "regular" elderly. They discovered that the super-aged had fewer fibrous tangles caused by tau proteins but roughly the same number of plaques. Previous research had linked increased tangles and plaques with the onset of Alzheimers.

Somali pirates have attacked and seized a Saudi-owned supertanker, the largest ship ever taken by pirates, and are now escorting it to a Somali port.

USA Today posted an article about students at Rice University who are using genetically engineered yeast to create beer containing Resveratrol, a compound found in red wine that is associated with a reduction in risk of cancer and heart disease, at least in mice. So far they haven't managed to produce anything drinkable, which puts them on par with many US and Canadian commercial brewers. Meanwhile, in Canada a researcher at the NRC has discovered that beer already contains a cancer-fighting compound called xanthohumol, albeit at barely useful levels. They hope to use the research to selectively breed for hop varieties high in the compound.

Chinese researchers have developed a flexible paper-thin speaker, opening the door to speakers that can be applied to clothing or walls.

A Scottish first has developed a grenade that, instead of exploding, gives soldiers a 360-degree view of a room. The grenade contains a wireless camera and is launched into a room using a standard grenade-launcher.

Slashdot has a review of Orson Scott Card's recently-published sequel to Ender's Game, entitled "Ender in Exile.

Finally, India has succeeded in planting a flag on the moon. (Edit: thanks to wetdryvac for catching the embarassing wording error.)

Warner Brothers has released the script for The Dark Knight online (pdf), free for downloading.

This year's Remembrance day (Veteran's Day in the US), marked the 90th anniversary of the World War I armistice.

A new long-range climate model says that we are heading for another ice age between 10,000 and 100,000 years from now. That is, unless we can't get our carbon dioxide emission levels under control. The authors are quick to stress that this is not an argument against global warming.

A Swedish team has shown that strands of DNA can be used to create optical fibres. The process they developed combines DNA with chromophores, molecules that absorb and transmit light, to create optical wires up to 20 nanometers long a a few nanometers in diameter that can transmit as much as 30% of the light they receive. Not only that, but the wires are self-assembling and self-repairing.

MIT researchers have developed an omniphobic material, capable of repelling both oil and water. The secret is a surface made up of 300-nanometer-tall silicon-dioxide-capped "toadstools", making the surface universally repellent to liquids.

Following closely on the recent demise of the Phoenix Lander, the Mars rover Spirit may also on its last legs. The rover has entered "silent mode" because its solar panels are not able to gather enough energy to perform any tasks or even respond. NASA is keep an ear open in case the rover gathers enough energy to re-open communication.

A team of astronomers lead by a Canadian researcher has captured an image of four planets around a start 130 light years from Earth using the Hubble Space telescope in combination with two ground-based telescopes.

A German doctor appears to have cured a patient of AIDS by replacing their bone marrow with that of a donor who has a natural immunity to most known strains of HIV. They have been unable to detect the virus in his blood for the past 600 days despite having ceased anti-AIDS treatment.

For your reading pleasure, The Journal of Cartoon Over-analyzations.

Transsexuality gene identified... maybe - A variation in the gene cytochrome P17 leads to higher-than-average levels of both male and female sex hormones, and appears to be linked to female-to-male transsexuality. The researchers caution that this only means that there is probably a genetic component to transsexuality and that it is a complex behaviour with multiple factors involved. In fact, the gene variant is present in some women who are not transsexual, and is absent in some women who are transsexual.

New solar cell material soaks up the infrared - Almost half of energy from the sun is in the infrared wavelength, but contemporary solar cells can only capture the visible wavelengths so are limited to a theoretical maximum of 40% efficiency. A new material developed by Spanish researchers can absorb both visible light and infrared wavelengths so could boost the theoretical upper limit to 63%.

Efficiency of thermoelectric materials boosted - US researchers have boosted the zT from 1 to 1.5, a 50% improvement in thermoelectric efficiency. Although still a long way from the goal of 3 or 4 (sufficient to compete with an automobile engine), this discovery indicates that the maximum thermoelectric efficiency should be higher than 1.5. Many mechanical systems, such as steam generators and automobile engines, generate a lot of waste heat (60% in the case of a gasoline engine), so adding a thermoelectric material could increase the overall efficiency of these systems.

Former Queen guitarist completes his PhD - After a 30-year hiatus, Brian May returned to school to complete his doctorate in astronomy. His thesis is titled A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud.

Nanowires used to make large image sensor - Berkley researchers were able to build a prototype image sensor by growing two types of nanowire "lawns", then transferring them to a the same surface. Almost 80% of the elements were functional. The process can work with a wide range of surfaces, and easily scalable to large surface areas.