Sunday News Post

- Placebo Effect has Origin in Spinal Cord

Research has indicated that the Placebo Effect’s ability to deaden pain can be traced back to the spine.

Researchers scanned the spinal cords (using fMRI) of volunteers whilst carrying out a routine of applying painful heat to one arm before rubbing on a cream, which the subjects were made to believe, was a painkilling salve. The results were that the pain cells in the spine weren’t activated.

Link: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17993-placebo-effect-caught-in-the-act-in-spinal-nerves.html

- Lunar Lunacy – Who Owns the Moon?

Not long ago you’ll all remember that America used a satellite to see the amount of water resources on the moon by crashing into it.

If we were to be able to ‘harvest’ resources from the moon who would control it?

The UN Lunar Treaty, which was established in 1990, has never been signed meaning that it will most likely be left up to colonisation.

Link: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427306.000-the-moon-belongs-to-no-one--yet.html

- Personal Big Brother

A new type of camera has been developed by Microsoft. The camera is worn like a pendant and is able to take a picture every 30 seconds if needed.

Photos are taken using a light sensor or a heat sensor meaning that they are triggered when a person enters a new environment or are approached by another person.

With a 1-gigabyte memory a total of 30,000 photos can be stored.

The original purpose was for research into various dementias and has been shown to improve a person’s ability to recall events much better than without.

So far only 500 have been made however a deal has been made with Vicon to put the camera into large-scale production.

Another use has also been suggested however; in comparison to the serious suggestion one Microsoft researcher has been using the camera to create a ‘lifeblog’ where the pictures taken can tell a story of a person’s day.

Link: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17992-new-camera-promises-to-capture-your-whole-life.html

- Insulin Minus the Injection (Kind Of)

An Israeli firm have been making use of detoxified stinging cells from Sea anemones and jellyfish.

The cells themselves are added to a cream that is mixed with whatever substance is wanted to be introduced into the body. The cells, when rubbed into the skin, extend into needles but due to the size they are completely painless. As about 1/3 of the cells should point into the skin when the cream is applied.

Currently a version of the cream which uses lidocaine (a painkiller) is in phase II trials in the US, as well as this research with mice is allowing for the possibility that insulin may be provided painlessly into the body.

Link: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17985-sea-anemone-stings-make-a-hypodermic-skin-cream.html

- Metamaterials Allow For Portable Black Hole

Metamaterials are materials that allow for the bending of light. A new ‘black hole’ (I use inverted commas as it doesn’t use gravity like in a classic black hole but affects the magnetic and electric fields of passing light) has been created using metamaterial circles or rings that cause light to bend towards the centre and then get converted into heat.

Currently the ‘holes’ can only suck up microwave ‘light’ but it is thought that by the end of the year it would be possible to create a ‘hole’ that could take in visible light and therefore have promising applications inside of solar cells.

Link: http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091015/full/news.2009.1007.html

- Sex Smells

Using fruitflies it has been proven that certain chemicals are produced to indicate who should mate with whom. By knocking out cells that produce hydrocarbons on the surface on the flies (that act as pheromones) it could be seen that no matter what gender or type of fly they were they would vigorously try to mate with each other. By reintroducing certain hydrocarbons they could tell what chemicals caused what effects. One hydrocarbon showed how males identified other males to stop same sex mating whilst another made sure that different species didn’t try to interbreed.

Link: http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091014/full/news.2009.1000.html

- The Impenetrable Barrier Penetrated

The blood-brain barrier has long been thought to be completely impenetrable however how would that allow for diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis that are autoimmune diseases that affect the central nervous system.

Previously it has been proven that immune cells have been present in the brain by histological studies but never before has the process of how they enter been seen. Researchers in Germany watched in real time as immune cells known as T cells entered the central nervous system of rats causing diseases to manifest.

One thing that can be taken away from this is that the previously imagined method on how immune cells could cross over isn’t right and that a new method of migration has been suggested after watching the video.

Link: http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091014/full/news.2009.1003.html

- Red Sky at Night

On 13th October a rare sight occurred in the skies of the Netherlands at around 7pm, a fireball streaked across the evening sky before exploding high in the atmosphere generating a sonic boom and a low rumble which caused many windows to rattle.

Pictures can be found if you follow the link.

Link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/091015-fireball-explodes-netherlands-germany-picture.html

- What Killed the Dinosaurs? Another Clue Emerges.

It was previously suggested that a large asteroid that collided with the Earth around the Mexico area had caused the dinosaur extinction however an even larger crater was discovered on the western coast of India which shows a greater impact occurred around 600,000 years after the Mexican collision.

The Shiva crater (as it has been named) shows indications that the impact caused the ground to be vaporised allowing the magma underneath to become exposed and thereby exacerbate the already occurring volcanic activity.

It is thought that volcanic emissions from the Indian volcanoes are what partially contributed to the dinosaur extinction.

Link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/091016-asteroid-impact-india-dinosaurs.html

- Site to Become Sacred Once More

Ayers Rock or Uluru is an Australian landmark but before European settlers arrived there the Aboriginals thought of Uluru as a sacred place. Though Aborigines have asked people not to climb or take photos of the sacred site their wishes have been disregarded for a long time. Presently talks are underway to make sure that tourists would not be able to climb the site anymore. From the sounds of it this wouldn’t be purely out of reasons of respect its also due to the number of people who’ve died trying to climb it as well as the mess produced by tourists due to the lack of bins and toilets.

Link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/091016-australia-uluru-video-ap.html

- Moon Still Holds Many Secrets

Due to the lack of atmosphere around the moon it is affected by solar winds. Solar winds are compromised of charged particles such as protons.

It has been suggested that the bombardment of the moon by solar winds is what generates the water that can be found there.

Another surprise that has been discovered along with this is that one in 5 protons is reflected or bounced from the surface where as it was previously thought that all particles would be absorbed by the soil.

When a bounce occurs the proton interacts with the ground and becomes a neutral hydrogen atom allowing it now to be affected by electromagnetic forces, also with the miniscule effect that gravity has on the moon it could easily escape.

In the future it is hoped that a map could be created to show where the solar winds interact with the moon the most.

Link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/091016-moon-water-sun-bounce.html

- Invisible Ribbon Stuns Scientists

A ribbon has been spotted at the edge of the solar system, well kind of; the twist is that no-one can see it!

The edge of the solar system is protected by a structure called the heliosphere which is the protective limit generated by solar winds spreading from the sun in all directions.

When gases from outside of the solar system slip in they meet the charged particles of the solar winds producing Energetic Neutral Atoms. A satellite monitoring the ENAs had noticed a collection of ENAs creating a ribbon in one section near the edge of the system.

The ribbon itself suggests that ENAs can be generated at higher concentrations at certain points of the heliosphere more than others thought at the moment there is no definite reason why. One suggestion has been that the Milky Way has a magnetic field that causes more ENAs to be made whenever it interacts with the heliosphere.

Though there is no explanation as of yet the latest news is that another map of the area is being taken and indicates that the shape of the ribbon is changing.

I love the sound of this, it sounds (at a stretch) like a scaled up version of the aurora.

Link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/091015-edge-solar-system-ribbon-ibex.html

- Rumble Down Under(ground)

Has anyone else seen the video of the Tube worker shouting in an elderly man’s face? Did you even hear about it? If not here are the details…

After getting his arm stuck in a door an elderly gentleman approached on of the staff to say what had happened. The member of staff in question hurled abuse at the man to get him to stand behind the yellow line and when asked why he had to swear he went on another rant finishing by saying that the man should be thrown under a train.

Nice to know that as prices for all public transport seems to rise the way the public is treated stays at a constant level of awfulness (or rather just gets worse).

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8310436.stm

- Atlantis Discovered?

Though the Atlantis legend has existed for a long time a site, which was discovered in 1967, could be the inspiration for the story.

Pavlopetri is the world’s oldest submerged town and with the latest technology artefacts and structures dating back up to 5.000 years are being uncovered. They even claim to have an almost complete town plan!

It appears with the town being deserted around 1,100 years ago and never being reused after due to submersion it has been excellently preserved and so research shall be carried out until a paper is published on the town in 2014.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/8311246.stm

- The Coldest Place in the Solar System

The LHC (Large Hadron Collider) has been cooled to deep space temperatures ahead of the restart in late November. At –273oC the temperature is just above absolute zero. The reason for the extreme temperature is that the magnets used can only have superconducting properties at such lows.

Collisions have been scheduled for December but with delays its more likely that they’ll occur in January of next year. This is also affected by the decision that there will be a hiatus over Christmas and New Year whilst workers contracts are re-negotiated.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8309875.stm

- Weird Science

BBC news has an article on Sci-Fi science and whether there could be any possibility that it may come true in the future.

Firstly it tackles the topic of time travel by stating that currently there isn’t any theory to rule out the possibility of time travel and that it may be possible to use wormholes to travel through time but as of yet the matter needed to keep it open we don’t have.

The second topic, wireless electricity, has already been proven possible and so far there is a clamour for private companies to provide the service and products, its obviously going to be a great money making tool.

Next is antimatter, which again has already been proven, but there would be no way to make a financial gain as it would be too difficult to produce.

Last topic is teleportation, this one’s a bit tricky, so far it has got to a point where quantum information can be transported to one photon to another due to entanglement. The problem with this is that with quantum teleportation only transfers information and not matter. After this the experiment has also been tried on atoms.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8310420.stm

- The 4th Plinth

After 100 days it has ended, the piece of art which sees members of the public getting an hour in which they can do what they want (within reason) on the 4th Plinth in Trafalgar Square.

So now, is this art or is it something else?

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8306553.stm

- Genius at 2

A boy aged 2 ½ has been accepted into MENSA when testers have decided that his IQ is the equivalent to that of Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein. Instead of the usual 20-word vocabulary an average 2 year old has he instead had a 600-word vocab!

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/8303880.stm

- I Hope That Was Covered by the Insurance!

A couple in Hull got a shock when 4lb (1.8kg) chunk of metal crashed into their house from above. After initial inspection by the RAF, who must look into matters involving falling objects to make sure that they aren’t to blame, it was thought that the metal had fallen from space.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/8309245.stm

- MPs Yet Again Waste Time Whinging About Something Unimportant

Sorry for the long title, I wanted to express my rage using Caps. Lock. Now then, Strangers’ Café has seating areas for MPs only (which is cordoned off) and another section for staff and public. The less used MPs only section apparently is taking up space that could be used for the public and after the café has expanded the section for the public MPs have been in a rage trying to get it reversed to get their obviously precious seating returned to them.

I think that MPs shouldn’t get private seating at all, let them queue like the rest of us for our lunches, they could even phone in their order and collect it when they arrive like other businesses do. Obviously MPs are so privileged with their claims, expenses and perks that they no longer care about the public and are only out to look after themselves, the sooner they have to have a set wage ONLY the better for everyone, then at least the people who do the job would be doing it for the right reasons.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8309003.stm

- Facebook Fiend

One journalist details how she tried to escape the clutches of Facebook only to be dragged back into the fold within a few days. The article isn’t marvellously interesting but can be quite funny.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8299362.stm

- Mothers Web of Lies

A mother has collected around £130,000 in disability benefits after having her child to appear as the sickest child in Britain. She made her son appear to have cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, dysphagia, food allergies and diabetes. Though perfectly healthy he was forced to use a wheelchair with oxygen cylinders, he had unnecessary operations and had a feeding tube installed. The mother also managed to wrangle a free motability car, celebrity meetings and free holidays courtesy of charity organisations.

Her deceit was realised after her son was noticed eating food instead of using his tube and suffered no allergic reaction, playing football and diving even though he was supposed to be wheelchair bound and finally her claim that she had been raped to avoid an appointment at hospital where the doctors would have found that her son didn’t have diabetes. She had been adding glucose to his samples to make it appear he had the disease.

The mother faces multiple charges, a psychiatric report and up to 3 ½ years in prison.

Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6878582.ece

- BOGOF over?

The end of BOGOF for food is nigh. After the idea that these offers contribute towards the amount of food wasted a year. The linked article runs through the opinions of the writer as to how this has come about.

Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6878512.ece

- Suicides Plague France Telecom

A series of 25 suicides have occurred within the France Telecom company. The recent spate of copycat deaths have thought to have been blamed on the company restructure due to global recession.

Link: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Business/France-Telecom-Suicides-Engineer-Hangs-Himself-In-Brittany-To-Become-25th-Death-At-Company/Article/200910315407224?lpos=Business_Third_Home_Page_Article_Teaser_Region__1&lid=ARTICLE_15407224_France_Telecom_Suicides%3A_Engineer_Hangs_Himself_In_Brittany_To_Become_25th_Death_At_Company