The spray-on battery

My thanks to Bryan of Why Now for spotting this story. The BBC has reported that researchers have demonstrated a means to spray-paint batteries onto any surface.  The batteries are made up of five separate layers, with a thickness of just 0.5mm in total.

To demonstrate the technique, the team painted batteries onto steel, glass, ceramic tile and even a beer stein. The approach will be of particular interest in industrial applications, as it is compatible with existing spray-painting technology.

The new work, from Rice University in Texas, US, opens up completely new avenues for putting batteries on nearly any surface in a simple and robust way.

Pulickel Ajayan and his colleagues chemically optimised the recipe for each of their five layers, using blends of chemicals common in lithium-ion batteries as well as novel materials including carbon nanotubes - tiny "straws" of carbon with incredible electronic properties.

For the process to work  all five layers must stick together and work in synchrony, and the tricky step was finding a separator material that kept the whole stack in one piece.When the team hit on using a chemical called poly-methylmethacrylate, they had a structure that would stick even to curved surfaces.

"This means traditional packaging for batteries has given way to a much more flexible approach that allows all kinds of new design and integration possibilities for storage devices," said Prof Ajayan.
"There has been a lot of interest in recent times in creating power sources with an improved form factor, and this is a big step forward in that direction."

Ah the wonders of science!

Another great landmark in science

Phenomenica  reports on a scientific breakthrough that will truly change the way we think. For centuries the philosopher prince has stared at his pint of stout and wondered why on earth do some bubbles go down towards the bottom of the glass instead of upwards to the light.

This conndrum has now been solved in a new study, mathematicians and it sems to be due to the glass.

Many stout beers contain nitrogen as well as the carbon dioxide that is present in all beers. Since nitrogen is less likely to dissolve in liquid, that results in smaller and longer-lasting bubbles. But it is the sinking bubble that has confounded the world's greatest minds

Now the University of Limerick’s William Lee, Eugene Benilov and Cathal Cummins have discovered the simple answer to the problem – and a test that can be carried out by consumers as well.


The team had the idea  that the relative density of bubbles and the surrounding liquid could be behind the phenomenon. “If you imagine your pint is full of bubbles, then the bubbles will start to rise... “Because of the sloping wall of the pint, the bubbles are moving away from the wall, which means you’re getting a much denser region next to the wall. That is going to sink under its own gravity, because it’s less buoyant, and that sinking fluid will pull the bubbles down...You’ll see sinking bubbles not because the bubbles themselves are sinking, but because the fluid is and it’s pulling them down with it,”

The same flow pattern occurs with other beers such as lagers, but the larger bubbles of carbon dioxide are less subject to that drag.
Cummins carried out calculations using a simulated pint and “anti-pint” – that is, the upside-down version of a pint glass – showing the effect at work; in the anti-pint, the bubbles rise as expected.

Well there you have it once more. Truly a wonderful discovery. I am a bit oworried by the concept of the Anti-pint. I wonder if it will cost £6.66

Tory supporters on a porn spree in May?

Now here is something that never occurred to me, but then I am not involved in scientific research.

According to an item AOL News there is a hypothesis (the Challenge Hypothesis) that indicates testosterone levels rise when someone wins something and also when someone has a vicarious sense of victory (he says , rather me says, mangling a hypothesis that deals with far more than just this!)

Patrick and Charlotte Markey wanted to test the hypothesis in a new way and certainly found one.

According to the abstract of their paper in Evolution and Human Behavior “Changes in pornography-seeking behaviors following political elections: an examination of the challenge hypothesis” it would seem that supporters of the winning party in an election access more porn that the loser. The study examined:


“whether or not individuals who vicariously win a competition seek out pornography relatively more often than individuals who vicariously lose a competition. By examining a portion of Google keyword searches during the 2004, 2006 and 2008 US election cycles, the relative popularity of online pornography keywords searches was computed for each state and the District of Columbia the week before and the week after each election. Consistent with the Challenge Hypothesis, following all three election cycles, individuals located in states voting for the winning political party tended to search for pornography keywords relatively more often than individuals residing in states voting for the losing political party.”

However, Markey concedes that he can't say for sure that the Challenge Hypothesis is causing the uptick in porn clicks. It could be that people are just happier following an election and need a, um, release. But the Markeys' study cites another which shows that people don't have more sex when they're happy. If anything, they have more sex when they're sad, as a means to become happy.

Patrick Markey plans to test his idea again after November, after the US mid-terms elections

Hmm I wonder if hordes of Tory supporters went online to search hard for the full frontal photos taken of Margaret Thatcher just after the 1987 erection (Sorry I shouldn’t be rude about the late Denis T). Lib Dem voters almost certainly searched high and low for the near mythical David Penhalagon/ Jo Grimmond fisting photos…

…Perhaps I need a life….

One thing is for sure, it would be a travesty if the Markeys do not get an IgNobel for this fine work

Perhaps you can judge a book by its cover after all

According to Science Daily it seems that one really can judge a book by its cover.

A study in the current issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (PSBP), the official monthly journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology indicates that subjects were able to accurately judge some aspects of a stranger's personality from looking at photographs

Researchers asked participants to assess the personalities of strangers based first on a photograph posed to the researchers' specifications and then on a photograph posed the way the subject chose. Those judgments were then compared with how the person and acquaintances rated that individual's personality. They found that while both poses provided participants with accurate cues about personality, the spontaneous pose showed more insight, including about the subject's agreeableness, emotional stability, openness, likability, and loneliness.

"As we predicted, physical appearance serves as a channel through which personality is manifested," stated the authors. "By using full-body photographs and examining a broad range of traits, we identified domains of accuracy that have been overlooked, leading to the conclusion that physical appearance may play a more important role in personality judgment than previously thought."

Well I never! Perhaps you can but first impression do often lie. I know that to my cost.

SAGE Publications (2009, December 11). Personalities accurately judged by physical appearance alone. Science Daily. Retrieved

Viewing the molecule

I go on holiday for one week (which included a break from newspapers and the internet) and yet things still happen. Perhaps the biggest “WOW!” moment was the image of a single molecule of Pentacene (above). A chemical that has semiconductor properties.

The BBC reported that the image was produced by researchers at IBM Research Zurich using what is known as an atomic force microscope or AFM.

The AFM used by the researchers apparently acts like a tiny tuning fork, with one of the prongs of the fork passing incredibly close to the sample and the other farther away. When the fork is set vibrating, the prong nearest the sample will experience a minuscule shift in the frequency of its vibration, simply because it is getting close to the molecule.

Comparing the frequencies of the two prongs gives a measure of just how close the nearer prong is, effectively mapping out the molecule's structure. The measurement requires extremes of precision. This means that the samples are kept under high vacuum and at extremely cold temperatures.

Lead author of the research Leo Gross told BBC News that the group is aiming to combine their ability to measure individual charges with the new technique, characterising molecules at a truly unprecedented level of detail. That will help in particular in the field of "molecular electronics", a potential future for electronics in which individual molecules serve as switches and transistors.

The science is beyond my ken but the image is, well, bloody amazing!

British triumph at the Ig Nobels

It is with great pleasure to report that two Britons have joined the august list of Ig Nobel Prize winners.

David Sims of the Cass Business School in London, whose paper You Bastard: A narrative exploration of the experience of indignation within organisations, won the literature prize, said: "I'm delighted. The whole ethos of the Ig Nobels is a wonderful way to make people think." The paper examines how people construct roles as clever bastards, devious bastards or bastard ex machina, and goes on to examine the mixture of joy and guilt of labelling someone as such.

Sims wrote the paper after puzzling how right-thinking people who often stressed the importance of appreciating others' arguments would give up and brand someone a bastard. "We are all novelists writing the next chapter of our life story and with bastards, we need to understand what kind of character they are trying to create," Sims said.

Charles Spence, professor of experimental psychology at Oxford University, was awarded the Ig for nutrition for his investigation into the gastronomical role of sound. In the study, volunteers ate crisps of varying freshness while wearing headphones. As they ate, the sound of the crisp breaking was modified by a computer and played back to see if it changed their perception of the crisp's freshness. By making the crunch sounds louder, or by boosting the high frequencies, Spence made people rate the crisps 15% fresher.

The work led to collaboration with Heston Blumenthal at the Fat Duck restaurant in Bray, Berkshire, who played diners the sound of crashing waves to improve the flavour of oysters, and sizzling bacon to enhance his egg and bacon ice cream. "I'm very happy to be receiving the award," said Spence, who is now testing why crisps come in such noisy packets.

The Igs have become an irreverent highlight of the academic calendar, an annual exercise to celebrate research that makes people laugh first and think later. They are timed to coincide with the rather more lucrative and legitimate Nobels, which are awarded in Stockholm next week. The ceremony is hosted by the tongue-in-cheek journal, Annals of Improbable Research, and is attended by real Nobel prize-winners and a 1,000-strong audience. This year's recipients were given 60 seconds to deliver their acceptance speech, a time limit enforced by an eight-year-old girl.

The Ig Nobel prize for medicine was awarded to Dan Ariely at Duke University in North Carolina for a landmark study proving that costly placebos are more effective than cheap ones. Ariely's team told volunteers they were being given a new kind of painkiller, with some receiving an expensive one and others a much cheaper version.

Even though all of them received the same sugar pills, those who thought their pills were more expensive reported less pain when they were given small electric shocks. Arierly said his work has serious implications for the medical industry, because many patients are told they can only have cheaper drugs, or have inexpensive-looking medication, which could undermine how effective the drugs are. While the active ingredients of the drug will help treat symptoms, often they work in tandem with the placebo effect, which triggers the body's own healing mechanisms.

Among other winners were the people of Switzerland who claimed the Ig Peace prize for adopting the legal principle that plants have dignity; Geoffrey Miller at the University of New Mexico who won the economics prize for showing lap dancers received more in tips when they were ovulating; and scientists in San Diego who showed that hair, string and almost anything else will become tangled given the chance, earning them the Ig award for physics. Spare a thought also for the Chemistry prize winners: to Sharee Umpierre at the University of Puerto Rico discovered that Coke is a spermicide, while Chuang-Ye Hong at Taipei Medical University showed that it is not. Meanwhile Astolfo Mello Araujo at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil wone the Archaeology prize for measuring how the contents of an archaeological dig can be disrupted by the actions of an armadillo.

Not all of the winners understood why their work had made people laugh. Marie-Christine Cadiergues, who won the prize for biology by proving the fleas on dogs jump higher than those on cats, said: "Despite appearing funny and maybe crazy and useless to some people, this was part of a larger work on the biology of fleas ... A better knowledge of flea biology can provide a better control and therefore help vets, pet owners and overall our favourite pets."

Toshiyuki Nakagaki at Hokkaido University in Japan was similarly nonplussed about receiving the Ig award for cognitive neuroscience, after showing that slime mould could navigate a simple maze. "I was wondering which aspect of our research attracted the Ig Nobel prize. How does the prize evaluate our research? We are always serious and don't know why they laugh once before thinking," Nakagaki said.

Are Octopuses left or right tentacled?

This is a burning question that scientists hope to answer by giving 25 octopuses Rubik Cubes and other toys. While marine biologists do not expect any of the brainy cephalopods to finish the puzzle, they hope that the month-long project at 23 Sea Life Centres across Britain and Europe will show whether they have a favourite tentacle for picking things up.

Claire Little, a marine expert at the Weymouth Sea Life Centre, explained: "Uniquely, octopuses have more than half their nerves in their arms and have been shown to partially think with their arms. Many animals have been shown to favour a certain arm so we will see if octopuses can be added to that list."

A diagram of an octopus will sit alongside the tanks with the tentacles on the right labelled R1, R2, R3 and R4 from front to back; the left tentacles labelled L1 and so on. If the octopus uses a combination of arms, up to three will be recorded in sequence. A ball, a jam jar and Lego bricks will also be dropped in to the water for the octopuses' inspection. The giant Pacific octopus, the common octopus and the lesser octopus will all star in the research.

Octopuses are probably the most intelligent of all invertebrates: they have a capacity for learning and have complex memories. In 2003 an octopus in a German zoo learnt how to open jars of shrimps by copying staff. The five-month-old animal opened the jars by pressing its body on the lid and grasping the sides with its eight tentacles (see above).

I’m sure that finding whether octopuses have a preference for a particular tentacle will shed light on their brain structure, but I would love to see the looks on the scientists faces if one of them actually completed a cube!

Scientists decode the platypus genome

The duck-billed platypus is a rum beast and no doubt. In fact when the first skin arrived in England in 1799, the keeper of natural history at the British Museum thought it must be an elaborate hoax; how else to explain an animal with the fur of a mammal and the beak of a bird?

But European naturalists were soon to realise that the hairy, egg-laying creature from Australia which suckles its young and hunts "blind", with its eyes, ears and nostrils all closed while swimming underwater, was very real. Zoologists studying the creature's anatomy and behaviour confirmed that the duck-billed platypus was one of the strangest anomalies in the animal kingdom, and now geneticists have confirmed just how weird it is with the first complete analysis of its fully decoded genome.

Scientists said yesterday that they have now deciphered the entire DNA of the duck-billed platypus in a study involving more than 100 scientists from eight countries. They found that the animal's genes are indeed an unusual amalgam derived from the disparate worlds of reptiles, birds and mammals.The duck-billed platypus is one of just a few living species of mammals that lays eggs rather than giving birth to live young – the other egg layers being the echidnas. It is a member of the monotreme group of mammals.

Scientists were keen to explore its DNA because the platypus represents one of the few living species of mammals forming the monotremes, which split off from the rest of the mammals about 166 million years ago. "It's probably the most eagerly awaited genome since the chimp genome because platypuses are so weird," said Professor Jenny Graves of the Australian National University in Canberra, one of the co-authors of the study published in the journal Nature.

The scientists found that the platypus has about the same number of functional genes as its mammalian cousins but that some of them bear a closer resemblance to the reptiles, particularly the genes involved in producing the venom used by male platypuses to defend their territories. The study found that the toxin delivered by the kicking back claws of irate male platypuses is the result of a duplication in a set of reptilian genes that has undergone the same sort of duplication independently in reptiles to produce snake venom. It also found that the platypus shares about 82 per cent of its genes with other mammals, including the genes involved in lactation although the female platypus breast feeds through her skin rather than through nipples, which she lacks National University. Instead, the sex chromosomes of the platypus share much in common with those of birds, suggesting that the original common ancestor of all mammals, including man, may have also had sex chromosomes more like modern-day birds, he said.

Another surprising discovery was the nature of the chromosomes that determine sex in the platypus. In mammals, just two chromosomes, the X and the Y, are involved in sex determination. "The platypus is exceptional in that females have five different pairs of X chromosomes, and males have five X chromosomes and five Y chromosomes. To our surprise we discovered that the platypus X and Y chromosomes are completely unrelated to the X chromosome of all other mammals," said Dr Paul Waters, of the Australian Scientists unravel the origin of the platypus

Europe’s oldest trees?

At an age of anywhere between 2,000 and 5,000 years old, the Fortingall Yew in Perthshire, Scotland was believed to be the oldest tree in Europe (It is likely to be nearer 2,000 years old rather than 5,000. The age of yews can’t be measured by counting tree rings). It would seem that it has lost this record: scientists have found a cluster of spruces in western Sweden which, at an age of up to 8,000 years, may even be the world's oldest living trees.

The Norway spruces were found in a mountain range that separates Norway and Sweden. Carbon dating of the trees carried out at a laboratory in Miami showed the oldest of them first set root about 8,000 years ago, making it the world's oldest known living tree, Two other spruces, also found in the course of climate change studies in the Swedish county of Dalarna, were shown to be 4,800 and 5,500 years old.

"These were the first woods that grew after the Ice Age," said Lars Hedlund, responsible for environmental surveys in the county of Dalarna, Sweden "That means that when you speak of climate change today, you can in these (trees) see pretty much every single climate change that has occurred."

California's "Methuselah" tree, a Great Basin bristlecone pine, is often cited as the world's oldest living tree with a recorded age of between 4,500 and 5,000 years.

Saluting the Sea Cucumber Part II

Not only have sea cucumbers inspired the creation of a material that could revolutionise brain implants they may also provide a new weapon in the war against malaria.

Sea cucumbers produce a protein, lectin, which impairs development of the parasites. An international team genetically engineered mosquitoes - which carry the malaria parasite - to produce the same protein in their gut when feeding. The study found the protein disrupted development of the parasites inside the insects' stomach. Malaria causes severe illness in 500 million people worldwide each year, and kills more than one million.

To stimulate the mosquitoes to produce lectin, the researchers fused part of the gene from the sea cucumber which produces the protein with a gene from the insect. The results showed that the technique was effective against several of the parasites which cause malaria. Lectin is poisonous to the parasites when they are still in an early stage of development called an ookinete. Usually, the ookinetes migrate through the mosquito's stomach wall, and produce thousands of daughter cells which invade the salivary glands, and infect a human when the mosquito takes a blood meal. But when exposed to lectin the ookinetes are killed before they can start their deadly journey.

Researcher Professor Bob Sinden, from Imperial College London, said: "These results are very promising and show that genetically engineering mosquitoes in this way has a clear impact on the parasites' ability to multiply inside the mosquito host." However, he said much more work still had to be done before the technique could be used to curb the spread of malaria. "Although the sea cucumber protein significantly reduced the number of parasites in mosquitoes, it did not totally remove them from all insects. At the current stage of development, the genetically modified mosquitoes would remain dangerous to humans. Ultimately, one aim of our field is to find a way of genetically engineering mosquitoes so that the malaria parasite cannot develop inside them."

Professor Sanjeev Krishna, an expert in malaria at St George's Hospital Medical School, London, said new treatments for malaria were vital, as there was some sign that the parasites which cause the disease were developing resistance to the current artemisinin drugs. "This is a very important first step in developing a potential new way to control this infection."

Dr Ron Behrens, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the technique showed promise in theory - but he warned that introducing genetically modified mosquitoes could be fraught with practical difficulties. "You would have to get the modified version to become the predominant species, and that has never been done in any setting before.”.

Professor Brian Greenwood, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "This is elegant science but only one of the ways that have been found to inhibit development of the malaria parasite in the mosquito midgut using genetic manipulation. The key factor that will determine whether these approaches will ever become a practical malaria control tool is finding a way of ensuring that the genetically engineered mosquitoes take over from the wild ones."

Saluting the Sea cucumber part I

The sea cucumber is an echinoderm and (is thus a relative of the starfish) and of the class Holothuroidea. It has an elongated body and leathery skin, which is found on the sea floor worldwide. It is so named because of its cucumber-like shape (well it wouldn’t be called a sea cucumber if it looked like a patty pan I suppose). It is interesting to read that this humble group of animals have some important medical applications.

The response of a startled sea cucumber has inspired a new material that could one day be used to build brain implants for patients with Parkinson's disease. The material can rapidly switch from being rigid to flexible and vice versa. Writing in the journal Science, US researchers describe how species of the sea creatures "tense" when threatened. The new material mimics this ability, and could be used to make advanced brain electrodes which are stiff when implanted, yet supple inside the body. Adding water changes the state of the material.

The structure of the as yet un-named material mimics the skin of sea cucumbers which have collagen nanofibres embedded in a soft connective tissue. "These creatures can reversibly and quickly change the stiffness of their skin," explained Dr Jeffrey Capadona, another member of the team. Normally it is very soft; but for example in response to a threat, the animal can activate its 'body armour' by hardening its dermis."

Changes to the stiffness of the sea cucumber's skin are thought to be triggered by chemicals secreted by the animal's nervous system that rearrange the collagen threads. In the absence of water, the nanofibres are held together by chemical links known as hydrogen bonds. This gives the material its rigidity. When exposed to water, the water molecules "competitively bond" with the fibres.

This ability to morph could help build therapeutic devices to be implanted into the brains of patients who suffer from Parkinson's disease, stroke or spinal cord injuries. At present, there are a number of research teams hoping to develop "artificial nervous systems" that aim to treat these disorders. These systems need to "plug" into nerve cells within the brain - known as cortical neurons - to record electrical activity. But animal studies have shown that the quality of the brain signals recorded by implanted electrodes often degrades after a few months.

One hypothesis is that stiff electrodes damage the surrounding brain tissue. "There is a mechanical mismatch - the electrode is rigid but the brain is more like jello," said Dr Weder.

The team believes that an implant built on a substrate of the new material could overcome this problem, by being rigid during implantation, and softening once in the body. Dr Weder also has his eye on other applications for the material. Potentially, electricity rather than water could be used to switch its state."Smart bullet proof vests, prosthetics - the list goes on and on," he said.

Ladder-proof tights? Oh Brave New World!

A research team has created an elastic substance that can mend itself for up to a week after being broken thanks to its arrangement of molecules. Such a material will have have many applications of course - increasing the durability of artificial bones, the production of unbreakable glass and unchippable paint. Perhaps the greatest application of all will be tights that repair themselves after laddering.

“I think it will have all sorts of uses,” said Professor Ludwik Leibler, one of the researchers behind the invention. “It’s just a matter of using your imagination. We have only just begun to think of what can be done with it. Stockings are a very good idea. It could be used in glass vases so they don’t break when your children knock them over - it could make the glass bouncy.” Professor Leibler and his colleagues at the Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution in Paris are convinced that it has potential for use in a wide range of applications. They are most hopeful of adapting the technology in medicine, where self-healing properties would be invaluable for artificial bone and cartilage.

The technology could also be applied to paint and other coatings, saving householders and car owners the expense of repairing chips and nicks. Its use in pipes would make plumbing repairs easier, perhaps sealing leaks before they became serious. The substance, which has taken five years to develop, is ready for commercial use, Professor Leibler says. This is expected to be in plastics.

The material mimics the elastic qualities of rubber but with the advantage of having “sticky ends” when a break occurs. The substance has small molecules arranged in a network that stretch but will return to its original shape. Once the broken ends are pushed together they start healing because the molecular make-up is such that the surfaces have lifelike attributes and seek to form bridges.

The research team reported their invention of the “supramolecular rubber” in the journal Nature. “These materials can be easily processed, reused and recycled. Their unique self-repairing properties, the simplicity of their synthesis, their availability from renewable resources and the low cost of raw ingredients bode well for future applications.”

They added that the material behaved like a rubber but “exhibits unique self-healing properties: when a sample is broken or cut into pieces and the pieces are brought into contact together for some time at room temperature (20C, 68F) they self-heal without the need to heat or press strongly. The process of breaking and healing can be repeated many times.”

The maximum time the ends can be left before it becomes impossible for them to repair themselves reduces as temperatures rise. At 23C they can be left for more than a week but at 40C the time falls to 48 hours. The longer the surfaces are left to fuse, the stronger the repair, but even after 15 minutes of bonding the material could still be stretched to three times its normal length before snapping.

I have a one word comment – Wow!

Major disease outbreaks have become more common around the globe in the past 40 years, according to a major investigation into emerging infections. Zoononses (diseases which can be transmitted from animals to humans) are an increasing threat to human health, while many infections have now become resistant to antibiotics. Tropical regions are likely to become a future hotspot for new diseases.

Researchers from the Zoological Society of London, the Wildlife Trust and Columbia University analysed databases of outbreaks and found 335 cases of emerging diseases between 1940 and 2004. Of these, 60.3% were infections which also affected animals, and 71.8% were known to have triggered disease in humans after spreading from wildlife. The research, published in Nature, identifies "hotspots" where new diseases are expected to come from wildlife, driven by the proximity of dense human populations and high levels of biodiversity.

The global pattern of diseases was closely linked to regions with high rainfall and biodiversity, alongside rapid growth in the human population. Europe and North America have experienced high numbers of outbreaks, but much of that is because those regions have invested heavily in detecting early signs of disease. Other countries, scientists fear, are less able to spot new diseases as they arise.

More diseases emerged in the 1980s than any other decade, according to the study. This was likely to be because of the emergence of HIV, which put vast numbers of people at risk of contracting other diseases. The great majority of outbreaks were triggered by bacteria and viruses, with 20% caused by antibiotic-resistant microbes.

Dr Kate Jones, of the zoological society, said areas of rich biodiversity harboured pools of pathogens, which were readily able to spread. "Humans are impacting on these areas and developing them, coming into contact with wildlife through bush meat, farming, domestication of animals. We're increasing our human impact on these areas and exposing ourselves to potential pathogens." Preserving wildlife-rich areas could help to protect people from new diseases, in the same way that conservation ensures cleaner water supplies and so on...

There doesn’t seem to be much greatly new in the findings of this research: I doubt anyone would be surprised to read that there had been an increase in outbreaks of new diseases, or that there are disease hotspots. On the other hand it is useful to have the obvious thrust under our noses.....

The scientific benefits of farts and bogeys

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Although my days of science study are long, long over but I do try to keep abreast of scientific developments. It was with great pleasure to see today’s Independent and a discussion of some more bizarre scientific developments. However, it is unlikely that any of these will be up for an Ig Nobel:

Kangaroo farts

Research carried out in Queensland for the past four years has determined that kangaroos are able to produce environmentally friendly farts: bacteria in the stomach lining of kangaroos that means they do not contain methane. The team, led by Dr Athol Klieve, believes that unlocking this secret could lead to the creation of more climate-friendly cattle. Between them, the flatulent farm animals produce so much methane that they account for 14 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in Australia, second only to power stations. But if the kangaroo bacteria were added to cattle feed, the researchers hope they could create herds with much lower carbon footprints. Kangaroo stomachs are more than just green. Instead of methane, they produce a chemical that improves digestion. Feed laced with kangaroo bacteria could give rise to livestock that is not only greener, but also faster-growing and me fertile.

Methane-busting feed supplements could be available commercially in as little as three years.

Robo-snot

As well as being a tasty and nutritious snack olfactory mucus actually enhances our sense of smell. It separates the chemical compounds that make up the smell of, say, frying onions. These compounds travel through the mucus at different speeds, hitting our scent receptors at different times. By dissecting and separating smells in this way, mucus allows our brains to identify scents more quickly and accurately.

In April, Professor Julian Gardner of the University of Warwick started to improve his electronic noses, which have been used (without mucus) for years, in everything from the production of artificial fragrances to quality control in crisp factories. "We built a polymer that replicates the function of snot," says Gardner. "It's not green but it has the same consistency as human snot and, applied to our sensors, means our artificial noses are at least five times better than those without snot."

And who says science can't be fun!

A date for the 2008 diary – the Ig Nobel UK Tour

Improbable Research has announced two dates on its 2008 Ig Nobel UK tour- 11 March at Imperial College London and 12 March at the Guardian Visitor Centre. I would imagine that more dates will be announced shortly.

The shows will feature Marc Abrahams, If Nobel Prize organiser and editor of the Annals of Improbable Research. There will be the performance of a mini-opera, and also The How-to-Give-a-Bad-Science-Lecture Contest. Speakers include Kees Moeliker, who won the 2003 Ig Nobel Biology Prize for documenting the first scientifically recorded case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck, and Chris McManus who wrote the study “Scrotal Asymmetry in Man and in Ancient Sculpture,” for which he received the 2002 Ig Nobel Medicine Prize.

Tickets will be free but limited to two per applicant. How could anyone with an interest in science pass up on this opportunity?

Scientists create out of body experiences

A little late, maybe but better late than never, I suppose. It's utterly fascinating stuff (well fascinating to me anyway). Scientists have found a way to trigger an out-of-body experience (OBE) in volunteers. The experiments seem to offer a scientific explanation for a phenomenon that is experienced by one in 10 people.

Virtual reality goggles were used to con the brain into thinking the body was located elsewhere. The visual illusion plus the feel of their real bodies being touched made volunteers sense that they had moved outside of their physical bodies. Researchers say their findings could have practical applications, such as helping take video games to the next level of virtuality so the players feel as if they are actually inside the game. Clinically (and perhaps more importantly), surgeons may also be able to perform operations on patients thousands of miles away by controlling a robotic virtual self.

The teams, from University College London (UCL) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, believe there is a neurological explanation for OBEs. Their work suggests that a disconnection between the brain circuits that process visual and touch sensory information may be responsible.

In the Swiss experiments, the researchers asked volunteers to stand in front of a camera while wearing video-display goggles. Through the goggles, the volunteers could see a three-dimensional "virtual own body" that appeared to be standing in front of them. When the researchers stroked the back of the volunteer with a pen, the volunteer could see their virtual back being stroked either simultaneously or with a time lag. The volunteers reported that the sensation seemed to be caused by the pen on their virtual back, rather than their real back, making them feel as if the virtual body was their own rather than a hologram.

Dr Henrik Ehrsson, who led the UCL research, used a similar set-up in his tests and found volunteers had a physiological response - increased skin sweating - when they felt their virtual self was being threatened - appearing to be hit with a hammer. Dr Ehrsson said: "This experiment suggests that the first-person visual perspective is critically important for the in-body experience. In other words, we feel that our self is located where the eyes are."

Dr Susan Blackmore, psychologist and visiting lecturer at the University of the West of England, said: "This has at last brought OBEs into the lab and tested one of the main theories of how they occur. Scientists have long suspected that the clue to these extraordinary, and sometimes life-changing, experiences lies in disrupting our normal illusion of being a self behind our eyes, and replacing it with a new viewpoint from above or behind."

From Spanish Fly to Brazilian Spider?

Brazilian and US scientists are looking into using spider venom as a possible treatment for male impotence.

Their investigation follows reports that men bitten by the Brazilian wandering spider Phoneutria nigriventer experienced priapism - long and painful erections. A two-year study has found that the venom contains a toxin, called Tx2-6 that causes the erections.

The bite of the Brazilian wandering spider is potent and can be deadly in some cases but researchers found men who claimed their sex lives had improved after a spider attack. So far, scientists believe that combining a version of the spider's venom with an existing drug for erectile dysfunction could produce better results.

I could make a facetious comment about preferring splints to spider venom or swipe at the pharmaceutical industry’s money motive, but this article reminds me that there are still an awful lot of pharmaceuticals out there in nature just waiting to be discovered. Who knows but the plant that just became extinct might just have contained the cure for cancer....

A scientific basis for calling Dubya "Chimp"?

Bonobo Chimp

The hand gesturing of politicians can be traced back to the manual signals first used by our ape ancestors, according to a study by Amy Pollick and Frans de Waal, of Yerkes National Primate Research Centre at Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Apes and humans can both communicate with their limbs as well as vocally. Hand and other limb gestures almost certainly evolved long before the development of language. It could explain why politicians like to emphasise a point with a clenched fist, explain a failed policy with an upturned palm or bat away an unpleasant question with a raised hand.

Insert politician to be derided here

The study looked at gestures among chimpanzees and bonobos, a closely related species of pygmy chimp, and found they both used movements of arms and legs to communicate. "The natural communication of apes may hold clues about language origins, especially because apes frequently gesture with limbs and hands, a mode of communication thought to have been the starting point of human language evolution," the scientists say in their study in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers found that vocal calls such as a scream were closely tied to a particular emotion whereas hand or limb gestures were used in a looser manner. "A chimpanzee may stretch out an open hand to another as a signal for support, whereas the same gesture toward a possessor of food signals a desire to share," said Dr Pollick.

That's teh hand gestures explained, the screaming explains why the Commons sometimes has all the grace and style of an old chimp's tea party.

But it’s my glands, err my genes

Today’s top news seems to be the discovery of a gene that contributes to obesity. The discovery may explain why some people easily put on weight while others with similar lifestyles stay slim.

The gene in question (known as FTO)has two variants: low risk and high risk. 16% of the population have two copies of the high-risk variant, 50% have one high-risk and one low-risk, and 34% of people have two low-risk variants.

People who inherit one version of high risk variant are more likely to be obese. Those who inherit two copies of the high risk variant weigh an average pf 3kg (almost 7lbs) more than those with two copies of the low risk variant. They also have 15 per cent more body fat.

Family studies have indicated that obesity is influenced by genetics (and not just behaviour), while mutations have been found to cause rare obesity disorders such as Prader-Willi Syndrome. The findings, however, provide the first link between a common gene and a tendency towards obesity. If the biological function of FTO can be understood then it may be possible to design drugs that manipulate it to help people to control their weight.

The effect of FTO emerged from a key study of the genetic origins of disease funded by the Wellcome Trust known as the Case Control Consortium, in which 2,000 people with type 2 diabetes had their genomes compared to 3,000 healthy controls. Scientists from Oxford and the University of Exeter first found that certain versions of the FTO gene were more common among people with type 2 diabetes, but that the effect disappeared when the data were adjusted for obesity. This led them to wonder whether FTO really influenced obesity instead, and they followed up their theory in a further 37,000 people.

FTO will not be the only gene that influences obesity, and inheriting a particular variant will not necessarily make anyone fat. “This is not a gene for obesity, it is a gene that contributes to risk,” said Professor McCarthy of Oxford University. The research involved too many people to control for exercise and diet, so it is not yet known whether FTO affects how much people eat or how active they are. But it may explain how people with apparently similar lifestyles differ in propensity to put on weight.

Independent experts called the discovery highly significant. Susan Jebb, of the MRC Human Nutrition Unit, said: “This research provides clear evidence of a biological mechanism which makes some people more susceptible to gaining weight in a world where food is plentiful and sedentary lifestyles the norm.”

Finding a genetic element in obesity is obviously not the end of the matter and is not the “get out jail free” card for those of us who need to stretch our necks a little just to see our toes! There is obviously a lot of research to do yet and this research may provide drugs that help control our weight. However, we have an increasingly sedentary lifestyle and no amount of drugs will overcome that. At the end of the day sensible eating and exercise will continue to play the major role in controlling waistlines.... Now to practice what I have just preached!

The carrot and the rod

Once merely a nutritious vegetable it looks as if the carrot is set to for a whole new lease of life. Thanks to a discovery by two Scottish scientists it can now be used to produce an advanced material that can be used to make products from fishing rods to warships.

Named Curran, the material is made of carrot nanofibres. The process to extract these fibres was developed by Dr David Hepworth and Dr Eric Whale at their company CelluComp in Burntisland, Fife. The first Curran product - a rod for fly fishing - goes on sale next month and the pair now plan to move on to make other goods including snowboards and vehicle parts

The material is more environmentally friendly than current methods using glass and carbon fibres. "It is incredibly versatile and we believe that we are launching at a time when companies are looking for that combination of quality and performance, but achieved in a way that is environmentally friendly," said Dr Hepworth.

At the moment, the company can make materials which are around 80 per cent carrot, with carbon fibre making up the remainder but it is hoped that as the technique is developed, they will eventually be able to make products which are made from 100 per cent biological matter - carrots and other plants. Dr Hepworth said they were already looking at using other vegetables such as turnips, swede and parsnips.

The material could be kinder to the environment given that carrots are a renewable resource (unlike the oil used to make carbon fibres) and even if the material was burnt, the carbon it created was cancelled out by the carbon absorbed by the carrots when they were growing. "The potential is enormous and if we can replace just a small percentage of carbon fibres in products the effects on the environment could be significant and wide-ranging.” Said Dr Hepworth.

Good luck to them I say...