Purdue University
A devastating soybean disease has arrived in the United States, bringing with it a potentially high price tag for American farmers. Phakopsora pachyrhizi -- commonly known as Asian soybean rust -- can decimate untreated soybean fields. The disease could hit farmers' pocketbooks hard and have repercussions for livestock producers and consumers, as well, said Chris Hurt, Purdue University agricultural economist. Soybean growers forced to spray infected crops with fungicides would see dramatic increases in their production costs.
Purdue University is leading a four-year project to enable humanoid robots to move more like people and adapt quickly to new situations so that they can complete a variety of tasks they weren't specifically programmed to perform. ''We are trying to give humanoid robots the ability to behave and move more like human beings, to have the skill-learning capabilities of humans,'' said C.S. George Lee, a Purdue professor of electrical and computer engineering who specializes in robotics. Purdue will collaborate with researchers from the Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Japan, which leads the world in humanoid-robot research.
Physicists have built a critical component for the development of quantum computers and spintronic devices, potentially bringing advances in cryptography and high-speed database searches a step closer. A team of researchers has created a device that can effectively split a stream of quantum objects such as electrons into two streams according to the spin of each, herding those with ''up'' spin in one direction and corralling those that spin ''down'' in another. By producing such ''spin-polarized'' streams, the tiny device could become a key component in quantum computers, which have not yet left the drawing boards of the computer industry but are highly sought-after for their purported facility at cracking codes and searching large databases.
Researchers at Purdue University have developed a method that will enable authorities to trace documents to specific printers, a technique law-enforcement agencies could use to investigate counterfeiting, forgeries and homeland security matters. The technique uses two methods to trace a document: first, by analyzing a document to identify characteristics that are unique for each printer, and second by designing printers to purposely embed individualized characteristics in documents. The technique currently focuses on laser printers but eventually will be expanded to inkjet printers, said Edward J. Delp, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue.
Researchers at Purdue University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have completed a mathematical analysis showing that it isn't quite possible to build a so-called ''perfect lens,'' but the underlying theory still makes it feasible to design better imaging systems. A perfect lens would be able to focus light more narrowly than conventional lenses, making it possible to etch finer electronic circuits and create more compact and powerful computer chips. Such lenses also might lead to better fiberoptic communications systems and more precise medical imaging technologies.
Painful and damaging chemotherapy may one day be a thing of the past. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Purdue University have developed nano-sized particles that can target and trick cancer cells into absorbing them. Once inside, the particles may soon be able to deliver a pharmaceutical payload, killing the tumor from within, avoiding the destruction of healthy cells responsible for much of the damage caused by traditional chemotherapy.
Ticks as small as a freckle can transmit a number of illnesses for which there is no vaccine and, in some cases, no cure. These creatures even could become bioterrorism weapons. To find new ways to control the tiny animals and halt the spread of the pathogens they carry, researchers are undertaking the job of unraveling the genetic makeup of one variety of the creature, called the deer or black-legged tick. ''This will be the first time researchers have explored a tick genome in depth. It's crucial to learn how ticks spread serious illnesses because of the global health threats these diseases pose."
In possibly the ultimate in recycling, people who voyage to Mars may be able to quench their thirst with water recovered from waste. Engineers and agronomists are testing plants to identify ones that can grow normally when fed sewage. The circle of life would be complete when drinkable water is reclaimed from the plants.
Purdue University is leading a team of experts from other Indiana universities, the military and industry to develop an advanced ''video compression'' technology needed for surveillance and commercial applications. The new technology will enable future military drones to more efficiently transmit data and surveillance video. This will allow the unmanned aircraft to operate longer on a single battery charge and to expand what they see by adding more sensors.
Microscopic scaffolding to house the tiny components of nanotech devices could be built from RNA, the same substance that shuttles messages around a cell's nucleus, reports a Purdue University research group. By encouraging ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules to self-assemble into 3-D shapes resembling spirals, triangles, rods and hairpins, the group has found what could be a method of constructing lattices on which to build complex microscopic machines. From such RNA blocks, the group has already constructed arrays that are several micrometers in diameter -- still microscopically small, but exciting because manipulating controllable structures of this size from nanoparticles is one of nanotechnology's main goals.
New research shows that even when people who stutter are not speaking, their brains process language differently. ''Traditionally, stuttering is thought of as a problem with how someone speaks, and little attention has been given to the complex interactions between neurological systems that underlie speaking,'' says Christine Weber-Fox, an assistant professor of speech sciences who is interested in the brain's involvement in language processing.
Though the catastrophe that destroyed the dinosaurs' world may have begun with blazing fire, it probably ended with icy darkness, according to a Purdue University research group.
By analyzing fossil records, a team of scientists including Purdue's Matthew Huber has found evidence that the Earth underwent a sudden cooling 65 million years ago that may have taken millennia to abate completely. The fossil rock samples, taken from a well-known archaeological site in Tunisia, show that tiny, cold-loving ocean organisms called dinoflagellates and benthic formanifera appeared suddenly in an ancient sea that had previously been very warm.
New health communication research shows that casual conversations in hospital hallways and waiting rooms poses a threat to the confidentiality of patients' medical information. Research conducted at Purdue University by Maria Brann, assistant professor of communication studies at West Virginia University, and Marifran Mattson, associate professor of communication at Purdue, shows patient privacy is breached when hospital employees talk about patient cases in public areas, such as the cafeteria, or with people outside of work. The researchers' paper appears in the spring issue of the journal Health Communication.
A Purdue University mathematician claims to have proven the Riemann hypothesis, often dubbed the greatest unsolved problem in mathematics. Louis De Branges de Bourcia, or de Branges (de BRONZH) as he prefers to be called, has posted a 23-page paper detailing his attempt at a proof on his university Web page. While mathematicians ordinarily announce their work at formal conferences or in scientific journals, the spirited competition to prove the hypothesis -- which carries a $1 million prize for whomever accomplishes it first -- has encouraged de Branges to announce his work as soon as it was completed.
A new breed of faster, more powerful computers based on quantum mechanics may be a step closer to reality, report scientists. By linking a pair of tiny ''puddles'' of a few dozen electrons sandwiched inside a semiconductor, researchers have enabled these two so-called ''quantum dots'' to become parts of a transistor -- the vital switching component in computer chips. Future computers that use quantum dots to store and process digital information might outperform conventional computer circuits because of both the new transistors' smaller size and their potential to solve problems that would take centuries on today's machines.
