Technology

Gov’t asks public for help in World Trade Center investigation

U.S. government investigators say they need more help from the public and news media in their massive investigation of the September 11 destruction of the World Trade Center towers in New York. Specifically, officials at the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology want more photographs and videotape that could yield insights into what happened to the collapsed WTC buildings, occupants and first responders.

Cops overwhelmed by cybercrime

Law enforcement officers fighting Internet fraud feel ill prepared to wage an all-out battle on the ever-increasing serious crime, according to a new university study. Lack of resources and jurisdictional issues were cited as major problems in a nationwide survey of some 2,300 law enforcement agencies. “Those involved in investigating and prosecuting Internet fraud feel they lack the staff, tools and training to do their jobs effectively,” said Ronald Burns, assistant professor of criminal justice at Texas Christian University and study director. “Many respondents felt that their departments, given a choice, put more resources into fighting street crime.

Navy funds cooler running semiconductors

Under an Office of Naval Research basic research effort, researchers at Advanced Technology Materials Inc. have grown thin layer silicon from isotopically purified silane gas (Si28H4). The result is a semiconductor that at room temperature conducts electricity about 30 percent better than traditional silicon. That’s important because by increasing thermal conductivity devices and circuits can be driven with a higher current?speed before they start to burn out.

NASA to showcase innovative research for treating blindness

A technology designed to restore vision in patients suffering from age-related blindness will be demonstrated by a scientist at NASA Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley today. Developed by NASA Ames in conjunction with the Stanford University School of Medicine, the “Vision Chip” may help improve age-related macular degeneration, the number one cause of blindness in the elderly. “Nanotechnology that could restore vision is an exciting example of how NASA science and engineering, origially intended for outer space, can return enormous dividends for everyday life here on Earth,” said Dr. David J. Loftus, a member of both the Life Sciences Division and the Integrated Product Team on Devices and Nanotechnology at NASA Ames.

Researchers decipher optical spectra of carbon nanotubes

Building upon this summer’s groundbreaking finding that carbon nanotubes are fluorescent, chemists at Rice University have precisely identified the optical signatures of 33 “species” of nanotubes, establishing a new methodology for assaying nanotubes that is simpler and faster than existing methods. In research published this week by Science magazine, a spectroscopy research team led by Rice Chemistry Professor R. Bruce Weisman detailed the wavelengths of light that are absorbed and emitted by each type of light-emitting nanotube. The findings hold great promise for chemists, physicists and materials scientists studying nanotubes, because it otherwise takes many hours of tedious testing for researchers to assay a single sample of nanotubes, and optical tests could be much faster and simpler.

Researchers Develop New Approach for Designing Marine Reserves

The culmination of hundreds of research dives, scientific analysis, and high-tech mapping software has led to a fundamentally new approach for designing networks of marine reserves. An effort led by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, and reported in the Dec. 6 issue of Science, could become a powerful new method for decision makers charged with developing marine reserves and a forerunner for similar efforts around the world.

Smart heat pipe efficiently cools laptops, permitting greater speed

Evacuating heat is one of the great problems facing engineers as they design faster laptops by downsizing circuit sizes and stacking chips one above the other. The heat from more circuits and chips increase the likelihood of circuit failures as well as overly heated laps. “Space, military, and consumer applications, are all bumping up against a thermal barrier,” says Sandia researcher Mike Rightley, whose newly patented “smart” heat pipe seems to solve the problem. The simple, self-powered mechanism transfers heat to the side edge of the computer, where air fins or a tiny fan can dissipate the unwanted energy into air.

Full-body CT Scans May Benefit Only Select Group

A full-body computed tomography (CT) scan may be beneficial to fewer people than previously thought, according to a study presented December 3, 2002 at the 88th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago. The results of a second study pointed out the need to establish guidelines and standardized reporting systems for this hotly debated diagnostic procedure.

Hubble helps measure massive extrasolar planet

NASA Hubble Space Telescope’s crisp view has allowed an international team of astronomers to apply a previously unproven technique (astrometry) for making a precise measurement of the mass of a planet outside our solar system. The Hubble results place the planet at 1.89 to 2.4 times the mass of Jupiter, our solar system’s largest world. Previous estimates, about which there are some uncertainties, place the planet’s mass between 1.9 and 100 times that of Jupiter.

Recent products awarded ADA Seal of Acceptance

Just in time for the holidays, the American Dental Association — arbiter of quality in all things related to tooth care — has issued its latest list of ADA-approved goodies. Among the highlights: Saliva Substitute from Roxane Laboratories; Pharmacia Corp.’ s Gelfoam Dental Sponge; Shaw’s Hi-Tech Waxed Floss; lots and lots of powder-free latex gloves; and something called a Basic Continental Doctors Unit, from the considerate folks at A-dec, Inc.

Patient Safety Study Documents Medication Errors in Hospitals

According to a new national report issued today by the United States Pharmacopeia (USP)’s Center for the Advancement of Patient Safety (CAPS), administering drugs using incorrect techniques continues to be a serious cause of injury to hospital patients, increasing costs to insurers. The study collected reported medication errors voluntarily provided by 368 health care facilities nationwide, including community, government, and teaching institutions. Of the 105,603 errors documented, the vast majority were corrected before causing harm to the patient. But 2.4 percent of the total errors were more serious, resulting in patient injury, prolonged hospitalization and even death.

Human, mouse genomes show more genomic rearrangements than expected

An expert in computational biology at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) estimates that it took many more evolutionary genome rearrangements than previously thought — both large and small — to account for differences in the human and mouse genomes. The findings are included in two landmark papers announced today.

Addicts’ Brains Work Harder to Control Behavior

A brain-imaging study conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory reveals that recently abstinent methamphetamine abusers who reported they avoided harmful situations had higher resting metabolic rates in a part of the brain responsible for making decisions and modifying behaviors than those with low harm-avoidance scores. In non-addicted, comparison subjects, there was no significant association between harm avoidance and metabolism in this brain region. The findings, reported in the December 3, 2002, issue of NeuroReport, suggest that this higher-level brain center — the orbitofrontal cortex — is involved in drug addiction, and might be working extra hard in addicts trying to stay off drugs.

Dark Edge of Sunspots Reveal Magnetic Melee

In what may be one of the most important steps in understanding sunspots since they were discovered by Chinese sky watchers more than two millennia ago, researchers have discovered that the lines of magnetic force that surge out of sunspots appear to peel apart like husk off an ear of corn as some of the lines are dragged back beneath the surface by a sort of solar quicksand. This “quicksand” and the magnetic fields it bends create the penumbrae around some sunspots, the strange rings of mid-darkness that have eluded explanation by astronomers since Galileo first sketched them. With the help of sophisticated computer models and data from solar telescopes that give spectacular views of the sun, researchers at the University of Rochester, University of Colorado, University of Cambridge, and University of Leeds have reported an answer to several mysteries of sunspots in the current issue of Nature.