Can We Fly Safely Through Volcanic Ash? 3 Breakthrough Design Opens
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Can we fly safely through volcanic ash? 3 Breakthrough Design Opens Door to 'Full Screen' Braille Displays for the Blind 5 Microscopic Photography Reveals Bacteria Destroying Grape Plant Cell Wall 7 Physicists Detect Rare Geo-Neutrino Particles, Peek Into Earth's Core 9 Iron Atoms Convey Mussel Fibers With a Robust but Stretchy Covering 11 Nanosatellite To Clear Dangerous Debris From Space 13 Contact Lenses Loaded With Vitamin E May Treat Glaucoma 15 Making Car Fuel from Thin Air 17 Naval Research Laboratory Takes a Close Look at Unique Diamonds 19 Vast Microbial Diversity of Carnivorous Pitcher Plant Uncovered 22 Mother-Son Relationship Key to Emotional Development 23 Cosmic magnetic field strength measured 25 Study reports hints of phthalate threat to boys’ IQs 27 Alaskan peatlands expanded rapidly as ice age waned 29 Dinosaur rise linked to volcanism 31 Enter the matrix: the deep law that shapes our reality 33 Monsoons send Asian pollution round the world 37 Oceanology: Smart buoys warn oil rigs of freak waves 38 Knowing the mind of God: Seven theories of everything 39 Electrical engineering fixes brain's circuit board 42 Earth struck by most powerful space storm in three years 45 Diamond chips to make meaner, greener electronics 46 Carnivorous plants eat toxic metal from their prey 48 Is densest Kuiper belt object a wayward asteroid? 49 Laser 'punch' could bump up fusion power 51 Skip the hard cell: Flexible solar power is on its way 52 The shock of the old: Welcome to the elderly age 55 Giant mimivirus does its replication in-house 58 Charles Dickens’ Model for the Modern Rehab Facility: Victorian Health Care Reform 60 Flowers bloom earlier as UK warms 62 Turtles die in nets 'in millions' 64 Velociraptor 'caught' eating dino 66 Five-a-day 'will not cut cancer' 68 Crackdown on MOT-style body scans 70 Anti-psychotic pneumonia warning 72 Scientists name large but elusive lizard 74 U.S. health system not adequately prepared for the aging sick 76 Superheavy element 117 makes debut 77 Wood and Civilization 78 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila When Sewage Is Not a Dirty Word 80 Are Parents Too Involved With Their Children? 83 Feeling Impatient? 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Since 1991 the atmospheric physicist has been developing a sensor to warn pilots about volcanic ash clouds up to 100 kilometres ahead of their plane so they can thread a safe path around it. But despite successful ground tests (see image), he has not been able to secure the funding to test it in the air. With an estimated 6.8 million passengers grounded by airborne ash cloud from Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano, and millions of pounds at stake, serious questions are being asked about the technological shortcomings of the current approach to protecting flights. Known unknowns Ever since a Boeing 747 temporarily lost all four engines in an ash cloud in 1982, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has stipulated that skies must be closed as soon as ash concentration rises above zero. The ICAO's International Airways Volcano Watch uses computerised pollution dispersal models to predict ash cloud movements, and if any projections intersect a flight path, the route is closed. But although it is certain that volcanic ash like that hanging over northern Europe can melt inside a jet engine and block airflow, nobody has the least idea about just how much is too much. After a week of losing millions every day, airlines are starting to ask why we can't do better. It need not be this way, concedes Jonathan Nicholson at the UK's aviation regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority. "There may be a non-zero safe ash level for commercial jets, of so many particles of a certain size per minute," he told New Scientist, "but we just don't know." Denis Chagnon, spokesman for the ICAO, agrees, but says that isn't regulators' fault. "This has to be established by the engine makers themselves, because they produce the affected equipment. And that has not been done," he says. 3 Infoteca’s E-Journal No. 111 April 2010 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila Two of the biggest aero engine makers – Rolls-Royce in the UK and General Electric in the US – did not return phone calls or emails asking for comment on if, how and when they plan to establish safe thresholds. When the ash settles, it seems likely that they will be asked to think seriously about doing so. Model makers The wisdom of allowing computer models alone to ground flights is also being questioned. Frustrated companies including KLM, Lufthansa, BA, and aircraft maker Airbus have launched their own aircraft to explore how the reality in the air matched the models keeping them on the ground. None suffered any damage, and some carried sampling instruments that found no ash in places where models predicted it, sparking strong complaints from the airline trade body IATA. Yet in a reminder of the risks, some military jets did encounter ash last week and sustained engine damage. Prata says sensors like those he is developing at the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) in Kjeller could keep planes flying by letting them finesse the educated guesses of models to reveal ash-free patches and routes. A spokeswoman for the British air-traffic control agency NATS said she was not aware of Prata's work, but said the idea of in-flight detection sounded "handy". However, Nicholson suggested that it could cause traffic problems if many flights ended up switching course to sidestep ash. Whatever happens, one fallout from the ash cloud that has grounded Europe looks likely to be a fresh look at just how dangerous volcanic ash is, and whether planes can be given the smarts to dodge around it. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18797-can-we-fly-safely-through-volcanic-ash.html 4 Infoteca’s E-Journal No. 111 April 2010 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila Breakthrough Design Opens Door to 'Full Screen' Braille Displays for the Blind The researchers have developed a concept called a “hydraulic and latching mechanism,” which would allow the development of a full-page, refreshable Braille display system. (Credit: Image courtesy of North Carolina State University) ScienceDaily (Mar. 29, 2010) — Imagine if your computer only allowed you to see one line at a time, no matter what you were doing -- reading e-mail, looking at a Web site, doing research. That's the challenge facing blind computer users today. But new research from North Carolina State University is moving us closer to the development of a display system that would allow the blind to take full advantage of the Web and other computer applications. "Right now, electronic Braille displays typically only show one line of text at a time. And they're very expensive," says Dr.