Tiny Hydrophobic Water Ferns Could Help Ships Economize on Fuel 3 Melanoma Not Caused by Early Ultraviolet (UVA) Light Exposure, Fish Experiments Show 5 Tetrahedral Dice Pack Tighter Than Any Other Shape 7 Salad Spinner Useful to Separate Blood Without Electricity in Developing Countries 9 Aboriginal Hunting and Burning Increase Australia's Desert Biodiversity, Researchers Find 11 The Elitzur-Vaidman bomb-tester 14 Baffling quasar alignment hints at cosmic strings 16 Something for nothing 18 Corpuscles and buckyballs 20 The Hamlet effect 22 Spooky action at a distance 24 The field that isn't there 25 Superfluids and supersolids 27 Nobody understands 29 Gene switch rejuvenates failing mouse brains 30 First cancer vaccine approved for use in people 32 Trauma leaves its mark on immune system genes 33 Cellular 'battery' is new source of stroke defence 35 Bugs will give us free power while cleaning our sewage 37 Designing leaves for a warmer, crowded world 39 Rumbles hint that Mount Fuji is getting angry 42 Generating more light than heat 43 Army of smartphone chips could emulate the human brain 45 Cuddly robots aim to make social networks child-safe 47 Is water the key to cheaper nanoelectronics? 49 Elusive tetraquark spotted in a data forest 51 Economic recovery needs psychological recovery 53 Ernst Fehr: How I found what's wrong with economics 56 Neanderthal genome reveals interbreeding with humans 59 Did we evolve a special ability for catching cheats? 62 The imperfect universe: Goodbye, theory of everything 64 The Jewish Question: British Anti-Semitism 66 From a Prophet, a Call for Reform 69 The Art of Style, and the Style of Art 72 The Garden That Grew Into a Muse 75 Mulling Mortality, in the East and in the West 78 War Zone Traumas Restaged at Home 80 China’s Energy Use Threatens Goals on Warming 83 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila New Study Ranks Countries on Environmental Impact 86 A Cluster and a Sea of Galaxies 88 Problem Gamblers Provoked by 'Near Misses' to Gamble More 90 A New Way to Use Herbicides: To Sterilize, Not Kill Weeds 92 Toward Simplifying Treatment of a Serious Eye Infection 94 Hidden Side of Star Birth Revealed 95 Stream Water Study Detects Thawing Permafrost 92 Roots Meshed in Waste Materials Could Clean Dirty Water 99 Milk and Risk of Renal Cell Cancer: Genetic Research Sheds New Light 101 Sunlight With Cooling Factor 103 Researchers Crack 'Splicing Code,' Solve a Mystery Underlying Biological Complexity 105 'Bypass' May Lead to Vision Gains for Central Retinal Vein Occlusion Patients 107 Weird, Ultra-Small Microbes Turn Up in Acidic Mine Drainage 108 Low-Maintenance Strawberry May Be Good Crop to Grow in Space 111 Researchers Design New Biomaterial That Mimics Muscle Elasticity 113 First Detailed Underwater Survey of Huge Volcanic Flank Collapse Deposits 115 Gold Nanoparticles Promise to Enrich Everyday Products 117 Study Finds Racial Pay Disparities Among Nurses 118 Compassion: The New Wonder Drug 120 Strengthening the Link Between Pollution, Cancer 122 Bicycles and the ‘Immigrant Effect’ 124 Vineyards in the Desert 126 Oil Cleanup Cure May Be Worse Than Disease 128 Cliff-Top Living in Northern Baja 131 Perhaps We’ll See Peak Bunker Oil, Too 133 Bald Eagles Will Eat Almost Anything 134 Peak Oil and the Return of the Jet Set 136 The Primitive Science of Restoration 139 Better Weapons Don’t Make for Shorter Wars 143 Some Bullies Just Want to Be Loved 147 The Sociology of Avatar, The X Files and The Simpsons 149 The Science of a Happy Marriage 151 Lighter Load for Nurses May Aid Patients 154 Rescuing Art From the Rubble of the Quake 155 Boldness Comes With Manifesto 158 Exploring Mortality With Clothes and a Claw 160 Who Draws the Borders of Culture? 163 Melvin the Mummy’s New Clothes 167 Celebrating Artists Who Keep the Action in Abstraction 170 Pounding the Pavement on a Bryant Park Pedestal 172 Mapping Ancient Civilization, in a Matter of Days 175 Finland’s 100,000-Year Plan to Banish Its Nuclear Waste 178 Give It a Rest, Genius 180 Harmonious minds: The hunt for universal music 183 Witness brain scan won't reveal whether the face fits 187 'Impossible motion' trick wins Illusion Contest 188 Stray grey whale navigates the North-West Passage 189 The deep roots of genetic disorders uncovered 191 Soft tissue remnants discovered in Archaeopteryx fossil 192 Bahamas islands were giant labs for lizard experiment 193 Even silent videos excite the listening brain 194 Why labs love gaming hardware 195 Exploring the network without guesswork 197 Rats top invasive mammals table 199 2 Infoteca’s E-Journal No. 115 May 2010 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila Tiny Hydrophobic Water Ferns Could Help Ships Economize on Fuel Materials based on water ferns could reduce the fuel consumption of ships in a big way. (Credit: iStockphoto/Rafael Ramirez Lee) ScienceDaily (May 5, 2010) — The hairs on the surface of water ferns could allow ships to have a 10 percent decrease in fuel consumption. The plant has the rare ability to put on a gauzy skirt of air under water. Researchers at the University of Bonn, Rostock and Karlsruhe now show in the journal Advanced Materials how the fern does this. Their results can possibly be used for the construction of new kinds of hulls with reduced friction. The water fern salvinia molesta is extremely hydrophobic. If it is submerged and subsequently pulled out the liquid immediately drips off it. After that it is completely dry again. Or to be more precise: it was never really wet. For the fern surrounds itself by a flimsy skirt of air. This layer prevents the plant from coming into contact with liquid. And that even with a dive lasting weeks. Materials researchers call this behaviour 'superhydrophobic'. This property is of interest for many applications such as rapidly drying swimsuits or simply for fuel-efficient ships. Meanwhile, it is possible to construct superhydrophobic surfaces modelled on nature. However, these 'replicas' have a disadvantage: the layer that forms on them is too unstable. In moving water it disappears after several hours at the latest. The researchers from Bonn, Rostock und Karlsruhe have now deciphered the trick the water fern uses to pin down its airy skirt. It has been known for some years now that on the surface of its leaves there are tiny whisk-like hairs. These are hydrophobic. They keep water in the surroundings at a distance. Water is 'stapled in place' But this is only one side of the coin: "We were able to show that the outermost tips of these whisks are hydrophilic, i.e. they love water," Professor Wilhelm Barthlott from the University of Bonn explains. "They plunge into the surrounding liquid and basically staple the water to the plant at regular intervals. The air layer situated beneath it can therefore not escape so easily." 3 Infoteca’s E-Journal No. 115 May 2010 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila Professor Barthlott is head of the Nees Institute of Biodiversity of Plants in Bonn. There the experiments began which are continued today in conjunction with the Chair of Fluid Dynamics at the University of Rostock and the Institute of Applied Physics at the University of Karlsruhe. "After the solving of the self- cleansing of the lotus leaf twenty years ago, the discovery of the salvinia effect is one of the most important new discoveries in bionics," Professor Thomas Schimmel from the University of Karlsruhe says. Fuel saved world wide: one percent And it is one with huge technical potential to boot. Up to now with container ships more than half of the propulsion energy is lost through friction of the water at the hull. With an air layer this loss could be reduced by ten percent according to the researchers' estimate. Since ships are huge fuel guzzlers, the total effect would be enormous. "Probably one percent of the fuel consumption worldwide could be saved this way," is Professor Barthlott's prognosis. "Surfaces modelled on the water fern could revolutionise shipbuilding," Professor Dr. Alfred Leder from the University of Rostock concurs. Story Source: Adapted from materials provided by University of Bonn. Journal Reference: 1. Wilhelm Barthlott, Thomas Schimmel, Sabine Wiersch, Kerstin Koch, Martin Brede, Matthias Barczewski, Stefan Walheim, Aaron Weis, Anke Kaltenmaier, Alfred Leder, Holger F. Bohn. The Salvinia Paradox: Superhydrophobic Surfaces with Hydrophilic Pins for Air Retention Under Water. Advanced Materials, 2010; DOI: 10.1002/adma.200904411 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100504095104.htm 4 Infoteca’s E-Journal No. 115 May 2010 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila Melanoma Not Caused by Early Ultraviolet (UVA) Light Exposure, New Fish Experiments Show New research shows that early life exposure to ultraviolet A light does not cause melanoma in a fish model that previously made that connection. (Credit: iStockphoto/Michiel De Boer) ScienceDaily (May 5, 2010) — Early life exposure to ultraviolet A light does not cause melanoma in a fish model that previously made that connection, scientists from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reported in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. UVA exposure is unlikely to have contributed to the rise in the incidence of melanoma over the past 30 years, the researchers conclude, because the fish model had been the only animal model to indicate a connection between exposure to UVA at a young age and later development of melanoma. "Our data refute the only direct evidence that UVA causes melanoma, which is not to say that UVA is harmless," said the study's lead author David Mitchell, Ph.D., professor in M.