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? Blame That Whopper 86 Fifth Period: Life and Death Decision-making 88 One Book’s Take on Life, Death and Devotion 91 Obesity in Infants Can Be Diagnosed at 6 Months, Study Shows 93 New Tool Developed for DNA Research 94 Scientific Risk-Taking by Young Students Fades With Age, Research Suggests 96 Northwest Lava Flows Could Have Altered Earth’s Climate, Wiped out Species 98 Savvy Injection Molding 100 Geologist Connects Regular Changes of Earth's Orbital Cycle to Changes in Climate 102 Tissue Stem Cell Turning Into Tumor Stem Cell 104 Archaeologists Uncover Land Before Wheel; Site Untouched for 6,000 Years 106 Researchers Holding Steady in an Atomic-Scale Tug-of-War 108 Rapid Response Team Investigates Coral Disease Outbreak in Kaneohe Bay, O'ahu 110 Cold Atoms and Nanotubes Come Together in an Atomic 'Black Hole' 111 Mouth Breathing Can Cause Major Health Problems 113 World’s Smallest Microlaser Could Revolutionize Chip Technology 114 Babies Absorb the Most Bisphenol A 116 Form or Function? Evolution Takes Different Paths, Genetic Study Shows 118 Proposed Grid Could Make Offshore Wind Power More Reliable 120 Building a Green Economy 122 Make Birth Control, Not War 133 Academic Research Does Not Take Holidays Off 141 Peak Wood and the Bronze Age 143 Whipping Up Kindness in the Lab 145 Beating Back Space Invaders 148 Transcending Depression? 153 Home Libraries Provide Huge Educational Advantage 155 In Reporting Symptoms, Don’t Patients Know Best? 157 Hallucinogens Have Doctors Tuning In Again 160 Cancer Survival Demands Steady Progress 163 Grabbing Gracefully, With Replacement Fingers 165 Studying Sea Life for a Glue That Mends People 167 Riddle? Yes. Enigma? Sure. Documentary? 170 Artful Way to Expand a Museum 173 Jack Kirby’s Heroes in Waiting 175 Artists Embellish Walls With Political Visions 177 Reshaping the Art of Nature 179 Views of Mao’s China, and What It Became 181 Conversation About Picasso Spanning 4 City Blocks 183 Audacious Expressions on the Walls of the Temple 185 Enjoy the Bugs, but Don’t Feed the Scientists 188 Call Me Crazy... 191 On the appeal of the fashion logo. 194 Ancient creature's skull probed 196 Web child health advice 'wrong' 198 Kidney gene find a 'breakthrough' 200 2 Infoteca’s E-Journal No. 111 April 2010 Sistema de Infotecas Centrales Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila Can we fly safely through volcanic ash? • 17:14 20 April 2010 by Paul Marks This ash sensor, being ground-tested on an erupting volcano in Papua New Guinea in 2003, could be developed to allow planes to spot a safe path through the air (Image: Fred Prata) If airlines and aircraft makers did not understand the economic case for Fred Prata's invention a week ago, they will now. 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.