Science News Digest 22nd November 2010
In the science news this week, we take a look at the latest developments in antimatter research at CERN, groundbreaking new research into curing hypertension, a call to action in maths from the OECD and finally... news from the US that 'science says' we are psychic
Particle Physicists trap antimatter atoms at CERN.
Following on from last week’s new that the team at CERN created a ‘mini big bang’ they have now gone onto to trap antimatter atoms for a fraction of a second, for the first time ever.
This feat brings us even closer to being able to test previously impossible areas of physics.
The standard model of physics states that each particle has a mirror image antiparticle.
However, given that the Earth is made up overwhelmingly by matter, instead of antimatter, current laws of physics don’t distinguish between the two, despite that fact that at the birth of the universe there should have been equal amounts of both created.
Scientists are already becoming adept at producing antimatter particles, but assembling them into antimatter atoms has proven much more difficult.
Jeff Hangst of Aarhus University in Denmark, one of the collaborators on the Alpha antihydrogen trapping project told BBC News;
"You can think of them as small compass needles, so they can be deflected using magnetic fields. We build a strong 'magnetic bottle' around where we produce the antihydrogen and, if they're not moving too quickly, they are trapped,"
In order to do this successfully, the team made antihydrogen atoms that didn’t have much energy, so that they were slow moving.
Of the 10 million antiprotons and 700 million positrons, 38 stable antihydrogen atomos were formed lasting for about 0.2 seconds each.
The next stage is to create atoms that last longer so that they can be studied more closely.
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Australian scientists make a breakthrough in treating hypertension.
In the Guardian this week, a team from the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute of Melbourne, Australia have revealed a pioneering new technique to lower blood pressure by blasting the kidneys with radio waves.
Current medication and recommendations, including changes to diet and lifestyle, have proven unsuccessful to some patients, so this new method gives hope to those previously unable to control their blood pressure.
The study of 106 patients gave half the radio wave treatment, with the remaining 53 were used as a control group.
Those given the treatment saw their blood pressure fall by an average 32 over 12 millimetres of mercury (mm Hg) over a period of six months.
The procedure deactivates renal nerves by delivering a burst of high-radio energy from a catheter that is inserted into a blood vessel near the groin and eased up towards the kidney.
"Catheter-based renal denervation can safely be used to substantially reduce blood pressure in treatment-resistant hypertensive patients," was the study's interpretation of the results.
Professor Murray Esler who led the research said "The impressive results show that this approach has the potential to become a truly revolutionary treatment,".
His colleague, Professor Alan Jardine, from the University of Glasgow, said: "This really is an incredibly promising study and the results really are groundbreaking. It's the most exciting development in this field for many years."
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Britain needs mathletes!
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has produced a report that states that a nation’s competence in maths is a ’major component in its economic success and have a direct relation to Gross Domestic Product.’
According to the Daily Telegraph, ‘Prof Brian Butterworth, an Emeritus professor from the Centre of Educational Neuroscience at UCL, said that if the least able section of the population brushed up on their maths they would contribute significantly to the British economy. ‘
"If you just get the lowest 10 or 11 per cent – the percentage of our population that fails to reach the OECD minimum standard at 15 – to the minimum level this will increase GDP growth by 0.44 per cent per annum.
This seemingly small figure would actually create an enormous improvement to the UK’s GDP over the years.
He told BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "The UK is not very good at maths. We are about average looking at all OECD countries. So, we are significantly worse than Canada and Australia and much worse than China and Japan although we are a bit better than Germany and significantly better than the United States.
"We know from a recent OECD report that maths ability in the population is correlated with GDP growth. So the better at maths the country is the better their GDP growth."
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And finally.....
We’re psychic…but you already knew that right?
A respected psychologist in the US has had research published in a leading social science journal that claims that psychic powers might really exist!
This revelation has already sent waves of controversy around the science community.
In one of the experiments, participants were given a list of words to memorise, and then asked to recall as many as they could. After that they were given a random selection of words to type.
Naturally they were better at remembering some words than others in the first part of the experiment, but, now bear with me, because this is where it gets spooky, the words that they were more likely to remember were also the words that they were later asked to type!
The theory is that the future event had affected their ability to remember.
Another experiment saw students being shown an image of two curtains on a computer screen and being informed that behind one was an erotic picture. Apparently the students ‘chose the curtain hiding the naughty picture slightly more often than could be explained away by chance, this week's New Scientist reports.’
According to the Daily Mail ’Importantly, the position of the picture was randomly allotted by a computer which didn't make its decision until after the volunteer chose one curtain or the other.’
A third study saw the students being shown a picture of a scary dog or a nice basket of fruit and asked to rate the image as pleasant or unpleasant. After they had decided, they were shown a word like ‘luscious’ or ‘menacing’. Staggeringly, the positive or negative words impacted accordingly on their reaction times as if they already knew what was coming up.
The lead researcher Professor Bem, of Cornell University in New York State, administered nine different experiments with over 1,000 volunteers taking part. Eight of them favoured the psychics.
He has asked the science world to open its mind, as the odd of it being a statistical fluke are apparently 74 billion to one.
Particle Physicists trap antimatter atoms at CERN.
Following on from last week’s new that the team at CERN created a ‘mini big bang’ they have now gone onto to trap antimatter atoms for a fraction of a second, for the first time ever.
This feat brings us even closer to being able to test previously impossible areas of physics.
The standard model of physics states that each particle has a mirror image antiparticle.
However, given that the Earth is made up overwhelmingly by matter, instead of antimatter, current laws of physics don’t distinguish between the two, despite that fact that at the birth of the universe there should have been equal amounts of both created.
Scientists are already becoming adept at producing antimatter particles, but assembling them into antimatter atoms has proven much more difficult.
Jeff Hangst of Aarhus University in Denmark, one of the collaborators on the Alpha antihydrogen trapping project told BBC News;
"You can think of them as small compass needles, so they can be deflected using magnetic fields. We build a strong 'magnetic bottle' around where we produce the antihydrogen and, if they're not moving too quickly, they are trapped,"
In order to do this successfully, the team made antihydrogen atoms that didn’t have much energy, so that they were slow moving.
Of the 10 million antiprotons and 700 million positrons, 38 stable antihydrogen atomos were formed lasting for about 0.2 seconds each.
The next stage is to create atoms that last longer so that they can be studied more closely.
--------------------------------------
Australian scientists make a breakthrough in treating hypertension.
In the Guardian this week, a team from the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute of Melbourne, Australia have revealed a pioneering new technique to lower blood pressure by blasting the kidneys with radio waves.
Current medication and recommendations, including changes to diet and lifestyle, have proven unsuccessful to some patients, so this new method gives hope to those previously unable to control their blood pressure.
The study of 106 patients gave half the radio wave treatment, with the remaining 53 were used as a control group.
Those given the treatment saw their blood pressure fall by an average 32 over 12 millimetres of mercury (mm Hg) over a period of six months.
The procedure deactivates renal nerves by delivering a burst of high-radio energy from a catheter that is inserted into a blood vessel near the groin and eased up towards the kidney.
"Catheter-based renal denervation can safely be used to substantially reduce blood pressure in treatment-resistant hypertensive patients," was the study's interpretation of the results.
Professor Murray Esler who led the research said "The impressive results show that this approach has the potential to become a truly revolutionary treatment,".
His colleague, Professor Alan Jardine, from the University of Glasgow, said: "This really is an incredibly promising study and the results really are groundbreaking. It's the most exciting development in this field for many years."
--------------------------------------
Britain needs mathletes!
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has produced a report that states that a nation’s competence in maths is a ’major component in its economic success and have a direct relation to Gross Domestic Product.’
According to the Daily Telegraph, ‘Prof Brian Butterworth, an Emeritus professor from the Centre of Educational Neuroscience at UCL, said that if the least able section of the population brushed up on their maths they would contribute significantly to the British economy. ‘
"If you just get the lowest 10 or 11 per cent – the percentage of our population that fails to reach the OECD minimum standard at 15 – to the minimum level this will increase GDP growth by 0.44 per cent per annum.
This seemingly small figure would actually create an enormous improvement to the UK’s GDP over the years.
He told BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "The UK is not very good at maths. We are about average looking at all OECD countries. So, we are significantly worse than Canada and Australia and much worse than China and Japan although we are a bit better than Germany and significantly better than the United States.
"We know from a recent OECD report that maths ability in the population is correlated with GDP growth. So the better at maths the country is the better their GDP growth."
----------------------------------
And finally.....
We’re psychic…but you already knew that right?
A respected psychologist in the US has had research published in a leading social science journal that claims that psychic powers might really exist!
This revelation has already sent waves of controversy around the science community.
In one of the experiments, participants were given a list of words to memorise, and then asked to recall as many as they could. After that they were given a random selection of words to type.
Naturally they were better at remembering some words than others in the first part of the experiment, but, now bear with me, because this is where it gets spooky, the words that they were more likely to remember were also the words that they were later asked to type!
The theory is that the future event had affected their ability to remember.
Another experiment saw students being shown an image of two curtains on a computer screen and being informed that behind one was an erotic picture. Apparently the students ‘chose the curtain hiding the naughty picture slightly more often than could be explained away by chance, this week's New Scientist reports.’
According to the Daily Mail ’Importantly, the position of the picture was randomly allotted by a computer which didn't make its decision until after the volunteer chose one curtain or the other.’
A third study saw the students being shown a picture of a scary dog or a nice basket of fruit and asked to rate the image as pleasant or unpleasant. After they had decided, they were shown a word like ‘luscious’ or ‘menacing’. Staggeringly, the positive or negative words impacted accordingly on their reaction times as if they already knew what was coming up.
The lead researcher Professor Bem, of Cornell University in New York State, administered nine different experiments with over 1,000 volunteers taking part. Eight of them favoured the psychics.
He has asked the science world to open its mind, as the odd of it being a statistical fluke are apparently 74 billion to one.
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