Science News Digest 22nd March 2010
In the science news this week, we take a look at the callous nature of seahorses, a new cloaking device, more upset at the RI, the worries for UK wildlife after the harsh winter and finally....the new winners of the National Science & Engineering Competition have been revealed!
Cold Turkey
In the aftermath of the coldest winter in the last 20 years, concerns are being raised over the effect that the weather has had on British wildlife.
In the BBC this week, British Waterways has launched its annual wildlife survey but with a level of concern this year for certain species such as herons and kingfishers.
They believe that due to the extended cold period, lakes and canals that remained frozen will have cut off the vital food supplies to these animals.
The harsh winter of 1962/3 killed off between 80-90% of kingfishers according to British Waterways.
Dr Mark Robinson, British Waterways' national ecology manager, said;
"Frozen water and plummeting temperatures may have significantly reduced kingfisher populations, with the possibility that many lost the battle against the cold. It is therefore particularly important for us to monitor what species will need our support over the coming year and we're asking the public to help us do that.”
The wildlife survey recorded more than 42,500 sightings last year, including almost 300 different species of birds, amphibians, reptiles, insects and mammals.
---------------------------------
See the light.
We are one step closer to the technology that saw 007 escape from danger in his Aston Martin V12 Vanquish in ‘Die Another Day’.
Researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany have created a cloaking device that makes objects invisible to infrared light.
The material used to create this illusion managed to hide a bump on a surface by interfering with the way the light bounced off it.
The hope for this technology is that it can be developed to cloak objects such as high security facilities and military vehicles by adapting the technology to work in visible wavelengths rather than just infrared.
The technique used in this instance is called ‘direct laser writing lithography’ With this process, they created a sheet of tiny plastic rods measuring one thousandth of a millimetre wide each which alters the refractive index and therefore changes the speed of the light inside it.
The researchers used a gold sheet with a dimple in it to test the material and when it was in place, the gold sheet appeared flat and the material became invisible too. This is the first time a cloak has worked in 3-D.
Read more in the Guardian
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More upset at the RI
The troubles at the Royal Institution have shown no signs of going away after some members have called for a special general meeting where, according to the Times this week, they hoping to replace the entire board of trustees and reinstate Baroness Greenfield.
All it would take for this to happen is a straightforward majority of the RI members who attend the vote on April 12 who then call a vote of no confidence in the Council and bring back Baroness Greenfield.
The RI currently has 2,400 members and in the letter they were sent this week, there was a unanimous recommendation to the members to vote against the resolution as it could further destabilise the organisation already rocked by reports of a massive financial black hole earlier this year.
The Times went onto report that ‘at least one potential donor to the institution, which was once headed by Sir Humphry Davy and Michael Faraday, will not support the body if the no-confidence motion is passed.’
Whether the vote of no confidence is passed or not, Baroness Greenfield is still embarking on legal proceedings against the RI on grounds of sex discrimination.
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Size matters
Male seahorses may seem like the ultimate gentlemen by carrying the fertilised eggs throughout the gestation period, but new research from Texas A&M University has shown a new more callous side to the mysterious creatures.
In a study where the researchers put the male seahorses through two simultaneous pregnancies with different partners, they were found to favour the broods of the more attractive female and either divert more nutrients and care to those of the favoured mate or abort the less desirable mate’s brood altogether.
In seahorse dating circles, larger ladies are the most desirable with males only mating with smaller females as a last resort.
In the experiment, they paired 24 males with females of varying sizes. The researchers monitored each male's pregnancy, and then presented him with a new mate to see the effects of a second simultaneous pregnancy.
Their findings showed that the father could control the level of resources going into each brood pouch, so those who had mated with a more attractive female first kept few resources available for the second pregnancy, while those who mated with the more attractive female second aborted the primary pregnancy and recouped the resources to focus on this new brood.
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And Finally.....
Bright young things
After the culmination of many months of trialling and testing ideas and inventions, the new winners of the National Science & Engineering Competition were revealed at The Big Bang in Manchester.
The ultimate titles of this year’s ‘UK Young Engineer of the Year’ and ‘UK Young Scientist of the Year' went to:
• Shawn Brown, UK Young Engineer of the Year, for his Solar Bike - a bamboo framed electric trike using as much sustainable and reusable material as possible. Shawn attends Ysgol Gyfun Llanbedr Pont Steffan in Lampeter, Wales.
• Thomas Hearing, UK Young Scientist of the Year, for his mapping Monmouth beach and the eroding ammonite pavement - a project using precision GPS equipment to create a baseline dataset of the 'Ammonite Pavement' on Monmouth Beach, Lyme Regis. This was subsequently presented as a Geographical Information System and used to propose two erosion models. Thomas attends the Thomas Hardye School in Dorchester, Dorset.
Both entrants were given pride of place in the centre of the concourse at Manchester Central Convention Centre where over 22,500 visitors attended the Big Bang.
The Rt Hon Lord Mandelson, First Secretary of State and Secretary of State for the Department of Business, Innovation & Skills, presented the two winners their certificates at a high profile awards ceremony attended by hundreds. In addition, each senior category winner will receive: a cash prize of £2,000; an experience prize of their choice from either a trip to Earthwatch or NASA; and provided by Research Councils UK, an additional trip to CERN to see the Large Hadron Collider or the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma.
Lord Mandelson said: "The winners of the National Science & Engineering Competition are living, breathing proof that science and engineering in the UK is at the heart of a strong and thriving Britain over the coming decades.”
Roland Jackson, Chief Executive of the British Science Association who run the Competition, commented: “We have seen a range of stunning projects and submissions to the National Science & Engineering Competition this year, a tribute to the creativity of our young people in the UK, and their abilities in science and technology. This is one way in which we’ll ensure that the UK remains competitive in science and engineering.
Cold Turkey
In the aftermath of the coldest winter in the last 20 years, concerns are being raised over the effect that the weather has had on British wildlife.
In the BBC this week, British Waterways has launched its annual wildlife survey but with a level of concern this year for certain species such as herons and kingfishers.
They believe that due to the extended cold period, lakes and canals that remained frozen will have cut off the vital food supplies to these animals.
The harsh winter of 1962/3 killed off between 80-90% of kingfishers according to British Waterways.
Dr Mark Robinson, British Waterways' national ecology manager, said;
"Frozen water and plummeting temperatures may have significantly reduced kingfisher populations, with the possibility that many lost the battle against the cold. It is therefore particularly important for us to monitor what species will need our support over the coming year and we're asking the public to help us do that.”
The wildlife survey recorded more than 42,500 sightings last year, including almost 300 different species of birds, amphibians, reptiles, insects and mammals.
---------------------------------
See the light.
We are one step closer to the technology that saw 007 escape from danger in his Aston Martin V12 Vanquish in ‘Die Another Day’.
Researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany have created a cloaking device that makes objects invisible to infrared light.
The material used to create this illusion managed to hide a bump on a surface by interfering with the way the light bounced off it.
The hope for this technology is that it can be developed to cloak objects such as high security facilities and military vehicles by adapting the technology to work in visible wavelengths rather than just infrared.
The technique used in this instance is called ‘direct laser writing lithography’ With this process, they created a sheet of tiny plastic rods measuring one thousandth of a millimetre wide each which alters the refractive index and therefore changes the speed of the light inside it.
The researchers used a gold sheet with a dimple in it to test the material and when it was in place, the gold sheet appeared flat and the material became invisible too. This is the first time a cloak has worked in 3-D.
Read more in the Guardian
----------------------------------
More upset at the RI
The troubles at the Royal Institution have shown no signs of going away after some members have called for a special general meeting where, according to the Times this week, they hoping to replace the entire board of trustees and reinstate Baroness Greenfield.
All it would take for this to happen is a straightforward majority of the RI members who attend the vote on April 12 who then call a vote of no confidence in the Council and bring back Baroness Greenfield.
The RI currently has 2,400 members and in the letter they were sent this week, there was a unanimous recommendation to the members to vote against the resolution as it could further destabilise the organisation already rocked by reports of a massive financial black hole earlier this year.
The Times went onto report that ‘at least one potential donor to the institution, which was once headed by Sir Humphry Davy and Michael Faraday, will not support the body if the no-confidence motion is passed.’
Whether the vote of no confidence is passed or not, Baroness Greenfield is still embarking on legal proceedings against the RI on grounds of sex discrimination.
----------------------------------------
Size matters
Male seahorses may seem like the ultimate gentlemen by carrying the fertilised eggs throughout the gestation period, but new research from Texas A&M University has shown a new more callous side to the mysterious creatures.
In a study where the researchers put the male seahorses through two simultaneous pregnancies with different partners, they were found to favour the broods of the more attractive female and either divert more nutrients and care to those of the favoured mate or abort the less desirable mate’s brood altogether.
In seahorse dating circles, larger ladies are the most desirable with males only mating with smaller females as a last resort.
In the experiment, they paired 24 males with females of varying sizes. The researchers monitored each male's pregnancy, and then presented him with a new mate to see the effects of a second simultaneous pregnancy.
Their findings showed that the father could control the level of resources going into each brood pouch, so those who had mated with a more attractive female first kept few resources available for the second pregnancy, while those who mated with the more attractive female second aborted the primary pregnancy and recouped the resources to focus on this new brood.
------------------------------------
And Finally.....
Bright young things
After the culmination of many months of trialling and testing ideas and inventions, the new winners of the National Science & Engineering Competition were revealed at The Big Bang in Manchester.
The ultimate titles of this year’s ‘UK Young Engineer of the Year’ and ‘UK Young Scientist of the Year' went to:
• Shawn Brown, UK Young Engineer of the Year, for his Solar Bike - a bamboo framed electric trike using as much sustainable and reusable material as possible. Shawn attends Ysgol Gyfun Llanbedr Pont Steffan in Lampeter, Wales.
• Thomas Hearing, UK Young Scientist of the Year, for his mapping Monmouth beach and the eroding ammonite pavement - a project using precision GPS equipment to create a baseline dataset of the 'Ammonite Pavement' on Monmouth Beach, Lyme Regis. This was subsequently presented as a Geographical Information System and used to propose two erosion models. Thomas attends the Thomas Hardye School in Dorchester, Dorset.
Both entrants were given pride of place in the centre of the concourse at Manchester Central Convention Centre where over 22,500 visitors attended the Big Bang.
The Rt Hon Lord Mandelson, First Secretary of State and Secretary of State for the Department of Business, Innovation & Skills, presented the two winners their certificates at a high profile awards ceremony attended by hundreds. In addition, each senior category winner will receive: a cash prize of £2,000; an experience prize of their choice from either a trip to Earthwatch or NASA; and provided by Research Councils UK, an additional trip to CERN to see the Large Hadron Collider or the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma.
Lord Mandelson said: "The winners of the National Science & Engineering Competition are living, breathing proof that science and engineering in the UK is at the heart of a strong and thriving Britain over the coming decades.”
Roland Jackson, Chief Executive of the British Science Association who run the Competition, commented: “We have seen a range of stunning projects and submissions to the National Science & Engineering Competition this year, a tribute to the creativity of our young people in the UK, and their abilities in science and technology. This is one way in which we’ll ensure that the UK remains competitive in science and engineering.
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