David Bradley – Page 284

Camera Courses

photo coupons lily For those of you who are interested in knowing a bit about my personal life, I’ve spent daytimes this week on a digital photography course (evenings and early mornings have been blogging and work as usual, which makes for a rather tiring week).

I’ve been taking photos for almost two decades and have acted as picture editor and image source for dozens of articles over the years, but I hoped to gain a few new insights into the process of photo composition from international press photographer Malcolm Clarke, who was running the course at my local community education centre.

It was the first time the centre had run the week long course as part of its internationally famous summer school. We had a great group of enthusiastic photographers and rattled through several hundred snaps each over the course of the week. The range of skills among the students was initially very diverse and the biggest improvements were seen among those fresher to photography than any of those who might have already had some claim to being old hands. Even those students with the simplest of compact digital cameras were producing quite excellent shots and certainly demonstrated that having an eye for a shot is far more important than having the right kit.

That said, some of the most detailed macro close-ups of insects and flowers on the final day, taken at Cambridge’s stunning Botanical Gardens, were mindblowing, especially one students shot of a common darter (a type of dragonfly, that is not a ruddy darter) and another’s image of a honeybee coming into land. Brilliant stuff.

As it’s Saturday, I’m pointing you to the imaging and photography links page. Anyone on the course who wants to see some of my pre-course snaps from the recent Fen Edge Family Festival held in Cottenham in June they can check out my Imaging Storm website).

We are all made of stars

Stellar molecules A cocktail of chemicals is venting in enormous jets from the oxygen-rich surroundings of a supergiant star 5000 light years from earth, according to Arizona radio astronomers. Using the the Arizona Radio Observatory’s 10m Submillimeter Telescope (SMT) on Mount Graham, which is so sensitive it could detect emissions from deep space that are weaker than a typical light bulb, the team has picked up the chemical signatures for a range of small molecules and ions.

Among the score of small chemical species detected in the environment around the supergiant star VY Canis Majoris is common salt (NaCl), hydrogen isocyanide, phosphorus nitride, and protonated carbon monoxide ions. These materials contain several of the elements critical to the formation of life, explain the researchers, something that was not expected to be found in the atmosphere of a cool dying star.

“I don’t think anyone would have predicted that VY Canis Majoris is a molecular factory. It was really unexpected,” says Arizona chemist Lucy Ziurys, Director of ARO, “Everyone thought that the interesting chemistry in gas clouds around old stars was happening in envelopes around much closer, carbon-rich stars.

We are all made of stars, but whether or not this latest evidence points to a stellar origin for life on earth remains to be seen. Apparently, comets and meteorites dump about 40,000 tonnes of interstellar dust on our planet each year, presumably this figure was much higher when the earth was mere millions of years old and given that most of its original carbon evaporated away from its primordial methane atmosphere it is very possible that we do indeed owe our existence to a heavenly body.

You can read my full write-up on this over on SpectroscopyNOW.com

Viscosity Corn Syrup Science Trick

Reverse laminar flow

I’m on a photography course this week, hence the leaner, meaner Sciencebase posting regime. But, I did find time to chat with technology writer Wayne Smallman on Blah Blah Tech, who pointed out this neat video showing three distinct coloured fluids (dyed corn syrup) being poured into a vessel stirred slowly and then the flow reversed.

You might suspect it is a trick, but it is not. The three coloured liquids end up separated but are not quite as perfectly aligned as they were at the start. Why does this happen? It’s laminar (non-mixing) reverse flow, is tied to the viscous nature of the corn syrup, the smooth flow of the mix and the reverse unmix. I guess the only trick might be that the three fluids are within a thin layer inside the cylinder within which is a second concentric cylinder, the stirrer, oh that and the fact that the “experimenter” cannot actually count! But the essential thing is that corn syrup has a low Reynolds number (this approximates to high viscosity).

Such effects do occur in nature at tidal river confluences where water from different flows barely mix because of differing temperatures and salt concentration. The same phenomena could underlie the seemingly stable patterns we see on Jupiter (it’s lots of viscous layers not mixing).

Anyway, here’s the video

As to what Wayne had to say about it. “Wow, well effin’ weird, or what?!” were his first words. He figured my “science know-how” would do it more justice. Well, personally, I think it’s just effin’ weird too! Seriously, for a more detailed explanation check out this page on the Harvard website. The video has also been discussed on StumbleUpon here.

Intellectual genetics

Tug of war

Two worthy legal moratoria – the Agreement on the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) – are potentially in direct conflict when it comes to plant genetic resources and intellectual property rights, at least that is the conclusion of legal expert Megan Bowman. However, potential conflicts could be reconciled in this context by applying the common sense notion of remaining true to the over-arching principle of global welfare-maximisation in TRIPS and by utilising patent exemptions in appropriate circumstances. This, Bowman claims, will allow TRIPS and CBD to operate in a way that achieves both their objectives equally well so that intellectual property rights can be appropriately recognised and biodiversity can be sustained.

Writing in the International Journal of Intellectual Property Management (2007, Vol. 1, pp 277-292), who is a trained barrister and a lecturer in the Law School and Centre of Strategic Economic Studies, at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia, points out that international recognition of intellectual property rights has grown, particular in the biotech arena, as biodiversity levels have fallen across the globe. Bowman points out that these two trends have become related since the creation of TRIPS and CBD in 1993 whose spheres of operation overlap significantly, particularly in relation to plant genetic resources and intellectual property rights. Bowman states that this is because biological diversity, at both genetic and physical levels, is being exploited as the key ingredient for lucrative biotech and pharmaceutical industrial creation. Patent protection of that creation raises questions about biodiversity sustainability and also access to the resultant benefits and technologies derived from use of a raw product ‘owned’ by source countries or communities.

Currently we are experiencing global biodiversity degradation and decimation due to causes such as global warming that may result in the extinction of nearly half the current lifeforms by 2050. Bowman comments: ‘Apart from the intrinsic value of biological diversity, without healthy and diverse ecological systems on this planet there is no quality of life for humans — no fresh air or water, no arable land or edible food, and exposure to devastating storms, floods and droughts. But at the same time, humans are evolutionary creatures and we see that clearly with technological innovation. We are also wed to the dollar and we see that, in the context of this discussion, in the jealous guarding of rent for patents, specifically in the growing sector of biotechnology and pharmaceuticals based on plant genetic resources. So the question is how do we marry these components in a way that honours each of them? I look at this question from a purely legal standpoint. Undoubtedly any solution is complex, multi-faceted and multi-disciplined. Nonetheless, the legal principles embedded in the key international treaties on protection of biodiversity and protection of intellectual property rights in plant genetic resources share a commitment to global welfare enhancement. So it becomes clear that the legal foundations exist for cooperation between these two sectors. This knowledge paves the way for productive dialogue and action in boardrooms, patent offices and parliaments around the world.’

Related article from the Sciencebase archives on corporate academia: Will publicly funded research become mired in patent protection and intellectual property rights or remain purely altruistic?

(Updated: August 21, 2007)

Mice and a slice

Raman brain slice A new methodology for fibre-optic Raman mapping and FTIR imaging of secondary cancer cells, metastases, and detecting tumour cells has been developed by researchers in Germany. The technique facilitates imaging of samples thicker than 50 micrometres and could be used in detecting cancer cells, as a tool for molecular histopathology, in metabolic fingerprinting, general disease diagnostics.

Team member Christoph Krafft is currently in the Department of Materials and Natural Resources, at the University of Trieste, Italy, but will be returning to Dresden University of Technology with a new research grant in September. I spoke to him about the research and he told me that, “This fibre-optic Raman method will allow detecting tumour cells and tumour tissue in vivo and enable studies of tumor development.” You can read more details in the latest issue of SpectroscopyNOW.com in the Raman ezine.

Acronyms and abbreviations

Acronyms and abbreviations have always been a hobbyhorse of mine. Too many publications use them almost randomly without bothering to define. I suspect I’ve been guilty of that on occasion, but I try not to slip up. I was reading a thesis the other day that had so many acronyms and abbreviations without definition that I felt like failing the candidate there and then. Of course, I didn’t, it wasn’t my call.

If you’re looking for chemical and technical definitions then there are a couple of excellent acronym and abbreviation lookup services you can access, I’ll leave it to you to Google them…indeed, I think Google has a built in define acronym search logic.

Six degrees of privacy

Worried about keeping your private details private on Facebook? Do you know what information Google stores on each and every search you do? What about your bank, do they track your online purchases and send that information to direct marketing agencies? These are all questions each and every one of us should know and want the answers to, but privacy issues are not clearcut. As more and more social interaction takes place on the Internet they have to be addressed. But, who, when, and how?

There is currently no common framework for communicating and discussing privacy issues, according to Nicholas Harkiolakis of the information technology department, Hellenic American University, in Greece. He hopes to change all that and has introduced the concept of an Information Privacy Unit (IPU). But, why should we worry about something so seemingly esoteric?

Well, Professor Harkiolakis has been involved in software development for a quarter of a century and has focused on applications in business and academic settings where issues of privacy are paramount. With the advent of the internet, we have seen an explosion in social interaction that crosses borders and allows people to communicate in ways that were undreamt perhaps as recently as when Harkiolakis began his career in IT. Social structure is changing from the level of the individual to corporations and to governments. “We have seen a major shift in power regarding control of personal data from the individual to public organisations and public bureaucracies,” Harkiolakis says.

He points out that companies that hold databases of personal information from our banks and clubs to internet service providers, websites and search engines are monitoring us all with very little regulation, and that is not taking into account the illicit monitoring of organisations of which we may not even be aware, such as those that infiltrate our computers with spyware and other nasties. “Other forms of monitoring could eventually be used to discriminate against individuals,” adds Harkiolakis, “not because of their past but because of statistical expectations about their future.” In particular, he says, we are simply unaware of what personal data has been captured and how it might be manipulated and used against us in some shape or form. If we, says Harkiolakis, we would never allow that data to be captured in the first place.

Writing in the International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation (2007, vol 6, 56-63) in a special issue on data protection, trust and technology, Harkiolakis explains the possible ways of addressing privacy concerns. He suggests that there six angles, or dimensions, to privacy that basically follow the journalistic mantra of What, When, Who, Where, Why and How. By taking this six-dimensional approach to privacy, Harkiolakis explains that it becomes possible to define strict guidelines for implementing privacy policies, specifically within software that will act as mediators (in web browsers, for instance) or as representatives (in other programs and on computer servers) between you, the user, and the proverbial them.

Cyberspace is vast, the amount personal information “out there” is enormous, just look at the rapidly growing number of web pages, ecommerce sites, Facebook and MySpace users, Diggers, bloggers and others. This growth has multiplied our abilities to manipulate and aggregate information beyond imagination, terabyte upon terabyte of data oscillates across the wires. Now that exchanging data across these wires, fibre optics, and satellite connections is entirely the norm and so privacy is a significant issue. The six-dimensional approach to privacy proposed by Harkiolakis looks at the manipulation of data from six different angles: Personal data (What) would have been collected with a variety of methods (How) by different entities (Who) at different times (When), at different websites or servers (Where) and for different purposes (Why). In a dispute, legal or otherwise, an investigation of each of these points in the transaction or use of data would allow both parties to examine whether any breaches of privacy, trust, or the law was made.

A breach at any of those six points would represent a breach however you look at it. Conversely, by developing software that can analyse and assess each of these individual dimensions and how they mesh together during a transaction it might one day be possible to produce a program, a browser plugin, for example, that monitors your activity on the Internet for you and warns you much more effectively than displaying a locked padlock in the status bar when a transaction is about to compromise your privacy.

Nicotine high hinges on sugar molecule

When nicotine binds to a neuron, how does the cell know to send the signal that announces a smoker’s high? A recently determined crystal structure of a key player in the process suggests that a sugar molecule has a simple mechanical role acting as a hinge to open a gate in the cell membrane. The research might one day lead to new treatments for drug addiction, depression, epilepsy, schizophrenia, and other disorders.

I discussed the issue with Lin Chen of the University of Southern California and you can read the full story in the X-ray crystallography channel on SpectroscopyNOW.com

Molecular model of bleach

TL:DR – David Bradley Science Writer provides the molecular structure of bleach

It seems to be something of an obsession with sciencebase.com visitors, but for some nothing would delight them more than to discover the systematic name for bleach, the chemical formula for bleach, the molecular structure of bleach, or to find a molecular model of bleach.

Well, the structure of bleach depends on what you mean by bleach. There are various kinds of chemical agents that will “remove” the colour from pigmented materials. Perhaps most commonly considered bleach is the liquid mixture that contain sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl, Na for sodium, O for oxygen, Cl for chlorine atoms). This is the active ingredient in the common household bleaches that “get right up under the rim” and “kill all known germs”. It is the “hypo” part of the name that gives it its bleaching properties without the O it would simply be sodium chloride or common salt, and if the O were in the wrong place – NaClO – we’d have sodium chlorite (a less powerful oxidising agent used to whiten textiles without harming cellulose fibres).

There are now several non-chlorine bleaches available for domestic use such as those containing hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), this material is well known as a bleach and often associated with people who allegedly have more fun). To the right you can see a simple molecular model of hydrogen peroxide.

Bad motor scooter

Scooter computer

I received an intriguing press release the other day. It arrived with a photo of someone on a pink motor scooter touting a new service: London-based Scooter Computer. At first, I thought the release was alluding to a new built-in gadget for sexually ambivalent bikers, but it turns out not to be anything of the sort. So, forgive me for having such a politically incorrect thought.

In fact, the press release is about a UK startup company who ride to the rescue of those bewildered by IT problems at home, in the office, or SOHO. According to the release, the high-tech scooter cavalry come to the rescue on “quirky pink scooters” and will help fix your computer, install software, sort out your digital camera and even set you up on Facebook or help you download from iTunes and other sites if you are unsure as to how to go about that. Now, there have always been peripatetic quick fix tech people around almost since the moment the first person had a PC delivered to their home and discovered they couldn’t figure out which wire went where and broke their coffee cup holder on day one.

So, what makes the pink scooter computer guys any different, apart from the fact that they ride gaudy bikes? I figured that any technically inclined assistant charging a plumber’s rate could help set up a silver surfer with a Facebook account just as easily as shove a big chunk of RAM into a bored housewife’s computer…without getting bogged down in small talk.

Apparently, unlike plumbers and cable guys, the Scooter Computer mob will save you money on tech support lines and will talk you through what they are doing to fix or setup your gadget or computer so that you have the information to hand for future reference. I suspect this means that you would not need to call them out again for the same problem, again, very unlike a plumbing problem. Mark Dixon, a spokesman for Scooter Computer, says this is “the ideal service for anyone with IT/Tech/gadget problems.”

I have to admit, one thing I never do if I have a problem with a computer or gadget is call the technical support line, which should I call and expensive toll number and essentially pay the manufacturer to fix something that shouldn’t have been broken in the first place. The next thing I don’t do is take it back to the point of purchase, if that happens not to be an e-shop.

Finally, the last thing I do is not to read the manual. A much quicker solution is simply to Google the problem and if that doesn’t produce an answer, then there is always the manufacturer’s press office. But, then that’s probably not accessible to most users outside the world of journalism. But, it often helps, as regular readers who remember my Dell Inspiron laptop problem, the ntl netguard issue, and the VirginMedia OpenDNS debacle will recall.

One thing I almost always do when I figure out what’s wrong with a gadget, computer, or website is to blog it on Sciencetext.com, that way I have a record of what I did to rectify the situation for future reference. Moreover, since many of the problems I come across and ultimately solve turn out to be quite common, Sciencetext.com also acts as a repository for other people who may suffer from tech fallout too.

Scooter Computer founder Will Foot said: “We spotted that people did not have the knowledge or the time to get the most out of their computers and gadgets. With iPods, Blackberrys, digital cameras and millions of home computers it was clear that there was a demand for reliable IT support in the home.”

The team offer computer testing, installation of parental controls, virus protection advice, data backup and general troubleshooting. They will also sort out your digital photo needs, iPod storage questions and even offer training in your own home. It’s likely that the idea if it is truly successful will be hijacked by other companies. Foot adds that big American companies and large retailers are looking to move in on this area of business and he’s happy for the competition, having found a way to bring the helpdesk right to your home or SOHO with no traffic or parking problems, a deliberate lack of jargon, all on seriously gaudy motor scooters.