David Bradley – Page 302

H5N1 in the UK

UK government vets have confirmed infection with the H5N1 strain of avian influenza in 2600 turkeys that died on a Suffolk farm owned by the Bernard Matthews company. The 159,000 turkey flock will have to be culled with all the risks that entails to prevent the disease spreading further.

According to a statement from the European Commission a protection zone of 3 km radius and a 10 km surveillance zone will be established around Holton, a village about 25 km south-west of Lowestoft.

This is the first time H5N1 has been identified in the UK on a commercial property. A previous outbreak of avian influenza was H7 that required a cull of 50000 fowl to be culled.

There are fifteen known variants of avian influenza. The most virulent, and usually fatal in birds, are H5 and H7 strains. There are then nine variants of the H5 strain and the type of most concern because of the risk to human health is H5N1. While H5N1 can be fatal in humans it has not yet mutated into a form that can be transmitted from person to person.

According to virologist John Oxford of the Queen Mary College, University of London, “I don’t think it has made any difference as a threat to the human population.”

Meanwhile, Channelnewsasia.com today reports yet another outbreak of H5N1 in Japan, the fourth this year.

Negative refraction

Light at the end of the tunnel “Can visible light ever be manipulated so that it bends the wrong way?” asks Katharine Sanderson in Nature. She suggests that successfully reversing light by making a negative refraction material could open up the possibility of some rather futuristic devices, such as microscope lenses that can resolve objects smaller than the wavelength of light or the much-desired invisibility cloak.

Sanderson reveals that Jennifer Dionne and Henri Lezec, working in Harry Atwater’s group at Caltech have made a material with a negative refractive index for visible light. The findings were announced at Nanometa 2007 in Seefeld, Austria, but are yet to be peer-reviewed for publication.

The only caveat is that Dionne and Lezec have only demonstrated the effect with a two-dimensional system. Does that count as true negative refraction, asks Sanderson? She quotes Atwater as explaining the options of upgrading to 3D: “Atwater envisages stacking a dense array of waveguides on end: “We have not done this yet, but at least this work illustrates the inherent possibility of doing so.”

Let’s hope so, I really fancy one of those invisibility cloaks.

A Good Delusion

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins continues to wow them Stateside with his book The God Delusion. Recently, he appeared on Stephen Colbert’s show to discuss the fundamantal differences between a rational scientific perspective of the universe and the nature of reality and the irrational viewpoint Colbert supports.

Dawkins, with good humour, attempts to argue his corner with Colbert who stubbornly insists that invoking God provides a much simpler explanation of the universe and man’s place in it than a Big Bang and Darwinian evolution. Dawkins points out that, “You get to complex like a human being by slow gradual degrees, and that’s the only ultimate explanation that will work. You can’t just suddenly magical complex things like God into existence,” he adds.

Life is not due to random chance, that’s the one thing it isn’t, because Darwinian natural selection is the exact opposite of random chance, it’s a highly non-random process, Dawkins further explains, “The big thing that everybody misunderstands about Darwinism is that it’s not an accident, it’s too complex to be an accident.”

Egg in a Bottle

Egg in a bottle Ever fancied squeezing an egg into a bottle? No? Well, it’s a kind of perennial physics demonstration that science teachers the world over love to do. I could simply describe how to do it and the results you might expect, but that would be no fun at all. Instead, I spent a good ten minutes scanning videos on the net where individuals attempted to carry out this experiment, some of them more successfully than others. Most handling naked flames and solvents (methylated spirits and the like) in a non-laboratory setting with absolutely no safety equipment (not even goggles) in sight.

More importantly though, most of these experimenters managed to get most of the egg in the bottle, but usually the egg split and simply splurted into the bottle rather than squeezing through the neck and plopping into the bottle intact.

In this video, the “researchers” succeeded in getting a nice squeeze and plop (far better even than the Brainiac team in their attempt).

The key to their success is apparently using a bottle with a nice wide neck. Most of the other videos try to use a beer bottle or something similar which constricts the egg as it squeezes through the opening and splits it.

So, how does it work? What mysterious force is pulling the egg into the bottle? Well, the answer is there is no mystery it is simply air pressure pushing down on the egg. But, wait a minute, what’s the burning paper got to do with air pressure?

Okay, here’s the short of it. Dropping a burning spill (or burning piece of paper into a bottle) and the air in the bottle will quickly expand and a small volume escapes. When the hard-boiled egg (with the shell removed) is placed into the opening, the spill goes out, the remaining gas cools and contracts and the greater outside air pressure pushes the moist flexible egg into the hole nicely.

If you use a nice moist egg and a bottle with a wide enough neck you’ll get a nice squeeze and plop. Anyone who has a use for a hard-boiled egg covered in burnt paper stuck in a bottle is welcome to contact us at Sciencebase with their ideas. Additionally, if you know how to get the egg out again without breaking the bottle leave us you thoughts in the comment form.

Bottled seaside air

Seaside Beach Huts Bottled seaside air! It almost sounds like a scam from the Victorian era when the bracing “ozone” of fresh air at the British seaside was said to cure all kinds of ailments and led to a boom in seaside resorts and continues to ebb and flow.

But, it’s not a scam. Researchers at the University of East Anglia have been plucking bacteria from the North Norfolk coast at a little village called Stiffkey (pronounced Stoo-Kee) and fermenting them to reproduce the marshy smell of the seaside in the laboratory.

Andrew Johnston and his team isolated the bacterium from the mud at Stiffkey saltmarsh and have identified the single gene responsible for the emission of the strong-smelling gas, dimethyl sulfide (DMS).

“On bracing childhood visits to the seaside we were always told to “breathe in that ozone, it’s good for you’,” said Prof Johnston. “But we were misled, twice over,” he adds, “First, that distinctive smell is not ozone [a highly toxic allotrope of oxygen], it is dimethyl sulfide. And secondly, inhaling it is not necessarily good for you.”

DMS is a little known but important gas. Across the world’s oceans, seas and coasts, tens of millions of tonnes are released by microbes that live near plankton and marine plants, including seaweeds and some salt-marsh plants. The gas plays an important role in the formation of cloud cover over the oceans, with major effects on climate.

Intriguingly, DMS acts as a homing scent for seabirds, almost like the odour of Brussels sprouts at a festive dinner table – it helps birds sniff out food in the lonely oceans, even at astonishingly low concentrations. Understanding the role of microbes in producing this key chemical is important in understanding a whole range of ecosystems.

The discovery adds to the diverse list of Stiffkey’s claims to fame. The small coastal village is renowned for its ‘Stewkey Blue’ cockles and was also the home of Henry Williamson, author of “Tarka the Otter”. It’s also known for its infamous rector, Reverend Harold Davidson, who was defrocked in 1932 after allegedly “cavorting with” London prostitutes. The pronunciation of the village’s name itself is even controversial with the older locals preferring the archaic Stoo-Kee, while the incomers often prefer the posher sounding and phonetic Stiff-Key. (Incidentally, my photograph of beachhuts at the head of this article was taken along the coast at Wells-next-the-Sea.

Music and exercise

Workout music Over on Alex King’s blog, they’re offering suggestions for his workout playlist. Dozens of comments have rolled in with music ranging from Eye of the Tiger to Linkin Park to Pussycat Dolls and everything in between.

One suggestion I don’t think I saw in the comments was simply not to listen to music at all while working out, or watch TV screens, or read or do anything else distracting, but simply to do your workout.

There has been a lot of sports science research done to suggest that distractions while working out inherently lower the intensity and so efficacy of exercise, even though they might help you keep going or feel like you’re punching harder or whatever. e.g. J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2006 Sep;46(3):425-30.

In that paper, the researchers conclude that “music evokes a ”distraction effect” during low intensity exercise”. They suggest that when jogging or walking at comparatively low exercise intensity, “listening to a favorite piece of music might decrease the influence of stress caused by fatigue” but that it does not affect the autonomic nervous system. As such, music can increase the ”comfort” level of performing the exercise and allow you to keep going longer (or until you’re bored with the music).

However, in my trawl for the original paper I wanted to cite, I found some very recent research in the journal Ergonomics that suggests the exact opposite of my claim that no music is good for your workout (Ergonomics. 2006 Dec 15;49(15):1597-610). In this paper, the researchers attempted to assess the effects of loudness and tempo on peoples’ workout intensity. They found that “Significant effects and interactions were found for running speed and heart rate across the different music tempo and loudness levels.” But more critically from the point of view of disproving my hypothesis, they found that a “More positive affect was observed during the music condition in comparison to the ‘no music’ condition.” So, I guess I’m wrong. That said, the latter study only had 30 volunteers so whether that’s truly statistically significant or enough to prove anything I cannot say.

It’s a complicated issue that might take a little more research to come down on one side or the other. Personally, I don’t mind a bit of talk radio in the background when I’m at the gym, but the young persons’ music that’s often playing I cannot abide, puts me right off my stride. Now, a bit of Zeppelin or Floyd would be a different matter.

As with most things in life though, there’s probably a balance point that you need to find to get the best out of your workout. So, keep taking those mp3 players to the gym. But, make sure you’ve got Wish You Were Here or Led Zep II on there.

Global warming ad

A TV public relations campaign is set to air at the beginning of February. The ad campaign sponsored by Avaaz.org is set to demand that G8 leaders put climate change, or global warming as we used to call it in pre-euphemistic times, at the top of the next Summit agenda in June.

Avaaz says this is the first such advocacy campaign and will demonstrate how citizens of every country might take the necessary concerted action on urgent global problems, such as climate change, poverty, and the Middle East crisis to persuade world leaders of the need for decisive steps towards finding solutions. The organisation anticipates a campaign launch with 880,000 participants from 168 countries.

‘Our political leaders are moving at sluggish pace as we approach a point of no return in global warming’ said Ricken Patel, the Canadian-British Director of Avaaz.org. ‘Global public opinion has been called the ‘new superpower’, but there is a huge gap between the world that most people want, and the world we have. The lack of action on climate change is a powerful example of that gap, and Avaaz.org will work to close it.’

Climate change is not a new issue, it’s not forty years ago that we were being warned that we were heading for a global ice age, we have had poverty ever since the first human traded an animal skin for food, and the crisis in the Middle East is as old as the cradle of civilization itself.

Can global citizens really stand up and be counted when it comes to such political activities? Or, are we doomed to repeat the same errors we see throughout history again and again?

Potato Powered mp3 Player – Not!

Sweet potato battery Fed up with using up so many batteries? Rechargeables giving you poor mileage? Then why not try a couple of sweet potatoes instead.

In this “video tutorial”, you’ll learn how to use a couple of galvanized (zinc coated) nails, some bare copper wire, a pair of mini crocodile clips, AND two sweet potatoes, to power up your mp3 player with not a conventional battery in sight. Great video and the music’s sweet too.

The Hole – video powered by Metacafe

This appliance is, of course, closely related to the lemon battery (or more formally lemon cell) familiar to anyone who’s searched for a high school science project. Two different metallic objects dipped into a conduction solution (an electrolyte) will produce an electrochemical reaction the byproduct of which is electricity. A single lemon is usually enough to illuminate a flashlight bulb, but two sweet potatoes are apparently required for an mp3 player. Yes, it reduces the portability of your player, but just think…no more buying batteries! Of course, things might get a bit smelly as those sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) start to go off.

Green Laundry Detergents

Retailers and industry have tried to paint themselves green through the marketing of so-called “green” laundry detergents. The January 29 issue Chemical & Engineering News claims that this represents parties having “taken the leading role in a new effort by retailers and industry to market mainstream, environmentally friendly consumer products.”

The cleaning products industry has apparently embraced sustainability, with various innovations, including energy-efficient laundry detergents that work without hot water and other products that degrade once they go down the drain.

Report author Michael McCoy says that, “Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has been a major catalyst in the green detergent revolution. Using its purchasing power as the world’s biggest retailer, Wal-Mart launched an environmental initiative last October to encourage its suppliers to manufacture more environmentally friendly laundry detergents. Laws and regulations in the United States and the European Union are giving industry additional regulatory incentive to go green with mainstream consumer products,” he adds.

A consideration that is missing from the notion that any laundry product can be “green” is the fact that even the most modern and efficient washing machines and dryers still use huge amounts of energy and vast amounts of water. There is nothing “green” about washing clothes, especially given the common western notion that one wear means an article of clothing is dirty and must be washed.

Now I’m not advocating a return to washboards, mangles, and a weekly bath in front of the hearth, but those in the developed world cannot possibly hope to be “green” as long as we’re using water and energy to wash and dry clothes. In many parts of the world (and coming to a town near you, any time soon) there are millions of people who live day to day with minimal water. An aboriginal Australian told me on a trip to the outback many years ago that he simply couldn’t understand why we’d waste water in such a way when it is such a precious commodity.

Singling out molecules

tip enhanced raman spectroscopy Swiss chemists have devised a new approach to the familiar analytical technique of Raman spectroscopy that allows them to investigate the structure of individual molecules.

The full story is available today in advance of publication on SpectroscopyNOW’s Raman channel for Sciencebase readers only.

According to research team leader Renato Zenobi, there are two potentially very important applications of this new high-gain Raman technique:

Molecular electronics – This is a field where individual molecules are being used as electronic elements (diodes, transistors, logic gates, etc.). One can, for example, imagine that a molecule would “switch” a current by a change in conformation (shape), which would of course be immediately reflected in a change of the Raman spectrum. Molecular diagnostic / analytical methods for this emerging field are largely missing so far. Here this methodology could make an important contribution, Zenobi told me.
Cataysis – In catalytic conversions, A -> (B) -> (C) ->D , where A is the reactant, B and C are intermediates and D is the product, reactions are accelerated by a catalyst, by activating the molecules. Usually this happens on the surfaces of finely dispersed metal on a support material, i.e., it is generally surface process. Catalysis is employed in many industrially important chemical reactions, but – surprisingly – often the exact course of the reaction / the nature of the intermediates is not known. Again, identification of small numbers of molecules in tight spaces (= the nanoscale metallic “active sites” on catalysts) could be achieved with our methodology.