What's On?
July 20, 2008 : Mind over matter as scientists use brainpower to make wishes come true
Now British scientists are turning the vision into reality with a device that allows objects to be manipulated with brain waves.
The prototype, developed at Essex University, can already be used to play simple computer games. By imagining a movement, the wearer of the hat-shaped device can tell the computer to move an object around a screen or a robot around a room.
The researchers hope their technology will eventually allow people to move wheelchairs and drive cars with their thoughts.
To pick up the signal from the brain, the scientists use a cap fitted with electrodes that detect changes in the electrical activity produced by the neurons.
When a person wearing the cap imagines a particular action, such as moving a hand, it produces a distinct pattern of signals that a computer learns to recognise.
Daily Telegraph
July 17, 2008 : Grunting fish yield vocal clues
Grunting fish have helped scientists to date the origins of vocal sounds to about 400 million years ago.
Toadfish and midshipman fish use a variety of different sounds to attract mates and scare off rivals.
Now US researchers have found that the area of a fish's brain that drives vocalisation is extremely primitive.
Writing in the journal Science, they say it suggests that the ability to communicate through sound emerged very early in the evolution of vertebrates.
Andrew Bass from Cornell University, who is the lead author of the paper, said: "You'll hear frogs calling, birds singing and we hear this all the time - we are familiar with this.
"But I think it's fair to say that most people are unaware of the fact that many fish use sound for social communication."
BBC
July 16, 2008 : Mars was once 'a great place to live'
Mars was once "a great place to live" - awash with water and capable of supporting life, the findings of a new study suggest.
Recent missions to the Red Planet have revealed stunning details of the Martian landscape, mineralogy and clues to past climate.
But how much water, where it was or is located and what it was doing have been hard to pin down.
Now a study in the journal Nature by Prof John Mustard and Bethany Ehlmann of Brown University, Rhode Island, and colleagues provide information that leads him to conclude that it was a benign, water-rich environment for a long time, backing the idea that it could have supported microbial life.
Reporting for the first time results obtained from an instrument aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a probe that is researching the history of water on Mars, the team has found that vast regions of the ancient southern highlands of Mars once hosted a water-rich environment.
Daily Telegraph
July 16, 2008 : Malaria gene 'increases HIV risk'
A gene which apparently evolved to protect people from malaria increases their vulnerability to HIV infection by 40%, say US and UK scientists.
People of African descent have a variation of the "DARC" gene which may interfere with their ability to fight HIV in its early stages.
The Cell Host and Microbe study says the gene accounts for millions of extra HIV cases in sub-Saharan Africa.
However, people with the gene appear to live longer with HIV than others.
Research at University College London and the University of Texas focused on the Duffy Antigen Receptor for Chemokines (DARC) gene.
BBC
July 11, 2008 : Muscle stem cell advance hailed
Transplanting adult stem cells into mice with an illness like muscular dystrophy (MD) helped rebuild muscle structure and strength, a study says.
The work by Harvard University, published in the journal Cell, boosts the prospect of similar treatments for people with the condition one day.
There is no cure for the disease, which is inherited and causes rapid and progressive weakening of muscle tissue.
About 1 in every 20,000 births in the UK are affected by muscular dystrophy.
The idea behind stem cell therapy is to find a way to boost the body's ability to replace or produce new tissues.
BBC
July 10, 2008 : One third of coral species face extinction
One third of the major reef-building coral species are vulnerable to extinction, and the pace of destruction is increasing so it is conceivable that the "rainforests of the ocean" could be wiped out this century.
The warning that coral communities are faring even worse than their terrestrial counterparts, notably tropical rainforests, is given by an international team led by Prof Kent Carpenter, Director of the Global Marine Species Assessment Of Conservation International And The International Union For Conservation Of Nature, IUCN.
Built over millions of years, coral reefs are home to more than 25 percent of marine species, making them the most biologically diverse of marine ecosystems.
The Telegraph
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