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Smokers will be fingered by prints
QINETIQ
Technology FLYING IN VIRTUAL FORMATION
billion computers are expected to be embedded within devices such as cars, home appliances and office machines by 2020
–Same squadron, different continents–
Smokers will be fingered by prints
SOURCE: EUROPEAN COMMISSION
40
The five most innovative nations as measured by patents per capita, averaged across 2002-05
It’s the perfect tool for the less artistic among us. Microsoft has designed a piece of software that converts a 2D hand-drawn sketch into a 3D animated computer model. It can even determine which parts of a simply drawn building, for example, are the walls, windows and doors, and render them appropriately on screen, say its Beijing and Washington-based creators.
1200
600
US Sw ed en Fin lan d
300
SOURCE: ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT
900
0
YOUR fingerprints will soon reveal your dirty little habits. Forensics researchers in the UK have devised a way to tell whether you smoke from the chemicals you leave behind in your prints. The technique involves dusting the prints with a solution of gold nanoparticles, attached to which are antibodies that bind to cotinine – a metabolite of
nicotine. Then the print is doused in a fluorescent dye that binds to the antibodies. Smokers’ prints, including all the whorls and ridges, fluoresce due to the cotinine exuded in their sweat, say the researchers, who are at the University of East Anglia in Norwich and King’s College London (Angewandte Chemie International Edition, vol 46, p 4100). The technique might also be adapted to detect illicit and performance-enhancing drugs, says team leader David Russell.
GIZMO
INVENTED HERE
pa n Sw itz er lan d
AS THE number of internet users grows, so do efforts to restrict them. The most comprehensive survey yet of net censorship has found that more governments are blocking sites – and doing so in ever more sophisticated ways. In a report released on 18 May, the Open Net Initiative (ONI) – a partnership between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Harvard University, and the University of Toronto – says that at least 25 national governments block access to internet sites for political, social or security reasons. Burma, China, Iran, Syria, Tunisia and Vietnam filter out political content such as the sites of opposition parties, while Saudi Arabia, Iran, Tunisia and Yemen concentrate on social content such as pornography, gay and lesbian material, and gambling.
Patents per million population
Still not free to surf the web
So Qinetiq and Boeing developed a $1 million system called the Mission Training Distributed Simulator, designed to make it easy to link up far-flung pilots. It does away with the full cockpits, high-resolution displays and hydraulic-driven movement of more sophisticated simulators, and instead relies on a simple cockpit in a static cubicle. Instead of high-res screens, 13 projectors knit together the visuals and display them on a wraparound surface. MTDS was put through its paces on 18 May when an RAF crew in Lincoln, UK, “flew” four Eurofighters and four Tornados with US air force pilots in Mesa, Arizona, flying four F-16s and four A10 “tankbusters”. With only a 0.2-second transatlantic delay, the pilots were able to fly joint missions against computer-generated targets.
Ja
NATO fighter pilots can now learn to fly together even when they are stationed thousands of kilometres apart. It should enable them to better learn each other’s combat tactics, and reduce the risk of friendly-fire incidents during coalition operations. What has made it possible is a low-cost network of flight simulators developed by UK defence lab Qinetiq and US aerospace giant Boeing. At present, NATO pilots from different countries rarely train with one another due to the huge expense of bringing together aircraft and their support staff. There are also too few full-motion flight simulators, which can cost $10 million each, to create virtual squadrons through remote link-up. As a result, often the first time many NATO pilots share airspace is on a mission.
And the less sporty among us might appreciate a new golf club designed by physicist Robert Grober at Yale University. It is equipped with sensors that measure changes in its movement and acceleration, then a small on-board computer converts this swing data into a sound signal that lets the golfer know how they are doing. Different aspects of the sound correspond to different qualities of the swing.
“Building of the first indigenous nuclear plant has started” Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran’s atomic energy organisation, announces that construction of a 360-megawatt nuclear power plant has begun in Bushehr in the south of the country (AFP, 19 May); Iran’s nuclear programme has been heavily criticised by the west, in particular by the US
www.newscientist.com
26 May 2007 | NewScientist | 29
Technology FLYING IN VIRTUAL FORMATION
billion computers are expected to be embedded within devices such as cars, home appliances and office machines by 2020
–Same squadron, different continents–
Smokers will be fingered by prints
SOURCE: EUROPEAN COMMISSION
40
The five most innovative nations as measured by patents per capita, averaged across 2002-05
It’s the perfect tool for the less artistic among us. Microsoft has designed a piece of software that converts a 2D hand-drawn sketch into a 3D animated computer model. It can even determine which parts of a simply drawn building, for example, are the walls, windows and doors, and render them appropriately on screen, say its Beijing and Washington-based creators.
1200
600
US Sw ed en Fin lan d
300
SOURCE: ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT
900
0
YOUR fingerprints will soon reveal your dirty little habits. Forensics researchers in the UK have devised a way to tell whether you smoke from the chemicals you leave behind in your prints. The technique involves dusting the prints with a solution of gold nanoparticles, attached to which are antibodies that bind to cotinine – a metabolite of
nicotine. Then the print is doused in a fluorescent dye that binds to the antibodies. Smokers’ prints, including all the whorls and ridges, fluoresce due to the cotinine exuded in their sweat, say the researchers, who are at the University of East Anglia in Norwich and King’s College London (Angewandte Chemie International Edition, vol 46, p 4100). The technique might also be adapted to detect illicit and performance-enhancing drugs, says team leader David Russell.
GIZMO
INVENTED HERE
pa n Sw itz er lan d
AS THE number of internet users grows, so do efforts to restrict them. The most comprehensive survey yet of net censorship has found that more governments are blocking sites – and doing so in ever more sophisticated ways. In a report released on 18 May, the Open Net Initiative (ONI) – a partnership between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Harvard University, and the University of Toronto – says that at least 25 national governments block access to internet sites for political, social or security reasons. Burma, China, Iran, Syria, Tunisia and Vietnam filter out political content such as the sites of opposition parties, while Saudi Arabia, Iran, Tunisia and Yemen concentrate on social content such as pornography, gay and lesbian material, and gambling.
Patents per million population
Still not free to surf the web
So Qinetiq and Boeing developed a $1 million system called the Mission Training Distributed Simulator, designed to make it easy to link up far-flung pilots. It does away with the full cockpits, high-resolution displays and hydraulic-driven movement of more sophisticated simulators, and instead relies on a simple cockpit in a static cubicle. Instead of high-res screens, 13 projectors knit together the visuals and display them on a wraparound surface. MTDS was put through its paces on 18 May when an RAF crew in Lincoln, UK, “flew” four Eurofighters and four Tornados with US air force pilots in Mesa, Arizona, flying four F-16s and four A10 “tankbusters”. With only a 0.2-second transatlantic delay, the pilots were able to fly joint missions against computer-generated targets.
Ja
NATO fighter pilots can now learn to fly together even when they are stationed thousands of kilometres apart. It should enable them to better learn each other’s combat tactics, and reduce the risk of friendly-fire incidents during coalition operations. What has made it possible is a low-cost network of flight simulators developed by UK defence lab Qinetiq and US aerospace giant Boeing. At present, NATO pilots from different countries rarely train with one another due to the huge expense of bringing together aircraft and their support staff. There are also too few full-motion flight simulators, which can cost $10 million each, to create virtual squadrons through remote link-up. As a result, often the first time many NATO pilots share airspace is on a mission.
And the less sporty among us might appreciate a new golf club designed by physicist Robert Grober at Yale University. It is equipped with sensors that measure changes in its movement and acceleration, then a small on-board computer converts this swing data into a sound signal that lets the golfer know how they are doing. Different aspects of the sound correspond to different qualities of the swing.
“Building of the first indigenous nuclear plant has started” Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran’s atomic energy organisation, announces that construction of a 360-megawatt nuclear power plant has begun in Bushehr in the south of the country (AFP, 19 May); Iran’s nuclear programme has been heavily criticised by the west, in particular by the US
www.newscientist.com
26 May 2007 | NewScientist | 29