This week in European sciences -- week 27|2004
 

Predicting Traffic Flows One Hour Ahead

Justin Mullins describes in New Scientist (July 3, 2004) how German researchers at University of Duisburg develop models to predict traffic congestions. Their approach is very promising and "is the first model to reproduce all known traffic states", as a team member said. Especially, traffic jams that occur suddenly without any visible reason can be explained. One interesting point is, that the model can predict jams (on the German autobahn network around the city of Cologne) an hour before they happen. The forecasts are put on the web at www.autobahn.nrw.de, but due to the fact that more drivers consult the website and change their route, the predictions become less precise. Further research shall also take this changing behaviour of the drivers into account.
 

New Scientist
July 3, 2004

How to Transmit Data Reliably

When the Cassini spaceprobe transmits data to earth it uses special error-correcting coding that enables reconstructing distorted signals, reports The Economist (July 2, 2004). Actually, the used methods are 10 years old - when Cassini was build in the mid-1990 -, but coding technology was well advanced in those times, and proceeded even further in the meantime. "Turbo coding" and other methods follow up and are now implemented into technologies like satellite television and next-generation mobile communications.
Other technological advances might bring the adaptive cruise control (ACC) which is now built in in many premium-class cars, but is becoming available also for the mid-range. ACC "employs radar to monitor the road ahead of a vehicle, automatically adjusting that vehicle's speed to maintain a safe distance from the one in front," explains The Economist. According to studies using ACC can contribute to prevent traffic jams in some situations.
Remember the announcement by IT companies to exchange your personal address vie a handshake? Well, some year went by. Now, Microsoft received a patent for a "method and apparatus for transmitting power and data using the human body". So, what is coming next, asks The Economist.
 

The Economist
July 2, 2004

Cassini-Huygens Arrived at Saturn

Pleased as many of his colleagues in the media, Dieter Hoß describes in FAZ (July 2, 2004) how the Cassini-Huygens spaceprobe arrived at Saturn and got into orbiting position. Already Cassini beamed lots of fascinating pictures to earth. Cassini is now supposed to orbit more than 70 times around the gas planet and will analyse Saturn, his moons and ring system with 12 instruments, while Huygens is about to start plunging into Titans atmosphere on next Christmas day.
 

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
July 2, 2004

Spain is Last in Taking Birth Control Pill

71% of Spanish women in fertile age are using a contraceptive method. And with this, Spain has the 'lowest' rate in prevention compared wirth five other European countries, writes Carmen Morán in El País (June 30, 2004). The study, conducted by pharma company Schering, has included Germany (82 %), France (76 %), Italy (75 %) and UK (74 %). The medium rate of taking contraceptives in all countries is about 76 %. But this should not indicate, that Spain has not made advances, says Carmen Moran. Compared with 1997 the rate has jumped from 49% to 71% today. When asked about the type of contraceptive, Spain and Italy went against the grain: The Southern neighbours prefer condoms (33 %) to taking birth control pill (19 %), whereas people in France, Germany and Great Britain mostly take oral contraceptives.
 

El Pais
June 30, 2004

Exploring Science and Fiction

Luckily his school mate named William H. Gates. Both, Bill and Paul Allen founded Microsoft, but Allen stepped back after recovering from a cancer disease. Eventually, he made enough money to spend on every escapade, writes Marco Evers in Der Spiegel (June 28, 2004) about the man who stands behind the first-ever private funded space flight and ranks fifth richest person on the globe. His interest in science fiction, but also in hard science may have let Allen become the main sponsor of SpaceShipOne. He is fascinated by aviation, collects planes, spend on the Allen telescope to scan the sky for alien life, and also support brain research to collect data on gene activity in brain cells.
Olaf Stampf visited Gerhard Neukum, planetary scientist at Free University of Berlin and head of the German Cassini group, and metioned some of the space probes most interesting tasks: Are there seas of methane on Saturn's greatest moon Titan?
 

Der Spiegel
June 28, 2004

No Such Obesity Epidemic

After Britain and other countries argued on the trend to more heavy-weight children, also the German minister of consumer affaire, Renate Künast, called for action. Roughly one third of German boys and one fourth of girls (when starting school) are overweight. Depends how you count, respond Richard Friebe und Gerd Knoll in FAZ on Sunday (June 27, 2004). Actually, there seems to exist no standard measure when to count people as overweight. Experimental set-ups are sometimes confusing (some weight children without or with their cloths), also statistics differs. There conclusion: No obesity epidemic in Germany, and instead of dietary education in school, physical exercise might help more.
When you flash molecules with very short neutron pulses (shorter than a femtosecond which is a millionth of a billionth of a second), something strange is happening. Take the water molecule noted down as H2O, but the measuring result only yields H1.5O. Half a hydrogen atom is missing. Debate is going on whether the finding is well-done or a mistake. Also, what might be the reason for the strange occurrance, asks Roland Wengenmayr in his report for FAZ on Sunday (June 27, 2004). The discoverer of the effect, Greek-German physicist Aris Chatzidimitriou-Dreismann at TU Berlin, speculates the effect is tributed to some quantum entanglement of the hydrogen proton with its electron envirnment. If he is correct, although many fellow colleagues disagree or have their own theories, this would give a fundamental new insigh into the bonding processes of the basic building blocks of matter.
 

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
June 27, 2004

Countries are Arguing Where the First Artificial Star will be Ignited

To emulate the process which makes stars to shine and gain limitless amount of energy from ordinary sea water. This is the goal of the physicists who are trying to harness thermonuclear fusion. Few years ago, during the time of pure skepticism, when many scientists became depressed, hopeless and left the field, a hope emerged: it was discovered that it was possible to generate transport barriers in plasma in the magnetic vessels called tokamaks. The barriers prevent heat from escaping from the turbulent plasma. In spite of all the previous doubts, suddenly it seemed that after all we may be able to ignite a first artificial star on the Earth in future.

So where are we in this effort now? asks Martin Uhlir in the weekly science supplement of the Czech daily Lidove noviny (June 26, 2004) and discusses the issue with Czech physicist Jan Mlynar. Mlynar talks about the intention to build the big international experimental tokamak ITER. He explains what is the current situation in the negotiations between the EU and Japan, two potential candidates for the site. He reminds that we experienced a similar stalemate in the 1970s, when Germany and Britain negotiated where the tokamak JET, currently the biggest tokamak in the world, would be build. At that time, only an "intervention of hell" (as he says) solved the situation: terrorists hijacked a German aircraft and Britain offered help. Germany then withdrew its plan to build JET and gave priority to Britain. So will we need a hijack of a Japanese or European aircraft? Jan Mlynar, who currently works at JET, hopes negotiators will solve the puzzle without another "intervention of hell".

Dr. Jan Mlynar, a 38 years old Czech physicist, also explains what is the worst technical obstacle in the fusion research now: it is the question how to create materials able to face the extremely hot plasma. It would be too expensive if we would have to change this "first wall" each month - a future power plant would lose money in such a case.

Will the future thermonuclear power plant be as environmental friendly as it is described now? This is another question Dr. Mlynar answers. He also talks about whether ITER, which is supposed to generate 10times as much energy as it will receive, will reach ignition.

It is also interesting to note that the Czech Republic has its own tokamak CASTOR, which is hosted by the Institute of Plama Physics (http://www.ipp.cas.cz). Castor is quite small, it is not possible to get real fusion inside it. It is an experimental device, in which plasma is heated "only" to millions of degrees in order to make some special measurements. Using this tokamak, physicists for example study and model processes and turbulences in the periphery plasma. They also look for ways how to heat plasma through electric current generated by an electromagnetic wave "broadcasted" by a special antenna.
 

Lidove noviny, CZ
June 26, 2004

Refusing to Work on Saddam's Nuclear Weapons Programme

Hussain Al-Shahristani, who spent 11 years in Iraqi jails because of refusing to work on Saddam's nukes programme, is interviewed by Michael Bond in New Scientist (June 26, 2004). He knows Saddam since the 1970s, before Saddam became president: "what was very clear to all of us was his authoritarian style and the way he tried to dominate everybody around him." Al-Shahristani was chief scientific adviser to the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission when Saddam got president. Then, Saddam "wanted to redirect our research activities form peaceful applications to what were referred to as strategic application. I refused to work on the programme."
 

New Scientist
June 26, 2004

Approved by Your Peers

"Peer review is part of the fabric of academic life. We've all grown up with it, and no one thinks it is perfect. But it's like democracy - it's the best system we have," John Winfield, a professor in the department of chemistry at Glasgow University, is cited in THES (June 25, 2004). Anna Fazackerley summarizes the results of an investigation into the use and benefits of peer review to the scientific community and to disemination of achievements to the general public. Peer review is seen as the best way to achieve 'good science'. In communicating to the public scientist should mention more often what results are approve by the peer review process. On the other hand, the process is rather slow and might be inappropriate for timely information of the public in an ongoing debate. Nevertheless, "the report attacked scientists who choose to release research about new threats to health or the environment directly to the public in order to leapfrog the lengthy peer-review process. It says that although waiting for a paper to be published could be frustrating, the potential costs of going it alone and promoting bad research are enormous," writes Fazackerley.
 

Times Higher Education Supplement
June 25, 2004

Three Months Under the Atkins Health Regimen

Alok Jha wanted to know more about it: For three months he tested the health claims of the Atkins low-carb diet on his own body. The science correspondent of the Guardian (June 24, 2004) describes what happened when he cut the carbs, enriches his report with quotations of leading nutrition scientists and ends enjoying a pint of beer and some crisps while watching football.
 

The Guardian
June 24, 2004

Nanotech - the Next Great Revolution?

Robert Service tackles in Science magazine (June 18, 2004*) the question whether fast growing nanotechnology is destined to repeat the mistakes of earlier tech revolutions. The field is booming, but "the field stands at a critical crossroads in public perception." Reports that nanoparticles like buckyballs could damage cell membranes in the brains of fish were picked up by news media around the globe - Do public concerns make the same path as previous abortive scientific revolutions such as agricultural biotechnology and nuclear power? "The best approach is to be open from the beginning and provide as much information as possible. If you don't provide information, there is a perception that something is wrong," Mihail Roco, the head of the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative, is quoted. Robert Service concludes: That perception may turn out to be the only thing that can knock the nanotechnology train off its tracks.
(* a registration is required)
 

Science
June 18, 2004

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