This week in European sciences -- week 30|2004
 

Unveilling Monster Waves

On average, two large ships sink every week, notes Huber Filser in Süddeutsche Zeitung (July 23, 2004). In the last 20 years about 200 supertankers or containerships sank in heavy sea. Some of them have been possibly hit by so-called monster waves - mysterious waves emerging unpredictably, but whose existence, after all, was in question. Scientists with the EU project MaxWave have now unveilled a 29.8 meter high wave by analysing data from the European radar satellites ERS1 and 2. The goal of MaxWave is, first, to confirm the existence and the risk of encounter of monster waves, and to develop forecast tools. Until 2005 a global map of all encountered monster waves is due to be published.
 

Süddeutsche Zeitung
July 23, 2004

Forensic Science for Authors

Humphrey Evans addended a seminar on forensic science for writers and gives a report in the Guardian (July 22, 2004). Writers of crime and television thrillers learn in detail about bruises, strangulations, decaying bodies and false identifications. The seminar was given by Allan Jamieson, director of the Forensic Institute in Edingburg, UK.
 

The Guardian
July 22, 2004

Nuclear Energy: Compulsion to Reconsider

The comeback of nuclear power generation on a global scale is described by Gero von Randow in Die Zeit (July 22, 2004). According to the international atomic energy agency (IAEA) nuclear power generation will increase fourfold by 2050. While Germany and other countries proclaimed to exit the business, other countries see the 'benefits', like small greenhouse gas emissions, independence from crude oil and natural gas imports and supplying cheap energy for an everincreasing population. Also next generation reactors are more safe than today's. Open question is still nuclear waste and the amount of global uranium ressources. Randows shows the options. Having climate change and future energy shortcuts in mind he labelled nuclear energy environmental friendly, "nuclear energy is the best friend of fuel cells" to produce hydrogen. Hence, he predicts that Germany and other countries soon come back to nuclear energy.
 

Die Zeit
July 22, 2004

Supercomputers are Getting Even More Super

The Economist notes a "renaissance in the field of supercomputing" (July 22, 2004). In the early days of (super)computing the field attracted the best minds in computer science. Later, talents changed to the booming Internet. But for the recent years, "the ability to build powerful computers cheaply, combined with growing commercial demand for high-end computing power" attracts more interest by scientists and students. Actually, there is hard competition between genuine supercomputers that are build from scratch or clusters of hundreds or thousands of off-the-shelf chips (like standard PC or Apple processors). Also there's an increasing range of supercomputer applications, from film studios (special effects rendering), industrial company (process simulation), biology (protein folding), climate change modelling to nuclear explosion simulation. Some people think the limiting factors of supercomputer development is not hardware but software, to build tools the allow and efficient programming of all processors. The other problem is power consumption: Without a hardware re-design, next generation supercomputers need their own power plant.
 

The Economist
July 22, 2004

First Sun Weighted by a Gravitational Lens

In general, astrophysicists determine the mass of celestial objects, planets, stars or even galaxies by Newton's and Kepler's laws. Hermann Michael Hahn now explains in FAZ (July 21, 2004) how scientists measured first time the mass of a star which is about 2000 light years away by using a micro-gravitational lens effect. By occation, a 'near' star passes by a farer one and bends according to Einstein's general theory of relativity the light similar to a lens. Using this micro-gravitational lens effect and computer modelling scientists figured out the mass of the nearer star to a tens of the mass of our sun. Interesting is that the result based on date taken in the year 1993 which were obtained during a sky survey.

Probing Dancing Electrons

Physicists combined the well-known methods of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (M.R.I., generally used in medicine to probe the human body on the sub-millimeter scale) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM, to scan the surface of materials on an atomic level) to a technique to dive into materials and uncover their properties underneath the surface on a nanometer scale. Manfred Lindinger describes in FAZ (July 21, 2004) how it works. The method is sensitive to the magnetic properties of the material, especially the magnetic spin moments of electrons.
 

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
July 21, 2004

How to Involve the Public into the Nanotech Debate?

Lewis Wopert, professor of biology at UCL, London, comments on the nanotech debate stirred up recently by Prince Charles (July 21, 2004). First, he recognized the precautionary principle, and that we should be concerned of potential environmental dangers of nanotech. Then, there is a deficiency in knowledge of the behaviour of nanoparticles in the human body and in the environment. But all questions might be answered by proper scientific investigation - having asbostos and GM lessons learn. The unkown factor is the reaction of the public, and the open question: "How can the technology be controlled and the public be informed? This is a crucial and difficult issue that, in spite of past experience with GM foods, is still not solved. How to involve the public, and how to avoid groups with special interests dominating, is still very unclear."
 

The Independent
July 21, 2004

Planetary Seeds

Manfred Lindinger reports in FAZ (July 19, 2004) on modelling of planet formation. Our sun is about 5 billion years old, the earth 4.6 billion years: well, there's not much time for the formation of planets out of the solar dust. Researchers study with computer models and experiments in space how tiny particles of the size of some micrometers collide and aggregate in vaccum. At present, simulation data and experimental result doesn't fit well. Filmed in real situation the particles stick much faster together than in the simulation.
 

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
July 19, 2004

European Science Festival in Stockholm

Any work on a European level tackles many difficulties and obstacles caused by the multi-fragmented, multi-national and multi-lingual nature of its subject. The European Commission directs on a more official way, for instance, by establishing a European Research Counsil and a European Research Areal, whereas other groups go a more informal way, for instance, the Euroscience organisation or science foundations in the different member states. Euroscience (www.euroscience.org) which is an interest group of scientists out of Europe and two prominent science foundations, the Volkswagen Foundation and the Bosch Foundation (both Germany) perform a big science festival event in Stockholm in late August (ESOF2004). Ulrich Schnabel speaks in Die Zeit (July 15, 2004) with the programme managers of both foundations.
 

Die Zeit
July 15, 2004

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