| NEW DEVICE TO HELP PREMATURE BABIES |
| Australian scientists have invented a simple device that is ready to help thousands of premature babies in third-world countries who suffer from respiratory difficulties - problems that can cause brain damage and blindness. |
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| NEW SPRAYS CATCH ELUSIVE FINGERPRINTS |
| Forensics experts will no longer need to collect fingerprints from smooth surfaces, according to Australian research, which has tested new chemical sprays that allow prints to be lifted from surfaces as rough as bricks. |
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| JUST A TINY PRICK |
| Tiny silicon needles can deliver drugs with less pain in each prick, according to U.S researchers.
Dr Devin McAllister of the Georgia Institute of Technology and his team in Atlanta created a variety of needle shapes using different materials. |
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| SCIENTISTS BRING NEW TWIST TO ‘DEATH BY CHOCOLATE’ WITH CHOCOLATE FLAVOURED MOUSETRAP |
| A mousetrap made out of chocolate developed by scientists at the University of Warwick is set to bring a new meaning to ‘Death by Chocolate’. The novel invention leads mice into temptation with the irresistible, alluring scent of chocolate essence without the use of bait. |
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| RESEARCHERS CREATE POTENTIAL TOXIC SENSOR CHIP BY COMBINING ELECTRONICS WITH LIVING CELL |
| In experiments conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, researchers have found a way to tap into the telltale electrical signals that mark cell death, opening the door to the creation of a "canary on a chip" that can be used to sound the alarm of a biochemical attack or test drug toxicity on human tissue. |
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| ALCHEMY WITH LIGHT |
| YOU don't often see claims of "unexpected and stunning new physical phenomena" in the abstract of a reputable scientific paper. But the latest report by photonics crystal pioneer John Joannopoulos and his group at MIT, soon to be published in Physical Review Letters, does not disappoint. The researchers document the ultimate control over light: a way to shift the frequency of light beams to any desired colour, with near 100 per cent efficiency. |
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| NEW METALLIC MUSCLES FLEX WITH LITTLE HEAT |
| Tiny and efficient metal muscles made of nanoscale-size platinum particles have been created by German researchers, and could one day used to develop robotic limbs. |
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| BETTER THAN BARCODES |
| That bar code on your cereal box holds information read by a laser scanner. It's not much information, but it's enough to let the supermarket take your money, keep track of inventory, follow trends in customer preference, and restock its shelves. Scanners and bar codes speed up checkout, but they've got a few limitations. The scanning laser needs a direct line of sight to the bar code, and the bar code itself needs to be reasonably clean and undamaged – one reason your cashier might have to swipe that bag of spuds four or five times before the scanner reads it. |
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| HEAT SENSITIVE MATERIALS CHANGE COLOR WHEN HOT |
| Imagine a fire door that changes color when hot, football jerseys that can tell when a player is overheating, road signs that change color indicating icy road conditions, and food packaging stamps that disappear when products have been kept at room temperature for too long. At the University of Rhode Island, chemists Brett Lucht and Bill Euler and chemical engineer Otto Gregory are working to make these products a reality. |
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| BRING ON THE LIGHT: ENERGY-SAVING FLUOROS |
| A new device from the United States could make fluorescent lighting even more efficient than it already is.
Standard fluorescent lights save four times more energy than an ordinary light bulb, but they're still wasteful, and more efficient versions are expensive. |
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Instruments
