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A mat of nanowires with the touch and feel of paper could be an important new tool in the cleanup of oil and other organic pollutants, scientists announced today.

MIT researchers and colleagues say they have created a membrane that can absorb up to 20 times its weight in oil, and can be recycled many times for future use. The oil itself can also be recovered.

Some 200,000 tons of oil have already been spilled at sea since the start of the decade.

"What we found is that we can make 'paper' from an interwoven mesh of nanowires that is able to selectively absorb hydrophobic liquids - oil-like liquids - from water," said Francesco Stellacci, an associate professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and leader of the work.

The results are detailed in the May 30 online issue of Nature Nanotechnology.

In addition to its environmental applications, the nanowire paper could also impact filtering and the purification of water, said Jing Kong, an assistant professor of electrical engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and one of Stellacci's colleagues on the work. She noted that it could also be inexpensive to produce because the nanowires of which it is composed can be fabricated in larger quantities than other nanomaterials.

Stellacci explained that there are other materials that can absorb oils from water, "but their selectivity is not as high as ours." In other words, conventional materials still absorb some water, making them less efficient at capturing the contaminant.

The new material appears to be completely impervious to water. "Our material can be left in water a month or two, and when you take it out it's still dry," Stellacci said. "But at the same time, if that water contains some hydrophobic contaminants, they will get absorbed."

Wake up in the morning, stick a featherweight patch on your chest and tackle your day with the assurance that computers are keeping a constant eye on your ticker. That’s the vision moti-vating scientists at the Netherlands’ Holst Center, who are developing a next-gen EKG monitor that trumps competitors’ in size and convenience. “With conventional EKG systems, you have an electrode patch that is connected to a rigid box in your jacket pocket,” says Julien Penders, a program manager for the project. “We go one step further—the entire device can be worn on the surface of the body.” The secret behind the monitor’s ultracompact design is a chip that detects signals from the patch’s electrodes and readies them for wireless transmission to a com-puter. In most EKG sys-tems, this data-processing step siphons lots of juice, but the team’s smart chip is optimized for low power consumption, eliminating the need for bulky battery packs—and paving the way for its use as a preventive medicine. “The less intrusive the technology, the better,” Penders says. “You can monitor your heart rate by simply patching a flexible EKG to your chest.”

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CAIRO, Egypt - Egypt plans to conduct a DNA test on a 3,500-year-old mummy to determine if it is King Thutmose I, one of the most important pharaohs, the country's chief archaeologist said Thursday.

Zahi Hawass, Egypt's antiquities chief, said the DNA test and an X-ray will be carried out on a mummy found at the site of ancient Thebes on the west bank of the Nile, what is today Luxor's Valley of the Kings, the Middle East News Agency reported.

Hawass said a mummy on display in the Egyptian Museum that was purported for many years to be Thutmose I was not actually the ancient ruler's remains.

Thutmose I was the third pharaoh of Egypt's 18th dynasty of pharaohs. His reign is generally dated from 1506 to 1493 B.C.

He was succeeded by his son Thutmose II, who in turn was succeeded by Thutmose II's sister, Hatshepsut, ancient Egypt's most powerful female pharaoh.

Egypt has acquired a $5 million DNA lab, funded by the Discovery Channel, which has become a centerpiece of an ambitious plan to identify mummies and re-examine the royal mummy collection.

The best way to obtain accurate results is from the DNA found in a cell's nucleus because it contains information from both parents. But mummy DNA is usually so deteriorated that the chances of finding usable nuclear DNA are slim.

Hawas did not say what the mummy's DNA will be compared to in the attempt to identify it.

Last year, Egypt started a DNA test on a female mummy to determine whether it is Queen Hatshepsut. The results were never made public.

There is some secrecy surrounding Egypt's DNA testing of mummies.

Hawass, the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, long refused to allow DNA testing on Egyptian mummies but accepted it recently on condition it would only be done by Egyptian experts.

He has never disclosed full results of the examinations, sometimes on grounds of national security. Though Hawass has never explained the reasons for this, apparently there is concern the tests could cast doubt on the Egyptian lineage of the mummies.

The DNA tests on the mummy will start Friday at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo after it is flown from Luxor. The mummy has remained in its tomb in the Valley of Kings since its discovery.

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LiveScience.com

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The robotic 'hands' of NeuroArm are rock-steady, and can move in much smaller increments than a human being's hands.

Earlier this month, NeuroArm was used to remove a brain tumor from the patient Paige Nickason - a first.

The human hand can steady itself and move in increments of one or two millimeters. NeuroArm can move in increments of just fifty microns. A micron is one millionth of a meter. Also, NeuroArm's robotic 'hands' can operate in the brain in a way that is less invasive and more delicate than a surgeon's hands.

NeuroArm is not an autonomous robot; it operates under the direction of physicians using remote controls and an imaging screen for close work.

I think science fiction writer Raymond Z. Gallun called this one in his 1939 story Masson's Secret:

"There was a long steel arm or standard that could be clamped on the end of an operating table. At the end of the arm was a binocular microscope. Beneath the latter were hundreds of screw buttons. And gathered right where the microscope was focused - where a needle-point beam of intense light could be projected for illumination - there was a ring of tiny metal prongs. You turned the screws below and the prongs moved - any or all of them - in any plane or direction you could mention, and with caliper slowness, minuteness and precision. At the end of each prong was a surgical tool - blades, tweezers, probes - so fine you could just see them with the naked eye.

"Micro-surgery!..."

Robert Heinlein came close on this one; he thought about "ultramicrominiature waldoes" that could be used to perform microsurgery just a few years later.

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A new way to make greener asphalt for U.S. highways and byways isn't new at all. They've been doing it for decades in Africa and India.

Asphalt is the sticky byproduct left after fuel and lubricating oil are extracted from crude petroleum. It's too thick to be laid on roads as is, so in the United States it's heated to as much as 300 degrees Fahrenheit to make it easy to pump and apply.

A new national research program called the Asphalt Research Consortium (ARC) aims to make asphalt cheaper and more environmentally friendly to produce. That means it might, for example, last longer, or use recycled material, or be manufactured using less energy.

There's good reason for the effort: America has more than 4 million miles of roads. The only place you can be 22 miles away from a road in the contiguous states is a spot in the southeast corner of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

In other countries, so-called cold-mix asphalts save up to seven times the energy of the hot-mix counterparts, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison civil engineering professor Hussain Bahia.

"This is a no-brainer," said Bahia, who has studied asphalt for more than 20 years. "If any person involved in managing our infrastructure looks at the data, why would you spend more energy and money on something else? But the challenge will be to show through advanced design of these materials that the performance is equal."

Which is to say: There's much research yet to do.

As part of the ARC consortium, Bahia got $5 million to figure out how to make a cold mix that could work here.

In South Africa, asphalt is made workable by shearing it into fine particles, and then mixing it with water and soap-like chemicals that harden after the stuff is laid down.

Studies by Canada's Office of Energy Efficiency and others have found that paving with these cold mixes (also called emulsions) saves significant amounts of energy, especially when combined with recycling efforts. These asphalts also cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases.

Bahia is looking into other stumbling blocks to any possible changeover.

"At U.S. refineries today, there are very mature, established specifications for hot binders - our paving grade asphalts," he said in a statement this week. "But for emulsions, there is no clear agreement on how to define the quality. So, we have emulsions already, but we don't produce them as much because the specifications aren't as clear."

Bahia plans to experiment with adding polymers or plastics to the cold-mix process to make pavement more durable, safer and even quieter.

The big question: Why didn't the United States switch to cold mixes long ago? We haven't had to, Bahia said, because we've long had a wealth of resources that supported the less efficient hot-mix approach.

"In South Africa, they initially decided to go with the low-energy approach because it can save a lot of money," says Bahia. "Then as their economy grew, they had to build high-performance roads. But instead of switching to hot mixes, they improved their knowledge to build better cold mixes."

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TUCSON, Ariz. - Scientists began releasing the robotic arm on NASA's new Mars spacecraft on Wednesday, one day late because of a radio problem. The Phoenix lander, which arrived on Mars on Sunday, is in excellent shape, said project manager Barry Goldstein. He said the communications glitch was only a blip in the robot's three-month exploration of the planet's northern arctic region.

The outage occurred Tuesday in one of two NASA satellites circling Mars when a radio shut off before it could relay commands to the lander to get the 8-foot arm moving, Goldstein said.

The robotic arm was folded on the lander's science deck to protect it from the vibrations of the launch and landing. Before Phoenix can flex its arm, it must rotate its wrist to release the latches on its forearm and elbow and "move it out in a staircase fashion" to remove its protective sleeve, said robotic arm manager Bob Bonitz of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Controllers sent the instructions on Wednesday to begin the two-day process. Goldstein said he hoped photos of the partially unfurled arm would be available Thursday.

Phoenix's arm will eventually dig into the soil surrounding it, seeking ice believed to be within inches to a foot below the surface. It's part of the effort to study whether the site could have supported primitive life.

The robotic arm has four joints in all — two at the shoulder to allow it to move side to side as well as up and down, an elbow and a wrist, which allows it to move its crucial scoop and digging device.

Phoenix has delighted scientists with the first-ever peek of the planet's northern arctic region since its landing Sunday onto relatively flat terrain containing few rocks. Twin rovers have been operating near the Martian equator since 2004.

Texas A&M University's Mark Lemmon, who is in charge of the lander's camera, said scientists are still investigating geometric patterns in the surface likely caused by the expansion and contraction of underground ice. Some areas immediately surrounding the lander would be designated a no-digging "natural preserve," Lemmon said.

A few features on nearby terrain have been given such nicknames as Humpty Dumpty and Sleepy Hollow, he said.

The $420 million mission is led by University of Arizona, Tucson, and managed by JPL.


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LONDON (AFP) - An arresting new artistic landmark is drawing crowds in London and New York, intrigued at being able to wave to each other through what is teasingly presented as a a huge Trans Atlantic tunnel.

From its London end next to City Hall on the south bank of the River Thames, tourists and locals can see people at the other end of the Telectroscope, by the Brooklyn Bridge in New York.

Tourists tend to wave or hold up signs reading "Hello from London" to people at the other end of the device, which emerges from the ground like a giant tunnel breaking through the surface after passing under the Atlantic.

But those behind the device -- which is understood to rely on more 21st-century technology to relay real-time images -- say it could serve more useful purposes.

"There are all sorts of possibilities -- you could arrange to meet friends in New York or even propose marriage down it," said Nicky Webb, head of the devices' production company, Artichoke.

With a name which sounds like something from a 1950s science fiction novel, the Telectroscope is the brainchild of 53-year-old British artist, Paul St George.

The website publicising his device, which opened to the public this month, includes spoof diagrams of how the "tunnel" was built, and explaining how a system of mirrors brings the images from either end.

Telling an imaginative tale of how his great-grandfather began the Trans Atlantic project, there is even a picture of the artist with shovel in hand in an underground tunnel.

"Hardly anyone knows that a secret tunnel runs deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean. In May 2008, more than a century after it was begun, the tunnel has finally been completed," it says.

More mundanely, the Telectroscope is thought to use a broadband Internet connection to provide high-resolution video of those looking into it, for a charge of one pound (two dollars, 1.25 euros) at the London end.

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CHICAGO (Reuters) - Using only its brainpower, a monkey can direct a robotic arm to pluck a marshmallow from a skewer and stuff it into its mouth, researchers said on Wednesday.

"They are using a motorized prosthetic arm to reach out, grab and bring the food back to their face," said Andrew Schwartz of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, whose study will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Nature.

Schwartz said the technology behind this feat may lead to brain-powered prosthetic limbs for people with spinal cord injuries or disabling diseases that make such simple tasks impossible.

Until now, such brain-machine interfaces have been used to control cursor movements on a computer screen. Schwartz and colleagues wanted to apply the technology to real-world tasks.

The monkey guides the robot arm the same way it does its natural limbs, through brain signals.

Schwartz' team picks up those signals through an array of microelectrodes half the size of a thumbtack that has been implanted in the monkey's brain. These signals are amplified and relayed to a computer that operates the robotic arm.

Schwartz said his team has learned that certain motor neurons fire rapidly when the monkey wants to move a certain way. "What is important is each neuron seems to have a preferred direction," Schwartz said in a telephone interview.

"One cell will fire a lot if you move upward. Another cell will fire a lot if you move to the right. All you really need to do is listen to these neurons at the same time to determine which direction the animal wants to move in," he said.

COMPUTER CONTROL

"We record those patterns of action potential, interpret them with a computer and extract the monkey's intention to move. That serves as a control signal to the robot."

Schwartz said it takes about three days for a monkey to learn to operate the arm, and they continuously improve.

So far, they have trained two monkeys to feed themselves with the robotic arm. The monkeys sit in a chair with their arms gently restrained in sleeves that keep them from simply grabbing the food on their own. "These animals will just relax their arms as they control these devices," Schwartz said.

The monkeys appear to enjoy the task. "They sure like eating their marshmallows." Sometimes the team will use pieces of apple, orange or zucchini. "Just about anything we can that doesn't make too big of a mess," Schwartz said.

The ultimate goal is to develop a brain-powered prosthesis that can restore near-natural function to an amputee or person with a spinal cord injury.

But first, they want to refine the system. The next step is to develop an operating wrist and jointed fingers to add dexterity to the device.

"If you look at what these patients really need, they need to be able to use their fingers to increase their quality of life. They need to button shirts and pull zippers and things like that," Schwartz said.

The researchers must overcome several engineering challenges, including developing more durable electrodes that do not lose their signal over time, but Schwartz believes such devices are feasible.

"We're learning more and more about brain function as we do this," he said.

(Editing by Maggie Fox and Eric Beech)

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Illinois has been at the forefront of next-generation fuels—but on Tuesday, the state was chosen as the home for a next-generation facility that burns decidedly low-tech fuel: good old-fashioned coal.

The town of Mattoon beat out three other finalists as the site for the FutureGen coal gasification plan, which aims to convert coal into hydrogen and electricity while capturing and storing the carbon dioxide 3000 ft. underground. The U.S. Department of Energy hopes the $1.5 billion plant will generate 275 megawatts of electricity and power 150,000 homes, and be nearly free of greenhouse gas emissions.

Last year, Americans consumed more than 1 billion tons of coal, and more than 80 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted by generating electricity in the United States comes from coal. Proponents say the plant’s integrated gasification combined cycle, which turns coal into gas before combustion, dramatically reduces most emissions—except CO2, though that will soon be buried in the heartland.

Meanwhile, Illinois remains a major player in another national energy debate: According to the Illinois Corn Growers Association, the state is the second-leading producer of corn in the U.S. (1.5 billion bushels annually), and corn grown there is used to make 40 percent of the ethanol consumed in the country. Pending legislation would mandate corn-ethanol usage of 15 billion gal. per year (more than three times our current consumption) by 2015.

The FutureGen plant will be built on 444 acres northwest of Mattoon; the other finalists were Tuscola, also in Illinois, and the towns of Odessa and Jewett, in Texas. Construction of the plant will begin in 2010, with full-scale operation expected in 2013. —Davin Coburn

You don't need to build a house from scratch to take advantage of smart new solar technology, but that's exactly what 18 college and university teams did for the Solar Decathlon, a competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. The students spent three years designing houses powered exclusively by solar energy, and this past October transported them to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where the doors were thrown open to the public. Weather during the two-week Decathlon ranged from cloudy to stormy, which put rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems to the test. Despite the inclement conditions, more than 120,000 spectators waited in line to see inside the roughly 800-sq.-ft. houses. With average winter fuel costs projected to be 33 percent higher this year than last, many people were there to glean ideas for tightening up their own homes' building envelopes with triple-glazed windows, structural insulated panels and other energy-efficient features. But perhaps the most surprising lesson was that comfort and style don't have to be sacrificed in the pursuit of alternative energy.

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Wind power has come a long way since the days of old mills dotting the Dutch countryside. Sure, this endlessly blowing fuel is far from a panacea for worldwide energy concerns, but as engineers propel through its problems, it has become a more and more compelling source of energy—even if the United States has a long way to go.

Wind's future took another step toward energy prominence (if not dominance) this week when the United Kingdom unveiled a plan for what could be one of the most ambitious expansions of wind power the world has ever seen. Through the construction of hundreds of offshore turbines, the country hopes to harvest up to 33GW of wind-driven energy.

"If we could manage to achieve this, by 2020 enough energy could be generated off our shores to power the equivalent of all of the UK's homes," UK Energy Secretary John Hutton told European energy industry leaders at a meeting in Berlin, where he unveiled the plan.

Since the proposed project would dramatically change the British coast, it will be subject to an environmental review. —Seth Porges

OSLO (Reuters) - The world is failing in efforts to control an international biotechnology trade ranging from genetically modified crops to the building blocks of biological weapons, a U.N. University study said on Tuesday.

The study said a lack of controls was "a potentially contributing factor to the spread of bioterrorism" -- the deliberate release of naturally-occurring or human-modified bacteria, viruses, toxins or other biological agents.

It said just $135 million, a fraction of the amount needed, had been spent on helping developing countries to build up skills to monitor a rising use of biotechnologies in the past 15 years.

Lack of training and knowledge is "so pervasive and broad that there is no effective international system of biosafety at the moment," according to the 238-page report by the Japan-based U.N. University Institute of Advanced Studies.

"The use and prevalence of biotechnology seems certain to increase, not least in agriculture," it said.

More than 100 developing nations lack the ability to implement the U.N.'s 2003 Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, meant to help regulate trade in genetically modified organisms (GMOs) including crops such as maize, tomatoes, rice or soybeans.

Biotechnology has been held out as a way of helping poor nations, for instance with crops with higher yields or genetic traits that can withstand droughts that may become more frequent because of climate change.

BIODIVERSITY

Some countries, worried about GMOs that some environmentalists brand "Frankenfoods," have banned all biotech imports.

"A country that lacks capacity is more likely to bring in very restrictive systems in order to counterbalance its deficiencies," the report said, released during a May 19-30 U.N. meeting about biodiversity in Bonn, Germany.

The findings raised questions about "the extent to which capacity deficits are undermining the promise that advances in biotechnology would directly address the needs of the poor," said A.H. Zakri, head of the Institute of Advanced Studies.

"There may also be broader implications ... These may include an impaired ability to meet the challenges of global issues such as climate change, or to protect humans and the environment against biosecurity risks," he said in a statement.

Sam Johnston, one of four authors of the study, said many countries lacked officials to check shipments.

"It's just not working," he told Reuters of the Cartagena Protocol. "Outside Europe there is nothing effective. You end up with an ineffective, dysfunctional international regime."

He said it was almost impossible to buy GMO-free soya anywhere in the world. "There is simply so much GM soy that it becomes contaminated," he said.

"Climate change will make marginal lands bigger...and you need technological answers, make crops that can resist stresses like drought and salinity," he said. "But even if you do develop those technologies, you'll find it difficult to roll them out without an effective regime."

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese semiconductor maker Rohm Co (6963.OS) said on Wednesday it would buy smaller rival Oki Electric Industry Co's (6703.T) microchip operations for about 95 billion yen ($913 million), signaling a further shake-up in Japan's chip industry.

Under the deal, Oki will first spin off its chip-making business into a new company and sell a 95 percent stake in the company to Rohm.

Rohm and Oki said they aimed to complete the deal on October 1.

Japan's semiconductor makers once dominated the global market with dynamic random access memory (DRAM), the most common kind of chip for personal computers. But they have been hurt by stiff competition from Samsung Electronics Co (005930.KS) and others as well as the heavy cost of developing cutting-edge products.

Rohm, Japan's No.8 chip maker and a strong player in custom chips, aims to bolster its product line-up by adding the semiconductor operations of Oki, which specializes mainly in system LSI chips used for digital consumer applications.

For Oki, spinning off of a business that requires heavy capital expenses should help it focus on its other growing businesses such as information technology systems and printers.

"The semiconductor business that Rohm is going to acquire overlaps little with Rohm's existing chip businesses, and the deal is expected to help both Rohm and the newly created company improve profitability," Rohm and Oki said in a statement.

Oki generated 138.2 billion yen in sales from the semiconductor business in the year that ended in March, and is ranked No.13 among Japan's semiconductor makers. The company logged 25 billion yen in capital spending last year -- about 3.5 percent of its revenue.

Shares in Rohm ended down 1.5 percent at 6,510 yen ahead of the announcement. Oki rose 3.8 percent to 218 yen.

ANALYSTS IN FAVOUR

"This works for both parties. They are midsize companies in sales and it would be difficult for each of them to keep carrying out capital investments alone," iSuppli Japan Vice President Akira Minamikawa said after a media report on the deal on Wednesday.

"This would enable Rohm to take advantage of Oki's technology and production equipment in offering products with finer circuitry."

Finer circuitry reduces chip size and enables faster data processing. It also cuts production costs.

But as the industry moves to ever finer circuits, development and production facility costs increase sharply.

The move will create Japan's seventh-largest semiconductor maker in terms of sales and mark the first major realignment in Japan's chip industry since 2003, when Hitachi Ltd (6501.T) and Mitsubishi Electric Corp (6503.T) merged their system chip operations.

Still, the firms' combined chip sales of $3.5 billion are a far cry from the $34 billion at Intel Corp. (INTC.O), the world's biggest semiconductor maker, iSuppli data showed.

Hit by fierce price competition, Japanese semiconductor makers are looking for ways to sharpen their products' competitive edge. Analysts expect more companies, especially those second- or third-tier in their sector, to withdraw from unprofitable businesses.

"If they (companies) want to survive, they need to add something special in their products, something that other companies' can't offer," said Chibagin Asset Management's senior managing director Fujio Ando.

Rohm's chip business once had an operating profit margin of over 30 percent, but that slipped to 18 percent in 2007/08 amid intense price competition.

($1=104.01 yen)

(Additional reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka, Nathan Layne and Sachi Izumi; Editing by Brent Kininmont and Hugh Lawson)

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