It is a wonderful and amazing fact that in an extreme cold the human body can be preserved over 1000’s of years. A great example of this was the Otzi during September 19, 1991 when hikers (German tourist) in the Otztal Alps near the border between Austria and Italy came across the body of a man who turned out to be over 5000 years old. He was preserved in an airtight pocket beneath a huge glacier which ultimately stopped his body from decaying in the normal manner. Not only were many of his organs still intact but he was still wearing a boot stuffed with grass. Bodies caught in glaciers are usually crushed and torn apart so the fact that this body was so well preserved was an amazing feat in itself.

The most common way to preserve a dead body is through embalming process however, cooling the body down will also slow down the process of decomposition and help to preserve the body. the purpose of embalming is to preserve the dead body from natural decomposition and also to restore a natural appearance. If the body isn’t embalmed, immediately upon death various enzymes and bacteria begin to break down the corpse and cause extreme swelling. There is such a found evidence that the body can be preserve, the Otzi. The details is as follows.

The well-preserved body of a 30-to-45-year old man dates back to 3300 BC. The body was examined, measured, x-rayed, and dated. Tissues were examined microscopically, as was the pollen found on his gear. The approx. 160-centimeter-tall body had numerous tattoos. His clothes, including a woven grass cloak and leather vest and shoes, were quite sophisticated - the shoes were waterproof and wide, seemingly designed for walking across the snow. They were constructed using bearskin for the soles, deer hide for top panels, and a netting made of tree bark. Soft grass went around the foot and in the shoe and functioned like warm socks. The Iceman’s equipment was incomplete or faulty. It is argued that he may have been a hunter or a shepherd, but others have put forth the theory that he was a chieftain, and his death was a ritual murder. A CAT scan revealed that Ötzi had what appeared to be an arrowhead lodged in one shoulder when he died. This, combined with the evidence that he appeared to have died alone in the Alps in winter, suggested that he was fleeing from attackers. Later discoveries have suggested that he may have died in the spring. The ritual murder theory argues that, rather than fleeing attackers, he was killed to propitiate a god or gods, or that he was a chieftain and therefore ritually killed to ensure fertility. Among Ötzi’s possessions were two species of polypore mushrooms. One of these (the birch fungus) is known to have antibacterial properties, and was likely used for medical purposes. The other was a type of tinder fungus, included with part of what appeared to be a complex fire starting kit. The kit featured pieces of over a dozen different plants, in addition to flint and pyrite for creating sparks.

An image of Death Valley overlaid with digital topography data from the ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model

The most complete terrain map of the Earth’s surface has been published by the US and Japan. The resulting Global Digital Elevation covers 99% of the planet’s surface.

Earth is the third palnet of the solar system fron the sun and the largest of the terrestial planets int the solar system in terms of diameter , mass and density. According to study, it is the only place in the universe where life is known to exist, it is the home to millions of species including humans. The earth’s terrain varies greatly from place to place and the planetary surface undergoes reshaping over geological time periods due to the effects of tectonics and errosion. The surface features built up or deformed through plate tectonics and are subject to steady weathering and precipatation, thermal cycles, and chemical effects, glaciation, coastal errosion, the build-up of coral reefs and the large meteorites impact also act to reshape the landscape. Ther is a new published most complete earth’s map and the detail is as follows. The data, comprising 1.3 million images, come from a collaboration between the US space agency Nasa and the Japanese trade ministry. The images were taken by Japan’s Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (Aster) aboard the earth-monitoring Terra satellite.

The Terra satellite, dedicated to Earth monitoring missions, has shed light on issues ranging from algal blooms to volcano eruptions. For the Aster measurements, local elevation was mapped with each point just 30m apart. “This is the most complete, consistent global digital elevation data yet made available to the world,” said Woody Turner, Nasa programme scientist on the Aster project. “This unique global set of data will serve users and researchers from a wide array of disciplines that need elevation and terrain information.”

Previously, the most complete such topographic map was Nasa’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, covering 80% of the Earth’s surface. However, the mission’s results were less accurate in steep terrain and in some deserts. Nasa is now working to combine those data with the new Aster observations to further improve on the global map. Terra was launched in December 1999 as part of NASA’s Earth Observing System (EOS). The three EOS platforms are part of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and the Earth-Sun System that observe, understand, and model the Earth system to find out the way it is changing and thereby better predict changes.

“The two-qubit processor is the first solid-state quantum processor that resembles a conventional computer chip and is able to run simple algorithms.”

A team of researchers led by Yale University has created the first rudimentary solid-state quantum processor, taking another step toward the ultimate dream of building a quantum computer.

They also used the two-qubit superconducting chip to successfully run elementary algorithms, such as a simple search, demonstrating quantum information processing with a solid-state device for the first time. “Our processor can perform only a few very simple quantum tasks, which have been demonstrated before with single nuclei, atoms and photons,” said Robert Schoelkopf, the William A. Norton Professor of Applied Physics & Physics at Yale. “But this is the first time they’ve been possible in an all-electronic device that looks and feels much more like a regular microprocessor.”

Working with a group of theoretical physicists led by Steven Girvin, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics & Applied Physics, the team manufactured two artificial atoms, or qubits (”quantum bits”). While each qubit is actually made up of a billion aluminum atoms, it acts like a single atom that can occupy two different energy states. These states are akin to the “1″ and “0″ or “on” and “off” states of regular bits employed by conventional computers. Because of the counterintuitive laws of quantum mechanics, however, scientists can effectively place qubits in a “superposition” of multiple states at the same time, allowing for greater information storage and processing power. For example, imagine having four phone numbers, including one for a friend, but not knowing which number belonged to that friend. You would typically have to try two to three numbers before you dialed the right one. A quantum processor, on the other hand, can find the right number in only one try. “Instead of having to place a phone call to one number, then another number, you use quantum mechanics to speed up the process,” Schoelkopf said. “It’s like being able to place one phone call that simultaneously tests all four numbers, but only goes through to the right one.”

These sorts of computations, though simple, have not been possible using solid-state qubits until now in part because scientists could not get the qubits to last long enough. While the first qubits of a decade ago were able to maintain specific quantum states for about a nanosecond, Schoelkopf and his team are now able to maintain theirs for a microsecond—a thousand times longer, which is enough to run the simple algorithms. To perform their operations, the qubits communicate with one another using a “quantum bus”—photons that transmit information through wires connecting the qubits—previously developed by the Yale group. The key that made the two-qubit processor possible was getting the qubits to switch “on” and “off” abruptly, so that they exchanged information quickly and only when the researchers wanted them to, said Leonardo DiCarlo, a postdoctoral associate in applied physics at Yale’s School of Engineering & Applied Science and lead author of the paper.

Next, the team will work to increase the amount of time the qubits maintain their quantum states so they can run more complex algorithms. They will also work to connect more qubits to the quantum bus. The processing power increases exponentially with each qubit added, Schoelkopf said, so the potential for more advanced quantum computing is enormous. But he cautions it will still be some time before quantum computers are being used to solve complex problems.

“We’re still far away from building a practical quantum computer, but this is a major step forward.”

Authors of the paper include Leonardo DiCarlo, Jerry M. Chow, Lev S. Bishop, Blake Johnson, David Schuster, Luigi Frunzio, Steven Girvin and Robert Schoelkopf (all of Yale University), Jay M. Gambetta (University of Waterloo), Johannes Majer (Atominstitut der Österreichischen Universitäten) and Alexandre Blais (Université de Sherbrooke).

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has successfully entered orbit around the moon. Engineers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., confirmed the spacecraft’s lunar orbit insertion at 6:27 a.m. EDT July23,2009-Tuesday.

During transit to the moon, engineers performed a mid-course correction to get the spacecraft in the proper position to reach its lunar destination. Since the moon is always moving, the spacecraft shot for a target point ahead of the moon. When close to the moon, LRO used its rocket motor to slow down until the gravity of the moon caught the spacecraft in lunar orbit. This is indeed a challenging task to them. “Lunar orbit insertion is a crucial milestone for the mission,” said Cathy Peddie, LRO deputy project manager at Goddard. “The LRO mission cannot begin until the moon captures us. Once we enter the moon’s orbit, we can begin to build up the data set needed to understand in greater detail the lunar topography, features and resources. We are so proud to be a part of this exciting mission and NASA’s planned return to the moon.”

A series of four engine burns over the next four days will put the satellite into its commissioning phase orbit. During the commissioning phase each of its seven instruments is checked out and brought online. The commissioning phase will end approximately 60 days after launch, when LRO will use its engines to transition to its primary mission orbit. For its primary mission, LRO will orbit above the moon at about 31 miles, or 50 kilometers, for one year. The spacecraft’s instruments will help scientists compile high resolution, three-dimensional maps of the lunar surface and also survey it at many spectral wavelengths. The LRO satellite will explore the moon’s deepest craters, examining permanently sunlit and shadowed regions, and provide understanding of the effects of lunar radiation on humans. LRO will return more data about the moon than any previous mission.

The spacecraft’s instruments will help scientists compile high resolution, three-dimensional maps of the lunar surface and also survey it at many spectral wavelengths. LRO is leading NASA’s way back to the moon. The main goal of LRO is to conduct investigations that prepare for future lunar exploration. They will scout for safe and compelling landing sites, locate potential resource and characterize the effects of prolonged exposure to the lunar radiation environment. They will also return rich scientific data that will help us to better understand the moon’s topography and composition. Thanks to LRO.

The ability to learn and to establish new memories is essential to our daily existence and identity; enabling us to navigate through the world. The researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has captured the first image mechanism, specifically protein translation, which underlies long-term memory formation. This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the WM Keck Foundation and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

The image on the right shows that the increase in green fluorescence represents the imaging of local translation at synapses during long-term synaptic plasticity.

The finding provides the first visual evidence that when a new memory is formed new proteins are made locally at the synapse - the connection between nerve cells - increasing the strength of the synaptic connection and reinforcing the memory. The study published in Science, is important for understanding how memory traces are created and the ability to monitor it in real time will allow a detailed understanding of how memories are formed. When considering what might be going on in the brain at a molecular level two essential properties of memory need to be taken into account.

• Because a lot of information needs to be maintained over a long time there has to be some degree of stability.
• To allow for learning and adaptation the system also needs to be highly flexible.

For this reason, research has focused on synapses which are the main site of exchange and storage in the brain. They form a vast but also constantly fluctuating network of connections whose ability to change and adapt, called synaptic plasticity, may be the fundamental basis of learning and memory. “But, if this network is constantly changing, the question is how do memories stay put, how are they formed? It has been known for some time that an important step in long-term memory formation is “translation”, or the production, of new proteins locally at the synapse, strengthening the synaptic connection in the reinforcement of a memory, which until now has never been imaged,” says Dr. Wayne Sossin, neuroscientist at The Neuro and co-investigator in the study. “Using a translational reporter, a fluorescent protein that can be easily detected and tracked, we directly visualized the increased local translation, or protein synthesis, during memory formation. Importantly, this translation was synapse-specific and it required activation of the post-synaptic cell, showing that this step required cooperation between the pre and post-synaptic compartments, the parts of the two neurons that meet at the synapse. Thus highly regulated local translation occurs at synapses during long-term plasticity and requires trans-synaptic signals.”

Long-term memory and synaptic plasticity require changes in gene expression and yet can occur in a synapse-specific manner. This study provides evidence that a mechanism that mediates this gene expression during neuronal plasticity involves regulated translation of localized mRNA at stimulated synapses. These findings are instrumental in establishing the molecular processes involved in long-term memory formation and provide insight into diseases involving memory impairment.

European researchers have collaborated to develop artificial skin for robots. This is part of a project involving researchers at the University of Hertfordshire so that it can be used in their work investigating how robots can help children with autism to learn about social interaction. This is the first time that this approach has been applied in work with autistic children.

Professor Kerstin Dautenhahn and her team at the University’s School of Computer Science are part of a European consortium, which is working on the three-year Roboskin project to develop a robot with skin and embedded tactile sensors. The researchers will work on Kaspar, a child-sized humanoid robot developed by the Adaptive Systems research group at the University. The robot is currently being used by Dr. Ben Robins and his colleagues to encourage social interaction skills in children with autism. They will cover Kaspar with robotic skin and Dr Daniel Polani will develop new sensor technologies which can provide tactile feedback from areas of the robot’s body. The goal is to make the robot able to respond to different styles of how the children play with Kaspar in order to help the children to develop ‘socially appropriate’ playful interaction (e.g. not too aggressive) when interacting with the robot and other people.

Autism causes kids to experience the world differently from the way most other kids do. It’s hard for kids with autism to talk with other people and express themselves using words. Kids who have autism usually keep to themselves and many can’t communicate without special help. “Children with autism have problems with touch, often with either touching or being touched,” said Professor Kerstin Dautenhahn. “The idea is to put skin on the robot as touch is a very important part of social development and communication and the tactile sensors will allow the robot to detect different types of touch and it can then encourage or discourage different approaches.” Roboskin is being co-ordinated by Professor Giorgio Cannata of Università di Genova (Italy). Other partners in the consortium are: Università di Genova, Ecole Polytechnique Federale Lausanne, Italian Institute of Technology, University of Wales at Newport and Università di Cagliari.

The next generation of instruments for ground-based telescopes took a leap forward with the development of a new ultra-fast camera that can take 1500 finely exposed images per second even when observing extremely faint objects. The first 240×240 pixel images with the world’s fastest high precision faint light camera were obtained through a collaborative effort between ESO and three French laboratories from the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers (CNRS/INSU). Cameras such as this are key components of the next generation of adaptive optics instruments of Europe’s ground-based astronomy flagship facility, the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT).

“The performance of this breakthrough camera is without an equivalent anywhere in the world. The camera will enable great leaps forward in many areas of the study of the Universe,” says Norbert Hubin, head of the Adaptive Optics department at ESO. OCam will be part of the second-generation VLT instrument SPHERE. To be installed in 2011, SPHERE will take images of giant exoplanets orbiting nearby stars. A fast camera such as this is needed as an essential component for the modern adaptive optics instruments used on the largest ground-based telescopes. Telescopes on the ground suffer from the blurring effect induced by atmospheric turbulence. This turbulence causes the stars to twinkle in a way that delights poets, but frustrates astronomers, since it blurs the finest details of the images. Adaptive optics techniques overcome this major drawback, so that ground-based telescopes can produce images that are as sharp as if taken from space. Adaptive optics is based on real-time corrections computed from images obtained by a special camera working at very high speeds. Nowadays, this means many hundreds of times each second. The new generation instruments require these corrections to be done at an even higher rate, more than one thousand times a second, and this is where OCam is essential.

“The quality of the adaptive optics correction strongly depends on the speed of the camera and on its sensitivity,” says Philippe Feautrier from the LAOG, France, who coordinated the whole project. “But these are a priori contradictory requirements, as in general the faster a camera is, the less sensitive it is.” This is why cameras normally used for very high frame-rate movies require extremely powerful illumination, which is of course not an option for astronomical cameras. OCam and its CCD220 detector, developed by the British manufacturer e2v technologies, solve this dilemma, by being not only the fastest available, but also very sensitive, making a significant jump in performance for such cameras. Because of imperfect operation of any physical electronic devices, a CCD camera suffers from so-called readout noise. OCam has a readout noise ten times smaller than the detectors currently used on the VLT, making it much more sensitive and able to take pictures of the faintest of sources. With this technology all the generation instruments of ESO’s Large Telescope will be able to produce the best possible image with an unequaled sharpness.

“Plans are now underway to develop the adaptive optics detectors required for ESO’s planned 42-metre European Extremely Large Telescope, together with our research partners and the industry,” says Hubin. Using sensitive detectors developed in the UK, with a control system developed in France, with German and Spanish participation, OCam is truly an outcome of a European collaboration that will be widely used and commercially produced.

Scientists at the University of Granada’s Department of Optics have designed a new optical technique to differentiate between original and “bootleg” compact discs (CDs) and DVDs by using light diffraction. This indeed good since this is economical, fast and effective, and it also allows to detect illegal CD copies. Optical CDs are at present the most extended physical means of distribution of digital information around the world and illegal copying is a serious problem that involves important econimic losses that is not solve up to now. One of the biggest problems with CDs was the rate at which people were burning them. Back in the day one could buy an album and then burn ten copies for their family and friends. 11 people get the CD and the record companies only got the profit for one purchase.

Original CDs are made by printing, through a process which is profitable for large print runs. However, copies are obtained by performing a series of marks on the surface through the “burning” with laser of commercial recorders on an organic material with which a series of spiral grooves are made in a blank CD. Through the new technique proposed by the scientists of the Department of Optics of the UGR it is possible to identify if a CD has been recorded using a method or a device different to those used in industrial processes, which allows to differentiate between original CDs and copies. It uses the phenomenon of light diffraction on a CD surface to appreciate the differences between original and bootleg CDs, as they generate different types of diffraction models.

This technique has also been tested in DVDs, where it has also been validated, and they intend to develop it for the detection of bootleg CDs for latest generation devices susch as Blue-Ray or HD-DVD.The study has been recently published in the renowned international scientific journal “American Journal of Physics”, and the respective patent has already been requested. The Group in charge of this research work is composed of members of the Department of Optics of the University of Granada (Javier Hernández Andrés, Eva Valero Benito, Juan Luis Nieves Gómez and Javier Romero Mora), and by José Fernández Dorado, a student of Physics who is now carrying out his doctoral thesis in the Centre for the Development of Sensors, Instrumentation and Systems of the Technical University of Catalonia.

A new analysis of the current swine-origin H1N1 influenza A virus suggests that transmission to humans occurred several months before recognition of the existing outbreak.

‘Using computational methods, developed over the last ten years at Oxford, we were able to reconstruct the origins and timescale of this new pandemic,’ said Dr Oliver Pybus of Oxford University’s Department of Zoology. ‘Our results show that this strain has been circulating among pigs, possibly among multiple continents, for many years prior to its transmission to humans.’ Dr Pybus, along with Andrew Rambaut from the University of Edinburgh and colleagues, used evolutionary analysis to estimate the timescale of the origins and the early development of the epidemic. They believe that it was derived from several viruses circulating in swine, and that the initial transmission to humans occurred several months before recognition of the outbreak. The team conclude that ‘despite widespread influenza surveillance in humans, the lack of systematic swine surveillance allowed for the undetected persistence and evolution of this potentially pandemic strain for many years.’

Their is indeed a need for systematic surveillance of influenza in swine for it was being noted that new genetic elements in swine can result in the emergence of viruses with pandemic potential in humans. Transmission of swine influenza virus from pigs to humans is not common and does not always cause human influenza, often only resulting in the production of antibodies in the blood. The meat of the animal poses no risk of transmitting the virus when properly cooked. If transmission does cause human influenza, it is called zoonotic swine flu. People who work with pigs, especially people with intense exposures, are at increased risk of catching swine flu. In the mid-20th century, identification of influenza subtypes became possible, which allows accurate diagnosis of transmission to humans. Since then, fifty confirmed transmissions have been recorded, Rarely, these strains of swine flu can pass from human to human. In humans, the symptoms of swine flu are similar to those of influenza and of influenza-like illness in general, namely chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness and general discomfort. It was first proposed to be a disease related to human influenza during the 1918 flu pandemic, when pigs became sick at the same time as humans. This H1N1 form of swine flu is one of the descendants of the strain that caused the 1918 flu pandemic. As well as persisting in pigs, the descendants of the 1918 virus have also circulated in humans through the 20th century, contributing to the normal seasonal epidemics of influenza.

Throughout history, military medical personnel have been involved in providing care for their comrades in arms, often at the expense of their own lives. Researchers in the US are working on a project that could replace army medics on a battlefield with robotic surgeons and nurses.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon research arm who turns science fiction fantasy into military reality. DARPA conducts high-risk military research and in the process develops amazing medical technology. At their 3-day DARPA tech conference, they announced the upcoming deployment of the first portable, self-contained, remote battlefield medic/surgeon Trauma Pod robotic system by 2009. Surgical robotics was initially conceived by DARPA as remote battlefront or space surgical robots and this technology is now widely available in the DaVinci surgical robots. Brett Giroir, director of the research agency’s Defense Sciences Office also announced that the system, called Trauma Pod, has successfully “treated” a mannequin during a test, with no complications.
Brendan Visser, a surgeon at Stanford University in California who helped develop the Trauma Pod, described it as: “Three separate robots dance over the top of the patient with their powerful arms moving very quickly, yet they don’t crash and they’re able to deliver very small items from one arm to another.” The purpose of the Trauma Pod is to provide a quick “temporary fix” to wounded soldiers before being taken to the hospital. A single human will operate the robot remotely during surgery, but Trauma Pod will be able to perform a number of functions, such as fluid administration and surgical assistance, autonomously. The goal is to stabilize injured soldiers as quickly as possible and previous Trauma Pod designs have included related systems that evacuate the patient. It could provide airway control, relieve life-threatening injuries such as a collapsed lung, or stop bleeding temporarily.
The unit comprises one three-armed surgeon robot, assisted by 12 other robotic systems. Remotely controlled by a human, the surgeon robot communicates with and instructs the other robots. One of its three arms holds an endoscope to allow the human controller to see inside the patient, while the other two grip surgical tools. The robot also could be allowed to carry out some simple tasks without human help, such as placing stitches or tying knots. The bed itself monitors vital signs, administers fluids and oxygen, and may eventually administer anesthesia. A voice-activated robotic arm “Hot Lips” - M*A*S*H - passes fresh tools and supplies to the surgeon robot. A third “circulating nurse” robot gives out the right tools. Getting the patient off the battlefield and into a hospital is another matter. While the Pod is supposed to eventually meet certain size and weight restrictions, there are no plans yet to incorporate specific vehicles. The Trauma Pod is expected to be used by the Army initially, with possible, full-production deployment happening between 2011 and 2013.