Science News

Head-lines

. Chandrayaan, India's unmanned moon mission, successfully launched
. Galaxies found racing towards each other
. First complete cancer genome sequenced
. New strides on research in hybrid electric-fuel cars
. Young Atlantic bluefin tuna swim the sea from coast to coast
. Music of the future
. Annual National Children's Science Congress to be held in Nov-Dec

Galaxies on the go
Scientists have a mystery of cosmic proportions on their hands. Recently astronomers noticed something strange. It seems that millions of stars are racing at high speeds toward a single spot in the sky.
The picture shows galaxy clusters (white spots) on a map of the cosmic microwave background, or CMB. The clusters appear to move, on average, in one direction (toward the purple spot).
Huge collections of stars, gas and dust are called galaxies. Some galaxies congregate into groups of hundreds or thousands, called galaxy clusters. These clusters can be observed by the X-rays they give off.
Scientists are excited about the racing clusters because the cause of their movement can't be explained by any known means.
The discovery came about when scientists studied a group of 700 racing clusters. These clusters were carefully mapped in the early 1990s using data collected by an orbiting telescope.
The researchers then looked at the same 700 clusters on a map of what is called the cosmic microwave background, or CMB. The CMB is radiation, a form of energy, leftover from the Big Bang. Scientists believe that the Big Bang marks the beginning of the universe, billions of years ago. The CMB provides a picture of how the early universe looked soon after the Big Bang.
By comparing information from the CMB to the map of galaxy clusters, scientists could measure the movement of the clusters. This is possible because a cluster's movement causes a change in how bright the CMB appears.
As a galaxy cluster moves toward Earth, the radiation frequency goes up. As a cluster moves away from Earth, the frequency goes down. This shift in the frequencies creates an effect similar to the Doppler effect.
The Doppler effect is commonly used to measure the speed of moving objects, such as cars. Scientists can use this method to measure the speed and direction of moving galaxies by looking at changes in the radiation frequencies.
What the scientists found surprised them. Though the frequency shifts were small, the clusters were moving across the sky at a high speed of about 1,000 kilometers per second. Even more surprising, the clusters were all moving in the same direction toward a single point in the sky.
Researchers do not know what is pulling this matter across the sky, but they are calling the source dark flow. Whatever it is, scientists say the source likely lies outside the visible universe. That means it cannot be detected by ordinary means, such as telescopes.
One thing is certain. Dark flow has shown that we do not understand everything we see in the universe and that there are still discoveries to be made.

First complete cancer genome sequenced
For the first time, a complete cancer genome, and incidentally a complete female genome, has been decoded. In a study made possible by faster, cheaper and more sensitive methods for sequencing DNA, the researchers pinpoint eight new genes that may cause a cell to turn cancerous.
Since cancer is a disease of the genome, this newfound ability to determine the complete DNA sequence of a cancer cell is enormously powerful. Scientists read each of the 3 billion building blocks of DNA from tumor cells in a woman with acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, a highly malignant form of blood and bone marrow cancer. Then the team compared the long string of code with one taken from noncancerous skin cells from the same woman.
This new sequencing technology, called massively parallel sequencing, makes it possible to compare the normal DNA sequence to the cancerous DNA sequence in the same patient. That, in turn, allows researchers to find individual DNA bases that had mutated (changed) in the cancerous cells.
After rigorously pruning the data to keep only the most significant mutations, the researchers identified 10 mutations, eight of which were in genes never before implicated in AML. Of these eight new mutations, none were found to be mutated in tumors from other, smaller-scale studies, suggesting that individual AML cases are distinct.
The implications of the study are not fully understood. That is because exactly one person has been studied. Many more cases will be studied over the next several years in order to understand the results better.

Ready, unplug, drive
Plug-in hybrid cars run on both gasoline and batteries, an energy combination that would let drivers travel longer without refueling.
Automobile companies are developing vehicles that will plug in to electric sockets, just like many laptops, digital cameras, cell phones and small video-game players do. Called plug-in hybrids, these cars will get most of their power from electricity. Their drivers will rarely have to stop at gas stations.
The first U.S. company-produced plug-in hybrids could hit the roads by 2010. But plug-in hybrids aren't a cure-all for energy problems. Some experts say that replacing gasoline with electricity might simply swap one type of environmental strain for another.
Engineers still have a lot of work to do to make plug-in hybrids practical and inexpensive.
Introduced in the late 1990s, hybrid cars get power from a combination of electricity and gasoline. At times, such as when driving on the highway, they run like regular gas-powered cars. But hybrids also have a special type of rechargeable battery and an electric motor, which allow them to sometimes drive with the engine off. With the engine off, the car uses no gasoline.
Plug-in hybrids will go a step further. On a full charge, they'll be able to drive up to 60 km without using any gasoline at all.
Batteries pose the biggest challenge. A standard gas-powered car uses something called a lead-acid battery. These devices are fairly cheap and they last a long time. But lead-acid batteries are also extremely heavy. You also have to run the engine regularly to keep them charged. And they are only strong enough to power the car's lights and other electronic equipment.
In a hybrid vehicle, batteries must store much more energy -- enough to actually run the car with the engine switched off.
So, most hybrid cars use nickel-metal-hydride batteries. They're lighter, more efficient and quicker to charge than lead-acid batteries. They are also more expensive.
So the main goal has been to design smaller, more powerful, long-lived and lighter-weight batteries.
Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are getting the most attention. Li-ion batteries are standard in laptops, cell phones, heart devices, power tools and similar portable devices. But they need to be made much smaller for hybrid cars. Research in this area is now getting a lot of attention.

Young Atlantic bluefin tuna swim the sea from coast to coast
Atlantic bluefin tuna are one of the most sought after fish. Sushi lovers relish the fish for their savory taste, and fishermen prize the tunas for the high price they fetch at the fish market.
Over the past few decades, as the number of bluefin tuna has declined, scientists have sought ways to better manage these fish. A critical part of setting fishing quotas, or limits on how many fish can be caught, is estimating the number of fish located in a geographic area.
Though scientists have known for some time that the western and eastern bluefin populations mix, management agencies that set fishing quotas have treated the westerners and easterners as two separate populations.
But, apparently, even fish want to break the rules sometimes.
After spending weeks and months swimming in the open sea, mature Atlantic bluefin tuna return to the area where they first hatched. They do so in order to spawn, or reproduce. These bluefin tuna are divided into two groups: western Atlantic bluefins and eastern Atlantic bluefins. When it's time to mate, the mature westerners head toward the Gulf of Mexico, while the mature easterners return to the Mediterranean Sea.
But a new study shows that when bluefins are young, they don't always stick to their side of the ocean. Scientists found that juvenile bluefins like to socialize on both sides of the Atlantic. To these young fish, the ocean is just one gigantic aquarium.
While this mingling may be good for the fish, it can complicate strategies designed to manage how many of the fish can be caught. Scientists say the new findings may help in developing better management strategies, and help save the fisheries from collapse.

Music of the future
The musical instruments of the future may be right in front of your eyes and on the tables, walls and windows around you. All it takes to use them is the right hardware, and a little imagination.
In Switzerland, a team of scientists and artists are working together on new technology that can transform almost any surface into a musical instrument. The technology is called MUTE, short for Multi- Touch Everywhere. Using MUTE, a person can use a computer to translate taps on different parts of a table or a wall as different sounds.
For example, you may record and save different sounds on a computer --- anything from a snare drum or trumpet to clapping hands or a sneeze. Then, you program your computer to play one of these recorded sound snippets whenever you tap a certain spot on a table top or wall. The left side of a table might play snare drum beats, the right side a melody on a trumpet. If you tap the two sides at the same time, you will hear both sounds come together as a song. The system uses a camera and lasers to see where you have tapped on the table.
What's more, the programmed surface does not even have to be solid--- it can float right in front of you!It can even work in the air.
The device is not a musical instrument in the way we normally think about instruments. It allows a person to be creative. It's more like we are providing a means for people to design their own instruments.
Acoustic sensors could be used to build new kinds of computers that look nothing like traditional desktop models. Unlike a keyboard and mouse, which require a user to remain in front of a computer screen, acoustic sensors would allow a user to interact with the computer almost anywhere. You could use your fingers to draw a picture on a wall, for example, and record the drawing with your computer.
Or, imagine a restaurant owner, who could glue menus to the top of his tables and install acoustic sensors underneath. Diners could then order simply by tapping on the menu. The vibration from the tap would be picked up by the sensors, which would be able to figure out where the tap came from. A computer could match that location to a dish on the menu and send the order to the kitchen.
Look around again. The future of computing and of musical instruments may be all around you.

Annual National Children's Science Congress to be held in Nov-Dec
"Earth has enough resources to meet everybody's need, but not for anybody's greed" -- Mahatma Gandhi
The theme of the 16th National Children's Science Congress is "Planet Earth, Our Home: explore, care, and share". Children can design and make projects in any area related to this theme. The Activity Guide has categorised the theme into some major groups like atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, noosphere, biosphere and energy.
The final meeting will be held in North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Shillong, at the end of December (27-31). The district and state level meets are going on even as you read. At the end of the state-level round, about 500 children will be selected to take part in the national level meeting which will be filled with discussions and fun-filled science activities.
Tamil Nadu Science Forum (TNSF), which also publishes Jantar Mantar, is one of the member organisations for Tamil Nadu, along with Tamil Nadu Science & Technology Centre and the Tamil Nadu Council on S&T.