Japan To Test 'Fishing Mesh' To Catch Space Junk

Space isn’t so empty these days. Earth’s orbit is cluttered with more than half a million bits of debris, mostly rocket and satellite remnants that can wreck anything in their flight path. A 106-year old Japanese fishing net maker may have a solution. Nitto Seimo Co. is working with Japan’s space agency to develop a mesh material to tether and drag bussize pieces of space junk into the atmosphere for incineration. Scientists will get their first indication of whether the metallic line will work when it’s tested in orbit next month, said project chief Koichi Inoue, an associate principal researcher at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The experiment is part of an international cleanup effort planning to safeguard astronauts and about $900 billion worth of space stations, satellites and other infrastructure relied on for telecommunications, weather forecasting, Earth-monitoring and navigation. With debris traveling at up to 17,500 miles an hour (approx. 28,163kmph), the impact of even a marble-sixe projectile can cause catastrophic damage as portrayed in the Academy Award winning movie ‘Gravity’. “We need to take action of this massive amount of debris,” Inoue said at the JAXA campus in Tsukuba, north of Tokyo. “People haven’t been injured by the debris yet, but satellites have. We have to act.” Space faring nations around the world are pursuing different strategies for harpooning, sweeping, lassoing and dragging debris and redundant gear of varying sexes into the atmosphere for burning or into a so-called graveyard orbit, where they can’t collide with operational equipment. NASA’s Hubble Telescope has a 1cm hole in one of its dish antennas, and solar panels have been cracked and chipped by tiny debris, according to its website. “There’s a significant value to the industry of mitigating that risk,” said Ben Greene, chief executive officer of Sydney-based Electro Optic Systems Holdings Ltd, which is developing land-based laser technology to track and alter the course of space debris smaller than a flat screen TV. Nitto Seimo was asked by the space agency about a decade ago to develop a metal mesh line, said Katsuya Suzuki, a subsection chief who previously oversaw the project. JAXA wanted mesh, instead of single cable, because it would be harder to break. “it was extremely difficult,” said Suzuki. “At first, we could only make 20 or 30 cm. It took us until about 2010 until we could finally make several hundred metres.” The aluminum-containing line is designed to harness Earth’s electromagnetic forces to propel tethered objects out of orbit and into the atmosphere for destruction. Nitto Seimo may build a line as long as 10km if next month’s experiment using a 700-meter piece is successful, Suzuki said.

This Gene Limits Desire For Alcohol

Researchers have identified a gene variant that suppresses the desire to drink alcohol, an advance that could lead to development of drugs to regulate liquor consumption. The findings are based on the largest genome wide association meta analysis and replication study to date, mapping and comparing the genetic of over 105,000 light and heavy social drinkers, researchers said. The study identified a variation in the beta-Klotho gene linked to the regulation of social alcohol consumption. The less frequent variant – seen in approximately 40% of the people in this study – is associated with a decreased desire to drink alcohol. Excessive alcohol consumption is a major public health problem worldwide, causing more than 3 million deaths per year. Researchers worked on beta-Klotho and the liver hormone fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) that binds to the beta-Klotho-FGF21 receptor complex. They conducted experiments in mice to better understand the role of beta-Klotho in alcohol drinking behavior. The beta-Klotho gene directs the production of the beta-Klotho protein that forms part of a receptor complex in the brain. The study could lead to development of drugs to regulate alcohol consumption – possibly even in those with drinking problems, researchers said. A shift from heavy to moderate social drinking could have major public health benefits, such as reduced cardiovascular disease risk. The study compared the genetics of light and heavy social drinkers of European ancestry participating in nearly four dozen other large population studies worldwide. In addition to providing samples for genetic analysis, the participants answered questionnaires on their weekly drinking habits. Heavy drinking was defined as more than 21 drinks per week for women. Light drinking was considered to be 14 drinks or less per week for men and seven drinks or less per week for women.

This Bionic Penis Can Cure Erectile Dysfunction

Scientists have developed an eight-inch remote-controlled metal penis that may help men struggling with severe erectile dysfunction. Developed by researchers from the University of Wisconsin in the US, the heat-activated device can be used at the press of a button in just two minutes. The implant will help revive the sex lives of people who fail to respond to drugs like Viagra or other treatments, experts say. The implant is made from nitinol – also known as “memory metal” – which is a mixture of nickel and titanium. It can change shape when heated or cooled The Sun reported, at body temperature of 37°C, the implant is just a couple of inches long. However, when heated to 42°C, it expands to eight inches. A shape memory alloy-based penile prosthesis represents a promising new technology in the treatment of erectile dysfunction. Surgeons can make a tiny incision at the bottom of the penis and insert the implant – made from stretchy latex covered with a coating of memory metal. Attached to one end is a tiny heating coil. The soil can be turned on by a remote held over the groin, generating a metal field which triggers a current. The coil then warms the implant, making it expand and fully erect. A cool flannel makes the swelling go down.

California Targets Cows To Combat Warming

California is taking its fight against global warming to the farm. The nation’s leading agricultural state is now targeting greenhouse gases produced by dairy cows and other livestock. Despite strong opposition from farmers, Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation in September that for the first time regulates heat-trapping gases from livestock operations and landfills. Cattle and other farm animals are major sources of methane, a greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon dioxide as a heat-trapping gas. Methane is released when they belch, pass gas and make manure. The new law requires dairies and other livestock operations to reduce methane emissions 40% below 2013 levels by 2030. Officials are developing the regulations which take effect in 2024.

New IVF Tech Lets Doc Take Baby 'Cellfies'

New IVF technology being developed in the United Kingdom is allowing parents to obtain baby ‘cellfies’ – images of their children when they are just a few cells in a petri dish. In recent years, IVF clinics have developed cutting-edge time-lapse photography designed to monitor cell development in the first few days, so that doctors can pick the healthiest embryo for implantation in the womb and boost the chances of having a baby. The technique has also allowed parents to witness beginning of their child’s life at the very moment of conception, and in the crucial few days after fertilization. Clinics in the United Kingdom are also set to start trialing technology to allow prospective mothers and fathers to watch the live footage as the embryos are developing in the lab. Time-lapse technology has allowed researcher to get all these images from the first few days after conception and put them on a USB stick so that parents have pictures of their children, literally, from day one, when they are still in the laboratory. But it won’t be long before parents will be able to dial into the clinic using a unique number and see how their embryos are getting on in real time. Embryos are very sensitive, so in the past researcher could only get them out every 24 hours and have a look at how they were doing, but now they photograph them every 10 minutes. The pictures go way beyond than the current earliest images taken by ultrasound of babies in the womb.

Nuclear-Waste Batteries That Will Last For 5,000 Years

Scientists have developed a new technology that uses nuclear waste to generate clean electricity in a nuclear powered battery. Researchers from the University of Bristol in the UK have grown a man made diamond that, when placed in a radioactive field, is able to generate a small electrical current. The development could solve some of the problems of nuclear waste, clean electricity generation and battery life, researchers said. Unlike the majority of electricity generation technologies, which use energy to move a magnet through a coil of wire to generate a current, the man made diamond is able to produce a charge simply by being placed in close proximity to a radioactive source. There are no moving parts involved, no emissions generated and no maintenance required, just direct electricity generation. By encapsulating radioactive material inside diamonds, researcher turns a long term problem of nuclear waste into a nuclear- powered battery and a long-term supply of clean energy. The team has demonstrated a prototype ‘diamond battery’ using Nickel-63 as the radiation source. However, they are now working to significantly improve efficiency by utilizing carbon-14, a radioactive version of carbon, which is generated in graphite blocks used to moderate the reaction in nuclear power plants. Research by academics at Bristol has shown that the radioactive carbon-14 is concentrated at the surface of these blocks, making it possible to process it to remove the majority of the radioactive material. The extracted carbon-14 is then incorporated into a diamond to produce a nuclear-powered battery. Carbon-14 was chosen as a source material because it emits a short-range radiation, which is quickly absorbed by any solid material. This would make it dangerous to ingest or touch with your naked skin, but safely held within diamond, no short-range radiation can escape. In fact, diamond is the hardest substance known to man, there is literally nothing researcher could use that could offer more protection. Despite their low-power, relative to current battery technologies, the life-time of these diamond batteries could revolutionize the powering of devices over long timescales. Using carbon-14 the battery would take 5,730 years to reach 50% power, which is about as long as human civilization has existed. Researchers envision these batteries to be used in situations where it is not feasible to charge or replace conventional batteries. Obvious application would be in low-power electrical devices where long life of the energy source is needed, such as pacemakers, satellites, high-altitude drones or even spacecraft.

These Bacteria Kill Bugs That Are Drug Resistant

Predatory bacteria – that eat others of their kind – could be a new weapon in the fight against drug-resistant bacteria or ‘superbug’, a new study suggests. A naturally occurring predatory bacterium is able to work with the immune system to clear multi-drug resistant Shigella infections in zebra-fish, researchers from Imperial College of London and Nottingham University in the UK said. It is the first time the predatory bacterium Bdellovibrio bacteriovorous has been successfully used as an injected anti-bacterial therapy and represents an important step in the fight against drug-resistant infections, or ‘superbugs’. Shigella infection is responsible for over 160 million illnesses and over one million deaths every year – and is a common cause of travelers’ diarrhea. Cases of drug-resistant Shigella are also on the rise as, although the diarrhea usually clears up without treatment, antibiotics are often used even in mild cases to stop the diarrhea faster. To investigate Bdellovibrio’s ability to control drug resistant Gram-negative infections, researchers injected zebra-fish larvae with a lethal dose of Shigella flexneri strain M90T, resistant to antibiotics. Bdellovibrio was injected into the larvae’s infection site and a decrease in the number of Shigella was seen. In the absence of Bdellovibrio, zebra-fish Shigella numbers rose.