FROM THE LAB OF
THE ABSURD
One group
of scientists trains rats to sniff out explosives; another has created a
chewing gum sensor. HT picks the most amusing scientific discoveries of 2015
Science is about ideas,
innovation and application. Discoveries that are all three make headlines. They
also make researchers rich and famous.
And then there’s other
work that almost makes news, because it is unusual, quirky and outlandish.
Here’s our pick of oddest inventions and weirdest research of 2015.
SNIFFER RATS TRAINED TO DETECT AND RESCUE
Sniffer rats may soon
replace dogs as man’s best friends, with scientists in Russia working at
training rats to detect explosives or people trapped in buildings. “Unlike a
dog, a rat can get through the smallest crack where it seems it couldn’t go.
This way it could find its way deep under rubble and by its brain activity one
could understand if there are, for example, people who are still alive, if it’s
worth clearing debris here or at another place to rescue people more quickly,”
said Dmitry Medvedev. He heads the Laboratory of Olfactory Perception at
Rostov-on-Don.
Russian scientists
attached electrodes to their brains to monitor brainwaves to study how an
unfamiliar or unusual substance will affect the waveforms.
Mozambique uses Gambian
giant pouch rats to sniff out mines in conflict zones, while the Dutch police
is training rats to identify different scents — including drugs, gunpowder and
explosives — to help stop smuggling and solve crime cases.
Medvedev admits they
still have a way to go: “We can’t say what substance it was by just analysing
an encephalogram by sight. We are now trying to work out what substance it was
with the help of mathematical analysis,” he said.
STUDYING MANSCAPING TO UNDERSTAND MODERN MASCULINITY
When it comes to
attention to detail, British researchers come up tops. Dr Mathew Hall, research
associate, division of health research, Lancaster University, has done an
academic dissertation on men’s online groin shaving talk. The research paper,
published in the journal Sexualities is titled “When there’s no underbrush the
tree looks taller: a discourse analysis of men’s online groin shaving talk”
(http://bit.ly/1OMK2iT), examines online responses to an advert promoting groin
grooming. “The analysis shows that changes of vanity are swept under the carpet
in favour of heterosexual pleasure, cleanliness, self-respect and
individuality,” writes Hall, in the paper that carries scientific references
and citations.
WEARABLE URINE-POWERED WIRELESS TRANSMITTER
A pair of socks embedded
with miniaturised microbial fuel cells (MFCs), fuelled by fresh urine pumped by
the wearer’s footsteps, can power a wireless transmitter to send a signal to a
computer. This is the world’s first self-sufficient system powered by a
wearable energy generator running on MFC technology, which uses bacteria to
generate electricity from waste fluids by tapping into the biochemical energy
used for microbial growth. Soft MFCs embedded within a pair of socks are
supplied with fresh urine circulated by a person walking, where the action of
the feet pumps the urine over the MFCs to generate energy. Soft tubes, placed
under the heels, ensure frequent fluid pushpull by walking.
The wearable MFC system
successfully ran a wireless transmission board, which sent a message every two
minutes to the PC-controlled receiver module, report scientists from the
Bristol Bio-Energy Centre in Bioinspiration and Biomimetics (bit.ly/1lOcoCX).
SPERMS LEAN RIGHT TO MOVE AHEAD
Spermatozoa need to crane
their necks to turn right to counteract a leftturning drive caused by the
rotation of their tails. Research from the University of Warwick’s Department
of Physics showed that all sperm tails (flagella) rotate in a counter-clockwise
motion as they beat to enable them to move through and against the motion of a
fluid. The counterclockwise motion means that sperm should only be able to move
in a leftwards direction, but the researchers observed that approximately 50%
of the sperm observed in the research moved to the right. Composed of a head,
mid connecting piece and the flagella, 3D motion analysis of the sperm found
that they were distorting their bodies at the mid-piece to counteract the
physical forces that would cause them to turn left. The differences between the
actions necessary for a sperm to turn left or right means that all could be
able to turn in both directions or only one; indicating that there could be two
physiologically distinct spermatozoa subpopulations, report UK researchers in
the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (bit.ly/1XSbHcn).
STRETCHABLE, WEARABLE SENSOR MADE WITH CHEWING GUM
Ultra-sensitive body
sensors, made of chewing gum and carbon nanotubes that move with your most
bendable parts and track breathing and other vital stats, may replace
conventional metal sensors, scientists report in the journal ACS Applied
Materials & Interfaces. Unlike stretchy plastics and silicones, gum sensors
can be twisted, bent and pulled without sensitivity being lost to monitor the
full range of a body’s bending and stretching.
To make this sensor, a
research team chewed a piece of gum for 30 minutes, washed it with ethanol and
let it overnight. A solution of carbon nanotubes, the sensing material, was
then added and the gum was pulled and folded to align properly. Human
finger-bending and head-turning tests showed the material kept working with
high sensitivity even when strained 530%. It also detected humidity changes.
HT27DEC15
No comments:
Post a Comment