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Scientists Make Mice Transparent

Scientists have made mice transparent - let us hope they were dead first! Studying the human body and test animals in general is difficult because usually one has to carry out dissections to see inside. The new process will change medicine.

Lipids block sunlight in bodies, so it has to be replaced with acrylamide which is just transparent hydrogel. After the acrylamide is absorbed, the bodies are placed into detergent which absorbs the lipids. Electricity is also applied to reduce the time taken to "clean" tissue.

The treated mice do not keep their original shape. They end up like gel in a plastic bag. Internal organs can be clearly seen, however. After staining, the structure of organs can be seen as shown in the picture above.

Micro-slicing has been used to date. A computer assembles a 3D structure for study. Both systems will probably be used in future as each as its benefits. There are plans to adapt the transparency technique to evaluate tissue in cancer patients. Biopsies will be treated to identify any cancerous cells.

Science by Ty Buchanan

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Robot to Replace Dumb Farm Workers

The robot age is here! That is if you believe what scientists are trying to tell us. Shouting and waving your hands in the air about a new thing is par for the course. We have heard it all before: mew thing, great leap forward, and so on.

Apparently, the new gadget is a robot for use on a farm. Developed in Australia, the machine wanders around the farm "keeping an eye" on crops and pests. It is guided by hyperspectral cameras and sensors. The initial field test, forgive the pun, was at a vegetable growing property where beetroot, spinach and onions are grown.

The robot has a mechanical arm for pulling up weeds - wow productivity will go through the roof! Just how fast will this thing go? Unfortunately, it moves very slowly. Scientists say it will free up staff from manual labor. This is absolute rubbish. How does it know what is a weed and what is a valuable plant?

Unless it does high-tech stuff it will not prove to be beneficial. If it can detect pests and diseases very early, it will be useful. However, manual labor does take a high level of intelligence. You must know how the job is to be done usually without supervision. Scientists wrongly believe that farm workers are dumb.

Science by Ty Buchanan

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New Technology is Feared by Many

Australians are like people everywhere. They want change but they fear it. Advancement in technology appears to make our lives easier, but in a way life is becoming more complex.

People make themselves known to millions of others. They fear that in the long run they will regret it. As they grow older what they did in their carefree youth will come back to haunt them.

Only half of people feel secure about the technological future. One would expect that this would be higher. Young people in particular seem to welcome new gadgets with open arms. Nearly half of the population believe robotization will make their lives worse.

Many use wearable gadgetry to help with their exercise and fitness. However, these could turn out to be just faddish endeavours like all the new exercise machines advertised on TV.

The giant technological companies are experimenting with weird ideas. They have run out of rational concepts. These have been used up. Reviewers condemn the new tech offerings as silly and laughable. Then see people adopt the latest new thing with gusto.

Technology by Ty Buchanan

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Australia Breaks Supercritical Steam Record to Replace Coal

Australia has made a new world record in "supercritical" steam. This involves the use of solar panels to generate heat that boils water and generates steam. The steam could be used instead of coal in power plants.

Pressure reached 3,400 psi at a heat of 1,058°F. This is peak performance "stuff". It rivals coal in its efficiency. The first time a non-carbon source has at least equalled the efficiency of coal.

Six hundred mirrors (heliostats) were used and their beams were directed at two towers housing solar receivers and turbines. In the future power generation could be virtually free from the sun during daylight hours.

This technology is new and supersedes older "subcritical" steam production. More work has to be done but there is no doubt power generation will eventually not need coal. It is not good news for Australian exports. It is good for the world though.

Science by Ty Buchanan

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"Rote" is a Dirty Word in Education

Students from overseas are saving Australia's tertiary education system. This is particularly true for postgraduate degrees. Most Australians attend a social science postgraduate course. This is despite the fact that these pieces of paper are virtually worthless in getting a job in today's world.

Modern economies need IT, management, commerce, science, engineering, architecture and agriculture postgraduates. Doing maths and science at high school is the key but Australian students avoid these. This is due to the poor organization of subjects. Some states have no less than five grades of maths choices. There should be compulsory broad based maths despite failures along the way. Avoiding the difficult is not the way to go.

We have teachers who are only qualified in social sciences teaching maths and science because there are too few fully-educated technical teachers. This is despite the fact that there is an oversupply of teachers generally.

Foreign students are propping up the employment related postgraduate sector by paying the full cost of running the courses with some money skimmed-off by universities to fund social science degrees. Australia needs targetted

education. The curriculum is never left alone. Every government changes the prevailing system. France kept to rote teaching and they have the best scientists in the world. Many Scientists employed in Britain are French.

Why do academics now have this morbid fear of rote teaching? It was because the United States went down the road of free subject choice and the rest of the Western world followed. Just saying the word "rote' was anathema and still is. When I was at school we all said the twelve times tables aloud as a group every morning and I can still remember them now.

No, education today is carried out in the wrong way. For example, making surfing a high school subject was a stupid thing to do. The number of people who have had a successful career in surfing can be counted on your fingers. There is absolutely nothing wrong with rote teaching of the essential things in life. Teachers now expect the answers to problems to just appear in the minds of students. Mentoring is about "telling" not asking.

Education by Ty Buchanan

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Teflon Beats Gecko - Temporarily

Can nature beat science? This is an open question but it will be put to the test. Teflon is a material created by scientists. It does not occur naturally. Will it stand the test and be unique, unfettered by mother nature?

Geckos can run along many surfaces, whether vertical or upside-down. Their toes are covered in in rows of keratin ridges called lamellae. They are like very fine hairs that attach to just about anything.

Students at the University of Akron's Auburn Science Centre tested the ability of geckos to run along vertical teflon sheets. And yes, they could not cross it! By adding water, however, they ran along it quite happily.

Apparently, the presence of moisture is a must for geckos to get around. Any surface that repels water is playground for geckos. An adhesive has been developed that will stick things together underwater based on research done on this interesting little creature.

Science by Ty Buchanan

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New System to Watch Workers

Spying is everywhere these days and researchers with employer backing are studying the way employees move during work tasks. They don't seem to care what effect this has on a workers mental state, considering you will have a contraption fitted that will go into the bathroom with you.

The DorsaVi company based in Melbourne has developed a monitoring system called ViSafe. It attaches to the body by means of sticky pads that measures muscle impulses and body motion. Critically, it measures the speed at which one is moving. This will help to make the employee move faster by explaining that he/she does not move fast enough during work hours - hands up for running on the spot!

Data are examined by the subject, researcher, workplace assessor, oh and another employee who is there to make up the numbers. Just where workplace assessor gets his skills and expertise from is a mystery. Like those wonderful abstract tests they give to job applicants that are never tested in real life situations - indeed, which are irrelevant to real life and measure, well, nothing actually.

It is okay to use such technology on sports people, but in the workplace they can cause a build up of stress in employees that employers with there great intelligence cannot seem to understand. This is mainly because employers can please themselves about what they do during the day and workers cannot. Employees are trapped in a prison of compulsory work tasks. "ViSafe can tell you in a quantifiable way how far a worker can bend over." That will prove useful.

Technology by Ty Buchanan

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Blue-Green Algae Causes Motor Neuron Disease

Motor Neuron Disease (MND) in not something that just happens to certain people with no hope of recovery. There is new hope about the cause and future treatment. It seems that the marine pest blue-green algae which grows in freshwater and saltwater is the cause. Apparently, it is more widespread than previously thought.

It can be present in marine food that we consume and even in plant seeds. Like other toxins it moves through the food chain becoming more concentrated in species at the top of the line of consumption. It drastically changes the human body interfering with the way proteins function.

The Australian research was based in Guam the place where motor neurone disease is the highest. People there have a taste for bats. When the food chain of these bats was followed it lead to the seeds of a cycad tree. Blue-green algae was found growing around the tree particularly on its roots.

If a drug can be developed that can stop the toxin's action on the body's proteins this would at least be a treatment for Motor Neuron Disease. If you want to lessen the chances of getting MND then stop eating sea food. However, flavoring from marine species is added to pre-prepared meals. Health products like vitamin B and iron supplements have blue-green algae added because it is a source of protein.

Science by Ty Buchanan

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Australia Should Develop a Bionic Brain - Nonesense!

One of the most difficult things to do is to develop a computer brain that operates like a human brain. Intelligence that evolved by nature is very complex. A computer "thinks" linearly with one activity followed by another. The human brain works outward from a central point, spreading out to different areas depending on the particular task.

To say that Australia should concentrate on making the world's first bionic brain is a leap too far. Saying that $250m over ten years will get the job done is way off the mark. There are many scientists already working with much more money than that and they haven't achieved much.

Pioneering the healthbionic ear and eye is kid stuff compared to replicating the brain. Using nerve activity to make artificial limbs move is also far from understanding human intelligence. Even after all these years measuring intelligence is beyond us. The IQ test only gives a score for rating cultural knowledge. It is misused by so many people.

We need to start at the real beginning and understand genetics first. Genes build the brain. Consciousness is another thing. Is it the outcome of the overall activity of the brain or is it something separate, like a soul? Saying humans are the only animal to have a soul is nonsense. When you get to Heaven expect to find some Neanderthal there!

Science by Ty Buchanan

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