Scientists in western Argentina were set to inaugurate the world’s largest astronomical observatory, hoping to unlock the mysteries of high energy cosmic rays that bombard the Earth. The vast Pierre Auger Observatory will begin realizing “its potential for the next 20 years,” as per astronomer team member Beatriz Garcia.

Construction for the international efforts, involving a team of more than 370 scientists and engineers from 17 countries, began in 1999 in an elaborate joint project to better understand the particles discovered by the facility’s namesake, French physicist Pierre Auger, in 1938. With the launch of the observatory’s detection systems, science has “taken a big step forward in solving the mystery of the nature and origin of the highest-energy cosmic rays.”

It paves the way for a second phase of construction that will include building a similar instrument in the US state of Colorado. To observe the cosmic ray showers, high-energy particles present in universe that bombard the Earth, the Pierre Auger uses a collection of 1,600 particle detectors placed 1.5 kilometres apart, in a grid spread across 3,000 square kilometres. On top of this detection system, scientists will turn the observatory into the most powerful galaxial observation instrument ever built with an additional 24 telescopes, to record emissions of light from the particle shower.

In China, a new building that operates electricity generated from the solar energy collected by the building itself was put into operation recently in the Baoding High Tech Development Zone.

The 26-floor, five-star hotel looks like a circuit, with some 30,000 square metres of space, including exterior walls, ceilings, and platforms, and installed with the proprietary solar energy absorbing glass panels developed by Yingli Solar. The new building has applied a range of innovative technologies that have earlier not been used either domestically or internationally. The ‘breathing solar panel’ in particular is able to turn solar energy into electric power. The electric power produced by the building, as by a small hydro-power station, will be connected to the local grid, in addition to its own use.

It is estimated that the building will generate 260,000 kilowatt hours of electricity in a year, saving 104 tons of coal equivalent, or cutting down 75.5 tons of CO2 emission. Additionally, the contaminated water handling system installed in the building enjoys an improved cyclic use of water for heating, cooling and washing.

Germany-based Merck-kgaA is expanding its facilities at the Chilworth Technical Centre in Southampton, England. Merck is investing approximately Euro 3 mn to construct an extension that will house state-of-the-art research facilities for further development of two highly innovative segments within its Liquid Crystals Division.

The new laboratories will be equipped with the latest technology for research and development of organic photovoltaic products and materials for flexible displays as well as modern offices and meeting rooms.

The new facilities are to be completed by June 2009. This extension confirms the status of Chilworth Technical Centre as a major R&D site within the Merck Group’s chemicals business sector to develop new technologies as a foundation for future business within the Liquid Crystals Division.

Invest Northern Ireland, the public body aiming at economic development of Northern Ireland, is looking at attracting small and mid-size Indian IT services companies, BPOs and niche software development firms for research and development (R&D) in their country. The body helps international companies (large and mid-size) set up their base in Northern Ireland by bringing them financial incentives of up to 15-25%.

These firms could be looking at niche areas like transaction related software development for the banking, financial services and insurance sector, radio frequency in IT, mobile telephony software and life sciences.

Besides the strategic location that Northern Ireland has, its value proposition is the operational cost as there is a lot of availability of quality labour at about 20-35% cheaper than in the UK. Also, the cost of living there is about 15-20% lower than in UK. So the incentive package, which is about 15-25%, accelerates the investments to set up their base in Ireland. Therefore, many companies are exploring this option seriously. Companies like HCL Technologies, Polaris Software Labs, First Source Solutions and Tech Mahindra are already present in that country.

Invest Northern Ireland has already invested abut pounds 150 million for setting up various Indian IT companies. Within Invest Northern Ireland, the Inward Investment Division is responsible for attracting new foreign direct investment (FDI) from outside of Northern Ireland.

Kenya, a severely food-deficit country, needs to expedite the process of biotech crop adoption to boost agricultural productivity. With this objective, the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute Biotechnology Center (KARI-Biotech) unveiled a state-of-the-art insect-proof biosafety greenhouse for research into the impact of transgenic crops on insects.

KARI-Biotech is currently conducting trials on various biotechnology crops, such as Bt cotton, Bt maize, cassava, sorghum and sweet potatoes. Construction of the greenhouse was funded by the Danish government through the BiosafeTrain Project at a cost of ~US$40,000. The facility is an addition to the Center’s existing level-II biosafety greenhouse. BiosafeTrain Project aims to build capacity in East Africa for biosafety and ecological impact assessment of genetically modified organisms.

African scientists from the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa have uncovered how one of the world’s most economically devastating crop diseases emerged, and hope to genetically engineer disease resistant crops using the information. They compared the genetic sequence of the virulent maize streak virus (MSV) with ten less harmful strains of the virus from across the continent, which infect other grass food crops, such as wheat and oats. It was found that two relatively mild grass viruses had merged through genetic recombination, which resulted in an ancestral MSV far more potent than its parents, thereafter moving into maize before spreading rapidly across the continent.

The researchers think that this occurred about a century ago, just when commercial agriculture was replacing subsistence farming and maize started to overshadow indigenous crops in Africa. These results mean that DNA viruses are evolving faster than was thought. This rapid mutation increases the possibility of new plant viruses emerging. While plant diseases do not feature very highly in the public’s consciousness, their impact on food production causes more suffering in the developing world than many high profile human diseases. Studying plant diseases can provide information about pathogens that can be used to develop resistant crops. At least two hundred samples of infected maize are analyzed each year by UCT team.

An analysis of virus-infected maize from Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, Namibia and Zambia, is being placed in a database. Maize resistant to the streak virus has been developed but it has to be proved that it will hold up under different conditions throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

Doctors in Britain were reported to be using robotic radiotherapy machine for the first time. The machine called Cyberknife, is said to be worth 2.5 million pounds. It maps the movement of a patient’s breathing so that tumours can be targeted with greater accuracy than is currently possible. The novel device uses a robotic arm to deliver multiple beams of high-dose radiation from a wide variety of angles. The patient’s breathing is monitored with the aid of x-ray cameras, and the radiotherapy beam is repositioned accordingly to minimize damage to surrounding tissues. This, in turn, makes the therapy so accurate that even tumours in difficult positions and dangerous to operate on, such as near the spinal chord, can be treated safety.

Cyberknife technology is best suited for discreet little tumour in an awkward place, under the liver or next to the kidney.

University of Utah physicists and chemists have developed a new method that uses a mirror of tiny silver “nanoparticles” so that microscopes can reveal the internal structure of nearly opaque biological materials like bone, tumor cells and the iridescent green scales of the so-called “photonic beetle.” The method also might be used for detecting fatigue in materials, such as carbon-fiber plastics used to build the latest generation of aircraft fuselages, tails and wings, says John Lupton, an associate professor of physics and leader of the new study.
The new method developed by Lupton and colleagues is a variation of fluorescence microscopy, but involves using an infrared laser to excite clusters of silver nanoparticles placed below the sample being studied.
The particles form “plasmonic hotspots,” which act as beacons, shooting intensely focused white light upward through the overlying sample. The spectrum or colours of transmitted light reveal information about the composition and structure of the substance examined.
While Lupton believes the new method will be of interest mainly to biologists, he also says it could be useful for material science.