Factoids

These facts are posted in the Arlington Institute newsletter, and are also posted on Think Links.

Did you know?

• Within three years, complete human hearts could be grown from stem cells.
• On average, summer temperatures are arriving in Lake Superior more than two weeks earlier than was the case just 3 decades ago.
• A manned airplane powered only by a fuel cell and lightweight batteries is in development.
• An ethical code to prevent humans abusing robots, and vice versa, is being drawn up by South Korea.
• Researchers have developed a fuel cell battery that runs on virtually any sugar source - from soft drinks to tree sap.
• The seeds for more than 1.5 million different agricultural crops will soon be interred in an Arctic seedbank, as part of a plan to combat catastrophic climate change.
• Scientists have successfully regrown a tooth from cells extracted from mouse embryos.
• The US Air Force currently tracks more than 14,000 objects in orbit - an ever-growing collection of space junk.
• New solar cells have a 40.7% sunlight-to-energy conversion efficiency.
• Estimated monthly changes in the mass of Greenland's ice sheet suggest it is melting at a rate of about 57.3 cubic miles per year.
• A blimp system for the Pentagon, which will be three-fourths the size of a football field, is expected to have its first test flight in 2010.
• In China, the average number of text messages sent per month has exceeded 25 billion.
• Researchers can freeze water at room temperature in response to atomic-scale friction.
• Researchers have devised a "nanosheet" that can be wrapped around any surface - such as that of a surgical instrument or a robotic hand - to mimic the sensitivity of touch.
• The prospect of invisibility - or cloaking - has been a mainstay of science fiction. But now physicists say they have finally figured out how to make objects invisible.
• A car that can anticipate a side-on impact and subtly alter its body shape to absorb the force of the crash is being developed by researchers in Germany.
• Scientists have found ways to make light go both faster and slower than its usual speed limit, but now researchers have gone one step further: pushing light into reverse.
• Researchers have demonstrated that genetically engineered viruses can assemble active battery materials into battery electrode that stores nearly three times as much energy as those in today's lithium-ion batteries.
• European scientists have developed "neuro-chips" in which living brain cells and silicon circuits are coupled together.
• The Air Force will conduct the first, fully loaded test flight of its Airborne Laser, a jumbo jet packed with gear designed to shoot down enemy missiles half a world away at the speed of light.
• A new technique could speed up DNA sequencing more than 200 times, constructing a human genome in hours, compared with the six months it takes now.
• The world's first cloned dog has been achieved by researchers in South Korea.
• Oceanic plankton have largely disappeared from the waters off Northern California, Oregon and Washington, mystifying scientists, stressing fisheries and causing widespread seabird mortality.
• Recent research could lead to synthetic sharkskin that would make ships and submarines faster and less expensive to operate.
• Using random event generators, researchers attempting to measure the effect of human consciousness on machines have detected small but "statistically significant" signs that minds may be able to interact with machines.
• Scientists say they have been able to monitor people's thoughts through brain scanning.
• It is now possible to control the speed of light using off-the-shelf instrumentation in normal environmental conditions
• An advance in nanotechnology may lead to the creation of artificial muscles, super strong electric cars and wallpaper-thin electronics
• Scientists have managed to use lasers to create a billion-degree nuclear fireball. The resulting reaction is far cleaner than the kind currently being investigated to generate nuclear power.
• Scientists have identified a hormone that significantly extends the life span of mice, a discovery that could mark a crucial step toward developing drugs that boost longevity in people.
• A material harder than diamond has been created in the lab, by packing together tiny "nanorods" of carbon
• The Ebola virus along with decades of hunting and logging are putting some ape species on the brink of extinction in Central Africa.
• Researchers have created the world's smallest untethered, controllable robot. The machine is about as wide as a strand of human hair, and half the length of the period at the end of this sentence.
• US surgeons are to interview a shortlist of patients hoping to be the first to receive a face transplant. The procedure would take about 10 hours.
• Researchers were able to take several 10-minute sound recordings of users typing at a keyboard, feed the audio into a computer, and use an algorithm to recover up to 96 percent of the characters entered.
• Titan's Long-Sought Sea Revealed by Radar -- (New Scientist -- September 22, 2005)
  http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8015
  The first sea discovered on any surface other than Earth's may have been found on Saturn's moon Titan. New radar images from the Cassini spacecraft, which made its eighth close approach to the moon, have revealed what appears to be a very distinct shoreline, fed by meandering channels carved deeply in the surrounding terrain.
• Physicists in Australia have slowed a speeding laser pulse and captured it in a crystal, a feat that could be instrumental in creating quantum computers.
• Scientists have developed miniature robots that can self-assemble using parts that float randomly in their environments.
• Scientists have discovered that a chemical in the skin of the red-eyed tree frogs, genreally found in Australia, can block infection by HIV by destroying the viral particles that lead to AIDS.
• Gorillas Tool Up in the Wild -- (The Register -- October 4, 2005)
  http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/30/gorillas_tool_use/
  Scientists working in the Republic of Congo have seen gorillas using tools in the wild for the first time. The scientists recorded two separate instances of tool use, including one gorilla using a stick to test the depth of a pool before wading across. Chimps and orangutans have been seen using tools in the wild, and even monkeys raised in captivity will do so, but this is the first time it has been seen in gorillas in the wild.

   

  Will humanity be able to observe the intellectual development of a less mentally advanced being? It would certainly give us insight into our own evolution.

• UK scientists say they can cut the time it takes to grow new tissue from days to minutes. The lengthy process can be accelerated by simply removing the water present in the starting material.
• A pencil sized wand that generates "cold plasma" can be used to kill germs that contaminate surfaces, infect wounds and rot your teeth.
• Air force engineers are testing a new kind of transparent armor - stronger and lighter than traditional materials - that could stop armor-piercing weapons from penetrating vehicle windows.
• A new study shows that 20% of human genes have been patented in the United States, primarily by private firms and universities.
• Deactivating a specific gene transforms meek mice into daredevils, researchers have found. The team believes the research might one day enable people suffering from fear, in the form of phobias or anxiety disorders, for example, to be clinically treated.
• A "brain", grown from 25,000 neural cells extracted from a single rat embryo, has been taught to fly an F-22 jet simulator by scientists at the University of Florida.
• Using infrared to transmit audio and visual information, U.S. Navy sailors will soon be able to talk securely up to two miles away, just by looking at one another.
• A new plastic solar cell can turn the sun's power into electrical energy, even on a cloudy day.
• A space elevator cable has been built stretching a mile into the sky, enabling robots to scramble up and down the line.
• Scientists have produced superheated gas exceeding temperatures of 3.6 billion degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than the interior of our Sun.
• A computer controlled by the power of thought alone has been created that could provide a way for paralyzed patients to operate computers.
• A flexible polymer infused with billions of carbon nanotubes could be used to make highly flexible electronic displays and other novel electronic devices.
• Changes to Earth's biodiversity have occurred more rapidly in the past 50 years than at any time in human history, creating a species loss greater than anything since a major asteroid impact wiped out the dinosaurs.
• Within the U.S., Americans are more likely to die from hernias than from terrorist acts - by a factor of more than 5:1.

More facts will be added in the future.