November 2012 Issue 7
MI
science and technology news and views magazine
NI
In this FUTURE special edition:
SATNAV Magazine at the University of Birmingham
Contents 3D-Printing: The Future Is Here
3
The Question Mark Surrounding Stem Cell Research
4
The Future Of Space Exploration
6
The Promise of Robotics
L.E.S.I.S. Seminars
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9
10
Is The Male Genome Destined For Extinction?
Future Warfare 12 Birmingham Pioneers New Materials
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Sci Facts 15
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SATNAV Magazine at the University of Birmingham
3D-Printing: The Future Is Here
Y
ou may think a device connected to your computer capable of producing solid objects is merely the stuff of science fiction, but whilst many things from Star Trek have failed to become a reality, 3D printers have been around since the 1980s, and are now finally making inroads into our modern world. In fact, the world’s first 3D printing shop has recently opened in New York, meaning the 3D printing future has truly arrived. 3D printing or ‘additive manufacturing’ works in essence, by printing layers on top of one another to form a finished product. There are lots of different techniques used ; One of the main methods involves spraying a fine layer of powder and using a laser to fuse the grains together, whilst another option is to make the layers out of a malleable material ( such as molten plastics). And now we can print using almost anything, including steel or even food.
3D
printing
isn’t
limited to making spare parts for machines, as ‘Bio-printing’ uses 3D printers to create replacement organs or artificial bones for patients. And earlier this year a new way of creating chemical compounds through 3D printing was developed, so perhaps one day everyone will have access to their own pharmacy at home! Even NASA is looking into the use of 3D printers for future deep-space missions. Much like iconic inventions such as the steam engine which has had a huge impact on our world to date, so 3D printing may be truly revolutionary, influencing everything from fashion to military hardware. This ingenious revision of such a common device has the capacity to affect every aspect of our lives and redefine how we live them - and it’s closer than you think! Toby
Kingsman
just
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The Question Mark Surrounding Stem Cell Research
W
ith the brisk development of science, and our innate human thirst for knowledge, the idea of one day being able to produce human stem cells for implantation seems a natural one. Diseases are a constant threat to the human race. With conditions such as muscular sclerosis, heart disease and cancer threatening our population, it seems only right to throw all of our efforts into the potential surrounding stem cell research. However it’s not until you step back and take a second to observe, that you may notice the growing neglect to the cogs of nature inside the rapidly rotating wheels of modern science. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that are able to divide into a diverse range of specialised cell varieties. Stem cells can be found naturally in human bone marrow, in the embryo and from blood
in the umbilical cord. The ability of stem cells to divide abundantly whilst remaining undifferentiated and to differentiate into any type of cell denotes that they are extremely valuable as a promising treatment alternative. An example being the possible treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s , achieved by obtaining human skin cell DNA and inserting it into a cow blastocyst to grow, supplying new stem cells (‘First British human-animal hybrid embryos created by scientists’ , The Guardian 2008). However, whilst providing a promising future for disease prevention, stem cell research has fuelled a large number of ethical debates. Although consequentialism argues that stem cell research is acceptable due to its benefits in finding treatments, some perceive
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the use of naturally occurring cells for unnatural causes as ‘playing with nature’ or ‘playing god’. Moreover, many see it as a moral suppression involving the killing of developing embryos that have a right to life. But this debate may be resolved by the invention of pluripotent stem cells, created by genetically re-programming adult cells to express the qualities of stem cells.
As much as stem cell research seems the humanitarian thing to do as a method of helping the sick, we must consider the inhumanity of tampering with nature as we know it, and as miraculous as the many applications are I still find myself asking…… are we losing our perception of nature and the natural world? At the beginning of the year it was made public news that the first ‘chimera’ monkeys had been born, created from several rhesus monkey embryos from different individuals.
Whilst all of the monkeys were male, it was found that one of the individuals contained both male and female cells. The experiment caused wide spread anger, with individuals arguing that the research is only edging science towards the very slippery slope of human cloning. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act (1990) legislation has solved some of the ethical issues surrounding stem cell research, outlining principles which allow stem cell research to be conducted. These principles permit researchers to ‘enable any such knowledge to be applied in developing treatments for serious disease’, ‘to increase knowledge about serious disease’ and ‘to increase knowledge about the development of embryos’. In 2008 the laws were updated to restrict the number of animal cells that can be added to human cells, to prevent the creation of true hybrids and transgenic human embryos. It seems that despite the ethical issues surrounding therapeutic stem cell research, science must still tamper with the unknown and unnatural. With new hope arising for the treatment of birth defects, spinal cord injuries, organ damage and possibly cancer treatment, is it acceptable to simply over-look the unethical and unnatural matters surrounding stem cell research in the name of science? Charlotte Taylor Images: 1. Wikimedia Commons - Nissim Benvenisty 2. Flickr/ Wild_Speedy
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SATNAV Magazine at the University of Birmingham
The Future of:
Space Exploration
A
fter watching Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner free-fall over 24 miles from the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere on 14th October, I know I’m not the only one excited about the possibility of one day being able to escape the Earth and explore the vastness of space. With companies such as Virgin Galactic offering the chance to experience life as an astronaut for a (mere) $200,000, this dream doesn’t seem too farfetched. But since most of us don’t have pocket money like Branson’s, it may still be some time until we can start booking our long weekends on Mars.
There is, however, a lot to get excited about from a spectator’s point of view. NASA is constantly developing innovative new technologies, from in-space propulsion techniques to robots which work alongside humans on the International Space Station, in order to push the boundaries of human exploration in space. These new advances are allowing us to see further into the galaxy than ever before and increasing our understanding of how the universe works. For example the Mars rover Curiosity, launched almost a year ago, is making progress towards discovering if there could be life on the red planet. One of the main challenges of exploring deeper into space is the time it takes to get to distant planets. But this could all change with developments such as NASA’s plasma-based propulsion system; an engine in which
An artist’s rendering of a Mars Exploration Rover: NASA
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However, general relativity has been used to show that if you ‘bunch up’ space-time in front of your spaceship and stretch it out behind you, you can travel faster than the speed of light without even noticing it. This all sounds very convenient, but it would require huge amounts of negative mass to stretch space-time out behind your ship, and even current theories in quantum mechanics can’t prove that negative mass exists at all. So perhaps it’s our understanding of the nature of the universe which is holding us back in space exploration, and not a lack of advanced technology. It is amazing (and slightly terrifying) to recall that the first humans to land on the moon were put there using less computing power than in a standard calculator; looking back over the last half a century of space exploration, it is incredibly exciting to think of where we But wait? It didn’t take them that could be in another 50 years’ time. long to travel such vast distances Martha Stuffins in Star Wars! Surely you could just press a ‘warp drive’ button and arrive on Mars in a few minutes? Well, the problem with this is that to achieve this short journey time, the spaceship would have to move faster than the speed of light, which is forbidden in classical physics. fuel is transformed into a gas-like substance full of ions (plasma) which can be controlled by electric and magnetic fields and ejected from the engine to give thrust which moves the shuttle. The amount of thrust can be varied to control the flight of the spacecraft. For longer exploration flights, the electrical supply to the engine would be provided by either solar or nuclear power. The main advantage of this type of engine is that the fuels used to power it (hydrogen, helium and deuterium) can be found almost anywhere in the galaxy, so it could be re-fuelled without problems. However, just to fly past the nearest star would require around ten railway tankers full of hydrogen, and take around 900 years!
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The Promise of Robotics Recently there has been a lot of progress in the field of robotics. From the Boston Dynamics ‘Cheetah’, that has the ability to run at 28.3 Mph and Cyberdyne’s HAL 5 exoskeleton that in the future may be used to give mobility back to the disabled, to DARPA’s robotic prosthesis that allows amputees full control over the arm with the help of a microelectrode array implanted in the motor cortex of the brain. Robotics is still a budding field and because of its accessibility to even novice programmers with small budgets there are numerous small projects that are open to crowd funding if you are feeling generous, or if you notice something that catches your eye. Maintaining a charge is the biggest hurdle that has yet to be overcome. On average, exoskeletons can only be utilised for two hours before they need to be recharged. Of course this limits their applications, but nevertheless, they inspire hope in the future that disabilities will no longer be as disabling. We are also seeing more robots in the workplace than ever before, though mainly in manufacturing. They are well suited to the jobs that require precise, repetitive movements and are immune to any sort of fatigue or accidents that
may befall your average factory worker. We can expect better quality products to be produced faster and at a lower cost. As we gain a better understanding of robotics they will become much more commonplace - some predictions place medical robots performing low-invasive surgery by 2017 and robotic ‘brains’ that can rival the computational power of the human brain in 2050. Though the market for robots is currently weak as it mainly deals in bespoke programming solutions, we can see that as companies adapt more technology to their use this market will fill a vital niche. Willem James Image: Flickr/ Ryan Somma
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Is the Male Gender Destined for Extinction? The human genome is made up of 46 chromosomes, consisting of 22 homologous (identical) pairs and two sex chromosomes (the X and Y chromosomes). Females have two X chromosomes, and males have an X and a Y chromosome. The sex chromosomes contain many genes essential to the phenotype that defines the differences between the sexes, such as the SRY gene found on the Y chromosome which promotes male sex determination during development. The small stature of the Y chromosome has led to the formation of many theories which propose that it may be degenerating, and thus may eventually disappear completely. An example has been found in the mole vole, in which the Y chromosome and all its genes have been completely lost. The Y chromosome is loosing around five genes every million years and is believed to have evolved from an autosome, that originally had 1438 genes, but now it has only around 60. This may indicate that the Y chromosome is disappearing, with increasing domains of repetitive sequences. However there are
varied opinions on the future of the Y chromosome, with different evidence indicating different outcomes. The ‘Y chromosome linear decay model’ was initially seen as a possibility, which could lead to the extinction of itself, and in turn the male gender. This reasoning is seemly sound, with the decreasing gene count indicating its eventual disappearance in around 10 million years. However comparisons between the non-recombining male specific regions of the Y chromosome (MSY) of humans and chimpanzees made this scenario seem unlikely. The lack of any detectable gene loss since the divergence 6 million years ago, with only structural changes being observed, indicated that the Y chromosome’s gene count is now in a state of stability. This evidence was further reinforced by doing similar work with the rhesus monkey, whose divergence from humans was around 25 million years ago. The evidence indicated an evolutionary history of initial exponential gene decay, after an inversion prevented crossing over, that eventually stopped after reaching a baseline number of
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SATNAV Magazine at the University of Birmingham essential genes. The lack of recombination means that the Y chromosome cannot rely on recombination to repair faulty genes, but may use processes such as gene conversion to overcome this problem. This showed that the remaining 3% of genes on the Y chromosome may not be random survivors, but instead the result of purifying selection conserving important genes. The evolution of the Y chromosome, although initially appearing detrimental, is actually beneficial to its unique role. The inversions and other chromosome rearrangements that acted on the Y chromosome have isolated it from the X chromosome, stopping recombination. Although this disables the ability for recombination to repair mutated genes, it has male specific advantages. By not recombining, it is ensured that the Y will always have the male oriented genes. This provides an advantage over a male that may lose those genes from homologous recombination with the X chromosome during meiosis. The Y chromosome is very well adapted as a male determining chromosome, containing many male specific genes, with no possibility of losing them via recombination. And so the current viewpoint is that the Y chromosome appears to not be degenerating towards extinction, but is instead rapidly evolving to efficiently suit its purpose as a male determining chromosome. Luke Williamson
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Future Warfare
T
he rugged face of warfare is changing. Gone are the days of brute force and the safety of numbers, technological superiority plays a large part in modern warfare and this is set to do so even more in the years to come. Advanced sensing technology which uses millimetre waves that are capable of seeing through clothes and objects is imminent and has already been deployed in airports in Amsterdam (2007). One can only assume that this technology is of great interest in military applications, and given time; who knows what new sensors would be capable of. Electromagnetic
waves are also being used for advanced personnel detection and even weapons as certain wavelengths can result in extreme sensations of pain that could initiate their use as a very effective non-lethal weapon. Autonomous weapons of war are becoming commonplace in many country’s armed forces and home land securities. We are familiar with the UAVs used in the Middle Eastern conflicts, which are capable of long flight surveillance and dropping payloads of up to two ‘Hellfire’ missiles. However, you may be less familiar with the Guardium; an autonomous robot
A Hexacopter-Flikr:
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gott.maurer
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used for patrolling the Israeli boarders. It is capable of identifying potential hostile agents, targeting them, calling for assistance and using a range of forceful means to eliminate a threat. There are also aquatic automated patrol systems in use. Hexacopters (remotely operated miniatures) are also becoming much more popular with more and more services around the world using them for surveillance and disaster response (recently proposed by the University of Southampton). Some UAVs are being disguised as birds and even insects to gain access to places previously impenetrable by airborne surveillance. In the future it is possible that surveillance devices and maybe even lethal actuators may be small enough to make them difficult to see, let alone stop. The idea of an adaptive combat suit has intrigued not only film writers and game designers for years, but also holds the attentions of DARPA (The American Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency). They’ve long been investigating the possibility of fabricating a suit capable of adaptive camouflage. Not only that, but a suit that can also act as a powered exoskeleton, which would enhance the strength and endurance of the wearer. Also to act as a second skin when a solider is injured, clotting around a
wound fast, and even forming a rigid support around broken limbs so that they can still function. This kind of functionality relies on advances in nanotechnology which may not be as far-fetched as one might imagine. Along with these developments; advanced thermal imaging, targeting systems and electronic warfare will become more prevalent and with the advent of transparent screens, information regarding mission information, local topographical maps and updates of enemy positions could be relayed to a frontline soldier through the glass in their safety specs! There are also plans to incorporate virtual reality into pilot’s cock-pits so that they never actually look out on the real world and many other outlandish ideas are in the pipeline. However, war has always been a ‘push and pull’ game; for every piece of technology developed there is another that makes it obsolete. The Enigma was the most advanced encryption device ever invented, but The Genii Group at Bletchley Park developed the first electronic computer to combat it. The future of warfare is uncertain, but one thing we can be sure of is that technology will play a large role in both the arbitration and prevention of future conflicts. James Churm
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Research at Birmingham: Birmingham pioneers new materials
T
he School of Metallurgy and Materials at The university of Birmingham houses some impressive state-of-the-art equipment used in developing new generations of advanced materials for a range of applications, from hydrogenpowered vehicles to dental implants. With the urgent need to reduce atmospheric carbon, and conserve dwindling oil stores whose extraction damages valuable ecosystems, the race is on to find an alternative to fossil fuels. And so the School of Chemical
Engineering is testing a fleet of hydrogen powered cars, but before
we may all drive such eco-friendly vehicles, a more efficient way of storing the hydrogen must be found. Therefore, in Metallurgy and Materials, novel types of hydrogen storage material are being investigated that take up and release hydrogen quickly at low temperatures, are lightweight ,and which have high hydrogen storage capacities. Fuel cells require very pure hydrogen and so new
metal membranes are being developed which remove any impurities.
The University’s Centre for Electron Microscopy is a world leading research facility used
by many departments. Electron microscopes use a beam of electrons focused by a series of electromagnetic lenses, and are able to provide both the surface and internal structural as well as chemical information of an object with atomic resolution. They can be used in the manufacture of silicon chips; to examine biological materials, metals and semiconductors; and to study stress cracking in engine parts. They are also used in the development of novel materials with improved performance, for example, coatings for titanium dental implants used in reconstructive and cosmetic dentistry.
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Image: University of Birmingham
Sioned Llewelyn
With thanks to Dr Yu Lung Chiu from the School of Metallurgy and Materials.
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FACTS!
SCI
ears billion y 5 In : g e is growin bigger and clos The Sun s 250 time Earth it will be swallow up the to enough
The implicit curve equation (x2 +y2-1)3x2y3=0 prod uces the hea rt shape.
l f Therma o t c e ff e e Due to th he Eiffel Tower is n, t io mmer. Expans aller in su t m c 5 1 upto
You can remem ber the value of Pi (3.141 5926) by counting each word’s letters in “May I have a large container of coffee?”
The Atlantic Ocean grows at about the same rate as your fingernails.
Courtesy of sciensational.com
Due to gravitational effects, you weigh slightly less when the Moon is directly overhead.
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