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Advances made in walking, running robotsResearchers have made an important fundamental advance in robotics, in work that should lead toward robots that not only can walk and run effectively, but use little energy in the process. By achieving an optimal approach with robotic mechanisms, studies are moving closer to robots that could take on dangerous missions in the military, create prosthetic limbs for humans that work much better, or even help some people who use wheelchairs to gain "walking" abilities.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 May 2010 | 12:00 pm Opioid-blocking medication reduces brain's response to alcoholism cues, study findsResearchers have produced the first evidence that the opioid blocker extended-release injectable naltrexone is able to reduce the brain's response to cues that may cause alcoholics to relapse.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 May 2010 | 12:00 pm Piece of the puzzle for individualized cancer therapy via gene silencing discoveredIn a major cancer-research breakthrough, researchers have discovered that a small segment of a protein that interacts with RNA can control the normal expression of genes -- including those that are active in cancer.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 May 2010 | 12:00 pm Solar panels can attract breeding water insects ... but scientists propose a simple fixSolar power might be nature's most plentiful and benign source of energy, but shiny dark solar cells can lure water insects away from critical breeding areas, scientists warn. Applying white grids or other methods to break up the polarized reflection of light, however, makes mayflies and other aquatic insects far less likely to deposit eggs on the panels thinking that they are water, the group discovered.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 May 2010 | 12:00 pm In infant heart surgery, newer technique yields better survival in first year of lifePediatric researchers report that a recently introduced surgical procedure offers infants with severely underdeveloped hearts a better chance at surviving during their first year of life, in comparison to the standard surgery.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 May 2010 | 12:00 pm Electric ash found in Eyjafjallajokull's plume, say UK researchersIn the first peer-reviewed scientific paper to be published about the Icelandic volcano since its eruption in April 2010, UK researchers write that the ash plume which hovered over Scotland carried a significant and self-renewing electric charge.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 May 2010 | 12:00 pm Novel therapeutic approach shows promise against multiple bacterial pathogensA team of scientists from government, academia and private industry has developed a novel treatment that protects mice from infection with the bacterium that causes tularemia, a highly infectious disease of rodents, sometimes transmitted to people, and also known as rabbit fever. In additional experiments with human immune cells, the treatment also demonstrated protection against three other types of disease-causing bacteria that, like the tularemia bacteria, occur naturally, can be highly virulent, and are considered possible agents of bioterrorism.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 May 2010 | 9:00 am Flu doesn't die out, it hides outEvery autumn, as predictably as falling leaves, flu season descends upon us. Every spring, just as predictably, the season comes to a close. This cyclical pattern, common in temperate regions, is well known, but the driving forces behind it have been in question.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 May 2010 | 9:00 am Optical Legos: Building nanoshell structuresScientists have created a way to use light-activated nanoshells as building blocks for 2-D and 3-D structures that could be useful for making chemical sensors, nanolasers and bizarre light-absorbing metamaterials. Much as a child might use Lego blocks to build 3-D models of complex buildings or vehicles, the scientists are using the new chemical self-assembly method to build complex structures that can trap, store and bend light.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 May 2010 | 9:00 am To double spud production, just add a little spitWhen it comes to potentially doubling the output of the world's fourth largest food crop, the secret may be in the spit. Researchers have discovered that when a major South American pest infests potato tubers, the plant produces bigger spuds. The secret to this increased yield is found that the saliva of the Guatemalan potato moth larvae.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 28 May 2010 | 9:00 am Gulf Coast awaits word that oil flow has stopped (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 May 2010 | 3:59 am 'Excellent water' at more beachesMore bathing beaches have excellent water quality than last year, but pollution has worsened since 2006, says Good Beach Guide.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 May 2010 | 3:54 am Coalition wants UK space lift-offScience minister David Willetts tells BBC News that space is an important growth sector for UK PLC.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 May 2010 | 3:35 am Shell buys US gas group East Resources for $4.7 bln (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 May 2010 | 3:26 am Work resumes to plug US oil wellBP resumes its operation to plug the Gulf of Mexico oil leak as US President Barack Obama defends his handling of the disaster.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 May 2010 | 3:14 am BP pushes on with 'top kill' as true slick size emerges (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 May 2010 | 2:50 am The nation's weather (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 May 2010 | 2:43 am Mystery fossil a 'squid ancestor'Ancestors of modern squids and octopuses may have existed half a billion years ago - a lot earlier than previously thought.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 May 2010 | 1:52 am Hurricanes could damage pipelinesHurricanes could complicate the clean-up of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and damage other offshore pipelines, experts warn.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 May 2010 | 1:50 am Dinos 'island-hopped' to EuropeHorned dinosaurs - thought native to America and Asia - made it to Europe via an island route, scientists say.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 May 2010 | 1:38 am Sticky secretsWhy is English ivy so good at climbing walls?Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 May 2010 | 1:33 am Australia to act on Japan whalingAustralia says it will mount a legal bid at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, against Japan's whaling programme.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 May 2010 | 1:28 am Obama heading to Louisiana for oil spill update (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 May 2010 | 1:26 am Libya hails UK's return of archaeological artefactsLibyan artefacts taken to Britain in the 1950s have been returned home and go on display in Tripoli Museum.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 May 2010 | 1:15 am Butterfly havenDozens of colourful visitors arrive at Kew GardensSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 28 May 2010 | 1:03 am Australia sues Japan over whaling (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 28 May 2010 | 12:59 am Sea otter that survived '89 spill dies in Seattle (AP)AP - A 21-year-old northern sea otter who survived the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska died Thursday at the Seattle Aquarium.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 May 2010 | 11:14 pm The Oil Spill Shows Its Silver LiningThursday's news from Washington DC and the Gulf may yet show that this catastrophe will do some good in the long term.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 May 2010 | 11:00 pm Delta 4 rocket blasts off on GPS mission (AP)AP - After several day's delay due to technical issues, a Delta 4 rocket has rumbled into the sky from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral carrying a GPS satellite.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 May 2010 | 10:37 pm Air Force Launches Advanced New GPS Satellite (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - The first of an advanced new fleet of navigation satellites for the U.S. Air Force soared into space late Thursday in a blazing night launch from a seaside pad in Florida.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 May 2010 | 10:15 pm Snails on Meth, for the Sake of ScienceMeth is a highly addictive drug. Just ask these snails.Source: Livescience.com | 27 May 2010 | 8:38 pm Discovery Could Help Block Yucky Taste of MedicineResearchers have discovered a chemical that specifically blocks people's ability to detect the bitter aftertaste that comes with artificial sweeteners such as saccharin.Source: Livescience.com | 27 May 2010 | 8:34 pm Mental Illness Tied to Immune DefectBone marrow transplants cure mutant mice who pull out their hair compulsively.Source: Livescience.com | 27 May 2010 | 8:31 pm Brush Your Teeth or Get Heart DiseasePeople who have poor oral hygiene have an increased risk of heart disease compared to those who brush their teeth twice a day.Source: Livescience.com | 27 May 2010 | 8:27 pm Tanning Beds Firmly Linked to Skin CancerNew research definitively links the use of indoor tanning devices to increased risk of melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer.Source: Livescience.com | 27 May 2010 | 8:24 pm Why Do 3-D Movies Make Some People Hurl? (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - Nothing can ruin a good movie faster than the sudden feeling that you're about to throw up. But for many people, the images in 3-D or IMAX movies look so real that they mess up the brain's ability to sort out the signals coming in from the senses, and trigger that queasy feeling.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 27 May 2010 | 8:20 pm Ultrasound Can Help Tissue Heal After SurgeryNew research suggests ultrasound can help tissue grafts to survive and thrive following surgery.Source: Livescience.com | 27 May 2010 | 8:20 pm The Case of the Displaced Black HoleA close examination of the center of M87 with the Hubble Space Telescope shows that the supermassive black hole is just a bit off.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 May 2010 | 7:29 pm Silencing approach saves monkeys from Ebola: studyWASHINGTON (Reuters) - A gene silencing approach can save monkeys from high doses of the most lethal strain of Ebola virus in what researchers call the most viable route yet to treating the deadly and frightening infection.Source: Reuters: Science News | 27 May 2010 | 7:01 pm BP's 'top kill' mission halts the oil gushExperts warn that leak is far from being permanently fixed as weather service predicts unusually strong hurricane season A delicate "top kill" operation by BP appears to have halted the gush of oil and gas from its ruptured Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, although experts warned that the underwater leak was still far from being permanently fixed. Engineers were due last night to begin a second round of pumping thick drilling mud at high speed into the ocean floor, which lies 5,000 feet (1,500 metres) under the surface of the sea about 50 miles off Louisiana. Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer, insisted that the operation was going to plan, but admitted: "What we do know is that we have not yet stopped the flow." He said BP engineers would soon use additional materials to try to plug the well, suggesting heavy mud deployed so far would not work on its own. "It's quite a roller coaster," he told a reporters' conference call, adding that the disaster had cost BP $850m so far. The modest signs of progress came amid dismal news on the sheer extent of the environmental damage caused by the accident, which began when BP's Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on 20 April, killing 11 workers. New government estimates of a leak of 12,000 to 19,000 barrels of oil a day indicated that after 37 days, the slick could be twice as large as the fallout from the tanker Exxon Valdez, which hit a reef off Alaska in 1989. "This will be felt for generations to come," said Regan Nelson, senior oceans advocate at the Natural Resources Defence Council in Washington. "It's an unprecedented disaster." Environmental scientists who have toured the marshes off Louisiana by boat described a vast expanse of crude half an inch thick, with no visible sign of the BP or government clean-up efforts. "We couldn't see into the water at all, one engine quit working," said Larry Schweiger of the National Wildlife Federation. "We are talking about really heavy oil spill out there, and no one is out there cleaning it. No one is out there measuring the scope of the oil mass." Doug Inkley, a wildlife biologist with the National Wildlife Federation, described seeing dead jellyfish and sharks affected by the slick. "It's impossible to me to know how any living organism could survive in that," he said. At least seven oil clean-up workers were taken to hospital yesterday after reporting nausea and headaches as a result of contact with chemical dispersants used to break up the slick.Administration officials said the cause of the illness was unclear. Offshore, marine scientists from a University of South Florida research ship reported the discovery of a new underwater plume of oil extending 22 miles from the ruptured well towards Mobile Bay, Alabama, raising new fears about deep water toxicity. After failing earlier in the month to halt the leak with a top hat-shaped dome, BP began pumping bargeloads of sludge into the well on Wednesday afternoon. Seven hours later, the company was able to drop the pressure at which it was pumping, a development considered positive by experts who said it meant the well contained a column of mud, rather than a plume of oil. "That means they had enough pressure to displace the oil from the well into the rock formation," said David Summers, a professor of mining engineering at Missouri University of Science & Technology. However, he said the job was not complete yet: "They haven't been able to totally balance the pressure. The column of mud in there should be stable enough to stand there by itself. But they're still having to apply a little bit of pressure to keep the column stable. That means they may not have got the mud all the way down the well yet." There is still a risk that the pipe leading into the well could rupture. If the effort fails, BP has mooted trying a "junk shot" to block the leak by firing golf balls, tyres and other debris into the ocean floor. Meanwhile, the company is drilling two "relief wells" to suck up oil in a controlled way, although these are unlikely to be ready until August. Scientists warned there was potential for even greater damage, with a forecast of an unusually hazardous hurricane season. The national weather service in its yearly forecast for the hurricane season starting on 1 June predicted between eight to 14 hurricanes across the Atlantic. Of those, three to seven could be major hurricanes, category three storms or higher. Hurricane Katrina was a category three. "If this outlook holds true, this season could be one of the more active on record," said Jane Lubchenco, the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the government agency that oversees the forecast. The pace of congressional investigations into the oil disaster also intensified with BP ordered to produce documents by June 3 into what was described as "questionable" decisions on well casing in the hours before the explosion. In a letter to BP, Henry Waxman, the head of the energy and commerce committee, said he was concerned by omissions in BP's 48-page briefing to Congress on the events leading up to the explosion. "This raises the possibility that BP's internal investigation is not examining the consequences of BP's own decisions and conduct," he said.Severe weather could accelerate the movement of the slick , which is threatening to stretch beyond Louisiana's coastline to the beaches of Florida and could spread as far as Cuba. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 27 May 2010 | 5:54 pm Traffic Light Stops CarsIBM has a patent on a traffic light system that would send wireless signals to idling cars, turning them off until the light turns green.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 May 2010 | 5:04 pm Florida Coast: Hot Spot for Shark AttacksShark attacks are incredibly high along a particular 47-mile long stretch of the Florida coast. Researchers found out why.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 May 2010 | 4:59 pm NOAA: Look Out for Big Hurricane SeasonOfficial predicitons for the upcoming hurricane season suggest we could be in for a doozy.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 May 2010 | 4:40 pm Ardi may be more ape than humanWoodland home and hominid ancestry of questioned.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/today/~4/f9uGytMrrow" height="1" width="1"/>Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 27 May 2010 | 4:00 pm Old Man Winter Sets Several Strange RecordsNorth American snow cover during April is the lowest on record.Source: Livescience.com | 27 May 2010 | 3:20 pm Gulf Power Plants Keep Close Watch on Oil SpillAs oil from the massive Deepwater Horizon slick in the Gulf of Mexico laps at Louisiana’s shores and tar balls wash up on beaches in the Florida Keys, saltwater-dependent power plants on the Gulf Coast prepare for the worst.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 May 2010 | 3:16 pm Why Do 3-D Movies Make Some People Hurl?3D or IMAX movies like "Avatar" and "Alice in Wonderland" look so real that they can trigger cybersickness.Source: Livescience.com | 27 May 2010 | 3:12 pm Congress, Obama Take Sudden Interest in Synthetic Biology
Congress explicitly took up the subject of synthetic biology for the first time Thursday during a hastily convened hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The Wired crowd has been talking about how to engineer biological machines for years, but Craig Venter’s announcement last week that he’s created a synthetic cell has drawn the attention of the very highest levels of government. The hearing came shortly after President Barack Obama ordered a six-month review of synthetic biology by a panel of scientific stars. The House committee members seemed primarily interested in the potential of synthetic biology to create micro-organisms that could effectively produce hydrocarbons that could be used to power the nation’s transportation system. “Synthetic biology also has the potential to reduce our dependence on oil and to address The committee heard testimony from an excellent panel of scientists composed of Venter himself, Berkeley’s Jay Keasling, Stanford’s Drew Endy, and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci.
Committee members did not seem overwhelmingly familiar with the state of the science, generally reading clunkily from prepared statements. The event did not have any of the sharp give-and-takes between representatives and panelists that they sometimes do. In fact, the hearing was technically an oversight task, but it played out closer to a gee-whiz commercial for the new firms that are trying to commercialize the technology. Venter, Keasling and Endy all have ties to companies trying to make money from synthetic biological techniques. Keasling made the smoothest transition from his scientific work, coming up with a way to produce the anti-malarial drug artemisinin in yeast, which could substantially reduce the cost of its distribution, to his sales pitch. “Fortuitously, artemisinin is a hydrocarbon, a fundamental building block for fuel. We are Only one witness, Gregory Kaebnick, a bioethicist at the Hastings Center, a nonprofit that studies the ethics of biotechnology, could be said to be an outside observer of the synthetic biology industry. “I was the only one on the panel who didn’t have a vested stake in it one way or the other. I think that’s probably a mistake,” Kaebnick told Wired.com. “The president’s panel will take it up, and they’ll probably bring in more perspectives.” Image: Venter’s blue synthetic cells See Also:
WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal’s Twitter, Tumblr, and forthcoming book on the history of green technology; Wired Science on Twitter and Facebook.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 27 May 2010 | 2:31 pm Key to psychological disorder may lie in the immune systemBone-marrow transplants cure obsessive-compulsive behaviour in mice.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 27 May 2010 | 2:19 pm West Poised for Worst Grasshopper Outbreak in 30 YearsThe Pacific Northwest preps for the largest grasshopper invasion in 30 years.Source: Livescience.com | 27 May 2010 | 2:04 pm Taser Agony Felt Firsthand in Air Force TrainingU.S. Air Force security trainees experience the pain of a taser device they may someday be called upon to used on someone else. The weapon induces torturous muscle contractions. "Don't Tase Me Bro'!"Source: Livescience.com | 27 May 2010 | 1:42 pm Fight! Fight! 'The Great Debate' Reborn as Supernova Spat?As two groups of astronomers debate the origin of a possible new type of supernova, Jennifer Ouellette looks back at 'The Great Debate' between Heber D Curtis and Harlow Shapley in 1920.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 May 2010 | 1:02 pm Gulf Oil Spill: Natural, International DisasterThe good news about the BP Deep Horizon oil well is that, as of last report, the latest "top kill" method to stem the flow of oil has worked. For the time being anyway, the leak has slowed or stopped. ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 May 2010 | 12:01 pm Bone marrow transplants cure mental illness – in micePreliminary research involving bone marrow transplants in mice suggests an immune approach to treating mental illness Scientists in the US claim to have used a bone marrow transplant to cure mental illness in a study that could have profound implications for patients with psychiatric problems. Bone marrow transplants are routinely used to treat leukaemia and other life-threatening diseases, but have never been used to treat mental health problems. The team, led by a Nobel prizewinning geneticist, found that experimental transplants in mice cured them of a disorder in which they groom themselves so excessively they develop bare patches of skin. The condition is similar to a disorder in which people pull their hair out, called trichotillomania. "A lot of people are going to find it amazing," said Mario Capecchi at the University of Utah, who won the Nobel prize for medicine in 2007 for his work on mouse genetics. "That's the surprise: bone marrow can correct a behavioural defect." The team said their work is the first to reveal a direct link between a psychiatric disorder and faulty immune cells, which grow in bone marrow before moving to the brain to protect nerve cells from damage. Capecchi said the condition the animals develop is comparable to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and could shed fresh light on the roots of the disorder. Other illnesses including depression, schizophrenia and autism might also be linked to problems with the immune system, he added. "The recognition that many neuropsychiatric diseases have a direct connection to the immune system emphasises that we should be taking immune deficiencies associated with neuropsychiatric disease much more seriously," Capecchi told the Guardian "We know a lot more about the immune system and how to treat immune deficiencies than we know about how our brain works and what the drugs used to treat neuropsychiatric disorders are doing," he added. The cost and health risks associated with bone marrow transplants are such that they would never be used to treat mental health problems in people, but the findings will inspire research into immune-based therapies for psychiatric disorders, according to scientists who were not involved with the work. Naomi Fineberg, a consultant psychiatrist at Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Welwyn Garden City, said the work was a major development. "This finding is clearly important in directing research in new directions for OCD and OCD-spectrum disorder treatments. Given the intransigence of OCD symptoms, and the fact that roughly one third of treated OCD patients fail to make a good recovery, new treatment directions in this field are sorely needed." In the study, Capecchi's team bred mice that carried a mutation in a gene called Hoxb8 that causes faulty immune cells to grow in the bone marrow. Mice that carry the defective gene groom themselves too often and for too long, leaving them with bare patches and skin wounds. Writing in the US journal Cell, the team describe how transplanting healthy bone marrow into the mice cured them of the grooming disorder. In later operations, the scientists induced the disorder in healthy mice by giving them bone marrow from affected mice. "We're showing there is a direct relationship between a psychiatric disorder and the immune system, specifically cells named microglia that are derived from bone marrow," Capecchi said. There are two kinds of microglial cells in the brain. Around 60% form in the brain in the earliest stages of human development, while the remaining 40% originate in bone marrow and then move to the brain. "This is immensely important and incredibly exciting. It's definitely something people will want to follow up," said Douglas Blackwood, professor of psychiatric genetics at Edinburgh University. "Current treatments for these kinds of conditions are not incredibly effective and there's a massive need for alternatives." Other researchers were more cautious about the work. Paul Salkovskis, clinical director of the Maudsley Hospital Centre for Anxiety Disorders and Trauma in London, said it was impossible to draw strong conclusions about the role of the immune system in human mental illnesses from the study. "Excessive grooming in mice is not a good model for obsessive-compulsive disorder in humans, a condition that can be treated effectively with cognitive behavioural therapy," he said. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 27 May 2010 | 10:22 am Presenting...The American Black BearNaturalist Mark Fraser presents a video that introduces us to the American black bear.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 May 2010 | 9:44 am 'Ardi' Questioned as Human AncestorSome scientists are raising doubts over whether the fossil skeleton named "Ardi" actually belongs to the human branch of evolution.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 May 2010 | 9:43 am Video: Designing Bridges to Be Drivable After Quakes
RICHMOND, California — Sure, earthquake engineers can now make bridges safe during even the biggest earthquakes, but they’re still rendered unusable in the key hours after a temblor. Now, they have a new goal: building bridges that cars can keep driving over in the immediate wake of a quake. And they unveiled a set of technologies Wednesday at the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center that may be able to make cities more resilient in the wake of a disaster. “Can we design bridges to not just be safe but remain open after an earthquake?” asked Stephen Mahin, the director of the center. Recent earthquakes in China and Haiti showed how vulnerable poorly designed buildings are, but in the rich countries around the quake-prone Pacific Rim like the United States and Japan, earthquake engineers have solutions to the basic architectural problem of keeping a building standing under extreme forces. Seismic isolators allow buildings to slide around a bit as a way to dissipate the energy of an earthquake. New ways of making and reinforcing concrete keep columns from cracking. Now, though, engineers want to keep buildings not only intact, but functional. In the video above, engineer Kenneth Ogorzalek, a graduate student in civil engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, built a test railroad bridge complete with tracks on a shake table. To simulate the weight of the real thing, he used every scrap of lead the engineering center could muster. Thehttp://blog-admin.wired.com/wiredscience/wp-admin/edit.phpn, the movements caused by several earthquakes like 1989’s Loma Prieta quake were re-enacted by a series of actuators located underneath the floor of the experiment area. You can see two systems at work in the video. First, there is a series of a new type of isolator called a “triple pendulum.” The isolator reduces the amount of force the bridge experiences by slowing down its acceleration. The triple pendulums are like nested bearings, so the bridge can respond appropriately to different-size quakes. The other innovation is a way of coupling the sections of the bridge together. The idea is to make sure that even if the segments of a bridge move a little after a quake, they still form a straight line that can be used. The Segmental Displacement Control Isolation System was tested for the very first time Wednesday. The new technology probably won’t be used for years, but Mahin said that his group was “doing research now to support what policymakers will want to do in 10 or 15 years.” See Also:
WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal’s Twitter, Tumblr, and forthcoming book on the history of green technology; Wired Science on Twitter and Facebook.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 27 May 2010 | 9:37 am
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