The lotus – a flowering wetland plant native to Asia – may not at first glance be of interest to the nanotechnologist. But researchers at German chemical company BASF are developing a spray-on coating that mimics the way lotus leaves repel water droplets and particles of dirt. The story is reported on nanotechweb.org, the Institute of Physics’ global portal for nanotechnology.

The leaves of Lotus plants are coated with minute wax crystals around 1 nm in diameter which repel water, droplets f

Das in Lissabon gesetzte Ziel rückt in immer weitere Ferne

Europa muss größere Anstrengungen im Hinblick auf eine echte “wissensgestützte Wirtschaft” unternehmen, wie vom Europäischen Rat in Lissabon (März 2000) gefordert wurde. Dies lässt sich dem letzten Bericht der Europäischen Kommission mit wichtigen Zahlen zu den Bereichen Wissenschaft, Technologie und Innovation (2002) entnehmen. Gemäß dem von der Kommission entwickelten Gesamtindikator für Investitionen in die wissensgestützte

An international team of scientists has discovered a novel genetic trait that protects its carriers against the deadliest forms of malaria, while people without the trait are more likely to succumb to its fatal consequences.

This trait — a mutation or “polymorphism” in the NOS2 gene — controls the production of nitric oxide, a small chemical that can kill parasites and prevent malaria disease. Results of their study are published in the Nov. 9, 2002, issue of The Lancet.

The gen

Loss and deterioraton of indigenous habitat increasingly affect natural populations worldwide. As a result of these processes, new selection pressures are imposed upon organisms, increasing local extinction rates. Simultaneously, reduced movement among remnant patches lowers colonisation rates and affects demographic and genetic population parameters. Yet, organisms with comparable life histories often respond to habitat disturbance in various ways. Why so is a matter of great importance to evolution

Emergency management teams, faced with an approaching hurricane, can access GIS map data through voice and gestures for real-time decision making on issues ranging from protecting hazardous materials sites to evacuating assisted-living facilities by using a computer system developed by Penn State researchers.

The research team says the system also can assist planners and transportation engineers visualize the impacts of potential developments and highways as well as help crisis management pe

Seeing is believing, unless you’re blind or visually impaired. To this group, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) says, “feeling is believing.”
Computer scientists and engineers at NIST have created a tactile graphic display that brings electronic images to the blind and visually impaired in the same way that Braille makes words readable.

The new imaging device was developed at NIST by the same research team that recently created an electronic Braille reader.