Category: News

Go behind the scenes and take a virtual tour of Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. The lab aims to research psychological experimentation in the virtual world, according to Associate Professor of Communication Jeremy Bailenson. “We integrate three virtual senses in a way that’s very psychologically persuasive — sight, sound and touch.

The state-of-the-art lab also offers a glimpse of the near future in household entertainment. “We’re using this cutting-edge lab to try to think ahead by a few years to predict what household technology is going to be like and how that’s going to affect people,” Bailenson said.

The VHIL VR Lab integrates technology that can stimulate three of the human senses at once —spatialized sound, virtual touch (haptics), and three-dimensional imagery. The lab features cutting edge equipment for tracking motion, rendering graphics, and displaying visual, aural, and haptic information. Kornberg Associates Architects have collaborated with Worldviz LLC, the world’s leading virtual reality creators, and Stanford University to renovate all aspects of the lab.

The lab includes a multisensory room that allows participants to explore a 20 by 20 foot space with spatialized sound, floor shakers, and a new head-mounted display (HMD). The HMD is tethered to a ceiling mount and allows an unrestricted range of motion in the multisensory room. In addition, the spatialized sound system makes sounds “move” around the lab space and allows users to hear natural and realistic aural information without relying on headphones. Surface motion is incorporated into experiments through the installation of floor shakers. Controlled vibrations give users the sensation of movement, which will increase the compelling nature of the virtual world. At one moment, a user may feel immersed in an earthquake simulation, while the next moment the sensations may simulate crossing a suspension bridge.

Read more and take a tour: http://vhil.stanford.edu/tour/

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Since July 1972, NASA’s Landsat satellites have gathered images over the entire land surface of the Earth, creating the most complete record ever assembled. These images, archived at USGS, reveal dynamic changes over time due to human activity (deforestation, urbanization) and natural processes (volcanic eruptions, wildfire). Now, Google Earth Engine allows scientists, researchers and the public to easily view and analyze this treasure trove of planetary data. http://earthengine.google.org.

The study paves the way for the next generation of portable water purification devices, which could provide relief to the 780 million people around the world who face every day without access to a clean water supply.

An international team of researchers – led by Associate Professor Hui Ying Yang from Singapore University of Technology and Design – showed that water purification membranes enhanced by plasma-treated carbon nanotubes are ideal for removing contaminants and brine from water.

The team included Dr Zhaojun Han and Professor Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov from CSIRO’s world-leading Plasma Nanoscience Laboratories.

According to Dr Han, these membranes could be integrated into portable water purification devices the size of a tea pot that would be rechargeable, inexpensive and more effective than many existing filtration methods. Contaminated water would go in one end, and clean drinkable water would come out the other.

“Small portable purification devices are increasingly recognised as the best way to meet the needs of clean water and sanitation in developing countries and in remote locations, minimising the risk of many serious diseases,” Dr Han says.

“The large industrialised purification plants we see in other parts of the world are just not practical – they consume a large amount of energy and have high labour costs, making them very expensive to run.”

Dr Han acknowledges that some smaller portable devices do already exist. However, because they rely on reverse osmosis and thermal processes, they are able to remove salt ions but are unable to filter out organic contaminants from the briny water found in some river and lake systems.

“For people in remote locations, briny water can sometimes be the only available water source,” he says. “That’s why it’s important to not only be able to remove salts from water, but to also be able to put it through a process of purification.”

“Our study showed that carbon nanotube membranes were able to filter out ions of vastly different sizes – meaning they were able to remove salt, along with other impurities,” he says.

According to Professor Ostrikov, the other downside of existing portable devices is that they require a continuous power supply to operate their thermal processes. “On the other hand, the new membranes could be operated as a rechargeable device.”

Professor Ostrikov attributes the success of the new membranes to the unique properties of plasma treated carbon nanotubes.

“Firstly, ultralong nanotubes have a very large surface area that is ideal for filtration. Secondly, nanotubes are easy to modify, which allows us to tailor their surface properties through localised nanoscale plasma treatment,” he says.

Now that the researchers have proven the effectiveness of the method, they plan to extend their research to investigate the filtration properties of other nanomaterials. They will begin by looking at graphene, which has similar properties to carbon nanotubes, but could be made considerably denser and stronger.

The study ‘Carbon nanotube membranes with ultrahigh specific capacity for water desalination and purification’ is a collaborative work between Singapore University of Technology and Design, CSIRO, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Sydney, and Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Yang HY, Han ZJ, Yu SF, Pey KL, Ostrikov K, Karnik R. 2013. Carbon nanotube membranes with ultrahigh specific adsorption capacity for water desalination and purification [external link]. Nature Communications. 2220. doi:10.1038/ncomms3220.

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Alarms which send you mobile alerts warning of smoke detected in your house and tele-health systems which help to measure home-based breathing exercises for patients suffering from chronic disease are just some of the potential applications available over next generation broadband networks, according to a new report released today by the Australian Centre for Broadband Innovation (ACBI).

Informed by range of expert industry perspectives on how future services will be offered in health, education, energy, business and media, the ‘App-trepreneur’s Guide to Broadband Connected Services’, outlines opportunities for the development of new broadband-enabled applications.

“We are on the dawn of a new ‘App Age’, where next generation broadband networks will allow us to better manage our home energy use, support the elderly living independently at home as well as providing us with more personalised entertainment content by connecting people in their homes with services enabled by sensors and cloud computing,” said Colin Griffith, Director of ACBI.

“With predictions that by 2020 the average person will own six smart devices connecting us to over 37 billion ‘things’, from cows in the field, to our car, to our washing machine, it’s clear that a better broadband infrastructure will revolutionise the way we access services in the home.”

In April this year, ACBI in conjunction with its industry partners Intel, iiNet, Foxtel, Pottinger, NSW Trade and Investment, NBN Co, CSIRO and NICTA announced the Apps4Broadband competition for developers to create new ideas for applications which run over next generation broadband networks. The ‘App-trepreneur’s Guide to Broadband Connected Services’ report also highlights case studies of winners from the competition as examples of these future services.

“The Apps4Broadband competition was designed to help Australians better understand what is possible through the smart use of broadband as well as accelerate the ability of Australian developers to realise new business opportunities by connecting with service providers, technology partners and end users to build game-changing apps,” said Mr Griffith.

“We’ve had a great response from developers who have come up with some really interesting and new ways for people to access health, energy, education, retail, security, entertainment and many more services. The diversity of these ideas not only demonstrates the tangible benefits of broadband to the public but also suggests that we have only scratched the surface in identifying future business models and services which leverage our national broadband infrastructure. The ‘app-ortunity’ for innovation really is endless from here,” he said.

The winners of the Apps4Broadband competition include:

• TutorBee: A platform that allows tutors to give interactive lessons to students in their homes.
  • Winner of Best App sponsored by NSW Trade and Investment,
  • Winner Best Business-to-Business App sponsored by Pottinger and
  • Joint Winner of Best Health, Education and Social Services App sponsored by Intel.
• Pepster: A home based breathing exercise app and device for Cystic Fibrosis patients.
  • Joint winner of Best Health, Education and Social Services App sponsored by Intel.
• Pass the Popcorn: a second screen app for synchronising watching on-demand television and chatting with friends.
  • Winner of Best Media and Entertainment App sponsored by Foxtel.
• The Bop Smoke Alarm: A smoke detector and app for managing alerts, false alarms and the need to replace batteries.
  • Joint winner of Best Smart Appliances, Security and Energy App sponsored by iiNet.
• Senograph: A sensor management platform and prototype sensor for home air quality and detection of carbon monoxide.
  • Joint winner of best smart appliances, security and energy app sponsored by iiNet.

For more information on the future trends in broadband applications and for a full list of winners from the Apps4Broadband competition, download ACBI’s ‘App-trepreneur’s Guide to Broadband Connected Services’ by visiting http://www.csiro.au/acbi-book/

Source: http://www.csiro.au/Portals/Media/Australias-big-broadband-app-ortunity.aspx

Sundays. They were meant for science. Without any further ado…

For all those who have always thought about doing what we here at Australian Science do — science blogging — here are some word-shaped pearls of wisdom.

Should you write a science blog?

“I used to think there should really be more scientists blogging. That’s because for me science journalism not so much a source of information but a source of news. It tells me where the action is and points into a direction. If it seems interesting I’ll go and look up the references, but if it’s not a field close to my own I prefer if somebody who actually works on the topic offers an opinion. And I don’t mean a cropped sentence with a carefully chosen adjective and politically correct grammar. In some research areas, quantum gravity one of them, there really aren’t many researchers offering first-hand opinions. Shame on you.

One of the world’s most successful astronomy observatories, CSIRO’s Australia Telescope Compact Array near Narrabri, NSW, turns 25 years of age on 2 September.

The Universe is a huge natural laboratory and astronomers study it to observe nature at its most extreme.

“Every possible experiment is being played out somewhere in the Universe,” said Dr Jamie Stevens, CSIRO’s Senior Systems Scientist for the Compact Array.

The Compact Array has given us the first 3D picture of the radiation belts around Jupiter … the first good evidence linking exploding stars with flashes of gamma rays … and the first image showing how gas churns in interstellar space.

The telescope is so sensitive that it would see a mobile phone on the Moon as a very strong radio source. It can be pointed with an accuracy of better than two arcseconds — about the width of a finger seen one kilometre away.

The Compact Array is to astronomy what the Australian swimming team is to sport: a world-class achiever for many years. It is among the top three telescopes of its kind by both publication numbers and citations. After the race, it would be standing on the podium!

About 500 scientists from around the world use the telescope each year.

The telescope has become better and better over time, as upgrades have made it more sensitive to faint radio signals and allowed it to capture more of the radio spectrum.

In 2012 Compact Array data led to 76 refereed science papers — more than in any previous year of the telescope’s history.

“I never tire of observing with the Compact Array,” Dr Stevens said.

“It’s a factory for discovery.”

The telescope was funded as a project for Australia’s Bicentennial in 1988, and was opened by the then Prime Minister, Bob Hawke. It boosted Australia’s international standing in radio astronomy, enabling CSIRO to develop the Australian SKA Pathfinder in Western Australia and Australia to win the right to co-host the international Square Kilometre Array telescope.

CSIRO will celebrate the anniversary with a public Open Day at the telescope site on 1 September, then a formal ceremony and a scientific meeting.

Source.

The Compact Array is a set of six dishes that work together as one much larger radio telescope. It lies between the towns of Narrabri and Wee Waa in northwest NSW, about 500 km from Sydney, at CSIRO’s Paul Wild Observatory.

Black holes, exploding stars, magnetic fields in space, galaxies at the edge of the observable Universe … the Compact Array studies them all.

Coffee is one of the world’s favourite drinks, one of the most important commercial crop-plants, and the second most valuable international commodity; Arabica coffee is considered to produce the finest coffee beans. Production of coffee helps support the livelihood of 25 million farming families around the world and it is estimated that around 32 pairs of hands are involved in bringing coffee from the plantation to the cup.

A study conducted by scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in collaboration with scientists in Ethiopia, reports that climate change alone could lead to the extinction of wild Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica) well before the end of this century. Wild Arabica is considered important for the sustainability of the coffee industry due to its considerable genetic diversity.

The Arabicas grown in the world’s coffee plantations are from very limited genetic stock and are unlikely to have the flexibility required to cope with climate change and other threats, such as pests and diseases. In Ethiopia, the largest producer of coffee in Africa, climate change will also have a negative influence on coffee production. The climate sensitivity of Arabica is confirmed, supporting the widely reported assumption that climate change will have a damaging impact on commercial coffee production worldwide. These are worrying prospects for the world’s favourite beverage – the second most traded commodity after oil, and one crucial to the economies of several countries.

This film was produced as part of Kew Gardens’ IncrEdibles festival; a celebration of fascinating edible plants which runs until September 1st, 2013.

Find out more at: http://www.kew.org/incredibles

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CSIRO scientists have written software that could guide spacecraft to Alpha Centauri, show that the planet Nibiru doesn’t exist … and prove that the Earth goes around the Sun.

Dr George Hobbs (CSIRO) and his colleagues study pulsars — small spinning stars that deliver regular ‘blips’ or ‘pulses’ of radio waves and, sometimes, X-rays.

Usually the astronomers are interested in measuring, very precisely, when the pulsar pulses arrive in the solar system. Slight deviations from the expected arrival times can give clues about the behaviour of a pulsar itself, or whether it is orbiting another star, for instance.

“But we can also work backwards,” said Dr Hobbs. “We can use information from pulsars to very precisely determine the position of our telescopes.”

“If the telescopes were on board a spacecraft, then we could get the position of the spacecraft.”

Observations of at least four pulsars, every seven days, would be required. “Each pulsar would have to be observed for about an hour,” Dr Hobbs said. “Whether you can do them all at the same time or have to do them one after the other depends on where they are and exactly what kind of detector you use.”

A paper describing in detail how the system would work has been accepted for publication by the journal Advances in Space Research.

Spacecraft within the solar system are usually tracked and guided from the ground: this is the role of CSIRO’s Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, for instance. But the further out the craft go, the less accurately we can measure their locations.

For voyages beyond the solar system, spacecraft would need an on-board (‘autonomous’) system for navigation. Gyroscopes and accelerometers are useful tools, but the position information they give becomes less accurate over time.

“Navigating with pulsars avoids these problems,” said Deng Xinping, PhD student at the National Space Science Center in Beijing, who is first author on the paper describing the system.

Scientists proposed pulsar navigation as early as 1974. Putting it into practice has recently come closer, with the development of fairly small, lightweight X-ray detectors that could receive the X-ray pulses that certain pulsars emit. NASA is exploring the technique.

“For deep-space navigation, we would use pulsars that had been observed for many years with radio telescopes such as Parkes, so that the timing of their pulses is very well measured,” said CSIRO’s Dr Dick Manchester, a member of the research team. “Then on board the spacecraft you’d use an X-ray telescope, which is much smaller and lighter.”

Dr Hobbs and his colleagues have made a very detailed simulation of a spacecraft navigating autonomously to Mars using this combination of technologies and their TEMPO2 software.

“The spacecraft can determine its position to within about 20 km, and its velocity to within 10 cm per second,” said Dr Hobbs. “To our knowledge, this is the best accuracy anyone has ever been able to demonstrate.”

“Unlike previous work, we’ve taken into account that real pulsars are not quite perfect, they have timing glitches and so on. We’ve allowed for that.”

The same pulsar software can be used to work out the masses of objects in the solar system.

In 2010 Dr Hobbs and his colleagues used an earlier version of the software to ‘weigh’ the planets out as far as Saturn — to six decimal places.

The Earth is travelling around the Sun, and this movement affects exactly when pulsar signals arrive here. To remove this effect, astronomers calculate when the pulses would have arrived at the Solar System’s centre of mass, around which all the planets orbit.

“If the pulsar signals appear to be coming in at the wrong time, we know that the masses of the planets that we are using in the equations must be wrong, and we can correct for this,” Dr Hobbs explained.

The new version of the software lets the astronomers rule out unseen masses, including any supposedly undiscovered planets, such as the notorious Nibiru.

“Even if a planet is hard to see, there’s no way to disguise its gravitational pull,” Dr Hobbs said. “If we don’t detect the gravitational pull, then there’s no planet there. Full stop.”

And what about showing that the Earth goes around the Sun? Yes, they can do that too.

“This was nailed a couple of hundred years ago,” said Dr Hobbs. “But if you still need proof, we’ve got it.”

Publication

Deng XP, Hobbs G, You XP, Li MT, Keith MJ, Shannon RM, Coles W, Manchester RN, Zheng JH, Yu XZ, Gao D, Wu X, Chen D. 2013. Interplanetary spacecraft navigation using pulsars [external link]. Advances in Space Research. arXiv:1307.5375.

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