Tech

UPTON, NY - Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory have fabricated transparent thin films capable of absorbing light and generating electric charge over a relatively large area. The material, described in the journal Chemistry of Materials, could be used to develop transparent solar panels or even windows that absorb solar energy to generate electricity.

Scientists are reporting the development of a simple, built-in timer intended to improve the accuracy of paper tests and test strips for diagnosing diseases inexpensively at-home and elsewhere. Their study appears in ACS' semi-monthly journal Analytical Chemistry.

NASA infrared satellite data from this morning revealed that Tropical Storm Tomas has weakened into a tropical depression.

Tomas is in the central Caribbean Sea headed for Haiti this weekend, and forecasters are calling for a re-intensification before it makes landfall.

A major CSIRO breakthrough in wireless technology designed to bring broadband to people living beyond the optical fibre network, has been unveiled in Sydney.

The first half of CSIRO's Ngara technolgy will enable multiple users to upload information at the same time, without reducing their individual systems' data transfer rate of 12 Mbps.

Researchers from the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center observed a statistically significant increase in mean height, weight, and body mass index (BMI) percentiles in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) who were treated with etanercept or etanercept plus methotrexate (MTX). JIA patients treated with MTX alone did not display an increase in growth percentiles. Results of the 3-year study are available online and in the November issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology.

David Henry discusses a recent research article in PLoS Medicine that suggests that relationships between doctors and drug companies are still too close.

The research, by Geoffrey Spurling and colleagues, examined the relationship between exposure to promotional material from pharmaceutical companies and the quality, quantity, and cost of prescribing.

David Henry's offers his Perspective in this week's PLoS Medicine.

SANTA MONICA, CA—Humans have walked on the Moon, and inevitably, according to NASA, humans will tread the Red Planet as well, possibly by 2037. An ergonomist and an industrial designer pondered the challenges of the Martian environment and developed an award-winning concept rover that could someday transport and house astronauts on the surface of Mars. The rover is described in an article to be published in Ergonomics in Design: The Quarterly of Human Factors Applications.

In adults with seasonal influenza A virus infection, the combination of the drugs oseltamivir (tamiflu) and zanamivir (relenza) is less effective than oseltamivir monotherapy and not significantly more effective than zanamivir monotherapy. This key finding comes from a randomized, placebo-controlled trial— in adults presenting with influenza symptoms at general practices throughout France during the seasonal influenza epidemic in 2008-2009— carried out by Catherine Leport from the University of Paris, France, and colleagues, and reported in this week's PLoS Medicine.

In an article published in November 3 edition of Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Chad Boult, MD, MPH, MBA, professor of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, calls for key improvements to primary care in order to improve the health of the nation's most costly patients—older adults with multiple chronic conditions. Boult and his co-author, G.

London, UK (November 1, 2010) – In April 2010, the US government adopted a new nuclear strategy that depends on the conclusion that the current missile defense systems will reliably protect the continental United States in the extreme circumstances of nuclear-armed combat. Now research in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, published by SAGE, shows that these defenses have not been tested against real-world threats and would not be effective in real combat conditions.

A new breakthrough by scientists at the University of Sheffield has shed light on how the Earth's first plants began to colonise the land over 470 million years ago by forming a partnership with soil fungi.

The research, which was published today (2 November 2010) in Nature Communications, has provided essential missing evidence showing that an ancient plant group worked together with soil-dwelling fungi to 'green' the Earth in the early Palaeozoic era, nearly half a billion years ago.

A new report from the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) in Berkeley projects that development of cost-competitive algae biofuel production will require much more long-term research, development and demonstration. In the meantime, several non-fuel applications of algae could serve to advance the nascent industry.

Faster and more widely available internet access has improved our lives in many ways but healthcare is lagging behind, according to researchers writing in the International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics.

The GOES-13 satellite keeps a continuous eye on the eastern half of the U.S. and Atlantic Ocean basin, and has provided meteorologists with an infrared look at a strengthening Tropical Storm Tomas this morning.