the-BA : Science News Digest

This week we look at allergy-free cats, robots getting touchy-feely. and the science of football...

Scientists in the US have created a device that mimics the human sense of touch, which could lead to advances in surgical procedures. The BBC reports on a University of Nebraska team who have dramticially improved the resolution compared with previous tactile sensors. To do this, they created a very thin film made up of layers of metal and semiconducting nanoparticles flanked at the top and bottom by electrodes. Any pressure or stress to the surface squeezes the layers of particles together. This causes the current in the film to change and light is emitted from the particles, an effect known as "electroluminescence".

A pioneering technique, where the donor heart is kept beating before transplantation, has been performed in the UK for the first time, according to the Guardian. Surgeons at Papworth hospital in Cambridge carried out the so-called beating heart transplant on May 22 and the patient - a 58-year-old man - should soon be well enough to go home. Vessels leading to the heart are plumbed in to a device called an organ care system and receive oxygenated and nutrient-rich blood, which is warmed to just below normal body temperature. This allows the heart to be kept for longer as currently, hearts for transplant are simply kept on ice while they are moved, but this means they have to reach the recipient within four to six hours.

A news story not to be sneezed at: An American company claims its scientists have bred the world’s first cats that cannot trigger human allergies and is now set to sell them in the UK for £7,500 each, reports The Sunday Times. Scientists at Allerca Lifestyle, based in San Diego, analysed the genes of British and American shorthair cats to identify those with proteins that did not provoke a reaction in humans. By breeding the cats over several generations they produced more than 20 allergy-free offspring.

Nature reports on the discovery of the tinyest of the sauropods, the family of dinosaurs which includes the Diplodocus. The new species, ropasaurus holgeri, measured barely more than 6 metres from snout to tail. Researchers led by Martin Sander of the University of Bonn unearthed the remains of at least 10 individual dinosaurs at a quarry near Hannover in northern Germany.

Could evolution be the key to the future design of nuclear reactors? According to New Scientist, engineers from the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee have found they can speed up the extremely complex process of designing a reactor and generate novel designs from scratch by simulating natural selection on supercomputers. The software tools used, known as genetic algorithms, first produce a population of reactor designs by randomising all the different design factors involved. Each design is then tested in a simulation for its "fitness", measuring its performance efficiency, running cost, safety and other parameters. The designs that perform best are singled out for survival.

And finally, as the world cup starts today it seems only fitting that we end with an excellent article from the BBC about the science of football and the swerving ball. Dr Ken Bray advises us to "Watch the slow motion replays for the tell-tale movement of the markings on the ball, the best indicator for revealing the kind of spin applied in the shot". Happy World Cup viewing everyone!

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