Developments to Watch
Edited by Neil Gross
Highway Cameras That Can Direct Traffic
Heavy traffic is more than just an annoyance for harried commuters. The wasted fuel, lost work hours, and other effects of congested roads cost the 65 largest U.S. cities $74 billion a year. California alone loses an annual $20 billion to traffic tangles. So scientists from the University of California at San Diego are developing clusters of networked smart cameras to improve transportation authorities' response to tie-ups and other changing road conditions. If traffic builds up in one spot, for example, the cameras might automatically trigger electronic signs warning commuters heading into the snarl--but still miles away--to take an alternative route.
Unlike the stand-alone cameras used today, the cameras in the experimental UCSD system share information over high-speed links. "They're smarter and faster at interpreting information," says Mohan Trivedi, director of the UCSD Computer Vision & Robotics Research Laboratory. In theory, if a roadside camera detected an accident, it could send a wireless signal to a robotic camera in the median strip, which would move toward the accident and zoom in to take close-up shots. That could help authorities provide more detailed information about the crash to police and ambulances--and allow doctors to observe victims and provide medical advice to ambulance workers as they're driving to the scene.
By Arlene Weintraub
Putting a Gloss on the Right Stuff
Serendipity is alive and well at the Xerox research center in Webster, N.Y. Shen-ge Wang, a principal scientist, and his colleagues were trying to solve the problem of "differential gloss," which is responsible for the unwanted plastic-like sheen on high-quality prints and photocopies. "We were trying unsuccessfully to use half-tone designs to suppress the effect," recalls Wang.
Failing that, they decided to make use of it. The result is a new and inexpensive security technology called GlossMarks, which could someday be applied to protect tickets, personal checks, and other documents from counterfeiters. Using a combination of paper, toner, and special software, Xerox printers can embed any desired image--a picture, fingerprint, or signature, say--onto a glossy paper surface. Tilt the paper, and the embedded image shimmers into view.
Multiple Sclerosis: A New Line of Attack
Drugs called statins, which lower cholesterol, have already been shown to help stave off heart disease, strokes, and organ rejection after heart transplants. Now, there may be another use for these versatile medicines: treating multiple sclerosis.
In a study reported in the Nov. 7 issue of Nature, scientists gave one statin, Lipitor, to mice specially treated to mimic the human form of the debilitating disease. Without the drug, the mice suffered from temporary but recurring paralysis, much the way MS patients do. With the drug, however, the symptoms disappeared. "We were surprised by the magnitude of the effect," says Dr. Scott S. Zamvil, assistant professor of neurology at the University of California at San Francisco. "We basically shut down the disease."
Zamvil and his team were also able to show why the drug works. Multiple sclerosis occurs when the immune system attacks the coating around the body's nerve fibers. In the mice, Lipitor tames this attack by inhibiting the production of inflammation-causing chemicals--and by boosting levels of anti-inflammatory chemicals. Zamvil suggests that the enzyme targeted by the drug to lower cholesterol may also be involved in a different biological pathway--one that controls immune responses.
The next step: carrying out a clinical trial to see whether the statins will work as well in MS patients as they do in the mice. "We don't know yet whether this is going to be an effective treatment, but it is very provocative," says Zamvil. The results also imply that statins could help treat rheumatoid arthritis and other auto-immune diseases.
By John Carey
Innovations
-- IBM (IBM
) has unveiled the world's swiftest silicon-based transistor, a speedster that switches on and off 350 billion times a second, or 65% faster than the previous record. The design is a bipolar transistor of the type used in systems that process analog signals such as music and voices, and is sculpted from silicon germanium.
-- More bad news on nitrogen pollution from agricultural fertilizers. Researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder believe excessive nitrogen may trigger the release of carbon trapped in the ground. Soil contains enormous quantities of carbon and naturally disgorges 20 times as much of it each year as all of industry combined, says a study in the Oct. 31 issue of Nature. So even a small increase in soil discharge could vastly boost CO2 levels.
-- The Office of Naval Research is devising a computer model to provide more accurate storm predictions. Data are coming from a new tower off the coast of Martha's Vineyard that measures temperatures, wind velocity, the speed and direction of water currents, wave height, and so forth. Next summer, more data will be collected from buoys, research ships, and planes monitoring the Atlantic's usual storm paths. The result could be the most elaborate map yet of weather patterns at sea.
By Otis Port
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Copyright 2002, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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