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APRIL 19, 2004
Edited by Neil Gross A Search Engine For Doohickeys Engineering databases have grown so bloated that designers and engineers could use a more efficient way of tracking down specific part designs. Soon they'll get new software that functions like a graphics-based version of Google. The shape-searching system was developed at Purdue University by mechanical engineer Karthik Ramani's team. It works by converting existing computer models of industrial parts into connect-the-dot-style drawings. Then the three-dimensional dot patterns are translated into computer code that Ramani's system can swiftly analyze. Once the parts in a database are converted, an engineer can draw a freehand sketch and the search engine will find and display similar parts. Makers of office products, cars, and airplanes have databases holding millions of parts. Many were needlessly created from scratch because a similar design already on file couldn't be found. Ramani predicts his baby will eliminate most such wasted effort -- and encourage greater design reuse. The software has been licensed to start-up Imaginestics in Purdue's Research Park. By Otis Port Building A Better Germ Killer Since the mid-1980s, researchers have been trying to find medical applications for magainin, a compound secreted in the skin of African clawed frogs that has strong antibacterial properties. Some experimental drugs based on this complex molecule have had drawbacks: They were expensive to synthesize and hard to customize for specific ailments. Chemist Robert Doerksen and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania say they have found a way around these problems. Using supercomputers to predict the effects of improving on nature's work, they simplified the molecule, added groups of amino acids to reduce toxicity, and tested the results on living cells. In addition to drugs, Doerksen says the improved compounds could lead to germ-proof coatings for kitchens and bathrooms. The university has licensed its patents to Bryn Mawr (Pa.)-based PolyMedix.   Second-Hand Smoke: A Quick Study When Helena, Mont., imposed a ban on public and workplace smoking in June, 2002, and then overturned it six months later, the city created the conditions for a remarkable study. During the brief ban, two doctors suspected that the number of heart attacks they treated had dropped. They teamed up with Stanton Glantz, a cardiologist at the University of California at San Francisco, to collect data. The results, published online in the British Medical Journal on Apr. 5, are striking. Heart attack admissions dropped 40% when the ban was in place -- from 40 per six months to 24 -- and bounced up when smoking resumed. The shifts make sense, Glantz says. Researchers know that second-hand smoke causes heart rates to rise, blood vessels to dilate less easily, and blood components to be stickier -- all raising the risk of heart attacks. "This is a very powerful finding," says Glantz. "It shows you get big immediate impacts on a major health endpoint, heart attacks." By John Carey Palmprints And Looming Extinction -- Each day, U.S. law-enforcement agencies check thousands of fingerprints recovered from crime scenes against prints stored in electronic databases. As many as one-third may eventually be matched with prints on file. But that "hit rate" is bound to improve as police departments integrate palmprint searches. About 30% to 40% of prints at crime scenes come from the palm, according to NEC Solutions (America) (NIPNY ), which claims upwards of 60% market share for automated fingerprint ID systems in the U.S. Demand for palmprint integration is booming, says NEC. The latest convert: California's Justice Dept., whose database of 14 million fingerprints is the largest of any state. -- Nature reports that 300 critically endangered species of birds, mammals, turtles, and amphibians are entirely unprotected throughout their ranges. Barring a major conservation initiative, many will become extinct in coming decades, according to the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science, which led the study bringing together 21 scientists at 15 organizations. The list of the world's rarest animals includes species of fruit bats on the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean, colorful frog species on Madagascar, and yellow-eared parrots in the Colombian Andes.
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