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OCTOBER 9, 2006
Edited by Catherine Arnst GREENHOUSE GASES A Cleaner Way To Make Steel For industries such as steel, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are more than just an environmental worry. With ever more countries taxing carbon output, cutting emissions can also be a way to fatten the bottom line. Now Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists have come up with a way to process iron--a key part of steel--that eliminates direct emissions of GHGs. The recipe uses about as much energy as today's process, says Donald Sadoway, professor of materials chemistry. The advantage comes from a smelting trick borrowed from aluminum: passing electric current through a liquid mix of iron oxide, rather than heating it thermally to trigger a carbon-intensive chemical reaction. Sadoway's "molten oxide electrolysis" process gives off mostly oxygen, rather than plumes of CO2. His next goal: scale up the process from lab to factory floor. By Adam Aston DIABETES The Vexing Success Of Avandia Some 18 million Americans have Type 2 diabetes, and 41 million more are at high risk of developing the disease. A newly published study finds that the "at risk" group can cut the odds of developing diabetes by 60% if they take Avandia, a pill used to treat the disease. The results create a conundrum for doctors, however: Diet and exercise can lower the risk by the same amount, without the potential side effects of a daily pill. "But lifestyle changes have limited usefulness because so few people are willing to make them," says Dr. Jill Crandall, head of the diabetes prevention program at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. Avandia is made by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK ), which also sponsored the research. For three years the study followed 5,269 patients in 21 countries with impaired glucose tolerance, half of whom were given Avandia. Reporting in The Lancet, the researchers projected that 144 cases of diabetes could be prevented for every 1,000 pre-diabetics treated with the medicine. The patients on Avandia did have a slightly higher rate of congestive heart failure, which specialists said could limit its effectiveness. At about $170 a month, the drug could also be costlier than lifestyle changes. But as Crandall notes, insurance companies are more likely to pay for the drug than to cover the costs of a dietician or fitness trainer.   ALTERNATIVE ENERGY Now, That's A Power Plant The fern sporangium holds the key to a novel power source--evaporation. The idea comes from engineering PhD candidate Ruba Borno at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who was inspired by a description she found in a book on plants. When the cells in the outer walls of a fern's tendrils are waterlogged, water tension keeps them closed like a fist, storing the fern's spores inside. Tension is released as the tendrils dry out, and they unfurl, ejecting the spores into the air. Borno and Assistant Professor Michel Maharbiz designed a silicone device shaped like a tiny fern, with ribs fanning out from a curved spine. They filled spaces between the ribs with water, applied heat, and the device straightened out. Next the team will try to generate electricity with this trick. INNOVATIONS Of Einstein's Accuracy And Carbon Monoxide Cures -- Einstein was right. Some 90 years after the genius published his theory of general relativity, an international research team has proven he was at least 99.5% correct. It came up with the proof by measuring radio waves tossed off by a pair of massive stars rotating around each other. Albert Einstein posited that space and time are connected, and massive objects can warp both of them. The researchers figured that should mean that radio pulses from one of the stars would slow down when they got close to the other. Three years of observations proved this to be the case. -- Carbon monoxide may not be all bad. The gas, which can be deadly in high concentrations and is emitted from auto tailpipes, could be effective in treating pulmonary arterial hypertension. This debilitating disease occurs when blood vessel walls thicken because of uncontrolled cell growth. Researchers in Boston and Pittsburgh reported in The Journal of Experimental Medicine that they exposed mice with the disease to a short, daily regimen of carbon monoxide. The gas killed off the excess cells but not the normal ones and reversed the course of the illness in the animals.
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