GLOBAL EYENEWS Dr Turin and colleagues first conducted the experiment on fruit flies in 2011 and came up with the same results
‘Vanishing’ weapons come to light
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is working on a project that aims to create electronics that simply dissolve into the environment. Currently, when the military uses certain weapons and equipment in operations, the devices are often left behind or are spread around, leaving sensitive components behind for the enemy to recover, repurpose for its own needs or to study. The Vanishing Programmable Resources programme (VAPR) aims to solve this problem by creating electronics that degrade partly when a certain trigger is activated, like a temperature threshold or a direct command from HQ. It has great potential in commercial electronics too, where discarded electronics can simply decompose harmlessly into their environment.
Wake up and smell the atoms A new report has lent weight to a controversial theory that says scents involve quantum physics According to a theory posited by Dr Luca Turin of the Fleming Biomedical Sciences Research Center in Athens, Greece, the cause of specific smells relies on quantum molecular vibrations. The notion, which was first suggested in 1996, contrasts with the currently accepted view that states it is only the shape of molecules that determines scents. Dr Turin’s theory, however, has just been given a boost, as a recent report in the scientific journal PLOS ONE has revealed that humans can distinguish between molecules of the same shape but with different vibrations. The tests – which were conducted double-blind (ie neither the experimenter nor the participants knew which sample was
Dissolving microchips like this could be part of many future electronic devices
which) – involved preparing two molecule samples of identical shape but with differing levels of vibration; the latter was achieved by replacing the molecule’s hydrogen atoms with heavier deuterium. The participants were then asked to identify which was ‘smellier’. Despite the results, many remain sceptical of the quantum smell theory, with Nobel prize-winning scientist Richard Axel noting: “Until somebody sits down and seriously addresses the mechanism and not inferences from the mechanism… it doesn’t seem a useful endeavour to use behavioural responses as an argument. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not writing off this theory, but I need data and it hasn’t been presented.”
else happened on this day in history?
1916
1925
Longest WWI New mag battle starts in town The Battle of Verdun in France begins during World War I.
The New Yorker publishes its first issue, launched by Harold Ross.
WWW.HOWITWORKSDAILY.COM
1965
1972
1995
Human rights activist Malcolm X (right) is killed in New York City.
The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 (right) lands on the Moon.
Adventurer Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo across the Pacific in a balloon.
Malcolm X assassinated
Luna lands
High flyer
How It Works | 009
© NASA; DARPA; Thinkstock; SPL; Nokia
Components that easily degrade could help keep military secrets
