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GLOBAL EYENEWS

‘Vanishing’ weapons come to light

Components that easily degrade could help keep military secrets

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.

Dissolving microchips like this could be part of many future electronic devices Dr Turin and colleagues fi rst conducted the experiment on fruit fl ies in 2011 and came up with the same results

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 specifi c smells relies on quantum molecular vibrations. The notion, which was fi rst 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 scientifi c 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 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.”

21 February: How It Works issue 44 goes on sale, but what else happened on this day in history? 1916

Longest WWI battle starts

The Battle of Verdun in France begins during World War I.

1925

New mag in town

The New Yorker publishes its fi rst issue, launched by Harold Ross.

1965

Malcolm X assassinated

Human rights activist Malcolm X (right) is killed in New York City.

1972

Luna lands

The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 (right) lands on the Moon.

1995

High fl yer

Adventurer Steve Fossett becomes the fi rst person to fl y solo across the Pacifi c in a balloon.