Anti-retrovirals could halt Aids spread in five years

South Africa has the world's highest incidence of HIV/Aids

Anti-retroviral treatments (ARVs) and universal testing could stop the spread of Aids in South Africa within five years, a top scientist says.

Dr Brian Williams says the cost of giving the drugs to almost six million HIV-positive patients in the country would be $2-3bn per year.

Only about 30% get the life-saving drugs, he said, but early detection and treatment would prevent transmission.

This, he said, should be complementary to the search for an Aids vaccine.

An effective vaccine, he said, was still a long way away.

Dr Williams, a leading figure in the field of HIV research, is based at the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (Sacema) in Stellenbosch.

Success story

Speaking at at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Diego, he said 30 million people around the world were infected with HIV - with two million dying each year.

We could break the back of the epidemic Dr Brian Williams, Sacema

"The tragedy is that the disease continues unabated. The only real success story is the development of these extremely effective drugs that keep people alive and reduce their viral load by up to 2,000 times. They become close to non-infectious.

"While the rapid scale-up in the provision of ART in the last five years has exceeded expectations, it has not reduced HIV-transmission and Aids-related TB because it has been given too late in the course of infection."

Dr Williams argued that by the time people started ART, they had infected "most of those that they would have infected anyway".

"We've been using drugs to save lives, but not stop the infection," he said.

"It's time to look beyond that."

He said that if clinical trials started now, all of the HIV positive people in South Africa could be on ARV treatment within five years.

Dr Williams said a few clinical trials were already beginning in the US, Canada and sub-Saharan Africa - and he hoped to have the answer "in one or two years".

Kenneth Mayer, professor of medicine at Brown University in the US state of Rhone Island, agreed that treating patients early with ARVs was a matter of "public health".

The US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is planning a trial in New York and Washington - in districts that have an HIV positive population at a similar level to African epidemics.

"We need to get answers [from these trials] quickly. That will help us move forward," Dr Williams said.

"We could break the back of the epidemic. If we can do it, I'm confident it will work."

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Scientists raise fresh hopes for fridge-free vaccines

By Jane Dreaper Health correspondent, BBC News

Vaccines must be kept refrigerated at the moment

Scientists at Oxford University have found a way of keeping vaccines stable without refrigeration.

Writing in Science Translational Medicine, they say the breakthrough could significantly help efforts to immunise more children in rural Africa.

The researchers mixed the vaccines with two types of sugar before slowly drying them on a filter paper.

This preserved the jabs, which were then easily reactivated when needed for injection.

The need to keep vaccines cool - to stop them deteriorating - is often difficult in developing countries where fridges, clinics and an electricity supply cannot be taken for granted.

Without the need for refrigeration, you could even picture someone with a backpack taking vaccine doses on a bike into remote villages Dr Matt Cottingham Researcher

Writing in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the scientists describe how they managed to keep vaccines stable for up to six months at 45C.

They used sucrose and another sugar called trehalose, which is known for its preservative properties.

'Simple and cheap'

The research was funded by the foundation set up by Bill and Melinda Gates. It involved a collaboration between the university scientists and a company, Nova Bio-Pharma Technologies.

The lead investigator, Professor Adrian Hill, said: "If we could convert all the standard vaccines to a solution like this, it would mean they're cheaper to deliver, because they'd survive at room temperature - and so there'd be scope to vaccinate more children.

"The technology is simple and extremely cheap - and there are no more scientific hurdles to overcome.

"Our tests were pretty tough as we used live viruses. So we feel that having stabilised those more fragile vaccines, this method should work for other vaccines containing dead protein.

"It's now just a matter of developing the technique, trying it out in Africa and seeing if it can be made on an industrial basis. This could happen within five years."

Another member of the research team, Dr Matt Cottingham, said: "Without the need for refrigeration, you could even picture someone with a backpack taking vaccine doses on a bike into remote villages."

The GAVI Alliance, a public-private partnership working to accelerate immunisation in 72 of the world's poorest countries, welcomed the news.

"Keeping vaccines at the correct temperature all the way from the factory to children in the poorest and most remote communities is always an enormous challenge so new ideas to remove barriers to the life-saving benefits of immunisation are extremely welcome," said the alliance's communication director, Dan Thomas.

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PleaseRobMe website reveals dangers of social networks

By Zoe Kleinman Technology reporter, BBC News

Boy Van Amstel created pleaserobme.com to make a point.

A website called PleaseRobMe claims to reveal the location of empty homes based on what people post online.

The Dutch developers told BBC News the site was designed to prove a point about the dangers of sharing precise location information on the internet.

The site scrutinises players of online game Foursquare, which is based on a person's location in the real world.

PleaseRobMe extracts information from players who have chosen to post their whereabouts automatically onto Twitter.

"It started with me and a friend looking at our Twitter feeds and seeing more and more Foursquare posts," said Boy Van Amstel, one of PleaseRobMe's developers.

"People were checking in at their house, or their girlfriend's or friend's house, and sharing the address - I don't think they were aware of how much they were sharing."

Mr Van Amstel, Frank Groeneveld and Barry Borsboom realised that not only were people sharing detailed location information about themselves and their friends, they were also by default broadcasting when they were away from their own home.

Simple search

The website took just four hours to create.

"It's basically a Twitter search - nothing new," said Mr Van Amstel. "Anyone who can do HTML and javascript can do this. You could almost laugh at how easy it is."

He said that the site would remain live but stressed it was not created to encourage crime.

"The website is not a tool for burglary," he said. "The point we're getting at is that not long ago it was questionable to share your full name on the internet. We've gone past that point by 1000 miles."

Mr Van Amstel added that in practice it would be "very difficult" to use the information on the website to carry out a burglary.

Charity Crimestoppers advises people to think carefully about the information they choose to share on the internet.

"We urge users of Twitter, Facebook or other social networks to stop and think before posting personal details online that could leave them vulnerable to crimes including burglary and identity theft," said a spokesperson.

"Details posted online are available for the world to see; you wouldn't hang a sign on your door saying you're out, so why would you post it online?"

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IT IS 'BROKEN,' BUT WHO BROKE IT?

IT IS 'BROKEN,' BUT WHO BROKE IT?.... Again, this is the right sentiment, but it's incomplete.

Vice President Joe Biden doesn't seem to miss his days as a senator.

In an interview with CBS "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith, Biden was blunt about the nation's political system. "Washington, right now, is broken."

Having served in the Senate for more than 30 years, Biden has seen a fair share of gridlock in Congress, but the current version is the worst ever, he said.

"I don't ever recall a time in my career where to get anything done, you needed a supermajority, 60 out of 100 senators.... I've never seen it this dysfunctional," he said.

Right. The system in Washington is "broken." Every effort does require an inexplicable "supermajority." The entire policymaking process is "dysfunctional."

But what officials need to understand is the importance of taking the next step -- explaining why this is and who is responsible.

As much as I'm sympathetic to the vice president's entirely accurate concerns, his omissions make all the difference. For viewers who don't know what filibusters or cloture votes are, they're thinking, "There's a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress. If the system is broken and dysfunctional, maybe it's Democrats' fault."

Except, for anyone interested in reality, that assumption couldn't be more wrong. If legislation received up-or-down votes in both chambers -- the way Congress operated for the better part of two centuries -- the system would work quite well and the dysfunction that drives everyone crazy would largely disappear.

Biden, in other words, needs to name names -- Republicans broke the American legislative process. They did so deliberately, during a time of crises, because they're desperate to undercut the Democratic majority, regardless of the consequences. The GOP's tactics have no precedent in American history, and violate every democratic norm that keeps our system moving.

It's not enough to share Americans' disgust; Dems need to help the public understand this mess. They can do so by avoiding jargon and legislative terminology, and calling Republicans' obstructionist tactics what they are: a dangerous political scandal.

Don't talk about "filibusters" or "supermajorities"; talk about the Republican "scandal" that has brought the system to a halt. Talk about Republicans "shutting down" the American policymaking process, and ignoring the will of the voters.

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US to build two new nuclear power stations

President Barack Obama said the project would create thousands of jobs

President Barack Obama has announced more than $8bn (£5bn) of federal loan guarantees to begin building the first US nuclear power stations for 30 years.

Two new plants are to be constructed in the state of Georgia by US electricity firm Southern Company.

Mr Obama said the plants would be "safe and clean" and were needed to meet the country's future energy needs.

There have been no new nuclear power plants started in the US since the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island.

The accident was caused by the partial core meltdown of one of the reactors at the site in Pennsylvania, which resulted in a release of radioactive gases into the atmosphere.

While the president said the US had not "broken ground on a ... new nuclear power plant in 30 years", some US nuclear plants only became operational in the 1980s, despite construction beginning years earlier.

'Well-paid jobs'

MARDELL'S AMERICA This one plant will cut carbon pollution by 16 million tons each year when compared with a similar coal plant - it won't persuade all the environmentalists, but it is an argument that does weigh heavily with some of them Mark Mardell Read Mark's thoughts in full

The president said the project would create "thousands of construction jobs over eight years and then hundreds of well-paid jobs" when the facilities become operational.

He added that it was "only the beginning" of efforts to develop a new generation of safe and clean energy-efficient technologies, which would help fight climate change.

The two new reactors will be built at an existing nuclear facility in Georgia.

Southern Company said the work would create about 3,000 construction jobs and 850 people would subsequently be permanently employed when the reactors became operational.

'Meet energy needs'

"On an issue which affects our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, we cannot continue to be mired in the same old debates between left and right, between environmentalists and entrepreneurs," said President Obama.

THREE MILE ISLAND ACCIDENT Partial core meltdown of one of the two reactors at the site, on 28 March 1979 Caused by a faulty valve which allowed large amounts of reactor coolant to leak Resulted in radioactive gases being released into the atmosphere About 140,000 people evacuated from the local area No fatalities, but dispute remains over long-term health impact Most significant accident in the history of the US nuclear power industry The reactor in question remains mothballed, but the other at the site is still in operation

"To meet our growing energy needs and prevent the worst consequences of climate change, we'll need to increase our supply of nuclear power. It's that simple."

Southern's chief executive David Ratcliffe said the president's announcement was "an important endorsement in the role nuclear power must play in diversifying our nation's energy mix and helping to curb greenhouse gas emissions".

There are currently 104 operating nuclear reactors across 31 states in the US, which provide about one-fifth of the country's electricity.

Meanwhile, there are currently 56 new nuclear reactors being built around the world.

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Commentary

Why we shouldn't go nuclear:

1) Price: The price to set up a nuclear reactor far outweighs the benefits of making one. This fact alone, where reactors are not cost conscious should tell us not to waste our money on them. This is especially true when we are running deficits in our budgets and bleeding money in every direction. So why waste money now with alternatives?

2) Safety: Each facility is a terrorist attack waiting to happen. Remember Chernobyl? If someone were to bomb a working nuclear facility, you'd have a working Chernobyl in our back yards. Each facility is a liability to our safety. What if war occurs? Do we want the enemy to be able to give us 20 Chernobyls all across the country?

3) Nuclear Waste: We have no where to store it. Yucca mountain is the only place that has been looked at but is not accepting nuclear waste because the people of Nevada don't want it in their state. Assuming Yucca does open, it would be filled instantly. Yes, there is that much nuclear waste and it's currently stored on site at each plant. If each plant were to ship their waste to Yucca, again, it would be filled immediately. Some say we'd need a new Yucca mountain yearly to keep pace with our nuclear waste.

A new Yucca yearly? We can't even approve 1, where will we be able to get more?

4) Alternatives: Solar, wind, and geothermal are nearly untapped. If we mandated a law that said every home must have a solar panel up on their roofs and that the government would pay for 90% of it's cost, then we would have more energy than we'd know what to do with.

We'd actually export our oil simply because that solar energy would more than meet our needs. Wind is already being tapped as well but not to the degree it should be.

I used to be in favor of Nuclear energy a while back until I learned the prices associated with adopting it. It seemed like the answer to our Energy crisis. I learned that every solution comes with a cost.

Nuclear Energy's cost is far too high.

The polarised lives of Zimbabwe's rich and poor

Sue Lloyd-Roberts visits Philip Chiyangwa, the millionaire businessman nephew of Robert Mugabe, at his opulent Zimbabwe home full of deluxe cars

By Sue Lloyd-Roberts BBC Newsnight, Zimbabwe

Thursday marks the first anniversary of Zimbabwe's so-called "inclusive government".

It has been a year since President Robert Mugabe swore in his former political rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, as Prime Minister and the two agreed to a series of conditions enshrined in the Global Political Agreement and to work on a new constitution which would pave the way to free and fair elections.

It is a year since Zimbabwe's former political rivals struck a deal

So what has been achieved?

"The inclusive government has bought peace and there is food in the shops," Julius, a 35-year-old teacher said. "Anytime you get a dollar, you can rest assured that you will find something to buy."

The problem is getting a dollar. Teachers like Julius will mark the anniversary by going on strike this week.

He said he welcomes the fact that the coalition government has restored peace to the country, but complained that he still cannot feed his family.

Julius takes homes $150 (£96) a month. Over $100 goes on renting two rooms in a house, which leaves him with a little more than a dollar a day to spend on food.

Reminder of past pain

We followed him to the supermarket where the shelves were stocked high. He bought one loaf of white bread - "our weekly treat" he explained - and then walked outside to a market stall to purchase his family's more regular fare - 1kg (2lb) of potatoes.

When she was born, we had no food at all. She went for hours without food. She is three years old but looks like a two-year-old. Julius, teacher talking about his daughter

He took us home to meet his wife and two daughters.

"Of course, things are better than they were," he said, pointing to his younger daughter. "When she was born, we had no food at all. She went for hours without food. She is three years old but looks like a two-year-old.

"I feel like crying every time I look at my daughter - it reminds me of the history I don't want to remember," he said.

He is right. Things were a lot worse.

I have travelled to Zimbabwe regularly over the last tumultuous decade and, if I were to write a report card at the end of this, the first year of the inclusive government, it would read: "A good start, could do better, but with a very uncertain future."

Mass rallies

The timetable for political reform has slipped badly.

Four thousand white commercial farmers have had farms seized

Only the former opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), have been holding outreach meetings with their supporters to discuss a new constitution, which is meant to pave the way for free and fair elections.

These meetings should have been concluded last November.

At a rowdy, dancing and singing MDC gathering two hours' drive east of Harare which I went to, people were celebrating that they are able to meet at all.

"It was horrible before," Susan, a local party organiser, said. "Zanu PF thugs would come and beat people. Now, we thank God that we can move freely and meet together."

The meeting was addressed by the MDC deputy Prime Minister, Thokozani Khupe.

To cheers, she told the crowds that her party wants to restore political power to the prime minister and to parliament.

Zanu PF are not holding mass, outreach meetings.

Asset control

Back in Harare I found Paul Mangwana, Zanu PF's constitutional expert, at his legal practice putting finishing touches to what his party believe should be the shape of the new constitution - to put the power firmly in the hands of the one executive authority because of Zimbabwe's wealth.

Mr Mugabe's nephew Philip Chiyangwa has fared well in Zimbabwe

"We have a rich inheritance - nickel, platinum, diamonds - every mineral known in the world," he said. "We need to concentrate power in one, strong individual to safeguard those resources and protect them from being taken by foreigners."

Indigenisation is the key to the Zanu PF political philosophy, a philosophy which would appear to exclude white Zimbabweans.

Four thousand white commercial farmers have now had their farms confiscated and given to supporters of Mr Mugabe.

A diamond mine has been taken from its white Zimbabwean owner and is being operated by a government-owned company, protected by soldiers.

From 1 March, any company operating in Zimbabwe must ensure that the majority of shareholders are indigenous Zimbabweans.

Luxury lifestyle

My "minder" at the Ministry of Information was very keen that I should meet someone he believes is a model of a successful businessman in Zimbabwe today.

Philip Chiyangwa, Mr Mugabe's nephew, bought several companies at a time when high inflation, price controls and shrinking demand made it difficult for them to operate in Zimbabwe.

Now a millionaire, he displays the full list in his "Native Investments" portfolio on full-length wall charts.

It encompasses everything from luxury hotels, foodstuffs to the window frame company he says he bought from Roland "Tiny" Rowlands.

It is a gift from God. It is a blessing from God. I know people are hungry and we are very grateful for what has been done for us. Elizabeth Chiyangwa Married to President Mugabe's nephew

He was optimistic about Zimbabwe's future: "It is in our hands to take the country wherever it needs to go. Look at me - I have never left Zim for any other country, I don't intend to leave this country, I am doing business here and I am successful here.

"If I want to buy a jet tomorrow, I will do it here. If I want to buy a Rolls Royce, I have one. If I want to drive a Bentley then I have one. If it's a beautiful mansion house, I bought one. I built it myself," he said.

Mr Chiyangwa invited me to visit the 35-room mansion where his wife, Elizabeth, showed me around the family car collection - her husband's Rolls Royce and Bentley, her Mercedes and their daughter's sports cars.

I asked her whether she feels comfortable with such wealth when people in her country are starving.

"It is a gift from God," she replied, "it is a blessing from God. I know people are hungry and we are very grateful for what has been done for us".

As Julius puts his children to bed that night, after another meal of potatoes, he could be forgiven for wondering whether it is not his turn, and the turn of millions like him in Zimbabwe, to receive such gifts and blessings.

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Commentary

The government should be ashamed of itself. Running lavish parties and petty squablles while it's people starve?

What a travesty, what an injustice.

May the people of Zimbabwe soon be blessed with leaders who care and worry about their affairs. For now they only have tyrants and greedy children bickering with one another.

Frankincense: Could it be a cure for cancer?

The gift given by the wise men to the baby Jesus probably came across the deserts from Oman. The BBC's Jeremy Howell visits the country to ask whether a commodity that was once worth its weight in gold could be reborn as a treatment for cancer.

Oman's Land of Frankincense is an 11-hour drive southwards from the capital, Muscat.

Most of the journey is through Arabia's Empty Quarter - hundreds of kilometres of flat, dun-coloured desert. Just when you are starting to think this is the only scenery you will ever see again, the Dhofar mountains appear in the distance.

On the other side are green valleys, with cows grazing in them. The Dhofar region catches the tail-end of India's summer monsoons, and they make this the most verdant place on the Arabian peninsula.

Warm winters and showery summers are the perfect conditions for the Boswellia sacra tree to produce the sap called frankincense. These trees grow wild in Dhofar. A tour guide, Mohammed Al-Shahri took me to Wadi Dawkah, a valley 20 km inland from the main city of Salalah, to see a forest of them.

"The records show that frankincense was produced here as far back as 7,000 BCE," he says. He produces an army knife. He used to be a member of the Sultan's Special Forces. With a practised flick, he cuts a strip of bark from the trunk of one of the Boswellia sacra trees. Pinpricks of milky-white sap appear on the wood and, very slowly, start to ooze out.

Boswellia sacra produces the highest-quality frankincense

"This is the first cut. But you don't gather this sap," he says. "It releases whatever impurities are in the wood. The farmers return after two or three weeks and make a second, and a third, cut. Then the sap comes out yellow, or bright green, or brown or even black. They take this."

Shortly afterwards, a frankincense farmer arrives in a pick-up truck. He is white-bearded, wearing a brown thobe and the traditional Omani, paisley-patterned turban.

He is 67-year-old Salem Mohammed from the Gidad family. Most of the Boswellia sacra trees grow on public land, but custom dictates that each forest is given to one of the local families to farm, and Wadi Dawkah is his turf.

Camel train

He has an old, black, iron chisel with which he gouges out clumps of dried frankincense.

"We learnt about frankincense from our forefathers and they learnt it from theirs" he says. "The practice has been passed down through the generations. We exported the frankincense, and that's how the families in Dhofar made their livings."

Salem Mohammed: Young people prefer careers in oil or government

And what an export trade it was. Frankincense was sent by camel train to Egypt, and from there to Europe. It was shipped from the ancient port of Sumharan to Persia, India and China. Religions adopted frankincense as a burnt offering.

That is why, according to Matthew's Gospel in the Bible, the Wise Men brought it as a gift to the infant Jesus. Gold: for a king. Frankincense: for God. Myrrh: to embalm Jesus' body after death.

The Roman Empire coveted the frankincense trade. In the first century BCE, Augustus Caesar sent 10,000 troops to invade what the Romans called Arabia Felix to find the source of frankincense and to control its production. The legions, marching from Yemen, were driven back by the heat and the aridity of the desert. They never found their Eldorado.

Oman's frankincense trade went into decline three centuries ago, when Portugal fought Oman for dominance of the sea routes in the Indian and the Pacific Oceans.

Salalah's Haffa souk: The place to buy Omani brands such as Royal Hougari

Nowadays, hardly any Omani frankincense is exported. Partly, this is because bulk buyers, such as the Roman Catholic Church, buy cheaper Somalian varieties. Partly, it is because Omanis now produce so little.

"Years ago, 20 families farmed frankincense in this area," says Salem Mohammed Gidad. "But the younger generation can get well-paid jobs in the government and the oil companies, with pensions. Now, only three people still produce frankincense around here. The trade is really, really tiny!"

Cancer hope

But immunologist Mahmoud Suhail is hoping to open a new chapter in the history of frankincense.

Scientists have observed that there is some agent within frankincense which stops cancer spreading, and which induces cancerous cells to close themselves down. He is trying to find out what this is.

The Catholic church mostly buys Somalian frankincense

"Cancer starts when the DNA code within the cell's nucleus becomes corrupted," he says. "It seems frankincense has a re-set function. It can tell the cell what the right DNA code should be.

"Frankincense separates the 'brain' of the cancerous cell - the nucleus - from the 'body' - the cytoplasm, and closes down the nucleus to stop it reproducing corrupted DNA codes."

Working with frankincense could revolutionise the treatment of cancer. Currently, with chemotherapy, doctors blast the area around a tumour to kill the cancer, but that also kills healthy cells, and weakens the patient. Treatment with frankincense could eradicate the cancerous cells alone and let the others live.

The task now is to isolate the agent within frankincense which, apparently, works this wonder. Some ingredients of frankincense are allergenic, so you cannot give a patient the whole thing.

FRANKINCENSE FACTS Boswellia sacra grows in Oman, Yemen and Somalia Other Boswellia species grow in Africa and India The tree may have been named after John Boswell, the uncle of Samuel Johnson's biographer In ancient Egypt frankincense was thought to be sweat of the gods Source: The Pharmaceutical Journal

Dr Suhail (who is originally from Iraq) has teamed up with medical scientists from the University of Oklahoma for the task.

In his laboratory in Salalah, he extracts the essential oil from locally produced frankincense. Then, he separates the oil into its constituent agents, such as Boswellic acid.

"There are 17 active agents in frankincense essential oil," says Dr Suhail. "We are using a process of elimination. We have cancer sufferers - for example, a horse in South Africa - and we are giving them tiny doses of each agent until we find the one which works."

"Some scientists think Boswellic acid is the key ingredient. But I think this is wrong. Many other essential oils - like oil from sandalwood - contain Boswellic acid, but they don't have this effect on cancer cells. So we are starting afresh."

The trials will take months to conduct and whatever results come out of them will take longer still to be verified. But this is a blink of the eye in the history of frankincense.

Nine thousand years ago, Omanis gathered it and burnt it for its curative and cleansing properties. It could be a key to the medical science of tomorrow.

Source

Sarah Palin crib notes mocked by White House aide

Robert Gibbs said he "wrote a few things down"

A White House aide has appeared at a briefing with the words "hope" and "change" written on his hand in a jibe at Republican Sarah Palin.

Mrs Palin, the former vice-presidential candidate, had been shown reading crib notes from her hand at a question and answers session on Saturday.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs also appeared to have his shopping list written on his palm.

"Hope" and "Change" were the key themes of President Obama's election campaign.

Eggs, milk, bread

Mr Gibbs was speaking at the White House shortly after the president had been stressing the need for a bipartisan approach to politics.

Showing his left palm, Mr Gibbs said: "I wrote a few things down."

Sarah Palin appears to read from notes written on her hand

The list read in vertical order - eggs, milk, bread [which had been crossed out].

"And then I wrote down 'hope and change', just in case I forgot," he said.

The jibe reportedly drew groans from reporters present.

At the weekend, Mrs Palin was delivering a speech and taking part in a question and answer session for the Tea Party movement, which draws together opponents of Mr Obama's healthcare reform, his economic stimulus package and other aspects of his agenda.

A photo taken during the Q&A session after the speech showed her left hand with the words "energy", "budget cuts", "tax" and "lift Americans' spirits". The word "budget" had been crossed out.

Video footage showed her seemingly reading from her hand when asked what top three things a conservative-led Congress should do.

In her speech, Mrs Palin received a standing ovation as she called for a "return to conservative principles".

She also spoke of a "charismatic guy with a teleprompter" - an apparent reference to President Obama.

Source

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Commentary

This is simply funny. If an orator does not speak from their heart, they are worth nothing because it means they are insincere.

You must speak from your mind, your beliefs, your principles. Insincere politicians are a dime a dozen.

Quantum trick for pressure-sensitive mobile devices

These mace-shaped particles use quantum physics to control current

Hand-held devices could soon have pressure-sensitive touch-screens and keys, thanks to a UK firm's material that exploits a quantum physics trick.

The technology allows, for example, scrolling down a long list or webpage faster as more pressure is applied.

A division of Samsung that distributes mobile phone components to several handset manufacturers has now licensed the "Quantum Tunnelling Composite".

The approach could find use in devices from phones to games to GPS handsets.

In January, Japanese touch-screen maker Nissha also licensed the approach from Yorkshire-based Peratech, who make the composite material QTC.

However, as part of the licensing agreements, Peratech could not reveal the phone, gaming, and device makers that could soon be using the technology to bring pressure sensitivity to a raft of new devices.

Quantum mace

The composite works by using spiky conducting nanoparticles, similar to tiny medieval maces, dispersed evenly in a polymer.

None of these spiky balls actually touch, but the closer they get to each other, the more likely they are to undergo a quantum physics phenomenon known as tunnelling.

Tunnelling is one of several effects in quantum mechanics that defies explanation in terms of the "classical" physics that preceded it.

Simply put, quantum mechanics says that there is a tiny probability that a particle shot at a wall will pass through it in an effect known as tunnelling.

The pressure-sensitive key can already be found in an available handset

Similarly, the material that surrounds the spiky balls acts like a wall to electric current. But as the balls draw closer together, when squashed or deformed by a finger's pressure, the probability of a charge tunnelling through increases.

The net result is that pressing harder on the material leads to a smooth increase in the current through it.

There are a number of ways to make switches or screens pressure-sensitive, such as using mechanical switches.

However, the QTC approach is particularly suited to making thin devices. Pressure-sensitive QTC switches can be made 70 micrometers thick - about the thickness of a human hair.

QTC is better than switches based on so-called "conducting polymers", because they conduct no electricity until they are pressed, leading to better overall efficiency.

Samsung Electro-mechanics has now incorporated the QTC into the navigation switch familiar on smartphones - in addition to the up, down, left, right and centre button, the up and down functions are pressure-sensitive.

This is useful for scrolling more or less quickly through, for example, a long list of emails.

"That same model can be used in many other ways, like in games: to control how hard I want to jump or run for example," said Peratech's chief executive Philip Taysom.

"Electronics are being given the ability to sense something that we take for granted, which is how much we're touching and applying force," he told BBC News.

Further applications that Peratech is involved with include robotics. While much work has gone into giving robots sensitivity to pressure and touch in their fingers, Mr Taysom said there can now be a push to create robots whose whole surface - rather like humans themselves - is pressure-sensitive.

Source

Can battlefield robots take the place of soldiers?

By Chris Bowlby Robo Wars, BBC Radio 4

Can battlefield land-robots be made to obey the rules of war?

Can war be fought by lots of well-behaved machines, making it "safer for humans"? That is the seductive vision, and hope, of those manufacturing and researching the future of military robotics.

With 8,000 robots already in use, they believe they can bring about a military revolution.

Most of the robots currently deployed on land deal with non-combat tasks such as bomb disposal - unlike lethal aerial drones.

But Bob Quinn, who works for the US subsidiary of the British robot manufacturer QinetiQ, says the future promises more armed robots on the battlefield, including driverless vehicles.

"The closer you are to being shot, the more you understand the value of having a remote weapons capability," he says.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAMME Robo Wars is on Radio 4 on Monday 8 February at 2000 GMT Or listen via the BBC iPlayer

Anyone who has seen the Terminator films may find this vision scary. Quinn admits that, even among senior military figures, "science fiction movies caused a great deal of angst".

He stresses the need to make sure "that the weaponised robots only operate under the control of the soldier and never independently".

But the speed of modern warfare can make direct human control difficult, says Peter Singer, author of Wired for War.

Take the automated counter-artillery system deployed in Afghanistan.

"The human reaction time when there's an incoming canon shell is basically we can get to mid-curse word… [This] system reacts and shoots it down in mid-air. We are in the loop. We can turn the system off, we can turn it on, but our power really isn't true decision-making power. It's veto power now," Singer says.

Vegetarian vehicles

But if automated systems are taking decisions, how can we be sure they are hitting the right targets and obeying the laws of war?

US academic Patrick Lin was recently commissioned by the US military to study robot ethics.

QinetiQ's Talon robots are used to counter improvised explosive devices

"When you talk about autonomous robots," he argues, "a natural response might be to programme them to be ethical. Isn't that what we do with our computers?"

A striking example of a robot in need of careful programming is a driverless vehicle developed by the Pentagon, called the EATR.

It can refuel itself on long journeys by scavenging for organic material - which raises the haunting spectre of a machine consuming corpses on the battlefield.

Its inventor, Dr Robert Finkelstein of Robotic Technology Inc, insists it will consume "organic material but mostly vegetarian."

"The robot can only do what it's programmed to do, it has a menu," he adds.

All this worries sceptics like Professor Noel Sharkey, co-founder of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control.

If there's an area of fighting that's so intense that you can assume that anyone there is a combatant, then unleash the robots Dr Patrick Lin, California Polytechnic

"You could train it all you want, give it all the ethical rules in the world. If the input to it isn't correct, it's no good whatsoever," he says. "Humans can be held accountable, machines can't."

If you cannot rely on a robot knowing what to target or distinguishing between enemy forces and innocent non-combatants, Patrick Lin suggests another solution.

"If there's an area of fighting that's so intense that you can assume that anyone there is a combatant," he argues, "then unleash the robots in that kind of scenario. Some people call that a kill box. Any target [in a kill box] is assumed to be a legitimate target."

No emotions

Other researchers suggest robots may avoid the faults of human soldiers.

"Robots that are programmed properly are less likely to make errors and kill non-combatants, innocent people, because they're not emotional, they won't be afraid, act irresponsibly in some situations," says Robert Finkelstein.

But Christopher Coker of the London School of Economics, an observer of wars past and present, disagrees.

Let's keep our guys safe, and kill the enemy Bob Quinn

"We should put our trust in the human factor," he says.

"Unfortunately the military in their reports often see the human factor as what they call the weakest link. I don't think it's the weakest link. I think it's the strongest link."

Computers will never be able to simulate the "warrior ethos", the mindset and ethical outlook of the professional soldier, he says.

The military revolution in robotics has already advanced rapidly in the air, where remotely piloted drone aircraft are now central to conflicts such as Afghanistan.

On the ground, use of robots has so far been more limited.

Yet given the political and popular concern about casualties among Nato forces, robot manufacturer Bob Quinn's sales pitch is likely to be persuasive.

"Let's keep our guys safe, and kill the enemy. Unfortunately, in warfare that's the situation you're in."

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