Goldman charged with fraud

Wireless power system shown off

By Jonathan Fildes Technology reporter, BBC News, Oxford

Electric tech could make plugs obsolete

A system that can deliver power to devices without the need for wires has been shown off at a hi-tech conference.

The technique exploits simple physics and can be used to charge a range of electronic devices over many metres.

Eric Giler, chief executive of US firm Witricity, showed mobile phones and televisions charging wirelessly at the TED Global conference in Oxford.

He said the system could replace the miles of expensive power cables and billions of disposable batteries.

"There is something like 40 billion disposable batteries built every year for power that, generally speaking, is used within a few inches or feet of where there is very inexpensive power," he said.

Trillions of dollars, he said, had also been invested building an infrastructure of wires "to get power from where it is created to where it is used."

Witricity claims to be able to charge gadgets large and small

"We love this stuff [electricity] so much," he said.

Mr Giler showed off a Google G1 phone and an Apple iPhone that could be charged using the system.

Witricity, he said, had managed to pack all the necessary components into the body of the G1 phone, but Apple had made that process slightly harder.

"They don't make it easy at Apple to get inside their phones so we put a little sleeve on the back," he said.

He also showed off a commercially available television using the system.

"Imagine you get one of these things and you want to hang it on the wall," he said. "Think about it, you don't want those ugly cords hanging down."

Good vibrations

The system is based on work by physicist Marin Soljacic at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

It exploits "resonance", whereby energy transfer is markedly more efficient when a certain frequency is applied.

When two objects have the same resonant frequency, they exchange energy strongly without having an effect on other, surrounding objects.

For example, it is resonance that can cause a wine glass to explode when a singer hits exactly the right tone.

But instead of using acoustic resonance, Witricity's approach exploits the resonance of low frequency electromagnetic waves.

HOW WIRELESS POWER WORKS 1. Magnetic coil (Antenna A) is housed in a box and can be set in wall or ceiling. 2. Antenna A, powered by mains, resonates at a specific frequency. 3. Electromagnetic waves transmitted through the air. 4. Second magnetic coil (Antenna B) fitted in laptop/TV etc resonates at same frequency as first coil and absorbs energy. 5. Energy charges the device.

The system uses two coils - one plugged into the mains and the other embedded or attached to the gadget.

Each coil is carefully engineered with the same resonant frequency. When the main coil is connected to an electricity supply, the magnetic field it produces is resonant with that of with the second coil, allowing "tails" of energy to flow between them.

As each "cycle" of energy arrives at the second coil, a voltage begins to build up that can be used to charge the gadget.

Mr Giler said the main coil could be embedded in the "ceiling, in the floor, or underneath your desktop".

Devices using the system would automatically begin to charge as soon as they were within range, he said.

"You'd never have to worry about plugging these things in again."

Safety concerns

Mr Giler was keen to stress the safety of the equipment during the demonstration.

"There's nothing going on - I'm OK," he said walking around a television running on wireless power.

The system is able to operate safely because the energy is largely transferred through magnetic fields.

Magnetic fields interact with everyday objects less than electric fields

"Humans and the vast majority of objects around us are non-magnetic in nature," Professor Soljacic, one of the inventors of the system, told BBC News during a visit to Witricity earlier this year.

It is able to do this by exploiting an effect that occurs in a region known as the "far field", the region seen at a distance of more than one wavelength from the device.

In this field, a transmitter would emit mixture of magnetic and potentially dangerous electric fields.

But, crucially, at a distance of less than one wavelength - the "near field" - it is almost entirely magnetic.

Hence, Witricity uses low frequency electromagnetic waves, whose waves are about 30m (100ft) long. Shorter wavelengths would not work.

'Ridiculous technology'

Witricity is not the first jump on the concept of wireless electricity.

For example, the nineteenth century American inventor Thomas Edison and physicist and engineer Nikola Tesla explored the concept.

"In the very early days of electricity before the electric grid was deployed [they] were very interested in developing a scheme to transmit electricity wirelessly over long distances," explained Professor Soljacic.

Intel showed off its wireless power solution in August 2008

"They couldn't imagine dragging this vast infrastructure of metallic wires across every continent."

Tesla even went so far as to build a 29m-high aerial known as Wardenclyffe Tower in New York.

"It ran into some financial troubles and that work was never completed," said Professor Soljacic.

Today, chip-giant Intel has seized on a similar idea to Witricity's, whilst other companies work on highly directional mechanisms of energy transfer, such as lasers.

However, unlike Witricity's work, lasers require an uninterrupted line of sight, and are therefore not good for powering objects around the home.

In contrast, Mr Giler said Witricity's approach could be used for a range of applications from laptops and phones to implanted medical devices and electric cars.

"Imagine driving in the garage and the car charges itself," he said.

He even said he had had interest from a company who proposed to use the system for an "electrically-heated dog bowl".

"You go from the sublime to the ridiculous," he said.

Ted Global is a conference dedicated to "ideas worth spreading". It runs from the 21 to 24 July in Oxford, UK.

The technology behind wireless power

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Justice Stephen Breyer: Democracy and the Court

A VERY VERY good speech on the supreme court, it's duties, and the principles of law at large.

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Obama sets Mars goal for America

By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

Obama outlines Nasa Mars mission

Barack Obama says it should be possible to send astronauts to orbit the planet Mars by the mid-2030s and return them safely to Earth.

The US president made the claim in a major speech to staff and guests at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

He was laying out the details of his new policy for the US space agency.

Mr Obama said he was giving Nasa challenging goals and the funding needed to achieve them, including an extra $6bn over the next five years.

"By 2025, we expect new spacecraft designed for long journeys to allow us to begin the first-ever crewed missions beyond the Moon into deep space," he told his audience. "So we'll start - we'll start by sending astronauts to an asteroid for the first time in history."

And then he added: "By the mid-2030s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth. And a landing on Mars will follow. And I expect to be around to see it."

Mr Obama hopes his new timetable for action can win wide approval.

'Lifeboat' proposal

The White House has been under fire since announcing in February that it wanted to shut down Constellation, the current programme to replace the ageing space shuttle.

Mr Obama said the proposed Orion crewship, its Ares launch rocket, together with the rest of the project's Moon-bound architecture were on an unsustainable path, costing too much money and taking too long to develop.

The president claimed a refocused Nasa could achieve more, sooner than under Constellation.

The Orion ship will be remodelled to serve as an ISS "lifeboat"

"What we're looking for is not just to continue on the same path; we want to leap into the future," he said. "We want major breakthroughs, a transformative agenda for Nasa."

In the speech, the president did not change the broad outline of the vision for the US space agency he first expounded in his 2011 federal budget request.

He still proposes to extend the operation of the International Space Station (ISS) from 2016 until at least 2020; and he re-emphasised his desire to see commercial companies take over the job of launching astronauts to the orbiting platform.

However, there was a key concession in the speech.

This was a commitment to carry forward development of the Orion crew capsule. In the first instance, this would be just a simpler version of the ship designed to act as a "lifeboat" at the ISS.

However, he said in due course this revised vessel would also serve as the "technological foundation" for much more capable vehicles to take astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit.

'Inspiration' of space

Mr Obama also pledged to begin development of a new heavy-lift rocket no later than 2015, but he said it must contain new propulsion technologies. Mimicking the rockets of the past was not an option, he explained.

"The bottom line is: nobody is more committed to manned spaceflight, the human exploration of space, than I am. But we've got to do it in a smart way; we can't keep doing the same old things as before."

Addressing fears that changes to US space policy might result in thousands of job losses across Florida's "Space Coast", Mr Obama claimed his ideas would actually create 2,500 more jobs than under Constellation.

To emphasise his support for the space programme, he reminded his audience that Nasa was in the extraordinary position of having its budget increased at a time when other areas of government faced static funding or even cuts to try to constrain the national deficit.

Money spent on the space programme would reap huge dividends, he argued.

"For pennies on the dollar, the space programme has fuelled jobs and entire industries. For pennies on the dollar, the space programme has improved our lives, advanced our society, strengthened our economy and inspired generations of Americans. And I have no doubt that Nasa can continue to fill this role."

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Stephen Breyer - Activist Judges and Judicial Restraint

A very good description of Activism by judges and an explanation of why it's not good to be termed such.

It also gives insight into our history in light of activist judges.

I also agree with him that if no other branch of the government moves to correct injustice at a very extreme degree, that activism would be called upon to Preserve Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Breyer Suggests That HCR Could Appear Before Supreme Court

A good explanation of why laws should be as short as possible.

Three-person IVF 'may prevent inherited disease'

By Fergus Walsh Medical correspondent, BBC News

Mitochondria are involved in energy production

Embryos containing DNA from a man and two women have been created by scientists at Newcastle University.

They say their research, published in the journal Nature, has the potential to help mothers with rare genetic disorders have healthy children.

The aim is to prevent damaged DNA in mitochondria - the "batteries" which power the cell - from being passed on by the mother.

IVF clinics are not currently permitted to carry out the procedure.

Around one in 200 children is born each year with mutations in the mitochondrial DNA.

In most cases this causes only mild disease, sometimes without symptoms.

But around one in 6,500 children is born with mitochondrial disease, which can cause serious and often fatal conditions, including muscular weakness, blindness and heart failure.

If the Newcastle results are taken forward to medical application, they need to be applied under very strict controls, and only where serious disease is otherwise likely to result Dr Donald Bruce, ethics expert

The scientists have developed a technique which would potentially allow them to replace defective mitochondria during IVF.

The research, funded by the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust, used newly fertilised eggs left over from IVF treatment.

The nuclei from the father's sperm and the mother's egg, which contain the parents' DNA, were removed, leaving behind the faulty mitochondria.

The nuclei were put into another egg from which the nucleus had been removed, but which retained its mitochondria.

This new embryo contained the genes from both parents plus a tiny amount of mitochondrial DNA from the donor egg.

The BBC's Fergus Walsh explains how scientists created the three person embryo

"What we've done is like changing the battery on a laptop," said lead author Professor Doug Turnbull.

"The energy supply now works properly, but none of the information on the hard drive has been changed.

"A child born using this method would have correctly functioning mitochondria, but in every other respect would get all their genetic information from their father and mother."

Legal hurdles

The Newcastle team created a total of 80 embryos. These were cultured for up to eight days in the laboratory under the terms of a licence granted by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).

Mitochondria Tiny bodies in cells that act like batteries to produce energy Contain their own DNA, which is distinct from nuclear DNA Contains only 37 genes compared with around 23,000 in the cell nucleus

The team is planning further studies to check the safety and efficiency of the procedure.

The law currently prevents the technique being used in fertility treatment. A licence to carry out the study was refused on two occasions before being granted five years ago.

Ethics expert, Dr Donald Bruce, former director of the Society, Religion and Technology Project of the Church of Scotland, said the research raised important ethical issues as well as potential risks.

He said: "If the Newcastle results are taken forward to medical application, they need to be applied under very strict controls, and only where serious disease is otherwise likely to result."

The work raised several ethical problems, he explained, including safety risks, children with DNA from two mothers, and making genetic changes to unborn children.

'Too late'

The Newcastle team say that the DNA from the second woman would be only a few genes, compared with at least 23,000 genes inherited from a parent.

Sharon Bernardi: 'Six of my babies have died from a faulty gene'

But although the genetic changes produced by the technique would be small, they would be permanent and passed on down the generations.

Sharon Bernardi, aged 44, from Sunderland, inherited mitochondrial disease from her mother. The condition has claimed the lives of six of her children, all of them dying within a few days of birth.

Her only surviving child, Edward, who is 20, suffers from a serious mitochondrial disease and needs constant care.

Sharon said: "It was devastating to lose my children, and this happened again and again. I feel lucky to have Edward, but he has very serious health problems as a result of the faulty DNA.

"It will be too late for me but it would be amazing if scientists can prevent this in the future so that others don't have to go through what I did."

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Ten things we have learnt about Africa

Christians from several African states trace their origins to Israel or Palestine

The Pew Research Center has just released one of the biggest ever studies on attitudes to religion and morality in Africa, which has revealed a host of interesting facts.

READ THE FULL REPORT Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa [6MB] Download comes from Pew Research Center website. Most computers will open this document automatically, but you may need Adobe Reader Download the reader here

Here are 10 things we have learnt from the study, which surveyed 25,000 people in 19 countries.

1. 75% of South Africans think polygamy is "morally wrong" - bad news for their president, as Jacob Zuma took his third wife earlier this year and is engaged to a fourth. However, the survey also revealed some possible double-standards. While only 7% of Rwandans approved of polygamy (although this did include women), a rather higher number - 17% - of men said they had more than one wife.

2. An overwhelming majority of respondents disapproved of homosexual behaviour. In three countries - Zambia, Kenya and Cameroon - this was a massive 98%. Interestingly, one of the countries with the highest numbers of people - 11% - accepting homosexuals is Uganda, where an MP is trying to get legislation passed which would punish homosexual acts with life in prison and even death in some cases. The former Portuguese colonies of Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique were also relatively tolerant of homosexuality.

3. Africa is probably the world's most religious continent, with more than 80% saying they believed in God in most countries. At least half of the Christians questioned expect Jesus Christ to return to earth during their lifetimes. In Ethiopia, 74% of Christians say they have experienced or witnessed the devil or evil spirits being driven out of a person and in Ghana, 40% of Christians say they have had a direct revelation from God. About half of all Muslims expect to see the reunification of the Islamic world under a single ruler, or caliph, in their lifetimes.

4. Zimbabwe, where the Lemba people say they are the lost tribe of Israel, was not one of the countries surveyed. But 26% of Nigerian Christians said they traced their origins back to Israel or Palestine.

5. Belief in witchcraft is also common - about 40%; a similar percentage also visit traditional healers to cure sickness. Belief in witchcraft is highest in Tanzania with 93% - this is the country where witchdoctors say that magic potions are more effective if they contain body parts of people with albinism. Ethiopia had the lowest levels of belief in witchcraft - at just 17%. Belief that juju or sacred objects can prevent bad things happening was generally lower - between 20 and 30%. In Senegal, however, 75% thought such things worked - far higher than in Tanzania (49%). It may come as a surprise to learn that South Africa had the highest number of people - 52% - saying they took part in ceremonies of traditional religions, or honoured or celebrated their ancestors.

A majority of people disapproved of Sharia punishments such as amputations

6. Predictably, there was also a religious split concerning alcohol, banned by Islam. Surprisingly, however, more Muslims in Chad (23%) approved of booze, than Ethiopian Christians (5%).

7. Attitudes to divorce showed a strong divide along religious lines in Nigeria. A massive 79% of Christians thought it was "morally wrong", while among Muslims, a narrow majority (46-41%) accepted divorce.

8. In recent years, Islamist hardliners in Somalia and Nigeria have introduced strict punishment based on Sharia law, such as amputating the hands of thieves and even stoning to death for adultery. The majority of people disapproved of such Sharia punishments. In Nigeria, they were backed by about 40% of Muslims and less than 10% of Christians. However, a majority did approve of whippings and amputations in Senegal and Mali. In nearby Guinea-Bissau, even 50% of Christians backed them. This was double the rate among Muslims in Ethiopia (25%) - maybe it feels like a more realistic prospect to them, as they share a border with Somalia and most Muslim Ethiopians are ethnic Somalis.

AFRICA HAVE YOUR SAY

The blending of religions like Islam and Christianity with African religions is one way of ensuring survival of traditional religions

BaDumisani, Berlin

Send us your comments

9. The survey also asked about material well-being in the world's poorest continent. Not so long ago, Cameroon regularly topped surveys of champagne consumption per head. However, a shocking 71% of Cameroonians surveyed said there were times in the past year when they did not have enough money to buy food. In Ethiopia, which is commonly seen as a country struggling to feed itself, the rate was far lower - at 30% - the lowest of all countries surveyed.

10. Ethiopia did, however, have the lowest numbers of people - 7% - who said they regularly used the internet. Rwanda's President Paul Kagame is striving to turn his country into Africa's answer to Silicon Valley and is being helped by the arrival of several new fibre optic cables off the east coast of Africa. He will be encouraged by the finding that 30% of his countrymen - the highest number - regularly browsed the web. Mobile phones, were far more common - with 81% of respondents in Botswana owning one. Many countries reported more than 50% having phones but here, Rwanda lagged behind at just 35%.

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Do toddlers need cake as well as carrots?

By Clare Murphy Health reporter, BBC News

Fruit and veg are very important, but portions should not be too big

A new survey shows some nurseries are giving children too much in the way of fruit and vegetables, and not enough starchy carbohydrates to meet their energy needs. Have healthy eating messages left us in a state of confusion about what children should be consuming?

This latest study carried out by the local government regulatory body Lacors focused on children in nursery schools across 29 English councils. While finding that some children were being given portions that were too large and too high in salt, others were simply not being offered enough at all.

The report highlighted the pressure parents, who are themselves constantly warned of the perils of childhood obesity, place on nursery staff to offer low calorie fare. It is a growing problem, according to the National Day Nurseries Association.

"Parents are aware of the importance of ensuring their child eats healthily to avoid obesity and health problems in later life, but this can sometimes lead to parents making requests that their child follows a strict diet, such as skimmed milk and low-fat foods," says its chief executive Purnima Tanuku.

"Children under five have specific needs, and should not have low-fat diets as their growing bodies need fat and carbohydrates."

Indeed the low-calorie, high-fibre diets which many adults have been encouraged to embrace are simply not suitable for the under fives.

No skimming

Growing rapidly, this age-group needs a diet which is - proportional to their size - much higher in calories than that of an adult.

Studies have shown that children burn fat much faster than adults - and so skimmed milk and other low-fat dairy products should remain off the menu until they are much older.

It is important that parents do not apply healthy eating messages designed for the whole population to small children Helen Crawley Caroline Walker Trust

"And parents really shouldn't feel too anxious about puddings - sponge and custard is a good dessert to offer, surprising as that may sound," says Jessica Williams, a paediatric dietician. "This is a much better option than a handful of biscuits between meals.

"There have also been problems with the messages about red meat. It's a shame some parents feel so worried about it as it really is the best source of iron, and iron deficiency anaemia among toddlers in particular is common."

Wholegrains and high-fibre dishes are fine in moderation but may fill a child up without providing the calories they need. Seen by some as a nutritional wasteland, easily-digestible white bread is not necessarily a bad option for children, particularly if they have eaten a wholegrain cereal for breakfast.

"And while the five-a-day message must certainly still be there, a child's portion does need to be smaller so they have room for the other, more substantial items on their plates. They simply won't get the calories they need from fruit and vegetables, even in large quantities."

Needing attention

There are in fact concerns that the plight of the underweight child has been forgotten amid the intense focus on childhood obesity.

Studies have shown that being persistently underweight as a child can cause problems over a lifetime, from cognitive impairment to skeletal disorders.

There have been calls for public health policy makers to consider both ends of the body mass spectrum when fixing priorities in child health.

"I think that we are in danger of overlooking these children in the obsession about obesity - and I am not convinced that we have good measures of bodyweight in small children in terms of later risk," says City University's Helen Crawley, director of the Caroline Walker Trust which promotes good diet. "We should be much more careful.

"Poor nutritional status in toddlerhood can be linked to permanent cognitive damage and a child never reaching their full potential, as well as shorter stature in adulthood.

"This does not mean that obesity among pre-school children is not an issue as well, but it is important that parents do not apply healthy eating messages designed for the whole population to small children."

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How to brush up your debating skills

Top tips for winning a TV debate

By Rajini Vaidyanathan BBC News Magazine

When the curtain goes up on Thursday's first televised prime ministerial debate, audiences will witness three men used to holding their own, in front of an audience. But you don't have to be a party leader to know how best to win an argument.

Breathe deeply, back straight, shoulders out.

The warm-up reads like preparation for an exercise class but one of the first rules of good debating is to have a relaxed pose and posture.

"Confidence is communicated in many ways," says Jason Vit, a debate coach. "How a speaker looks, walks and the first thing out of their mouth can make a huge difference to how they are perceived and the value which an audience ascribes to what they say," he says.

"Let's have a heated debate"

Debating is all about selling your ideas to an audience - it follows then, that if the salesman doesn't look the part, he can expect the door to be slammed in his face.

"Stance, voice, confident use of technical terms… enable people to fake confidence even when they are nervous," he says.

But faking it can only get one so far and there is more to debating than simply style over substance. Mr Vit works for the English Speaking Union, an organisation which runs debate contests between schools. One of the most important tips he passes on to his students is "know your subject" - which means knowing the arguments for and against their viewpoint.

Soap opera attention span

"An audience is more likely to support one speaker's position over another speaker if they can demonstrate knowledge of the subject in question and an understanding of the alternatives.

"Simply put, someone is always more convincing if they understand the alternatives and have still rejected them."

While some people are debate naturals, Mr Vit says that with the correct training and practice anyone can hold their own in a high octane discussion.

Working out the correct pace and delivery - not too fast, emphasis on the right words - is one way to improve one's oratorical skills. Injecting a bit of personality into the proceedings is another, although Mr Vit only advises "genuinely funny" people to go down this path.

A sprinkling of the wrong sort of jokes in a debate can backfire in the same way a bad stand-up routine might.

Another important consideration, often overlooked, is how long to take to make a point. Maintaining the audience's attention can be tricky and Mr Vit suggests observing the length of TV ads, or the duration of a scene in soap opera, as useful guides in judging attention span.

TOP DEBATING TIPS Always be yourself Projecting confidence is vital Listen to questions or points raised by other speakers Consider the attention span of the audience Make answers and points relevant Know your material Write down any important names or information

Holding people's interest will be a big challenge for all the three leaders taking part in the prime ministerial debates. Much has been made of the fact that this is the first time British political leaders have agreed to participate in televised election debates, but they are no strangers to head to head sparring. Every Wednesday when Parliament sits they face each other at Prime Minister's Questions, a tradition which dates back in various guises to 1881.

But the formal strictures of such set-tos mask the fact that debate, in its loosest form, is something most people engage in almost daily.

Football - the national game - is played against a backdrop of ceaseless debate between fans. The same goes for other national obsessions in which we are asked to take sides - reality TV shows, the moral choices of soap opera characters.

What is central to any line of debate is passion, says Mr Vit. Winning a debate is essentially winning an argument - the skill being able to defend a view, and to "appear to be right all the time, even when you are not".

The importance of debate as a medium for self improvement and intellectual stimulation, within these shores at least, can be traced back to the coffee house debates of the 17th Century.

It was in the coffee houses that writers, politicians, businessmen and scientists would discuss and share ideas. Underpinning this was the freedom it offered, in a democratic society, for people to air their views freely in public - and in the process coming up with a great idea or solution to a problem.

Debates were held at coffee houses

These days similarly passionate exchanges can be witnessed across the internet and, particularly, daytime TV. Talks shows hosted by the likes of Trisha Goddard and Jeremy Kyle have used the traditional debate format with a modern twist. There are still two sides appealing to an audience to agree with their viewpoint, but the subject matter is very different.

"People are prepared to debate very intimate confessional topics, compared with the topics which would have traditionally been accepted for debate publicly," says Paul Stenner, a professor at the University of Brighton.

Mr Stenner who has studied the emotional impact of talk shows such as Jerry Springer, says it can be viewed for good or bad .

"Some people see this as a great advance, the cracking of the cold rationalist and stuffy and traditional approach but others would see it as a decline - hanging your dirty laundry in public."

"It exercises our minds", argues Ellis Cashmore, a professor of culture, media and sport. He argues that the appeal of television courtoom dramas and chat shows is because of the way they draw viewers into a discussion.

"We are being put in the position of the judge or the jury. We're being asked to evaluate arguments.

"People don't usually watch a political debate or a Jeremy Kyle programme without forming some kind of judgement on it. The reason they're so appealing to us is that we don't just sit there passively - we engage in it."

The truth is that we like to watch debates as much as we like to take part in them and deliver a judgement, says Mr Cashmore.

But for debate aficionados like Mr Vit, the real test comes when you are eyeball to eyeball with your opponent, under pressure.

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