R&D INSIGHT


“A person using ‘Flow machine’ can decide to


compose blues in the style of Charlie Parker but to have all the notes different”


IN BRIEF


Big cats hunt livestock when wild prey is scarce


A new study by Georg-August University of Göttingen in Germany has revealed that big cats only kill livestock when prey biomass falls below minimum thresholds. Igor Khorozyan and colleagues gathered data on the seven big cats from more than 100 studies and applied some statistical analyses. When the prey biomass fell below 812 kilograms per square kilometer, the cats started killing cattle in higher numbers. And when the level fell below 545 kilograms per square kilometer, cats went for the smaller goats and sheep.


High CO2 The solution to faster computing? Sing to your data N


othing is more frustrating than watching that circle spinning in the centre of your screen while you wait for your computer to load a


programme or access the data you need. Now a team from the Universities of Sheffield and Leeds may have found the answer to faster computing: sound. The world’s 2.7 zettabytes (2.7 followed


by 21 zeros) of data are mostly held on hard disk drives: magnetic disks that work like miniaturised record players, with the data read by sensors that scan over the disk’s surface as it spins. But because this involves moving parts, there are limits on how fast it can operate. Magnetic solid-state drives are a possible


solution. ‘Racetrack memory’ uses tiny magnetic wires,


each one hundreds of


times thinner than a human hair, down which magnetic “bits” of data run like racing cars around a track. Existing research into racetrack memory has focused on using magnetic fields or electric currents


down the wires. However, both these options create heat and reduce power


14


efficiency, which will limit battery life, increase energy bills and increase CO2


emissions. Dr Tom Hayward from the University


of Sheffield and Professor John Cunningham from the University of Leeds have together come up with a completely new solution: passing surface acoustic waves across the surface on which the wires are fixed. They also found that the direction of data flow depends on the pitch of the sound


generated — in effect they


“sang” to the data to move it. Dr Hayward, from Sheffield’s Faculty of


to move the data bits


Engineering, said: “The key advantage of using surface acoustic waves in this application is their ability to travel up to several centimetres without decaying, which at the nano-scale is a huge distance. Because of this, we think a single sound wave could be used to “sing” to large numbers of nanowires simultaneously, enabling us to move a lot of data using very little power. We’re now aiming to create prototype devices in which this concept can be fully tested.”


levels new


‘permanent reality’ Concentrations of CO2


in our atmosphere


have increased by 143 per cent since pre-industrial times according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).


threat, but a very real one. It means hotter global temperatures, more extreme weather events like heatwaves and floods, melting ice, rising sea levels and increased acidity of the oceans. This is happening now and we are moving into unchartered territory at a frightening speed,” said Michel Jarraud, secretary general of the WMO.


“We can’t see CO2


Barbecued meat may increase kidney cancer risk


Scientists have found that a diet high in barbecued meat may increase the risk of kidney cancer. In the wake of their announcement that processed meats are carcinogenic, the World Health Organisation are now saying that new findings “support reducing consumption of meat, especially meat cooked at high temperatures or over an open flame”. The kidneys filter many harmful toxins from the body so could be at increased risk of developing cancer as they attempts to rid the body of the carcinogens.


. It is an invisible


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