R&D INSIGHT ESO IMAGE OF THE MONTH IN BRIEF
Unleaded, diesel or biofuel?
http://www.eso.org/public/images/helix003-cc/ The Eye of God
ESO’s Very Large Telescope recently captured this image of the Helix Nebula, a large planetary nebula located in the constellation Aquarius. The object is around 700 light years
away, making it one of the closest to the Earth of all the planetary nebulae. The Helix Nebula has sometimes been referred to as the ‘Eye of God’ in pop culture.
Danish congress for future healthcare
Plans by Denmark to spend €5.5 billion over the next ten years on the construction of eight new hospitals have led the Region of Southern Denmark to plan an international congress to discuss methods to ensure sustainable future healthcare solutions through innovative private and public partnerships.
“Hospital and Innovation Congress – partnering for sustainable health care design” will take place on 30th September – 1st October, 2013 in Odense, Denmark, and is open to all stakeholders interested in establishing cross-border partnerships between public and private stakeholders. “This congress is an invitation to the world to cooperate with us,” said regional council chairman Carl Holst. “Together,
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we can create the future of healthcare services by changing the way patients, physicians, nurses, government and industry innovate and implement services and solutions. We want to ensure that the starting point for our planning concerning healthcare starts with the latest solutions in healthcare innovation.” The congress programme will contain contributions from Danish and international keynote speakers, as well as interactive workshops that will contribute to the understanding of how to create a healthcare system which ultimately focuses on the individual patient’s needs.
A modified version of E. coli, created using genes from the camphor tree, soil bacteria and blue-green algae, has produced biofuel that is compatible with modern engines. Until now, biofuels have been composed of hydrocarbons of the wrong size and shape, which have required either modified engines or an extra processing step to be useable. But John Love and his colleagues from the University of Exeter have now created a system that produces the very same fuel sold by the oil industry. Love believes that with a little further genetic tweaking, the bacteria could be modified to feed on straw or animal-manure, which would bypass the need to grow feedstock that would otherwise be used for food crops.. The research also opens up the possibility of bio- manufacturing petroleum-derived chemicals, such as plastics, solvents and detergents.
Do monkeys have manners?
Wild vervet monkeys have been shown to adopt the behavior of others around them when in an unfamiliar setting, much like humans. The study involved two groups of monkeys, each of which were conditioned to eat one colour of maize by making the other colour taste foul. When males started to migrate between the different groups, however, researchers found that nine out of the ten males who moved to groups eating a different coloured corn to the one they were used to switched to the new local norm immediately. “It may make sense in nature, where the knowledge of the locals is often the best guide to what are the optimal behaviours in their environment,” says Professor Andrew Whiten. The study has been hailed by leading primate experts as rare experimental proof of ‘cultural transmission’ in wild primates.
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