Biologists and computer scientists have developed the robo-scientist Adam. The researchers from the universities of Aberystwyth and Cambridge in the United Kingdom describe in a new paper in Science, how Adam has developed a hypothesis on the encoding of specific growth genes in yeast and then tested this hypothesis. Following the same procedure as a human scientist.

Adam consists of a central computer that automatically controls a cell growth chamber and complicated analysing and measuring devices. The computer is equipped with advanced software that allows Adam to develop hypotheses and then design and carry out experiments to test these hypotheses.

Hardly a day passes without a new social networking site appears inspired by the success of Facebook. Not even scientists are forgotten. I have previously mentioned social networks for scientists such as ResearcherID and Nature Networks.

Now yet another social site aimed at the scientific community has appeared. ResearchGATE, however, is in contrat to the former sites developed and run by younger scientists from the United States and Germany. During the first year of the site, they have already built an impressive list of partnerships including the Max Planck Institute and EURAXESS, the European Union run portal for science jobs and information.

A new study by American engineers has shown how biting behaviour and the anatomy of the proboscis of the mosquito Aedes egypti, can be used to develop painless biomimetic micro-needles.

The main finding is that the elastic mateial at the base of the proboscis seem to the main reason why the proboscis, which is a long and thin hollow tube, does not buckle while penetrating the skin and tissue.

Read the full story here.

Source:
Ramasubramanian, MK, Barham, OM and Swaminathan, V (2008). Mechanics of a mosquito bite with applications to microneedle design. Bioinspiration & Biomimetic 3. doi:10.1088/1748-3182/3/4/046001.

A new website Ullbe.com claims to have the biggest database of universities in the world.

And true enough if you look at a small country like Denmark, then it lists not less than 146 universities (compared to Wikipedia which lists 8). Ullbe.com seems to include all small vocational educational facilities as well as musical schools. Although you can sort the search after popularity (defined how??) then the database gives a disorganised and chaotic impression.

However, it not so indiscriminate for other countries. In the United Kingdom it lists 200 universities compared to the 325 institutions recognised by the UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admission Service). In Panama it lists only 12, which also seems to be an underestimate considering all the small private universities in the capital alone.

The Nobel Dynamite Factory in Stockholm, Sweden will host a very interesting little one-day conference at the 17th of October 2008 entitled ‘Unfolding value – communicating biodiversity’.

The meeting aspires to be a cross-disciplinary platform for discussions between scientists, policy-makers, entrepreneurs, designers and artists on the importance of biodiversity and the value of the natural world that surrounds us.

There will be a special topic on biomimetics in the afternoon, where Swedish secondary school students will present ideas on what can be derived from nature and used by technological designers and engineers.

The keynote speaker is James L. Edwards, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. He is the Executive Director of the ambitious Encyclopedia of Life (eol) project, which aims to develop an online database with information on all known species on Earth.

To get more information on the Swedish conference, click here.

I have earlier written about the increasing use of metric methods to evaluate the quality of scientists (see Is it possible to measure the quality of a scientist? ), where I discussed the consequences of more and more relying on these methods exclusively for evaluating scientists applying for funding or tenure.

Some of you probably know it. It is a lovely day, warm with the sun shining from a blue sky, but then suddenly out of blue you sneeze violently for one or two times. I have experienced it often when going out in the sun or sitting in the bus when it turns and exposes me to direct sunlight. I wondered if I suffered from some kind of sun allergy, but on the other hand I only sneezed a couple of times max and was then fine. What could possibly be the reason?

As a child many of us dreamt of becoming an astronaut, but alas that was before the internet, when such dreams were difficult to realise in the real world.

However, for the youth of today this dream may become easier to fulfil. At least the European Space Agency (ESA) uses new methods to recruit suitable candidates for their new astronaut programme.

Today ESA has opened up for online applications from prospective astronauts on their website.

In the past years it has become very popular to use metric data to evaluate the quality of science. England, for instance, has for several years used a complicated RAE (Research Assessment Exercise) system, where an expert panel evaluate the quality of a research institution (typically on the department level) based on the number of publications, citations and the quality of the publications.

Oxford University Press together with a consortium of UK academics has launched a new journal, BioscienceHorizons, which is unique among scientific journals in that they publish exclusively papers by undergraduate students about their own final year projects.

All British and Irish universities can nominate their best final year projects. The student then rewrites his thesis into the format of a scientific paper and submits it. The paper will be reviewed by academics in the field and the best papers will be published.