Weekly Wakeup

NEWS IN BRIEF:

SAN FRANCISCO., USA - Mad scientist Doc Brown powers his time machine by feeding coffee grounds and other bio-waste into the DeLorean in ‘Back to the Future.’ While time travel is still in the realm of science fiction, carbon-based fuel cells are about to become science fact - rendering a similar scenario all the more possible. The process is 70 percent efficient, double that of traditional coal power plants, and researchers have shown that in a single step, they can take pulverized coal -- or anything else that contains carbon, including human waste or banana peels, for example -- and directly transform the fuel's chemical energy into electricity by electrochemically oxidizing the carbon. For now, the carbon fuel cells are producing small amounts of power on the scale of a few watts at a laboratory in Menlo Park, California. But the capability is expected to rise to 10 kilowatts by 2009, to 100 kilowatts by 2011 and to 500 kilowatts by 2015.

ROME, ITALY – The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says there can be little doubt that humans are responsible for warming the planet, but the organization has reduced its overall estimate of this effect by 25 per cent. In a final draft of its fourth assessment report, to be published in February, the panel reports that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has accelerated in the past five years. It also predicts that temperatures will rise by up to 4.5 C during the next 100 years, bringing more frequent heat waves and storms. The panel, however, has lowered predictions of how much sea levels will rise in comparison with its last report in 2001. Scientists insist that the lower estimates for sea levels and the human impact on global warming are simply a refinement due to better data on how climate works rather than a reduction in the risk posed by global warming. One leading climate scientist, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity surrounding the report before it is published, said: "The bottom line is that the climate is still warming while our greenhouse gas emissions have accelerated, so we are storing up problems for ourselves in the future.” Climate change skeptics are expected to seize on the revised figures as evidence that action to combat global warming is less urgent.

LONDON, ENGLAND - Couples are being given the opportunity to exchange jewelry made from samples of their bone grown in the laboratory. Scientists obtain bone cells from wisdom teeth and then grow them on a "scaffold" material in the lab. The efforts are part of a collaboration between scientists and artists aiming to learn how to craft complex shapes from bone tissue. Examples are to go on display at an exhibition at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London. Harriet Harris and Matt Harrison are one of five couples involved in the project. "I do think it's interesting that I've only been in contact with bone when it's been in my dinner," said Harriet, "So it's intriguing to have my own bone, my own matter objectified in this way and made into something precious and symbolic. Her partner Matt told BBC News: “When you think about it for a while, it's like ivory but more ethical, and the material has never been part of Harriet, just grown from her code taken from her body. Yes, it's the reason why people are interested and why they have the 'yuck' factor but when you see the object and think about it, I don't think it is gross at all. It's quite clean and pure”
________________________________________________________