[H]ardNews - Blair's Tech Ed.

Microscopic Monitors:

Daniel Nocera and his colleagues in MIT’s Earth System Initiative—a research project that relates science and technology to the earth’s biosystems—have created microscopic sensors that can be tailored to glow or stop glowing in response to pollutants or even biochemical-warfare substances such as anthrax. Nocera, who is the W. M. Keck Professor of Energy and professor of chemistry, and his team created “supramolecules,” large molecules whose subunits can perform different tasks, and attached them to microscopic lasers.

X-rays Cause Cancer:

Medical X-rays are to blame for many thousands of fatal cancers every year, according to the most comprehensive analysis to date. Medical experts stress that X-rays and CT scans can be very beneficial, but believe the new work shows that they should be used as sparingly as possible. "They are of enormous benefit for such things as early cancer detection, but medical experts need to be aware of the quantifiable risks of X-rays." says Amy Berrington, of Oxford University, UK, and one of the research team. "If you need an X-ray for medical reasons then I should not worry about it."

Handy Elves:

Scientists are finding a computer program called Elves to be a nearly magical solution to the tedious and time-consuming task of determining the 3-D shape of proteins - a major focus of cutting-edge proteomics today - from X-ray diffraction data. According to Elves developer James Holton, who recently received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, researchers can unleash Elves on a set of X-ray diffraction data and go on to other things - or take a nap - while the computer does the hard work and spits out a protein structure. "This is the first time anyone has reported a computer generating a protein structure by itself," he said.

Making Better Pictures:

It's not hard to create a long-lasting inkjet photo print - as long as you store the print in dark, low-humidity conditions. Trouble is, few people enjoy their pictures this way. Eastman Kodak Company's Tech Brief for January examines the delicate balance of paper and ink that help picture-takers enjoy home-printed digital pictures the way most people view photos: in a picture frame, in an album, or as an unmounted snapshot stuck to a refrigerator. Kodak scientists developed a universal inkjet photo paper to meet those demanding conditions: New KODAK Ultima Picture Paper with COLORLAST technology.