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Nature press release for 2 August issue
August 02, 2001[412543] LIFELINES: POPULATION SET TO PEAK IN 2070 (pp543-545; N&V)
The world's population may be heading for a peak as soon as 2070, followed by a decline, suggests a study in this week's Nature. There is an 85 per cent chance that the population will stop growing before 2100. The population could climb to only 8.4 billion by 2100, an estimate about 1 billion short of a United Nations prediction.
Portraying a world increasingly dominated by Southern Hemisphere nations, the model also predicts that the proportion of people over age 60 will leap from 10 to 34 per cent. This may be preceded by a "window of opportunity", in which many societies will benefit from a large workforce, says Wolfgang Lutz of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria, who led the study.
The study considers thousands of different simulations of the future world population, and assigns a probability to each range of possibilities. These kinds of uncertainty assessments are crucial to policy making, explains Nico Keilman of the University of Oslo, in an accompanying News and Views article.
CONTACT:
Wolfgang Lutz tel +43 22 36 807 294, e-mail lutz@iiasa.ac.at
Nico Keilman tel +47 22 85 51 28, e-mail n.w.keilman@econ.uio.no
[412510] PHYSICS: SUPERCONDUCTIVITY SHAKE-UP (pp510-514; N&V)
The old theory of superconductivity, thought by many to be almost irrelevant to the way the newer 'high temperature' superconductors work, may not be dispensable after all, say Zhi-Xun Shen of Stanford University in California and co-workers this week in Nature.
Conventional 'low temperature' superconductivity arises from the influence of vibrations of the crystal lattice (phonons) on electrons that carry electrical current. This influence makes the electrons team up in pairs, whereupon they become immune to factors that otherwise disturb their motion. But this behaviour usually manifests itself only at temperatures close to 0 K. The high-temperature copper oxide superconductors, in contrast, have superconducting transition temperatures of up to at least 133 K.
Physicists have believed for many years that electron-phonon interactions can't explain this high-temperature behaviour. But Shen and colleagues now use photoemission spectroscopy to show that such interactions are at play in every class of copper oxide superconductor that they have investigated.
This certainly does not imply that the mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity has been identified - there are important differences between the copper oxides and the low-temperature materials, which will surely modify the old theory. But it does suggest that the answer may ultimately be less novel and exotic than was thought.
Philip Allen of the State University of New York at Stony Brook suggests in a News and Views article where the prevailing wisdom may have gone wrong.
CONTACT:
Zhi-Xun Shen tel +1 650 725 8254, email zxshen@stanford.edu
Philip Allen tel +1 516 632 8179, email philip.allen@sunysb.edu
[412534] COVER: ANALYSIS PUTS HUMANS AHEAD (pp534-538)
Were ice-age Neanderthals close relatives of modern humans, or completely different creatures? Evidence for the latter view comes from Christoph P. E. Zollikofer and Marcia S. Ponce de Le'³n of the University of Zürich, Switzerland.
The researchers apply sophisticated computer graphics to this ancient question by comparing the development from babyhood of Neanderthal and modern-human skulls. They show that the distinctive feature of the Neanderthal skull and face were established in early infancy - possibly even in the womb - rather than developing gradually through to adulthood.
Nature's cover shows a series of Neanderthal crania during development. A movie will be available on publication as Supplementary Information on http://www.nature.com.
CONTACT:
Christoph P. E. Zollikofer tel +41 1635 5427/6745, email zolli@ifi.unizh.ch
[412517] CHEMISTRY: PLASTIC ELECTRONICS ONE STEP CLOSER (pp517-520; N&V)
The organic compound pentacene has the key characteristics needed to produce the kind of thin films that could underpin devices such as flexible displays and smart cards. Recent advances in fabricating organic thin-film transistors have fuelled the high interest in the compound.
Now R. M. Tromp and colleagues of IBM's T J Watson Research Center, New York, report the fabrication of thin pentacene films with single crystal grains approaching 0.1 millimetre across, almost 100 times larger than previously achieved, and large enough to contain a complete 'plastic electronics' device.
"The dreams of cheap, flexible (and perhaps even biodegradable) microelectronics based on organic molecules may soon become a reality," says Robert J. Hamers of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in an accompanying News and Views article.
CONTACT:
R M Tromp tel +1 914 945 2060, e-mail rtromp@us.ibm.com
Robert J. Hamers tel +1 608 262 6371, e-mail rjhamers@facstaff.wisc.edu
[412508] SPACE: STAR'S ELUSIVE CORONA CAUGHT (pp508-510)
A total solar eclipse reveals the Sun's stunning corona - a glowing halo of swirling gas. Many decades ago, detection of ultraviolet light from the Sun's corona revealed it to be extremely hot, at a temperature of millions of degrees centigrade. Astronomers in this week's Nature have for the first time detected similar ultraviolet light from another star's corona, showing it to be similarly hot.
Coronas exist at very high temperatures - higher than the visible surface of the star or 'photosphere'. Yet the mechanism producing these ultra-high temperatures on the stellar surface is little understood.
Previously, only X-ray wavelengths picked up by satellites offered glimpses of other stars' coronas. Now Juergen Schmitt and Reiner Wichmann of the University of Hamburg, Germany, have detected the emission of ultraviolet light from the corona of the red-dwarf star CN Leonis using a ground-based telescope.
The spectral resolution of this telescope is much better than that of current X-ray telescopes, and reveals that some material in the corona is at a temperature range similar to that of the Sun. "We've opened the door," says Juergen - to easier, more economical studies into the mysterious stellar corona.
CONTACT:
Juergen Schmitt tel +49 40 42891 4131/4112, e-mail jschmitt@hs.uni-hamburg.de
[412520] CHEMISTRY: BATTERY RESEARCH RECHARGED (pp520-523)
Polymer electrolytes - salts dissolved in solid polymers - have been extensively studied for more than 25 years because of their potential use as electrolytes in all-solid-state rechargeable lithium batteries. For 20 years ionic conductivity has been considered to occur in these polymers only in the amorphous phase, above the glass transition temperature.
Now research into these materials could take off in new directions with the discovery, by Peter G. Bruce of the University of St Andrews, Fife, UK, that ionic conductivity can occur in a highly ordered crystalline arrangement. What is more, conductivity can be higher in the crystalline polymer than in the amorphous system, and battery construction could be facilitated by less mobile lithium ions.
CONTACT:
Peter G Bruce tel +44 1334 463825, e-mail p.g.bruce@st-andrews.ac.uk
[412530] RELICS: TITANOSAUR NOSE TO TAIL (pp530-534)
The Titanosauria, the last surviving group of the giant sauropod dinosaurs, attained a near-global distribution by the close of the Cretaceous period, 65 million years ago. Despite this cosmopolitan range, titanosaurs remain relatively poorly known, and none of the familiar sauropods known to museum visitors (such as Apatosaurus, Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus) belong to this group. One reason is that titanosaurs generally lost their heads after death, so researchers have little idea what the whole animals looked like.
This story has a happy ending (and beginning, and middle) thanks to Kristina Curry Rogers, now at the Science Museum of Minnesota, St Paul, and Catherine A. Forster of the State University of New York at Stony Brook. This week they describe what may be the most complete titanosaur skeleton yet discovered - including the skull and much of the rest of the skeleton - providing the best-ever picture of titanosaur anatomy, from nose to tail. The 8.5-metre-long creature lived 70-65 million years ago in Madagascar.
CONTACT:
Kristina Curry Rogers tel +1 651 221 9444, email krogers@smm.org
[412479] POLICY: MORAL MAJORITY IN GERMAN (pp479-480)
Nowhere is the debate about the nature of humanity, its rights and obligations, more heated than it is currently in Germany, says Hubert Markl, president of the Max Planck Society, in this week's Commentary.
Germany, with the Vatican, is taking the 'high ground' of moral justification in a stand against stem-cell research and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis. This contrasts with more pragmatic approach in Britain and elsewhere in Europe, where research on human embryos, including therapeutic cloning, is allowed under strictly controlled conditions.
According to Markl, the freedom of German citizens is under threat from the "zealous coercion of a misguided moral majority".
CONTACT:
Dr Christina Beck (Press and Public Relations) tel +49 89 2108 1306, e-mail beck@mpg-gv.mpg.de
[412497] AND FINALLY: MARSUPIALS GET THEIR TEETH INTO IT (pp497-498)
Sizeable inferences may be drawn from the discovery of a tiny fossil tooth unearthed in Madagascar. The tooth is from a marsupial, the first to be identified from the prehistoric southern supercontinent of Gondwana, and lends credence to the theory that the ancestors of modern mammals were not on Madagascar when it became an island - they had to travel across the sea to get there.
In a Brief Communication this week, David Krause of the State University of New York at Stony Brook reports finding the isolated tooth in rocks dated to the Late Cretaceous period (from the Maastrichtian age, 73-65 million years ago). The tooth, although not assigned to a particular species, clearly represents a marsupial - a startling find as all of today's Madagascan mammals are placental.
Marsupials are thought to have originated in the Northern Hemisphere and migrated through what are now South America and Antarctica to reach Madagascar. As it had become an island by the Maastrichtian age, the ancestors of Madagascar's modern mammals must have crossed a marine barrier in order to replace marsupials.
CONTACT
David Krause tel: +1 631 444 3117, e-mail dkrause@mail.som.sunysb.edu
Nature Publishing Group Reference
CONTACT:
Wolfgang Lutz tel +43 22 36 807 294, e-mail lutz@iiasa.ac.at
Nico Keilman tel +47 22 85 51 28, e-mail n.w.keilman@econ.uio.no
[412510] PHYSICS: SUPERCONDUCTIVITY SHAKE-UP (pp510-514; N&V)
The old theory of superconductivity, thought by many to be almost irrelevant to the way the newer 'high temperature' superconductors work, may not be dispensable after all, say Zhi-Xun Shen of Stanford University in California and co-workers this week in Nature.
Conventional 'low temperature' superconductivity arises from the influence of vibrations of the crystal lattice (phonons) on electrons that carry electrical current. This influence makes the electrons team up in pairs, whereupon they become immune to factors that otherwise disturb their motion. But this behaviour usually manifests itself only at temperatures close to 0 K. The high-temperature copper oxide superconductors, in contrast, have superconducting transition temperatures of up to at least 133 K.
Physicists have believed for many years that electron-phonon interactions can't explain this high-temperature behaviour. But Shen and colleagues now use photoemission spectroscopy to show that such interactions are at play in every class of copper oxide superconductor that they have investigated.
This certainly does not imply that the mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity has been identified - there are important differences between the copper oxides and the low-temperature materials, which will surely modify the old theory. But it does suggest that the answer may ultimately be less novel and exotic than was thought.
Philip Allen of the State University of New York at Stony Brook suggests in a News and Views article where the prevailing wisdom may have gone wrong.
CONTACT:
Zhi-Xun Shen tel +1 650 725 8254, email zxshen@stanford.edu
Philip Allen tel +1 516 632 8179, email philip.allen@sunysb.edu
[412534] COVER: ANALYSIS PUTS HUMANS AHEAD (pp534-538)
Were ice-age Neanderthals close relatives of modern humans, or completely different creatures? Evidence for the latter view comes from Christoph P. E. Zollikofer and Marcia S. Ponce de Le'³n of the University of Zürich, Switzerland.
The researchers apply sophisticated computer graphics to this ancient question by comparing the development from babyhood of Neanderthal and modern-human skulls. They show that the distinctive feature of the Neanderthal skull and face were established in early infancy - possibly even in the womb - rather than developing gradually through to adulthood.
Nature's cover shows a series of Neanderthal crania during development. A movie will be available on publication as Supplementary Information on http://www.nature.com.
CONTACT:
Christoph P. E. Zollikofer tel +41 1635 5427/6745, email zolli@ifi.unizh.ch
[412517] CHEMISTRY: PLASTIC ELECTRONICS ONE STEP CLOSER (pp517-520; N&V)
The organic compound pentacene has the key characteristics needed to produce the kind of thin films that could underpin devices such as flexible displays and smart cards. Recent advances in fabricating organic thin-film transistors have fuelled the high interest in the compound.
Now R. M. Tromp and colleagues of IBM's T J Watson Research Center, New York, report the fabrication of thin pentacene films with single crystal grains approaching 0.1 millimetre across, almost 100 times larger than previously achieved, and large enough to contain a complete 'plastic electronics' device.
"The dreams of cheap, flexible (and perhaps even biodegradable) microelectronics based on organic molecules may soon become a reality," says Robert J. Hamers of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in an accompanying News and Views article.
CONTACT:
R M Tromp tel +1 914 945 2060, e-mail rtromp@us.ibm.com
Robert J. Hamers tel +1 608 262 6371, e-mail rjhamers@facstaff.wisc.edu
[412508] SPACE: STAR'S ELUSIVE CORONA CAUGHT (pp508-510)
A total solar eclipse reveals the Sun's stunning corona - a glowing halo of swirling gas. Many decades ago, detection of ultraviolet light from the Sun's corona revealed it to be extremely hot, at a temperature of millions of degrees centigrade. Astronomers in this week's Nature have for the first time detected similar ultraviolet light from another star's corona, showing it to be similarly hot.
Coronas exist at very high temperatures - higher than the visible surface of the star or 'photosphere'. Yet the mechanism producing these ultra-high temperatures on the stellar surface is little understood.
Previously, only X-ray wavelengths picked up by satellites offered glimpses of other stars' coronas. Now Juergen Schmitt and Reiner Wichmann of the University of Hamburg, Germany, have detected the emission of ultraviolet light from the corona of the red-dwarf star CN Leonis using a ground-based telescope.
The spectral resolution of this telescope is much better than that of current X-ray telescopes, and reveals that some material in the corona is at a temperature range similar to that of the Sun. "We've opened the door," says Juergen - to easier, more economical studies into the mysterious stellar corona.
CONTACT:
Juergen Schmitt tel +49 40 42891 4131/4112, e-mail jschmitt@hs.uni-hamburg.de
[412520] CHEMISTRY: BATTERY RESEARCH RECHARGED (pp520-523)
Polymer electrolytes - salts dissolved in solid polymers - have been extensively studied for more than 25 years because of their potential use as electrolytes in all-solid-state rechargeable lithium batteries. For 20 years ionic conductivity has been considered to occur in these polymers only in the amorphous phase, above the glass transition temperature.
Now research into these materials could take off in new directions with the discovery, by Peter G. Bruce of the University of St Andrews, Fife, UK, that ionic conductivity can occur in a highly ordered crystalline arrangement. What is more, conductivity can be higher in the crystalline polymer than in the amorphous system, and battery construction could be facilitated by less mobile lithium ions.
CONTACT:
Peter G Bruce tel +44 1334 463825, e-mail p.g.bruce@st-andrews.ac.uk
[412530] RELICS: TITANOSAUR NOSE TO TAIL (pp530-534)
The Titanosauria, the last surviving group of the giant sauropod dinosaurs, attained a near-global distribution by the close of the Cretaceous period, 65 million years ago. Despite this cosmopolitan range, titanosaurs remain relatively poorly known, and none of the familiar sauropods known to museum visitors (such as Apatosaurus, Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus) belong to this group. One reason is that titanosaurs generally lost their heads after death, so researchers have little idea what the whole animals looked like.
This story has a happy ending (and beginning, and middle) thanks to Kristina Curry Rogers, now at the Science Museum of Minnesota, St Paul, and Catherine A. Forster of the State University of New York at Stony Brook. This week they describe what may be the most complete titanosaur skeleton yet discovered - including the skull and much of the rest of the skeleton - providing the best-ever picture of titanosaur anatomy, from nose to tail. The 8.5-metre-long creature lived 70-65 million years ago in Madagascar.
CONTACT:
Kristina Curry Rogers tel +1 651 221 9444, email krogers@smm.org
[412479] POLICY: MORAL MAJORITY IN GERMAN (pp479-480)
Nowhere is the debate about the nature of humanity, its rights and obligations, more heated than it is currently in Germany, says Hubert Markl, president of the Max Planck Society, in this week's Commentary.
Germany, with the Vatican, is taking the 'high ground' of moral justification in a stand against stem-cell research and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis. This contrasts with more pragmatic approach in Britain and elsewhere in Europe, where research on human embryos, including therapeutic cloning, is allowed under strictly controlled conditions.
According to Markl, the freedom of German citizens is under threat from the "zealous coercion of a misguided moral majority".
CONTACT:
Dr Christina Beck (Press and Public Relations) tel +49 89 2108 1306, e-mail beck@mpg-gv.mpg.de
[412497] AND FINALLY: MARSUPIALS GET THEIR TEETH INTO IT (pp497-498)
Sizeable inferences may be drawn from the discovery of a tiny fossil tooth unearthed in Madagascar. The tooth is from a marsupial, the first to be identified from the prehistoric southern supercontinent of Gondwana, and lends credence to the theory that the ancestors of modern mammals were not on Madagascar when it became an island - they had to travel across the sea to get there.
In a Brief Communication this week, David Krause of the State University of New York at Stony Brook reports finding the isolated tooth in rocks dated to the Late Cretaceous period (from the Maastrichtian age, 73-65 million years ago). The tooth, although not assigned to a particular species, clearly represents a marsupial - a startling find as all of today's Madagascan mammals are placental.
Marsupials are thought to have originated in the Northern Hemisphere and migrated through what are now South America and Antarctica to reach Madagascar. As it had become an island by the Maastrichtian age, the ancestors of Madagascar's modern mammals must have crossed a marine barrier in order to replace marsupials.
CONTACT
David Krause tel: +1 631 444 3117, e-mail dkrause@mail.som.sunysb.edu
Nature Publishing Group Reference
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