Plastic soda bottles- your new car seat cover

Ford Explores 'Suede' Fabrics Made From Pop Bottles, Nanotechnology, and More
Ford Motor Co., which is turning recycling plastic soda bottles into suede-like fabrics for vehicle interiors, is wading deeper into bio-based materials with soy-based rubber fillers and plastics that can biodegrade in 90 to 120 days -- compared to 1,000 years for conventional petroleum-based plastic.

The company introduced soy-based polyurethane foam seat cushions and backs in 2007, and has since included the cushions in more than a million vehicles, with a million more planned this year. The switch has avoided more than 5 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.

A soy-foam headliner is destined for the 2010 Escape and Mariner models. Now under development is rubber made with soy protein fillers instead of petroleum-based fillers for door seals, floor mats, gaskets and splash shields.
Other examples of innovative materials in use at Ford include recycled and reassembled ebony wood used in Lincoln vehicles, such as the Navigator.

The resins from used detergent bottles, tires and battery casings are also recycled into underbody systems, including aerodynamic shields, splash shields and radiator deflector shields. All 2009 models in North America will use recycled resin.

The 2010 Fusion and Mercury Milan hybrids will sport seat fabrics made from 100 percent post-industrial recycled yarns, which will reduce energy consumption 64 percent and greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent.

Twenty used soda bottles make one meter of the faux suede fabric used for the seats of the 2010 Ford Taurus SHO and Lincoln MKZ models.

To read more on what Ford is doing: http://www.ford.com/about-ford/news-announcements/press-releases/press-releases-detail/pr-ford-builds-on-ecofriendly-30398

Solar concept tent

Orange Solar Tent for trips in wild with electronic ammunition: Designed in collaboration with American product design consultancy Kaleidoscope, the Orange Solar Concept Tent harnesses solar energy to charge your gadgetry through a wireless charging pouch.

Luxury campers with eco values are simply going to appreciate the “tent of the future” as envisioned by Orange. Camping needs have gone just too modern. To address the same, Orange has revealed the new “Solar Concept Tent” that will make sure that your essential camping gadgets never run out of power in the wild. The tent features photovoltaic fabric in three directional glides, which move throughout the day to capture the maximum sun energy. The specially coated solar threads are woven into conventional fabric and are easy to fold. The integrated “glo-cation” technology will help the campers track the location of their tent. With the glo-claton, campers can use mobile phones to identify their tent using either an SMS message or automatically active RFID technology. The tent will start glowing and could be easily located in the dark.

The Solar tent has a central wireless control hub that shows energy generated and consumed, and a wireless internet signal on a flexible, touchscreen LCD display screen. The central hub also controls an internal heating element, which is activated automatically once the interior temperature falls below a set level.

To read about this in greater detail go to: http://newsroom.orange.co.uk/2009/06/22/orange-pitches-glastonbury-solar-concept-tent/

Sunnygram: Email meets the mail Box.

Sunnygram: Email meets the mail Box.

Sunnygram is the newest entrant in a field of products trying to bridge the technical divide between those who e-mail and their loved ones who don't. Early efforts, like the Mail Station and Mail Bug, tried to create computer products simple enough for the elderly to learn to use. The next generation of services has scrapped that paradigm entirely. Instead, companies like Sunnygram, Presto and Celery are turning e-mails into faxs, phone messages or stamped letters — media senior citizens already understand — so that users can keep in touch on their own terms. "My dad doesn't feel capable of managing e-mail, but I live in front of my computer," says Bellanca. Adds Presto CEO Peter Radsliff: "The adoption of all-electronic means of communication makes it more and more arduous for the technically savvy to revert to analog."

"Our users are not technophiles, which is why they are interested in Sunnygram," says co-founder Matt Ahart, "so it seems inconvenient to burden them with having to set up and maintain fax equipment." Along with individualized newsletters, which are basically a compendium of all e-mails and photos sent to a person's account that week, Sunnygram subscribers get a self-addressed stamped envelope. They can hand-write replies and mail them to the company, which scans and e-mails the notes to the right people. Or they can call a toll-free number and leave a message for Sunnygram to transcribe and e-mail. "Everyone can communicate the way they want and still be part of the same conversation," Ahart says.

Read the full article: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1905545,00.html
Watch the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGjzvxye1_s
Check out the website: http://www.sunnygram.com/

Beads which change color: impact: reusable signage, posters, labels

Magnetochromatic Beads

RIVERSIDE, Calif., June, 18, 2009 – Microscopic polymer beads that change color instantly and reversibly when external magnetic fields acting upon the microspheres change orientation, have been discovered by a research team at the University of California, Riverside.

Applications of the new material include display type units such as rewritable or reusable signage, posters, papers and labels, and other magnetically activated security features. The new material also can be used to make environmentally friendly pigments for paints and cosmetics, as well as ink materials for color printing.

"Unlike many conventional approaches, the instantaneous color change occurs with no change in the structure or intrinsic properties of the microspheres themselves," said Yadong Yin, an assistant professor of chemistry who led the study that brought together chemists at UCR and engineers at Seoul National University, South Korea. "What changes instead are the magnetic fields acting externally on the orientation of these microspheres, these photonic crystals. Our work provides a new mechanism for inducing color change in materials. Now, for the first time, stable photonic materials with tunable colors can be fabricated on a large scale." "The new technology has a great potential for a wide range of photonic applications because the on/off switching of the diffraction color”

See the change in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKsgzk5quZU
Read More at: http://www.photonics.com/Content/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=38171

The world’s most advanced bionic hand

The world's first commercially available bionic hand took many hands many years to develop. Created by Touch Bionics, it's multi-articulating, meaning each finger has its own motor.

Artificial hands are often hooklike, limited to simple open and close gestures, but the iLimb has more subtle capabilities, like a credit-card grip for grasping narrow objects. It also has a power hold for larger things like coffee mugs. Research on the device began in the United Kingdom's national health system back in the 1960s.

One of the key features is the material from which the bionic hand is made of, i.e. high-strength plastics, which make the i-LIMB lightweight, robust and highly appealing to patients. Developers made it possible for the fingers to be unscrewed from the hand, so it would be easier to service. Previous artificial hands had to be completely removed in case they broke, which was rather uncomfortable since the amputees had to wait for weeks until their prosthetic hand is fixed.

Since the launch of the device, over 400 amputees benefited from the new bionic hand, which was characterized by Stuart Mead, the CEO of Touch Bionics, as one of the company's greatest accomplishments. He was very honored with fact that the i-LIMB was listed in Time magazine along with many incredible inventions of 2008.

Next up for Touch Bionics? A prosthetic wrist unit, prosthetic fingers and a full bionic arm.
See the hand in action: http://neurophilosophy.wordpress.com/2006/12/21/the-worlds-most-advanced-bionic-hand/

A Camera For the Blind

Touch Sight camera for the blind displays photos using Braille

Paradoxical as it sounds, the Touch Sight camera makes it possible for the visually impaired to take pictures. The photographer holds the camera up to his or her forehead, and a Braille-like screen on the back makes a raised image of whatever the lens sees.

“Touch Sight is a revolutionary digital camera designed for visually impaired people. Simple features make it easy to use, including a unique feature which records sound for three seconds after pressing the shutter button. The user can then use the sound as reference when reviewing and managing the photos. Touch Sight does not have an LCD but instead has a lightweight, flexible Braille display sheet which displays a 3D image by embossing the surface, allowing the user to touch their photo. The sound file and picture document combine to become a touchable photo that is saved in the device and can be uploaded to share with others–and downloaded to other Touch Sight cameras.”

It is still a concept and is yet to hit the markets.
Read more at : http://www.yankodesign.com/2008/08/13/this-camera-is-outta-sight/

Worlds first rotating skyscraper

The Dynamic Tower (also known as Dynamic Architecture Building or the Da Vinci Tower) is a proposed 420-metre (1,378 ft), 80-floor tower in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The tower is expected to be architecturally innovative for several reasons:

Uniquely, each floor will be able to rotate independently. This will result in a constantly changing shape of the tower. Each floor will rotate a maximum of 6 metres (20 ft) per minute, or one full rotation in 90 minutes.

It will also be the world's first prefabricated skyscraper with 40 factory-built modules. 90% of the tower will be built in a factory and shipped to the construction site. This will allow the entire building to be built in only 22 months. The only part of the tower that will be built at the construction site will be the core. Part of this prefabrication will be the decrease in cost and number of workers (90 instead of 2,000 needed). The total construction time will be more than 30% less than a normal skyscraper of the same size. The majority of the workers will be in factories, where it will be much safer. The modules will be preinstalled including kitchen and bathroom fixtures. The core will serve each floor with a special connection for clean water, based on patented technology used to refuel airplanes in mid-flight.

The entire tower will be powered from wind turbines and solar panels. Enough surplus electricity should be produced to power five other similar sized buildings in the vicinity. The turbines will be located between each of the rotating floors. They could generate up to 1,200,000 kilowatt-hours of energy. The solar panels will be located on the roof.

Construction of the Dynamic Tower, is expected to be completed in 2010. The location of the Dynamic Tower has been finalised.
Each of the 80 floors in the world's first moving skyscraper will have offices and a hotel, topped by apartments. Designed by Italian architect David Fisher and located in Dubai (another is planned for Moscow), the prefab, wind-powered tower will cost an estimated $700 million. The residences will sell for $3.7 million to $36 million. The building should be completed in 2010.
Check the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq-QUkE1DGM

Frame shift: From expiry date to "ready-to-use" date on food packets

Made-in-Transit Packaging
Most fresh food comes with a "best before" date, but Amsterdam-based Canadian designer Agata Jaworska thinks it should be marked "ready by." Her concept: packaging in which food can keep growing during shipping to the supermarket so that it arrives ready to be harvested, in a state of optimum freshness.
'Made in Transit' is a supply chain concept in which the production of fresh perishable food happens on the way to the supermarket, shifting the paradigm of packaging from preserving freshness to enabling growth, a shift from 'best before' to 'ready by'.

Transportation is essential in connecting distant factories, and in bringing the goods to the market, but it only serves to relocate the goods, and not to transform them in any productive way. The industry takes for granted that transportation and packaging can only locate and protect and not create or transform.
Transportation and packaging are viewed as essential yet expensive and wasteful.
But if one was to take a total chain perspective from the outset and skip steps, merge steps, or reverse the order of events, maybe transportation can be factored in as a productive creator of value.
Made in Transit is a holistic reconsideration of the product supply chain in which a synthesis of production with distribution creates a new mode of production.
Currently, 'production' equals 'transformation', 'packaging' equals 'protection' and 'distribution' equals 're-location'.
If we can turn the package into a growth condition, then the chain becomes: 1) packaging, 2) on the way growth and 3) consumption.
The packaging and distribution functions would be transformed into production. The consequences of merging production with distribution could lead to the end of the factory since distribution space simultaneously becomes production space thereby eliminating or drastically reducing the need for a land-based production facility. On-demand production could also become more of a reality. If the product can be created on the way to the market, then it does not have to be made until the order comes in. This prevents overproduction and consequent waste.

Read in more detail: http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/Supply-Chain/Made-in-Transit-The-end-of-the-factory
Watch a two minute animation: http://youtube.com/watch?v=oWcOgzNNHlE
A five minute presentation by Agata: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Oras6CRRWzQ

Smog-Eating Cement

Smog-Eating Cement to help cities stay pollution-free!

Italcementi has after 10 years of research developed a special cement product aimed at providing a genuine industrialized solution to the problem of pollution in cities. Apart from being a material that essentially cleans itself, minimizing the need for maintenance, the substance TX active, which contains titanium dioxide, is a photocatalytic principle for cement products which can reduce organic and inorganic pollutants that are present in the air.

Extensive testing, sponsored in part by a European Union research project into "smart" antipollution materials, has since determined that construction products containing titanium dioxide help to destroy air pollutants found in car exhaust and heating emissions, scientists say. The substance can be used not just for the facades of buildings, but also in paint, plaster, and paving materials for roads. In one test, paving material using photocatalytic cement was used to cover the asphalt surface of a 230-meter- long stretch of road outside Milan with an average traffic flow of 1,000 vehicles per hour. Tests showed a reduction in nitrogen oxides at street level of about 60 percent, according to Italcementi. TX Active's effectiveness has been verified by independent bodies like the National Research Council (CNR).

TX Active costs about 10 times as much as normal cement, or about €1, or $1.30, per kilogram. But since the photocatalytic concrete is applied very thinly and only to areas that are exposed to the atmosphere, officials at Italcementi say, the cost of treating the façade of a five-story building with the product would be just €100 higher than with traditional paint or plaster. Paving with photocatalytic blocks would raise the price by 10 to 20 percent.
Do check the youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUz32y3V72c

Sunscreen for Plants

Sunscreen for Plants
According to clean chemical company Purfresh, food growers lose between 20 and 40 percent of their crops every year due to sun damage, especially in water-limited regions. The company recently developed a kind of "plant sunscreen" rated at SPF 45 that protects crops from harmful UV and IR rays while permitting beneficial rays to reach the plants.

Called "Purshade (TM)," the sunscreen reduces solar stress and improves water utilization efficiency. Growers spray the product, which can be mixed with other pre-harvest sprays, on their crops. Purshade forms a thin film of microscopic mirror-like tiny prisms that reflect certain parts of the sun's spectrum. It lasts throughout the season, and is easily removed after harvesting through traditional processing and washing.
Already, studies have shown that Purshade reduces physical damage caused by the sun in crops located around the world. Not only does it minimize crop loss, but it also improves plant quality. Purshade's developers predict that plant sunscreen will become more valuable with the increasingly harsh growing conditions and hotter climates of the future.

Check out the company’s website: http://www.purfresh.com/index.html

Google's Floating Data Center

A self-powered data center placed three to seven miles offshore, potentially operating off the grid: Standard shipping containers would house racks of computers that could be transported by truck and placed onto a boat by crane.

The hidden cost of the triumph of the Internet is the rise of the data center. The Net runs on huge complexes of hot, power-hungry servers that eat up real estate and energy in massive quantities — in 2006 data centers consumed a staggering 1.5% of the U.S.'s entire supply of electricity. Engineers at Google may have found a way out: the self-sufficient floating data center. According to a patent filed by Google, wind turbines and wave-powered generators will provide the electricity. Ocean water will cool the servers, which throw off huge amounts of heat. And offshore real estate is essentially free.


A wave-power generator would be the primary source of electricity. But wind turbines could be used to, for example, run water pumps and a tidal power generator could be used in rivers. The patent specifies the use of a so-called Pelamis machine, which uses pontoons with pumps to convert wave motion into electricity. A British company, Pelamis Wave Power, is operating a prototype in Scotland and intends to install one off Portugal.
Google engineers calculate that an array of pontoons spread over a square kilometer (a bit more than a half mile) could produce 30 megawatts of electricity, enough to operate a single system.

Read more at : http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/09/06/google-planning-offshore-data-barges/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10034753-54.html

Switch computer on/off like a switch

Image via Wikipedia

Memristor: a circuit that remembers its history even when turned off

Researchers at HP Labs have solved a decades-old mystery by proving the existence of a fourth basic element in integrated circuits that could make it possible to develop computers that turn on and off like an electric light. The memristor — short for memory resistor - could make it possible to develop far more energy-efficient computing systems with memories that retain information even after the power is off, so there's no wait for the system to boot up after turning the computer on. It may even be possible to create systems with some of the pattern-matching abilities of the human brain.

The memristor first appeared in a 1971 paper published by Professor Leon Chua, a distinguished faculty member in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Department of the University of California Berkeley.Chua described and named the memristor, arguing that it should be included along with the resistor, capacitor and inductor as the fourth fundamental circuit element. The memristor has properties that cannot be duplicated by any combination of the other three elements.

"To find something new and yet so fundamental in the very mature field of electrical engineering is a big surprise," said R. Stanley Williams, an HP Senior Fellow and director of the Information and Quantum Systems Lab (IQSL).

Brain-like systems?
As for the human brain-like characteristics, memristor technology could one day lead to computer systems that can remember and associate patterns in a way similar to how people do.
This could be used to substantially improve facial recognition technology or to provide more complex biometric recognition systems that could more effectively restrict access to personal information.
These same pattern-matching capabilities could enable appliances that learn from experience and computers that can make decisions.

http://www.hpl.hp.com/news/2008/apr-jun/memristor.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memristor

Science to help reinvent economy

Can science reinvent the economy?
We have created a monster. Financial markets have grown so complex that neither intuition nor standard economic models can get to grips with them. So what's to be done to avoid a repeat of the financial disasters of the past couple of years? In this special feature, Mark Buchanan looks at some of the creative ideas being explored to tame the markets, not just by economists, but by physicists, engineers, biologists and others.

1. Bubble math : Common sense would have suggested that the huge housing bubble would lead to disaster: so why did some financial institutions assess risks with models that ignored the possibility that prices might fall?
2. The human factor : Purely mathematical approaches to predicting the economy have a big drawback – the irrational behaviour of people
3. Network solutions : Bubbles are nothing new, but now a bubble in just one country can cause the whole world's economy to collapse – so how do we stop the dominoes toppling?
4. Predicting the big one : According to classical economics, financial crises don't happen – clearly, then, there is a lot wrong with classical economics
5. An economy in a computer : Can we pack an entire economy, with all its complex human and political interactions, into a computer? Yes, say experts, as long as we're bold enough about it
6. Out of kilter : Trying to predict markets in the same way as earthquakes comes with the same limitations – it does not tell us when and where the next cataclysmic event will be
7. Will it be enough? : For all science can tell us, we might in the end have to accept that we are at the mercy of the markets – and ultimately human nature

An Excerpt from Out of kilter :
Trends in macroeconomics are the sum of microeconomic decisions, but attempts to extrapolate from the one to the other are by necessity grossly oversimplified, says Eric Weinstein, a physicist who works for the Natron Group, a hedge fund in New York City. At the moment, that ideal is confounded by the sheer number of individual interactions in any real market. The result is a gaping divide between microeconomics (the study of how individual people and companies in a market make decisions to buy and sell) and macroeconomics (the study of movements in economy-wide indicators such as GDP, inflation and unemployment).

Might physics help in bridging the divide? Physics also deals separately with the microscopic - the individual movements of particles in a gas, say - and the macroscopic, for example when the sum of those movements creates a pressure that enables a gas to push a piston. But it also has mathematical frameworks, such as statistical mechanics, capable of bridging the gap between them.
Weinstein has been involved in one of the most audacious attempts to meld physics and economics: showing how gauge theory, the mathematical underpinning of the quantum field theories of the standard model of particle physics, might be the key to a rational theory of economics based only on physically observable quantities, rather than hypotheticals akin to the economists' list of ordered preferences. Impressed by this idea, physicist Lee Smolin of the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, has recently studied how gauge theory ideas might be incorporated into some basic economic theories about how markets work.

Some physicists suggest that these models can be used to identify particular moments when markets are likely to make big moves. Neil Johnson of the University of Miami in Florida has used agent models to show how "windows of predictability" open up when many agents come to hold similar beliefs, meaning that they are likely all to act in a similar way in the near future. In one demonstration, he and his colleagues were able to use this technique to predict the movements of a foreign exchange market with more than 90 per cent accuracy

'Beehive fence' deters elephants

'Beehive fence' deters elephants : SIMPLE BUT EFFECTIVE
A simple fence made from wood, wire and beehives can deter elephants from raiding farmers' crops. A pilot study in Kenya has shown that such fences reduce the number of raids by elephants by almost half. The work is the culmination of previous research which showed elephants are naturally scared of African honey bees.

A much larger trial is now under way in the hope the fences will provide an elegant solution to years of conflict between elephants and farmers. In Kenya, elephants are not confined to national parks or reserves. As they roam, they often come across increasing numbers of farms created by pastoralists who are being encouraged to settle down and grow crops.

The elephants break into the farms and raid them for food such as ripe tomatoes, potatoes and maize. That causes significant economic damage and conflict with farmers who occasionally resort to shooting, spearing or poisoning elephants to protect their livelihoods and families.
So researchers from a British university worked with the charity Save the Elephants to conduct a pilot study of a novel "beehive fence". The design is based on the idea that elephants are wary of honey bees in the wild. In 2002, University of Oxford zoologist Fritz Vollrath discovered that elephants avoided trees with beehives in. Colleague Lucy King followed this idea up by showing that elephants would quickly move on even if they heard the sound of a buzzing hive.
Now a team led by King, including Vollrath, has taken the idea to its logical conclusion - the creation of a fence containing beehives. In the Ex-Erok community in the southern region of Laikipia, Kenya, the team recruited farmers whose crops were regularly raided by elephants. Around the side of one farm, nine traditional log beehives were hung under small thatched roofs, with each being linked by wire. In all, the fence continued for 90m with each hive 10m apart. The hives were left empty.

Innovative contact lenses look to dispense drugs

Image via Wikipedia

Innovative contact lenses look to dispense drugs
Eye-drops may be a simple way of medicating the eye, but patients don't always get the right dose at the right time. Eyenovations has developed contact lenses that can deliver drugs to the eye in measured doses for a month or longer. The start-up company's initial focus is developing a lens to help glaucoma patients. However, it believes the technology can be used to help other eye conditions and deliver antibiotics following surgery.
Glaucoma affects about 2.5 million Americans each year and the numbers are growing. Treatment involves administering eye-drops up to eight times a day but, because patients often have few symptoms, especially in the early stages, many give up on their medication regime. A self-medicating lens could greatly help these people as well as the elderly, disabled, inhabitants of remote areas and others who find it difficult to stick with a regimented schedule

The team from Cambridge, Massachusetts has developed the drug-dispensing technology using a hydro-gel lens with a polymer film inside, which contains the medication.

The lens gradually releases the medication at a rate determined by the properties of both the lens and polymer film. Future versions may allow the medication to be stored in the hydro-gel material of the lens. This ensures patients with eye conditions requiring drops, especially those who struggle to follow a medication schedule, receive the right amount of medication at the right time.
Read full article: http://www.gizmag.com/innovative-contact-lenses-look-to-dispense-drugs/11792/

Algae could give biofuels

NASA Envisions "Clean Energy" From Algae Grown in Waste Water

NASA scientists have proposed an ingenious and remarkably resourceful process to produce "clean energy" biofuels, that cleans waste water, removes carbon dioxide from the air, retains important nutrients, and does not compete with agriculture for land or freshwater.

Algae are similar to other plants in that they remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, produce oxygen as a by-product of photosynthesis, and use phosphates, nitrogen, and trace elements to grow and flourish. Unlike many plants, they produce fatty, lipid cells loaded with oil that can be used as fuel.

"The inspiration I had was to use offshore membrane enclosures to grow algae. We're going to deploy a large plastic bag in the ocean, and fill it with sewage. The algae use sewage to grow, and in the process of growing they clean up the sewage," said Jonathan Trent, the lead research scientist on the Spaceship Earth project at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Cali.

It is a simple, but elegant concept. The bag will be made of semi-permeable membranes that allow fresh water to flow out into the ocean, while retaining the algae and nutrients. The membranes are called "forward-osmosis membranes." NASA is testing these membranes for recycling dirty water on future long-duration space missions. They are normal membranes that allow the water to run one way. With salt water on the outside and fresh water on the inside, the membrane prevents the salt from diluting the fresh water. It's a natural process, where large amounts of fresh water flow into the sea.

Floating on the ocean's surface, the inexpensive plastic bags will be collecting solar energy as the algae inside produce oxygen by photosynthesis. The algae will feed on the nutrients in the sewage, growing rich, fatty cells. Through osmosis, the bag will absorb carbon dioxide from the air, and release oxygen and fresh water. The temperature will be controlled by the heat capacity of the ocean, and the ocean's waves will keep the system mixed and active.

When the process is completed, biofuels will be made and sewage will be processed. For the first time, harmful sewage will no longer be dumped into the ocean. The algae and nutrients will be contained and collected in a bag. Not only will oil be produced, but nutrients will no longer be lost to the sea. According to Trent, the system ideally is fail proof. Even if the bag leaks, it won't contaminate the local environment. The enclosed fresh water algae will die in the ocean.

The bags are expected to last two years, and will be recycled afterwards. The plastic material may be used as plastic mulch, or possibly as a solid amendment in fields to retain moisture.

For full article read: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/features/2009/clean_energy_042209.html

SEE THROUGH FISH- to help study cancer

Scientists Create See-Through Fish, Watch Cancer Grow:

A newly bred fish bares all in the lab, revealing brain, heart and other internal organs in the name of research.
Scientists are breeding zebrafish with see-through bodies in order to make studying disease processes easier, including the spread of cancer.
The transparent fish, described in the Feb. 7 issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, are allowing researchers at Children's Hospital Boston to directly view fish's internal organs and observe processes such as tumor growth in real-time in living organisms.
Scientists previously studied disease in the embryos of zebrafish, which are naturally transparent. But their clear bodies turn opaque when they grow into adults. The newly created zebrafish stays transparent throughout its lifetime.

Traditionally, researchers have relied on information collected after the diseased animal died to infer anything about human ailments. But for rapidly changing processes such as cancer, this snapshot method is bound to miss something. "It's like taking a photograph when you need a video," said White, also an instructor of medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
White created the transparent fish, which he nicknamed Casper, by mating two existing zebrafish breeds, one that lacked a reflective skin pigment and the other without black pigment. The offspring had only yellow skin pigment, essentially appearing clear.
In one experiment, White and his colleagues inserted a fluorescent melanoma tumor into the abdominal cavity of the transparent fish. By observing the fish under a microscope, they found that the cancer cells started spreading within five days. White could actually see individual cells spreading.
"The process by which a tumor goes from being localized to widespread and ultimately fatal is the most vexing problem that oncologists face," White said. "We don't know why cancer cells decide to move away from their primary site to other parts in the body."
The spreading melanoma cells appeared to flock toward the skin after leaving the abdominal cavity. "This told us that when tumor cells spread to other parts in the body, they don't do it randomly," White said. "They know where to go."

Read more at: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/02/06/644161.aspx