mosquito repellent: A bird found in Alaska is believed to emit a natural mosquito repellent, according to Hector Douglas, a researcher at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. The crested auklet gives off a citrus smell that repels mosquitoes and pests such as ticks and lice.
An analysis of the chemicals that make up the auklet's "odorant" revealed that most are available commercially. He then tested their repellent properties using mosquitoes specially bred at a research lab in Florida for their aggressive tendencies. Douglas dabbed test samples on filter paper, attached that paper to his hand, then put it in a cage with hungry mosquitoes. It was clear the auklet samples kept mosquitoes away.
urine power: Physicists in Singapore have created the first urine-powered paper battery. The credit-card sized unit could be a useful power source for cheap healthcare test kits for diseases like diabetes, and could even be used in emergency situations to power a cellphone, they say.
Testing urine can reveal the identity of illnesses, and the new paper battery could allow the sample being tested to also power the diagnostic device, says Ki Bang Lee, at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Singapore.
The urine-powered battery was able to generate a voltage of about 1.5 volts -- with a corresponding power of 1.5 micro-watts -- using just 0.2 millilitres of urine, says Lee.
aging gene: The loss of a gene called p63 accelerates aging in mice, according to a study conducted by Alea Mills of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the US, and colleagues. Similar genes are present in many organisms, including humans.
The scientists say mice born without the p63 gene do not survive and those born with only one copy of the gene die at a young age. To study p63 function in adult mice, they devised a molecular genetic technique enabling them to eliminate both copies of the gene from particular tissues after the animals reached maturity. The effects of premature aging observed in the p63 deficient mice included hair loss, reduced fitness and shortened lifespan, according to the scientists.
super magnet: US scientists have made a super magnet that weighs more than 15 tonnes and has a magnetic field 420,000 times that of the Earth's -- strong enough to pull a metal object out of a person's hand and send it flying -- if people were allowed to get close enough.
The magnet is located at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. It is one of only nine high magnetic field labs in the world.
The new device could lead to major advances in the field of medicine, materials research and basic understanding of nature.
It's not as powerful as another magnet already in operation at the lab, but has the biggest chamber in which objects are placed to be exposed to the magnetic field.
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