Stories of modern science ... from UPI

INTEGRATED OPTICS FOR PLANETARY SEARCH

The European Space Agency's strategy for more sophisticated searches for extra-solar planets includes combining light from such planets in different telescopes. ESA researchers say combining light beams requires moving mirrors and lenses to divert the beams to where you want them, but a system that moves also can break so it would be ideal to have tiny devices without moving parts. The idea is to build a miniature optical system that fits onto a microchip -- integrated optics. As light travels, integrated optics would channel it through the chip, in the right direction. The science of integrated optics still is developing and the ESA has commissioned two studies to determine its viability. Should the integrated-optics approach work, the rewards would extend to Earth as well. It could speed up the Internet by 100 to 1,000 times.

TELESCOPE TO GET ALUMINUM COAT

Ohio State scientists are getting ready to put a 1-ounce whisper-thin aluminum coating on the Large Binocular Telescope, a critical construction phase for what will be the world's largest optical and infrared telescope when it is finished in 2004. Bruce Atwood and his team first, however, had to perfect the process. In a 30-foot diameter steel cell, a 28-foot dummy mirror simulated one of the LBT mirrors. The cell was sealed against a similarly sized lid, called a bell jar, to create a clean, high-vacuum environment for coating. Researchers then super-heated an array of 25 crucibles, each containing a quarter of an ounce of aluminum. The aluminum melted, then boiled inside the chamber and just as steam escapes from a boiling pot and condenses as water on the lid, some of the evaporated aluminum floated through the chamber and condensed on the surface of the mirror. Molecules of a scattering gas spread the molecules of gaseous aluminum so they deposited evenly. The telescope is being made to support this thin coating of reflective aluminum because without it, it won't be able to see.

MEN HAVE BIOLOGICAL CLOCK

Men have a biological clock that ticks down with age, just like women. Researchers at the University of Washington have found a cellular basis for this male reproductive clock. Their study finds sperm in men older than 35 showed more DNA damage than that of younger men. In the study of 60 men, age 22 to 60, computerized semen analyses were performed looking for breaks in sperm cell DNA and evidence of apoptosis, or cell suicide. The researchers found in men over 35 the sperm had lower motility and more highly damaged DNA. The older group also had fewer apoptotic cells -- an important discovery indicating there are fewer cells that simply commit suicide when they no longer function -- a way of protecting the body and prevent the transfer of damaged DNA to offspring.

FIGURING OUT HOW CRAYFISH SWIM

Researchers at the University of California-Davis used computer models to identify the neurons and connections necessary for crayfish to swim. Neurobiology Professor Brian Mulloney says the nervous system controlling locomotion is highly tuned and stable across different groups of animals, making crayfish a good model for much more complex nervous systems such as the human spinal cord. Mulloney's group built math models of the crayfish nervous system and used them to design experiments to record impulses in crayfish nerves. They showed the swimmeret system -- pairs of paddles on each body segment used for swimming -- is made up of eight modules of 70 neurons each. They found which neurons are necessary to complete the circuit and what cells they connect to. As the swimmerets beat, each module receives nerve impulses from the modules behind and in front of it. Those different messages converge on the same target neuron and that combined signal tells the module when to release neurotransmitters -- chemicals which change the timing and force of limb movement.

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(EDITORS: For more information on OPTICS, contact Malcolm Fridlund at 31 (0)71 565 4768 or e-mail malcolm.fridlund@esa.int. For TELESCOPE, Bruce Atwood, 614-292-6279 or Atwood.1@osu.edu, for BIOLOGICAL CLOCK, Rob Harrill, 206-543-2580 or rharrill@u.washington.edu, and for CRAYFISH, Andy Fell, 530-752-4533 or ahfell@ucdavis.edu)