NEW ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT TECHNOLOGY
A new method for producing ultraviolet (UV) light has been patented by an international team of university researchers in New Jersey and Germany. The far-reaching technology is expected to contribute to major advancements in the semiconductor industry, where UV light has its largest commercial application. With colleagues at The Technical University in Munich, Rutgers-Newark physics professor Daniel Murnick has developed a system that provides a much more energy-efficient UV light source with higher power and lower maintenance than conventional UV light sources. UV light is an invisible part of the electromagnetic spectrum, and is a form of radiation responsible for tanning and in excess may be a risk factor for skin cancer. The UV light source developed by Murnick and colleagues uses a shorter wavelength than ambient UV light, sometimes called "deep UV or vacuum UV." The largest application for the deep UV light technology is materials processing in the semiconductor industry. Semiconductors are the basic material utilized in electronic devices for telecommunications and computer technology. Deep UV light sources are also used for sterilization of equipment in hospitals and the production of ozone for drinking water purification.
TASTE RECEPTOR FOR THE FLAVOR UMAMI
Humans can recognize five tastes: bitter, salty, sour, sweet and umami. Many have never heard of umami which is the flavor associated with monosodium glutamate. Researchers at Howard Hughes Medical Institute found the taste receptor for amino acids or umami. Better understanding of taste receptors may also permit scientists to formulate new products that have specific tastes. Charles S. Zuker of the University of California, San Diego, and Nicholas J. P. Ryba of the National Institutes of Health report their findings in Nature. "Since amino acids are essential building blocks of biologically important molecules such as proteins, it made evolutionary sense for there to be a taste pathway that would make amino acids attractive to consume," says Zuker. "Our ultimate goal was to understand how the brain knows what you just tasted, we wanted to discover how taste receptor cells are activated and how their signals travel to the brain." The researchers say they needed to define the different taste modalities at a cellular level, so that they could then follow their connectivity maps to the brain. "Now that we know the receptors we can begin to work on our original goal, to map this system to understand how taste is encoded," Zuker says.
'SMART' METHODS FOR DETECTING COMPUTER INTRUDERS
A team of Penn State and Iowa State researchers rate three "smart" classification methods, capable of detecting the telltale patterns of entry and misuse left by a typical computer network intruder, in the journal Decision Sciences. In February 2000, Yahoo, Amazon, EBay, Datek and E-Trade were shut down due to denial-of-service attacks on their Web servers. The U.S. General Accounting Office reports the number of attacks is doubling every year and the GAO estimates less than 4 percent of these attacks will be detected and less will be reported. "No network security system or firewall can ever be completely foolproof," Dr. Chao-Hsien Chu says. "So there is always a need for a 'watchdog' to patrol the network and signal when an intrusion occurs." Commercially available watchdog systems depend on traditional statistical techniques. However, the newer 'smart' methods promise to have a significant impact on accuracy. "Even the cleverest intruder leaves electronic footprints on breaking into a secure computer data network such as bank, medical or credit records. The new "smart" methods can collect information from a variety of sources within the network, "learn" the patterns of the perpetrator and make a reasoned prediction about whether the pattern represents intrusion or not.
GROWING ROSES WITHOUT CHEMICALS
Roses are one of the oldest and most popular flowers, brought first to the U.S. by European colonists. They remain a mainstay of the floral business and a perennial favorite of many home gardeners. But they have been thought to require a considerable amount of chemical intervention to flourish. "Growing roses can be challenging," says John F. Karlik, of the University of California. "Rose varieties vary considerably in susceptibility to diseases, which are more of a problem in humid climates." Karlik, who works for the University of California Cooperative Extension in Bakersfield, Calif. and Mary Lou Flint, write about ways to keep roses healthy in "Healthy Roses: Environmentally Friendly Ways to Manage Pests and Disorders in Your Garden and Landscape." The wise selection of rose varieties is a big step toward avoiding problems in the first place, he says. Less toxic pesticides include soaps, oils, and certain microbial products. "It is possible to grow healthy roses with beautiful blooms and make few or no pesticide applications," says Karlik.
(EDITOR: For more information, about ULTRAVIOLET, call 973 353-5262; about UMAMI, call 301 215-8500; about SMART, call 814 865-9481; about ROSES, call 651 994-3853.)
