The World's Smallest Etch-a-Sketch

Science-A-Sketch

Etch-a-sketch is a classic childhood toy. In fact, it's so well- known it even makes a cameo in Toy Story. Now, 50 years on, it's hard to see how you could re-invent this art pad, but some researchers at the London Centre for Nanotechnology may  have done just that, on an nano-scale at least.

The team have discovered they can use an X-ray beam to draw  shapes, by giving a material high superconductivity, (when a  material causes no energy to be lost as electricity flows through  it).

They use a 'pad' made of oxygen, copper and lanthanium, an element also used for hybrid car batteries. They then shine an X-ray 'pen' onto the pad to create areas where the electricity can flow un-opposed. This occurs as the oxygen atoms beneath the X-ray beam rearrange, to allow electricity to flow more easily through them. This leaves behind a trail, or drawing, which can then be wiped off using a heat treatment, in the same way you could erase a drawing on an Etch-a-Sketch by shaking it.

The scientists so far have used the method of changing a material's structure to draw very precise circuits, which can be altered in one simple step. This is a huge discovery for technology and will have an impact on everything which uses superconductors, from MRI scans to MAGLEV trains.

Prof Bianconi, the leader of the research team said, “It is amazing that in a few simple steps, we can now add superconducting ‘intelligence’ directly to a material consisting mainly of the common elements copper and oxygen.”

Dolphin Wisdom Revealed

According to a friend, people think we’ll be able to talk with dolphins within 5 years. After questioning his drinking habits (and a quick Google), it turns out he was right. Research has shown that once we get the basics of the ‘click click’ language of dolphin’s down, we’ll be able to hold full conversations with them in as little as five years time.

Will we be able to speak directly to this dolphin, and it its own language, soon?

Ten years ago, at the Dolphin Institute in Hawaii, Louis Herman found Dolphins could understand the difference between statements, questions, concepts like “zero” and that by changing the word order of a sentence you change its meaning. Then last year researchers at the Wild Dolphin Project in California, developed a method of communicating with dolphins via whistles and signals. The dolphins quickly learnt which signal stood for which object during half-hour sessions spent with the creatures. This meant humans could play fetch with the dolphins for specific toys.

Now, those same scientists have taken it a step further by creating a way for the dolphins to request the humans fetch them things back. They originally set up a huge keyboard with images on, which the dolphins could use to point out ‘requests’ such as seaweed to play with. This has progressed into advanced equipment divers wear around their necks which repeats a word coined to mean things like ‘seaweed’, until the dolphins repeat it back. The diver’s can’t do this themselves as dolphins clicks range to wavelengths far above those we are able to hear, and since they don’t turn their heads to look at who they’re speaking to, it’s hard to know which member of a school is speaking. Slowly, the team are building a new language which both dolphins and humans can understand.

The next step is to start listening out for specific pieces of language from the dolphins themselves so that they can start piecing together a dictionary of sorts, with which to translate the dolphins most intimate conversations. After that who knows what we could learn, the Dolphin Communication Research team, SpeakDolphin has come up with 20 suggestions they would like to ask dolphins first. ‘What name do you call yourselves?’ seems a bit mundane, but ‘are you in contact with life forms beyond this planet?’, seems much more like it.

Natural mathematicians nonplussed by negative numbers from an early age

Ai is 35 years old and lives with her son, Ayumu. They both work together in a computer lab in Kyoto, Japan. Ai and Ayumu caused a riot in 2008 when they proved they could win at any standard (albeit math based) computer game. Using their faster-than-average ability to remember numbers in sequence they would beat the computer to win a sip of apple juice. Oh yeah, they are also chimpanzees.

Ayumu enjoying a spot of number sequencing from memory

Their research proved that all animals are born with a natural instinct for numbers. Specifically, how to compare ratios, such as whether or not the tree on the left or right has more fruit. Or where on a London Tube you're more likely to get a seat.


Last week scientists at John Hopkins university pushed this one step further by proving that all humans are born with the ability to already be good or bad at math. An important theory since it may be possible to train a child's innate number sense to be better, but it is much harder to change a natural aptitude for the subject.


In order to test those who have been least influenced by education, the research is carried out on very young children who have yet to go to school. The team flashed images of yellow and blue dots up onto a screen and asked the kids which there were more of, (you can take your own test here: http://www.panamath.org/testyourself.php ). The children were also required to take tests of aptitude, similar to those Ai and Ayumu took. Addition, multiplication and percentage questions were all asked of children who have barely mastered counting on their fingers. The children's parents were also tested for verbal skills to see if the results were specifically due to natural intelligence as opposed to a child being suited to test conditions.


The research showed that the children who performed well at the dot tests, also got the best results for natural numerical ability. Ultimately the tests proved that inbuilt math skills at birth can affect whether or not you will do better at your math GCSE. So next time your addition is put to the test, you might not be able to blame any mistakes on your rubbish math teacher after all!

"It's Molecular, my dear Watson"

As the third most abundant element in the Universe, you would think finding two of these atoms joined together wouldn’t exactly be Astronomy’s version of a detective mystery. However, up until now definitive evidence of molecular oxygen, a necessary molecule for life, has eluded scientists. This month the solar system’s best private investigators will publish their results into exactly where it’s been hiding.

Earth’s own atmosphere has been pulling the wool over scientist’s eyes for years. Elements in space are detected using wavelength spectra, and specific bright spots seen on these spectra are clues to the identity of each element. The Earth’s atmosphere is composed of about 21% oxygen. Unfortunately this was found to be absorbing any evidence of those wavelengths specific to oxygen. Only recent advances in technology have allowed us to measure spectra from space, without interference.  

In theory oxygen should only be 100 000 times less abundant than hydrogen. However, the Herschel Space Observatory scientists have been repeatedly baffled to find, experimentally, it is 10 000 000 times less abundant. However, as Sherlock Holmes once said “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has all the data.” So where is all the oxygen?

The new evidence suggests the culprit is water ice. Oxygen atoms are disguising themselves as water ice by clinging to dust grains in freezing cold parts of the universe. However, the Orion Nebula, has caused their mask to fall. The Orion Nebula, is the nearest massive star forming region to Earth. Here newborn stars radiate heat, which is able to evaporate the ice, allowing molecular oxygen to form and leaving it exposed to discovery.

"Theory suggests we should find lots of oxygen atoms locked in molecular oxygen (O₂), but previous searches kept falling short of such a large amount," comments Paul Goldsmith from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the US. Goldsmith is the NASA Herschel Project Scientist "With these new data, we finally have a strong hint at where cosmic oxygen might be hiding," he adds.

The mystery of the missing molecule may have been solved for now, but the Herschel observations of extraordinary sources project has many more riddles to help unravel yet.

Ref: P. Goldsmith, R. Liseau, et al., "Herschel measurements of molecular oxygen in Orion", Astrophysical Journal, in press.