Dubai, Moscú y Nueva York lucirán los primeros rascacielos giratorios

Las torres, diseñadas por el arquitecto David Fisher, permitirán a sus habitantes modificar la orientación de sus apartamentos

AGENCIAS - Nueva York - 25/06/2008

Se abre la era de la "arquitectura dinámica", bautizada así porque "introduce una cuarta dimensión en el diseño: el tiempo". Así lo asegura el italiano David Fisher, que este martes ha presentado en Nueva York su "rascacielos giratorio y autosuficiente", que permitirá a sus habitantes modificar la orientación de sus apartamentos para cambiar el paisaje o seguir la progresión del Sol. Los dos primeros comenzarán a construirse este mismo año en Dubai y Moscú y previsiblemente estarán terminados a finales de 2010, y ya está en marcha otro proyecto para la ciudad de Nueva York. Hay, además, peticiones de Canadá, Alemania, Italia, Corea del Sur y Suiza.

Cada una de las plantas de estos edificios en movimiento girará a la velocidad que escojan los inquilinos y rotará de forma independiente con respecto a los demás pisos, por lo que el edificio cambiará de forma constantemente.

El rascacielos de Dubai medirá 420 metros de altura y tendrá 80 pisos, de los que los primeros 20 serán oficinas; los 15 siguientes, un hotel de seis estrellas; los 35 siguientes, apartamentos de lujo (desde 124 metros cuadrados), y los últimos diez, viviendas de 1.200 metros cuadrados con ascensor privado, jardín, piscina y aparcamiento dentro del piso. El de la capital rusa tendrá estas mismas características pero será un poco más bajo (70 pisos y 400 metros de altura).

Según los cálculos previos, el precio de un metro cuadrado en un apartamento en las plantas superiores puede ascender hasta los 30.000 dólares (unos 19.000 euros). A pesar del precio, ya ha empezado a llenarse la lista para poder reservar alguna de las viviendas del edificio de Dubai.

Torre ecológica

Según ha explicado Fisher, la torre giratoria es además el primer rascacielos ecológico y autosuficiente desde el punto de vista energético, ya que genera electricidad transformando la energía del Sol y el viento gracias a las 79 turbinas eólicas dispuestas horizontalmente entre cada piso y a los paneles fotovoltaicos de los techos, con lo que se podría suministrar energía también a los edificios colindantes.

Se trata también del primer edificio que se construirá enteramente con piezas prefabricadas, con el objetivo de reducir los tiempos de construcción en un 30% y los costes en más de un 10%.

El arquitecto asegura que para la materialización de su proyecto sólo se requerirá el trabajo de 600 personas en la obra de montaje y 80 técnicos en el lugar de construcción, en lugar de los 2.000 empleados que habrían sido necesarios para realizar una construcción tradicional de las mismas dimensiones.

En principio, la velocidad de ejecución será de un piso por semana, merced a un nuevo método: el núcleo central de la torre se levantará a pie de obra, y los pisos se realizarán sección por sección en la fábrica y se engancharán al eje central cuando se monten, ya amueblados y con todas las instalaciones.

Otra característica de estos edificios será la facilidad de mantenimiento, considerando que todas las partes se podrán inspeccionar y reparar independientemente, de forma que podrán durar más que otras construcciones contemporáneas.

Según Fisher, la prefabricación será la forma de construcción del futuro, porque permitirá "obras limpias y verdes sin ruido, polvo, emisiones o desechos, con mayor seguridad en el puesto de trabajo, tiempos de construcción más breves y menores consumos de energía".

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Nurse writes book on near-death

Penny Sartori said some people recalled meeting dead relatives

An intensive care nurse from Swansea has published an academic book about near death experiences following 10 years of research.

Penny Sartori, who works at Singleton and Morriston Hospitals in Swansea, has 15 accounts, mainly from heart attack patients, of near-death experiences.

They include out-of-body occurrences, reports of a tunnel leading to a bright light and meeting dead loved ones.

The book, costing £85, is intended for academic study and college libraries.

Ms Sartori decided to launch her formal study in 1998 after working closely with critically-ill patients throughout the 1990s and discovering there was very little reference data available for nurses and other healthcare workers.

She spent five years compiling the study, three years writing it up and two years preparing it for publication. The book is called Near Death Experiences of Hospitalized Intensive Care Patients, a Five Year Clinical Study.

She found that people who went through out-of-body experiences floated above themselves and were able to accurately recount what had happened in the room even though they were unconscious and their eyes were closed.

"People also reported travelling down a tunnel towards a bright light," she said.

"Some reported meeting a figure who told them their time had not yet come, and others said they met dead relatives and communicated with them by telepathy."

Some patients reported having their entire lives flash by them in an instant Penny Sartori

In another case a patient reported encountering a dead relative who gave a message to pass on to another member of the family who was still alive.

Ms Sartori said the information had stunned the receiver because it had been a secret and it was impossible the patient had prior knowledge of it.

Near-death experiences were typically often explained away as the effect of endorphins, abnormal blood gases or low oxygen levels, she said.

However, the study measured these and took them into account when researching the patients' reports.

"All the current sceptical arguments against near-death experiences were not supported by the research," she said.

In one case a critically-ill patient, who also had cerebral palsy, awoke from a near-death experience able to use his right arm normally, even though it had been bent and contracted since birth.

"It shouldn't have been possible without an operation to release his tendons, but he could open his arm freely," said Ms Sartori.

Some patients reported floating back into their bodies after nearly dying, and for others it was a sudden snap back.

"Some patients reported having their entire lives flash by them in an instant," she said.

Private theory

While she found 15 patients reporting near-death experiences, Ms Sartori believes it could be more common but that some patients' ability to recall the event fails shortly after they pass the critical episode and regain consciousness, like a dreamer forgets a dream.

She now intends to continue her research into the phenomenon and is developing a private theory, not included in her book, about what could be happening to these patients.

"I don't think it's quite as simple as life after death," she said.

"It's what consciousness is and how we define it. We are entering an exciting time researching consciousness.

"Current science says it is a by-product of the brain. But it may be that consciousness is around us and the brain might be a mediator, an antenna, instead of controlling consciousness.

"It is a fascinating subject and I'm looking forward to continuing my research," she added.

Gravity Powered LED Floor Lamp

February 19, 2008

Clay Moulton a Virginia tech student has designed a way to harness the power of a force that will never go away: gravity. The Gravia is an LED lamp that works by the force of a weight, sort of like a grandfather clock.

The Gravia lamp column glows when activated. The electricity is generated by the slow fall of a mass that spins a rotor. The resulting energy powers 10 high-output LEDs that fire into the acrylic lens, creating a diffuse light. The operation is silent and the housing is elegant and cord free – completely independent of electrical infrastructure.

To "turn on" the lamp, the user moves weights from the bottom to the top of the lamp. An hour-glass like mechanism is turned over and the weights are placed in the mass sled near the top of the lamp. With the sled gently gliding back down, within a few seconds, the LEDs come on and light the lamp, Moulton said. "It's more complicated than flipping a switch but can be an acceptable, even enjoyable routine, like winding a beautiful clock or making good coffee

Via Coolest Gadgets

Cancro de pele curado com células clonadas

Um norte-americano de 57 anos com o tipo mais maligno de cancro da pele viu a sua doença desaparecer totalmente depois de um tratamento pioneiro com células clonadas do seu sistema imunitário.

O estudo - ontem publicado no "New England Journal of Medicine" - é recebido pelos dermatologistas como "uma excelente notícia". Até porque, explica Fernando Ribas, do Instituto Português de Oncologia do Porto, "não há nenhum tratamento para o melanoma em fase avançada", isto é, já metastizado para outros órgãos. "É uma porta que se abre para o futuro", quando até agora, um caso destes seria apenas tratado paliativamente.

"A quimioterapia pega muito mal nos melanomas e nem sequer há qualquer protocolo de tratamento que resulte". A quimioterapia que se faz "na maioria dos casos nem consegue atrasar a evolução da doença", diz o médico, segundo o qual os estudos existentes até hoje não tinham passado da fase de investigação para a do tratamento de um doente, com resultados.

O tratamento consistiu na colheita de linfócitos T do tipo CD4+ (células chave do sistema imunitário) do paciente, que já revelava metásteses num gânglio linfático da virilha e nos pulmões e tinha um prognóstico de um ano de vida. Os linfócitos foram clonados, "limpos" e reinjectados", sem qualquer outro tratamento complementar.

E o resultado foi a remissão total do cancro. Exames efectuados dois meses depois não revelaram qualquer tumor. E, segundo Cassian Yee, do Centro de Investigação do Cancro Fred Hutchinson e coordenador do estudo, o doente não tem sintomas nem sinais do cancro há dois anos. Mas trata-se de um único caso de sucesso num estudo reduzido a nove pacientes. "Ainda é preciso confirmar a eficácia da imunoterapia em estudos mais alargados", diz Cassian Yee.

Os melanomas representam cerca de 4% da totalidade dos cancros da pele, sendo os mais malignos. Detectados numa fase inicial (ainda apenas à superfície da pele ou, já depois, antes de atingirem outros órgãos), podem ser curados através da remoção cirúrgica. Portugal conta com 800 novos casos anuais, num total de dez mil novos tumores cutâneos. E os melanomas acabam por ser fatais para cerca de 20% dos doentes.

Trio of super-Earths discovered

BY DR EMILY BALDWIN
ASTRONOMY NOW
Posted: June 16, 2008

A harvest of low mass planets has been discovered with the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) at the ESO La Silla Observatory, and 45 other candidate planets with masses below 30 Earth masses have also been identified.

The announcement was made by a team of European astronomers at the three day international conference 'Extra-solar Super-Earths' which began today.

The team made very precise measurements of the velocities of many stars over the last five years, which revealed the planets by inducing a wobble in the star's motion. "The perturbations induced by the planets are really tiny – the mass of the smallest planets is one hundred thousand times smaller than that of the star – and only the high sensitivity of HARPS made it possible to detect them," says Francois Bouchy of the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris.

"With the advent of much more precise instruments such as the HARPS spectrograph on ESO's 3.6 metre telescope at La Silla, we can now discover smaller planets, with masses between 2 and 10 times the Earth's mass," adds Stephane Udry from Geneva Observatory.

Artist impression of the new 'triple-Earth' system discovered by European astronomers using the HARP instrument at ESO's La Silla Observatory. The system orbits a star known to astronomers as HD 40307. Image: ESO.

The three super-Earths, which have masses 4.2, 6.7 and 9.4 times the mass of the Earth, orbit a star only slightly less massive than our own Sun with periods of 4.3, 9.6 and 20.4 days respectively. The system is located 42 light years away towards the southern Doradus and Pictor constellations.

In a second system, one 7.5 Earth mass planet orbits its parent star HD 181433 in 9.5 days and has a Jupiter-like companion orbiting at a relatively leisurely pace of 3 years. Yet another system highlighted by the research team is reported to have a 22-Earth mass planet orbiting with a period of 4 days and a Saturn-like planet orbiting with a three year period.

"Does every single star harbour planets and, if yes, how many? We may not yet know the answer but we are making huge progress towards it." Michel Mayor, Geneva Observatory.

More remarkably, analysis of all the stars studied so far with HARPS shows that about one third of all solar-like stars have either super-Earth of Neptune-like planets with orbits shorter than 50 days. It is even possible that more planets are lurking in these identified systems, awaiting discovery, because a planet in a tight, short period orbit is easier to find than one in a wide, long-period orbit.

"It is most probable that there are many other planets present: not only super-Earth and Neptune-like planets with longer periods, but also Earth-like planets that we cannot detect yet. Add to it the Jupiter-like planets already known, and you may well arrive at the conclusion that planets are ubiquitous," says Udry.

Alcohol 'cuts risk of arthritis'

A regular tipple cuts the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis by up to half, Swedish research suggests.

The Karolinska Institute assessed 2,750 people in two studies, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases reports.

The risk was up to 50% lower for those who drank the equivalent of five glasses of wine a week compared with those who drank the least, they found.

However, arthritis experts warned that drinking too much alcohol increased the risk of a range of health problems.

Rheumatoid arthritis - an auto-immune disease caused by a malfunctioning immune system - is a condition which results in tender, stiff and swollen joints. It affects 400,000 people in the UK.

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The two separate studies assessed environmental and genetic risk factors for rheumatoid arthritis.

Participants were quizzed about their lifestyle, including how much they smoked and drank, while blood samples were taken to check for genetic risk factors.

Smoking highlighted

Researcher Dr Henrik Kallberg stressed the most important finding of the study was that smoking was a very significant risk factor for rheumatoid arthritis, reinforcing findings from previous studies.

However, he added: "In addition, it is important to know that moderate alcohol consumption is not deleterious and may in some contexts be beneficial concerning risk for future onset of rheumatoid arthritis."

There are known to be links between moderate alcohol consumption and a reduced risk of other inflammatory processes, such as cardiovascular disease. However, the reason for this is still unclear.

Professor Robert Moots, from the Arthritis Research Campaign, said it was possible that drinking alcohol may have a protective effect against rheumatoid arthritis.

But he said the study was not conclusive and any protective effect was not properly understood.

He said: "There is no doubt that drinking too much is very bad for our health in many ways and these risks by far outweigh any potential benefit for reducing the risk of rheumatoid arthritis, which this study points to, without being conclusive.

"We must also remember that drinking alcohol in excess can be especially dangerous in patients taking some anti-rheumatoid drugs that may cause liver damage.

"There are many modifiable lifestyle risk factors for developing rheumatoid arthritis and, as this study also points out, smoking is by far the greatest."

A spokesman for Arthritis Care said: "It's too early to say what these findings may mean, so people with rheumatoid arthritis should continue to work in partnership with their health professionals to address their specific health needs."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/7435002.stm

Published: 2008/06/05 00:18:34 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

Lab-grown cells 'treat baldness'

Cells grown in the laboratory may offer a possible solution to hair loss, preliminary trials have suggested.

The technique involves taking small amounts of the remaining hair cells, multiplying them, then injecting them into bald areas.

Six months after treatment, 11 out of 19 patients had grown new hair, UK researchers told an Italian conference.

However, a UK specialist said further work would be needed so that the new hair looked right.

It will revolutionise hair care, I think Dr Paul Kemp, Intercytex

Hair loss affects two-fifths of men over 50, and can be a long-term problem for some people following radiotherapy or burns.

Currently available methods of hair transplantation involve taking large clumps of remaining follicles under local anaesthetic and moving them to the desired area, a technique dependent on the amount of hair left, as no new hair is created.

The new method, called "follicular cell implantation", developed by UK firm Intercytex, claims to be able to provide a limitless supply of replacement hair cells, and, if other trials show it to be safe and effective, could be available within five years.

Doctors take only the dermal papilla cells - cells found in the follicle which are responsible for hair growth.

They are harvested from areas on the back of the head, which usually still have hair growth, and then bathed in a specially-developed chemical in the laboratory, before being placed back into bald areas of the scalp.

The early results suggest that most patients appear to benefit after just a few months, although the numbers involved in the trial are relatively small.

Dr Paul Kemp, Intercytex's Scientific Officer, said that the presence of the dermal papilla cells encouraged skin cells to start building a brand new hair follicle, or rejuvenated follicles which have stopped producing hair properly.

He said: "It will revolutionise hair care, I think. People will use this when they are starting to go bald - they'll come and see us, we'll take a few dermal papilla cells, grow them up in the lab, freeze most of them, and inject some.

"They can keep coming back as the balding process continues. I'm convinced it will work, it's just a question of fine-tuning the technique."

Other organs

He said that the same principles could one day be harnessed to grow replacement teeth, or other organs.

"Every hair is a tiny little organ, after all."

Professor Val Randall, from the University of Bradford, said that the progress made was "exciting".

She said: "To get anything growing at all is a real achievement, although it will be difficult to make the hair come back in the right way, pointing in the right direction, with the hair follicles lined up the right way."

Dr Andrew Messenger, a consultant dermatologist at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield, said that if new hair follicles had been produced, then it would constitute an advance.

However, he added: "We don't yet know for certain whether these are new hair follicles, and it's actually quite hard to prove that they are, not just the result of rubbing on the scalp or another effect."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/7431092.stm

Published: 2008/06/02 11:08:49 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

Study boosts wine chemical hopes

There is evidence that wine can have beneficial effects

A chemical derived from red wine could one day help keep the heart "genetically young", claim researchers.

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers found that resveratrol appeared to halt age-related changes in the function of heart genes.

The effects, described in the PLOS One journal, appeared to mimic those produced by eating a very low calorie diet - known to prolong life.

But an expert said drinking wine would not achieve the effect.

In order to have any effect, you would have to drink literally gallons of wine, and that is not recommended Dr Louise Connelly Imperial College

Resveratrol, a plant polyphenol found in red wine, grapes and pomegranates, has been suggested as one of the reasons for the so-called "French paradox" - the relative longevity of the French despite a diet rich in artery-clogging animal fats.

It has been suggested that the traditional glass of red wine taken at mealtimes was helping beat heart disease.

The Wisconsin researchers the chemical on "middle-aged" mice, looking at the effects on the workings of genes in the heart.

The natural ageing process in animals and humans is marked by changes in the function, or expression, of thousands of genes in the organ, and even though the precise consequences of all these changes in gene expression is not fully understood, they are thought to contribute to its gradual overall weakening.

The mice on resveratrol appeared to have fewer changes in gene expression over time compared with those who did not.

The researchers suggested that this brought studies of the chemical closer to the "consumption reality" of middle-aged humans.

They also noticed similarities between the gene expression changes linked to resveratrol and those noticed in mice given low calorie diets, prompting speculation that the chemical may have a similar effect.

Many animals who undergo "calorific restriction" live longer, and Dr Tomas Prolla, one of the lead authors, suggested a similar process might be at work.

"There must be a few master biochemical pathways activated in response to caloric restriction, which in turn activate many other pathways - and resveratrol seems to activate some of those master pathways as well."

Hard to take

However, none of this may be good news for lovers of red wine.

Dr Louise Connelly, from Imperial College, who has looked at the effects of resveratrol on lung disease, said that the chemical did not stay in the body long enough to have any effects.

"The resveratrol molecule is very quickly removed from the bloodstream metabolised by the liver.

"In order to have any effect, you would have to drink literally gallons of wine, and that is not recommended."

She said that the only way for humans to experience its effects would be the development of a form of the chemical which overcame this problem.