Science - this is how we do it
I'll get to Nobels tomorrow when last of the science ones gets announced. Today I'm talking about some newer science.
There is a chance that world's first malaria vaccine - called RTS,S - will be available pretty soon. Right now it's on its way to the European Medicines Agency to be filed in 2014. If everything goes well, it can be approved in 2015 and land in Africa for vaccinations in 2016. I know it still long but everything has to be checked before mass vaccinations. Of course, since is heading for the official approval, all the clinical test are finished. The vaccine was tested in 15,000 children in 11 African trial sites. Half were babies aged 6 to 12 weeks and the other half toddlers aged 5 to 17 months. Half in each group received the vaccine and half a placebo, and all continued where possible with other precautions to prevent malaria such as sleeping under bed nets. It worked best in older group with 56% less cases of malaria compared to the control group (younger had 31% less cases). It still needs boosters (like tetanus vaccine) but it's better then nothing and, hopefully, with large percentage of population vaccinated we can count on herd immunity lowering number of people falling ill. There are also other malaria vaccines in the works - one that kill the parasite in mosquitoes and one using weakened parasite. Together they might help us eliminate another one of the great killers. Unless, of course, the anti-vaccers don't mess up this one first.
For the first time nuclear fusion produced amount of energy exceeded the amount of energy being absorbed by the fuel. This is still not producing more energy than it took to create this reaction but it's better then anything we could do in a lab before. Controlled fusion has been a white whale of energy production since we learned how it worked and the laser facilitated one has the best outcomes but it's still not there as fusion still doesn't generate as much energy as the lasers supply - just more then it absorbed from lasers (absorption isn't 100% effective). However, scientists from National Ignition Facility (NIF) hope to achieve ignition in this way creating a self-sustaining fusion. One day we may all watch Greenpeace protesting the newest fusion powerplant being build in our neighbourhood.
The biggest problem with typing on the touchscreens is lack of feedback. You can feel whether you pressed the keys on the keyboard. On a screen there's no such feedback so mistakes are much more frequent and typing usually more tiresome and many people get keyboards for their tablets. UltraHaptics is preparing to change all that. It uses ultrasonic waves to create a feeling of touching something in the air. If you move your hands through vibrating air you feel the vibrations and can discern their force. The vibrations will change depending how hard you press so you can have a touch feedback when you want to change something (volume, page etc.). It's still not the utility mist but, according to specs, it might feel like one.
There is a chance that world's first malaria vaccine - called RTS,S - will be available pretty soon. Right now it's on its way to the European Medicines Agency to be filed in 2014. If everything goes well, it can be approved in 2015 and land in Africa for vaccinations in 2016. I know it still long but everything has to be checked before mass vaccinations. Of course, since is heading for the official approval, all the clinical test are finished. The vaccine was tested in 15,000 children in 11 African trial sites. Half were babies aged 6 to 12 weeks and the other half toddlers aged 5 to 17 months. Half in each group received the vaccine and half a placebo, and all continued where possible with other precautions to prevent malaria such as sleeping under bed nets. It worked best in older group with 56% less cases of malaria compared to the control group (younger had 31% less cases). It still needs boosters (like tetanus vaccine) but it's better then nothing and, hopefully, with large percentage of population vaccinated we can count on herd immunity lowering number of people falling ill. There are also other malaria vaccines in the works - one that kill the parasite in mosquitoes and one using weakened parasite. Together they might help us eliminate another one of the great killers. Unless, of course, the anti-vaccers don't mess up this one first.
For the first time nuclear fusion produced amount of energy exceeded the amount of energy being absorbed by the fuel. This is still not producing more energy than it took to create this reaction but it's better then anything we could do in a lab before. Controlled fusion has been a white whale of energy production since we learned how it worked and the laser facilitated one has the best outcomes but it's still not there as fusion still doesn't generate as much energy as the lasers supply - just more then it absorbed from lasers (absorption isn't 100% effective). However, scientists from National Ignition Facility (NIF) hope to achieve ignition in this way creating a self-sustaining fusion. One day we may all watch Greenpeace protesting the newest fusion powerplant being build in our neighbourhood.
The biggest problem with typing on the touchscreens is lack of feedback. You can feel whether you pressed the keys on the keyboard. On a screen there's no such feedback so mistakes are much more frequent and typing usually more tiresome and many people get keyboards for their tablets. UltraHaptics is preparing to change all that. It uses ultrasonic waves to create a feeling of touching something in the air. If you move your hands through vibrating air you feel the vibrations and can discern their force. The vibrations will change depending how hard you press so you can have a touch feedback when you want to change something (volume, page etc.). It's still not the utility mist but, according to specs, it might feel like one.