Tomorrow in Brief (January-February 2011)

Can Handedness Be  Altered?


“Choosing” which hand you use to reach for a cup or doorknob isn’t something you give a lot of thought to, but in fact the brain undergoes a complex decision-making process, pitting left versus right sides. Understanding this process may help researchers develop treatments for stroke patients and others with motor disorders.


Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, found that they could increase the use of the left hand among right-handed individuals by applying magnetic stimulation to the left side of the parietal cortex (which governs the processing of spatial relationships and planning).


Beyond the clinical applications for helping patients with brain injuries, the researchers believe that magnetic stimulation could potentially be used to influence other decision-making processes.


Source: University of California, Berkeley, www.berkeley.edu.

El Niño Events Gain  Strength


The El Niños occurring in the central Pacific Ocean have nearly doubled in intensity since 1982, according to researchers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Intensity is measured by how much the sea surface temperature deviates from the average.


While climate change may be behind the shift of these more-intense El Niños from the eastern to the central Pacific region, it is their impacts on weather patterns that have the researchers concerned.


“El Niño’s impact on global weather patterns is different if ocean warming occurs primarily in the central Pacific instead of the eastern Pacific,” according to NOAA’s Michael ­McPhaden. “If the trend we observe continues, it could throw a monkey wrench into long-range weather forecasting, which is largely based on our understanding of El Niños from the latter half of the twentieth century.”


Source: National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration, www.noaa.gov.

Stress and Cancer


Cancer may have found a partner in resisting radiation and chemotherapy: stress.


If a patient exercises intensely or experiences emotional stress within two days prior to therapy, a cell-repairing protein (Hsp27) is activated that protects the cancer cells, according to Ohio State University researchers.


The observation gives doctors hope of finding ways to counter Hsp27’s role in interfering with cancer-cell death. In the meantime, cancer patients may be able to improve their own treatment by avoiding stress, according to lead researcher Govindasamy Ilangovan, an associate professor of internal medicine.


Source: Ohio State University, www.osu.edu.


Clean-Energy Innovations


Patenting rates for clean-energy technologies have increased by approximately 20% per year since 1997, and nearly 80% of innovations originated in just six countries: Japan, the United States, Germany, South Korea, France, and the U.K., according to a new study, “Patents and Clean Energy: Bridging the Gap between Evidence and Policy.”


The surge in patent activity following the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol suggests that political decisions can help drive international competition, even in countries that did not sign the treaty, such as the United States, the study’s authors conclude.


Source: “Patents and Clean Energy,” published by the European Patent Office, is available from www.epo.org/clean-energy.


Artificial Leaf Mimics Solar Cells


A leaf-like solar device made from a water-based gel and ­infused with light-sensitive ­molecules could offer a less expensive and more environmentally friendly alternative to silicon-based solar cells.


Researchers at North Carolina State University used plant chlorophyll coupled with electrodes coated by carbon materials. The devices are stimulated by the sun’s rays to produce electricity in the same way that plants are stimulated to synthesize sugars.


Though the device is currently low-efficiency, the researchers hope to improve the biologically inspired “soft” photovoltaic arrays, perhaps one day covering roofs with sheets of artificial-leaf solar cells.


Source: North Carolina State University, www.ncsu.edu.