Tomorrow
in Brief
edited by Cindy Wagner
Bird's-Eye View of Future Flight
Tiny twin cameras delicately attached to birds' heads are giving aerospace engineers
new visions for future aircraft. Developed by British military scientists for intelligence
gathering, the miniature cameras are being used for the BBC television series Animal
Camera to thrill audiences with real "in-flight" movies. Now, NASA engineers
are excited about the prospects of using the bird-cam imagery and technology to design
planes with flexible wings, according to Animal Camera producer Tania Dorrity.
Source: BBC Natural History Unit, Broadcasting House,
Whiteladies Road, Bristol BS8 2L4, United Kingdom. Web site www.bbc.co.uk.
World's Most Fuel-Efficient Car
A few cars on the road now can go an amazing 60 miles on a gallon of gasoline, but in
the future, that will seem amazingly wasteful. Creative engineers are racing to build the
greenest car on earth--a vehicle that can go thousands of miles on a gallon of gas. In the
Eco-Marathon competition sponsored by Shell, a French team achieved an average 10,705 mpg
fuel consumption. The problem, though, is that these fuel-efficient vehicles require
painstakingly deft driving and go very slowly (about 4 to 10 mph), making the Eco-Marathon
"the slowest race on earth." Says University of Bath engineer Andy Green,
developer of a three-wheeled vehicle in the competition, "Usually we only burn the
engine for a few seconds once each lap and let the vehicle coast for the rest of the
time." Drivers also maximize fuel consumption by avoiding using their brakes--another
reason for racing slowly.
Source: University of Bath, Public Relations Office, Bath BA2
7AY, United Kingdom. Web site www.bath.ac.uk.
Science and Storytelling
Accidental drowning or foul play? Instead of reading out lecture notes on organic
chemistry, future science professors may spin riveting yarns about crime investigations. A
workshop series, "Case Studies in Science," shows science faculty how to keep
students more engaged by transforming lectures into lively experiences. Directed by Clyde
Herreid of the University at Buffalo, the workshop provides a searchable database of case
studies that professors can adapt to their fields. Case studies and storytelling are more
common in teaching law and business, but rare in science, he notes. Stories add immediacy
and relevance; rather than passively listening to lectures, students get actively involved
in role-playing games, debates, and presentations on important, real-world issues in which
science offers critical understanding. Professors participating in the workshops report
increased student attendance, including among non-science majors.
Sources: University at Buffalo, News Services, 330 Crofts Hall,
Amherst, New York 14260. Web site www.buffalo.edu.
National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science, ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases/case.html.
Climate Change and Epidemics
Global climate change could have bigger impacts on future human health than socioeconomic
factors, as tropical diseases increasingly spread to temperate zones. But just how
climate change might aggravate these infectious and parasitic diseases cannot easily be
predicted, warns a team of French researchers led by Vanina Guernier of L'Institut de
Recherche pour le Développement. Public-health programs are increasingly studying the
ecology of disease outbreaks, examining how parasites, carriers, and hosts interact with
each other and their environment. New models that identify the links between ecology and
disease could help officials predict and contain future outbreaks in places newly exposed
to disease-bearing organisms.
Source: "Ecology Drives the Worldwide Distribution of
Human Diseases" by Vanina Guernier et al., Public Library of Science, European
Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1DS,
United Kingdom. Web site www.plos.org.
Cash-Free Parking
Remembering to feed the parking meter could be an inconvenience of the past. The EasyPark
electronic parking-payment system is gaining new customers in cities hoping to ease
parkers' pain and generate revenues. Drivers load value onto smart cards; when they park,
they activate the card with the correct zone code and display the card in their
windshield, which acts as an in-car parking meter. Drivers then deactivate the card when
they leave, so the card deducts payment for the exact amount of time used. Parking
attendants verify the correct payment through a handheld reader, which can also report
traffic and parking information back to the city's central data system. Since the system
is cashless, it also cuts down on theft.
Source: On Track Innovations Ltd. (OTI), Headquarters
and Research and Development, ZHR Industrial Zone, P.O. Box 32, Rosh Pina 12000, Israel.
Web site www.otiglobal.com.
