Gizmorama - February 13, 2013

Good Morning,

It appears that fish are really good for human eyesight. Apparently, fish stem cells may help repair damaged retinas and returning eyesight to people.

Learn about this and other interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- Simple fences combat airport air pollution --*
MANCHESTER, England - Simple blast fences called baffles could act as "virtual chimneys" to improve air quality for people living near airports, British researchers say. Placed behind a runway where aircraft are taking off, the baffles could funnel emissions from aircraft engines upwards where they can disperse more effectively, reducing the environmental impact on people living nearby, they said. Researchers from several British universities have created and tested prototype baffles using funding from the country's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. After preliminary wind tunnel testing, an array of three rows of baffles was installed at Cranfield Airport in Bedfordshire, an EPSRC release reported Thursday. The testing proved aircraft exhaust plumes could be made to leave the ground within the airport's boundary fence, researches said. "Airfield surfaces are typically covered with grass, over which the wind can blow freely," project leader Mike Bennett said. "An array of baffles makes the surface rough in an aerodynamic sense. This sucks the momentum out of the exhaust jet, allowing its natural buoyancy to come into play. By suitably angling the baffles, we can also give the exhaust an upward push, encouraging it to rise away from the ground." Long-term ground-level nitrogen dioxide concentrations around many major airports in Europe have already exceed the legal limit enforced by the European Union, the researchers said. The baffles could be a low-cost solution that could be ready soon, Bennett said. "There's no reason why baffles couldn't start to be installed at airports within two or three years."


*-- Fish stem cells may repair human eyesight --*
EDMONTON, Alberta - Zebrafish, often used in genetics studies, may hold the key to repairing damaged retinas and returning eyesight to people, Canadian researchers say. Scientist at the University of Alberta report a zebrafish's stem cells can selectively regenerate damaged photoreceptor cells. Geneticists have known for some time that unlike human stem cells, stem cells in zebrafish can replace damaged cells involved in many components of eyesight. Rods and cones are the most important photoreceptors. Rods provide night vision while cones give a full color view during daylight. To date almost all success in regenerating photoreceptor cells has been limited to rods, not cones, the researchers said. What had not been determined, Alberta biologist Ted Allison said, was whether stem cells could be instructed to only replace the cones in a retina, with important implications for human eyesight. "This is the first time in an animal research model that stem cells have only repaired damaged cones," Allison said. "For people with damaged eyesight repairing the cones is most important because it would restore daytime color vision." The next research, he said, is to identify the particular gene in the zebrafish genome that activates repair of damaged cones.


*-- Asia leads in Internet data speeds --*
NEW YORK - When it comes to Internet speeds, Asia sits both at the very top and the very bottom of the rankings, a survey by a U.S. website monitoring firm says. Pingdom says while the world's fastest Internet connection speeds can be found in Asia, with Hong Kong offering an impressive 54.1 megabits per second, the continent also has the slowest, with Iran clocking in at just 2.9 Mbps. Of the globe's top five countries in Internet speed, three of them are found in Asia, a Pingdom.com release said Thursday: China (Hong Kong), South Korea and Japan. The United States ranks 14th, it said. If entire continents are ranked instead of countries, Europe has the fastest average Internet speeds at 23 Mbps, followed by the Pacific (including Australia and New Zealand), Asia, North America, South America and Africa. In the third quarter of 2012, the average worldwide Internet speed was 15.9 Mbps, Pingdom said.

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