n.05_September_October.2009.Englisch._

• TECHNOlOGYINNOVATIONS

Pigs helpingpeople

T

hiSisnota goodtimetobea pig.The •

WorldHeathOrganizationsaidinJunethat

swinef1uhadreachedpandemieproportions.But

somescientistsarereportingverypositivenewsabout

pigs.ChinesespecialistDrleiXiaooftheShanghal

InstituteofBiochemistryandCellBiologysaysthat

cellsfromadultpigscanbe"reprogrammed"togrow

intoanytypeofcell,justlikeembryonicsternceHs

161I0Il11

(seepages68-69).Itmaybepossibleto

grewxenografts,whichare~eror-

gansfromanimalsthatcanbetransplanted

tohumans.ReprogrammedceUscouldctlPY

humandiseasesinpigs,aUowingscientists

totestnewmedicines.DrXiaosaysthedis-

coverycouldatsohelptodevetoppigsthatare

immunetoswineflu.

Versatileanlmal:<:ellsfrom

aduttpigsmayonedaybeused

togroworgansforhumans

Identifyingforests The chemistryofwine

Dayourecoenlzethese

trees?ImilJ:eTreesupplles

forestdatatotheCIA

W

ineloverswishing 10 understandthe

originsoftheirfavoriteBordeauxor

Rieslingareturningtoehemistry.A reeent

studyofwinemetabolomjcshasproduced

perhapsthemostdetaitedanalysisavailabte

ofthedrink'schemieateharacteristies.A

EuropeanteamofscientistsattheUniversity

ofBourgogneinDijon,Franee.useda~

soectrometerofferingultra-highresolutjon 10

anatyseten·year-oldredandwhitewines.An

electronbeamseparatedthewinemoleeules

intoions,whiehwerethenidentifiedaecord-

ingtochangesintheirmass.Thespeetrome-

terprovidedthedetails

notontyofthechemieal

compounds f,omIhe

grapes, but also of

compoundsfromthe

wine~.There-

suttsweresoexact

thatthescientistscoutd

determenewhichofnine

Frenchforeststhetreesused

forthebarretshadcometrom.

·

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F~

COrAufnatunevertnOgen

C02"'§:ut5chrift

(chemische)'lferbtnduflj

Drojenpllafllen

T

heUSCentralIntelligenceAgency(eiAlhasinvestedina

technologythatcananalyseentireforestsandevenidentifythe

speciesofindividualtrees.Accuratetoabouttencentimetres,

ImageTree(www.imagetreecorp.com)usessatelliteimages..Light

detectjonandinfraredcolourtovisualizeeverytreecrownandto

reeognizea forest'scharacteristics.Thisinformationis eombinedwith

biometriedatafromsensorsonIhegroundandinthetreestorecord

thetype.volumeandheighlofeach

plant.Thetechnologycanbeusedto

measurethecarboncapacjtvof

forests.whichprovidesa basisfor

calculatingcarboncredits.Another

usewoutdbetomeasuretossesintarge

sectionsofforests,eitherbeeausetrees

aredyingorarebeingeutdown

Illegatty.TheetA,however,is mainty

interestedintmageTreebecauseit

mighthetptheageneytolocate.d..!:lli

.cIQWithatarehiddenintheforests.

ehedronbeam[i,ld::lroß'bi:m!

lightdetectionI'laltdi,l~kI"Tll

massspectrometerl,ma:~~rck'!rDmll"l

metabolomics[,mct"o;>'lnnlIks]

barrelI'bz,",,1]

CilrbonQpac:ity['ka:bxlb,pz»liJ

carboncredit:I'to:bxl,kredItl

compoundl'tlllIlpaondl

drugtrop['drAqkropt

stemcelll'!ltm-.::IJ
~inefluf'~....alßnu:]
tiuue['uIIl:1
u/tri.·hilhresolutiort1,Al1r.:rbal.l'eu'lu:f....j
JeflOl1a"('7"nXJgra:fl)

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wood:analysis

candetllrmlne

thebarrelused

forthlswine

5/2009