Power Grid Eyed for Upgrade in Pitt Study

With a $600,000 grant from Pennsylvania’s Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority, the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering can begin imagining a power network that utilizes Direct Current technology, a step above the Alternating Current our power grid uses now.

Modern power is generated, transported and delivered by AC across a huge power grid that requires massive infrastructure and actually results in energy loss because it flows on the surface of a power line.

“So we’ll create greater efficiencies, be able to integrate certain forms of renewable resources such as solar energy and battery storage technology much more efficiently than we do today, and this will also be a much better match for what we use in terms of our consumer electronics,” says lead researcher and Pitt engineering professor Greg Reed.

Today’s electrical devices like high-def televisions and computers use DC input, requiring the common AC/DC converter many electronics need. With this grant, the University can begin working on how to transform a mainly AC-dominated grid into one that will utilize DC technology, which can also help our nation tap into renewable resources like solar and wind power.

The University will make use of the latest in simulator programs to recreate the reconstruction of an actual power grid.

Carnegie Shows Off Evolution

The Carnegie Museum of Natural History launches a 6-month look at the science behind evolution this weekend when it opens ‘Explore Evolution.’ It is a touring show that looks at several studies ranging from the evolution of whales millions of years ago to the co-evolution of a species of ants, fungus, bacteria, and mold. CMNH program specialist Laurie Giarratani says another part of the exhibition looks at the rapid changes seen in the HIV virus. “Usually we think of evolution as something that takes place over a long time… millions of years,” says Giarratani, “but with simpler organisms that have a smaller genome, a single mutation is going to have a larger effect.” While a virus is not a living organism it does have DNA and this study looks at the changes the HIV virus has gone through as it adapts to defend itself against a number of medical drugs. The research could be key in finding a vaccine for the virus that causes AIDS.

The Carnegie adds in an eighth study to the seven that travel as part of the exhibit. The museum’s curator of vertebrate paleontology, Chris Beard adds his own research title, “The micromonkey and anthropoid origins.” It looks at the genus Eosimias, that Beard helped to identify, and his subsequent research on other early anthropoids in China, Myanmar, and Libya. Beard will give a lecture Saturday at noon as part of the opening day events.

Giarratani says, “Our Goal here is to help people understand the science behind evolution… and not commenting on religion at all.” We hope people can come to the museum and can connect the science here to their lives.” Giarratani says it is up to the visitors to engage those ideas in whatever way makes sense to them.

The exhibit runs through July 24th.

PGH Foundation gets $50 million Gift

With a single gift, the Pittsburgh Foundation has grown by more than 7%. Former chemical engineer, Charles Kaufman left a gift of approximately $50 million to the foundation to be split between two funds he and his sister had created.

Most of the money ($35- $40 million) will be added into the Charles E. Kaufman Foundation, which provides grants to research institutions in Pennsylvania for scientific research in chemistry, biology and physics, “for achievement in and contribution to the field and humanity.” Pittsburgh Foundation President and CEO Grant Oliphant says a similar fund was set up years ago in Texas and has helped fund major research in that state. The reminder of the funds will go into an advised fund Kaufman and his late sister; Virginia Kaufman, created before her death that supports charitable causes “about which they were especially passionate, including public education, land conservation and Jewish healthcare, including programs for the elderly.”

This is the biggest bequest the Pittsburgh Foundation has ever received. Kaufman never married and had no children. Most of the money amassed during his retirement through investment and entrepreneurial ventures. “Charles Kaufman’s selfless philanthropy will reach out to people he never knew, in support of charitable causes about which he cared so much,” says Oliphant. The details of how the funds will be run are still being formalized but Oliphant says it will be designed to make sure the funds are around for years to come. “This is a gift that will be around 100 or 200 years from now and we will still be celebrating [it],” says Oliphant, “it’s an incredible gift to our children and our grand children.”

Scientists Gather at CMU to Talk about Gigapixels

CMU associate professor of robotics Illah Nourbakhsh says gigapixel images are changing the way scientists do research and the way they present their findings to the world. 220 scientists, educators and students are taking part in the Fine Conference on Gigapixel Imaging for Science this week on the CMU campus.

The technology has its roots in NASA labs when space exploration vehicles took hundreds of photos that were merged into massive panoramas. The technology has gained some fame recently with CMU’s GigaPan project. Nourbakhsh says the use of multiple high resolution images is starting to show up in a wide rang of disciplines. He says it is in use at the microscopic level where individual insects are being photographed hundreds of times, at the human scale with projects such as scans of fields of flowers where individual bees can be found doing their work, to the intergalactic scale being tackled by NASA scientists. Nourbakhsh says scientists are even using GigPan type technologies in time-lapse projects. “It lets the public visually understand science in ways that were not possible before and that means the public is better able to understand the future of the world and the way the public impacts the world,” says Nourbakhsh.

Nourbakhsh says he is excited by the fact that the event has drawn scientists from such a broad range of fields. Vertebrate paleontologists, for instance, will report at the conference on their use of gigapixel imaging to provide detailed documentation not only of the quarries where fossils were discovered but also of the fossils themselves. Entomologists will discuss how they used GigaPan to watch 3,200 cells in a beehive breeding frame over a period of 12 days as they searched for clues to Colony Collapse Disorder. “We’re still early in the evolution of this technology, but we hope that this conference will help us identify those areas where gigapixel imaging holds the most potential, whether as a research tool, an educational device or as a means of engaging the public at large,” says CMU scientist Randy Sargent.

Along with the scientific program, the conference will feature a juried gallery show at Carnegie Museum of Natural History in which eight images will be exhibited as prints measuring 4 feet high and up to 23 feet wide. The gallery prints will remain on display through the end of the year.

Pitt: Aspirin Can Kill Precancerous Colon Cells

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have discovered how drugs like aspirin and pain-killers can reduce the risk of colon cancer.

Lead researcher Lin Zhang says doctors have known for a while that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, can help in preventing tumors of the colon. But Zhang says until now, scientists didn’t know how they did it.

“Some of these anti-inflammatory drugs prevent colon cancer by killing so-called stem cells that accumulate genetic changes that predispose one to cancer,” says Zhang. “So, [this is a] major finding.”

Zhang says this information will be especially useful to people with a hereditary genetic defect called FAP. The defect causes patients to develop cysts on their colons, which can easily become cancerous.

While NSAIDs can reduce one’s risk of colon cancer by as much as 80%, they are not risk-free. Zhang says they’re also known for risks involving the heart. Zhang also notes at this point, NSAIDs can be used for prevention of cancer, but not treatment of tumors.

Research May Lead to Quantum Computers

A Harvard-based research team has created a basic connection that may open the door for communication over an extremely fast quantum computer network.

Pitt physics professor Gurudev Dutt says his team has found a way to put information from a device called a quantum bit, or qubit, onto a photon. Dutt says the goal is to develop this technology so that the photon can carry data from one qubit to the next.

“It requires a bunch of finely-tuned pulses, microwaves, lasers, controlled electronics, all of this just to have one qubit entangled with one photon. And now we’re talking about doubling it up, which brings not only the challenges of just doubling all of the previous setup, but also fundamental challenges, such as the two cubits may or may not be exactly identical,” says Dutt.

Dutt says a quantum computer network would be exponentially faster than current computers, which run on transistors. He says quantum computers would be able to solve complex algorithms that transistor computers find hard to handle.

For example, when a pharmaceutical company tries to make a new drug, they try thousands of formulas before finding the one they want. Dutt says with a quantum computer, the drug-maker could check the efficacy of these experiments much quicker.

Pittsburgh Group Wins Education Grant

A Pittsburgh nonprofit has won a federal grant to expand its teacher training program.

ASSET, Inc. will use the $22.3 million endowment to establish several professional development centers and satellite sites across Pennsylvania, along with $4 million in required matching funds.

ASSET Executive Director Karen Sobehart says her organization will target science teachers and students in kindergarten through eighth grade at rural or low-income school districts. That’s almost identical to the mission of the state’s “Science: It’s Elementary” program, which is also designed and managed by ASSET.

Sobehart says the program makes science classes more interactive with live specimens and equipment for experiments. Sobehart notes it’s also important to pre-train educators in this method, hence the regional teacher training centers.

Sobehart says research shows that children who feel comfortable with science by age eleven are more likely to pursue it later in life.

“We really have to start the pipeline at the beginning, at kindergarten or even pre-kindergarten for that matter, so we can get the kids, by the time they’re eleven, not only understanding the subjects, but also by completing the subjects the students build their own belief in themselves.”

Sobehart says students in ASSET programs score higher on standardized tests than children in comparable districts, not just in science, but math and reading as well.

ASSET was one of 49 organizations nationwide to receive a grant. Children’s Learning Initiative of Philadelphia has also received a grant from the Investing in Education Fund, part of the 2009 federal stimulus package.