Lesley Cowling : Material World
Jetlag could be cured by shining a light behind your knees, say scientists who have discovered light-detecting equipment there. Experts in circadian rhythms, the daily nature cycles that cause flowers to open during the day, have found what they call “extraocular circadian phototransduction” behind the human knee. They tested 15 people by shining three-hour pulses of light on this spot and discovered that this would delay or advance their circadian cycles.
Free-to-air car
A French engineer has invented a car that runs only on air. The first ZP taxi — ZP stands for zero pollution — will be unveiled in Provence this month before going into mass production in Mexico. Inventor Guy Negre perfected a motor that runs on a tankful of compressed air. In urban road trials, his air-driven engine mounted in a Citroen AX chassis ran for 10 hours with a top speed of about 100km an hour, a better performance than any electric car in production.
A Mexican government licensee has signed a contract to produce an estimated 40 000 ZP taxis and delivery vehicles a year to replace Mexico City’s 87 000 petrol and diesel taxis. Negre’s car was chosen for the world’s most polluted city after a search by the Mexican authorities that included tests on dozens of electric and other non-polluting experimental vehicles.
Toothfish being swallowed
A continent was declared off-limits to mining and oil exploration for the next 50 years when the Antarctic protocol came into force last month. Explorers, scientific expeditions and tourists will have to ask permission to enter the region and be required to make an environmental assessment before doing so. But the region is still threatened by a mixed fleet of 100 pirate fishing vessels, which are after the Patagonian toothfish, a deep-water, slow- breeding fish popular in Japan. Although it is found throughout the Southern Ocean off the continental shelf of sub-Antarctic islands, stocks are rapidly being exhausted. The fishing also damages other wildlife. Colonies of albatross get caught on the long lines of hooks used to catch the toothfish.
Compaq breaks out
Compaq Computer’s acquisition of Digital Equipment last week, the largesttakeover in the history of the computer industry, made it the second-largest computer company in the world after IBM. The $9,6-billion deal between Compaq, the largest maker of personal computers, and Digital, a declining maker of corporate machines, has been seen as the ascendancy of PCs over mainframes. It is also viewed as a sign that the computer industry’s future lies in a myriad of sales operations, from various computer sizes to services, like IBM’s lucrative systems and services businesses.