Look What the Creator Has Done

“After the king declared the contest relating to Lord Shiva’s bow, the svayamvara preparations started. The place became so beautiful that by looking at it one would think that Lord Brahma himself had created it, as if to show off every one of his abilities.” (Janaki Mangala, Chanda 1.1) panu dhareu siva dhanu raci svayaṃbara ati rūcira racanā banī | janu pragaṭi caturānana dekhāī caturatā saba āpanī || As the creator, Lord Brahma can generate something simply by thinking of it. As we all trace our ancestry back to him, his ability in the department of creating is stupendous. Just as when we see something so amazing that we think that God Himself had created it, followers of the Vedic tradition, knowing that Brahma is charged with the task of creating by the Supreme Lord Himself, make the comparison to Brahma whenever they see something very beautiful. The grounds for a famous wedding many years back were so wonderfully decorated that it looked like Brahma was showing off, that he had gone overboard in making things look so beautiful. Even if he had, there would have been good reason for it. The princess being married at this ceremony was the goddess of fortune herself, and her father was the most pious ruler. This marriage ceremony thus deserved the most beautiful setting with unforgettably elegant surroundings. Why not just have a small marriage? Why all the pomp? The king hosting the ceremony certainly had no attachment to royal fanfare. Known throughout the world for his expertise of meditational yoga, King Janaka lived without attachment. Dispassion is known as vairagya in Sanskrit and it is considered an opulence. A noteworthy characteristic doesn’t necessarily have to revolve around the possession of a physical object or ability. Beauty, wealth and strength refer to physical possessions borne of the type of body one resides in. Renunciation is included in the opulence category because it is very difficult to acquire, and it proves to be beneficial. Typically, it takes many repeated attempts into a material endeavor before one realizes the futility of the effort. Only after recognizing how much effort it takes to find paltry happiness in so many material affairs does one even think of giving them up. The drunkard swears to never drink again when they do something stupid or when they get so sick that they feel like they are going to die. The person overindulging in food vows to go on a diet to enhance their appearance, which will ideally improve their health at the same time. The person who has a health club membership and never goes swears that they’ll never join a gym again after paying for so many months. Life is a pendulum of acceptance and rejection, with the initial impulse being acceptance. If the proper justification for avoiding the inevitably rejected activities remains unknown, acceptance will surely follow in the near future; thereby leading to a repeat of the same bitter taste. Renunciation is also an opulence because one who possesses it can limit their interaction with things that they don’t need. The senses are temporary after all, and they can be influenced by the mind. Through the efforts of the mind, the happiness we think we’ll receive from a particular material object’s association can actually be secured without any effort. In addition, through renunciation contact with the inhibiting forces of matter is strictly limited, which automatically creates a somewhat pleasant condition. If it is extremely hot outside and I decide to remain within the home to avoid the heat, I automatically gain some relief. “The demoniac, taking shelter of insatiable lust, pride and false prestige, and being thus illusioned, are always sworn to unclean work, attracted by the impermanent [asat].” (Lord Krishna   , Bhagavad-gita   , 16.10) Despite his world famous renunciation, Janaka was not beyond happiness or attachment. The difference was that his attachment was on thesat, or the permanent. Spirit is permanent while matter is not. Select worshipable personalities in the spiritual sky, who are intimately tied to the Supreme Lord’s service, are also eternal. Harboring affection for them is never harmful. The more one is renounced from material life, the more they can relish the interaction with God and with His closest associates. The supreme elation Janaka felt when he found a baby girl one day while ploughing a field proves this fact. The girl was the goddess of fortune, Shri Lakshmi, appearing on earth to correspond with the pastimes of her husband Narayana, who had appeared as Lord Rama   . God exists, even if we may not recognize His presence. In the Vedic tradition, He is described by names which assess His position and give people a way to address Him and interact with His features. Narayana means the source of all men. Though Brahma is the creator, even he is Narayana’s son. Since Brahma took birth from the stem growing from the lotus-like navel of Narayana, Brahma is often referred to as the self-create. The source of men makes trips to the manifested realm, the place we currently occupy, every now and then to share His resplendence with others. Just as Narayana retains His spiritual features when appearing on earth, Lakshmi remains the brilliant and beautiful wife of the Lord wherever she goes. Though Janaka did not know who this baby girl was, he immediately harbored affection for her. So much for his detachment. He took her in as his daughter and raised her under religious principles, considering her his most cherished possession. Attachment is only harmful when it leads to a fall from grace, a deviation from the righteous path. For instance, if I have such an attachment to my dog that I forgo attending school or work in order to spend time with it, obviously my affectionate feelings are getting in the way of my important obligations. If I love to eat and sleep so much that I don’t pay attention to regulation, that I go so far as to eat unclean foods which carry bad karma and sleep through the important moments in life, obviously there will be negative consequences in the future. The primary objective of the human form of body is to become God conscious. Whatever way allows us to go forward in reaching that goal should be tried, though there are authorized methods passed down since time immemorial to help keep one on the straightened path. Making up paths for self-realization is always dangerous, because the human mind is incapable of conceiving of the Supreme Lord’s position and features on its own. Renunciation is a key practice because the strongest attachments are formed with those things which have no relation to the ultimate goal of God consciousness. Janaka turned out to be clever in this regard. He used his attachment to Sita to remain even more dedicated to piety. He combined both forces - his attachment to Sita and the requirement that he remain committed to religious principles. He was a king after all, so people would follow his lead. If the love for his daughter caused him to just make up rules and regulations, to forgo the pressing responsibilities in life, then the citizens would follow suit and chaos would result. Part of his duties as a king and father required Janaka to get Sita married when she reached the appropriate age. Not wanting to give her up and not knowing who her birth parents were, Janaka decided to hold asvayamvara, or self-choice ceremony. Sita would be wedded to whoever could lift Lord Shiva’s bow. This compromise satisfied all the parties involved, including Janaka. He figured that no one could lift the heavy bow, and if that was the case then no one was worthy of his daughter’s hand in marriage. If someone could lift the bow, then fate had obviously decided that they should marry Sita. The dispassionate king could have easily held a subdued ceremony with no pomp, but it was his duty as a leader of men to host a grand event. Why would people want to attend a gathering that wasn’t elegantly decorated, especially if the host had the ability to spend loads of money? Plus, this event was a ceremony involving the goddess of fortune. Lakshmi is the giver of wealth and opulence, and that gift is meant to further a purpose. Lakshmi is always with Narayana, trying to please Him in every way. This is the secret ofdevotional service   ; that by following the principles of religion aimed at pleasing God, the person offering the service finds the highest type of pleasure as well. Lakshmi’s gifts are meant to be used for her service and the service of her husband. Therefore no amount of money was too much to spend on Sita’s svayamvara. No amount of decorating was overdoing it, for the beautiful things in this world are but God’s gift to us, to show us what the Lord is capable of creating. The scene of the svayamvara was so beautiful that one couldn’t help but think of Lord Brahma. Just as we say things like, “They broke the mold”, when describing people and objects of amazing and unique beauty, Goswami Tulsidas    tells us that an onlooker at the svayamvara would think that Brahma was trying to show off, that creating this world and populating it with creatures weren’t enough for him. He wasn’t satisfied with being the original creator that everyone knew. Rather, he would reserve his greatest talents for this wonderful event held in Janaka’s kingdom. The decorations turned out to be worth it, as Lord Rama would come and lift the bow in front of a large assembly of onlookers. As a match made in heaven, Sita and Rama would be married through Janaka’s plan. The king’s attachment for her earned him God as a son-in-law, all the while making him even more famous for his dedication to piety and virtue. The time spent decorating his kingdom for the svayamvara was not in vain, as the scene was so memorable that people still talk about it today. Sita and Rama’s wedding was like none other, and the host of the occasion, Maharaja Janaka, was one of a kind as well. In Closing: After of Lord Shiva's bow taking vow, Time for preparing for svayamvara now. Upon seeing end result onlookers found, That supremely beautiful was the ground. Looked like four-faced creator from his abode, Every one of his creating abilities showed. Grand pomp deserved for fortune's goddess Lakshmi, Place where God to reunite with wife Sita Devi.

Electronic Contact Lenses Tested Successfully in Real Live Eyes

Rabbits' eyes, but still

By Sean Kane

Information In Your Eye University of Washington

Back in 2009, we wrote about a contact lens in the works that displayed visual feedback right before your eyes, Terminator style. Well, two years and a few months later, Professor Babak Parviz has a working model. He has given the new lens to rabbits, and reports complete success.

The device's display has only one pixel, but serves as a working proof-of-concept for developing more complex information lenses. A useful device would need hundreds of pixels at least, to display a short email or text message.

The lens harvests energy from an external source using an antenna and has an integrated circuit to store the harvested power and transfer it to a transparent sapphire chip with a single blue LED. Unfortunately, while the range of the display was about one meter in free space, that range was reduced to about two centimeters when it was placed on the eye.

Another of the challenges facing the creation of a Terminator-style eye display is that the minimum focal distance of a human eye is only a few centimeters. This means that information displayed on a contact lens would appear blurry. To address this, the researchers used thin Fresnel lenses to magnify the display.

More research is needed before we'll be able to read text on our eyeballs though. "We need to improve the antenna design and the associated matching network and optimize the transmission frequency to achieve an overall improvement in the range of wireless transmission," said Parviz, co-author of the study. "Our next goal, however, is to incorporate some predetermined text in the contact lens."

At Tokyo Motor Show, the Public Will Be Allowed to Test-Ride In Robot-Driven Prius

By Rebecca Boyle

Plug-in Prius The Prius plug-in hybrid makes its Japanese premiere at the Tokyo Motor Show. Toyota

The best part of an auto show is the test drive — you can sink into the cushiony driver’s seat, behold the beautiful control panel, and feel the steering wheel slip comfortably between your fingers. At this year’s Tokyo Motor Show, that won’t happen. Test drivers will sit in the back seat of an autonomous Prius, letting the car drive them around by itself. It’ll probably be worth the backseat view.

Next week’s auto show will boast plenty of future features, but none tickles our fancy as much as the idea of a driverless Prius, not owned by Google, taking showgoers for a spin. Toyota calls the car the AVOS for Automatic Vehicle Operation System and will let show attendees hop in the back seat as part of an exhibit on cooperative vehicle systems.

Many automakers are working on more intelligent car technology, ranging from driver-assist capabilities to vehicle interlink systems to genuine autonomy. It will still be a few years before these cars hit the road, but probably only a short time if their presence during auto show season is any indication.

The AVOS is a self-driving version of a Prius that can come to its driver when summoned, avoid obstacles in its path, and safely park itself, according to Toyota. The carmaker will also demo other vehicle-cooperative systems and safety features.

Other features include something called a Smart Mobility Park, which will serve as a charging station for plug-in hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles, and an H2V (Home to Vehicle) management system that controls charging times for an EV. Toyota will debut its FT-EV III electric vehicle and FCV-R hydrogen fuel cell car and host the Japanese premiere of its plug-in Prius.

The Tokyo Motor Show opens to the public on Dec. 3.

[Toyota via Gizmag]

Advance Could Challenge China's Solar Dominance

ENERGY

New technology could tip the balance back in favour of some solar-panel manufacturers outside China.

• BY KEVIN BULLIS

Audio »

Chinese solar-panel manufacturers dominate the industry, but a new way of making an exotic type of crystalline silicon might benefit solar companies outside of China with designs that take advantage of the material.

GT Advanced Technologies, one of the world's biggest suppliers of furnaces for turning silicon into large crystalline cubes that can then be sliced to make wafers for solar cells, recently announced two advanced technologies for making crystalline silicon. The new approaches significantly lower the cost of making high-end crystalline silicon for highly efficient solar cells.

The first technology, which GT calls Monocast, can be applied as a retrofit to existing furnaces, making it possible to produce monocrystalline silicon using the same equipment now used to make lower-quality multi-crystalline silicon. It will be available early next year. Several other manufacturers are developing similar technology.

The second technology, which the company calls HiCz, could have a bigger long-term impact. It cuts the cost of making a type of monocrystalline silicon that is leavened with trace amounts of phosphorous, which further boosts a panel's efficiency. This type of silicon is currently used in only 10 percent of solar panels because of its high cost, but could gain a bigger market share due to the cost savings (up to 40 percent) from GT's technology. The technology will be available next year.

A standard solar panel, made of multicrystalline silicon, might generate 230 watts in full sunlight. A panel the same size made of monocrystalline silicon could generate 245 watts. But phosphorous-doped monocrystalline silicon (also called n-type monocrystalline) enables a type of solar panel that generates 320 watts, a huge leap in performance.

Most Chinese solar manufacturers have focused on multicrystalline silicon solar panels. Companies such as U.S.-based Sunpower have focused on the advanced monocrystalline panels, and have designed cells to exploit its properties. Such companies will benefit as the HiCz technique developed by GT Advanced Technologies becomes more common.

"There's a potential shift in the market," says Vikram Singh, general manager for the photovoltaic division at GT Advanced Technologies. He says some Western companies could become more competitive because they have technologies to take advantage of the materials.

Several other companies are developing technologies similar to Monocast, including solar-panel makers in China, such as Suntech and the Dutch equipment maker ALD.

The HiCz technology can be considered the next step on the way to higher-efficiency solar cells. It can be used to make monocrystalline silicon, even the phosphorous-doped type, for about the same cost as the Monocast technology. HiCz could allow a leap from cells that convert 16 to 18 percent of the energy in sunlight into electricity to ones that can convert 22 to 24 percent, thus decreasing the cost per watt of solar power. But it can't be retrofitted to existing equipment, which could slow its adoption.

The conventional way to make monocrystalline silicon is to introduce a seed crystal into a pool of molten silicon and slowly draw it out—as you do, it forms a large tube-shaped chunk of silicon called a boule, in which all of the atoms are lined up in the same orientation. This is usually done in a batch process, but the HiCz process makes it possible to continuously feed in raw silicon to the melt, along with whatever trace elements are needed to give it the desired electronic properties. The continuous process is more productive, which means fewer machines are needed, reducing costs. It also produces high yields when introducing materials, including trace elements such as gallium and phosphorous. GT estimates the process can reduce the costs of making monocrystalline solar by between 20 and 40 per cent. 

Ozone from Rock Fracture Could Serve as Earthquake Early Warning

 

                                    

Science Daily — Researchers the world over are seeking reliable ways to predict earthquakes, focusing on identifying seismic precursors that, if detected early enough, could serve as early warnings.

Scientists in the lab of Raúl A. Baragiola, a professor of engineering physics in the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science set up experiments to measure ozone produced by crushing or drilling into different igneous and metamorphic rocks, including granite, basalt, gneiss, rhyolite and quartz. Different rocks produced different amounts of ozone, with rhyolite producing the strongest ozone emission.New research, published this week in the journal Applied Physics Letters, suggests that ozone gas emitted from fracturing rocks could serve as an indicator of impending earthquakes. Ozone is a natural gas, a byproduct of electrical discharges into the air from several sources, such as from lightning, or, according to the new research, from rocks breaking under pressure.

Some time prior to an earthquake, pressures begin to build in underground faults. These pressures fracture rocks, and presumably, would produce detectable ozone.

To distinguish whether the ozone was coming from the rocks or from reactions in the atmosphere, the researchers conducted experiments in pure oxygen, nitrogen, helium and carbon dioxide. They found that ozone was produced by fracturing rocks only in conditions containing oxygen atoms, such as air, carbon dioxide and pure oxygen molecules, indicating that it came from reactions in the gas. This suggests that rock fractures may be detectable by measuring ozone.

Baragiola began the study by wondering if animals, which seem -- at least anecdotally -- to be capable of anticipating earthquakes, may be sensitive to changing levels of ozone, and therefore able to react in advance to an earthquake. It occurred to him that if fracturing rocks create ozone, then ozone detectors might be used as warning devices in the same way that animal behavioral changes might be indicators of seismic activity.

He said the research has several implications.

"If future research shows a positive correlation between ground-level ozone near geological faults and earthquakes, an array of interconnected ozone detectors could monitor anomalous patterns when rock fracture induces the release of ozone from underground and surface cracks," he said.

"Such an array, located away from areas with high levels of ground ozone, could be useful for giving early warning to earthquakes."

He added that detection of an increase of ground ozone might also be useful in anticipating disasters in tunnel excavation, landslides and underground mines.

Baragiola's co-authors are U.Va. research scientist Catherine Dukes and visiting student Dawn Hedges.

Human, Artificial Intelligence Join Forces to Pinpoint Fossil Locations

                             This map shows sites (in red) in the Great Divide Basin with a 95 percent probability of containing fossils that also have slopes of greater than 5 percent. (Credit: Courtesy of Robert Anemone)

Science Daily  — In 1991, a team led by Washington University in St. Louis paleoanthropologist Glenn Conroy, PhD, discovered the fossils of the first -- and still the only -- known pre-human ape ever found south of the equator in Africa after only 30 minutes of searching a limestone cave in Namibia.

Traditionally, fossil-hunters often could only make educated guesses as to where fossils lie. The rest lay with chance -- finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.

"I don't want to say it's total luck," says Conroy, professor of physical anthropology in Arts & Sciences, "but it's a combination of hard work, meticulous planning and, well, a good dose of luck."

But thanks to a software model used by Conroy and researchers at Western Michigan University, fossil-hunters' reliance on luck when finding fossils may be diminishing.

Using artificial neural networks (ANNs) -- computer networks that imitate the workings of the human brain -- Conroy and colleagues Robert Anemone, PhD, and Charles Emerson, PhD, developed a computer model that can pinpoint productive fossil sites in the Great Divide Basin, a 4,000-square-mile stretch of rocky desert in Wyoming.

The basin has proved to be a productive area for fossil hunters, yielding 50 million- to 70 million-year-old early mammal fossils.

The software builds on satellite imagery and maps fossil-hunters have used for years to locate the best fossil sites. It just takes the process a step further, Conroy says.

With information gathered from maps and satellite imagery -- such as elevation, slope, terrain and many other landscape features -- the ANN was "trained" to use details of existing fossiliferous areas to accurately predict the locations of other fossil sites elsewhere in the Great Divide Basin.

Because few sites are 100 percent identical, researchers had to "teach" the ANNs to recognize sites that shared key features in common. With the help of guidance from the scientists, the ANNs use pattern recognition to identify sites that share similar features.

"The beauty and power of neural networks lie in the fact that they are capable of learning," says Conroy, also a professor of anatomy and neurobiology at the School of Medicine. "You just need to give them a rule to deal with things they don't know."

Conroy and colleagues tested the software at the Great Divide Basin last summer. The ANNs correctly identified 79 percent of the area's known fossil sites, and 99 percent of the sites it tagged contained fossils.

Next up, the scientists tested the software on the nearby Bison Basin, also in Wyoming. Despite having been taught to recognize fossil sites at a neighboring location (the Great Divide Basin), the ANNs correctly identified four fossil sites in the Bison Basin.

"That gave us encouragement that a blind test based on a neural network for a different basin still gave us pretty good predictive results," Conroy says.

Next, Conroy is planning to continue to use the software to search for early hominid fossil sites in South Africa.

The scientists hope this new application of existing technology will help increase the efficiency of paleontological fieldwork.

"In the old days, we'd all bring different maps, and start walking," Conroy says. "Now, we're talking about ways to improve one's chances."

New MRI Technique to Diagnose or Rule out Alzheimer's Disease

 

Science Daily  — On the quest for safe, reliable and accessible tools to accurately diagnose Alzheimer's disease, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found a new way of diagnosing and tracking Alzheimer's disease, using an innovative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique called arterial spin labeling (ASL) to measure changes in brain function. The team determined that the ASL-MRI test is a promising alternative to the current standard, a specific PET scan that requires exposure to small amounts of a radioactive glucose analog and costs approximately four-times more than an ASL-MRI.

Two studies now appear inAlzheimer's and Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association and Neurology.

ASL-MRI can be used to measure neurodegenerative changes in a similar way that fluorodeoxyglucose Positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) scans are currently being used to measure glucose metabolism in the brain. Both tests correlate with cognitive decline in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

"In brain tissue, regional blood flow is tightly coupled to regional glucose consumption, which is the fuel the brain uses to function. Increases or decreases in brain function are accompanied by changes in both blood flow and glucose metabolism," explained John A. Detre, MD, professor of Neurology and Radiology at Penn, senior author on the papers, who has worked on ASL-MRI for the past 20 years. "We designed ASL-MRI to allow cerebral blood flow to be imaged noninvasively and quantitatively using a routine MRI scanner."

When Alzheimer's disease is suspected, patients typically receive an MRI initially to look for structural changes that could indicate other medical causes, such as a stroke or brain tumor. Adding about 10-20 minutes to the test time, ASL can be incorporated into the routine MRI and capture functional measures to detect Alzheimer's disease upfront, turning a routine clinical test (structural MRI) into both a structural and functional test.

"If ASL-MRI were included in the initial diagnostic work-up routinely, it would save the time for obtaining an additional PET scan, which we often will order when there is diagnostic uncertainty, and would potentially speed up diagnosis," said David Wolk, MD, Assistant Professor of Neurology and Assistant Director of the Penn Memory Center, and a collaborator on this research.

The studies being reported this week show a comparison of ASL-MRI and FDG-PET in a group of Alzhiemer's patients and age-matched controls. Cerebral blood flow and glucose metabolism were measured simultaneously by injecting the PET tracer during the MRI study. The data were then analyzed two different ways.

In the first study, now online in Alzheimer's and Dementia, ASL-MRI and FDG-PET images from 13 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's and 18 age-matched controls were analyzed by visual inspection. Independent, blinded review of the two tests by expert nuclear medicine physicians demonstrated similar abilities to rule out (sensitivity) and diagnose (specificity) Alzheimer's. Neither ASL-MRI nor FDG-PET showed a clear advantage from quantitative testing.

In the second study, published in Neurology, the ASL-MRI and FDG-PET images were compared statistically at each location in the brain by computerized analysis. Data from 15 AD patients were compared to 19 age-matched healthy adults. The patterns of reduction in cerebral blood flow were nearly identical to the patterns of reduced glucose metabolism by FDG-PET, both of which differed from the patterns of reduction in gray matter seen in AD.

"Given that ASL-MRI is entirely non-invasive, has no radiation exposure, is widely available and easily incorporated into standard MRI routines, it is potentially more suitable for screening and longitudinal disease tracking than FDG-PET," said the Neurology study authors.

Additional studies will focus on larger sample sizes including patients with mild cognitive impairment and other kinds of neurodegenerative conditions.

Study collaborators from Penn included Erik S. Musiek, MD, PhD; Marc Korczykowski, Babak Saboury, Patricia M. Martinez; Janet S. Reddin, PhD; Abass Alavi, MD; Daniel Y. Kimberg; Joel Greenberg, PhD; and Steven E. Arnold, MD. An additional researcher from and Astra-Zeneca also contributed to the research.

The study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), as well as a grant from the Penn-AstraZeneca Alliance. Dr. Detre is an inventor on the University of Pennsylvania's patent for ASL-MRI

New Material Can Enhance Energy, Computer, Lighting Technologies

                                           Science Daily — Arizona State University researchers have created a new compound crystal material that promises to help produce advances in a range of scientific and technological pursuits.

ASU electrical engineering professor Cun-Zheng Ning says the material, called erbium chloride silicate, can be used to develop the next generations of computers, improve the capabilities of the Internet, increase the efficiency of silicon-based photovoltaic cells to convert sunlight into electrical energy, and enhance the quality of solid-state lighting and sensor technology.

Ning's research team of team of students and post-doctoral degree assistants help synthesize the new compound in ASU's Nanophotonics Lab in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, one of the university's Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

The lab's erbium research is supported by the U.S. Army Research Office and U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Details about the new compound are reported in the Optical Materials Express on the website of the Optical Society of America.

The breakthrough involves the first-ever synthesis of a new erbium compound in the form of a single-crystal nanowire, which has superior properties compared to erbium compounds in other forms.

Erbium is one of the most important members of the rare earth family in the periodic table of chemical elements. It emits photons in the wavelength range of 1.5 micrometers, which are used in the optical fibers essential to high-quality performance of the Internet and telephones.

Erbium is used in doping optical fibers to amplify the signal of the Internet and telephones in telecommunications systems. Doping is the term used to describe the process of inserting low concentrations of various elements into other substances as a way to alter the electrical or optical properties of the substances to produce desired results. The elements used in such processes are referred to as dopants.

"Since we could not dope as many erbium atoms in a fiber as we wish, fibers had to be very long to be useful for amplifying an Internet signal. This makes integrating Internet communications and computing on a chip very difficult," Ning explains.

"With the new erbium compound, 1,000 times more erbium atoms are contained in the compound. This means many devices can be integrated into a chip-scale system," he says. "Thus the new compound materials containing erbium can be integrated with silicon to combine computing and communication functionalities on the same inexpensive silicon platform to increase the speed of computing and Internet operation at the same time."

Erbium materials can also be used to increase the energy-conversion efficiency of silicon solar cells.

Silicon does not absorb solar radiation with wavelengths longer than 1.1 microns, which results in waste of energy -- making solar cells less efficient.

Erbium materials can remedy the situation by converting two or more photons carrying small amounts of energy into one photon that is carrying a larger amount of energy. The single, more powerful photon can then be absorbed by silicon, thus increasing the efficiency of solar cells.

Erbium materials also help absorb ultraviolet light from the sun and convert it into photons carrying small amounts of energy, which can then be more efficiently converted into electricity by silicon cells. This color-conversion function of turning ultraviolet light into other visible colors of light is also important in generating white light for solid-state lighting devices.

While erbium's importance is well-recognized, producing erbium materials of high quality has been challenging, Ning says.

The standard approach is to introduce erbium as a dopant into various host materials, such as silicon oxide, silicon, and many other crystals and glasses.

"One big problem has been that we have not been able to introduce enough erbium atoms into crystals and glasses without degrading optical quality, because too many of these kinds of dopants would cluster, which lowers the optical quality," he says.

What is unique about the new erbium material synthesized by Ning's group is that erbium is no longer randomly introduced as a dopant. Instead, erbium is part of a uniform compound and the number of erbium atoms is a factor of 1,000 more than the maximum amount that can be introduced in other erbium-doped materials.

Increasing the number of erbium atoms provides more optical activity to produce stronger lighting. It also enhances the conversion of different colors of light into white light to produce higher-quality solid-state lighting and enables solar cells to more efficiently convert sunlight in electrical energy.

In addition, since erbium atoms are organized in a periodic array, they do not cluster in this new compound. The fact that the material has been produced in a high-quality single-crystal form makes the optical quality superior to the other doped materials, Ning says.

Like many scientific discoveries, the synthesis of this new erbium material was made somewhat by accident.

"Similar to what other researchers are doing, we were originally trying to dope erbium into silicon nanowires. But the characteristics demonstrated by the material surprised us," he says. "We got a new material. We did not know what it was, and there was no published document that described it. It took us more than a year to finally realize we got a new single-crystal material no one else had produced."

Ning and his team are now trying to use the new erbium compound for various applications, such as increasing silicon solar cell efficiency and making miniaturized optical amplifiers for chip-scale photonic systems for computers and high-speed Internet.

"Most importantly," he says, "there are many things we have yet to learn about what can be achieved with use of the material. Our preliminary studies of its characteristics show it has many amazing properties and superior optical quality. More exciting discoveries are waiting to be made."

New hope for muscle disease

THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

Nemaline Myopathy causes muscle weakness of varying severity in an estimated 500 Australian children. Image: realitybytes/iStockphoto A health supplement used by bodybuilders could be the key to treating a life-threatening muscular dystrophy affecting hundreds of Australian children, new research shows. The amino acid L-tyrosine had a “rapid and dramatic impact” on Nemaline Myopathy (NM) in laboratory tests on mice, significantly improving symptoms of the muscle wasting disease, medical researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) found. Trials showed that consuming L-tyrosine could significantly improve muscle strength and mobility in NM, raising the possibility it also could be effective in a range of other muscular dystrophies. L-tyrosine is readily available in health food shops for less than $30 and is used as a body building supplement and as a memory booster. There is currently no cure for NM (or Rod Myopathy) – the most common congenital muscle wasting disease – which causes muscle weakness of varying severity in an estimated 500 Australian children. Children with NM experience delayed motor development and weakness in the arms and legs, trunk, throat and face muscles. The condition can lead to difficulties breathing and moving and, in its severest form, can cause death. A team of scientists led by Professor Edna Hardeman, from UNSW’s Neuromuscular and Regenerative Medicine Unit, were able to test the efficacy of the supplement after creating – for the first time – a genetically modified mouse which display the same genetic changes found in children with NM. “These mice and have a remarkably similar disease profile to the children, with many of the animals dying young,” Professor Hardeman said. After feeding the mice the L-tyrosine, the team observed improvements in muscle strength, increased mobility and a reduction in a range of muscle pathologies. The findings will now be used as the basis for a clinical trial to test L-tyrosine’s ability to alleviate symptoms in children. “This is the first clear demonstration that L-tyrosine supplements can significantly reduce both the clinical and pathological features of NM,” Professor Hardeman said. “L-tyrosine is readily available, it is easy to administer and our data suggest that long-term use is relatively safe,” Professor Hardeman said. “What’s more, the rapid and dramatic impact of L-tyrosine in NM mice also raises the possibility the supplement may be beneficial for dystrophy patients and other muscle degenerative conditions.” Other team members included Dr Mai-Anh Nguyen and Josephine Joya from UNSW’s School of Medical Sciences. The study was funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council The findings are published online in the journal Brain. Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.