Three Hits For Science

The most interesting week in a long time for science, I think.

First, the Austrian Academy of Sciences grow themselves a brain.  Not in a jar as sci-fi would have it, but in a spinning bioreactor.  The scientists say that this matches ‘closely but not perfectly’ brain development in the first nine weeks of foetal development.  I’d have thought this statement was obvious since most mother’s don’t sit on a playground roundabout immediately after conception, but nevertheless it’s one hell of an interesting technology and, if it allows us to understand what happens when the brain doesn’t develop properly, then I’m all for it.  On the other hand, it’s another indication that we’ll soon be able to do pretty much anything with DNA and cell tissue, so we’d better get on with the debate about what is and isn’t ethical, before we start doing things that are less clearly on the acceptable side of the fence.

Secondly, and more intriguingly for me, a team at St Andrews in Edinburgh have produced the fastest spinning thing in world, a tiny sphere of calcium carbonate.  Basically, they took a flake of the stuff, four millionths of a metre in diameter (that’s four microns to you and me), balanced it on top of a light beam from a laser and then span it around using circularly polarised light.  “So what?” you might think.  Ah, well, the interesting thing for me was that when they hit the world record 600 million revs per minute (about ten million times faster than the average car engine goes before it blows its top), the whole thing simply disappeared and the scientists don’t know where it went.  Now, there’s a cue for a spooky sci-fi story or two!

Finally, just to top off the week, broccoli prevents arthritis!  Who knew?  When my kids were little, they were allowed three vegetables they wouldn’t eat.  They had to write them on the fridge door so there would be no dispute at dinner time that the vegetables on their plates were not exempt from consumption.  Funnily enough, broccoli was on both kids’ lists.