News and Science

According to the Times Online http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4133633.ece
a researcher from Tsukuba has discovered an Algae than "sweats" crude oil.

Professor Makoto Watanabe claims that this Algae has an energetic yield much higher than what can be achieved with other plants used to produce biofuel. However some economic details still need to be worked out before the diesel produced by this algae can be massively produced.

An index ranking the most peaceful countries of the world has been published it can be found at http://www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi/results/rankings.php

Unsurprisingly, Iceland is first. Japan is fifth and Iraq is last!

Physics world has published this week an interesting article
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/33926 about a publication that claims that the larger a
committee is, the more inefficient it is.

The author claims to have done simulations confirming that a group is more efficient in taken
decisions when its size is below.

In this article http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/33256 published by the IoP the author explains how researchers from St Andrews have devised a system that should be able to produce "artificial" black holes made of light travelling in an optical fibre.

Although the system is different it may share some of the properties predicted by Stephen Hawkings for Black Holes.

In this article http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/32875 published by Physicsworld the author explain that it is possible to measure the amount of Arsenic present in someone's hair thanks to Nuclear Physics techniques.

This technique has been applied to samples of Napoleon's hairs and to the hairs of other people living at the same time than him. It has been found that the Arsenic contained in Napoleon's came from environmental causes rather than from malicious poisoning.