Arts funding cuts 'to threaten more theatres

The Futurist Theatre in Scarborough is considered at risk due to its prime seafront location

The number of theatres at risk of demolition could grow in the next year due to funding cuts, a report warns.

The Theatres Trust latest "at risk" register highlights 55 buildings facing an uncertain future, with cuts seen as a major area of concern.

Buildings in Wallsend, Derby and Workington are under immediate threat from demolition.

The trust's Rob Dickins said: "We cannot lose our theatre heritage in this way."

Saved

"Our report this year really highlights theatres under threat from imminent demolition and funding cuts," he added.

Mr Dickins expressed concerns that some currently active theatres could end up abandoned and empty, while previously closed buildings are prime targets for demolition and redevelopment.

The latest report also points out how local people are harnessing the power of social networking sites, including Facebook, to save theatres in their areas.

Other arts institutions singled out by the Theatre Buildings At Risk report include the Acorn Arts Centre in Penzance and Crewe's Lyceum.

Bedford's Civic Theatre, meanwhile, is earmarked for closure to be replaced by a council services centre.

The Theatres Trust has also removed some buildings which appeared on last year's list, including Blackpool's Opera House, saved from demolition by extra funding.

But the organisation said it was keeping a close eye on "saved" theatres after reviews of public sector funding were announced.

Phantom Eye hydrogen-powered spy plane unveiled

Boeing has unveiled its unmanned hydrogen-powered spy plane which can fly non-stop for up to four days.

The high-altitude plane, called Phantom Eye, will remain aloft at 20,000m (65,000ft), according to the company.

The demonstrator will be shipped to Nasa's Dryden Flight Research Center in California later this summer to prepare for its first flight in early 2011.

Boeing says the aircraft could eventually carry out "persistent intelligence and surveillance".

It is a product of the company's secretive Phantom Works research and development arm.

Boeing says the aircraft is capable of long endurance flights because of its "lighter" and "more powerful" hydrogen fuel system.

"We flew Condor [the company's previous reconnaissance drone] for 60 hours in 1989 on regular jet fuel, and that was the maximum," said Chris Haddox from Boeing Phantom Works. "Now we're talking 96 hours."

The company explained in a statement that Phantom Eye was "powered by two 2.3 litre, four-cylinder engines that provide 150 horsepower each".

It is also very large, with a 46m (150ft) wingspan.

"It isn't built for stealth - it's built for endurance," Mr Haddox told BBC News.

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has an ongoing interest in long-endurance high-altitude planes for surveillance and is considering a several different technologies, including solar power, to meet the requirements of what it refers to as its "Scavenger project".

The aerospace and defence company Qinetiq are carrying out trials in conjunction with the MoD to develop a solar powered plane called Zephyr.

A spokesperson for the MoD said: "Four days is very good but we are considering a range of options for our deep and persistent reconnaissance requirements.

Building an Electronic Human Brain

Of the myriad conceptions of robots in the future who are able to experience emotions, many of them share one trait in common: robots and synthetic people are smart, but not quite human.  Professor Henry Markram of Oxford University is setting out to set that myth to rest forever by creating the first fully functional human synthetic brain by the year 2018.

The announcement comes shortly after the SyNAPSE project had been announced to have created a computer as intelligent as a cat’s brain.  The SyNAPSE computer project first developed a computer with the mental capacity of an insect, then a rat, and finally a cat.  Thus far it is considered to be the most “intelligent” computer in existence.  Of course it is still only a fraction of what Professor Markram is proposing to build.

The project of course has created quite a stir, and no small amount of contention between SyNAPSE and Markram’s own endeavor as Markram says the claims made by SyNAPSE are entirely too ambitious and unrealistic.  He says that to create a brain will require a massive amount of work in every aspect of the computer creation process, and that the SyNAPSE computer is merely a computer simulation of a brain rather than an actual thinking electronic collection of grey matter.  What Markram proposes is far more extreme, from the looks of it, than any computer creation process we have ever seen before.

His lab is one of the most dazzlingly advanced places anyone has ever seen.  There are machines that one could only imagine do complex calculations and intricate manipulations unbelievably complex.  There is also a sort of “wet-works” where an elaborate machine is connected to a rat brain by a dozen or so microscopically thin glass spokes which peel away strands of the brain so they can be analyzed by the computer and replicated.  The analyzed model is then translated into a computer simulation which can then be saved and turned into a computer simulation later.  Of course Markram’s ultimate goal isn’t to create a rat brain, but rather a human brain which will prove to be far more complex and time consuming.  There are dozens, if not hundreds, of logistical problems to make this project possible, but Markram is very confident that he will succeed.

If life is created artificially, it means many philosophical questions will arise in the future.  What does it mean to be human?  What rights do artificial brains have?  What part of the artificial mind makes it simply a highly functional machine and not quite human?  And they’re questions that are going to sneak up on us.  The real question becomes, would a computer simulation of human consciousness that was perfect in every way truly be able to hold up to the most intense scrutiny?  Or would a facsimile of a human brain in an almost human body prove to be an unnerving “not quite human” example of the uncanny valley?  Will science perfect human computers eventually?  Will they be small enough to fit into robotic bodies?  If so, a world of humanoid cyborgs may await us in the near future.  And it may begin around 2018.

Turning Wood into Bones

A team of brilliant scientists from Italy have discovered a solution to the problem of bone replacement.  Their solution?  Simply turn wood into bone.  It sounds far fetched, but the first transplants have already taken place using a new technique that calcifies and hardens the wood into something entirely indistinguishable from bone.

For years those wishing to get a replacement hip or other bones had to resort to a combination of steel and ceramics.  Often these objects can interact with the replacement limbs in ways that can cause serious complications.  One 97 year old man who had received a hip replacement only had it for less than a year before he found it very difficult to move his hip due to a series of complications.  Despite the fact that the implant was made of highly durable titanium, it had been damaged during his daytime movements, and in addition the area around the bone where the screws had been put in had also been damaged.  The doctors who had implanted the hip were sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars and a new replacement had to be surgically implanted.  Most of the problems arising from this incident were due to the fact that the hip replacement had been made of an unnatural material that didn't mimic bone.

Finally it seems a new technique will let us quite literally grow replacement bones that can be implanted when we need them.  The Istec laboratory of bioceramics in Faenza has been developing the technique's manufacturing process as well as a method for implanting the bones in sheep.  And the project has met with huge success.

Today the sheep who have had their bones replaced by the new wooden bones have virtually no differences in them.  Months after the manufactured bones were implanted in the sheep, they were examined and a marked fusion had taken place between the bones that had been put there and the bones that were already present.  Cells from one had migrated to the other, and there was no joint showing where one ended and the other began.  Only under close scrutiny and analysis would it even be possible to discover which was the original bone and which was the replacement.  It seems this new technology is blazing a whole new field in medical technology.

And the process to create the bones isn't terribly complex either.  Wood is taken from the rattan tree and put into a furnace to harden it.  Pieces are then chopped up into smaller pieces and calcium and carbon are added.  It's all a matter of ratios as the bones eventually harden into a form that will eventually even be able to heal within the body.  The porous surface will allow blood vessels and nerve endings to cling to and through the material.  As of now the technology is a mere five years from being fully approved for human use.  After five years, however, bone replacement will be much cheaper, more convenient, and much easier to recover from.

A Mind Control Device

The Robotic Fish known as Robofish has been seen by scientists as the first step toward understanding and controlling fish schools in a laboratory.  Robofish is a sort of mind control device, though it only influences behavior rather than the minds of the fish who follow it.  It's essentially a fish designed to be lifelike enough to be mistaken as a stickleback fish by other fish.

The fish was demonstrated in a video found on the BBC's website where the gates to a tank are opened and the school remains crowded in a small area before suddenly the robotic fish shoots out of the tank followed with exact precision by others who suddenly share Robofish's interest for the outside world.  But to an outside observer, this first move would look more or less like a simple decision by the school as a whole.  This is because the fish are running on an instinct to follow the movements of others and act as a single entity.  When the most assured and confident of them is suddenly calling the shots the others naturally assume it is working on information it has gathered of the outside world.  This information can be the discovery of food, a predator, or some other need which ultimately results in the rest assuming they share a common goal.

Robofish is an interesting example of a group mentality being hijacked by an outsider.  Through use of Robofish scientists at Leeds University are actually able to control the movements of a school of fish.  It's unknown if the use of more Robofish in a single tank would actually increase the effectiveness of the followers, but it's eerie to watch as the device makes 90 degree turns and is quickly followed by the rest of the fish.  It's only when Robofish suddenly makes a turn away from the rest of the group that only a few investigate by observing, but ultimately decide it is making a choice to leave the group.

There are obvious application for robotic fish that could have far reaching advantages for those controlling fish schools to drive them away from ecological disasters.  An endangered species of any sort of pack animal may be able to be guided by a sufficiently convincing robot to move away from a dangerous area or toward more bounteous hunting grounds.  Unfortunately, this would have an understandable effect on the natural evolution of the creatures themselves, as any environmental factor can have, but it may be worth the cost if it allows the species to navigate this harsh period of mankind's quest to ensure the survival of biologically diverse ecosystems.

But it also raises an interesting analogy.  If Robofish were able to control schools of fish by manipulating the trends and pack mentality of the whole, how difficult would it be really to effectively manipulate human social trends as well?  Of course no one is suggesting that there are robotic people walking around guiding traffic, but in the years to come with the advancement of human understanding of group dynamics is it not possible that subtle movements could manipulate the vast reaches of mankind's progress through history by social engineering?  As tangential as it sounds, the difference is nothing more than a matter of how advanced the device is (such as television), and its purpose.

Invisible Tank

It sounds like something from the fevered brain of a science-fiction writer. Invisible soldiers? Disappearing tanks? Surely this is not possible. And yet that's exactly what a group of DARPA funded scientists are attempting to do: render military assets completely invisible to the human eye.

The U.S. military has had a long history of tweaking stealth technology to give the brave men and women on the front lines that most vital of strategic assets: surprise. At around the start of the 20th century, camouflage, or "camo" for short, came into its own, being adopted by most major world powers. The early 1900's saw soldiers wearing drab, dull-toned uniforms and camo patterns being painted onto vehicles and artillery pieces, ammo, dumps, and other such things. While unlikely to hinder another soldier's sight on the battlefield, it managed to hinder the casual observer, especially if the camouflaged subject was in the dark and staying still.


However, up until recently, that seemed to be the end of the camo story. Compared to technology such as aircraft, tanks, missiles, and firearms, camouflage technology has been at a relative standstill for the last century.


Until now, that is.


Recently, United States scientists received the green light from DARPA to pursue an advanced system of "crypsis", a term meaning the avoidance of observation. This research, funded so far with seventeen million government dollars, is geared towards two projects in particular: The primary project takes the form of a collapsible, deployable "shield" made of a self-healing fiber-optic/kevlar mesh that both "cloaks" those behind it in an obfuscating aura and protects them from bullets. The Second, and perhaps the more ambitious, project seeks to do the impossible: render an entire tank invisible to normal observation.


If it seems to strange to believe, consider the following:


In 2007, the British Army stated that it had already created a functional prototype of a "cloaking technology" for their tanks, and stated that they expected it to be deployed by early 2012. While there is little evidence beyond the testimony of a few officials, it is still intriguing.


There is the infamous story from October 28th, 1943, in which the U.S.S. Eldridge, a destroyer escort, was reputedly rendered invisible to the naked eye for a few brief moments, in what has been dubbed the Philadelphia Experiment.


And of course who can forget about Public Enemy No. 1, U.F.O.'s, aircraft that zip about the sky and seem to disappear and reappear like magic? Is it too ridiculous to imaging that the United States government has developed technology so advanced that the general public can only believe that it is either non-existent or of other-worldly origins, or that they have reverse-engineered alien technology, and either way have neglected to reveal it to the public or the world? After all, what good is a stealth weapon if everyone knows about it? And doesn't the American B-2 stealth bomber seem to resemble an alien space craft?


And from an American perspective, nothing seems more bizarre and unexplainable than the British military discovering cloaking technology first, especially considering the amount of support DARPA has given American initiatives to develop such projects.


Still, if all of these projects come to fruition, we can expect to see these high-tech cloaking technologies deployed in 2012 or shortly thereafter.


Or rather, not see.

Making Fire With Ice

The prospect of making fire with ice is relatively simple, but how do you make ice with fire?  With the ice you can convert the clear material into a lens that then acts as a magnifying glass of the sun's rays, but the prospect of making ice using fire is much more difficult.  Scientists, have, however, discovered a way piquing the curiosity of many and establishing the truly mysterious nature of water.

If water is kept in a completely smooth container without any other bubbles or dust, it can drop its temperature several degrees beneath its normal freezing point without forming the crystal formations required to bring about ice formations that grow as any other crystal does off of one central point.  If, however, an imperfection is formed in the still water by bumping the bottle filled with liquid, or piercing it with a needle the liquid will turn to ice fairly quickly.

Scientist Igor Lubomirsky of Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science has used another method, implementing the use of quasi-amorphous pyroelectric films.  The surface of these films change depending on the surface temperature of the material, and therefore if heated (as with fire) can change form from liquid to solid.  Positively charged surfaces are far easier to form ice on than a negatively charged one.  For example, a surface of charged lithium tantalate will freeze immediately when the surface is raised to a temperature of 17.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

Another curious trait discovered is that a surface of negatively charged ions would freeze from the top and move down in the direction of gravitational pull while positively charged ions would freeze from the bottom up.  The reason for this is the positively charged atoms of oxygen naturally point toward negatively charged surfaces while negatively charged atoms point in the opposite direction.  The reverse is true of hydrogen.

If changing the freezing point of water doesn't seem like a terribly important concept, imagine the potential applications for cryonics.  Normally one of the greatest hurdles current cryogenics run into is the propensity for frozen solid state water to expand when cooled.  As a result, organic tissue within these states will often expand as it solidifies, damaging cells.  Imagine a bag of frozen vegetables and how their texture seems different from that of a fresh bag.  Though the tissues are a little different in this case, it's similar in principle.  Current cryonics make it difficult for delicate tissue to survive the process, adding yet another condition for the technological achievements required to revive such a damaged vessel.

In addition, there are potential applications for rescuing animals that require incredibly cold conditions to survive in, but cannot themselves be contained in containers because the cold water would freeze.  It is also an important component in triggering cloud formation.  These principles could in the end result in vast strides in science and technology.  If liquid could remain so despite temperature and then be later turned to ice, there are several possibilities, particularly since water is one of few compounds that expands when freezing and contracts when it cools.