Researchers have experimented with using an essential oil plant extract to reduce the number of blossoms on a tree, allowing more profitable fruit to grow.

Too many flowers on peach and apple trees are not necessarily a good thing. If all of the flowers that formed in springtime were allowed to become fruit, the resulting crop may be large, but the fruit would be excessively small and unmarketable. Larger fruit commands a higher market price.
Today, US fruit growers are spending up to $500 per acre to hand-remove excess blossoms, at a total annual cost of more than $156 million, ScienceDaily reported.
It’s a tedious and time-consuming process--often used in peach production--and it, like chemical fruit thinning, may be ineffective as well as expensive.
That’s why Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have been working on a more efficient way to reduce the number of blossoms on a tree to promote more profitable fruit. ARS is the US Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific research agency.
At the ARS Appalachian Fruit Research Laboratory in Kearneysville, W.Va., plant physiologist Thomas Tworkoski and horticulturist Stephen Miller have experimented with using an essential oil plant extract to reduce the number of blossoms on a tree, allowing more profitable fruit to grow.
Adopting such an environmentally sound approach to blossom thinning would prevent limb breakage from excess fruit weight, while yielding the larger fruit many consumers prefer.
The new method involves spraying fruit trees with the natural plant product while the tree is in bloom. The plant extract damages the blossoms’ reproductive tissues and prevents pollination and fertilization. Flowers are sufficiently affected shortly after treatment.
The concentration of essential oil plant extract determines the degree of blossom fall. Tworkoski and Miller are fine-tuning the timing of application with the bloom cycles of various fruit trees including apples, peaches, pears and other high-value fruit trees.
Not only can this method meet the tree fruit industry’s needs for reliable blossom thinners that are safe and environment-friendly, it may also be acceptable for use in organic fruit production. A patent application has been submitted for this technology, and ARS is looking for cooperative research partners to assist with small field trials.

Silver-lined pajamas designed to protect against the hospital superbug MRSA have gone on sale in the UK.
M&S is the first British retailer to stock the 45 pounds Sleep Safe pajamas and is trialing them at 100 stores, BBC said.
Silver is known for its infection-fighting properties and silver-laced nightwear has already been tested in a handful of hospitals.
But campaigners called the pajamas a gimmick and said the only way to tackle MRSA was by making hospitals cleaner.
MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is a bacterium that can live completely harmlessly on the skin of healthy people but can lead to serious infection.
MRSA infections can cause a broad range of symptoms depending on the part of the body that is infected. These may include surgical wounds, burns, catheter sites, eye, skin and blood.
Dr Mark Enright, a microbiologist at Imperial College London, said that the pajamas would reduce the risk of a patient getting a skin infection that enters a wound.
A spokesman for M&S said, “The fabric that the pajamas are made of has been clinically proven to reduce the risk of MRSA by killing bacteria that come into contact with the fabric.
“Clinical trials are currently ongoing and are three quarters of the way through. The interim results were positive.“
They are only available for men at present and are produced using a fabric which has 2 percent silver woven into it.
Katherine Murphy, from the Patients’ Association, said, “We welcome the fact these are going on sale, but it shows how desperate the public is.“
However, Tony Kitchen of MRSA Support said: “It sounds like a gimmick--it cannot be a super suit and probably doesn’t make a jot of difference.
“The problem lies within the hospitals. They are dirty and it should not be up to the public to safeguard themselves, it’s the ethos of the hospital that needs to change.“

Early next year, an advanced nanotech lithium-ion battery will allow a Toyota Prius owner to plug the car into a standard outlet to quickly charge it up for the day’s commute. The batteries are on hardware store shelves now, inside DeWalt saws and other cordless power tools.
Meanwhile, a printing press will start to roll in San Jose, Calif., churning out foil by the yard imprinted with an ink made of nano-sized solar cell particles. The new process eventually could make it economical to turn any conceivable surface into a solar power collector, Cqpolitic.com reported.
Advocates say these advances mark the beginning of what will be a revolution in energy efficiency and environmental protection using nanotechnology--the manufacture of materials measured at the scale of 1 nanometer to 100 nanometers. The head of a pin is a million nanometers wide.
Yet lurking beneath the excitement is the unknown risk of releasing into the environment particles no bigger than atoms that can go where conventional-sized particles cannot, such as through the smallest filters or across cell membranes into cells, many advocates acknowledge.
Experts say big changes are just around the corner.
Global investment is moving toward nano-energy and environment. According to nanotechnology analyst Lux Research, worldwide government investment in research and development of nanotechnology with environmental benefits was $1.1 billion in 2006, a 16 percent increase over 2005. Venture capital investment in the sector--what Lux calls nano-enabled cleantech--was $292 million in 2006, a 91 percent increase over 2005.
The United States spends 15 percent of the research and development funds allocated under the nanotechnology initiative on cleantech, according to Lux. In 2006, that would have been about $200 million.
Most of the attention and money in this sector is focused on energy. The new lithium-ion batteries can store more energy and charge in one-tenth the time, overcoming one of the primary limitations of electric vehicles. And the new products lack a drawback of conventional lithium batteries: They don’t burst into flames at high temperatures.
A123 Systems batteries--the ones found in the power tools, not to mention KillaCycle, an electric motorcycle that can be seen breaking speed records on YouTube--will convert a 45-mile-per-gallon hybrid Prius into a 150-mile-per-gallon plug-in automobile at about $10,000 installed.
“This demonstrates proof positive that this can be done. It begins to provide benefits in the near term,“ says A123 chief David Vieau, who says he expects thousands of vehicle conversions next year and tens of thousands in the next few years.

Japan's Nippon Dental University Hospital staff member Yuko Uchida demonstrates the workings of Simroid for dentists and students.

Japan’s future dentists may soon be able to better appreciate patients’ pain by training on a humanoid robot that can mumble ’ouch’ when the drill hits a nerve.
The robot, resembling a young woman, also can listen to instructions and react to pain by moving her eyes or hands, AFP said.
A group of robot and computer makers presented the high-tech dental patient in Tokyo at the 2007 International Robot Exhibition, a four-day technology showcase that opened on Nov 28.
The medical simulation robot, named ’Simroid,’ is designed to be used for clinical training at dental schools, said Tatsuo Matsuzaki, an official at robot maker Kokoro Company Ltd., which developed the body and control system.
The 160-centimeter (five-foot-three) robot can say “it hurts“ and frown when it feels uncomfortable from the dental drill.
“Because it’s so real, dental trainees can see patients’ feelings and will be able to develop good skills as they treat it, not as an object, but as a human being,“ Matsuzaki said.
“The point is that we can share people’s pain without hurting people,“ Matsuzaki said.
Naotake Shibui, a professor at Nippon Medical School, which introduced the robot in September, said Simroid can help dentists “learn how to communicate with patients.“
“Treatment technique is important but it’s also important to feel what it’s like to be a patient,“ he said.
But in case anyone thinks the robot is too real, it also has a sensor on the breast area that keeps track if it has been touched inappropriately, an engineer said.

Nearby Venus is looking a bit more Earth-like with frequent bursts of lightning confirmed by a new European space probe.
For nearly three decades, astronomers have said Venus probably had lightning--ever since a 1978 NASA probe showed signs of electrical activity in its atmosphere. But experts weren’t sure because of signal interference, AP reported.
Now a magnetic antenna on the European Space Agency’s Venus Express probe proved that the lightning was real.
“We consider this to be the first definitive evidence of abundant lighting on Venus,“ David Grinspoon of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science told reporters Wednesday at a briefing in Paris.
The finding is significant because lightning affects atmospheric chemistry, so scientists will have to take it into account as they try to understand the atmosphere and climate of Venus, he said.
The lightning is cloud-to-cloud and about 35 miles above the surface, said University of California, Los Angeles geophysics professor C.T. Russell, lead author of a paper on the Venusian fireworks. It is being published in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature.
Bursts of electrical energy from lightning are something that scientists have long theorized could provide the spark of life in primordial ooze. But not on Venus.
“If life was ever something serious to talk about on Venus, it would be early in its history, not in its current state,“ said Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, who was not part of the research team. “It’s a very unforgiving atmosphere.“
The idea of Earth-like lightning is fascinating, Russell said. However, you couldn’t see it from Venus’ surface, nor would you want to look because the Venusian atmosphere is 100 times more dense than Earth’s, is about 900 degrees hotter and has clouds of sulfuric acid, he said.
“It may be Earth’s ’evil twin,’ but it is in many respects Earth’s twin,“ Russell said.
What excites astronomers most about the lightning discovery is simply the coolness factor.
Venus’ weather forecasts have long thought to be “kind of boring ... steady winds for the next 400 years,“ said Allan Treiman, a senior scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, who isn’t affiliated with the research. The idea of lightning, he said, adds a spark to Venus’ weather.

Stereoscopic digital mammography, which gives a 3-dimensional view of the inner structures of the breast, cuts the number of falsely diagnosed tumors in half, compared with conventional mammography, researchers reported here this week.
According to Reuters, preliminary results with stereoscopic digital mammography were described at the meeting of the Radiological Society of North America by one of its developers, Dr. David J. Getty of BBN Technologies of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The technique involves capturing two images 6 to 10 degrees apart that are cross-polarized and then superimposed, in much the same way as two images are used to create 3-D movies.
“Two-dimensional imaging masks subtle lesions,“ Getty explained. “With 3-D mammography, this is greatly reduced. Lesions can be seen as lying at different depths.“
In the study, 1,093 women referred for evaluation of suspected breast cancer were each examined with conventional mammography and the stereoscopic digital technique.
There were 259 abnormalities detected with one or both approaches, with 109 true positives and 150 false positives. Compared with conventional mammography, stereoscopic digital imaging reduced the false-positive rate by 49 percent.
“A 15 percent drop would have been a significant reduction, so this is a highly statistically significant finding,“ Getty said. “It cuts the false-positive rate in half, resulting in fewer patient recalls, less anxiety and less cost.“
Data on approximately 1500 women are expected to be analyzed by the end of the year, at which point the trial will be complete.3-D Mammography Cuts False-Positive Rates

Wild success causes elation for many people. But for some it spells anxiety. It’s all in how they see themselves.
How people view their abilities in the workplace or classroom impacts how they respond to success and failure, new research reveals, LiveScience.com said.
Individuals who think their abilities are set for life (as in “a leopard can’t change its spots“) experience high anxiety over unexpected accomplishments compared with those who view their capabilities as flexible (think “turning over a new leaf“).
“People are driven to feel that they can predict and control their outcomes,“ said co-researcher Jason Plaks, a social psychologist at the University of Toronto. “So when their performance turns out to violate their predictions, this can be unnerving--even if the outcome is, objectively speaking, good news.“
This phenomenon is intuitive among social psychologists but had never been put to a rigorous test.
Plaks and Kristin Stecher of the University of Washington surveyed groups of UW students in a series of studies. In one survey, 118 participants answered questions that indicated their type of perspective (fixed or malleable), expectations for test performance and emotional state.
Then participants took three versions of what they thought was an intelligence test. After receiving a stock score (61st percentile) on the first exam, participants got schooled on how to improve their performances before taking another similar test.
For that test, researchers randomly assigned each student a score that had improved, stayed the same or declined relative to the first test.
Among students with improved scores, fixed-view individuals reported more anxiety and performed worse on the third test compared with the “supple students.“
Plaks suggests the students with steadfast perspectives couldn’t handle the success, because it went against their established views.
“On the one hand, it’s good news that they [fixed-view participants] have improved a lot,“ Plaks told LiveScience. “On the other hand, it’s bad news in that it violates their view of themselves.“
Among participants who showed no change in test scores, those with malleable views reported anxiety and underperformed on the following test compared with their ’rigid’ counterparts.
A real-life example of this behavior might be dieters, Plaks said. “They’re trying their best, giving it a good, honest try to lose weight, and it just isn’t happening. And that should be especially frustrating for those adopting a malleable perspective,“ he said.
Whether a person tends to lean toward the flexible or rigid view is a learned behavior, the researchers figure. That means it can be unlearned or changed, Plaks said.