The BALL REPORTS

Strange Science

March 16, 2007

Beer and fag-smelling perfume launched

A new perfume has been created in Germany which smells of rancid beer and cigarette butts.
The scent is intended to evoke memories of the famous Oktoberfest, Munich's annual homage to beer.
Inventor and pub landlord Peter Inselkammer presented the scent during the 169th festival. He said he has called the new perfume 'Armbrustschuetzenzelt' Crossbow Tent - after the various drinking tents.
Inselkammer said the scent, which costs around 5,700B a bottle, comes in the shape of a pen that can be easily carried around the fields of the Oktoberfest.
Over a million people stormed the tents of the beer festival in its first week and organizers expect at least 6 million visitors to have come and gone by Sunday 6 October.

Researchers train bacteria to build circuits

Scientists in Japan are training bugs to make electrical circuits.
The experiments have been carried out at the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, in Ibaraki.
The team are using Acetobacter xylinum bugs to lay down cellulose fibres onto grooved films.
Researcher Tetsuo Kondo says the technique could point the way to tiny machines that can build microscopic circuits. He told Nature there could be other applications, including using bugs as the basis for nano-machines that regenerate skin.

Scientists use genes to make hair glow

Scientists in the US have discovered a way to make hair glow green, yellow, blue or red by using genes from tropical fish. Researchers at a laboratory in Maine have discovered a way to genetically engineer hair so it will glow under a florescent blue light but look normal in the day. It came about as part of a project to try to find ways to stop hair falling out during chemotherapy treatment but scientists are not ruling out a cosmetic use of their work. Doctor Robert Hoffman, president of the company behind the project, told the LA Times: "What the heck, I'd rather see people use a safe gene than toxic hair dyes."
And he is not ruling out the possibility it could also be used one day to cure male baldness.
The process has already been tried on mice injected with a gene which made their hair follicles and skin glow green. Scientists are now modifying jellyfish protein to glow yellow or blue and protein from coral which glows red. And they're searching for even more colors among fish, polyps and other creatures living in the world's tropical reefs.

 

 

Your humble Ace Reporter

Bob

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