By Mark Ward  BBC News Online technology correspondent

Astronomers could be among the first to reap the rewards of plans to turn the internet into a vast pool of computer processing power. 

The three-year Astrogrid project is attempting to give astronomers a common way of accessing and manipulating diverse data archives. 

The project will also help scientists cope with the wave of data that novel telescopes and instruments are expected to generate. 

The researchers behind the initiative believe astronomers will only be able to do meaningful science with this wealth of new data by tapping the net's huge information processing potential. 

Day-to-day data delay

Astrogrid is a £5m project that attempts to put a single, friendly interface on the huge number of astronomical archives and data sets currently held online. 

It is one of many projects inspired by research on ways of using the computers attached to the net as a coupled supercomputer or a storage system with almost limitless capacity. 

The Grid could help with forecasts of space weather

Nicholas Walton, project scientist for Astrogrid, said many astronomers currently spent a lot of their time hunting for data or turning what they needed into a form they could use. 

"Data sets are archived but not always in the same format or in a way that's accessible to all," said Dr Walton. 

Astrogrid will create a standard way of querying almost any astronomical database and remove any need to understand the technical quirks of an instrument to get the most out of the information. 

To make this happen, the Astrogrid project is defining a "metadata" format that can be used to interpret sets of data so they can be queried through one interface similar to a web browser. 

We want to enable astronomers to do more effective and economic science

Dr Nicholas Walton, Astrogrid

"We want to make it easier for everyone to have access to the same data but ensure they're presented in the same uniform way," said Dr Walton. 

"We'll have been successful when they are using it but don't know they are using it," he said. 

The ability to combine datasets from different sources was becoming much more important to astronomers, said Dr Walton. 

Only by combining X-ray, radio, magnetic, infra-red and optical information about astronomical objects such as supernova remnants would scientists get a thorough understanding of the Universe, he said. 

Instrument explosion

Astrogrid will also help astronomers cope with the enormous amounts of data that new instruments, such as the Visible & Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (Vista), are expected to produce. 

Telescope arrays generate huge amounts of data

Dr Walton said that before now total surveys of the sky were typically done once every few decades. 

By contrast, Vista will survey the sky every few days and produce 100Gb of data per night. 

Other planned instruments such as Europe's Very Large Telescope Array and the American space agency's Living With a Star project will produce similar reams of data. 

The only way that astronomers were going to be able to archive and analyse such enormous amounts of data was by using the net as a storage system and a vast supercomputer, said Dr Walton. 

Without the help of the internet, scientists would have no chance of finding the tens of objects that interest them out of the billions that instruments are recording information about. 

"We want to enable astronomers to do more effective and economic science," he said. 

"We want them to do the things they do now faster and to do things they cannot contemplate now." 

 

By Dr David Whitehouse  BBC News Online science editor

Guided rats controlled through implants in their brains could one day be used to search for landmines or buried victims of earthquakes, scientists say. 

An extraordinary experiment has seen researchers steering five rodents - so-called ratbots - through an obstacle course by remote control. 

Writing in the journal Nature, the scientists say the ratbots could reach places inaccessible to humans or machines. 

The research team is led by Dr Sanjiv Talwar, of the State University of New York, US. 

Commands and rewards

Electrodes were implanted into areas of the rats' brains responsible for sensing reward, as well as those that process signals from the whiskers. 

The idea is sort of creepy

Dr Sanjiv Talwar, State University of New York

The commands and rewards were transmitted by radio from a laptop computer to a backpack receiver strapped to each rodent. 

The scientists were able to make the rats run, turn, jump and climb where they wanted. The researchers were able to send these commands from distances of up to 500 metres (1640 feet). 

The ratbots negotiated an obstacle course which involved climbing a vertical ladder, running along a narrow ledge, hopping down a flight of steps, squeezing through a hoop and descending a steep ramp. 

Better than machines

The scientists said: "Our rats were easily guided through pipes and across elevated runways and ledges, and could be instructed to climb or jump from any surface that offered sufficient purchase. 

"We were also able to guide rats in systematically exploring large, collapsed piles of concrete rubble and to direct them through environments that they would normally avoid, such as brightly lit, open arenas." 

A "turn left" signal was interpreted by the rats' brains as a "touch" on their left whiskers. If the rats correctly followed the cue and turned left, their reward-centres were stimulated, filling the rodents with a feeling of well-being. 

Dr Talwar said: "This is an animal with 200 million years of evolution behind it. Rats have native intelligence which is a lot better than artificial intelligence. 

Ethical problems

"It is a hard problem simply trying to make a robot move properly over unpredictable terrain. It would be a simple matter to train rescue rats to recognise and home in on the smell of a human trapped under rubble." 

Dr Talwar acknowledged there might be ethical objections to such ideas, even if they could save human lives. 

"Our animals were completely happy and treated well and in no sense was there any cruelty involved," he said. 

"Nonetheless, the idea is sort of creepy. I do not know what the answer is to that." 

Scientists say they have found the fossilised remains of the earliest known flower. 

It was discovered in a slab of stone in north-east China and the plant is thought to have lived at least 125 million years ago. 

It is like the mother of all flowering plants

David Dilcher, University of Florida

Researchers at the University of Florida, US, say the species could be the predecessor of all flowering plants. 

They say it probably grew in shallow lakes shared by dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. 

The plant, called Archaefructus sinensis or "ancient fruit from China", is of a species never before seen, says David Dilcher, of the Florida Museum of Natural History and the University of Florida. 

"It is like the mother of all flowering plants," he adds. 

Modern relative

Professor Dilcher is the co-author of a study published on Friday in the journal Science. He worked with Ge Sun, a geologist at Jilin University in Changchun, China, and other researchers. 

Botanists had long considered a woody plant from New Caledonia as the most ancient of flowering plants. But Professor Dilcher said the new discovery was even older. 

"It changes our whole impression of what is the oldest of all flowering plants," he said. 

The flower's closest "modern relative" was probably the water lily, said Professor Dilcher, because it apparently lived in clear, shallow waters, with its flowers and seeds extending above the surface. 

Some scepticism 

The discovery suggested that flowering plants started out as herbs that were able to reproduce quickly, he said. 

It "was not a flashy flower," he said. The plant's flowering part had no real petals, but acted only as a reproductive unit - essential for its survival. 

"The reason we can say it is a flowering plant is that the seed is enclosed inside of carpels [female part] of the fruit," said Professor Dilcher. 

Other experts in Science said more research was needed before the new flower was generally accepted as the most ancient of flowering plants. 

But Peter Raven, of the Missouri Botanical Garden in St Louis, said it "may be the most significant flowering plant ever found". 

Mothers who learn to let their babies cry themselves to sleep have better nights and suffer less postnatal depression, research suggests. 

A report in the British Medical Journal found that teaching mothers "controlled crying" techniques significantly reduced sleep problems. 

Two generations ago, leaving babies to cry was the favoured method for teaching children to sleep and many experts agree it can work well again if mothers are properly supported. 

The Australian researchers studied 156 mothers with children, aged between 6 and 12 months, suffering from severe sleep problems. 

Mothers can become very vulnerable

Cheryll Adams of the CPHVA

They gave one group advice on how to let their babies cry, sleep management plans, information on normal sleep patterns and how to manage problems. 

The other group was simply told about normal sleep patterns, but got no advice on managing the problems. 

Sleep problems

Other studies suggest half of parents had problems with their child's sleep between six months and a year. 

And up to 15% of mothers were suffering from postnatal depression. 

Both of these were having a detrimental effect on family life, leading in some cases to marital stress, family breakdowns, child abuse; behavioural problems and maternal anxiety. 

Paediatrician Dr Harriet Hiscock and her team taught parents "controlled crying techniques" - how to respond to an infant's cry at increasing time intervals to teach it to fall asleep alone. 

Babies need to have a structured routine

She also advocated consistent daytime naps and bedtime routines. 

The parents were asked to keep sleep diaries and routines were individually tailored to meet families' needs. 

They found they were able to solve nearly 90% of the babies' sleep problems by using the controlled crying methods, meaning far fewer women needing help for postnatal depression. 

Dr Hiscock recommended the system to other professionals. 

"The intervention reduced the need for other professional sleep services, was acceptable to mothers, was of low cost and was minimally disruptive to families in contrast with many current strategies for postnatal depression," she said. 

She added she would now like to see the study extended. 

Health problems

Cheryll Adams, of the Community Practitioners and Health Visitors Association (CPHVA), said the study showed the importance of supporting new mothers. 

Mothers who were not getting enough sleep tended to become more stressed and suffer more from mental health problems, she said. 

"Small problems become large ones and the mothers can become very vulnerable. This study seems to suggest giving support to the mothers. 

"Telling a mother to leave her baby without support is often unsuccessful as an exhausted mother does not have the resources to deal with this." 

Penney Hames, of the National Childbirth Trust, and author of Help your baby to sleep, said the study showed the benefits of training babies to sleep alone by using methods used in years gone by. 

"This is what our grandparents used to do - pottering about downstairs and then popping in every few minutes to see how the baby was sleeping." 

But she stressed there were other ways of dealing with sleep problems and said she advocated the child sleeping with its parent. 

"This is the way children sleep in other cultures," she said. 

 

By Mark Ward  BBC News Online technology correspondent

Astronomers, schoolchildren and interested amateurs could soon be watching the sky with the help of a network of telescopes controlled via the internet. 

The eStar project eventually hopes to use at least six telescopes, three in each hemisphere, to form the remote controlled network. 

Observation time on the instruments will be shared out among astronomers, students, schoolchildren and amateurs who want to use them to research, or simply see, the celestial objects that they are curious about. 

The network will also use smart software that will automatically spot interesting or changing objects by searching through online databases and then mobilising telescopes to check its findings. 

Tracking stars

Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Exeter are collaborating on the eStar project, which already has three telescopes operating. 

Dr Dave Carter, one of the eStar project scientists, said that the creation of the network should ease chronic overcrowding on existing two-metre telescopes. 

"Two-metre telescopes are over-subscribed by a factor of three or five," he said. 

The Liverpool telescope in place

A network of telescopes was useful, he said, because it would allow astronomers to permanently track objects rather than lose sight of them as they did when using a single observatory. 

Having access to a collection of telescopes also means that the instrument in the best position to watch an object can always be trained on it. 

He said eStar would use John Moores' own telescope in the Canary Isles and had commitments from other telescopes in Hawaii and Japan. 

Eventually, the project hopes to be working with publicly and privately owned telescopes in Australia, Chile, India, China, the USA and South Africa. 

The network will also be used by the National Schools Observatory which will give schoolchildren and students access to astronomical instruments. 

Clever code

One of the most important aspects of the project is the plan to create smart software that can aid astronomers in their research. 

Eventually work done to standardise information in astronomical databases will let these software agents check data, call up research papers and spot how objects are changing over time. 

An early version of the smart software was unveiled at the launch of the National e-Science Centre in Edinburgh in late April and has already been used to look for dwarf novae. 

Dr Carter said the only downside of the project was that it could mean far fewer trips to the Canary Isles and Hawaii for European astronomers. 

The eStar project is being funded by the DTI and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. 

There are some other remotely operated telescopes already available via the web. 

Since 1993, the University of Bradford has been running one sitting on the Moors in West Yorkshire. In October 2001, the University of Glamorgan placed a remotely operated scope on the roof of the tallest building on its campus.