LMS Issue 6; 2013 | Page 16

16? LMS? Issue 6 | 2013 News | International & Local Diary Metrohm SA Training 11-15 November 2013:  Near Infrared Seminar/ Workshop (Around the country) 19 February 2014:  Karl Fischer Training School (Woodmead, Gauteng) Email info@metrohm.co.za for more info. International Conference on Advances in Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics The International Conference on Advances in Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics will bring together leading academic scientists, researchers and scholars to exchange and share their experiences and research results about all aspects of engineering sciences and applied mathematics. The event will take place from 30 November - 1 December 2013 in Cape Town. For more information, visit www.iieng.org Joint IMEKO International TC3, TC5 and TC22 Conference 2014 The Joint IMEKO International TC3, TC5 and TC22 Conference 2014 in the fields of mass, force, torque, hardness and vibration metrology will be held in Cape Town. This event is open to academia, researchers and engineers with a keen interest and new ideas in the field of metrology. The event will take place from 3-5 February 2014. For more info email tmaujana@nmisa.org ? Test-Tube Tidbits Get the full stories at www.lmsmagazine.com « Tick Tock... Discovering our Biological Clock A scientist at the University of California (UCLA) has discovered a DNA-based internal body clock that measures the biological age of human tissues and organs. This clock shows that while many healthy tissues age at the same rate as the body as a whole, some of them age much faster or slower. According to the clock, the age of diseased organs, in particular, was found to be a great deal older than the other tissues in body in which they were contained. The study was published in Genome Biology. « Yeti Uncovered British scientist, Prof Bryan Sykes, says that he may have solved the mystery of the abominable snowman, also called a Yeti. Prof Sykes, Genetics Professor at Oxford University, suggests that the elusive ape-like creature of the Himalayas could be the descendant of the polar bear. He compared DNA from hair samples taken from two Himalayan animals, identified by local people as Yetis, to a database of animal genomes. He found they shared a genetic fingerprint with a 40 000-year old polar bear jawbone found in the Norwegian Arctic. « New SANSA Antenna The South African National Space Agency (SANSA) inaugurated the latest addition to its expanding fleet of technologically advanced antennae on 4 October at its Hartebeeshoek facility. This facility consists of a new 10m Ku-DBS band antenna and an equipment room, and is outfitted with In Orbit Test (IOT) equipment and infrastructure to assist clients to effectively commission new satellites. The antenna was built in response to a growing demand by satellite owners for ground facilities to test in-orbit communications performance. « Potential Cure for Baldness A group of UK and US scientists have developed a hair restoration method to generate new human hair growth. The researchers harvested dermal papillae from seven human donors and cloned the cells in tissue culture. The cultured papillae were then transplanted between the dermis and epidermis of human skin that had been grafted onto the backs of mice. In five of the seven tests, the transplants resulted in new hair growth that lasted six weeks. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ? T Sudoku he object of this puzzle is to insert numbers from 1-9 into the empty boxes to satisfy only one condition. • Each row, column and 3x3 box must contain the digits 1 through 9 exactly once. Solutions to this Sudoku puzzle will be available on www.lmsmagazine.com