Апрель 2003 г.

Российская наука и мир (по материалам зарубежной электронной прессы)

CONTENTS / ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ


• President meets with Nobel Prize winner Alferov
• Science Failing to Make Money in Russia
• Nothing New Identified in Innovation
• Poincarй proof adds up to potential payday
• Alleged Creation of Perpetual Energy Source Splits Scientific Community
• Pathfinders from the Institute of Geochemistry
• ARM recruits Russian computer scientist for architecture extensions
• Russia Toys With a New Reactor Fuel
• A Quiet Drill
• Interview with Prof. Vladimir Belokurov, Vice-Rector, Lomonosov Moscow State University
• Knitted Fabric is made of Metall
• Programming Teams Win Top Honors in U.S.
• SARS virus was created in weapons lab: Russian scientist
• The Bronze Age Observatory on the Bank of the Oka River
• Between the Wolf and the Dog

Удивительный материал был изобретен физиками Института физики твердого тела Российской академии наук (Черноголовка) - REFSIC термостойкий керамический материал. Изделия из этого материала могут почти мгновенно нагреваться примерно до двух тысяч градусов и так же быстро охлаждаться. При этом он не растрескивается и не теряет своей твердости и прочности. Более того, если бы из этого материала была сделана пила, она бы долго не тупилась, а горячим сверлом можно было бы мгновенно просверлить бетонную стену без шума и пыли

Amazing material has been invented by the physicists of the Institute of Solid-State Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences (Chernogolovka) - the REFSIC heat-resistant ceramic material. The goods made of this ceramics can be heated almost instantly up to about two thousand degrees and cooled as quickly as heated, with the material not cracking and not losing either strength or solidity. Moreover, if a saw is made of such material, it would not get blunted for а long time, and a burning hot pin made of this material would make instantly a hole in a concrete wall without producing noise or dust.
The household and industrial heaters as well as glass and metal annealing furnaces are made of ordinary ceramics stand temperature difference poorly - the furnaces would crack as an common facetted glass where fiercely boiling water was pored in.
That is why the annealing furnaces have to be heated and cooled gradually and insensibly. It takes quite long to achieve the heating of 1300°С - about 4 to 8 hours, and it takes as long to get them cooled. After all, they do not get switched off - once heated, they are kept switched on even if there is no need in their continuous functioning.
That results in enormous wasteful power consumption. If the commonly used material is replaced by the material invented by the researchers from Chernogolovka, a location near Moscow, then the same furnace can be heated or cooled much quicker - in less then an hour.
An ordinary heater made of such ceramics can get heated within several seconds - to be more precise, within five seconds.
The most important element of a new composite is the silicon carbide matrix. It provides the entire composite with exceptional strength due to the fact that each silicon carbide grain in the mold is tied up with a similar grain and these bonds do not get broken until very high temperatures are acquired - actually, up to 2400°С. That makes the firm skeleton or framework of the entire material. However, it is practically impossible to get silicon carbide heated in ordinary conditions up to such temperature - it will simply burn down. To make their composites heat resistant, the researchers have suggested that silicides of refractory metals - molybdenum and tungsten - should be added to the compositions.
As a matter of fact, these silicides are stable to heating, i.e. they do not burn even at high temperatures. But, alas, they lose mechanical strength - when a rod of molybdenum and tungsten silicide is heated up to 1100°С, it becomes soft as boiled macaroni, and if the temperature goes up to 1400°С, the rod would stretch out like chewing gum under its own weight. The new material consisting of silicon carbide and molybdenum silicide has inherited the best qualities from the 'parents'. In this composite the matrix of one component includes the grains of the other component - for example, the silicon carbide matrix contains the molybdenum silicide grains. As a result, silicides do not allow carbide to burn down, carbide in its turn, imparts the entire construction with high heat resistance up to 2000°С.
The scientists have ascertained that this extraordinary material possesses one more amazing quality. Not only does the material firmly resist the heating, it is capable of quick heating and cooling without cracking, i.e. the material can stand major temperature difference from the environment. This quality is normally expressed by the value of permissible specific thermal load. For instance, with ordinary nichrome heaters (practically all household heaters) the permissible specific thermal load makes only 2 W per square centimeter at 1100°С, they burning down at higher temperatures. The new material possesses the value of 40-50 W per square centimeter and high strength even at 2000°С. Therefore, even a small heater made of new material will heat up the room quicker than an ordinary heater although its square is tens of times larger.
As for the holes in a concrete wall, the pin of the ceramics invented by the researchers from Chernogolovka can make a lot of holes quickly and, more importantly, absolutely quietly. One of the inventors, Boris Gnesin, senior research assistant, jokes that the main things when using such a pin is to avoid being too much carried away and burning the neighbors' carpet on the other side of the wall. However, the pin length can be regulated or selected in line with the dowel length. The point is that concrete gets soft already at 1600°С, so the pin of new ceramics and heated up to 1800-2000°С can easily pierce through concrete making straight holes with smooth edges. This pin helps to avoid noise, dust and problems with the neighbors. In fact, there remains a circle (of several centimeters in diameter) scorched on the surface of the wall, but this cannot be considered high payment for protected nerves and good relations with the neighbors.

"In the previous Framework Programmes, many Russian research bodies were willing and able to participate, but they didn't know how to proceed. In FP6, things may be easier."
In the interview given to the Greek CORDIS web service, Prof. Vladimir Belokurov, Vice-Rector, Lomonosov Moscow State University, referred to Russia's long tradition of basic sciences as well as to the current priorities related to sectors such as information technology and biotechnology. Moreover, he highlighted the contribution of Russian scientists in joint research projects, in previous Framework Programmes, and expressed his optimism for wider participation in FP6.
How would you describe the current Research and Technological Development situation in Russia?
It is well known that Russia, and formerly the Soviet Union, have enjoyed a long tradition of good scientists. Following this tradition, scientific schools, research institutes and universities with the appropriate potential and capacity are currently continuing the research in Russia.
In our country, there is a strong informal network inside the research bodies, known as "scientific schools", creating strong relations between distinguished scientists and their pupils. Scientists that belong to the same "scientific school" may work in different institutes or universities, but they still share the same language, they collaborate on research and they transfer their knowledge to the younger generations. This powerful system has been preserved for years, despite the various socio-economic changes.
However, during the last 12 years, the government's financial support towards the R&D sector has been reduced. That is the main reason for many Russian scientists moving abroad either to the US, to Japan or to EU member states.
According to your experience as Vice-Rector of Lomonosov Moscow State University, has the orientation of research changed? In recent years, what have been the main priorities of the research policy?
Research in Russia is currently focusing on specific fields. Although our institutes can support research in almost every sector, priority is given to information technology, biotechnology, bioengineering and new materials. These are the fields that attract more funds not only from the public and private sector, but also from abroad.
Along with the aforementioned sectors, emphasis is always given to the basic sciences to be able to meet future needs and perspectives. For example, research is currently focused on information technologies, but what will happen if, in 10-20 years, new types of computers are developed, based on different principles such as quantum computers? Fundamental sciences are needed in every sector. It wouldn't be wise to concentrate only on industry driven initiatives.
Russia has already participated in various EU Framework Programmes on RTD. How would you describe this experience?
Russian research teams have already gained some experience in European Framework Programmes, through the participation in FP3, FP4 and FP5, as subcontractors for various European institutes. Our scientists are well known all over Europe and therefore, they are often requested for collaboration in specific sectors, especially in the basic sciences.
In general, our experience is positive: although Russia was considered to be a third country and its participation was limited to specific areas, our scientific groups had an active role in basic research, such as ideas, calculations and methodology. Then, other European groups realized the experiments and the commercialization of the results.
You have mentioned that Russia has gained some experience from previous Framework Programmes. Do you think that this will contribute to a more successful participation in FP6?
Collaboration with EU is a priority for Russia, aiming at both the cooperation among diverse scientific groups and the increase in RTD funds. In the previous Framework Programmes, many research bodies were willing and able to participate, but they didn't know how to proceed.
In FP6, things may be easier as there is a reversed process: European scientists know the Russian experts in these fields and they are inviting them to participate in projects in Germany, France and elsewhere. Some examples were given in my speech, such as the Research Computer Centre of Moscow University that has agreed to collaborate with institutes from Germany, Spain, Italy, France and Greece.

The Moscow textile-workers have learned to produce knitted fabric of wire which cannot be seen with the naked eye. A clever approach suggested by the scientists allows to produce metal stockinet with unique properties - the stockinet is thin, lightweight, flexible and crease-resistant. Probably this cloth is a dream of Paco Rabanne, but so far it has been noticed and highly appreciated by the technical specialists in the following areas: telecommunications, electronics and designers of rockets and space communication systems.

Московские текстильщики научились производить трикотажную ткань из проволоки, которая не видна невооруженным глазом. Остроумный подход, предложенный учеными, позволяет производить металлический трикотаж с уникальными свойствами - трикотаж тонок, легок, гибок и не мнется. Возможно эта ткань - мечта Paco Rabanne, но пока она была отмечена и высоко оценена техническими специалистами в области телекоммуникации, электроники и создания ракет

One of the most difficult challenges encountered by the fairy-tale beauties was the task to knit a cloth of the spider's web. Normally the skillful beauty managed to cope with the task, but she certainly would not run the loom by herself. As the task was evidently impracticable for a common person, the fairy tale scoundrels expected the failure, but the beauty used to employ whatever magic means at hand - she waved the magic wandor her sleeve or appealed to magic assistants. Our contemporaries cannot rely upon wonders. However, they succeed in doing the things that have been considered absolutely impossible for a long time. For example, they have managed to knit the cloth from the wire which is so thin that it cannot be seen by the naked eye - the wire being only several dozens of microns thick.
This is a really complicated task as the regular equipment should be involved. - but textile machinery is not fit for knitting superfine metal wire. In contrast to the ordinary soft thread, the wire does not bend well to make loops, it breaks, does not stretch at all, and on top of that, it is uneasy to see the object several times thinner than a hair. If an ordinary thread tears off, the point of rupture is easy to find, and the thread can be tied up quickly. The metal microwire cannot be seen that easy and it is impossible to tie the ends together, therefore, if the wire breaks, the entire cloth will be defective.
A clever way out was proposed and patented by the specialists of the Kosygin Moscow State Textile University - a group of researchers guided by Professor Lev Kudryavin, Doctor of Science (Engineering). Their idea was, firstly, to work with strands of three wires instead of one wire. And secondly and most importantly - the jackets should be made first to cover the threads and then the jackets should be removed from a finished cloth.
The method invented by the Moscow specialists has turned out very convenient. The jacket made of plastic or textile as if takes off the wire the cap of darkness. Now the thread is easy to see and the soft flexible jacket protects the wire from rupture against the the finest defects of the loom surface. Besides, even if the wire breaks, the protecting loop of the jacket does not allow the avalanche process to develop, and the cloth is spoiled only in one point - the point of rupture.
When the entire cloth is ready, the protecting jacket is removed via dissolving or burning - if the jacket is made of refractory metal, for instance, tungsten.
As a result, the researchers have managed to acquire metal cloths with unique properties. The knitted fabric produced by them possesses uniform structure, the size of individual meshes being exactlly 0.2 millimeters - precisely as needed for radio technicians. The point is that such materials are primarily utilized is the space communication systems, where the dish aerial is made of metal gauze. Other properties of the new fabric are also very useful for telecommunications.
The dishes made of the new material prove to possess very high radio waves reflectivity (reflection factor being of up to 98%), flexible, crease-resistant (in other words, they unfold without creases) and relatively lightweight - two or three times lighter than ordinary dishes. However, the remarkable knitted fabric is required not only for the dishes. According to the developers it can be also used to protect space technology modules and communications of radio-electronic equipment, in electronic industry and instrument-making industry. In addition, composite materials for rockets can be based on this fabric - such composite materials will not accumulate static electricity.

MOSCOW, -- When 14-year-old Timofei Borodin started doing algorithmic programming six years ago as an extracurricular activity in his hometown of Kostroma in central Russia, he had no idea how far the hobby would take him.
Last week Borodin became one of six Russian students to win gold medals at the Association for Computing Machinery's International Collegiate Programming Contest in Beverly Hills, California.
Borodin's gold medal means even more to Russia's information-technology community, which sees the winners as a new generation of programmers for the country's still-rudimentary industry.
"It shows the strengths of the Russian system of higher education and proves that the Russian IT talent is the best in the world," said Alexis Sukharev, president of the Auriga software company.
Two teams, Moscow State University and St. Petersburg's Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics, took home two of the four gold medals. The students' medals were second and third behind the Cup winner - Warsaw University's team. Saratov State University finished seventh in the competition and won a silver medal.
"These two gold-medal teams outperformed the best of the best university students at the world's great universities by working harder, preparing better and delivering more solutions under pressure," said William Poucher, ICPC executive director. "They set the standards for their peers worldwide at unprecedented levels."
The winners and their mentors attribute their success to Russia's system of science education - an inheritance from the time of the Soviet Union, when mathematics and physics were some of the most popular majors at colleges and universities.
It took a few years of training to get the teams ready to win, said Sergei Chernyshov, a 23-year-old graduate student at Moscow State University, who founded and now coaches one of the gold-medal winners - MGU's Yarik team of Pyotr Mitrichev, 18, Yevgeny Cherepanov, 21, and Maxim Babenko, 21. Chernyshov participated in the contest a few years before as a member of Yarik.
"There's a strong tradition of school Olympiads in mathematics," said Chernyshov. Since Soviet times, contests in math have allowed the best colleges and universities to search for talented youth outside Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The two winning teams are a good example of regional recruitment: On the St. Petersburg team, Borodin, 20, is from Kostroma, Alexander Shtuchkin, 19, is from Saratov and Yevgeny Yuzhakov, 20, is from Kotlas.
On the Moscow team, only the youngest, Mitrichev, is from Moscow. "I've been into computers since 11 or 12 years old," he said. Shy and reserved, Mitrichev already has an impressive award history, having won gold and silver medals in the programming Olympiads during his three last years of high school. Last year, while still only in high school, his team was the best at the Russian college-programming contest.
"We are taught to think and to look for solutions ourselves rather than to use methods that are already out there," Chernyshov said.
The 70 teams in this year's competition were required to solve ten problems in five hours. Some of the problems were to write a program on how to determine an optimal bridge configuration, or to design a program for a set of switches for a huge computer-operated marquee.
The winning team, Warsaw University, successfully solved nine problems, while MGU solved eight and St. Petersburg solved seven.
Warsaw's win broke Russia's streak - St. Petersburg State University was champion two years in a row in 2000 and 2001.
Borodin said psychological readiness to participate in the contest and to face the pressure is also very important. "This is one of the reasons we performed better than last year, when we finished fourteenth," he said.
Borodin already works as a software programmer and sees his future in this field.
Still, some experts, like Vladimir Parfyonov, dean of the IT and programming department, said they fear real talent is becoming a rarity in Russia with less young people interested in math and other sciences, a trend he sees increasing across the world.
"The level of education has dropped worldwide and this wave has reached our country too," he said. "Our human resources have nearly run out."
But young Mitrichev is more optimistic than that. He needs to find two new members for his team next year, as his current teammates will not be eligible for future contests. "We'll see how it goes," he said.

Вирус атипичной пневмонии, более известный как SARS, был создан искусственно, возможно как бактериологическое оружие, сказал Сергей Колесников, академик Российской Академии Медицинских Наук, на пресс-конференции в Сибирском городе Иркутске

The virus of atypical pneumonia, better known as SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, was created artificially, possibly as a bacteriological weapon, Sergei Kolesnikov, academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, told a press conference in the Siberian town of Irkutsk on Thursday, the Russian RIA Novosti news agency reported.
According to Kolesnikov, the virus of atypical pneumonia is a synthesis of the viruses of measles and infectious parotiditis or mumps, the natural compound of which is impossible. This can be done only in a laboratory, he said.
Kolesnikov added that in creating bacteriological weapons, a protective anti-viral vaccine is, as a rule, worked out at the same time, so a medicine for atypical pneumonia may soon appear.
He did not, however, rule out the possibility that the virus could have spread accidentally as a result of "an unsanctioned leakage" from a biological weapons laboratory.

The Moscow archeologists discovered a religious installation in the Ryazan Region (Central Russia) Last summer. The specialists date it back to the Bronze Age and assume that the installation was intended for astronomical purposes.

Московские археологи обнаружили в Рязанской области культовое сооружение. Специалисты датируют его бронзовым веком и полагают, что оно имело астрономическое назначение

The archeological dig in Spasskaya Luka, in the middle of the Ryazan Region (Central Russia), where two rivers, the Oka and the Pronya, interflow, is carried out by the research expedition under the guidance of Ilya Akhmedov of the Department of Archeological Monuments, State Historical Museum. For several years the archeologists have been excavating the Finno-Ugric burial ground in this area dating back to the beginning of A.D., the times of the Great Resettlement of Peoples. Last summer, when starting the research of the highest point of the hill, the archeologists came across an unusual monument - the half a meter thick pole and seven big poles were installed at equal spans around a large but rather shallow pit, two pairs of poles being set in the shape of gates. A vessel was found in the pit, with a bronze awl in a birch bark casing lying under the vessel near the altar of animal bones. The circle formed by the poles was about seven meters in diameter.
The scientists have already finished preliminary data processing and can refer this monument to the observatory type installations, it is estimated to date back to four thousand years - the end of the third - beginning of the second millenium B.C. The dating was determined by the kind of the vessel in the central pit. This is a small ceramic jug decorated by a fine ornamental pattern - small lines highlighting the zigzag, which reminds of the Sun rays, and the rows of wavy lines - a symbol of water - are on the top.
The most surprising thing is that the Sun-vessel is made a compliance with the traditions of the steppe peoples who used to populate the South of Eurasia at that time. According to Ilya Akhmedov, similar crockery was found in Sintashta, legendary town of ancient Aryans in Siberia. The vessel has evident similarity to the vessels of the Abashevo culture spread in the Volga region and near the Urals.
Two more pits surrounded by poles were found at the distance of fifteen meters from the sanctuary, probably there had been four pits there but the location was ruined by a ravine. Two more vessels of absolutely different in appearance were found in these pits - the vessels are big, thin-walled, with a round bottom but without ornamental pattern, they are rather crudely made as compared to the steppe jug. Such crockery used to be made by balanovtsi - the forest people of the Bronze Age. The unusual thing is that the goods of different traditions were stored in the same place. In the middle of one of the pits the researchers found human bones accurately laid near the 'forest' jug fragments - two fragments of arms and legs and part of the lower jaw. Those are the traces of a sacrifice.
It is interesting to note the fact that the Finno-Ugric tribes which lived in the area about two thousand years later and arranged their cemetery in place of the ancient one did not affect it in any way - Mordvinian burials are places precisely around the ancient ones. Apparently, the religious installation rose above the relief as a hill, but in contemporary times the area is ploughed. No wonder that archeologists came across the unusual monument only by chance.
"Nothing similar to that has ever been found in the Ryazan Region or in the forest area", says the head of expedition. The Ryazan sanctuary of such venerable age is unique. Similar installations are known in the steppe zone and trans-Ural tundra, but hey are not so beautiful and complicatedly arranged. Similar sanctuaries including poles started to spread throughout the European part since the end of the first millenium B.C., they can be found in Czechia and Slovakia, where Celtic people used to live. "Parallel can be drawn to Stonehendge, which is close to our monument in terms of the erection date and initially was also made of wood", - theorizes Ilya Akhmedov. However, no blood relationship could have existed between the peoples who erected Stonehendge and the Ryazan observatory. The latter evidently indicates the influence of alien population from the South-East of Eurasian steppe.

When performing archeological dig in the upper palaeolithic settlement called Eliseyevichi 1 in the Bryansk Region, Mikhail Sablin, Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, and Gennady Khlopachev, Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg), found two intact dogs' skulls. These are apparently the most ancient dogs' skulls known to researchers: they date back to 13 through 17 thousand years. The research has been financed via the Russian Foundation for Basic Research

При раскопках верхнепалеолитического поселения Елисеевичи 1 в Брянской области Михаил Саблин из Зоологического института РАН и Геннадий Хлопачев из Музея антропологии и этнографии РАН (Санкт-Петербург) обнаружили два прекрасно сохранившихся черепа собак. По-видимому, это самые древние собачьи черепа, известные науке: им от 13 до 17 тысяч лет. Исследование поддержано РФФИ

The dog was the first animal domesticated by human beings. However, domestication took more than one step: people and dogs used to adjust to each other within numerous generations of coexistence.
Biochemical and genetic researches have proved quite definitely that the dog's ancestor was the big predatory wolf, but not its smaller relative - the omnivorous jackal. However, it is impossible to determine when human beings first domesticated the wolves, as their domestication could not be recorded in archeological materials. Only when primitive dogs started to reliably differ from their wild ancestors, it became possible to distinguish their bones from wolf's remains.
Not long ago a group of American geneticists (Vila et al. 1997) came forward with an assertion that the wolf domestication began more than 100 thousand years ago, nevertheless, palaeontologists and archaeologists feel skeptical about such dating. Even the most ancient dogs' remains date back to the paleolith, their age making about 14 thousand years; while their mass findings belong to the mesolite, which began in Europe approximately 10 thousand years ago. However, the overwhelming majority of finds are more ancient than 12 thousand years - they are primarily minor bone fragments that can tell little about the owner's life. In this context, the discovery of two intact dogs' skulls in the course of archeological dig in Eliseyevichi 1 settlement is of undoubted interest.
The dogs from Eliseyevichi 1 had lived in severe conditions of the ice age: their bones lie next to those of the mammoth, polar fox and reindeer. Their exterior reminded that of enormously big huskies, Tibetan mastiffs or Caucasian sheep dogs: their height at withers was as much as 70 centimeters! They were shorter and wider in the muzzle, than the contemporary huskies, this particular feature enabling to reliably distinguish the primitive dogs from wild wolves. The dog's short and wide muzzle apparently results from the so-called neoteny, i.e. adult individuals preserving features of the young. A similar process took place in the course of the human being's evolution: the flat face in contrast to the elongated muzzle of a chimpanzee or gorilla is the obvious indication of neoteny.
On the other hand, ancient people used often the dogs for cooking purposes. The sinciput of one of the skulls bears distinctive holes evidently made for extraction of the dog's brain for culinary purposes. Dogs' skulls with similar injuries can be often found in the settlements dating back to the late Stone Age and the Bronze Age, however this is the first evidence of such kind dating back to the upper palaeolith.
Evidently it was then, in the age of the upper palaeolith, that the conditions were established for the primitives and the wolves hunting for the same animals. This laid a good foundation for their symbiosis, i.e. mutually beneficial relations. The more so, as the social structure and some peculiarities of both species' behavior are rather similar. In ancient era the dog played a key role in improving human beings' hunting skills, and therefore, in establishing primeval engineering and culture.

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