Февраль 2008 г.

Российская наука и мир (по материалам зарубежной электронной прессы)

CONTENTS / ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ


• From Bacterium to Semiconductor
• Vulnérabilité du génome face à une faible dose de radiation chronique
• Quand le pétrole réapparaît dans d'anciens gisements
• Russian laser aids in defining nanoparticles
• Les oiseaux migrateurs peuvent-ils réellement se repérer et retrouver leur chemin ?
• Russian Scientists Designing Industrial Base on the Moon
• New cycle of solar activity
• Time travellers from the future "could be here in weeks"
• Affaires: le russe Rosnanotech noue des liens au Japon
• Russia's Claim Under Polar Ice Irks American
• Petite histoire de la Station spatiale internationale
• TRANSTEC 2008 - The International Transport Exhibition of Russia with the 1st International Conference "The Future of the Russian Ports"
• Doutes en Russie sur l'origine du réchauffement climatique
• Analyzing brandy: an "electronic tongue" instead of the traditional method
• Gold without poison
• Prof de français en Sibérie

В августе прошлого года российская экспедиция установила российский флаг на дне Северного Ледовитого океана, на глубине 4 километра. Американский исследователь Арктики Альфред Макларен утверждает, что план погружения на полюсе был фактически украден у него, что это он разработал план и неоднократно делился своими разработками с россиянами. Свое утверждение он обосновывает множеством электронных писем и документов. Россияне признают, что доктор Макларен сыграл не последнюю роль в замысле погружения, но в существенном планировании не участвовал.

Last August, a team of Russian scientists and legislators trekked to the North Pole and plunged through the ice pack into the abyss, descending more than two miles through inky darkness to the bottom of the ocean.
There, explorers planted Russia's flag and, upon surfacing, declared that the feat had strengthened Moscow's claims to nearly half the Arctic seabed. The ensuing global headlines fueled debate over polar territorial claims.
But that wasn't the whole story. The heroes of the moment did not mention that the dive had American origins.
Alfred S. McLaren, 75, a retired Navy submariner, would like to set the record straight and, as he puts it, "acquaint the Kremlin with the realities" of recent history and international law.
A major figure of Arctic science and exploration who spent nearly a year in operations under the ice, Dr. McLaren says he developed the polar dive plan and repeatedly shared his labors with the Russians and their partners - a claim he supports with numerous e-mail messages and documents.
The Russians, for their part, acknowledge that Dr. McLaren played a central role in the dive's origins. But they say he took no part in substantive planning and logistics.
Dr. McLaren's plan drew on federal polar data and recommended specific sensors and methods to ensure a safe return.
"I wrote the procedures for the dive," he said in an interview. The Russians, he added, "went for the territorial claim."
Don Walsh, a pioneer of deep ocean diving who worked on the Arctic plan with the Russians, backed the account.
The divers, Dr. Walsh wrote in an e-mail message, "did not develop the original idea, the operational plan and they did not pay for it" because wealthy tourists picked up the bill.
"I am sure," he added, "that this example of how to steal your way to fame will become a legend in the history of exploration."
The Russians say they took little or nothing. "Talk is cheap," Anatoly M. Sagalevitch, the expedition's chief scientist, said in an interview. "But real operation, this is different."
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has made the most of the divers' feat, personally greeting them upon their return and announcing last month that Dr. Sagalevitch and two other team members would be named Heroes of Russian Federation, the nation's highest honorary title.
Dr. McLaren first got to know the Russians through the lens of a periscope. As a submariner, he conducted more than 20 secret missions during the cold war, mainly in nuclear attack submarines.
Three of his voyages ventured beneath the Northern ice pack, gauging its thickness, probing the dark waters below and bouncing sound waves off the bottom to map the craggy seabed. An important goal was to find safe submarine routes near the Soviet Union in case the cold war turned hot. Over all, he spent nearly a year under the polar ice.
In 1972, he won the Distinguished Service Medal, the military's highest peacetime award.
He left the Navy in 1981 and earned a Ph.D. in polar studies from the University of Colorado in 1986.
After the cold war, Dr. McLaren began working with his former enemies, lecturing aboard Russian icebreakers that carried tourists to the North Pole. He did so repeatedly while president of the Explorers Club, a post he held from 1996 to 2000.
The idea for a polar dive arose in early 1997 when a television journalist, Jack McDonald, had dinner with Dr. McLaren and asked if anyone had ever gone to the bottom. The two decided to explore the possibility.
"We spent a lot time on it," recalled Mr. McDonald, who planned to make a documentary.
The team envisioned going down in a submersible - a small craft with a super-strong personnel sphere that typically carries a pilot and two observers. Tiny portholes designed to withstand crushing pressures let the occupants peer out. A dive is typically an all-day affair, requiring hours to go down to the bottom and back up.
Later in 1997, Dr. McLaren attracted the interest of Mike McDowell, an adventure tour operator who organized the polar voyages. The next year, Dr. Sagalevitch, who runs Moscow's twin Mir submersibles, came aboard.
In 1999, the three men began diving in the Mirs to visit the deteriorating remains of the Titanic and the Bismarck. The dives were seen as practice runs for the polar plunge. All told, Dr. McLaren dived in the cramped submersibles five times.
In 2001, Dr. McLaren wrote a polar dive plan for Dr. Sagalevitch in Moscow. Drawing on decades of federal polar data, it gave information like mean ice thickness (about 8 feet), water depth (about 2.6 miles) and salinity near the bottom (34 to 36 parts per thousand).
"Jagged underwater projections and spurs," the plan warned, could endanger a submersible.
The document, seven pages long, paid special attention to making sure the returning Mirs could find the hole through which they had entered the Arctic Ocean and not become trapped beneath the thick surface ice. It called for special upward-looking sensors.
"Thank you for your recommendations," Dr. Sagalevitch wrote in an e-mail message after receiving the plan.
For several years the Explorers Club, based in New York City, marketed North Pole dives to adventure tourists.
A cabin would be $16,000, a suite $21,000. The actual dive beneath the pole: $50,000 extra. Despite a flurry of interest, the spectacle did not materialize.
By 2005, the plan collapsed. In a bitter e-mail exchange, Dr. McLaren accused Mr. McDowell, the tour operator, of abruptly removing him from the polar dive roster and evading commitments that would have aided fund-raising.
"You did not bother to answer any of my messages," he wrote.
Mr. McDowell in turn accused Dr. McLaren of failing to recruit dive sponsors and defended his removal as necessary because of rising costs and the need to attract more paying tourists.
"I do all the work and take all the financial risk," he added.
Dr. Walsh, who worked with both men, laid the rupture to personality conflicts. "We were top-heavy in chiefs and needed more braves," he said.
Another factor was the Kremlin, which was seeking new displays of geopolitical muscle. It seized control of the project. On Aug. 2, 2007, Dr. Sagalevitch and Mr. McDowell descended to the bottom, taking along two Moscow legislators.
The polar dive was part publicity stunt and part symbolic move to enhance the Kremlin's disputed claim to nearly half the Arctic seabed. It made global headlines, with much comment on Moscow's new swagger. Time magazine's cover article asked, "Who Owns the Arctic?"
After the dive, many nations sharpened their claims. Denmark mapped icy regions. The United States mounted a polar expedition. And Canada unveiled plans for an Arctic military base.
"The first principle of Arctic sovereignty," Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada said in a much quoted statement, "is use it or lose it." Dr. McLaren grew livid as the dive's impact spread. He now ridicules the Russian territorial claims as not only empty but duplicitous because of his unacknowledged contribution. He said, however, that he harbored no hard feelings against the Mir team.
For his part, Mr. McDowell vigorously denied any fault and said any aid from Dr. McLaren was immaterial to the Russian feat.
"What he's saying is complete rubbish," Mr. McDowell said from Australia, where he lives. "He's all bent out of shape because he wanted to be first to the pole. Well, it just didn't work out that way."
Dr. Sagalevitch confirmed that the original idea for the polar dive arose with the Westerners but said that he and his team had developed it exclusive of Dr. McLaren's advice since 1998.
"Fred was so far from any dive plan," he said. "He doesn't understand the technical side of the operation. He doesn't understand the submersible."
If there are fireworks, they may erupt March 15, when the Explorers Club will hold its annual dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria. All the dive planners and doers are to be there, with Dr. Sagalevitch getting an award for excellence in ocean science.
It will be a bittersweet moment for Dr. McLaren, who helped Dr. Sagalevitch and Mr. McDowell become members when he was club president.
At the dinner, the Russian dive team is to complete a triumph: returning a club flag that it carried to the polar seabed.
Dr. McLaren said he planned to go to the dinner but might excuse himself from the room when the flag was returned.

10 лет со дня создания Международной космической станции, преемницы советской станции "Мир". Соглашение о создании МКС было подписано 29 января 1998 года в Вашингтоне представителями Канады, правительств государств - членов Европейского космического агентства, Японии, России и США. Строительство началось с запуска российского функционального модуля "Заря" с космодрома Байконур 20 ноября 1998 года.

Aujourd'hui, la Station spatiale internationale est la seule station orbitale en service. Le premier élément de ce grand mécano, le module russe Zarya, a été lancé par les Russes au moyen d'une fusée Proton depuis Baïkonour, le 20 novembre 1998, soit 14 ans après la décision de la NASA de lancer le projet.
Le projet de Station spatiale internationale débute en janvier 1984, insufflé par un discours volontariste du président Reagan. La NASA s'attaque alors au développement d'une station spatiale dans un cadre international. Son coût est alors estimé à huit milliards de dollars.
En janvier 1985, l'ESA (European Space Agency) s'associe au projet, suivie par le Canada en avril et le Japon en mai de la même année. Mais le 28 janvier 1988, la navette Challenger explose en vol, ce qui entraînera un retard considérable de tous les projets de la NASA et une refonte complète du programme spatial. En août 1985 de nouveaux plans sont définis et le coût du projet est alors évalués à 10,9 milliards de dollars.
En 1987, diverses études successives, menées par la NASA et le Conseil de la Recherche américain, rehausseront l'estimation du coût de la station à 13 milliards de dollars d'abord, 24,5 milliards de dollars ensuite. Le 16 juillet 1988, le Président Ronald Reagan baptise la station du nom de Freedom (Liberté).
En 1993, l'administration Clinton invite la Russie à se joindre au projet. La NASA révise entièrement et redéfinit le projet en suivant un concept dérivé des plans de Freedom et de la station russe Mir 2 qui devait succéder à Mir. Le projet est rebaptisé "Alpha". En février, le Président Bill Clinton exige de la NASA que le coût de la station soit divisé par deux; l'agence doit proposer une nouvelle conception pour le mois de juin.
Dès 1993, les Américains estiment nécessaire de profiter de la longue expérience de la Russie, maintenant alliée au projet, dans le domaine des longs séjours à bord de stations spatiales, dans le but d'éviter de reproduire certaines erreurs stratégiques ou technologiques susceptibles de provoquer de lourdes dépenses inutiles. Ainsi, le 16 décembre, la NASA et la RKA (l'Agence spatiale russe) marquent leur accord pour 10 vols de navette vers Mir, et le 23 juin 1994, la NASA acceptera d'en payer le coût, 400 millions de dollars. Finalement 9 missions seront effectivement menées.
Nous sommes le 13 juin 1995, et le coût d'exploitation de la station est maintenant estimé à 93,9 milliards de dollars, dont 50,5 milliards de dollars rien que pour les vols de navettes.
En 1997, c'est au tour du Brésil de rejoindre le projet. Reste que l'arrivée de la Russie a aussi impliqué une refonte totale de l'organisation logistique de la station, de ses installations et ressources, de son partage, et bien entendu, de son coût d'exploitation. Dans la foulée, le nom d'Alpha, qui ne plaît pas aux Russes car ils estiment que ce sont eux qui ont créé la véritable première station orbitale, est simplement dénommée "Station Spatiale Internationale".
En février 2003, la désintégration de Columbia et la perte de son équipage de sept astronautes va accélérer la décision de la NASA de remiser au plus vite sa flotte de 3 navettes. La configuration de la Station est une nouvelle fois modifiée de façon à intégrer les laboratoires scientifiques européens (Columbus) et japonais (Kibo) rapidement après le retour en vol des navettes.
Les opérations reprendront en juillet 2005. Columbus a été installé en février 2008 et Kibo attend son tour.
L'avant ISS
Les premières stations spatiales ont été construites par les Soviétiques et les Américains au début des années 1970. Envoyé dans l'espace le 19 avril 1971, la station russe Saliout-1 n'a été utilisée que deux fois, le deuxième équipage ayant trouvé la mort deux mois après son lancement suite à une dépressurisation. Saliout-2 se désagrégea dans l'atmosphère peu après son lancement.
Le projet américain Skylab, lancé en mai 1973 pour une durée de 10 ans, s'est achevé en juillet 1979. L'orbite de la station n'ayant pas été remontée à temps, la station s'est désagrégée sans causer de dégâts. Les Américains ont alors temporairement abandonné, pour des raisons financières, les projets de stations spatiales au profit des navettes spatiales.
L'URSS, de son côté, a pris la décision de continuer la construction des stations Saliout. Après plusieurs lancements, les Soviétiques ont finalement mis sur orbite en 1977 la capsule Saliout-6. Beaucoup plus perfectionnée que ses aînées, elle a fonctionné cinq ans, accueillant à son bord au total 27 cosmonautes qui ont pu se livrer à 1500 expériences scientifiques. Lancée en 1982, Saliout-7, version améliorée de Saliout-6 et dernière variante du projet, devait fonctionner jusqu'en 1994, mais s'est désagrégée avant de retomber dans le sud de l'Argentine le 7 février 1991. Mir concluait la série avec un lancement en 1986.

7-10 октября 2008 в Санкт-Петербурге пройдет транспортная выставка "ТРАНСТЕК-2008" и 1-я Международная конференция "Будущее российских портов". Выставка и конференция будут посвящены развитию международных коммуникаций с использованием уникального транзитного потенциала России.

TRANSTEC 2008 - The International Transport Exhibition of Russia with the 1st International Conference "The Future of the Russian Ports" 7 - 10 October 2008 - St. Petersburg, Russia
PRESS RELEASE
"Russia needs to expand port capacity by 10-15% per annum. Russia's ports are at a turning point" - Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation Development Strategy 2007 - 2020.
The development of the Russian port sector is central to the strategy for increased international trade and cooperation as identified by the State Russian Maritime Structures and the Russian Government.
Between January and November 2007 the ports increased their cargo turnover by 7% to provide a total for the year exceeding 450 million tonnes. Within this context the Maritime Collegium of Russia in Moscow December last year included the TRANSTEC Exhibition and the Conference "The Future of the Russian Ports" in the list of priority events supported by the Collegium in 2008.
This Conference - the first high-level international port conference on this scale in Russia - will be hosted by ASOP the Association of Russian Commercial Seaports as the Association celebrates its 20 years Anniversary this year. The Conference will be attended by the senior managers and operators of all ports throughout the Russian Federation.
"We consider the Conference to be a major opportunity for the World's ports and port industries to improve their direct relations and cooperation with their colleagues here in the Russian Federation" announced Mr. O. A. Terekhov, President of ASOP in his letter of Invitation.
IAPH the International Association of Ports & Harbours has already confirmed its support and its participation in the Programme.
Without the rapid development of sea and inland ports the production and consumption of products for Russian industry and society would be at a level far lower than demanded by the Russian population and the Russian community.
The priority items to be presented and discussed during the Exhibition and Conference will be port development and cooperation between ports and the other principal transport systems.
The railways form the largest transport means to link with the ports and "Russian Railways" JSC has included the Event in their official calendar this year. It is significant that the railway companies become increasingly influential in port operations through their share-holding interests in port operators in Northern, North-Western and Southern Russia.
"RZhD Russian Railways" Co. and their partner company JSC "Cargo Company of RZhD" have also declared their intention to participate again in the TRANSTEC Exhibition.
The links under the spotlight include road haulage, logistics and terminal operators, inter-modal transport systems, air links, information technology, container traffic development and project management.
The importance of these opportunities is recognised by the Union of Russian Ship-owners whose annual meeting in St. Petersburg last month agreed to assist in the organisation of the Event under the title "Future Strategy of Cooperation between Ship-owners and Port Operators to Improve and Modernise the National Port and Transport System".
This initiative will reflect the views of ship-owners to the port development programme and the evaluation of port facilities for national and international sea and river shipping.
The new legislation for the ports should open the gates for massive investment in transport infrastructure and equipment. This legislation will provide port administrations with the proper commercial legal basis to gain the confidence of global investors.
Referring to Russia's developing integration into the global trade and transportation network the President of Russia, Mr. Vladimir Putin, stated: "60% of our foreign trade freight turnover is transported by sea. Our priority is to boost the capacity of ports. We need to build new facilities and to develop road and railway infrastructure. We will need to develop big logistics centres."
The TRANSTEC Exhibition and International Ports Conference is designed to create a serious opportunity to accelerate these developments. St. Petersburg - the maritime capital of Russia - will welcome the Exhibition and Conference as a further step in the US $2.5 billion port development project launched in 2007.
TRANSTEC 2008 and the 1st International Ports Conference of Russia are officially supported by:
- The Commission for Maritime Policy of the Council of the Federal Assembly (Parliament) of the Russian Federation
- The Maritime Collegium of the Government of the Russian Federation
- "Rosmorrechflot", the State Federal Agency for Sea and River Transport of the Ministry of Transport of Russia
- The Maritime Council of St. Petersburg
- The Coordination Committee of the Programme "St. Petersburg-Maritime Capital of Russia"
- The Committee for Transport and Transit Policy of the Government of St. Petersburg
- FSUE "Rosmorport", Government Agency for Seaports, Ministry of Transport
- JSC "Russian Railways"
- The Association of Sea Commercial Ports
- The Union of Russian Ship Owners, SOROSS
- The Euro-Asian Transport Union
- The Institute for Transport Issues of the Academy of Science of Russia
- Association for Economic Cooperation of the North West Territories of Russia. These regions cover the most developed sea ports infrastructure and inland river ports infrastructure which make the connections to Russia's common borders with Europe and the European Union along with the connections to the proposed Northern Sea Route. The Association includes membership by the regional governments and ports of St. Petersburg, the Leningrad Oblast, Kaliningrad, Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, the Republics of Karelia & Komi and the Novgorod & Pskov Oblasts. Further information can be obtained from Dolphin Exhibitions UK with Email: admin@dolphin-exhibitions.co.uk. Or visit the Website: www.transtec.setcorp.info

По мнению западных обозревателей, большинство российских ученых скептически относятся не только к мнению о влиянии человеческой деятельности на потепление климата, но и к потеплению вообще.

TIOUMEN (AFP) - Le scepticisme sur l'origine humaine du réchauffement climatique est bien ancré dans la communauté scientifique russe, à contre courant des appels à la réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre dont la Russie est le 3e producteur mondial.
"L'on voudrait bien sûr lier l'activité de l'Homme au réchauffement et surtout à ce que l'on dit sur la fonte du permafrost", lance dans son bureau de Tioumen en Sibérie occidentale, l'académicien Vladimir Melnikov.
"C'est un mythe!", poursuit le directeur de l'Institut de la cryosphère terrestre, spécialiste du permafrost, sol perpétuellement gelé présent sur 65% de la surface de la Russie.
Le Groupe intergouvernemental d'experts sur le changement climatique (Giec), qui réalise la plus vaste expertise internationale en la matière, a mis en garde en novembre contre les conséquences "soudaines", voire "irréversibles" du réchauffement dû selon lui à la production humaine de gaz à effet de serre.
La Russie arrive au 3e rang des émetteurs derrière les Etats-Unis et la Chine, selon la Convention-cadre des Nations unies sur les changements climatiques.
Mais pour M. Melnikov, le réchauffement actuel fait partie de cycles naturels et touche à sa fin: "Nous allons entrer dans une nouvelle période de glaciation".
Sa spécialité est très liée à l'évolution du climat. D'une part par les connaissances sur l'histoire de la planète que donne l'étude des sols.
D'autre part du fait des vives inquiétudes que suscite la perspective d'une fonte massive du permafrost, dit aussi pergélisol ou merzlota, riche en matières organiques qui émettraient alors de grandes quantités de méthane, puissant gaz à effet de serre.
Cette éventualité fait craindre un emballement irréversible du réchauffement.
Le climatologue russe Iouri Izraël, vice-président du Giec, reconnaît qu'il est "très probable que l'action de l'homme ait joué le rôle principal" sur les 30 dernières années dans le réchauffement, estimé par le Giec à 0,74 degré Celsius sur les 100 ans passés.
Mais il est peu convaincu par les objectifs de réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre du protocole de Kyoto.
"Que ceux qui croient au protocole de Kyoto continuent de travailler", lance-t-il, "mais il n'est pas efficace, il demande beaucoup de temps et d'argent".
M. Izraël suggère de disperser dans la basse stratosphère de fines particules pour réduire l'ensoleillement et la température.
M. Melnikov ne voit "aucune tragédie dans l'activité humaine" et estime que la nature a de "puissants régulateurs" dont les spécialistes du permafrost voient constamment les mécanismes "contrairement aux climatologues".
Un de ces mécanismes est la densification de la couverture végétale provoquée par une hausse de la concentration de l'atmosphère en carbone, ce qui isole alors le pergélisol de la chaleur, explique son confrère Viatcheslav Konichtchev, chef de la faculté de glaciologie de l'Université de Moscou.
"Au 21e siècle, s'il y a réchauffement il se fera à un rythme lent d'un degré. La température du permafrost augmentera un peu mais il ne fondra pas et se renforcera par endroit", estime M. Konichtchev.
Voix dissonante, Sergueï Zimov de l'Institut de géographie de la Branche Extrême-Orientale de l'Académie des sciences russe sonne l'alarme et dit observer la fonte du permafrost sur sa base en Tchoukotka, à l'extrême nord-est du pays.
"Les scientifiques russes ont une attitude sceptique sur le réchauffement climatique", "ils ont raté le train", "la science russe manque de moyens et est détachée du reste du monde", accuse-t-il.
"La probabilité d'un net réchauffement climatique est très élevée. Il ne faut pas se cacher la tête dans le sable. C'est une des plus grandes menaces auxquelles fait face l'humanité", a-t-il déclaré par téléphone.

По заказу одной из южноафриканских компаний ученые из Санкт-Петербурга разработали устройство для анализа бренди. "Электронный язык" отличает не только свежеприготовленный бренди от выдержанного, но и может различить типы напитка. Аппарат имитирует функции человеческого языка и вполне способен заменить дегустатора.

Researchers from St. Petersburg State University have designed a brandy analyzing device, which is able to significantly lighten the work for manufactures of the drink popular with many people, which is based on ethyl alcohol seasoned in wooden casks.
The device, which represents several sensors and the most complicated hardware and software complex for processing the results obtained by the sensors, enables to confidently tell the "young" drink from the seasoned one and even to distinguish among variants of brandy.
This is of great help both to the ones who manufacture the drink and to those who are duty-bound to reveal counterfeit, which, alas, exists in the market. Certainly, such an "electronic tongue" is unable to replace the cooper of the highest class. But it suits best of all for the routine work - as it is unbiassed, acts quickly, does not fall ill, does not give trouble, and the analysis outcome is expressed not in the feeling (well-bad-that's the thing- that's not the thing) but in figures and diagrams.
It should be noted that the notion of "electronic nose" and an "electronic tongue" has become widespread. Certainly, not everywhere but in analyst circles. It means the device intended for determination and/or identification of the objects of complicated composition. Most importantly, this device works on principle of "human" noses and tongues - that is, unlike ordinary analytical instrumentation it is not obliged to separate all components of a complicated raciness of the object's taste or aroma so that to analyze them later individually. The electronic tongue determines the taste "as a whole" like a good cooper who faultlessly remembers and recognizes gustatory sensations, but, as a rule, has no idea about exact chemical composition of the product. And the electronic nose deals with scents in the same manner - it does not break them down into components but remembers and then determines at once as a whole - by the bouquet.
However, all these devices have one but a very significant drawback. They are never multi-purpose. For each task (should it be identification of rare earth elements in spent fuel or analysis of coffee, tea, juice, vodka, or dairy produce), an individual set of sensors should be developed to enable accurate reveal and identification of the aroma in question without "digressing" to other foreign tastes and scents. Therefore, in this case, when the problem was posed to the St. Petersburg chemists by brandy manufactures from South Africa (the highest professionalism of Russian scientists, who create electronic tongues, is known all over the world), the chemists had first to think which sensors would allow to solve the problem, to select appropriate software and then to "train" the selected sensors on real objects - on samples of brandy with known characteristics.
As the South-African brandy somewhat resembles cognac (both drinks are aged in oak casks after distillation), the task was to "teach" the device, firstly, to distinguish the "young" unseasoned drink from the seasoned one. The St. Petersburg "electronic tongue" has coped with this task more than successfully. This is quite obvious - the seasoned brandy contain tannin, the presence of which fundamentally changes chemical composition the drink. Then there came a task to teach the device to distinguish variants of the drink, and to tell the brandy produced in laboratory environment from the one produced via industrial process. They have also succeeded in this task although not that brilliantly - expectancy of "hitting" made approximately 3 out of 4. This is not that bad in principle - coopers also make mistakes.
"It is not for the first time that we worked with brandy", says Andrey Legin, the leader of investigation, Doctor of Chemistry. "Prior to the South African Republic we dealt with, for example, the French from the famous town of Cognac (Martell, Remy Martin), so we worked with cognacs. By the way, wooden cask are necessarily made of oak (in France, the oak timber should come from a certain forest), and ethyl alcohol is very romantically called eau-de-vie in French (the juice of life). In general, we have worked a lot with wines. Besides France and the South-African Republic, we dealt with Italy, Portugal, New Zealand, Australia. We have published about 20 articles, devoted to developments of electronic noses and tongues for similar "tasty" objects."

Исследователи из Красноярского государственного университета и Института химии и химической технологии СО РАН разработали оригинальную методику экстракции золота и серебра из многокомпонентных растворов. Специфика этой технологии в том, что химики нашли полноценную замену токсичному цианиду, который обычно применяется в таких случаях в качестве реагента. Вместо цианида используется в сто раз менее токсичный тиоцианат.

Researchers from the Krasnoyarsk State University together with their colleagues from the Institute of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, also located in Krasnoyarsk, have developed an original method for extracting gold and silver from multicomponent solutions. The peculiarity of the suggested technology is that chemists have ultimately managed to find an adequate and fundamentally less toxic replacement to cyanide - the reagent which is widely applied for extracting gold from ore and recyclable materials and which is even called a "poisonous companion of gold". It is the very poison the detective story authors like so much but river and lake inhabitants dislike so much. They dislike it to such extent that they simply die - this happened, for example, to fish in the Danube, when in 2000 cyanide got into the Tisa river and then from it - into the Danube through a small Austrian gold-mining company's fault. The company used cyanide to extract gold and silver from solutions. However, not only fish suffered - a lot of birds and wild animals died, millions of Hungary inhabitants were deprived of drinking water.
Basically, the method developed by the Krasnoyarsk chemists does not differ fundamentally from the known one. In both cases, the reagent is added to complicated solutions containing a noble metal- for example, after ore dissolution, or as the specialists put it, opening up of ore. The reagent forms a complex both with gold and silver. Thus a compound is obtained, in which the central atom of the metal is surrounded by several ions - either those of cyanide (as usual), or of thiocyanate (a new method). The entire construction is an anion, and it can be further extracted from the solution on the so-called ion-exchanging column - chlorine ions can be "changed" (they go into the solution) for composite ions that contain the noble metal in the ion-exchange resin filling the column.
Then these ions, certainly together with silver and gold should be washed off the column, and the target metal should be educed from this solution - it can be reduced electrolytically or by any other method.
However, this seems simple only on paper. But in real life chemists had to perform tremendous work to select the most efficient sorbent and conditions of dealing with it to "catch" maximum noble metal from the solution and then to wash all of it off the column, it is desirable to do that separately. And they have succeeded in doing that.
The researchers not only investigated the sorbtion mechanism of thiocyanate complexes of gold and copper on very different sorbents, but they also discovered those that enable to extract practically all noble metal from the solution. Moreover, having designed the necessary methodology, the authors learned to fully separate gold and silver, varying the solution composition, which "washes off" the target metal from the sorbent. Besides, the researchers developed and patented the method that allows to determine the gold content directly in the sorbent, but not in a ready solution. Of course, this is very convenient - because this allows to learn exactly how fully the noble metal was extracted from the initial solution and then - how fully it was extracted from the sobent.
In brief, the researchers have developed an excellent method for extracting gold and silver - it is efficient and much less poisonous the traditional method. Cyanide is almost one hundred times more toxic than thiocyanate. So, the Krasnoyarsk chemists have managed to relieve gold at least one poisonous companion - cyanide.

Мишель Дебренн вошла в историю НГУ как первая студентка-иностранка. Сейчас Мишель Дебренн - доцент кафедры французского языка в НГУ и координатор по вопросам франко-российского сотрудничества при отделе международных связей НГУ. Деятельность ОМС НГУ очень широка, в основном это развитие партнерских отношений с зарубежными вузами и организация обучения студентов и аспирантов НГУ в этих вузах.

"En 1970, s'expatrier en Russie, c'était partir sur une autre planète. Maintenant, la situation est différente et la France s'est considérablement rapprochée de la Sibérie. J'espère y avoir un peu contribué", déclare Michèle Debrenne, 52 ans, professeur de français à l'université d'État de Novossibirsk. Entre elle et la Sibérie, l'histoire d'amour dure depuis plus de trente ans.
Ayant appris le russe au Lycée, elle est invitée en 1974 par des collègues de sa mère, chercheur scientifique, à passer l'été à Akademgorodok, la petite cité des savants russes, près de Novossibirsk. "C'était l'année des accords d'Helsinki. J'ai obtenu mon visa et ma vie a basculé vers l'Est." Un an et un mariage plus tard, elle s'installe définitivement en Sibérie où elle termine ses études de linguistique.
Double diplôme
Outre sa fonction d'enseignante, Michèle Debrenne a mené des actions en faveur du rayonnement de la France. Ainsi, elle est à l'origine de la signature d'accords de double diplôme entre l'université de Novossibirsk, d'une part, Polytechnique, les Mines, l'association Paritech et cinq universités, d'autre part. Elle a participé à la création de l'Alliance française de Novossibirsk et elle est secrétaire du comité fondateur.
Dans le domaine de la mobilité universitaire, ses conseils et ses contacts ont permis, depuis 2000, à une centaine d'étudiants de venir en France (programmes d'échange, stages, double diplôme), parfois grâce à une bourse.
Elle s'efforce de faire connaître aux Français son université, la cité d'Akademgorodok et la ville de Novossibirsk, en accueillant des délégations de professeurs d'universités partenaires et en organisant des stages en Sibérie pour des étudiants de Polytechnique, de l'Ifips (Institut de formation d'ingénieurs de la faculté Paris-Sud) ou de Paris-IV.

Начало дайджеста за ФЕВРАЛЬ 2008 года (часть 1)

предыдущий месяц

1998-2008

следующий месяц