New Worlds: Ariel engineers put houses on firmer footing

Apartment buildings and houses built on pillars are at high risk in an earthquake.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
apt building (photo credit: )
apt building
(photo credit: )
Apartment buildings and houses built on pillars are at high risk in an earthquake. Most such buildings here were constructed in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, when there was less awareness of the relationship between structure and the risk of collapse. But now researchers in civil engineering at the Ariel University Center in Samaria claim to have developed a way to retrofit pillars to make such buildings safer. Dr. Yuri Ribakov and engineer Vladimir Briman published an article in the international journal The Structural Design of Tall and Special Buildings (www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/120847777/abstract). They suggest replacing existing exposed pillars with improved versions. The old ones are replaced by structures that carry the building's weight until the new ones are installed Yes, this is expensive. An average four-storey building with four apartments has 16 pillars. The replacement of each would cost $5,000. But the authors say this is a small price for improving chances of survival in the event of an earthquake. In addition, earthquake insurance rates will drop and apartment values will rise, they insist. IS YOUR OLIVE OIL PURE? You may think you're buying pure olive oil, but some suppliers are adulterating it with cheaper oils. Now the Bactochem lab (www.bactochem.co.il) in Nes Ziona has developed a technique to identify olive oil that has been mixed with other oils, even at levels of only 5%. Moshe Heller, who developed the technique, says it is based on the identification of a fatty acid. It measures the percentage of sigma sterol (that doesn't exist in olive oil); if it's present, it means the oil has been adulterated. About 40% of the "olive oil" sold here is not authentic. OUR OWN YOUNG GENIUS Dr. Hossam Haick of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa has been named by Technology Review as one of the world's 35 top young scientists. He was chosen for inclusion in list known as the TR35 from more than 300 nominees by a panel of judges and editorial staff at MIT's magazine of innovation. He and the other winners will be featured in the September issue and honored at MIT's EmTech08 Conference at the end of the month. "The TR35 honors young innovators poised to have a dramatic impact on the world," said Jason Pontin, editor in chief of Technology Review. "We celebrate their success and look forward to their continued advancement." Already the recipient of several awards and grants, Haick has garnered international recognition for leading the development of an "electronic nose" - nanosized sensors that can detect cancer in a person's breath. "Preliminary results indicate that it detects breast, colon and lung cancer. We hope it will become routine screening for all cancers, thereby guaranteeing early treatment," says Haick. Born and raised in the Jewish-Arab city of Nazareth, Haick earned his doctorate at the Technion and pursued post-doctoral research at the California Institute of Technology. He is today a senior lecturer in the Technion's chemical engineering faculty and its Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute. Past winners of the TR35 include Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Linus Torvald (the developer of Linux), and Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg. WHO'S THE FAIREST BIRD OF ALL? The magpie is very clever. According to German biopsychologists Helmut Prior and Onur Gunturkun, who published an article on the European variety in PLoS (Public Library of Science), it is the only non-mammal that can recognize itself in a mirror. The bird was referred to as a "pie" until the late 16th century, when the prefix mag was added. Self recognition has always been regarded by experts as a sign of advanced cognition. Magpies' brain structure is very different from that of mammals, but nevertheless the German scientists found they can identify their own mirror image. In nonhuman species and in children, the authors wrote, the "mark test" has been used as an indicator of self recognition. In these experiments, subjects are placed in front of a mirror and provided with a mark visible only in the mirror. Mirror self-recognition has been shown in apes and, recently, in dolphins and elephants. But this advanced behavior isn't seen in all apes, just about 75% in young adults and considerably less often in young and aging monkeys. When the magpies scratched the mark they saw reflected on their bodies, they recognized the image in the mirror as themselves, the researchers said, noting that self recognition can appear in species that lack a neocortex, which, until now, was regarded as vital for self recognition. Thus, they suggest that higher cognitive skills might not be dependant on the neocortex.