Explosive devices designed for space rockets are being used to provide an emergency capsize-recovery system for an adventurer attempting to windsurf across the Pacific Ocean.

Raphaëla Le Gouvello’s custom-built windsurfer weighs more than half a tonne and includes a watertight sleeping compartment. But righting such a hefty board in difficult conditions could be very hard to do. So, in a crisis, the pyrotechnic charges could be detonated to rapidly inflate a large airbag and tip the board back over again.

“We developed these pyrotechnics for the Ariane rocket family,” says Pierre Brisson, head of Technology Transfer at the European Space Agency. “It is certainly an extremely powerful airbag which should only be used as a last resort, as it could damage the craft.”

The pyrotechnic devices inflate the air bag in about a tenth of a second. Such charges are normally used to detach items no longer needed by spacecraft, such as exhausted fuel tanks or protective fairings.

Le Gouvello hopes to cross the Pacific in about 80 days

Guy Saillard, the architect who designed Le Gouvello’s sailboard, says: “The airbag system developed with ESA is a true technological innovation.” In the future, the system could provide a small and lightweight safety system for small boats and windsurfers, which do not have room for traditional life rafts.

Centre of gravity

Le Gouvello’s sailboard also has a second, more conventional airbag system installed. This, unlike the new system, is re-usable. But it is smaller and takes up to 30 seconds to inflate. It adjusts the board’s centre of gravity just enough to allow her to recover the board on her own.

The adventurer began her 8000 kilometre voyage from Peru to Tahiti on Tuesday 5 August and by Monday had travelled more than 600 km. The board, which is 7.80 metres long, has much larger sails than conventional models.

It is equipped with GPS navigation, radio, telephone, water desalination equipment and solar panels to enable Le Gouvello to complete the three month crossing without assistance. The solar panels are also derived from technology originally developed for European spacecraft.

Real problem

It is not the first time Le Gouvello has tackled an ocean – she crossed the Atlantic in 2000. But this time her sailboard is faster, lighter and is equipped with the new emergency airbag system.

Keith Read, director general of UK’s Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology says the difficulty of recovering a capsized small craft is a real one. “Any attempt to find that solution is laudable,” he told New ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´. “I really hope they’re successful.”

But he adds that the conditions in the open Pacific Ocean might present very different challenges to those presented by the calmer waters normally sailed by small craft.

Culicoides nubeculosus is a major bloodsucking pest of cattle and also bites people. Its use of pheromones has been known for 20 years, but until now the identity of the chemical attractants was a mystery,

Now, Bill Mordue and Jenny Mordue, at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and colleagues at Rothamsted Research, Hertfordshire, have revealed the pheromone as a molecule called n-heptade-cane.

The team first discovered that the pheromones were released by virgin females after they had a blood meal. “When the virgin female bites, chemicals from the host’s blood stimulate increased pre-mating grooming behaviour and mating attempts,” explains Jenny Mordue. Identifying this behaviour allowed the pheromone to be collected and identified.

Deadly viruses

Though tiny, midges can be a serious pest to both livestock and people. The bites are not only highly irritating, reducing productivity, but can transmit deadly animal viruses such as Bluetongue virus and African horse sickness virus.

Countries in southern Europe have experienced BTV outbreaks recently, as warmer winters have drawn midges from north Africa. But current methods of midge control can involve large-scale disturbance of the countryside.

“This pheromone, and related ones, are now being investigated to see if successful traps can be designed,” Bill Mordue told New ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´. “These traps would be useful throughout the world.”

Such “sex traps” have been used before to control other unwanted creatures. In 2002, researchers at Newcastle University used pheromones to try to control the American crayfish that have invaded UK waters.

While C. nubeculosus does bite people, in the UK about 90 per cent of human bites are caused by another species – the Scottish biting midge (Culicoides impunctatus).

This midge does not use sex pheromones, but does produce an aggregation pheromone that females use signal that a food source has been found. The researchers are now trying to isolate this pheromone.

Journal reference: The Biologist (vol 50, p 159)

Peter McCarron, at Queens University Belfast, Northern Ireland, and colleagues examined the medical records of nearly 10,000 male graduates of Glasgow University. The researchers found that science, engineering and medical students had a substantially lower risk of mortality than arts students.

However, medical students went on to have the largest number of alcohol-related deaths and death from suicide or violent means. They were also the heaviest smokers as students, followed by lawyers.

Nonetheless, arts students had greatest risk of contracting lung cancer or a cardiovascular disease. “We speculate that medics changed their social habits after leaving university,” McCarron told New ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´. “They would have had access to the studies which came out around that time and probably realised the benefits of giving up.”

Steady job

The high incidence of alcohol-related deaths and suicides among medics could reflect the long hours and stress suffered by doctors, he says. But the researchers write that perhaps the overall lower mortality among medics may be “some compensation for the reported unhappiness in their profession”.

The lower death rates from all causes among the scientists, engineers and medics could reflect social and economic factors, McCarron thinks: “We believe they probably found it easy to gain employment and therefore had more job stability and a better income.”

Family background may also have been significant – the men studying arts subjects were more likely to have come from poorer families.

The researchers, who began the work purely out of interest, now intend to study the health records of female students between 1948 and 1968, as well as examining more recent data.

Journal reference: Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (vol 96, p 384)

The outstanding athletic ability of Philaenus spumarius, also known as the froghopper, may have evolved to help the insects escape attack from birds and other insects.

“The jumping ability of the spittlebug is incredible,” says zoologist Malcolm Burrows, at Cambridge University, who conducted the study. “The only downside is it makes them almost impossible to catch. I couldn’t believe it hadn’t been measured before.”

The spittlebug, just six millimetres long, recorded jumps as high as 700 millimetres. It has a take-off velocity of up to 3.1 metres per second, triple that of a flea. As a result the insect’s body experiences a force about 400 times that of gravity. “When you consider even experienced jet pilots pass out around 7g, that’s pretty impressive,” Burrows told New ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´.

Stored power

There are two basic designs for jumping. Animals like the frog and kangaroo have long legs to provide leverage, allowing them to cover the same distance as short-legged animals but requiring much less force. In contrast, short-legged animals release energy they have stored in their leg muscles in order to catapult forward.

Spittlebugs have short legs, but achieve their supremacy by also using a novel leg-locking mechanism. This is required because the force needed for giant jumps cannot be produced by direct muscle contractions in the short time available.

Instead, muscular force is generated before the jump and stored. The spittlebug does this by tucking its hind legs underneath its thorax and locking them in place, using a ridge on its hind leg that engages with a protrusion on the insect’s underside.

Once the spittlebug’s muscles have generated enough force, it releases its legs and leaps skywards. The massive thoracic muscles powering the jump account for about 11 per cent of its body mass. The positioning of the muscles in the thorax means the bug can have thin, light legs, which are easily accelerated and increase the height of the jump.

The spittlebug is common in British gardens. It is best known for its ability to produce a protective froth, sometimes called cuckoo spit, and seen on blades of grass. The froth envelopes the insect and provides protection from both dessication and predators.

Journal reference: Nature (vol 424, p 509)