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The designer of Apple’s iPod and one of the biggest names behind Bluetooth chip technology have received honours from the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Jonathan Ive, Apple’s vice-president of industrial design, won the coveted President’s Medal for his contribution in promoting engineering excellence.

The UK’s engineering body also awarded CSR the prestigious MacRobert award for its single-chip BlueCore technology.

The £50,000 MacRobert Prize rewards innovative technology and engineering.

The awards ceremony, dubbed the “engineering Oscars”, also included other medals recognising British engineering prowess and achievements.

They were handed out at a ceremony in London which was attended by the UK government’s minister for science, Lord Sainsbury.

Cambridge company CSR beat three other finalists to the top MacRobert Prize, including a sea-floor mapping system that spots oil and gas deposits, saving millions in exploratory drilling.

Other finalists included a mobile phone tracking program that pinpoints emergency callers and maps traffic jams, and a revolutionary fibre laser.

CSR’s key technology breakthrough in the late 1990s was to create a silicon chip with an integral radio transmitter.

“It sounds easy but in fact the ‘noise’ of the electrical signals on a tiny electronic chip would normally swamp a radio receiver working with micro-volt signals, and at the time it was thought to be impossible,” said Dr Phil O’Donovan, CSR’s co-founder.

They found a way around the problem by managing frequencies so that radio signals could communicate through the noise of a silicon chip’s digital traffic.

This is akin to the “cocktail party” effect, where certain voices can be heard over the crowd.

Blue everywhere

Its BlueCore technology is in millions of consumer electronics, such as personal digital assistants, laptops and mobiles, which need short-range communication capability.

Bluetooth is becoming increasingly important in helping different devices talk to each other wirelessly, such as hands-free headsets.

It is also being used more by the fashion industry, such as sunglass maker Oakley and snowboarding clothes maker Burton.

Having wireless capability built into clothing and accessories means people can use devices such as mobiles more easily whilst on the move or otherwise occupied.

CSR, widely recognised as the global leader in Bluetooth, is what is called a “fabless” company.

This means it focuses on the design and development of its Bluetooth micro-processors, then forms alliances with silicon wafer manufacturers and foundries who make them.

It has designed over 30 types of BlueCore silicon chips. Since 1999, 75 million of its chips have been sold and used in over 60% of all Bluetooth-enabled devices.

The President’s Medal is given on an ad hoc basis to people or organisations who have made significant contributions to the academy’s aims of promoting engineering excellence, but who are not eligible for election to the academy.

Mr Ive’s iPod engineering and design has made the device the biggest-selling portable digital music player in the world.

It dominates 80% of the music player market; by the end of 2005 more than 35 million iPods will have been shipped.

Other awards on the night included the Academy’s first ever Lifetime Achievement prize which was given to Dr Philip Woodward, retired deputy chief scientific officer, for his pioneering work on radar.

He was also behind one of the UK’s first electronic computers (TREAC) followed by the UK’s first solid state computer (RREAC).

Airport security staff could get extra hi-tech help in spotting suspicious luggage with new X-ray displays that can switch from 2D to 3D in an instant.

The displays by Sharp Labs mean staff can see realistic 3D images from X-rays without wearing cumbersome glasses.

3D displays have already been used in the likes of laptops, medical X-rays and mobiles, but being able to switch would be a first for airport X-rays.

It is one of four finalists for the eminent MacRobert engineering award.

The prize is given out by the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering for technological and engineering innovation, on 10 June.

Treble vision

“The 3D technology we have developed aims at mimicking how people see 3D using natural vision,” Dr Grant Bourhill, from Sharp’s optical imaging labs, told BBC News Online.

“We try to send one image to one eye and a slightly different one to the second eye. We achieve that by using the ‘parallax barrier’ technique.

“The barrier is placed either behind or in front of a conventional crystal display which shows how the image is displayed to the viewer’s eyes.”

The parallax barrier has been known about for many years, but Sharp’s key innovation was finding out how to turn off the barrier, or the 3D effect, to leave a perfect 2D display.

The barrier works with polarisation optics and a simple electronic switch can be operated manually or by software, says Dr Bourhill.

“The right and left eye image is interlaced on the display screen. The function of the parallax barrier is to separate those images to two separate locations on the screen.

“The right eye will see the right eye image and the left eye will see the left eye image so your brain will perceive 3D just like normal vision.”

Already developed for mobile phones and laptops since last year, the displays will bring major benefits to airport security staff.

Bulky goggles

Conventional security X-ray systems, increasingly important in airport security in light of current terrorism concerns, use flat 2D displays. To view in 3D, they need to wear special eyewear.

Looking at objects in 2D makes it difficult to judge what is being viewed. With 3D technology, an object’s depth and height is seen more clearly so staff can make better decisions about it.

With easily switchable displays, the likelihood of false alarms is reduced, explains Dr Bourhill, detection rates are improved, as well as the speed and efficiency of luggage screening.

Being able to switch from 2D to 3D electronically does away with the need for the bulky and expensive goggles.

“A key part of the process was that our engineers from Oxford spent nine months in Japan actually transferring the technology developed in the UK to a state that was appropriate for mass manufacturing in Japan,” said Dr Bourhill.

“We are delighted to have been selected as one of the four finalists of one of the most prestigious engineering awards.”

Sharp is currently in discussions with a UK-based company to put the switchable displays into use at airports.

Although 3D displays have useful applications in games, photography, medical imaging, security and computer-aided design, the need to have a choice of swapping between 2D or 3D is a bonus, says Dr Bourhill.

The other finalists for the MacRobert award include self-cleaning glass, an eco-friendly fuel-injection system, and software that connects multiple system computer platforms.

The winner of the £50,000 prize money will be announced on Thursday and the prize will be awarded by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh.

IBM has scooped an eminent UK engineering award for its “middleware” breed of software called Websphere MQ.

Used by top global banks, it has transformed e-commerce, allowing data transfers across computer systems without the need for custom coding.

The Royal Academy of Engineering’s MacRobert prize rewards technological and engineering innovation.

IBM, one of four finalists, was awarded the £50,000 prize money by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh at a London ceremony.

The software, developed by IBM’s Hursley Laboratory in the UK, is crucial for the computing infrastructure of many top companies.

“This award recognises the importance of software as an engineering discipline in its own right, as much as it recognises the success of IBM WebSphere MQ,” said Graham Spittle, director of the Hursley lab Director.

“The MacRobert Award is an indication of the maturity of the industry and recognition of the significance of the role IT plays in the modern world.”

‘Pioneering’ ware

Banks that provide internet services make use of the software’s adaptability so that transactions take place without mistakes, even when computers go offline.

The software means vital information can be swapped between computer systems, wherever they are and whatever hardware, programming language or operating system they use.
IBM describes the software, which was developed in 1994, as “pioneering” because it lets applications on any of over 40 separate computer platforms to communicate and handle data transfer easily.

Previously, the only way to connect such systems was through custom coding.
“Without Websphere MQ we might never have enjoyed the full benefits of the e-commerce revolution,” said Dr Robin Paul, Chairman of the MacRobert judging panel.
“When you realise how many IT systems have to talk to each other when, for example, you check your balance and transfer funds online you really start to appreciate the value of this innovation.

“By enabling seamless communications between computers, the engineers at Hursley have effectively created the oil that now keeps the world’s e-commerce machine running.”
The other finalists for the MacRobert award included self-cleaning glass, an eco-friendly fuel-injection system, and displays that can switch from 2D to 3D.

Scientists are on their way to developing an effective antidote for botulinum toxin - one of the world’s most feared biological weapons.

Defence experts say that just one gram of the poison can kill hundreds of thousands of people.

Several people each year fall victim to “botulism” from food poisoning, but the toxin is also used as Botox - injected into brows to relax wrinkles.

The US team’s findings appear in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

With funding from the US government, researchers at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York, and the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), Maryland, have broken through a barrier towards developing an effective antidote against the most potent form of the toxin.

The researchers have developed a protein that blocks the effects of the toxin by tricking it into not attacking cells in the body.

Biologist Subramanyam Swaminathan, who led the research, told BBC News: “We anticipate at least four to five years before this can be turned into an approved drug.”

The Clostridium botulinum bacterium produces seven different neurotoxins, which attach to proteins inside human nerve cells and blocks the chemicals they use to communicate with each another and with muscles. This can paralyse breathing muscles, which eventually suffocates the victim.

The new protein developed at the Brookhaven National Laboratory acts on the most powerful of these seven toxins, for which there is no medical treatment.

It behaves as a decoy to proteins in the nerve cells, which means that the toxin chooses not to attach itself to the nerve cells when it enters the body. This prevents paralysis.

“It is about 10 to 15 times better than the best one available so far,” said Subramanyam Swaminathan.

Vaccines for botulinum toxin already exist, designed to be administered before an attack, but this research could produce a drug that would work afterwards.

The US government has proposed increasing funding for research into defence against bioweapons such as botulinum to $9bn (£4.5bn; 5.8bn euros) in 2009. This is a rise of more than 5% on the previous year.

Although botulinum toxin has never been successfully used as a bioweapon, the Japanese terrorist cult, Aum Shinrikyo, tried three times between 1990 and 1995.

Also, in the run-up to the 1991 Gulf War, Iraq reportedly produced thousands of litres of the toxin.

Breathing in air pollution from traffic fumes can raise the risk of potentially deadly blood clots, a US study says.

Exposure to small particulates - tiny chemicals caused by burning fossil fuels - is known to increase the chances of heart disease and stroke.

But the Harvard School of Public Health found it also affected development of deep vein thrombosis - blood clots in the legs - in a study of 2,000 people.

Researchers said the pollution made the blood more sticky and likely to clot.

The team looked at people living in Italy - nearly 900 of whom developed DVT.

Blood clots which form in the legs can travel to the lungs, where they can become lodged, triggering a potentially fatal pulmonary embolism.

The risk of DVT is known to be increased by long periods of immobility. In particular, passengers on long-haul flights have been shown to be vulnerable, but so are people who spend long periods of time sitting at their office desk without exercising, or walking around.

Researchers obtained pollution readings from the areas they lived and found those exposed to higher levels of small particulates in the year before diagnosis were more likely to develop blood clots.

The Archives of Internal Medicine report said for every 10 microgrammes per square metre increase in small particulates, the risk of developing a DVT went up by 70%.

Air quality guidelines generally state that small particulate concentrations should not exceed 50 microgrammes.

Risk Factor

Lead researcher Dr Andrea Baccarelli said: “Given the magnitude of the effects, our findings introduce a novel and common risk factor into the development of DVT.

“And, at the same time, they give further substance to the call for tighter standards and continued efforts aimed at reducing the impact of urban air pollutants on human health.”

Dr Beverley Hunt, medical director of the DVT charity Lifeblood, said: “We have known for some time that air pollution has been associated with increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

“This study shows for the very first time that air pollution also increases the risk of clots in the veins and tells us why.

“It’s an exciting finding because air quality is something we can improve on through tightening air quality legislation.”