Российская наука и мир (дайджест)

На аэрокосмическом салоне в парижском пригороде Ле-Бурже, где демонстрируются последние новинки, в центре внимания оказался российский модернизированный истребитель МиГ-29 ОВТ.

Alors que relativement peu de nouveautés sont attendues pour l'édition 2007 du Salon de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace, les spectateurs présents hier ont eu droit à la démonstration époustouflante du nouveau MiG-29OVT, aussi appelé MiG-35 en raison de la rupture technologique qui le démarque du reste de la famille.
L'appareil, un chasseur muni de moteurs équipés de tuyères à poussée vectorielle orientable, a effectué une démonstration très remarquée dans le ciel de Paris, arrachant cris d'enthousiasme et applaudissements de la part des professionnels et journalistes présents. Le MiG-29OVT est une des meilleures réalisations de l'aviation militaire russe, et se démarque nettement des appareils construits à l'époque de la guerre froide et dont les "avancées" technologiques se limitaient souvent à s'inspirer des performances occidentales, avec des moyens nettement plus réduits. Mais le récital offert hier par cet avion confirme la fin de l'âge sombre de la technologie aéronautique de la Russie, un pays avec lequel il faudra désormais compter.
Cet appareil est susceptible d'être équipé d'un radar AESA d'origine israélienne construit par Israel Aircraft Industries, le EL/M-2052, d'une portée de 300 km et capable de poursuivre jusqu'à 64 cibles simultanément. Ce radar de 130 à 180 kg (selon le type d'antenne), qui n'a actuellement d'équivalent que le Zaslon S800 d'une tonne équipant le MiG-31, est aussi adaptable sur le Su-30, le F-15, le LCA indien et aussi le Mirage-2000 français. Plusieurs autres démonstrations du MiG-29OVT sont encore attendues avant la clôture du salon du Bourget dimanche prochain.
Mais le Bourget, ce sont aussi 2000 autres exposants non moins intéressants. Comme nous l'avons dit, peu de grandes nouveautés, mais il faut tout de même relever le Mirage F1C de Sagem et le turbopropulseur TBM850 présenté en mode statique par EADS Socata. Côté civil, mentionnons l'Antonov 148, un appareil de transport régional à aile haute tout juste certifié, et le BA609 tilt-rotor, un convertible présenté par Bell.
Une fois de plus, Airbus tient la vedette en exposant deux A380, l'un effectuant des démonstrations en vol, l'autre présentant sa cabine entièrement aménagée. Un A330 MRTT (MultiRole Tanker Transport), qui vient tout juste de sortir d'assemblage, figure aux côtés de ses frères en version civile.
Boeing tient assurément le second rôle en n'exposant qu'un seul appareil civil, le B777-300ER, qui était déjà présent en 2003. il est présenté cette fois en version triclasse, dont la cabine des premières comporte plusieurs suites.
Commandes en rafale...
Côté commandes, l'avionneur européen confirme aussi sa grande forme en enregistrant ou confirmant des commandes pour 350 appareils, représentant un montant de plus de 40 milliards de dollars. Ainsi, Qatar Airways confirme l'acquisition de 80 A350, et l'américaine US Airways conclut un contrat ferme avec Airbus pour la livraison de 92 appareils. Emirates augmente sa commande d'A380 de 8 appareils supplémentaires, ce qui porte sa commande à 55 très gros porteurs. Les ventes de l'A320 se montent à présent à 200 appareils, dont 60 à GECAS (General Electric Commercial Aviation Services) 25 au transporteur russe S7 et 30 à la compagnie privée koweïtienne Jazeera Airways.
Boeing a enregistré ses deux premières commandes, soit 6 Boeing 777-200F (Freighter) pour la GECAS et 40 Boeing 737-900ER supplémentaires pour la compagnie indonésienne Lion Air.
Mais nous n'en sommes qu'au deuxième jour du Salon, et bien des choses se passeront encore…

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bulletins-électroniques / 29/06/2007

Matériaux en verre de borate à forte résistance magnétique

Российские химики разработали новый метод получения композитов из боратного стекла - материалов, обладающих большим эффектом магнетосопротивления. Их работу поддержали РФФИ и Федеральная целевая научно-техническая программа "Исследования и разработки по приоритетным направлениям науки и техники на 2002-2006 годы".

Des chimistes de l'Université d'Etat de Moscou Lomonossov ont élaboré un matériau composite vitrocristallin ayant des propriétés de très haute résistance magnétique. En coopération avec l'Institut Max Planck, ils ont mis au point une méthode unique de cristallisation spontanée d'oxyde de verre pour obtenir le matériau.
L'effet de résistance magnétique est déjà connu depuis longtemps et utilisé pour différentes applications. Lorsqu'une substance saline contenant des terres rares ou du manganèse est soumis à un champ magnétique, la résistance électrique varie. Ces matériaux sont alors utilisés dans des systèmes et équipements sensibles au champ magnétique, comme par exemple: tête de lecture/enregistrement magnétique à haute densité, détecteurs de métaux, boussoles, capteurs de température, de mouvements linéaires et angulaires.
Les chercheurs ont observé des effets de résistance magnétique dans les cristaux de manganite. Ils ont alors découvert qu'il était possible d'élaborer un composite constitué de particules de manganite reparties en couches diélectriques permettant d'augmenter considérablement la résistance magnétique.
Le processus d'obtention consiste d'abord à cuire un mélange d'acide borique, de carbonate de strontium et d'oxydes de manganèse trivalent et de lanthane trivalent à une température de 800° Celsius. La matière obtenue est condensée dans un comprimé de 1 cm de diamètre pour être ensuite fondue à l'aide d'un brûleur arqué à plasma. Finalement la matière fondue est trempée entre deux plaques de cuivre.
L'analyse de radiocristallographie confirme que la structure, composée en deux phases (manganite de lanthane-strontium et de borate-strontium), contient des particules ferromagnétiques avec une couche diélectrique. Les résultats ont montré que la structure vitrocristalline avec une légère concentration de manganite permet de faire varier considérablement la résistance électrique de l'échantillon par un faible champ magnétique.

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The Guardian / Thursday, June 28, 2007

Kremlin lays claim to huge chunk of oil-rich North Pole

Luke Harding

Согласно международному праву, Северный полюс не принадлежит ни одной стране, но каждое из пяти арктических государств: Россия, США, Канада, Норвегия и Дания (представленная Гренландией) имеет 200-мильную экономическую зону вдоль своего побережья. Расширение экономической зоны допускается лишь в случае, если границы континентального шельфа (подводная окраина материка) простираются за пределы 200-мильной экономической зоны. Результаты исследований экспедиции ВНИИ океанологии дают основания для претензий России на Северный полюс, который, предположительно, напрямую связан подводным шельфом с российским Крайнем Севером. Таким образом, у России появляется возможность расширить свои границы на 1,2 миллиона квадратных километров.

It is already the world's biggest country, spanning 11 time zones and stretching from Europe to the far east. But yesterday Russia signalled its intention to get even bigger by announcing an audacious plan to annex a vast 460,000 square mile chunk of the frozen and ice-encrusted Arctic.
According to Russian scientists, there is new evidence backing Russia's claim that its northern Arctic region is directly linked to the North Pole via an underwater shelf.
Under international law, no country owns the North Pole. Instead, the five surrounding Arctic states, Russia, the US, Canada, Norway and Denmark (via Greenland), are limited to a 200-mile economic zone around their coasts.
On Monday, however, a group of Russian geologists returned from a six-week voyage on a nuclear icebreaker. They had travelled to the Lomonosov ridge, an underwater shelf in Russia's remote and inhospitable eastern Arctic Ocean.
According to Russia's media, the geologists returned with the "sensational news" that the Lomonosov ridge was linked to Russian Federation territory, boosting Russia's claim over the oil-and-gas rich triangle. The territory contained 10bn tonnes of gas and oil deposits, the scientists said.
Russia's Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper celebrated the discovery by printing a large map of the North Pole. It showed the new "addition" to Russia - the size of France, Germany and Italy combined - under a white, blue and red Russian flag.
Yesterday, however, some scientists doubted whether Russia's latest Arctic grab stood up to scrutiny.
To extend a zone, a state has to prove that the structure of the continental shelf is similar to the geological structure within its territory.
Under the current UN convention on the laws of the sea, no country's shelf extends to the North Pole. Instead, the International Seabed Authority administers the area around the pole as an international area.
"Frankly I think it's a little bit strange," Sergey Priamikov, the international co-operation director of Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in St Petersburg, told the Guardian. "Canada could make exactly the same claim. The Canadians could say that the Lomonosov ridge is part of the Canadian shelf, which means Russia should in fact belong to Canada, together with the whole of Eurasia."
Mr Priamikov said the area was one of breathtaking natural beauty. It was much drier, colder and quieter than the western Arctic, he added. "I've been there many times. It's an oasis for marine life," he said. Asked whether it would be feasible to drill for oil, he said: "Yes".
The shelf was 200 metres deep and oil and gas would be easy to extract, especially with ice melting because of global warming, he said. Russia has the world's largest gas reserves. It is the second largest exporter of oil after Saudi Arabia. The Kremlin is keen to secure Russia's long-term hegemony over global energy markets, and to find new sources of fuel.
Russia first made a submission in 2001 to the UN commission on the limits of the continental shelf, seeking to push Russia's maritime borders beyond the existing 200-mile zone. It was rejected.
But the latest scientific findings are likely to prompt Russia to lodge another confident bid - and will alarm the US, which is mired in a 13-year debate over ratification of a UN treaty governing international maritime rights.
The Law of the Sea Treaty is the world's primary means of settling disputes over exploitation rights and navigational routes in international waters. Russia and 152 other countries have ratified it.
But the US has refused, arguing it gives too much power to the UN. If the US does not ratify it, Russia's bid for the Arctic's energy wealth will go unchallenged, proponents believe.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007.

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Genetic Engineering News (press release) - New Rochelle, NY, USA / Jun 26 2007

Tissue Welding Surgical Device Receives Approval in Russia, Announces CSMG Technologies, Inc.

Федеральная служба по надзору в сфере здравоохранения и социального развития (Росздравнадзор) утвердила применение в российских клиниках специального высокочастотного электрохирургического аппарата, "сваривающего" живые ткани. Разработала его международная группа ученых по проекту Института электросварки им. Е.О.Патона НАН Украины. В основе действия аппарата - эффект электротермической денатурации белковых молекул.

Business Wire / CSMG Technologies, Inc., (OTC Bulletin Board: CTUM) a technology management company, announced today the Russian Federal Service of Health Care and Social Development has approved the tissue welding electro surgery generator and eight instruments for commercial use in its hospitals and clinics. The approval is for a wide range of procedures that this universal electrosurgical generator and its instruments perform. The approval was issued to CSMG's Ukraine partner International Association Welding "IAW" on June 21, 2007.
"This is an achievement of monumental proportions for IAW and CSMG. We expect to immediately begin implementing our plans with IAW to manufacture, market and distribute the tissue welding electrosurgery device and hand instruments in both Ukraine and Russia. Russia and Ukraine have a combined population of about 200 million people with rich industrial, natural and scientific resources. A world class team of surgeons, scientists, patent authors and engineers are working on the technology at the E.O.Paton Institute of Electric Welding in Kiev, Ukraine. We have worked closely together over the years performing R&D and clinical trials refining the technology and surgical procedures to bring tissue welding technology to its state. The Ukraine team along with our world class medical device design, manufacturing, marketing and management team in the US and the immediate filing with the US FDA brings this unique medical device technology to the forefront of the surgery industry. We believe sales in Russia and Ukraine could reach $7 to $10 million in 2008 and could grow at a rate of as much as 50% per year for the next several years in these two rapidly expanding medical markets," says Donald S. Robbins, President and CEO.
"Getting approval in Russia opens wide opportunities for commercialization of the tissue welding technology. This is a major achievement for our international team's hard work. Russian clinical work was performed by surgeons at Hospital #1 in Moscow and Povlov University Hospital in St. Petersburg, Russia. We were only able to bring the live tissue welding technology from an idea stage to its current level of a unique and revolutionary surgical product because of the R&D funding and support provided by our long time partner CSMG Technologies. We look forward to continuing to work with CSMG in implementing distribution throughout Russia and Ukraine," says Dr. Alexander T. Zeluichenko, Director of the International Association Welding, Kiev, Ukraine.
LTC's Frank D'Amelio added, "We are presently moving from prototype to preproduction with our manufacturers here in the United States. As a result of this news we, will now be working with our Ukrainian and Russian distribution partners to assess their demand requirements and will fold their requirements and the timing thereof into a worldwide production schedule. Live Tissue Connect, Inc. (LTC) will continue to evaluate preproduction samples of both our disposable RF-sealing instruments and our bipolar generator, which are based on the aforementioned technology, in July / August 2007. Adding Russian and Ukrainian volume of these products to our production plan will also occur during this same period."
"Welding technologies are victoriously walking around the earth, underwater and in space. Nowadays welding is being successfully used in medicine for bonding damaged human tissue and restoring physiological function of human organs," says academician B.E.Paton, E.O.Paton Institute of Electric Welding, President of National Academy of Science, Kiev, Ukraine. CSMG owns the technology and exclusive world rights to the live tissue bonding device through Live Tissue Connect, Inc., a subsidiary corporation formed for the development and exploitation of the platform technology. LTC expects to complete the commercial hand instruments, electro-cautery generator and other electrosurgery components for the tissue welding system and begin product distribution with IAW in the 4th quarter of 2007 for the Russian and Ukrainian markets now that all necessary approvals have been received in these countries.
About CSMG Technologies' Tissue Welding/Bonding Technology
The LTC tissue bonding / welding device is a platform technology that bonds and reconnects living soft biological tissue through fusion without the use of foreign matter in contrast with conventional wound closing devices such as sutures, staples, sealant, or glues.
Surgeons at 27 Ukraine hospitals and clinics are using the tissue welding/bonding technology in clinical trials. They have completed more than 7,000 human surgeries using more than 80 types of open and laparoscopic surgical procedures, demonstrating the technology is universal in its ability to repair soft biological tissue. These surgeries included lung, neuro-surgery, nasal septum, intestine, stomach, skin, gall bladder, liver, spleen, blood vessels, nerves, alba linea, uterus, bladder, gynecological, fallopian tube, ovary and testicles and dura-matter. Cosmetic surgeries conducted with this technology include breast reduction, breast implants, mastopexy and abdominoplasty. The procedure involves little or no scarring, while restoring the normal function of the body organ or tissue.
The technology was invented and developed at the internationally renowned E.O.Paton Institute of Electric Welding, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine, headed by Professor B.E.Paton. U.S., Australian, Canadian and European Union patents have been issued, and additional U.S. and foreign patents are pending, all owned by LTC.
About CSMG Technologies, Inc.
CSMG Technologies is a technology management company that finances, owns, develops, licenses and markets innovative advanced technologies and business opportunities created in the Ukraine through a network of scientific institutes and private organizations. CSMG is focused on two primary subsidiaries, Live Tissue Connect, Inc. and landfill gas processing. For further information on CSMG Technologies and its various subsidiaries, please visit our website at www.ctum.com. Sign up to receive CSMG Technologies automated email press releases and other notifications: Please go to http://www.ctum.com/contact_information.html and fill-in information.