11 April 2009 | NewScientist | 15

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PILOTS are trained how to fly their aircraft if an engine or other flight systems fail, but what if they lose control of the steering?

Now Airbus has come up with a way for pilots to fly a plane to the nearest runway in even these extreme circumstances.

In a US patent filed last week, Airbus says damaged aircraft could be controlled by moving fuel quickly between fuel tanks in the wing, fuselage and tail, shifting the centre of gravity to provide rudimentary steering.

This could easily be achieved, Airbus says, by programming flight management software to include fuel-based steering among its emergency options. If the pilot needed to roll to the left, the system would pump fuel to the left wing’s tank. To pitch the nose up, fuel could be pumped to the tank in the tail.

Driving games raise emotionsVIDEO games don’t have to be violent

to trigger an emotional response.

It turns out that driving games

can activate more brain regions

involved in emotional processing

than shoot ’em ups.

Many studies have suggested that

violence in video games could be

linked to aggression. To investigate

further, Simon Goodson and Sarah

Pearson of the University of

Huddersfield in the UK recruited

30 adults aged between 18 and 45

to play either a competitive driving

game, a shoot ’em up or virtual table

tennis against computer-generated

competitors. Brain activity, heart rate

and breathing were all monitored

during the game, and a questionnaire

afterwards assessed their levels of

anger, hostility and aggression.

The volunteers scored normally for

aggression after playing the driving

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Flying by the seat of their tanks

and shoot ’em up games, while those

playing the table tennis game scored

as slightly less aggressive than the

average for the volunteers . However,

when it came to brain activity, the

driving game caused a significant

increase in the temporal lobe, an

area of the brain associated with

emotional processing. “It cannot be

assumed that aggression is solely

related to violent content,” says

Goodson, who presented the results

at a British Psychological Society

meeting in Brighton last week.

Previous research has hinted that

playing driving games leads to more

risky and aggressive driving .

THE British Steam Car Challenge team are gearing up for an attempt on the world steam-powered land speed record, following successful tests last week.

The project , which is designed to raise awareness of clean-burning fuels, is aiming to reach 270 kilometres per hour with its steam car later this year. In so doing it would break the world record of 204 kilometres per hour set by the American Stanley Steamer in 1906.

The car itself is 8.5 metres long and weighs 3 tonnes. It is powered by demineralised water, which is

Full steam into the record books?

pumped into a dozen 250-kilowatt boilers – equivalent to about 1200 electric kettles. These provide steam to a 268-kilowatt turbine that drives the rear wheels.

Following tests at Thorney Island airfield in Hampshire, UK, in which the car reached 130 kilometres per hour, the team is now awaiting final clearance from Edwards Air Force Base in California to use Rogers Dry Lake for the record bid. The advantage of the dry lake is that it is 600 metres lower than Utah’s famous Bonneville Salt Flats, so there is more oxygen available for the boilers, enabling the car to develop much more power.

The team hopes to be on site when the lake dries out in May.

–Driven to feel–

The average dollar loss suffered by the 206,884 people who reported internet crimes to the FBI in 2008

931

Patrik Runald of computer security company F-Secure reports on the puzzling lack of impact

of the Conficker virus, which is thought to have infected more than 12 million computers

and was expected to activate on 1 April (F-Secure blog, 1 April)

“What’s going on? So far – nothing”

“It cannot be assumed that aggression is solely related to the violent content of video games”