Two men have sought an injunction in a US court to prevent the European Large Hadron Collider (LHC) from operating, alleging its new atom-smashing experiments could endanger the Earth.

Walter Wagner, a botanist and Luis Sancho of Spain filed the lawsuit in a Hawaii court on March 21 asking for work on the collider's particle acceleration to be halted while safety reviews take place.

Essentially the pair cite scientific concerns that LHC physicists, in smashing sub-atomic particles at energy levels never seen before, may create the environment for tiny black holes to occur, possibly swallowing up the Earth. They also say it is possible for a particle called a "strangelet" to be produced out of the experiment which would have the ability to convert our Earth to "strange matter."

However James Gillies, head of communications at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN), told the New York Times the LHC had been declared "safe".

"There is nothing new to suggest that the L.H.C. is unsafe," he said. "Scientifically, we're not hiding away," he noted adding that the LHC safety record had been tested and passed in two safety reports with a third on the way.

Mr Wagner though, has described the safety reviews as "fundamentally flawed."

Most physicists have said the chances of black holes appearing during the experiments were "minute" and if they did occur, should evaporate and disappear straight away. - - - -

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In Walker Percy's "Love in the Ruins," the protagonist, a doctor and an inventor, recites what he calls the scientist's prayer. It goes like this:

"Lord, grant that my work increase knowledge and help other men.

"Failing that, Lord, grant that it will not lead to man's destruction.

"Failing that, Lord, grant that my article in Brain be published before the destruction takes place."

Today we require more than prayers that a scientific experiment will not lead to the end of the world. We demand hard-headed calculations. But whom can we trust to do them?

That question has been raised by the impending startup of the Large Hadron Collider. It starts smashing protons together this summer at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or Cern, outside Geneva, in hopes of grabbing a piece of the primordial fire, forces and particles that may have existed a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang.

Critics have contended that the machine could produce a black hole that could eat the Earth or something equally catastrophic.

To most physicists, this fear is more science fiction than science fact. At a recent open house weekend, 73,000 visitors, without pitchforks or torches, toured the collider without incident.

Nevertheless, some experts say too much hype and not enough candor on the part of scientists about the promises and perils of what they do could boomerang into a public relations disaster for science, opening the door for charlatans and demagogues.

In a paper published in 2000 with the title "Might a Laboratory Experiment Destroy Planet Earth?" Francesco Calogero, a nuclear physicist at the University of Rome and co-winner of the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the Pugwash conferences on arms control, deplored a tendency among his colleagues to promulgate a "leave it to the experts" attitude.

"Many, indeed most, of them," he wrote, "seem to me to be more concerned with the public relations impact of what they, or others, say and write, than in making sure that the facts are presented with complete scientific objectivity."

One problem is that society has never agreed on a standard of what is safe in these surreal realms when the odds of disaster might be tiny but the stakes are cosmically high. In such situations, probability estimates are often no more than "informed betting odds," said Martin Rees, a Cambridge University cosmologist, the astronomer royal and the author of "Our Final Hour." Adrian Kent, also of Cambridge, said in a paper in 2003 reviewing scientists' failure to calculate adequately and characterize accurately risks to the public, that even the most basic question, " 'How improbable does a catastrophe have to be to justify proceeding with an experiment?' seems never to have been seriously examined."

Dr. Calogero commented, as did Dr. Kent, in 2000 after a very public battle on the safety of another accelerator, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, or Rhic, at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island. Dr. Calogero said he hoped to apply a gentle pressure on Cern to treat these issues with seriousness. "A crusade against it is a danger," he said of the new collider. "It would not be based on rational argument."

Fears about the Brookhaven collider first centered on black holes but soon shifted to the danger posed by weird hypothetical particles, strangelets, that critics said could transform the Earth almost instantly into a dead, dense lump. Ultimately, independent studies by two groups of physicists calculated that the chances of this catastrophe were negligible, based on astronomical evidence and assumptions about the physics of the strangelets. One report put the odds of a strangelet disaster at less than one in 50 million, less than a chance of winning some lottery jackpots. Dr. Kent, in a 2003 paper, used the standard insurance company method to calculate expected losses to explore how stringent this bound on danger was. He multiplied the disaster probability times the cost, in this case the loss of the global population, six billion. A result was that, in actuarial terms, the Rhic collider could kill up to 120 people in a decade of operation.

"Put this way, the bound seems far from adequately reassuring," Dr. Kent wrote.

Alvaro de Rujula of Cern, who was involved in writing a safety report, said extending the insurance formula that way violated common sense. "Applied to all imaginable catastrophes, it would result in World Paralysis," he wrote.

Besides, the random nature of quantum physics means that there is always a minuscule, but nonzero, chance of anything occurring, including that the new collider could spit out man-eating dragons.

Doomsday from particle physics is part of the culture. - - - -

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Scientists have made a breakthrough in man's desire to control the forces of nature

- unveiling plans to weaken hurricanes and steer them off course, to prevent tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina.

The damage done to New Orleans in 2005 has spurred two rival teams of climate experts, in America and Israel, to redouble their efforts to enable people to play God with the weather.

Under one scheme, aircraft would drop soot into the near-freezing cloud at the top of a hurricane, causing it to warm up and so reduce wind speeds. Computer simulations of the forces at work in the most violent storms have shown that even small changes can affect their paths - enabling them to be diverted from major cities.

But the hurricane modifiers are fighting more than the weather. Lawyers warn that diverting a hurricane from one city to save life and property could result in multi-billion dollar lawsuits from towns that bear the brunt instead. Hurricane Katrina caused about $41 billion in damage to New Orleans.

Hurricanes form when air warmed over the ocean rises to meet the cool upper atmosphere. The heat turns to kinetic energy, producing a spiral of wind and rain. The greater the temperature differences between top and bottom, and the narrower the eye of the hurricane, the faster it blows.

Moshe Alamaro, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), told The Sunday Telegraph of his plans to "paint" the tops of hurricanes black by scattering carbon particles - either soot or black particles from the manufacture of tyres - from aircraft flying above the storms. The particles would absorb heat from the sun, leading to changes in the airflows within the storm. Satellites could also heat the cloud tops by beaming microwaves from space.

"If they're done in the right place at the right time they can affect the strength of the hurricane," Mr Alamaro said.

The theory has so far been tested only in computer simulation by Mr Alamaro's colleague, Ross Hoffman. Mr Alamaro said: "With small changes to this side or that side of the hurricane we can nudge it and change its track. We're starting with computer simulations, then will hopefully experiment on a small weather system."

Last month scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem announced that they had simulated the effect of sowing clouds with microscopic dust to cool the hurricane's base, also weakening it. The dust would attract water but would form droplets too small to fall as rain. Instead, they would rise and evaporate, cooling hot air at the hurricane base.

In findings presented at a conference in Trieste, Italy, the team led by Daniel Rosenfeld demonstrated that dust dropped into the lower part of Hurricane Katrina would have reduced wind speeds and diverted its course.

The MIT team has now hired a professor of risk management to advise on steps necessary to protect themselves from legal action by communities affected if a hurricane is diverted. It is pressing for changes to US law and for an international treaty to settle possible disputes between neighbouring countries.

Mr Alamaro said: "The social and legal issues are daunting. If a hurricane were coming towards Miami with the potential to cause damage and kill people, and we diverted it, another town or village hit by it would sue us. They'll say the hurricane is no longer an act of God, but that we caused it."

Original Report Here

WORLDNETDAILY - February 8, 2008

INDEPENDENT NEWS & MEDIA SOUTH AFRICA [APN] - By Geoffrey Lean - March 30, 2008

Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, a study by an award-winning cancer expert has concluded. He says people should avoid using them wherever possible and that governments and the mobile phone industry must take "immediate steps" to reduce exposure to their radiation.

The study, by Dr Vini Khurana, is the most devastating indictment yet published of the health risks.

It draws on growing evidence - exclusively reported in the IoS in October - that using handsets for 10 years or more can double the risk of brain cancer. Cancers take at least a decade to develop, invalidating official safety assurances based on earlier studies which included few, if any, people who had used the phones for that long.

Earlier this year, the French government warned against the use of mobile phones, especially by children. Germany also advises its people to minimise handset use, and the European Environment Agency has called for exposures to be reduced.

Professor Khurana - a top neurosurgeon who has received 14 awards over the past 16 years, has published more than three dozen scientific papers - reviewed more than 100 studies on the effects of mobile phones. He has put the results on a brain surgery website, and a paper based on the research is currently being peer-reviewed for publication in a scientific journal.

He admits that mobiles can save lives in emergencies, but concludes that "there is a significant and increasing body of evidence for a link between mobile phone usage and certain brain tumours". He believes this will be "definitively proven" in the next decade. - - - -

THE INDEPENDENT [APN] - By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor - January 20, 2008

Radiation from mobile phones delays and reduces sleep, and causes headaches and confusion, according to a new study.

The research, sponsored by the mobile phone companies themselves, shows that using the handsets before bed causes people to take longer to reach the deeper stages of sleep and to spend less time in them, interfering with the body's ability to repair damage suffered during the day.

The findings are especially alarming for children and teenagers, most of whom - surveys suggest - use their phones late at night and who especially need sleep. Their failure to get enough can lead to mood and personality changes, ADHD-like symptoms, depression, lack of concentration and poor academic performance.

The study - carried out by scientists from the blue-chip Karolinska Institute and Uppsala University in Sweden and from Wayne State University in Michigan, USA - is thought to be the most comprehensive of its kind.

Published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Progress in Electromagnetics Research Symposium and funded by the Mobile Manufacturers Forum, representing the main handset companies, it has caused serious concern among top sleep experts, one of whom said that there was now "more than sufficient evidence" to show that the radiation "affects deep sleep".

The scientists studied 35 men and 36 women aged between 18 and 45. Some were exposed to radiation that exactly mimicked what is received when using mobile phones; others were placed in precisely the same conditions, but given only "sham" exposure, receiving no radiation at all.

The people who had received the radiation took longer to enter the first of the deeper stages of sleep, and spent less time in the deepest one. The scientists concluded: "The study indicates that during laboratory exposure to 884 MHz wireless signals components of sleep believed to be important for recovery from daily wear and tear are adversely affected."

The embarrassed Mobile Manufacturers Forum played down the results, insisting - at apparent variance with this published conclusion - that its "results were inconclusive" and that "the researchers did not claim that exposure caused sleep disturbance".

But Professor Bengt Arnetz, who led the study, says: "We did find an effect from mobile phones from exposure scenarios that were realistic. This suggests that they have measurable effects on the brain." - - - -

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PARIS - The French Health Ministry on Wednesday issued a warning against excessive mobile phone use, especially by children, though it recognized science had not proved cellular technology was dangerous.

The appearance on the market of mobile phones designed for children has raised concern since youngsters would be particularly vulnerable to any possible health effects, the Ministry of Health, Youth and Sports said in a statement.

"As the hypothesis of a risk cannot be entirely excluded, precaution is justified," the ministry said.

It recommended using mobile phones in moderation, especially among children, and gave advice on how users could reduce their exposure to any possible risk.

"One should use a mobile phone with good judgment, avoid calling when reception is poor, or during high-speed travel, and finally, keep the telephone away from sensitive areas of the body by using a hands-free kit," the ministry said.

- - -

A November 2006 report from the World Health Organization (WHO) said available evidence suggests long-term exposure to radio-frequency and microwave radiation from mobile phones had no adverse health effects.

However, the WHO said other studies pointed to an increased risk of tumors in people who have used an analogue mobile phone for more than 10 years.

A British study released in September 2007 said mobile phones did not pose short-term health risks, but scientists noted that studies to date included few participants who had used mobile phones for longer than ten years -- the time many cancers take to appear.

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PHILADELPHIA - A total of 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts have been detected in this city's drinking water, largely in tests conducted last year, according to the Philadelphia Water Department.

The list of drugs is the longest among 62 major water providers surveyed by the Associated Press. However, this city's water officials say they probably found more drugs simply because they did more testing. They say their water is safe to drink.

Researchers found trace concentrations of drugs including antibiotics, pain relievers, heart and psychiatric drugs, and veterinary medicines. Here's the list of drugs and some of their uses:

ANTIBIOTICS

Amoxicillin - for pneumonia, stomach ulcers

Azithromycin - for pneumonia, sexually transmitted diseases

Bacitracin - prevents infection in cuts and burns

Chloramphenicol - for serious infections when other antibiotics can't be used

Ciprofloxacin - for anthrax, other infections

Doxycycline - for pneumonia, Lyme disease, acne

Erythromycin - for pneumonia, whooping cough, Legionnaires' disease

Lincomycin - for strep, staph, other serious infections

Oxytetracycline - for respiratory, urinary infections

Penicillin G - for anthrax, other infections

Penicillin V - for pneumonia, scarlet fever, infections of ear, skin, throat

Roxithromycin - for respiratory, skin infections

Sulfadiazine - for urinary infections, burns

Sulfamethizole - for urinary infections

Sulfamethoxazole - for traveler's diarrhea, pneumonia, urinary and ear infections

Tetracycline - for pneumonia, acne, stomach ulcers, Lyme disease

Trimethoprim - for urinary and ear infections, traveler's diarrhea, pneumonia

PAIN RELIEVERS

Acetaminophen - soothes arthritis, aches, colds; reduces fever

Antipyrine - for ear infections

Aspirin - for minor aches, pain; lowers risk of heart attack and stroke

Diclofenac - for arthritis, menstrual cramps, other pain

Ibuprofen - for arthritis, aches, menstrual cramps; reduces fever

Naproxen - for arthritis, bursitis, tendinitis, aches; reduces fever

Prednisone - for arthritis, allergic reactions, multiple sclerosis, some cancers

HEART DRUGS

Atenolol - for high blood pressure

Bezafibrate - for cholesterol problems

Clofibric acid - byproduct of various cholesterol medications

Diltiazem - for high blood pressure, chest pain

Gemfibrozil - regulates cholesterol

Simvastatin - slows production of cholesterol

MIND DRUGS

Carbamazepine - for seizures, mood regulating

Diazepam - for anxiety, seizures; eases alcohol withdrawal

Fluoxetine - for depression; relieves premenstrual mood swings

Meprobamate - for anxiety

Phenytoin - controls epileptic seizures

Risperidone - for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe behavior problems

OTHER HUMAN DRUGS

Caffeine - found in coffee; also used in pain relievers

Cotinine - byproduct of nicotine; drug in tobacco, also used in products to help smokers quit

Iopromide - given as contrast agent for medical imaging

Nicotine - found in tobacco, also in medicinal products to help smokers quit

Paraxanthine - a byproduct of caffeine

Theophylline - for asthma, bronchitis and emphysema

VETERINARY

Carbadox - for control of dysentery, bacterial enteritis in pigs; promotes growth

Chlortetracycline - for eye, joint, other animal ailments

Enrofloxacin - for infections in farm animals and pets; treats wounds

Monensin - for weight gain, prevention of severe diarrhea in farm animals

Narasin - for severe diarrhea in farm animals

Oleandomycin - for respiratory disease; promotes growth in farm animals

Salinomycin - promotes growth in livestock

Sulfachloropyridazine - for enteritis in farm animals

Sulfadimethoxine - for severe diarrhea, fowl cholera, other conditions in farm animals

Sulfamerazine - for a range of infections in cats, fowl

Sulfamethazine - for bacterial diseases in farm animals; promotes growth

Sulfathiazole - for diseases in aquarium fish

Tylosin - promotes growth, treats infections in farm animals, including bees

Virginiamycin M1 - prevents infection, promotes growth in farm animals

Original Report Here

Scientists in Germany have engineered a living worm so that its nerves and muscles can be controlled by light, according to NewScientist.com.

Seen in the labratory, the tiny worm dances to flashes of light: a flash of yellow, it darts forward. A flash of blue, it moves back. With continual flashes, the creature responds appropriately each time.

How does it work? The flashes of blue force the worm's neurons to fire electric pulses, causing muscles to clench. Yellow flashes and the nerves stop firing.

The worm appears to be the furthest scientists have gone yet in the application of technology that allows them to turn brain cells on and off whenever they please.

Hopes are that the technology, somehow working with light inside the brain, could create a new way to treat conditions such as depression or Parkinson's disease.

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PORTLAND INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTER - Author: Inst. Of Science In Society - This article can be found on the I-SIS website at http://www.i- sis.org.uk/BW.php ISIS Press Release 24/01/06

The ultimate weapon

Electromagnetic weapons operate at the speed of light; they can kill, torture and enslave; but the public are largely unaware that they exist, because these weapons operate by stealth and leave no physical evidence. Electromagnetic weapons have been tested on human beings since 1976. By widely dispersing the involuntary human test-subjects, and vehemently attacking their credibility, it has been possible for the United States to proceed with these human experiments unhindered by discussions or criticisms, let alone opposition.

This ultimate weapon system is currently being deployed in Iraq. The US Air Force and the Marine Corps refer to it as "active denial technology", as if it were used purely for defense, but it is not (see Box 1).

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Box 1

The truth about "active denial technology"

There is only one electromagnetic spectrum. Nuclear weapons release a great deal of ionizing radiation in the high frequency range above visible light, where the energy of the radiation is capable of breaking chemical bonds. Ionizing radiation is generally acknowledged to cause cancer.

The US military has weaponized the non-ionizing radiation below the visible range, the microwaves and radio waves that are used in mobile phones and telecommunications. The US government has strenuously denied that there could be health hazards from non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation, both as a defence of the involuntary human research it has been conducting for many years but has not yet acknowledged, and to dissuade other countries from developing similar weapons.

The only biological effect of non- ionizing radiation that the US government has acknowledged for many years is heating, and accordingly, it characterizes "active denial technology" as that which produces pain from sudden heating of the skin; but this is not how it really works.

Reading brain waves and mind control

--------------------------------------

In 1959, Saul B. Sells, a professor of social psychology at a minor US university submitted a proposal to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to build for them the most sophisticated electroencephalography machine that would have an integral computational capacity to analyze and, hopefully, make sense of the brain waves it recorded. In other words, the professor proposed to make a machine that could tell the CIA what a person was thinking, whether or not the person wished to disclose that information. - - -

On 1 March 2001, the Marine Corps announced a new non-lethal weapon, "active denial technology". It produces enormous pain by allegedly boiling the molecules of water in the human skin without damaging the skin itself. As described in an article published in New Scientist, it employs pulsed electromagnetic radiation at a frequency of 95 GHz with a range of about 600 meters [10]. There have been several new reports in the magazine in 2005, including one published in July [11], describing volunteers taking part in tests to determine how safe the Active Denial System (ADS) weapon would be if used in real crowd-control. The ADS weapon's beam was reported to cause pain within 2 to 3 seconds, and becomes "intolerable after less than 5 seconds".

Active denial technology is the cornerstone of the system employed to torture 2 000 persons in the privacy of their own homes, not only in the United States but around the world, wherever countries have signed Status of Forces Agreements with the United States [12]. Allegations of torture were first received from countries with which the United States has a special intelligence- sharing relationship i.e. the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Then reports began to arrive from the conquered countries where the United States still has large numbers of troops stationed, i.e. Germany and Japan. When France rejoined the military arm of NATO in the late 90s, we began to receive allegations of torture in France. Very recently we have begun to receive allegations of torture from India, where American companies have begun to outsource, not only help lines, but also programming [13].

And then there is the case of Russia, where the involuntary, human subjects of torture experiments appear to be both numerous and well organized. I have been told reliably that every Russian scientist who could speak English has now found a home in an American university or government laboratory. This is plausible, considering the frequently voiced American worry that Soviet era experts in nuclear weaponry and biological warfare might find employment in Iran. It is a fact that at the end of World War II the US Army swept through Germany in an operation called Project Paperclip, recruiting, in particular, Nazi rocket scientists and experts in aerospace medicine. Some other scientists were recruited simply to deprive the Soviet Union of this resource. So what has become of the Soviet scientists who didn't speak English? In time we will find out for certain, but for now it is a safe guess that at least some of them have been employed to study the Russian value system and decision making processes by torturing other Russians with American "influence technology" [14].

Two interesting and important articles on bioelectromagnetic weapons have recently appeared in the New Scientist: "Maximum pain is aim of new U.S. weapon" and "Police toy with 'less lethal' weapons", both written by David Hambling [15]. See also US. Patent 6 536 440 of March 25, 2003 [16].

Since completing this article in mid-June 2005, it has come to my attention that the Israelis are deploying a device called "The Scream", which sends out bursts of audible, but not loud sound at intervals of about 10 seconds. A photographer at the scene of a demonstration said that he continued to hear the sound ringing in his head even after he covered his ears. This suggests to me that the active agent is electromagnetic rather than acoustic. In other words, the Israelis have come up with a device that is far cleverer than our "active denial technology". It not only deters rioters, but also issues an audible warning that it has been turned on, which the US device does not, leaving it entirely to the enlisted men operating it to determine how much burning pain their adversaries receive. The margin for error with the US device is unconscionable. It may as well be called a lethal weapon because in practice it very frequently will be [17].

This article can be found on the I-SIS website at http://www.i- sis.org.uk/BW.php

If you like this original article from the Institute of Science in Society, and would like to continue receiving articles of this calibre, please consider making a donation or purchase on our website. ISIS is an independent, not-for-profit organisation dedicated to providing critical public information on cutting edge science, and to promoting social accountability and ecological sustainability in science.

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WCBS-TV2 NEW YORK [CBS Corporation] - March 3, 2008

QUEENS: Teenagers who hang out inside one apartment building in Jamaica, Queens are getting an earful these days.

A new security device called "The Mosquito" has been installed in the lobby of a building on 170th St. where there have been chronic problems with noisy teens.

The wall-mounted device emits a high-frequency screech that can only be heard by people aged 13 to 25. Most older people cannot hear it.

"It sounds like when you put a microphone close to the TV," said Jerry Brown, one of the younger residents, who admits the noise bothers him "a little bit."

Another teen added, "it's annoying."

But one young adult said, "it doesn't bother me."

The building superintendent said the mosquito has kept the lobby free of loitering teenagers, so far.

Original Report Here

A MIRACLE material for the 21st century could protect your home against bomb blasts, mop up oil spillages and even help man to fly to Mars.

Aerogel, one of the world's lightest solids, can withstand a direct blast of 1kg of dynamite and protect against heat from a blowtorch at more than 1,300C.

Scientists are working to discover new applications for the substance, ranging from the next generation of tennis rackets to super-insulated space suits for a manned mission to Mars.

It is expected to rank alongside wonder products from previous generations such as Bakelite in the 1930s, carbon fibre in the 1980s and silicone in the 1990s. Mercouri Kanatzidis, a chemistry professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said: "It is an amazing material. It has the lowest density of any product known to man, yet at the same time it can do so much. I can see aerogel being used for everything from filtering polluted water to insulating against extreme temperatures and even for jewellery."

Aerogel is nicknamed "frozen smoke" and is made by extracting water from a silica gel, then replacing it with gas such as carbon dioxide. The result is a substance that is capable of insulating against extreme temperatures and of absorbing pollutants such as crude oil.

It was invented by an American chemist for a bet in 1931, but early versions were so brittle and costly that it was largely consigned to laboratories. It was not until a decade ago that Nasa started taking an interest in the substance and putting it to a more practical use.

In 1999 the space agency fitted its Stardust space probe with a mitt packed full of aerogel to catch the dust from a comet's tail. It returned with a rich collection of samples last year.

In 2002 Aspen Aerogel, a company created by Nasa, produced a stronger and more flexible version of the gel. It is now being used to develop an insulated lining in space suits for the first manned mission to Mars, scheduled for 2018.

Mark Krajewski, a senior scientist at the company, believes that an 18mm layer of aerogel will be sufficient to protect astronauts from temperatures as low as -130C. "It is the greatest insulator we've ever seen," he said.

Aerogel is also being tested for future bombproof housing and armour for military vehicles. In the laboratory, a metal plate coated in 6mm of aerogel was left almost unscathed by a direct dynamite blast.

It also has green credentials. Aerogel is described by scientists as the "ultimate sponge", with millions of tiny pores on its surface making it ideal for absorbing pollutants in water.

Kanatzidis has created a new version of aerogel designed to mop up lead and mercury from water. Other versions are designed to absorb oil spills.

He is optimistic that it could be used to deal with environmental catastrophes such as the Sea Empress spillage in 1996, when 72,000 tons of crude oil were released off the coast of Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire.

Aerogel is also being used for everyday applications. Dunlop, the sports equipment company, has developed a range of squash and tennis rackets strengthened with aerogel, which are said to deliver more power.

Earlier this year Bob Stoker, 66, from Nottingham, became the first Briton to have his property insulated with aerogel. "The heating has improved significantly. I turned the thermostat down five degrees. It's been a remarkable transformation," he said.

Mountain climbers are also converts. Last year Anne Parmenter, a British mountaineer, climbed Everest using boots that had aerogel insoles, as well as sleeping bags padded with the material. She said at the time: "The only problem I had was that my feet were too hot, which is a great problem to have as a mountaineer."

However, it has failed to convince the fashion world. Hugo Boss created a line of winter jackets out of the material but had to withdraw them after complaints that they were too hot.

Although aerogel is classed as a solid, 99% of the substance is made up of gas, which gives it a cloudy appearance.

Scientists say that because it has so many millions of pores and ridges, if one cubic centimetre of aerogel were unravelled it would fill an area the size of a football field.

Its nano-sized pores can not only collect pollutants like a sponge but they also act as air pockets.

Researchers believe that some versions of aerogel which are made from platinum can be used to speed up the production of hydrogen. As a result, aerogel can be used to make hydrogen-based fuels.

Original Report Here