The Science Blog reports that researchers at Penn State in the USA are developing self-cleaning titania nanotube hydrogen sensors. The hydrogen sensors are titania nanotubes coated with a discontinuous layer of palladium. Hydrogen sensors are widely used in the chemical, petroleum and semiconductor industries. They are also used as diagnostic tools to monitor certain types of bacterial infections.

"The photocatalytic properties of titania nanotubes are so large - a factor of 100 times greater than any other form of titania - that sensor contaminants are efficiently removed with exposure to ultraviolet light, so that the sensors effectively recover or retain their original hydrogen sensitivity in real world application"

"By doping the titania nanotubes with trace amounts of different metals such as tin, gold, silver, copper, niobium and others, a wide variety of chemical sensors can be made. This doping does not alter the photocatalytic properties of the titania nanotubes" says Dr. Craig A. Grimes, associate professor of Electrical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering.1

• 1. A room-temperature titania-nanotube hydrogen sensor able to self-clean photoactively from environmental contamination,
  Mor, Gopal K., Carvalho Maria A., Varghese Ooman K., Pishko Michael V., and Grimes Craig A.
  , Journal of Materials Research, 02/2004, Volume 19, Issue 2, p.628?634, (2004)
  

The Daily Telegraph web site is carrying a story indicating a possible treatment for Alzheimer's.

Quote:"A drug that is used in the treatment of athlete's foot could be used to treat Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study by British doctors.

The study, by a team from University College, London, found that clioquinol, a drug that is also used to treat ear infections and indigestion, can almost halt the progression of Alzheimer's.

It discovered that clioquinol, which was developed 100 years ago, is able to absorb the zinc and copper atoms that concentrate in the brains of Alzheimer's sufferers before dementia sets in.
....
Prana Technology, an Australian drug firm, provided clioquinol for the first small trial. "