Sharks just like sea-rial killers

GREAT white sharks have killer instincts to hunt down their prey just like Jack the Ripper, scientists have found. Researchers used methods copied from criminology to show that great whites pick their targets in a highly focused fashion. Prolific killers such as the infamous 19th century beast who stalked London's East End and Peter Sutcliffe, the "Yorkshire Ripper", behave in much the same way.

The scientists adapted geographic profiling, a mathematical technique used to track down serial criminals, to investigate the hunting habits of great whites. They observed the location of 340 shark attacks and used the data to locate the sharks' "anchor points".

In criminal investigations, a series of linked crimes - usually murder, rape or arson - is used to determine the rough location of the perpetrator's "anchor point". Most often this is a home or place of work. Serial killers or rapists tend to operate within a confined area around the anchor point, so knowing its location allows police to avoid being swamped with suspects and prioritise those who live or work in certain areas.

The shark scientists linked the "crimes" of great whites off the South African coast - attacks on seals - and found that the sharks had a well defined search base. Their "anchor point" tended to be 100 metres seaward of where the seals accessed and left the island where they lived.

Smaller, younger, sharks exhibited more dispersed search patterns and were less successful hunters.

The research, led by Dr Neil Hammerschlag, from the University of Miami in the US, is reported in the Journal of Zoology, published by the Zoological Society of London.

Dr Steven Le Comber, an expert on geographic profiling at the School of

Biological and Chemical Sciences at Queen Mary, University of London, said: "Geographic profiling is an interesting new way to study patterns of animal foraging, and especially predation.

"Shark hunting patterns are extremely difficult to study and the work here will have important implications for our understanding of the ways in which predators hunt their prey."

Geographic profiling was developed by former Canadian "beat" policeman Kim Rossmo, now Professor of Criminal Justice at Texas State University.

It is extremely useful for whittling down lists of suspects and now routinely used by law enforcement agencies around the world.

In the Yorkshire Ripper case in the 1970s and 1980s police amassed a total of 268,000 potential suspect names and 4.5million vehicle registration numbers.

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Coming soon: Cars which would allow drivers 'to eat and sleep'

Imagine cars that would allow you to eat, read, watch television and even sleep behind the wheel while travelling at a speed of 70 mph on the highway.

Your imagination could someday turn into a reality, thanks to scientists who claim to have developed lasers-guided vehicles, using a system which will lock cars using sensors as well as wireless technology, allowing up to ten at a time to cruise in "car train" convoys.

And, according to the scientists at Volvo, the sensors will synchronise each car to follow in the wake of the vehicle which is directly ahead, with a laser calculating the speed relative to other cars at a rate of 50 times a second.

Interestingly, the only steering and braking would be done by a professional driver at the front of the convoy.

"It would be the same as sitting on a bus or a train, with the big difference that when you come to your exit you take over and you go directly to your destination without having to switch vehicles.

"The professional driver leading the convoy will be responsible for the safety of those behind him. But, those joining the convoy will be taking only the same sort of risks that those jumping on a bus or tube are taking," Jonas Ekmark, a safety researcher at Volvo cars, told the Daily Mail.

Volvo expects the cars to drive just three feet apart in order to stay in contact. The drivers would then join the convoy at the back and allow the system to lock them in to the steering and braking patterns of the vehicles ahead.

At the point where the driver has booked to leave the convoy, their car would be guided by the new technology on to their chosen slip road, the scientists said.

The system would even allow the car train to overtake slow-moving vehicles, according to them. Volvo and six other companies — including British technology firm Ricardo UK — are working on the project.

They hope to start testing the system at Volvo's practice roads outside Gothenburg, in Sweden, in late 2010 and expect to launch a prototype in 2011. The technology could then be rolled out across Europe by 2018.

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