Powerful Ideas: Military Develops 'Cybug' Spies

Miniature robots could be good spies, but researchers now are experimenting with insect cyborgs or "cybugs" that could work even better.

Scientists can already control the flight of real moths using implanted devices.

The military and spy world no doubt would love tiny, live camera-wielding versions of Predator drones that could fly undetected into places where no human could ever go to snoop on the enemy. Developing such robots has proven a challenge so far, with one major hurdle being inventing an energy source for the droids that is both low weight and high power. Still, evidence that such machines are possible is ample in nature in the form of insects, which convert biological energy into flight.

It makes sense to pattern robots after insects — after all, they must be doing something right, seeing as they are the most successful animals on the planet, comprising roughly 75 percent of all animal species known to humanity. Indeed, scientists have patterned robots after insects and other animals for decades — to mimic cockroach wall-crawling, for instance, or the grasshopper's leap.

Mechanical metamorphosis

Instead of attempting to create sophisticated robots that imitate the complexity in the insect form that required millions of years of evolution to achieve, scientists now essentially want to hijack bugs for use as robots.

Originally researchers sought to control insects by gluing machinery onto their backs, but such links were not always reliable. To overcome this hurdle, the Hybrid Insect Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (HI-MEMS) program is sponsoring research into surgically implanting microchips straight into insects as they grow, intertwining their nerves and muscles with circuitry that can then steer the critters. As expensive as these devices might be to manufacture and embed in the bugs, they could still prove cheaper than building miniature robots from scratch.

As these cyborgs heal from their surgery while they naturally metamorphose from one developmental stage to the next — for instance, from caterpillar to butterfly — the result would yield a more reliable connection between the devices and the insects, the thinking goes. The fact that insects are immobile during some of these stages — for instance, when they are metamorphosing in cocoons — means they can be manipulated far more easily than if they were actively wriggling, meaning that devices could be implanted with assembly-line routine, significantly lowering costs.

The HI-MEMS program at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has to date invested $12 million into research since it began in 2006. It currently supports these cybug projects:
Roaches at Texas A&M.

Horned beetles at University of Michigan and the University of California at Berkeley.

Moths at an MIT-led team, and another moth project at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research.

Success with moths

So far researchers have successfully embedded MEMS into developing insects, and living adult insects have emerged with the embedded systems intact, a DARPA spokesperson told LiveScience. Researchers have also demonstrated that such devices can indeed control the flight of moths, albeit when they are tethered.

To power the devices, instead of relying on batteries, the hope is to convert the heat and mechanical energy the insect generates as it moves into electricity. The insects themselves could be optimized to generate electricity.

When the researchers can properly control the insects using the embedded devices, the cybugs might then enter the field, equipped with cameras, microphones and other sensors to help them spy on targets or sniff out explosives. Although insects do not always live very long in the wild, the cyborgs' lives could be prolonged by attaching devices that feed them.

The scientists are now working toward controlled, untethered flight, with the final goal being delivering the insect within 15 feet (5 m) of a specific target located 300 feet (100 meters) away, using electronic remote control by radio or GPS or both, standing still on arrival. Although flying insects such as moths and dragonflies are of great interest, hopping and swimming insects could also be useful, too, DARPA noted. It's conceivable that eventually a swarm of cybugs could converge on targets by land, sea and air.

Greening the Internet: How much CO2 does this article produce?

Twenty milligrams; that's the average amount of carbon emissions generated from the time it took you to read the first two words of this article.

Now, depending on how quickly you read, around 80, perhaps even 100 milligrams of C02 have been released. And in the several minutes it will take you to get to the end of this story, the number of milligrams of greenhouse gas emitted could be several thousand, if not more.

This may not seem like a lot: "But in aggregate, if you consider all the people visiting a web site and then all the seconds that each of them spends on it, it turns out to be a large number," says Dr. Alexander Wissner-Gross, an Environmental Fellow at Harvard University who studies the environmental impact of computing.

Wissner-Gross estimates every second someone spends browsing a simple web site generates roughly 20 milligrams of C02. Whether downloading a song, sending an email or streaming a video, almost every single activity that takes place in the virtual environment has an impact on the real one.

As millions more go online each year some researchers say the need to create a green Internet ecosystem is not only imperative but also urgent.

"It is part of the whole sustainability picture," Chris Large, head of research and development at UK-based Climate Action Group, told.

"Scientists are saying to us that we have 10 years to take some serious action to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change so taking some sort of initiative is absolutely vital."

A number of studies have highlighted the growing energy demands of computers. A 2007 report from research firm Gartner, for example, estimates the manufacturing, use and disposal of information and communications technology generates about two percent of the world's greenhouse gases -- similar to the level produced by the entire aviation industry.

Anti-virus software firm McAfee reports that the electricity needed just to transmit the trillions of spam emails sent annually equals the amount required to power over two million homes in the United States while producing the same level of greenhouse gas emissions as more than three million cars.

"Most people don't appreciate that the computer on your desk is contributing to global warming and that if its electricity comes from a coal power plant it produces as much C02 as a sports utility vehicle," said Bill St. Arnaud of Canarie, a Canada-based internet development organization.

"Some studies estimate the internet will be producing 20 percent of the world's greenhouse gases in a decade. That is clearly the wrong direction. That is clearly unsustainable," added St. Arnaud.

What do you include when working out IT's carbon footprint?

Calculating the carbon footprint of the entire web however is not as easy as measuring the greenhouse gas emissions of a car.

Data centers -- massive buildings housing hundreds, if not thousands, of power hungry servers storing everything from Facebook photos and YouTube videos to company web sites and personal emails -- are often labeled as the worst offenders when it comes to harming the environment.

In 2002, global data center emissions amounted to 76 million tons of carbon dioxide -- a figure that is likely to more than triple over the next decade, according to a 2008 study by the Climate Group and Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI).

The footprint of network infrastructure, which is responsible for transporting information from data centers to personal computers, mobile phones and other devices, is harder to pinpoint.

However the same study estimates fixed broadband accounts for around four million tons of carbon emissions and could account for nearly 50 million tons of emissions by 2020.

The manufacturing, transport and use of personal computers and laptops also has what some say is the most significant impact, producing roughly 200 million tons of emissions in 2002.

As millions of people buy new laptops and computers every year, this figure could triple by the end of the next decade, according to the Climate Group report. And it is also true that, like driving a car compared to taking public transportation, some online activities produce more greenhouse gases than others.

More electricity is needed to store, transmit and download a video compared to a simple email, for example. A single search using Google releases 0.2 grams of C02 into the atmosphere, according to Google.

"And what that includes is the energy that we at Google use to be able to receive your search, process it and then send it back to you," Erik Teetzel, one of Google's "green" engineers, told.

"If people are counting things outside the activity that we do, then we don't have control over that so we don't factor that into the equation," said Teetzel.

"We can measure exactly the number of queries that we service and come up with a very accurate estimate and answer from measured results of our actual emissions or energy use per query that we serve."

The drive for energy efficiency

Citing competitive reasons, Teetzel declined to divulge Google's annual power bill, yet he said the internet company has been taking steps to make its main six, five megawatt server farms green as well as the other, smaller data centers it has around the world. It is doing this by using more renewable energy, recycled water and efficient software that requires less electricity to run.

"From a business perspective, it makes sense to get the most what you want to call useful work done using the least amount of resources," said Teetzel.

"Our energy efficiency efforts really did stem from us making our business more competitive."

A number of other companies are also working to take the various pieces that comprise the infrastructure of the internet in a more sustainable direction. Wissner-Gross of Harvard has a company called C02Stats that enables businesses to monitor and manage the environmental impact of their web sites and then purchase renewable energy certificates based on their sites' monthly carbon footprint.

Netherlands-based Cleanbits lobbies web sites to go green by either by purchasing carbon offsets or switching to green hosting providers, like AISO.net, a solar-powered data center based in California. And, like Google, Yahoo also incorporates renewable power and other efficiency measures in its data centers.

However as more of the world joins an age characterized by global flows of information and communication, some say the role the internet plays in making the lives of millions not only more efficient but also environmentally friendly should not be discounted.

"I don't think we've done a good deal with articulating the fact that IT is inherently an efficiency tool," said Teetzel. "That is why you and I use the internet now to find out a lot of information that would have previously been found by us getting in a car and driving somewhere."

"It is a little bit unfair to say that you have this huge carbon cost of the IT industry without articulating the fact that in many, many cases it offsets what I would call heavier, more carbon intense activities that we do in our daily lives," he added.

"Moving electrons is far more efficient than moving atoms. It is actually a paradigm change."

Teen with two hearts makes amazing recovery

Girl's heart heals itself 10 years after transplant

Hannah Clark is a 16-year-old with a shy laugh and a love of animals. She likes to go shopping with friends and dreams of a career working with children.

But Hannah Clark is no ordinary teenager and her normal life today could not have been possible without a unique, life-changing heart surgery.

In 1994 when she was eight-months-old, Hannah was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy -- an inflammation of the heart muscle that impairs the heart's ability to work properly.

Hannah's heart was failing and she needed a transplant. But instead of taking her own heart out, doctors added a new donated heart to her own when she was just two-years-old.

The so-called "piggyback" operation allowed the donor heart to do the work while Hannah's heart rested.

But Hannah was not in the clear yet. As with any organ transplant, Hannah's body was likely to reject her new heart and she had to take powerful immune suppression drugs.

Those drugs allowed her body to accept the donor heart but also led to lung cancer and yet another medical battle for Hannah that lasted for years.

Nearly 11 years after receiving the extra heart, there was more bad news: The immuno-suppression drugs were no longer working. Hannah's body was rejecting the donor heart.

In February 2006, her doctors tried something that had never been done before: They took out the donor heart. Doctors theorized that the donor heart had allowed Hannah's heart to rest, recover and grow back stronger.

Now for the first time Hannah's father, Paul Clark, describes the agonizing decision the family had to make at the time: "If she'd never had it done, she wouldn't be here.

"In the very beginning it was a 50/50 chance she wasn't going to make the operation. But in the next one it was even greater because it had never been done before. But we had to take that risk," he told.

The doctors were right. Three years later, Hannah has no need for any drugs and has been given a clean bill of health. The operation was a success.

"It means everything to me," Hannah told after the pioneering operation. "I thought I'd still have problems when I had this operation done. I thought after the heart had been removed I thought I'd have to visit hospitals. But now I'm just free," she said, smiling.

Dr. Magdi Yacoub performed Hannah's original transplant and came out of retirement to perform the second.

"The possibility of recovery of the heart is just like magic." Dr. Yacoub said at a media conference. "[We had] a heart which was not contracting at all at the time. We put the new heart to be pumping next to it and take its work, now [it] is functioning normally."

The findings have been published in the British medical journal, the Lancet.

Hannah's amazing recovery would not have been possible without a donor. Both Hannah's doctors and her family made an appeal for more people to consider organ donation.

"When it happens to someone close to you or yourself, you don't realize until then how important it is to be a donor and not to be selfish like, I need that part. You don't need that part. Give it to somebody else that needs it," said Clark.

"It just proves that if you can, be a donor. This can happen."

Dr. Yacoub now advocates "presumed consent" -- a policy by which anyone can be considered an organ donor unless they specifically request to opt out.

"All you are asking is please make up your own mind. Do you or do you not want to be a donor? My own family, my kids, everybody wants to be a donor. But if you don't, then say so," he said.

"Just please tell us what you want to do. So, presumed consent is a good thing."

Hannah has made a full recovery and looks forward to doing what many teenagers do during the summer holidays: Work at a summer job. Her family jokes that it's difficult to keep her from racing out the door now that she has so much energy.

For Hannah, it took the strength of two to help heal a broken heart, something she could have never done alone.

Jet makes landing with football-sized hole

A Southwest Airlines jet made an emergency landing in Charleston, West Virginia, on Monday after a football-sized hole in its fuselage caused the cabin to depressurize, an airline spokeswoman said.

There were no injuries aboard the Boeing 737, which was traveling at about 34,000 feet when the problem occurred, Southwest spokeswoman Marilee McInnis told.

The sudden drop in cabin pressure caused the jet's oxygen masks to deploy.

Southwest Flight 2294 was en route from Nashville, Tennessee, to Baltimore, Maryland, with 126 passengers and a crew of five aboard, McInnis said.

It landed at 5:10 p.m. after the crew reported a football-sized hole in the middle of the cabin near the top of the aircraft, McInnis said.

What caused the damage to the jet had not been determined, she said. Both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident, FAA spokeswoman Holly Baker said.

"There is no responsible way to speculate as to a cause at this point," Southwest said in a statement Monday night.

"We have safety procedures in place, and they were followed in this instance to get all passengers and crew safely on the ground," the airline said. "Reports we have are that our passengers were calm and that our pilots and flight attendants did a great job getting the aircraft on the ground safely."

Southwest dispatched a replacement aircraft to take passengers on to Baltimore. Charleston airport spokesman Brian Belcher said a local pizzeria provided food for the passengers as they waited.

The damaged jet will remain on the ground there until federal inspectors can examine it, he said.

In addition, all 181 of Southwest's 737-300s -- about a third of the airline's fleet -- will be inspected overnight after the emergency landing, McInnis said. Southwest does not expect the inspections to create delays, she said.

Scooter may be world's smallest dog

Scooter "stopped growing at six months" - Can fit into owner's cups - Eats out of an egg cup

SOMEWHERE inside this tiny ball of white fluff is a dog.Perhaps the world’s smallest.

His name is Scooter and his New Zealand owner Cheryl McKnight is sure he’s stopped growing at the princely height of 8cm.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, that’s a full 2cm smaller than the current record-holder, Boo Boo – a long-haired Chihuahua from America.

Ms McKnight drinks from cups of tea that are bigger than her Maltese pup, and has had to make a jumper for Scooter out of a purple sock just so she doesn’t accidentally step on him.

"It really is quite something. I can't take him for a walk or put a leash on him,'' Ms McKnight told NZPA.

She said six-month-old Scooter appeared to have stopped growing at roughly the size of a stick of butter.

Originally named Pee Wee, but later renamed due to fears of an inferiority complex, Scooter eats out of an egg cup three times a day and sleeps in a shoebox.

And to think Ms McKnight nearly gave him away.

"For the first 10 weeks or so I didn't really want him,” she told NZPA.

“I thought nah, someone else can have him. But over time I've fallen in love with him.''

NASA hacker launches last-ditch plea

Admits to hacking into 97 computers - "Looking for evidence of UFOs, aliens" A MAN who hacked into NASA computers will launch a last-ditch effort in Britain's High Court to avoid extradition to face charges in the US.

Gary McKinnon, who suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, has admitted to hacking into 97 US computers from his London home in 2001 and 2002 following the September 11 terror attacks.

The 43-year-old claims he was looking for evidence of UFOs and aliens on the high-security computer systems belonging to the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Department of Defence.

Former home secretary Jacqui Smith granted requests for Mr McKinnon's extradition in October 2008, with the Crown Prosecution Service backing up her decision in February.

Two High Court judges will now begin a judicial review of the decisions after requests by Mr McKinnon's lawyers who hope he can instead face trial in Britain.

If the unemployed computer administrator is extradited, he faces up to 60 years in jail if found guilty.

However if he stands trial in Britain Mr McKinnon is likely to face a much less severe sentence.

His mother Janis Sharp said she feared for her son's mental health if he was extradited.

"It's very frightening because you can feel that the end is very close," she told the Daily Mail.

"I am very scared because when I walk into the court it's like waiting to hear the death sentence."

Mr McKinnon's lawyers claim prosecutors failed to take into account medical advice warning that their client could commit suicide if extradited.

They also argue it's inconsistent with previous cases involving Britons who hacked into US computers but were prosecuted on home soil.

The Crown Prosecution Service has stood by its decision to recommend extradition. Newly appointed Home Secretary Alan Johnson said it was up to prosecutors to decide whether to Mr McKinnon should stand trial in Britain or the US.

Mr McKinnon's attacks on the US Government computers allegedly caused mass chaos and caused an estimated $US900,000 ($A1.15 million) worth of damage.

US prosecutor Paul McNulty described it as "the biggest hack of military computers ever - at least ever detected".

Co2 Increasing, but Global Temperatures aren't - Steve Fielding wants to convince Al Gore he's wrong

THIS is the chart climate change sceptic Senator Steve Fielding hopes will convince Al Gore that global warming is not real.





Senator Fielding is trying to score a one-on-one meeting with Mr Gore, who is in Australia promoting several environmental causes, to prove to him that climate change sceptics are right.

Senator Fielding has promised to clear his schedule for any chance to meet the former US vice-president and Nobel Prize-winning environmental campaigner. "The ball's in his court," a spokesman for the senator told news.com.au.

The spokesman has said Mr Gore is aware that Senator Fielding holds a crucial vote in Parliament and that any major green schemes - such as the Government's model to reduce carbon pollution in Australia - essentially rely on his support.
"(Mr Gore) said 'look, the schedule's tight but hopefully we can work something out'," when Senator Fielding approached yesterday for a meeting on the issue, the spokesman said.

"We're clearing our schedule to see him. If he calls at three in the morning, we'd go," he said.

It is believed Mr Gore will only be in the country for another day or so.

Senator Fielding wants to present a graph to Mr Gore which argues global temperatures have stabilised during the past 15 years, even as carbon emissions have risen.

The graph was used by the UN in its reports on the effects of climate change. UN scientists say the world has warmed in the past 150 years, but temperatures have plateaued at warmer-than-normal levels in the past decade after a particularly hot year in 1998.

It is the same graph Senator Fielding showed Climate Change Minister Penny Wong when the pair met to negotiate on the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, which will set a price on carbon emissions.

"The Government needs to explain to the Australian people why global temperatures have remained steady over the last 10-15 years despite skyrocketing man made carbon emissions," Senator Fielding said on his website.

Senator Wong and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd have set a targets of cutting emissions by five to 25 per cent by 2020. Mr Gore said that was not enough.

Burger King Apologises

China quake hits thousands of homes

Chinese television showed scenes of emergency teams setting up shelters at the site A magnitude 6 earthquake has hit southwest China, injuring more than 300 people and destroying 10,000 homes, state media says. Thursday evening's quake, centred in Yunnan province's Yao'an county, damaged another 30,000 homes, the official Xinhua news agency said. Thirty people suffered severe injuries while another 305 were slightly injured, it said, adding that eight aftershocks were recorded. Reporting from Urumqi, Al Jazeera's Melissa Chan said no confirmation of any deaths were coming through yet and officials would probably take some time to get information out of the relatively remote area. China CCTV footage showed residents staying outdoors for fear of aftershocks But she said national officials should be better prepared for disasters following a quake in Sichuan last year that left almost 90,000 people dead or missing. The authorities said they were sending 4,500 tents, 3,000 quilts and other relief materials to Yao'an along with hundreds of policemen. Xinhua said medicine and food were also being distributed to people, many of whom had gathered outdoors for fear of more aftershocks. The US Geological Survey said the a 5.7 magnitude quake struck at 7:19pm (11:19 GMT) on Thursday at a depth of 10km and was centred 98km east-northeast of the city of Dali. Quake-prone area Yunnan is a quake-prone, mountainous region that lies on China's southern border with Thailand and Myanmar. It also borders Sichuan province, where a little more than a year ago a massive earthquake left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing. About 375,000 people were injured in the May 12 quake, which left five million homeless and up to 1.5 million people displaced. The deadliest quake to strike China in over 30 years flattened entire cities and towns, and destroyed hospitals, homes, buildings and factories in nearly 50,000 villages. Thousands of children were buried alive when some 7,000 schools collapsed in the quake. Southwest China sits on two tectonic plates - the Indian and Asian plates - whose constant collision created the Himalayan range and the Tibetan plateau.

Will falling sales see the death of the PC gamer?

True measure of PC gaming is the fanbase, Blizzard says. Australia video game sales grew 47.6 percent in 2008. PC game sales only increased 4.2 percent in 2008.

Read more NEWS.com.au technology news

At first glance, Blizzard Entertainment’s headquarters in Irvine, California looks like any other business campus. Neat paths and fresh cut lawns separate the unremarkable low-rise office buildings.

But that’s when you notice the 12 foot high bronze statue of an Orc riding a wolf and the beach volleyball court it becomes clear - this is the house that Warcraft built.

Video game development studio Blizzard is one of the most successful around, with a string of iconic franchises under its belt.

Its fanbase is rabid and its coffers are full – thanks in large part to the phenomenal success ofWorld of Warcraft, an online role-playing game with 11.5 million subscribers worldwide.

So why is the supposedly impending death of PC gaming regular news? Is Blizzard’s success an aberration on a doomed gaming device?

Staunch PC supporters needn’t get out the black armbands just yet. The PC platform will survive, but it will certainly look a little different.

While computer and video games in Australia grew 43.9 and 47.6 percent in 2007 and 2008 respectively, PC game sales grew only 6.4 and 4.2 percent respectively.

As a result, shelf space for the platform continues to shrink leading to lower sales.

But president and co-founder of Blizzard Mike Morhaime said that while the outlook may look bleak, the time spent playing PC games is a measure of the true size of the genre.

“If you look at how much time people are spending entertaining themselves on the PC, I think that by any measure, other than PC retail sales, it’s got to be through the roof,” Mr Morhaime said.

“Even if you just look at micro-transactions, subscriptions and everything like that on the PC, I think from a revenue standpoint it’s growing.”

Current retail figures do not include ‘digital sales’ – games purchased or downloaded online, games with monthly subscription fees and micro-transactions within games.

Digital sales represent an increasing percentage of PC game revenue. When a PC game hits the shelves, you’ll be able to pick it up at the same time online, via services like Steam and Direct2Drive.

According to the Interactive Australia 2009 report, 19% of Australian gamers download games from online vendors.

CEO of the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia (IEAA) Ron Curry said that while retail sales have slowed, the genre has seen a shift in demographic.

“Traditionally PC gaming has been a male dominated platform,” Mr Curry said.

“We see more mums playing games on a PC. This female audience are more likely to play social games on the PC which then serves as an introduction to more traditional PC gaming.”

Director of Asia-Pacific business for PopCap, Giordano Contestabile, said that new PC games are made for players and non-players alike.

“With every new gaming platform or ‘way to play’ that comes on the market, PC gaming gets issued a death warrant,” Mr Contestabile said.

“Everyone – from mothers to hardcore gamers - is a potential player of casual games.”

“PC games have been a stronghold of PopCap’s offering since Day 1 and in fact, far from dying, our North American PC sales grew by 85% in 2008 - so the ‘end’ is a long way off.”

PopCap is the studio behind casual games such as Bejeweled and Peggle.

PC gaming, then, isn’t dying, it’s changing.

The resurgence of the platform will rely on developers and publishers making the most of the modern PC landscape.

“With the PC we can store huge amounts of data, we can provide large updates on the fly; all these things add a huge amount of flexibility,” Mr Morhaime said.

“You’ve got the keyboard and mouse, which is a much more powerful interface for certain types of games.”

“It’s a big advantage for a game like World of Warcraft, which would be technologically challenging to implement on any of the other platforms.”

True measure of PC gaming is the fanbase, Blizzard says. Australia video game sales grew 47.6 percent in 2008. PC game sales only increased 4.2 percent in 2008.

Teacher 'tried to kill' student, 14, in class

Student attacked in class, badly hurt. Teacher arrested for 'attempted murder'. 'Traumatised' classmates witnessed attack

A 14-YEAR-OLD student is in hospital with serious head injuries after a teacher allegedly attacked him in the middle of a lesson as shocked classmates looked on.

Jack Waterhouse, 14, was taken to hospital after the incident in a classroom at All Saints' Roman Catholic School in Mansfield, England on Wednesday.

Science teacher Peter Harvey, 49, has been arrested on suspicion of attempting to murder the boy and assaulting two other children, police have said.

The Sun reported the boy was found in a pool of blood.

Police said a weapon was used in the attack and the whole class had been "traumatised" by what they had seen. The Guardian website reported a weight from a set of scales was believed to have been used.

The Daily Mail reported Mr Harvey, a father of two, allegedly snapped after the boy swore at him.

Police said there were initial grave concerns about the boy's condition but he was now said to be stable, although still serious.

"I can say that, allegedly as part of the incident, a weapon was used against the child. We are investigating exactly what did happen," Detective Superintendent Adrian Pearson said.

"Obviously the whole class is traumatised by what has happened."

The other two children - a boy and a girl - who were allegedly assaulted did not need hospital treatment, he said.

"The school have been working very closely with us to cooperate and to gain the full assistance of the children who were witnesses to what took place," Det Supt Pearson said.

Local news site Mansfield Chad reported that the boy's family was at his bedside in hospital.

It quoted a parent as saying his son had been in the lesson. "You don't expect something like that to happen in a school," he said.

"My son phoned me to tell me what happened and said all the kids in the lesson were just in shock."

The school has offered counselling to students.

Other media reports said former pupils and parents had expressed surprise that the teacher, who taught science, was the one suspected of being involved.

"I didn't think the pupils would give him stick," ex-pupil Tom Blythe, 19, was quoted as saying. "He was actually a decent bloke and got involved in school plays."

On its website, the school said it had been a Performing Arts College since 2002 and had been described as "rapidly improving" in a 2009 Ofsted inspection.

"All Saints' School is a lively, Catholic comprehensive school with a very special, warm ethos which is recognised by all who visit," the headteacher said on the website.

Det Supt Pearson said the incident was out of character for the school. "It's a school where people send their children from a wide catchment area. There have been no similar incidents before," he said.