ScienceDaily Technology Headlines
for Sunday, August 22, 2010
Welcome to another edition of ScienceDaily's email newsletter. You can change your subscription options or unsubscribe at any time.
Nanoscale DNA sequencing could spur revolution in personal health care (August 21, 2010) -- In experiments with potentially broad health care implications, researchers have devised a method that works at a very small scale to sequence DNA quickly and relatively inexpensively. That could open the door for more effective individualized medicine, for example providing blueprints of genetic predispositions for specific conditions and diseases such as cancer, diabetes or addiction. ... > full story
Hydrogen causes metal to break (August 21, 2010) -- Hydrogen is considered the fuel of the future. Yet this lightest of the chemical elements can embrittle the metals used in vehicle engineering. The result: components suddenly malfunction and break. A new special laboratory is aiding researchers' search for hydrogen-compatible metals. ... > full story
Nanoscale inhomogeneities in superconductors explained (August 20, 2010) -- Superconducting materials, which transmit power resistance-free, are found to perform optimally when high- and low-charge density varies on the nanoscale level, according to new research. ... > full story
Galactic 'super-volcano' in action (August 20, 2010) -- A galactic "super-volcano" in the massive galaxy M87 is erupting and blasting gas outwards. The cosmic volcano is being driven by a giant black hole in the galaxy's center and preventing hundreds of millions of new stars from forming. ... > full story
Widespread floating plastic debris found in the western North Atlantic Ocean (August 20, 2010) -- Despite growing awareness of the problem of plastic pollution in the world's oceans, little solid scientific information existed to illustrate the nature and scope of the issue. Now, a team of researchers has published a study of plastic marine debris based on data collected over 22 years by undergraduate students. ... > full story
Input-output trade-offs found in human information processing (August 20, 2010) -- A new study examines information processing and finds that human behavior is systematic, not random, demonstrating a trade-off between input and out. The study also points to limitations to information processing. These exchanges are pretty much equal and opposite, much like the laws of the conservation of momentum and energy, according to the study. ... > full story
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter reveals 'incredible shrinking moon' (August 20, 2010) -- Newly discovered cliffs in the lunar crust indicate the moon shrank globally in the geologically recent past and might still be shrinking today, according to a team analyzing new images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. The results provide important clues to the moon's recent geologic and tectonic evolution. ... > full story
Scientist IDs genes that promise to make biofuel production more efficient, economical (August 20, 2010) -- Metabolic engineers have taken the first step toward the more efficient and economical production of biofuels by developing a strain of yeast with increased alcohol tolerance. Overexpression of a particular gene increased ethanol volume by more than 70 percent and ethanol tolerance by more than 340 percent compared to the control strain. ... > full story
Astronomers use galactic magnifying lens to probe elusive dark energy (August 19, 2010) -- An international team of astronomers using gravitational lensing observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken an important step forward in the quest to solve the riddle of dark energy, a phenomenon which mysteriously appears to power the universe's accelerating expansion. ... > full story
How much mass makes a black hole? Astronomers challenge current theories (August 19, 2010) -- Astronomers have for the first time demonstrated that a magnetar -- an unusual type of neutron star -- was formed from a star with at least 40 times as much mass as the Sun. The result presents great challenges to current theories of how stars evolve, as a star as massive as this was expected to become a black hole, not a magnetar. This now raises a fundamental question: just how massive does a star really have to be to become a black hole? ... > full story
Brightness on fluorescent probes used to monitor biological activities of individual proteins increased (August 19, 2010) -- Researchers are turning up the brightness on a group of fluorescent probes that are used to monitor biological activities of individual proteins in real-time. This latest advance enhances their fluormodule technology causing it to glow an order of magnitude brighter than typical fluorescent proteins and five- to seven-times brighter than enhanced green fluorescent protein. ... > full story
Internet access at home increases the likelihood that adults will be in relationships, study finds (August 19, 2010) -- Adults who have Internet access at home are much more likely to be in romantic relationships than adults without Internet access, according to new research. ... > full story
Copyright 1995-2010 © ScienceDaily LLC. All rights reserved. Terms of use.
|
 To update/change your profile click here  |
