ScienceDaily Technology Headlines
for Wednesday, August 25, 2010
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'Spintronics' breakthrough holds promise for next-generation computers (August 24, 2010) -- Using powerful lasers, physicists have discovered a new way to recognize currents of spinning electrons within a semiconductor. Their findings could lead the way to development of superior computers and electronics. ... > full story
New cardiac imaging device pioneered (August 24, 2010) -- Researchers have for the first time developed a way to visualize coronary artery plaques vulnerable to rupture using multicolor computed tomography, an innovation that will lead to better and earlier diagnosis of cardiovascular disease. ... > full story
LEDs promise brighter future, not necessarily greener (August 24, 2010) -- Solid-state lighting pioneers long have held that replacing the inefficient Edison light bulb with more efficient solid-state light-emitting devices (LEDs) would lower electrical usage worldwide, not only "greenly" decreasing the need for new power plants but even permitting some to be decommissioned. But, in a new paper, leading LED researchers argue for a shift in that view. ... > full story
A surfboard gets an onboard computer (August 24, 2010) -- Computers are everywhere these days -- even on surfboards. Mechanical engineering undergraduates outfitted a surfboard with a computer and accompanying sensors -- one step toward a structural engineering Ph.D. student's quest to develop the science of surfboards. ... > full story
New generation of power: Hi-tech rechargeable batteries developed for military (August 24, 2010) -- Scientists report progress in using a common virus to develop improved materials for high-performance, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that could be woven into clothing to power portable electronic devices. ... > full story
Solar system similar to ours? Richest planetary system discovered (August 24, 2010) -- Astronomers have discovered a planetary system containing at least five planets, orbiting the Sun-like star HD 10180. The researchers also have tantalizing evidence that two other planets may be present, one of which would have the lowest mass ever found. This would make the system similar to our Solar System in terms of the number of planets (seven as compared to the Solar System’s eight planets). Furthermore, the team also found evidence that the distances of the planets from their star follow a regular pattern, as also seen in our Solar System. ... > full story
Understanding rider bahavior key to keeping amusement park rides safe and enjoyable (August 24, 2010) -- Plummeting down a steep hill on a giant roller coaster or whirling at high speeds are annual summer rituals for thrill-seeking amusement riders. While amusement ride injuries are a rare occurrence, most occur as a result of rider behavior. ... > full story
New nuclear breast imaging technologies associated with higher cancer risks, study finds (August 24, 2010) -- Some nuclear-based breast imaging exams may increase a woman's risk of developing radiation-induced cancer, according to new research. However, the radiation dose and risk from mammography are very low. ... > full story
Americans using less energy, more renewables (August 24, 2010) -- Americans are using less energy overall and making more use of renewable energy resources. The United States used significantly less coal and petroleum in 2009 than in 2008, and significantly more wind power. There also was a decline in natural gas use and increases in solar, hydro and geothermal power, according to the most recent energy flow charts. ... > full story
Pulverized planet dust may lie around double stars (August 24, 2010) -- Tight double-star systems might not be the best places for life to spring up, according to a new study using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The infrared observatory spotted a surprisingly large amount of dust around three mature, close-orbiting star pairs. Where did the dust come from? Astronomers say it might be the aftermath of tremendous planetary collisions. ... > full story
Health diagnosis made simpler: Bioengineers design device to help detect diseases quickly (August 24, 2010) -- Researchers have developed and tested instrumentation they say will make disease diagnosis technically simpler, quicker and less costly. Using the shape of a drop biological fluid to focus a beam from a light-emitting diode, the device enables diagnosis of infectious diseases and unhealthy levels of protein. ... > full story
Math from the heart: Simulating stent design and coating (August 24, 2010) -- Using computer models to study the strengths and weaknesses of different stent structures could help manufacturers optimize stent design and help doctors choose the right stents for their patients. ... > full story
Historic buildings may be better protected from climate change with new forecast method (August 24, 2010) -- Some of the nation's most historic buildings and monuments may be better protected from decay in future, following a development by engineers. Researchers have devised a method of forecasting damage caused by the weather to stone buildings -- including statues, monuments and other historic sites, as well as modern masonry buildings. ... > full story
Scientists help explain graphene mystery (August 24, 2010) -- Nanoscale simulations and theoretical research are bringing scientists closer to realizing graphene's potential in electronic applications. ... > full story
Fermi detects gamma-rays from exploding nova (August 23, 2010) -- Using the Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope satellite, astronomers have detected gamma rays from a nova for the first time. ... > full story
Drugging the undruggable: Advances toward next generation of disease fighters (August 23, 2010) -- After decades of dreaming the drug developer's impossible dream, scientists finally are reporting progress in making drugs that target the "untouchables" among the body's key players in health and disease. They are the hundreds of thousands of proteins that many scientists considered to be "undruggable," meaning that previous efforts to develop a drug against them had failed. ... > full story
New atom-scale products on horizon: Breakthrough discovery enables nanoscale manipulation of piezoelectric effect (August 23, 2010) -- The generation of an electric field by the compression and expansion of solid materials is known as the piezoelectric effect, and it has a wide range of applications ranging from everyday items such as watches, motion sensors and precise positioning systems. Researchers have now discovered how to control this effect in nanoscale semiconductors called "quantum dots," enabling the development of incredibly tiny new products. ... > full story
200-fold boost in fuel cell efficiency advances 'personalized energy systems' (August 23, 2010) -- The era of personalized energy systems -- in which individual homes and small businesses produce their own energy for heating, cooling and powering cars -- took another step toward reality as scientists reported discovery of a powerful new catalyst that is a key element in such a system. The advance could help free homes and businesses from dependence on the electric company and the corner gasoline station. ... > full story
Cluster bomb for cancer care: Nano-vehicle delivers chemotherapy treatments on target (August 23, 2010) -- Researchers have developed a nano-sized vehicle that can deliver chemotherapy drugs directly into cancer cells while avoiding interaction with healthy cells. The vehicle is very similar to a 'cluster bomb' and can be used to treat many different types of tumors, including lung, blood, colon and brain cancers. ... > full story
New technology may prolong the life of implanted devices, from pacemakers to chemotherapy ports (August 23, 2010) -- By creating a unique system of blood vessels that is engineered to interact with the tissue surrounding an implanted device, the longevity and function of these devices may be better preserved, according to a new study. ... > full story
Powerful new way to control magnetism: Colossal magnetoelectricity points the way to ultra-dense data storage (August 23, 2010) -- A new way to manipulate magnetic fields with electrical signals could lead to microelectronic advances comparable to those that made high density disk drives possible. ... > full story
Titanium coating with protein 'flower bouquet' nanoclusters strengthens implant attachment (August 23, 2010) -- Researchers have developed an improved coating technique that could strengthen the connection between titanium joint-replacement implants and a patients' own bone. Implants coated with "flower bouquet" clusters of an engineered protein made 50 percent more contact with the surrounding bone than implants coated with protein pairs or individual strands. The cluster-coated implants were fixed in place more than twice as securely as uncoated plugs. ... > full story
Making vehicles safer (August 23, 2010) -- A car's crash components can spell the difference between life and death. Their job is to absorb energy in a collision in order to protect the driver inside. Researchers have now found a way for the automotive industry to mass-produce a particularly safe class of materials known as thermoplastic fiber composite components. ... > full story
Young people identify with an online community almost as strongly as with their own family (August 23, 2010) -- Teenage online community users feel part of their online community almost as much as they feel part of their own family. An international study of the users of a teenage online community reveals that users identify more strongly with the online community than with their neighborhood or offline hobby group. ... > full story
Self-cleaning technology from Mars can keep terrestrial solar panels dust free (August 23, 2010) -- Find dusting those tables and dressers a chore or a bore? Dread washing the windows? Imagine keeping dust and grime off objects spread out over an area of 25 to 50 football fields. That's the problem facing companies that deploy large-scale solar power installations, and scientists have now developed a possible solution -- self-dusting solar panels -- based on technology developed for space missions to Mars. ... > full story
Better way to grow stem cells developed (August 23, 2010) -- Chemical engineers, materials scientists and biologists have devised a synthetic surface that includes no foreign animal material and allows stem cells to stay alive and continue reproducing themselves for at least three months. It's also the first synthetic material that allows single cells to form colonies of identical cells, which is necessary to identify cells with desired traits and has been difficult to achieve with existing materials. ... > full story
Researchers advance understanding of enzyme that regulates DNA (August 23, 2010) -- Thanks to a single-molecule imaging technique, researchers have revealed the mechanisms of PcrA helicase, an important DNA-regulating enzyme. To prevent unwanted recombination of a damaged or degraded section of DNA, the enzyme binds at the point of the break, where the double- and single-stranded regions meet. Then, it uses its motor function to "reel in" the tail, like a fisherman pulling in a rope, knocking off recombination proteins along the way. ... > full story
DNA puts chemists on scent of better artificial nose (August 23, 2010) -- Chemists working on an "artificial nose" have developed new sensors that offer more information "per sniff" than most existing noses. The sensors, made by sticking fluorescent compounds onto a backbone of DNA, are easy and cheap to make and could help the devices become widely available. ... > full story
The future of the Web is a matter of semantics (August 23, 2010) -- The first incarnation of the web was composed of static websites that linked to each other and search engines to help you find sites of interest. Web 2.0 brought a social element to the web, with users sharing, commenting, and interacting through sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Flickr. The future web, the "semantic web," or Web 3.0, will embed meaning within digital information so that any given page can be understood by computers as well as people. ... > full story
Ancient galaxy cluster still producing stars (August 23, 2010) -- In ongoing observations of one of the universe's earliest, most distant cluster of galaxies using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered that a significant fraction of those ancient galaxies are still actively forming stars. ... > full story
Road signs and traffic signals on DNA: Physical model describes the distribution of nucleosome (August 23, 2010) -- The DNA in the cell nuclei of higher organisms is tightly coiled around protein complexes called nucleosomes, which repress gene expression. Researchers in Germany have now developed a model that explains how nucleosomes are distributed around sites that must remain accessible to transcribing polymerases. ... > full story
Researchers take a look inside molecules (August 22, 2010) -- Looking at individual molecules through a microscope is part of nanotechnologists' everyday lives. However, it has so far been difficult to observe atomic structures inside organic molecules. In a new study, researchers explain their novel method, which enables them to take an "X-ray view" inside molecules. The method may facilitate the analysis of organic semiconductors and proteins. ... > full story
Nanotech yields major advance in heat transfer, cooling technologies (August 22, 2010) -- Researchers have discovered a new way to apply nanostructure coatings to make heat transfer far more efficient, with important potential applications to high-tech devices as well as the conventional heating and cooling industry. ... > full story
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
Extreme darkness: Carbon nanotube forest covers ultra-dark detector (August 19, 2010) -- Harnessing darkness for practical use, researchers have developed a laser power detector coated with the world's darkest material -- a forest of carbon nanotubes that reflects almost no light across the visible and part of the infrared spectrum. ... > full story
New computer model advances climate change research (August 19, 2010) -- Scientists can now study climate change in far more detail with powerful new computer software released by the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The Community Earth System Model will be one of the primary climate models used for the next assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. ... > full story
HVAC ducts can be used for wireless monitoring technology (August 19, 2010) -- Scientists have found a way to implement wireless monitoring technology -- with uses ranging from climate control to health and safety applications -- by tapping into a building's heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) ducts. The finding could lead to significant time and cost savings for builders and building managers. ... > full story
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