ScienceDaily Technology Headlines
for Tuesday, October 5, 2010
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A step toward lead-free electronics (October 5, 2010) -- Materials engineers reveal the potential of a new artificial material to replace lead-based ceramics in countless electronic devices, ranging from inkjet printers and digital cameras to hospital ultrasound scanners and diesel fuel injectors. This may pave the way toward 100-percent lead-free electronics. ... > full story
Quantum error correcting code discovered (October 5, 2010) -- Researchers have demonstrated a quantum error correcting code. The work brings quantum computing a step closer. ... > full story
NASA's Webb telescope MIRI instrument takes one step closer to space (October 4, 2010) -- A major instrument due to fly aboard NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is getting its first taste of space in the test facilities at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in the United Kingdom. The Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) has been designed to contribute to areas of investigation as diverse as the first light in the early Universe and the formation of planets around other stars. ... > full story
DNA art imitates life: Construction of a nanoscale Mobius strip (October 4, 2010) -- Scientists have reproduced a Möbius strip on a remarkably tiny scale, joining up braid-like segments of DNA to create structures measuring just 50 nanometers across -- roughly the width of a virus particle. ... > full story
Lakes on Saturn's moon Titan filled with liquid hydrocarbons like ethane and methane, not water (October 4, 2010) -- Titan, one of Saturn's moons, is the only moon in the solar system with an atmosphere -- ten times denser than the atmosphere of Earth. Five years ago, the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn sent a probe through Titan's atmosphere, revealing that Titan is home to a landscape that includes hills, valleys and most notably lakes. ... > full story
Powerful supercomputer peers into the origin of life (October 4, 2010) -- Supercomputer simulations are helping scientists unravel how nucleic acids could have contributed to the origins of life. ... > full story
Physicists control chemical reactions mechanically (October 4, 2010) -- Physicists have taken a significant step in controlling chemical reactions mechanically, an important advance in nanotechnology. ... > full story
Surprising silk: Proteins become more concentrated when diluted (October 4, 2010) -- New neutron research has revealed that the proteins making up silkworm silk have unexpected properties: effectively the proteins become more concentrated as they are diluted. Scientists found that the silk precursor proteins' behavior is completely counterintuitive. The study is a big step forward in understanding the amazing properties of silks and how to synthesize them. ... > full story
Painless way to achieve huge energy savings: Stop wasting food (October 4, 2010) -- Scientists have identified a way that the United States could immediately save the energy equivalent of about 350 million barrels of oil a year -- without spending a penny or putting a ding in the quality of life: Just stop wasting food. Their study found that it takes the equivalent of about 1.4 billion barrels of oil to produce, package, prepare, preserve and distribute a year's worth of food in the United States. ... > full story
Designer’s door could prove a real lifesaver in earthquake emergency (October 4, 2010) -- A door which could be used as a shelter after an earthquake has just been developed. ... > full story
Fungal spores travel farther by surfing their own wind (October 4, 2010) -- Many fungi, including the destructive Sclerotinia, spew thousands of spores at once to give the spores an extra boost into their host plants. Researchers now show how this works. The near-simultaneous ejection of spores reduces drag to nearly zero and creates a wind that carries some of the spores 20 times farther than a single spore could travel solo. ... > full story
An elegant galaxy in an unusual light (October 4, 2010) -- A new image taken with the powerful HAWK-I camera on ESO's Very Large Telescope at Paranal Observatory in Chile shows the beautiful barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 in infrared light. NGC 1365 is a member of the Fornax cluster of galaxies, and lies about 60 million light-years from Earth. ... > full story
Launch of Germ Genie to kill keyboard germs (October 4, 2010) -- Scientists in the UK have helped prove the effectiveness of Germ Genie, a tool to prevent infections from keyboards. ... > full story
Milky Way sidelined in galactic tug-of-war, computer simulation shows (October 3, 2010) -- The Magellanic Stream is an arc of hydrogen gas spanning more than 100 degrees of the sky behind the Milky Way's neighbor galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Our home galaxy has long been thought to be the dominant gravitational force in forming the Stream. A new computer simulation now shows that the Magellanic Stream resulted from a past close encounter between these dwarf galaxies rather than effects of the Milky Way. ... > full story
Individual mutations are very slow to promote tumor growth, mathematical modeling shows (October 3, 2010) -- Individual cancer-causing mutations have a minute effect on tumor growth, increasing the rate of cell division by just 0.4 percent on average, according to new mathematical modeling. The research reinforces that cancer is the culmination of many accumulated mutations, and highlights the fundamental heterogeneity and randomness of many cancers. ... > full story
Turning waste heat into power (October 3, 2010) -- Physicists have discovered a new way of harvesting waste heat and turning it into electrical power. Taking advantage of quantum effects, the technology holds great promise for making cars, power plants, factories and solar panels more efficient. ... > full story
Citizen scientist: Helping scientists help themselves (October 3, 2010) -- Researchers have mapped out an approach to virtual organizations that might allow scientific advances made in part by citizen scientists to move forward much more quickly. ... > full story
Physicists break color barrier for sending, receiving photons (October 2, 2010) -- Scientists have invented a method to change the color of single photons in a fiber optic cable. The laser-tweaked feat could be a quantum step forward for transferring and receiving high volumes of secured data for future generations of the Internet. ... > full story
Lightweight construction materials: Suitable for car wheels? (October 2, 2010) -- Are lightweight construction materials suitable for extremely stressed and safety-relevant components such as car wheel? Tests and calculations show that fiber-reinforced plastics are highly damage-tolerant and distinctly superior to aluminum in car wheels. Researchers have already produced a prototype lightweight wheel. ... > full story
Catalyst sandwich: Synthetic PCR mimic could lead to highly sensitive medical, environmental diagnostics (October 2, 2010) -- Researchers have taken another step towards realizing a new class of PCR enzyme mimics, opening the door for the development of highly sensitive chemical detection systems that go beyond nucleic acid targets. The blueprint for building synthetic structures to detect and signal the presence of targets such as small molecule medical analytes and environmental hazards is inspired by biology. The method also could be useful in catalysis and the production of polymers. ... > full story
Underwater robot swims free thanks to wireless controller (October 1, 2010) -- A waterproof controller is allowing an underwater robot, dubbed "AQUA," to go "wireless." While underwater, divers can program the tablet to display tags onscreen, similar to barcodes read by smartphones. The robot's on-board camera scans these tags to receive and carry out commands. ... > full story
Three solid-state qubits entangled: Big step toward quantum error correction (October 1, 2010) -- A research team has achieved the quantum entanglement of three solid-state qubits, or quantum bits, for the first time. Their accomplishment represents the first step towards quantum error correction, a crucial aspect of future quantum computing. ... > full story
New way to view atomic motion of proteins invented (October 1, 2010) -- Using myoglobin, physicists have developed a new way to peer into the inner workings of proteins and detect which specific atoms are at work. ... > full story
Knot in the ribbon at the edge of the solar system 'unties' (October 1, 2010) -- The unusual "knot" in the bright, narrow ribbon of neutral atoms emanating in from the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space appears to have "untied," according to new research. ... > full story
Simple approach could clean up oil remaining from Exxon Valdez spill (October 1, 2010) -- Traces of crude oil that linger on the shores of Alaska's Prince William Sound after the Exxon Valdez oil spill remain highly biodegradable, despite almost 20 years of weathering and decomposition, scientists are reporting in a new study. Their findings suggest a simple approach for further cleaning up remaining traces of the Exxon Valdez spill -- the largest in US waters until the 2010 Deepwater Horizon episode. ... > full story
Spring on Titan brings sunshine and patchy clouds (October 1, 2010) -- The northern hemisphere of Saturn's moon Titan is set for mainly fine spring weather, with polar skies clearing since the equinox in August last year. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIMS) aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft has been monitoring clouds on Titan regularly since the spacecraft entered orbit around Saturn in 2004. Now, researchers have analyzed more than 2,000 VIMS images to create the first long-term study of Titan's weather using observational data that also includes the equinox. ... > full story
Finding a buckyball in a photovoltaic cell (October 1, 2010) -- A new technique analyzes the reflection of neutrons to locate buckyballs within composite materials. The work may lead to more effective research on photovoltaic devices. ... > full story
'e-SMART' technologies may help young adults self-manage mental illness (October 1, 2010) -- While many young adults will share the details of their daily lives with dozens -- sometimes hundreds -- of friends on Facebook, communicating with their health care providers about mental illness is another story. A researcher is now developing new patient communications tools, using computer-based techniques to reach young adults already tied to their technology devices. ... > full story
Researchers find phone apps sending data without notification; TaintDroid tool IDs untrustworthy apps (October 1, 2010) -- TaintDroid, a prototype extension to the Android mobile-phone platform designed by researchers, recently identified that 15 of 30 randomly selected, popular, free Android Marketplace applications sent users' private information to remote advertising servers and two-thirds of the apps handled data in ambiguous ways. ... > full story
Species accumulate on Earth at slower rates than in the past, computational biologists say (October 1, 2010) -- Computational biologists say that species are still accumulating on Earth but at a slower rate than in the past. ... > full story
Mars Rover Opportunity approaching possible meteorite (October 1, 2010) -- Images that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity took at the end of an 81-meter (266-foot) drive on Sept. 16 reveal a dark rock about 31 meters (102 feet) away. The rover's science team has decided to go get a closer look at the toaster-sized rock and determine whether it is an iron meteorite. ... > full story
Growth of biofuel industry hurt by GMO regulations, say experts (October 1, 2010) -- Faster development of the promising field of cellulosic biofuels -- the renewable energy produced from grasses and trees -- is being significantly hampered by a "deep and thorny regulatory thicket" that makes almost impossible the use of advanced gene modification methods, researchers say. ... > full story
IBEX finds surprising changes at solar boundary (September 30, 2010) -- When NASA launched the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) on Oct. 19, 2008, space physicists held their collective breath for never-before-seen views of a collision zone far beyond the planets, roughly 10 billion miles away. That's where the solar wind, an outward rush of charged particles and magnetic fields continuously spewed by the Sun, runs into the flow of particles and fields that permeates interstellar space in our neighborhood of the Milky Way galaxy. ... > full story
New 'standard cigarette' available for fire-resistance testing (September 30, 2010) -- An unusual new industrial testing product from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology -- a cigarette deliberately designed to burn stronger than others -- will be used by manufacturers of home furnishings to test the fire resistance of their products. ... > full story
Bedouin tribe reveals secrets to 'GA-JOE' high-tech genome analyzer (September 30, 2010) -- Scientists studied three patients from biologically interrelated Bedouin families, and sent samples to Canada for analysis by GA JOE -- a high-tech genome analyzing machine. They discovered that mutations in the gene SCARF2 are responsible for Van Den Ende-Gupta syndrome. ... > full story
Hydrogen fuel for thought: Metallacarboranes may meet DOE storage goals (September 30, 2010) -- New research suggests that a class of material known as metallacarborane could store hydrogen at or better than benchmarks set by the US Department of Energy Hydrogen Program for 2015. ... > full story
Growing nanowires horizontally yields new benefit: 'nano-LEDs' (September 30, 2010) -- While refining their novel method for making nanoscale wires, chemists discovered an unexpected bonus -- a new way to create nanowires that produce light similar to that from light-emitting diodes. ... > full story
Research lays foundation for building on the Moon -- or anywhere else (September 30, 2010) -- The key to the stability of any building is its foundation, but it is difficult to test some building sites in advance -- such as those on the moon. New research is helping resolve the problem by using computer models that can utilize a small sample of soil to answer fundamental questions about how soil at a building site will interact with foundations. ... > full story
New views of Saturn's aurora, captured by Cassini (September 30, 2010) -- A new movie and images showing Saturn's shimmering aurora over a two-day period are helping scientists understand what drives some of the solar system's most impressive light shows. ... > full story
Nanotechnology brings personalized therapy one step closer to reality (September 30, 2010) -- A novel technology can make nanoscale protein measurements, which scientists can use in clinical trials to learn how drugs work. ... > full story
Atmosphere checked, one Mars year before a landing (September 30, 2010) -- What will the Martian atmosphere be like when the next Mars rover descends through it for landing in August of 2012? An instrument studying the Martian atmosphere from orbit has begun a four-week campaign to characterize daily atmosphere changes, one Mars year before the arrival of the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity. A Mars year equals 687 Earth days. ... > full story
One-dimensional window on superconductivity, magnetism: Atoms are proxies for electrons in ultracold optical emulator (September 30, 2010) -- A team of physicists is reporting the first success from a three-year effort to emulate superconductors with ultracold atoms trapped in grids of laser beams. A new study describes how the group trapped atoms in a one-dimensional tube of light, which allowed them to simultaneously examine superconductivity and magnetism -- phenomena that do not generally coexist. ... > full story
Laser tool for studying Mars rocks (September 30, 2010) -- The NASA Mars Science Laboratory Project's rover, Curiosity, will carry a newly delivered laser instrument named ChemCam to reveal what elements are present in rocks and soils on Mars up to 7 meters (23 feet) away from the rover. ... > full story
Hello, Saturn summer solstice: Cassini's new chapter (September 30, 2010) -- Turning a midsummer night's dream into reality, NASA's Cassini spacecraft begins its new mission extension -- the Cassini Solstice Mission. The mission extension will take Cassini a few months past Saturn's northern summer solstice (or midsummer) through September 2017. It will enable scientists to study seasonal changes and other long-term weather changes on Saturn and its moons. ... > full story
Wide-Field Imager selected for Solar Probe Plus mission (September 30, 2010) -- NASA has chosen the Naval Research Laboratory's Wide-field Imager to be part of the Solar Probe Plus mission slated for launch no later than 2018. The Solar Probe Plus, a small car-sized spacecraft will plunge directly into the sun's atmosphere approximately four million miles from our star's surface. It will explore a region no other spacecraft ever has encountered in an effort to unlock the sun's biggest mysteries. ... > full story
New key to tissue regeneration: Drug treatment triggers sodium ions to regrow nerves and muscle (September 29, 2010) -- Tufts biologists have regenerated spinal cord and muscle by triggering an influx of sodium ions into injured cells. The approach breaks new ground in biomedicine because it requires no gene therapy; can be administered after an injury has occurred; and is bioelectric, rather than chemically based. The treatment is most directly applicable to spinal cord repair and limb loss. Proof-of-principle may apply to many complex tissues. ... > full story
Purifying proteins: Researchers use NMR to improve drug development (September 29, 2010) -- The purification of drug components is a large hurdle facing modern drug development. This is particularly true of drugs that utilize proteins, which are notoriously difficult to separate from other potentially deadly impurities. Scientists are using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to understand and improve an important protein purification process. ... > full story
Model aims to reduce disaster toll on city's social, economic fabric (September 29, 2010) -- Researchers have created a computer model that predicts how a disaster's impact on critical infrastructure would affect a city's social and economic fabric, a potential tool to help reduce the severity of impacts, manage the aftermath of catastrophe and fortify infrastructure against future disasters. ... > full story
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