ScienceDaily Technology Headlines
for Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Welcome to another edition of ScienceDaily's email newsletter. You can change your subscription options or unsubscribe at any time.
NASA mission 'E-Minus' one month to comet flyby (October 6, 2010) -- Fans of space exploration are familiar with the term T-minus, which NASA uses as a countdown to a rocket launch. But what of those noteworthy mission events where you already have a spacecraft in space, as with the upcoming flyby of a comet? ... > full story
Nano design, just like in nature (October 6, 2010) -- Researchers in Austria are using biological principles as the inspiration to develop a new bionic fuel cell. ... > full story
NASA's WISE mission warms up but keeps chugging along (October 6, 2010) -- After completing its primary mission to map the infrared sky, NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, has reached the expected end of its onboard supply of frozen coolant. Although WISE has 'warmed up,' NASA has decided the mission will still continue. WISE will now focus on our nearest neighbors -- the asteroids and comets traveling together with our solar system's planets around the sun. ... > full story
Web-based creativity: Can working in virtual communities be more effective than face-to-face cooperation? (October 6, 2010) -- Common sense and experience would suggest that people are more creative when they work together in a face-to-face environment. But, as remote working and online interactions become more and more commonplace, there is growing evidence that working in virtual communities and using online tools together can be even more effective in some areas than face-to-face cooperation. ... > full story
WISE captures key images of comet mission's destination (October 5, 2010) -- NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, caught a glimpse of the comet that the agency's EPOXI mission will visit in November. The WISE observation will help the EPOXI team put together a large-scale picture of the comet, known as Hartley 2. ... > full story
MAVEN mission to investigate how Sun steals Martian atmosphere (October 5, 2010) -- NASA's mission to investigate the mystery of how Mars lost much of its atmosphere passed a critical milestone on October 4, 2010. NASA has given approval for the development and 2013 launch of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission. ... > full story
Geoengineering solutions could prevent irreversible climate crisis, study finds (October 5, 2010) -- Geoengineering could prevent the potentially catastrophic climate-change tipping points that loom just ahead, according to a new study. ... > full story
Top reasons for Facebook unfriending (October 5, 2010) -- Researchers have found the top reasons for unfriending on Facebook. Just like an office party, talking about religion and politics is risky. ... > full story
The world is full of darkness, reflected in the physiology of the human retina (October 5, 2010) -- Physicists and neuroscientists have linked the cell structure of the retina to the light and dark contrasts of the natural world, demonstrating the likelihood that the neural pathways humans use for seeing are adapted to best capture the world around us. ... > full story
Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 for graphene -- 'two-dimensional' material (October 5, 2010) -- A thin flake of ordinary carbon, just one atom thick, lies behind this year's Nobel Prize in Physics. Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov have shown that carbon in such a flat form has exceptional properties that originate from the remarkable world of quantum physics. ... > full story
Cluster helps disentangle turbulence in the solar wind (October 5, 2010) -- Surrounding the Sun is a roiling wind of electrons and protons that shows constant turbulence at every size scale: long streaming jets, smaller whirling eddies, and even microscopic movements as charged particles circle in miniature orbits. ... > full story
Interactive video games can cause a broad range of injuries (October 5, 2010) -- Interactive gaming devices can cause a broad range of injuries, from abrasions and sprains to shoulder, ankle and foot injuries, according to new research. ... > full story
Europa's hidden ice chemistry: Jupiter's moon may have more than possible ocean (October 5, 2010) -- The frigid ice of Jupiter's moon Europa may be hiding more than a presumed ocean: It is likely the scene of some unexpectedly fast chemistry between water and sulfur dioxide at extremely cold temperatures. Although these molecules react easily as liquids -- they are well-known ingredients of acid rain -- researchers now report that they react as ices with surprising speed and high yield at temperatures hundreds of degrees below freezing. ... > full story
Audio zooming to enhance TV viewing (October 5, 2010) -- New technology developed in Norway makes it possible to zoom in on sound in much the same way that photographers can zoom in on an image. Television is just one area of application. Physicists adapted a well-known marine sonar technology for use above the water. Combining it with sophisticated software, the pair have developed an intelligent, sharply focused directional microphone system that enables TV producers and others to zoom their audio reception, much like they can zoom their camera lenses for close-ups. ... > full story
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
San Diego Supercomputer Center participates in first 'Census of Marine Life' (October 5, 2010) -- After a decade of joint work involving 2,700 researchers from 80 countries, the world's scientists -- as well as the general public -- can now access the Census of Marine Life, which provides the first in-depth look at the more than 120,000 diverse species which inhabit our oceans. ... > 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
Interactive media improved patients’ understanding of cancer surgery by more than a third (October 4, 2010) -- Patients facing planned surgery answered 36% more questions about the procedure correctly if they watched an interactive multimedia presentation (IMP) rather than just talking to medical staff. The study authors argue that IMP helps medical staff to obtain ethical and legally informed consent, increase patient knowledge and reduce patient anxiety and potential dissatisfaction or legal consequences if the surgery is not as successful as anticipated. IMP could also be used for educating medical staff such as nurses, medical students and trainee surgeons. ... > 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
Innovative Web-based tool helps doctors improve care (October 1, 2010) -- A Web-based tool that extracts information from the electronic medical record (EMR) helps primary care physicians improve care and manage their entire panel of patients. Those are the findings of two new studies -- the first to examine the effectiveness of a population care tool in a large, diverse patient population. ... > full story
Copyright 1995-2010 © ScienceDaily LLC. All rights reserved. Terms of use.
|
 To update/change your profile click here  |
