ScienceDaily Technology Headlines
for Friday, October 29, 2010
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Brain's journey from early Internet to modern-day fiber optics: Computer program shows how brain's complex fiber tracks mature (October 29, 2010) -- The brain's inner network becomes increasingly more efficient as humans mature. Now, for the first time without invasive measures, a new study has verified these gains with a powerful new computer program. ... > full story
New strategy to kill bugs -- even those in hiding (October 29, 2010) -- New strategies to apply antibiotics more effectively to hibernating bugs have been developed by researchers in the UK. ... > full story
Making better biosensors with electron density waves (October 29, 2010) -- An emerging field with the tongue-twisting name of "optofluidic plasmonics" promises a new way to detect and analyze biological molecules for drug discovery, medical diagnostics, and the detection of biochemical weapons. Researchers have succeeded in merging a microfluidics system with plasmonics -- sometimes called "light on a wire" -- onto a single platform. Plasmonics is based on electron waves on a metal surface excited by incoming light waves. ... > full story
Emotion processing in brain is influenced by color of ambient light, study suggests (October 29, 2010) -- Researchers in Europe investigated the immediate effect of light, and of its color composition, on emotion brain processing using functional magnetic resonance imaging. The results of their study show that the color of light influences the way the brain processes emotional stimuli. ... > full story
North Sea oil recovery using carbon dioxide is possible, but time is running out, expert says (October 29, 2010) -- Oil recovery using carbon dioxide could lead to a North Sea oil bonanza worth £150 billion (0 billion) -- but only if the current infrastructure is enhanced now, according to a new study by a world-leading energy expert. ... > full story
Breakdown of correlated tunneling (October 29, 2010) -- Scientists have shown how quantum-mechanical tunneling through a barrier can be altered drastically due to the interplay of many particles in low dimensions. ... > full story
Precocious galaxy cluster identified by Chandra (October 28, 2010) -- NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has observed an unusual galaxy cluster that contains a bright core of relatively cool gas surrounding a quasar called 3C 186. This is the most distant such object yet observed, and could provide insight into the triggering of quasars and the growth of galaxy clusters. ... > full story
Everything evaporates, but how? (October 28, 2010) -- Evaporation is a common phenomenon in nature. For the last 130 years, it has seemed that its mechanism was understood well. However, computer simulations carried out by scientists in Poland show that the existing theoretical models were based on false assumptions. Thanks to the simulations, it was possible to learn the mechanisms of evaporation of drops into vacuum or into an environment filled with the vapor of a liquid under examination. However, the mechanism that plays a key role in the case of evaporation into a mixture of gases, for instance into air, is still unknown. ... > full story
Trapped Mars rover finds evidence of subsurface water (October 28, 2010) -- The ground where NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit became stuck last year holds evidence that water, perhaps as snow melt, trickled into the subsurface fairly recently and on a continuing basis. ... > full story
Scientists 'cage' genetic off switches so they can be activated by UV light (October 28, 2010) -- Researchers have found a way to "cage" genetic off switches in such a way that they can be activated when exposed to UV light. Their technology gives scientists a more precise way to control and study gene function in localized areas of developing organisms. ... > full story
Facebook study finds race trumped by ethnic, social, geographic origins in forging friendships (October 28, 2010) -- Race may not be as important as previously thought in determining who buddies up with whom, suggests the UCLA-Harvard study of American college students on Facebook. Sociologists have long maintained that race is the strongest predictor of whether two Americans will socialize. But the study found that such factors as where you live, your country of origin and your social class can provide stronger grounds for forging friendships than a shared racial background. ... > full story
Smaller is better in the viscous zone (October 28, 2010) -- Being the right size and existing in the limbo between a solid and a liquid state appear to be the secrets to improving the efficiency of chemical catalysts that can create better nanoparticles or more efficient energy sources. ... > full story
Space buckyballs thrive, finds NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (October 28, 2010) -- Astronomers have discovered bucket loads of buckyballs in space. They used NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to find the little carbon spheres throughout our Milky Way galaxy -- in the space between stars and around three dying stars. What's more, Spitzer detected buckyballs around a fourth dying star in a nearby galaxy in staggering quantities -- the equivalent in mass to about 15 of our moons. ... > full story
Getting the big picture quickly: Software edits huge images in seconds instead of hours (October 28, 2010) -- Computer scientists developed software that quickly edits "extreme resolution imagery" -- huge photographs containing billions to hundreds of billions of pixels or dot-like picture elements. Until now, it took hours to process these "gigapixel" images. The new software needs only seconds to produce preview images useful to doctors, intelligence analysts, photographers, artists, engineers and others. ... > full story
Magnetic test reveals hyperactive brain network responsible for involuntary flashbacks (October 28, 2010) -- Scientists have found a correlation between increased circuit activity in the right side of the brain and the suffering of involuntary flashbacks by post-traumatic stress disorder sufferers. ... > full story
Water could hold answer to graphene nanoelectronics (October 28, 2010) -- Researchers have developed a new method for using water to tune the band gap of the nanomaterial graphene, opening the door to new graphene-based transistors and nanoelectronics. By exposing a graphene film to humidity, researchers were able to create a band gap in graphene -- a critical prerequisite to creating graphene transistors. ... > full story
Scientists helping keep in-demand smoked salmon safe to eat, thanks to new mathematical model (October 28, 2010) -- Scientists with the US Department of Agriculture are helping ensure that the smoked salmon that's always a hit at festive gatherings also is always safe to eat, including among their achievements the development of a first-of-its-kind mathematical model that food processors and others can use to select the optimal combination of temperature and concentrations of salt and smoke compounds to reduce or eliminate microbial contamination of the product. ... > full story
Making bone in the laboratory (October 28, 2010) -- Researchers in the Netherlands have succeeded in mimicking the process of bone formation in the laboratory, and in visualizing the process in great detail. ... > full story
Structural genomics accelerates protein structure determination (October 28, 2010) -- Membrane proteins are of immense biological and pharmaceutical importance. But so far there are only a handful of cases in which the exact structure could be successfully determined. Scientists have now succeeded in working out the structure of an important ion channel via the analysis of related proteins. ... > full story
Current loss tracked down by magnetic fingerprint; Researchers solve the case of lost current in organic solar cells (October 28, 2010) -- Conventional solar cells made from crystalline silicon are difficult and energy-intensive to manufacture. Organic solar cells are cheaper, but have always produced less electricity. Why this is so has never been fully explained. Now, a method developed by researchers in Germany reveals that current flow inside a solar cell can be affected by the spin of the charge-carrying particles. ... > full story
Out of THEMIS, ARTEMIS: Earth's loss is moon's gain (October 27, 2010) -- Two micro-satellites originally launched into Earth's orbit in 2007 by NASA have been redirected by scientists toward new orbits around the moon, extending study of the Earth and moon's interaction with the solar wind. ... > full story
Spiral galaxies stripped bare (October 27, 2010) -- Six spectacular spiral galaxies are seen in a clear new light in images from ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. The pictures were taken in infrared light, using the impressive power of the HAWK-I camera, and will help astronomers understand how the remarkable spiral patterns in galaxies form and evolve. ... > full story
Tobacco and nicotine: They're good -- as a pesticide (October 27, 2010) -- Tobacco, used on a small scale as a natural organic pesticide for hundreds of years, is getting new scientific attention as a potential mass-produced alternative to traditional commercial pesticides. ... > full story
Controlling individual cortical nerve cells by human thought (October 27, 2010) -- Five years ago, neuroscientists and neurosurgeons discovered that a single neuron can function much like a sophisticated computer and recognize people, landmarks, and objects. Now the same researchers have found that individuals can exert conscious control over these single neurons -- despite the neurons' location in an area of the brain previously thought inaccessible to conscious control -- and manipulate the behavior of an image on a computer screen. ... > full story
Small particles show big promise in beating unpleasant odors (October 27, 2010) -- Scientists are reporting development of a new approach for dealing with offensive household and other odors -- one that doesn't simply mask odors like today's room fresheners, but eliminates them at the source. Their research found that a deodorant made from nanoparticles -- hundreds of times smaller than peach fuzz -- eliminates odors up to twice as effectively as today's gold standard. ... > full story
Astronomers discover most massive neutron star yet known; Discovery has broad implications for astrophysics, nuclear physics (October 27, 2010) -- Precise measurement of a neutron star's mass yields a surprisingly large figure that rules out several models for the star's composition and also strongly affects other fields of physics. ... > full story
Portable breast scanner allows cancer detection in the blink of an eye (October 27, 2010) -- Women could have a fast test for breast cancer and instantly identify the presence of a tumor in the comfort of their own home, thanks to groundbreaking research. ... > full story
The new SI: Proposal for a revamped system of measurement units (October 27, 2010) -- Taking the first steps of what would be a major historical advance in the science of measurement, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology is participating in a worldwide effort to recommend major revisions to the International System of Units (SI), the modern metric system that is the basis of global measurements in commerce, science and other aspects of everyday life. ... > full story
Uranium in groundwater? 'Fracking' mobilizes uranium in marcellus shale (October 27, 2010) -- Researchers have found that hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" -- causes uranium that is naturally trapped inside Marcellus shale to be released, raising additional environmental concerns. ... > full story
Kepler spacecraft takes pulse of distant stars: 'Starquakes' yield new insights about the size, age and evolution of stars (October 27, 2010) -- An international cadre of scientists that used data from NASA's Kepler spacecraft announced the detection of stellar oscillations, or "starquakes," that yield new insights about the size, age and evolution of stars. ... > full story
Trapping charged particles with laser light (October 27, 2010) -- Scientists have demonstrated the feasibility of optical trapping for ions, which may lead to a new kind of hybrid quantum systems. ... > full story
Emissions from consumption outstrip efficiency savings in UK (October 27, 2010) -- Emissions from consumption growth have exceeded carbon savings from efficiency improvements in the global supply chain of products consumed in the UK, according to new research. ... > full story
NASA Goddard delivers magnetometers for Juno mission to Jupiter (October 27, 2010) -- Magnetometers developed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., for the Juno mission to Jupiter were delivered recently to Lockheed Martin in Denver. Designed and built by an in-house team of Goddard scientists, engineers and technicians, these instruments will map the planet's magnetic field with great accuracy and observe its variations over time. ... > full story
NIST ships first programmable AC/DC 10-volt standard (October 27, 2010) -- Extending its 26-year tradition of innovative quantum voltage standards, researchers at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology have begun shipping a new, quantum-based, 10-volt standard to users around the world. ... > full story
Hubble data used to look 10,000 years into the future (October 26, 2010) -- Astronomers are used to looking millions of years into the past. Now scientists have used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to look thousands of years into the future. Looking at the heart of Omega Centauri, a globular cluster in the Milky Way, they have calculated how the stars there will move over the next 10,000 years. ... > full story
Six new isotopes of the superheavy elements discovered (October 26, 2010) -- Scientists have created six new isotopes of the superheavy elements, reaching in an unbroken chain of decays from element 114 down to rutherfordium. The discovery is a major step toward understanding how to explore the long-sought Island of Stability, which is thought to lie in the vicinity of element 114 -- and possibly beyond. ... > full story
Scented consumer products shown to emit many unlisted chemicals (October 26, 2010) -- Even "green" fragranced products give off many chemicals that are not listed on the label, including some that are classified as toxic. A study of 25 of the most popular scented products showed they emit 133 different chemicals, of which only two are listed anywhere. ... > full story
NASA's Kepler Mission changing how astronomers study distant stars (October 26, 2010) -- NASA's Kepler Mission is changing how astronomers study stars. Kepler, launched in March 2009, is returning data the astronomers say is amazing for its quantity and quality. ... > full story
Stable way to store the sun's heat: Storing thermal energy in chemical could lead to advances in storage and portability (October 26, 2010) -- Researchers have revealed exactly how a molecule called fulvalene diruthenium, which was discovered in 1996, works to store and release heat on demand. This understanding should make it possible to find similar chemicals based on more abundant, less expensive materials than ruthenium, and this could form the basis of a rechargeable battery to store heat rather than electricity. ... > full story
Microwave oven key to self-assembly process meeting semi-conductor industry need (October 26, 2010) -- The fundamental nanotechnology process of self assembly may soon replace the lithographic processing use to make the ubiquitous semi-conductor chips. By using microwaves, researchers in Canada have dramatically decreased the cooking time for a specific molecular self-assembly process used to assemble block copolymers, and have now made it a viable alternative to the conventional lithography process for use in patterning semi-conductors. ... > full story
Robotic gripper runs on coffee ... and balloons (October 26, 2010) -- Opting for simple elegance, researchers have bypassed traditional designs based around the human hand and fingers, and created a versatile gripper using everyday ground coffee and a latex party balloon. ... > full story
Tabletop instrument makes synchrotron X-rays: Simpler and cheaper way to produce tightly focused high-energy beams (October 26, 2010) -- Producing tightly focused beams of high energy X-rays, to examine everything from molecular structures to the integrity of aircraft wings, could become simpler and cheaper, according to new research. Researchers have now developed a tabletop instrument that produces synchrotron X-rays, whose energy and quality rivals that produced by some of the largest X-ray facilities in the world. ... > full story
Mouse brain seen in sharpest detail ever (October 26, 2010) -- The most detailed magnetic resonance images ever obtained of a mammalian brain are now available to researchers in a free, online atlas of an ultra-high-resolution mouse brain. The interactive images in the atlas will allow researchers worldwide to evaluate the brain from all angles and assess and share their mouse studies against this reference brain in genetics, toxicology and drug discovery. ... > full story
How to avoid fraud in biometric identification (October 26, 2010) -- Scientists in Spain are analyzing possible attempts at fraud in various biometric identification systems in order to improve the security of facial, iris, fingerprint or vascular recognition, among other types. ... > full story
Energy saving lamp is eco-winner: Swiss researcher evaluates environmental friendliness of light sources (October 26, 2010) -- In a new study, Swiss researchers have investigated the ecobalances of various household light sources. In doing so, not only did they take into account energy consumption, but also the manufacture and disposal processes. They also evaluated usage with different electrical power mixes. The clear winner is the compact fluorescent lamp, commonly known as the energy saving lamp. ... > full story
Harnessing tidal energy more efficiently than ever before (October 26, 2010) -- Researchers are developing a tidal turbine which has the potential to harness tidal energy more efficiently and cheaply, using a device which is simpler, more robust and more scaleable than current designs. ... > full story
Scientists examine energy trends of communications equipment (October 25, 2010) -- A team of scientists has examined the energy consumption trends of communications equipment in use today and determined that gains in energy efficiency are not keeping pace with traffic growth. One consequence is that energy is going to become an increasingly important problem for communication networks. ... > full story
'Unplugged' experiment detaches students from the media (October 25, 2010) -- Twenty-four hours without media. No internet, no mobiles, no TV... The biggest global media experiment. Ever. First year students at Bournemouth University in the UK have been sacrificing their TVs, mobile phones, the internet and all other gadgets for 24 hours as they take part in a groundbreaking global media experiment called 'Unplugged'. ... > full story
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