ScienceDaily Technology Headlines
for Friday, November 12, 2010
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Detailed dark matter map yields clues to galaxy cluster growth (November 12, 2010) -- Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope took advantage of a giant cosmic magnifying glass to create one of the sharpest and most detailed maps of dark matter in the universe. Dark matter is an invisible and unknown substance that makes up the bulk of the universe's mass. ... > full story
Mind is a frequent, but not happy, wanderer: People spend nearly half their waking hours thinking about what isn’t going on around them (November 12, 2010) -- People spend 46.9 percent of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they're doing, and this mind-wandering typically makes them unhappy. So says a study that used an iPhone web app to gather 250,000 data points on subjects' thoughts, feelings, and actions as they went about their lives. ... > full story
Softening crystals without heat: Using terahertz pulses to manipulate molecular networks (November 12, 2010) -- As if borrowing from a scene in a science fiction movie, researchers in Japan have successfully developed a kind of tractor beam that can be used to manipulate the network of the molecules. In a new paper, the team has demonstrated a technique using terahertz pulses that could have broad applications in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. ... > full story
Graphene's strength lies in its defects (November 11, 2010) -- Materials engineers have found that the juncture at which graphene sheets meet does not compromise the material's strength. These so-called grain boundaries are so strong, in fact, that the sheets are nearly as strong as pure graphene. The trick lies in the angles at which the individual sheets are stitched together. ... > full story
Step by step towards tomorrow’s nanomaterial: Swiss researchers fabricate graphene-like materials using surface chemical route (November 11, 2010) -- Graphene is a promising material for tomorrow's nanoelectronics devices. Precise and upscaleable methods to fabricate graphene and derived materials with desired electronic properties are however still searched after. To overcome the current limitations, Swiss researchers have fabricated graphene-like materials using a surface chemical route and clarified in detail the corresponding reaction pathway. ... > full story
Supercomputer warfare: New research provides effective battle planning (November 11, 2010) -- New research from the UK, to be presented at the world’s largest supercomputing conference, pits China’s new No. 1 supercomputer against alternative US designs. The work provides crucial new analysis that will benefit the battle plans of both sides, in an escalating war between two competing technologies. ... > full story
Sugar and slice make graphene real nice: Table sugar, metallic sheets produce pristine graphene in one step (November 11, 2010) -- Rice researchers have learned to make pristine sheets of graphene, the one-atom-thick form of carbon, from plain table sugar and other carbon-based substances. They do so in a one-step process at temperatures low enough to make graphene easy to manufacture. ... > full story
Oil spill vacuum cleaner uses bark for spills (November 11, 2010) -- Cleaning up oil spills is a time consuming, difficult process. But a novel approach developed by researchers in Norway uses a new kind of vacuum cleaner that blows bark or other absorbent material onto oil spills, and then sucks the material up again. ... > full story
Leaking underground CO<sub>2</sub> storage could contaminate drinking water, study finds (November 11, 2010) -- Leaks from carbon dioxide injected deep underground to help fight climate change could bubble up into drinking water aquifers near the surface, driving up levels of contaminants in the water tenfold or more in some places, according to a new study. ... > full story
Primordial dry ice fuels comet jets (November 11, 2010) -- One of the biggest comet findings coming out of the amazing images and data taken by the EPOXI mission as it zipped past comet Hartley 2 last week is that dry ice is the 'jet' fuel for this comet and perhaps many others. ... > full story
Out-sniffing bomb-sniffing dogs (November 11, 2010) -- Researchers have developed a small, portable sensor based on recent advances in nanotechnology that's more sensitive and reliable at detecting explosives than any sniffer dog. In the future it may also be used to detect toxins and other biological threats, such as anthrax, cholera or botulinum, the team reports. ... > full story
Tetris effect: Classic computer game may have special ability to reduce flashbacks after viewing traumatic images (November 11, 2010) -- The computer game Tetris may have a special ability to reduce flashbacks after viewing traumatic images not shared by other types of computer game, scientists have discovered in a series of experiments. ... > full story
Novel type of magnetic wave discovered: Findings could improve wiring in national electrical grid systems (November 11, 2010) -- A team of international researchers has made a significant breakthrough in an effort to understand the phenomenon of high-temperature superconductivity in complex copper oxides. ... > full story
Atoms-for-Peace: A galactic collision in action (November 11, 2010) -- European Southern Observatory astronomers have produced a spectacular new image of the famous Atoms-for-Peace galaxy. This galactic pile-up, formed by the collision of two galaxies, provides an excellent opportunity for astronomers to study how mergers affect the evolution of the universe. ... > full story
Saturn is on a cosmic dimmer switch, Cassini reveals (November 11, 2010) -- Like a cosmic light bulb on a dimmer switch, Saturn emitted gradually less energy each year from 2005 to 2009, according to observations by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. But unlike an ordinary bulb, Saturn's southern hemisphere consistently emitted more energy than its northern one. On top of that, energy levels changed with the seasons and differed from the last time a spacecraft visited in the early 1980s. ... > full story
Novel metamaterial vastly improves quality of ultrasound imaging (November 11, 2010) -- A new copper "metamaterial" can overcome some of the limitations of acoustic microscopes and imagers, including ultrasound imagers. Researchers have designed and built a metamaterial that improves the picture quality of sonography by a factor of 50. The material, composed of copper tubes, resonantly channels evanescent acoustic waves to a detector, capturing more detail than is carried by propagating sound waves. ... > full story
Cancer news articles may contribute to confusion about cancer (November 10, 2010) -- New research shows that most online news stories about cancer contain language that likely contributes to public uncertainty about the disease -- a significant finding, given that at least one-third of Americans seek health information online. ... > full story
Computer-automated monitoring system may help identify medical devices with potential safety risks (November 10, 2010) -- Implementation in Massachusetts of a computer-automated safety surveillance system of clinical outcomes registries for cardiovascular devices resulted in the identification of a drug-releasing stent that had significantly higher rates of major adverse cardiac events than similar stents, according to a new study. ... > full story
Nanopore array allows simultaneous tests in search for new drugs (November 10, 2010) -- A novel nanopore array structure can be used to monitor the transport kinetics of membrane proteins by fluorescence microscopy. Due to the parallel design of the nanopore chip, a large number of samples can be analyzed simultaneously. ... > full story
Astronomers find 'snooker' star system (November 10, 2010) -- Astronomers have discovered an unusual star system which looks like, and may even once have behaved like, a game of snooker. ... > full story
Couple's numeracy skills linked to greater family wealth, study finds (November 10, 2010) -- Couples who score well on a simple test of numeracy ability accumulate more wealth by middle age than couples who score poorly on such a test, according to a new study of married couples in the United States. ... > full story
Oil will run dry 90 years before substitutes roll out, study predicts (November 10, 2010) -- At the current pace of research and development, global oil will run out 90 years before replacement technologies are ready, says a new study based on stock market expectations. ... > full story
How the dragon got its 'snap': Computer modeling and experimental genetics combined to work out complex shapes of organs (November 10, 2010) -- Scientists are pioneering a powerful combination of computer modelling and experimental genetics to work out how the complex shapes of organs found in nature are produced by the interacting actions of genes. Their findings will influence our thinking about how these complex shapes have evolved. ... > full story
Portable microwave sensors for measuring vital signs (November 10, 2010) -- Current medical techniques for monitoring the heart rate and other vital signs use electrodes attached to the body, which are impractical for patients who want to move around. Researchers in Japan have developed a new technique to disconnect people from their electrodes by using microwaves. ... > full story
Researchers aim to harvest solar energy from pavement to melt ice, power streetlights (November 10, 2010) -- The heat radiating off roadways has long been a factor in explaining why city temperatures are often considerably warmer than nearby suburban or rural areas. Now a team of engineering researchers is examining methods of harvesting that solar energy to melt ice, power streetlights, illuminate signs, heat buildings and potentially use it for many other purposes. ... > full story
Global warming reduces available wind energy, new research finds (November 10, 2010) -- A switch to wind energy will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions -- and reduce the global warming they cause. But there's a catch, according to a new study: rising temperatures decrease wind speeds, making for less power bang for the wind turbine buck. ... > full story
New method for simple fabrication of microperforated membranes (November 10, 2010) -- Microscopically porous polymer membranes have numerous applications in microfluidics, where they can act as filters, masks for surface patterning, and even as components in 3-D devices. A simple new method allows chemists to fabricate free-standing polymer membranes with neatly patterned holes as small as 10 microns. ... > full story
Taking movies beyond Avatar -- for under £100 (November 10, 2010) -- A new development in virtual cameras at the University of Abertay Dundee is developing the pioneering work of James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar using a Nintendo Wii-like motion controller – all for less than £100. ... > full story
Foucault revisited: Argentinean scientists show how to build a pendulum for any classroom (November 10, 2010) -- A Foucault pendulum is a simple device for observing the Earth's rotation. While such pendulums have been around for more than 150 years and are a staple of the modern science museum, they are generally large and unwieldy. Now a group of researchers from Argentina has developed a new type of compact pendulum. ... > full story
Why New York City is 'average': Researchers want to improve how we determine urban exceptionality (November 10, 2010) -- Turns out many of the cities we typically think of as great ones probably wouldn't show up near the top of most rankings, if Luis Bettencourt of the Santa Fe Institute has his way. He and his colleagues believe traditional per-capita measures are not very useful for determining what makes one city better or worse than another because they don't treat separately the roles population size and local character play in making it so. ... > full story
Sensor on Mars rover to measure radiation environment (November 9, 2010) -- About eight months before the NASA rover Curiosity touches down on Mars in August 2012, the mission's science measurements will begin much closer to Earth. ... > full story
Getting to know the Sun advances fusion research: Coaxial helicity injection could make fusion reactors cheaper (November 9, 2010) -- A method known as coaxial helicity injection could eliminate an expensive component in tokamaks, leading to a more economical fusion reactor. ... > full story
Offshore wind farms: Low loss solutions for transferring current (November 9, 2010) -- Using wind energy where the wind blows strongest makes perfect sense as long as the energy can be readily transported to where it is needed. The first offshore plants are already being erected, and many more are planned. But the farther they are away from the coast, the more urgent becomes the problem of transferring the current with as low a loss as possible. Over long distances, this is possible only with direct current. ... > full story
NASA's Fermi telescope finds giant structure in our galaxy (November 9, 2010) -- NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has unveiled a previously unseen structure centered in the Milky Way. The feature spans 50,000 light-years and may be the remnant of an eruption from a supersized black hole at the center of our galaxy. ... > full story
New way of detecting concealed radioactive material: Sniffing out dirty bombs via electromagnetic breakdown of air (November 9, 2010) -- Researchers in Maryland have proposed a scheme for detecting a concealed source of radioactive material without searching containers one by one. The concept is based on the gamma-ray emission from the radioactive material that would pass through the shipping container walls and ionize the surrounding air. ... > full story
Hyper-texting and hyper-networking linked to health risks for teens (November 9, 2010) -- Texting while driving can be a deadly combination for anyone. Yet, new data reveal that the dangers of excessive texting among teens are not limited to the road. Hyper-texting and hyper-networking are now giving rise to a new health risk category for this age group. ... > full story
Engineered plants make potential precursor to raw material for plastics (November 9, 2010) -- Scientists report engineering a plant that produces industrially relevant levels of compounds that could potentially be used to make plastics. ... > full story
CERN completes transition to lead-ion running at the Large Hadron Collider (November 9, 2010) -- Four days is all it took for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) operations team at CERN to complete the transition from protons to lead ions in the LHC. After extracting the final proton beam of 2010 on Nov. 4, commissioning the lead-ion beam was underway by early afternoon. First collisions were recorded Nov. 7, and stable running conditions marked the start of physics with heavy ions on Nov. 8. ... > full story
Parents should talk about math early and often with their children -- even before preschool, report finds (November 9, 2010) -- The amount of time parents spend talking about numbers has a much bigger impact on how young children learn mathematics than was previously known. For example, children whose parents talked more about numbers were much more likely to understand the number principle that states that the size of a set of objects is determined by the last number reached when counting the set. ... > full story
Energy harvesting: Nanogenerators grow strong enough to power small conventional electronic devices (November 9, 2010) -- Researchers have reached a significant milestone in their development of nanometer-scale generators that harvest mechanical energy from the environment using an array of tiny nanowires: the ability to power conventional electronic devices such as liquid-crystal displays. ... > full story
Plasma as a fast optical switch (November 9, 2010) -- Physicists are presenting new research on a laser that uses relativistic effects to turn otherwise opaque plasma transparent, creating an ultra-fast optical switch useful in next-generation particle accelerators. ... > full story
Bars kill spiral galaxies, astronomers and volunteers discover (November 9, 2010) -- With the help of the army of volunteers working on the Galaxy Zoo 2 'citizen science' project, an international team of scientists has discovered that the bars found in many spiral galaxies could be helping to kill them off. ... > full story
Children find their own way to solve arithmetic problems (November 9, 2010) -- Children with learning difficulties can benefit from being encouraged to find their own way to solve arithmetic problems, according to new research. ... > full story
Vacuum arcs spark new interest (November 9, 2010) -- Whenever two pieces of metal at different voltages are brought near each other, as when an appliance is plugged into a live socket, there is a chance there will be an arc between them. Most of the arcs people see are a breakdown of the gas between the metal surfaces, but this type of breakdown can also occur in a vacuum. This vacuum breakdown, which until recently has not been well understood, has implications for applications from particle accelerators to fusion reactors. ... > full story
The many faces of the shear Alfvén wave: 3-D movies are no longer just for Hollywood blockbusters (November 9, 2010) -- When physicists probe the mysteries of plasma, the fourth state of matter, they often discover phenomena of striking beauty. Much as when the Hubble Space Telescope sent back vivid images from space of ionized gas clouds (an interstellar plasma!), new 3-D images of shear Alfvén waves are delighting both scientists and a new generation of science enthusiasts. ... > full story
Easy fabrication of non-reflecting and self-cleaning silicon and plastic surfaces (November 9, 2010) -- Scientists specializing in microfabrication and microfludics have developed a new and rapid method for fabrication of non-reflecting and self-cleaning surfaces. Surface properties are based on the nanostructured surface. ... > full story
Graphene gets a Teflon makeover (November 9, 2010) -- Scientists have created a new material which could replace or compete with Teflon in thousands of everyday applications. The researchers believe that fluorographene -- a flat, crystal version of Teflon and is mechanically as strong as graphene -- could be used as a thinner, lighter version of Teflon, and also find applications in electronics, such as for new types of LED devices. ... > full story
Large Hadron Collider throws lead (November 9, 2010) -- The Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva, Switzerland, enters a new phase of operations Nov. 4. Scientists will stop running streams of protons through the machine and begin running lead atoms, stripped of their electrons, around the ring so that they smash into each other. ... > full story
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