ScienceDaily Technology Headlines
for Saturday, December 11, 2010
Welcome to another edition of ScienceDaily's email newsletter. You can change your subscription options or unsubscribe at any time.
WISE sees an explosion of infrared light (December 10, 2010) -- A circular rainbow appears like a halo around an exploded star in a new view of the IC 443 nebula from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. When massive stars die, they explode in tremendous blasts, called supernovae, which send out shock waves. The shock waves sweep up and heat surrounding gas and dust, creating supernova remnants like the one pictured in the new image. The supernova in IC 443 happened somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 years ago. ... > full story
Odyssey orbiter nears Martian longevity record (December 10, 2010) -- By the middle of next week, NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter will have worked longer at Mars than any other spacecraft in history. Odyssey made its most famous discovery -- evidence for copious water ice just below the dry surface of Mars -- during its first few months, and it finished its radiation-safety check for future astronauts before the end of its prime mission in 2004. The bonus years of extended missions since then have enabled many accomplishments that would not have been possible otherwise. ... > full story
Winter treat for skywatchers as Geminid meteors sparkle in December sky (December 10, 2010) -- On the evening of December 13th and the morning of the 14th, skywatchers across the northern hemisphere will be looking up as the Geminid meteor shower reaches its peak, in one of the best night sky events of the year. And unlike many astronomical phenomena, meteors are best seen without a telescope (and are perfectly safe to watch). ... > full story
World's smallest battery: Real-time observation of nanowire anode to help improve lithium batteries (December 10, 2010) -- A benchtop version of the world's smallest battery -- its anode a single nanowire one seven-thousandth the thickness of a human hair -- has been created by a team of researchers. ... > full story
Bioengineers develop bacterial strain to increase ethanol biofuel production (December 10, 2010) -- Bioengineers have modified a strain of bacteria to increase its ability to produce ethanol. The research reveals how adaptation and metabolic engineering can be combined for strain improvement, a positive development for the biofuel industry. ... > full story
Seeing the invisible: New 'CSI tool' visualizes bloodstains and other substances (December 10, 2010) -- Snap an image of friends in front of a window curtain and the camera captures the people -- and invisible blood stains splattered on the curtain during a murder. Sound unlikely? Chemists are reporting development of a camera with that ability to see the invisible, and more. Called multimode imaging in the thermal infrared, the new technology could find uses in crime scene investigations and elsewhere, they say. ... > full story
New insights into formation of Earth, the Moon, and Mars (December 10, 2010) -- New research reveals that the abundance of so-called highly siderophile, or metal-loving, elements like gold and platinum found in the mantles of Earth, the moon and Mars were delivered by massive impactors during the final phase of planet formation over 4.5 billion years ago. The predicted sizes of the projectiles, which hit within tens of millions of years of the giant impact that produced our moon, are consistent with current planet formation models. They predict that the largest of the late impactors on Earth -- at 1,500 to 2,000 miles in diameter -- potentially modified Earth's obliquity by approximately 10 degrees, while those for the Moon, at approximately 150-200 miles, may have delivered water to its mantle. ... > full story
Perfectly needled nonwoven (December 10, 2010) -- Hardly any other textile is as versatile as nonwoven: it keeps babies' bottoms dry and protects plants from the sun. In the Gulf of Mexico, special nonwovens soaked up the oil washed up on beaches like blotting paper. A new piece of simulation software now makes it possible to produce high-quality, stripe-free nonwoven fabrics. ... > full story
Elusive spintronics success could lead to single chip for processing and memory (December 9, 2010) -- Researchers have shown that a magnetically polarized current can be manipulated by electric fields. This important discovery opens up the prospect of simultaneously processing and storing data on electrons held in the molecular structure of computer chips -- combining computer memory and processing power on the same chip. ... > full story
Online photos may reveal your friendships (December 9, 2010) -- Comparing the locations of photos posted on the Internet with social network contacts, computer scientists have found that as few as three "co-locations" for images at different times and places could predict with high probability that two people posting photos were socially connected. ... > full story
Physicists discover ultrasensitive microwave detector (December 9, 2010) -- Physicists have discovered a way to use one of the information technology industry's mainstay materials -- gallium arsenide semiconductors -- as an ultrasensitive microwave detector that could be suitable for quantum computing. The discovery comes at a time when computer chip engineers are racing both to add nanophotonic devices directly to microchips and to boost processor speeds beyond 10 gigahertz. ... > full story
Astronomers discover, image new planet in planetary system very similar to our own (December 9, 2010) -- An international team of astronomers has discovered and imaged a fourth giant planet outside our solar system, whose discovery strengthens some remarkable resemblances between this planetary system and our own. The astronomers say the planetary system resembles a super-sized version of our solar system. ... > full story
Copyright 1995-2010 © ScienceDaily LLC. All rights reserved. Terms of use.
|
 To update/change your profile click here  |
