ScienceDaily Technology Headlines
for Wednesday, January 12, 2011
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DNA introduced directly into cell nucleus using protein nanodisks (January 12, 2011) -- Researchers have discovered a novel gene therapy method using particles measuring only a few nanometers which encapsulate genetic material and introduce themselves directly into the cell nucleus. The nanodisks, as researchers have named the particles, travel rapidly to the interior of the cell until reaching the nucleus, thus increasing the efficiency of the gene transfer process. ... > full story
New insights into sun's photosphere (January 12, 2011) -- Researchers at Big Bear Solar Observatory have reported new insights into the small-scale dynamics of the Sun's photosphere. The observations were made during a period of historic inactivity on the Sun. The high-resolution capabilities of BBSO's new 1.6-meter aperture solar telescope have made such work possible. ... > full story
Study estimates land available for biofuel crops (January 12, 2011) -- Using detailed land analysis, researchers have found that biofuel crops cultivated on available land could produce up to half of the world's current fuel consumption -- without affecting food crops or pastureland. Focusing on marginal land, the team assessed land availability from a physical perspective to identify land around the globe available to produce grass crops for biofuels, with minimal impact on agriculture or the environment. ... > full story
International Space Station begins new era of utilization (January 12, 2011) -- A new era of utilization for research and technology begins for the completed International Space Station. The orbiting laboratory shifts focus in 2011 from finalizing construction efforts to full-scale use of the facility for scientific investigation and technological advances. ... > full story
NASA's Fermi catches thunderstorms hurling antimatter into space (January 11, 2011) -- Scientists have detected beams of antimatter produced above thunderstorms on Earth -- a phenomenon never seen before. Scientists think the antimatter particles were formed in a terrestrial gamma-ray flash (TGF), a brief burst produced inside thunderstorms and shown to be associated with lightning. It is estimated that about 500 TGFs occur daily worldwide, but most go undetected. ... > full story
New glass stronger and tougher than steel (January 11, 2011) -- A new type of damage-tolerant metallic glass, demonstrating a strength and toughness beyond that of steel or any other known material, has been developed. ... > full story
'Liquid pistons' could drive new advances in camera lenses and drug delivery (January 11, 2011) -- A few unassuming drops of liquid locked in a very precise game of "follow the leader" could one day be found in mobile phone cameras, medical imaging equipment, implantable drug delivery devices, and even implantable eye lenses. ... > full story
Bottle rockets can cause serious eye injuries in children (January 11, 2011) -- Bottle rockets can cause significant eye injuries in children, often leading to permanent loss of vision, according to a new study. ... > full story
Wave power could contain fusion plasma (January 11, 2011) -- Researchers may have found a way to channel the flux and fury of a nuclear fusion plasma into a means to help sustain the electric current needed to contain that very same fusion plasma. ... > full story
NASA's Kepler mission discovers its first rocky planet (January 11, 2011) -- NASA's Kepler mission confirmed the discovery of its first rocky planet, named Kepler-10b. Measuring 1.4 times the size of Earth, it is the smallest planet ever discovered outside our solar system. The discovery of this planet, called an exoplanet, is based on more than eight months of data collected by the spacecraft from May 2009 to early January 2010. ... > full story
Graphene grains make atom-thick patchwork 'quilts' (January 11, 2011) -- Artistry from science: researchers have unveiled striking, atomic-resolution details of what graphene "quilts" look like at the boundaries between patches, and have uncovered key insights into graphene's electrical and mechanical properties. ... > full story
How do you make lithium melt in the cold? (January 11, 2011) -- Sophisticated tools allow scientists to subject the basic elements of matter to conditions drastic enough to modify their behavior. By doing this, they can expand our understanding of matter. A research team was able to demonstrate surprising properties of the element lithium under intense pressure and low temperatures. ... > full story
Hubble zooms in on a space oddity (January 11, 2011) -- One of the strangest space objects ever seen is being scrutinized by the penetrating vision of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. A mysterious, glowing green blob of gas is floating in space near a spiral galaxy. Hubble uncovered delicate filaments of gas and a pocket of young star clusters in the giant object, which is the size of our Milky Way galaxy. ... > full story
Shellfish safer to eat, thanks to biosensor technology (January 11, 2011) -- New technology promises to make shellfish safer to eat. A new test not only ensures shellfish are free of toxins before they reach the food chain but is likely to revolutionize the global fishing industry. While the current process for monitoring potentially dangerous toxins in shellfish takes up to two days, the new test slashes the testing time to just 30 minutes using new biosensor technology and provides a much more reliable result. ... > full story
Cassini to probe icy moon Rhea for clues to Saturn rings (January 11, 2011) -- Saturn's icy moon Rhea might seem a strange place to look for clues to understanding the vast majestic rings encircling Saturn. But that's what NASA's Cassini spacecraft plans to do on its next flyby of Rhea. ... > full story
Energy limits global economic growth, study finds (January 11, 2011) -- A new study establishes macroecological correlations across countries and over time between per capita gross domestic product and per capita energy use. The authors infer a causal linkage. Correlations between these same two measures and measures of lifestyle quality lead the authors to believe that energy production would have to increase several-fold to support a still-growing world population in the current US lifestyle. ... > full story
Couch potatoes beware: Too much time spent watching TV is harmful to heart health (January 11, 2011) -- Spending too much leisure time in front of a TV or computer screen appears to dramatically increase the risk for heart disease and premature death from any cause, perhaps regardless of how much exercise one gets, according to a new study. ... > full story
IPv6 guide provides path to secure deployment of next-generation Internet protocol (January 11, 2011) -- As the day draws nearer for the world to run out of the unique addresses that allow us to use the Internet, researchers have issued a guide for managers, network engineers, transition teams and others to help them deploy the next generation Internet protocol (IPv6) securely. ... > full story
Planck satellite team uncovers secrets of the universe (January 11, 2011) -- The European Space Agency's Planck satellite mission is revealing thousands of "exotic" astronomical objects, including extremely cold dust clouds, galaxies with powerful nuclei and giant clusters of galaxies. ... > full story
14 billion years of cosmic history in one: Planck mission presents first results (January 11, 2011) -- The Planck conference will be dedicated to the impressive results achieved in the first year with the Planck Surveyor satellite mission to study the Big Bang, 14 billion years ago: a catalog with 15000 celestial objects such as galaxy clusters, quasars, radio galaxies, nearby galaxies and galactic dust clouds, 25 scientific papers, as well as the most precise measurement of the far infrared background, which reveals star formation in the early universe. ... > full story
VISTA stares deeply into the blue lagoon (January 10, 2011) -- A new infrared image of the Lagoon Nebula was captured as part of a five-year study of the Milky Way using the European Southern Observatory's VISTA telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. This is a small piece of a much larger image of the region surrounding the nebula, which is, in turn, only one part of a huge survey. ... > full story
With proper planning, selective rather than mass vaccination can reduce spread of flu, say physicists (January 10, 2011) -- During outbreaks of the flu, hospitals often reporting overcrowding, and doctors advise people who have not yet been vaccinated against flu to get their shots. Surprisingly, however, three physicists have developed an unconventional, theoretical strategy for intensive but limited vaccination against infectious diseases (such as flu) that would replace the practice of mass inoculation over a prolonged period. The physicists developed their theory using a technique borrowed from quantum mechanics. ... > full story
Researchers developing bio-based polymers that heal cracks (January 10, 2011) -- Researchers are developing biorenewable polymers capable of healing themselves as they degrade and crack. The self-healing properties can increase material lifetimes and reduce maintenance. There are challenges, but researchers think there's potential to develop new and effective materials. ... > full story
Spinning the unspinnable: Superconducting, energy storing and catalytic yarns based on ancient types of spirals (January 10, 2011) -- Researchers found that by twisting nanotube sheets into various spirals, they absorb greater concentrations of embedded materials, while preserving the flexibility and strength of nanotube fibers. ... > full story
Surprising flares in crab nebula (January 10, 2011) -- Astronomers have recently detected two short-duration gamma-ray pulses coming from the Crab Nebula, which was previously believed to emit radiation at very steady rate. The pulses were fueled by the most energetic particles ever traced to a discrete astronomical object. ... > full story
From dusty punch cards, new insights into link between cholesterol and heart disease (January 10, 2011) -- A stack of punch cards from a landmark study published in 1966, and the legwork to track down the study's participants years later, has yielded the longest analysis of the effects of lipoproteins on coronary heart disease. The study tracked almost 1,900 people over a 29-year period, which is nearly three times longer than other studies that examine the link between different sizes of high-density lipoprotein particles and heart disease. ... > full story
Dwarf galaxy harbors supermassive black hole (January 10, 2011) -- The discovery of a relatively nearby dwarf galaxy with a supermassive black hole shows astronomers what young galaxies in the very early Universe probably were like. It also greatly strengthens the case for such supermassive black holes forming before the galaxies built up to full size. ... > full story
Extracting cellular 'engines' may aid in understanding mitochondrial diseases (January 10, 2011) -- Medical researchers who crave a means of exploring the genetic culprits behind a host of neuromuscular disorders may have just had their wish granted by a research team that has performed surgery on single cells to extract and examine their mitochondria. ... > full story
Biofuel grasslands better for birds than ethanol staple corn, researchers find (January 10, 2011) -- Developing biofuel from native perennials instead of corn in the Midwest's rolling grasslands would better protect threatened bird populations, research suggests. Federal mandates and market forces both are expected to promote rising biofuel production, but the environmental consequences of turning more acreage over to row crops for fuel are a serious concern. ... > full story
The 'mad' Egyptian scholar who proved Aristotle wrong (January 10, 2011) -- Ibn al-Haytham's 11th-century Book of Optics, which was published exactly 1000 years ago, is often cited alongside Newton's Principia as one of the most influential books in physics. Yet very little is known about the writer, considered by many to be the father of modern optics. ... > full story
Origin of life on Earth: 'Natural' asymmetry of biological molecules may have come from space (January 7, 2011) -- Certain molecules do exist in two forms which are symmetrical mirror images of each other: they are known as chiral molecules. On Earth, the chiral molecules of life, especially amino acids and sugars, exist in only one form, either left-handed or right-handed. Why is it that life has initially chosen one form over the other? Now researchers have for the first time obtained an excess of left-handed molecules (and then an excess of right-handedones) under conditions that reproduce those found in interstellar space. This result therefore supports the hypothesis that the asymmetry of biological molecules on Earth has a cosmic origin. The researchers also suggest that the solar nebula formed in a region of massive stars. ... > full story
Packaging that knows when food is going bad (January 7, 2011) -- Packaging that alerts consumers to food which is starting to go bad is being developed by researchers in the UK. ... > full story
Scientists construct synthetic proteins that sustain life (January 7, 2011) -- In a groundbreaking achievement that could help scientists "build" new biological systems, Princeton University scientists have constructed for the first time artificial proteins that enable the growth of living cells. ... > full story
Andromeda’s once and future stars (January 7, 2011) -- Two European Space Agency observatories have combined forces to show the Andromeda Galaxy in a new light. Herschel sees rings of star formation in this, the most detailed image of the Andromeda Galaxy ever taken at infrared wavelengths, and XMM-Newton shows dying stars shining X-rays into space. ... > full story
Health chip gives instant diagnoses (January 7, 2011) -- Soon, your family doctor will no longer have to send blood or cancer cell samples to the laboratory. A little chip will give her test results on the spot. ... > full story
Regional dialects are alive and well on Twitter: Slang terms like y'all, yinz, koo, coo and suttin predict location of tweet authors (January 7, 2011) -- Microbloggers may think they're interacting in one big Twitterverse, but computer science researchers find that regional slang and dialects are as evident in tweets as they are in everyday conversations. ... > full story
Sulfur proves important in the formation of gold mines (January 7, 2011) -- Collaborating with an international research team, an economic geologist has discovered how gold-rich magma is produced, unveiling an all-important step in the formation of gold mines. Robert Linnen found sulfur enhances gold's solubility, and solubility is an important step in forming a gold deposit. The study could lead to a breakthrough in choosing geographic targets for gold exploration. ... > full story
Longstanding mystery of Sun's hot outer atmosphere solved (January 7, 2011) -- One of the most enduring mysteries in solar physics is why the Sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, is millions of degrees hotter than its surface. Now scientists believe they have discovered a major source of hot gas that replenishes the corona: jets of plasma shooting up from just above the Sun's surface. ... > full story
Solar research instrument 'fills the gap,' views sun's innermost corona (January 7, 2011) -- During a total eclipse of the sun, skywatchers are awed by the shimmering corona -- a faint glow that surrounds the sun like gossamer flower petals. The corona becomes visible only when the sun is blocked, which happens for just a few minutes during an eclipse. Now, an instrument on board NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory is giving unprecedented views of the innermost corona 24 hours a day, seven days a week. ... > full story
Digital reminiscence systems: Life-logging assists dementia sufferers, research finds (January 7, 2011) -- Digital reminiscence systems could improve quality of life for people with mild dementia, according to new research. Dementia is on the increase, but for the sake of the quality of life of sufferers and their family and friends finding ways to allow the patient to remain in their own home and to live independently is an issue that must be addressed. At the same time, enabling independent living could also reduce the economic burden. ... > full story
Carbon swap bank to beat climate change, Australian researchers propose (January 6, 2011) -- Australian researchers have suggested that nations should abandon the concept of carbon emissions trading in favor of a carbon swap bank that might lead to genuine reductions in the amount of carbon dioxide greenhouse gas entering the atmosphere and so provide a mechanism for reducing climate change. ... > full story
Is your convertible damaging your hearing? (January 6, 2011) -- Driving convertible cars with the top open at speeds exceeding 88.5 kilometres per hour (55 miles per hour) may put drivers at increased risk of noise-induced hearing loss, according to new research. ... > full story
Major advance in MRI allows much faster brain scans (January 6, 2011) -- Physicists and physicians have combined two new MRI techniques to reduce the time for a brain scan by a factor of 7 to 10. Faster functional and diffusion MRI scans will boost the national effort to map the brain's wiring, called the Human Connectome Project. ... > full story
Telescope calibration may help explain mystery of universe's expansion (January 6, 2011) -- Is the expansion of the universe accelerating for some unknown reason? A telescope newly calibrated by scientists can be more certain of one day obtaining an accurate answer. ... > full story
Functionally graded shape memory polymers developed (January 6, 2011) -- Scientists have succeeded in applying the concept of functionally graded materials to shape memory polymers. ... > full story
Newly developed cloak hides underwater objects from sonar (January 6, 2011) -- Researchers have demonstrated an acoustic cloak, a technology that renders underwater objects invisible to sonar and other ultrasound waves. They have developed a working prototype, metamaterial capable of hiding an object from a broad range of sound waves. Sixteen layers of specially structured acoustic circuits bend sound waves to wrap them around the outer layers of the cloak. ... > full story
How to soften a diamond (January 6, 2011) -- After hundreds of years, researchers have managed to decode the atomic mechanism behind diamond grinding. ... > full story
How studded winter tires may damage public health, as well as pavement (January 6, 2011) -- Scientists are reporting new evidence on how studded tires -- wintertime fixtures in some areas but banned in others for causing damage to pavement -- may also damage the health of motorists and people living near highways. Studded tires have small metal protrusions from the rubber tread that improve traction on icy or snow-covered roads. ... > full story
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