ScienceDaily Technology Headlines

for Wednesday, October 27, 2010

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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

Hubble data used to look 10,000 years into the future (October 26, 2010) -- The globular star cluster Omega Centauri has caught the attention of sky watchers ever since the ancient astronomer Ptolemy first catalogued it 2,000 years ago. Ptolemy, however, thought Omega Centauri was a single star. He didn't know that the "star" was actually a beehive swarm of nearly 10 million stars, all orbiting a common center of gravity. The stars are so tightly crammed together that astronomers had to wait for the powerful vision of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to peer deep into the core of the "beehive" and resolve individual stars. Hubble's vision is so sharp it can even measure the motion of many of these stars, and over a relatively short span of time. ... > 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

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

New concept in microscopy: Self-reconstructing laser beams (October 25, 2010) -- Researchers are developing a microscope with illuminating beams that actively refocus in a light-scattering medium. The new method not only provides novel insights into the physics of complex light scattering, but it also enables, for example, to look about 50 percent deeper into human skin tissue than with conventional laser beams. ... > full story

Plagiarism sleuths tackle full-text biomedical articles (October 25, 2010) -- In scientific publishing, how much reuse of text is too much? Researchers at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech and collaborators have shown that a computer-based text-searching tool is capable of unearthing questionable publication practices from thousands of full-text papers in the biomedical literature. ... > full story

Tiny brained bees solve a complex mathematical problem (October 25, 2010) -- Bumblebees can find the solution to a complex mathematical problem which keeps computers busy for days. Scientists in the UK have discovered that bees learn to fly the shortest possible route between flowers even if they discover the flowers in a different order. Bees are effectively solving the 'Traveling Salesman Problem', and these are the first animals found to do this. ... > full story

Sterilizing with fluorescent lights: New surface may kill antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria with fluorescent light (October 25, 2010) -- Scientists in New Mexico are working on a new type of antimicrobial surface that won't harm people or animals but is inhospitable to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus -- the bacterial cause of an estimated 19,000 deaths and -4 billion in health-care costs per year in the US. ... > full story

Synthetic FlexBone could help speed bone transplant recovery (October 25, 2010) -- With a failure rate as high as 50 percent, bone tissue grafts pose a significant obstacle to orthopedic surgeons attempting to repair complex fractures. Current synthetic substitutes rarely possess the bone-like properties needed for successful grafting and are often difficult for surgeons to manipulate in the operating room. In response to these challenges, researchers have developed a synthetic bone material called FlexBone. ... > full story

Computational model of swimming fish could inspire design of robots or medical prosthetics (October 25, 2010) -- Scientists have developed a computational model of a swimming fish that is the first to address the interaction of internal and external forces on locomotion. The research team simulated how the fish's body bends, depending on the forces from the fluid moving around it as well as the muscles inside. Understanding these interactions will help design medical prosthetics for humans that work with the body's natural mechanics. ... > full story

Photovoltaic medicine: Miniature solar cells might make chemotherapy less toxic (October 25, 2010) -- Micro-scaled photovoltaic devices may one day be used to deliver chemotherapeutic drugs directly to tumors, rendering chemotherapy less toxic to surrounding tissue. ... > full story

Kryptonite superglue improving the quality of life in heart patients recovering from surgery (October 25, 2010) -- New research shows that a surgical procedure using a cutting-edge super glue pioneered a year ago by Canadian researchers can improve the recovery of heart patients recovering from open-chest surgery. ... > full story

Falkland Islands radar study impacts climate research: New equipment will monitor activity which creates the ‘Southern Lights’ (October 25, 2010) -- Physicists and engineers have installed a radar system on the Falkland Islands to monitor the upper atmosphere activity which creates the 'Southern Lights'. The new radar joins a network of 22 such radars, the international Super Dual Auroral Radar Network or SuperDARN. Data from SuperDARN is made available across the internet in real time, monitoring the upper atmosphere to understand its link with the lower atmosphere, where our weather is, and the impact of the Sun's 'solar wind' on our environment. ... > full story

Changes in energy R&D needed to combat climate change, experts say (October 25, 2010) -- A new assessment of future scenarios that limit the extent of global warming cautions that unless current imbalances in research and development portfolios for the development of new, efficient, and clean energy technologies are redressed, greenhouse gas emission reduction targets are unlikely to be met, or met only at considerable costs. ... > full story

Computer software helps new medical graduates prescribe safely (October 25, 2010) -- New computer software has recently been created for new graduate doctors to ensure they prescribe safely from day one on the wards. The SCRIPT (Standard Computerized Revalidation Instrument for Prescribing and Therapeutics) project has brought together a team of experts in the UK to create this innovative, e-learning toolkit. ... > full story

Atomic-level manufacturing: Manufacturing with every atom in its proper place may be coming soon (October 24, 2010) -- The long-held dream of creating atomically precise 3-D structures in a manufacturing environment is approaching reality, according to the top scientist at a Texas company making tools aimed at that ambitious goal. ... > full story

Mathematical model helps marathoners pace themselves to a strong finish (October 24, 2010) -- Most marathon runners know they need to consume carbohydrates before and during a race, but many don't have a good fueling strategy. Now, one dedicated marathoner has taken a more rigorous approach to calculating just how much carbohydrate a runner needs to fuel him or herself through 26.2 miles, and what pace that runner can reasonably expect to sustain. ... > full story

Electron billiards in nanoscale circuits (October 24, 2010) -- In solar cells, solar radiation boosts electrons to higher energy states, thereby releasing them from their atomic bonds as electricity begins to flow. Scientists have now developed a novel method to analyze the way photogenerated electrons move in the smallest photodetectors. ... > full story

Largest parity violation and other adventures in table-top physics: Atomic experiments push boundary of known physical world (October 24, 2010) -- Exploring the fundamental laws of physics has often required huge accelerators and particles colliding at high energies. But table-top experiments, usually employing exquisitely tuned lasers and sensitive detectors, have also achieved the precision necessary for exploring the basic laws of physics at the heart of relativity and quantum mechanics. ... > full story

New nano techniques integrate electron gas-producing oxides with silicon (October 24, 2010) -- In cold weather, many children can't resist breathing onto a window and writing in the condensation. Now imagine the window as an electronic device platform, the condensation as a special conductive gas, and the letters as lines of nanowires. Researchers have demonstrated methods to harness essentially this concept for broad applications in nanoelectronic devices, such as next-generation memory or tiny transistors. ... > full story

A new way to weigh planets (October 23, 2010) -- Astronomers have developed a new way to weigh the planets in our solar system -- using radio signals from the small spinning stars called pulsars. ... > full story

Nanotube thermopower: Efforts to store energy in carbon nanotubes (October 23, 2010) -- Researchers from Massachusetts have found a way to store energy in thin carbon nanotubes by adding fuel along the length of the tube, chemical energy, which can later be turned into electricity by heating one end of the nanotubes. ... > full story

Scientists open electrical link to living cells (October 23, 2010) -- The Terminator. The Borg. The Six Million Dollar Man. Science fiction is ripe with biological beings armed with artificial capabilities. In reality, however, the clunky connections between living and non-living worlds often lack a clear channel for communication. Now scientists have designed an electrical link to living cells engineered to shuttle electrons across a cell's membrane. This direct channel could yield cells that can read and respond to electronic signals, or efficiently transfer sunlight into electricity. ... > full story

Short-range scattering in quantum dots: Discovery advances novel devices (October 23, 2010) -- Chinese researchers have described a new breakthrough in understanding the way electrons travel around quantum dots. This might lead to promising new fabrication methods of novel quantum devices. ... > full story

Chemical engineers use gold to discover breakthrough for creating biorenewable chemicals (October 23, 2010) -- Chemical engineers have uncovered the key features that control the high reactivity of gold nanoparticles in a process that oxidizes alcohols in water. The research is an important first step in unlocking the potential of using metal catalysts for developing biorenewable chemicals. The scientific discovery could one day serve as the foundation for creating a wide range of consumer products from biorenewable carbon feedstocks, as opposed to the petroleum-based chemicals currently being used as common building blocks for commodities such as cosmetics, plastics, pharmaceuticals and fuels. ... > full story

New cometary phenomenon greets approaching spacecraft (October 22, 2010) -- Recent observations of comet Hartley 2 have scientists scratching their heads, while they anticipate a flyby of the small, icy world on Nov. 4. A phenomenon was recorded by imagers aboard NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft from Sept. 9 to 17 during pre-planned scientific observations of the comet. These observations, when coupled with expected images during the closest encounter with Hartley 2 on Nov. 4, will become the most detailed look yet at a comet's activity during its pass through the inner-solar system. ... > full story

Value-added sulfur scrubbing: Converting acid rain chemicals into useful products (October 22, 2010) -- Power plants that burn fossil fuels remain the main source of electricity generation across the globe. Modern power plants have scrubbers to remove sulfur compounds from their flue gases, which has helped reduce the problem of acid rain. Now, researchers in India have devised a way to convert the waste material produced by the scrubbing process into value-added products. ... > full story

Space telescopes reveal previously unknown brilliant X-ray explosion in Milky Way galaxy (October 22, 2010) -- Astronomers in Japan, using an X-ray detector on the International Space Station, and in the United States, using NASA's Swift space observatory, are announcing the discovery of an object newly emitting X-rays, which previously had been hidden inside our Milky Way galaxy in the constellation Centaurus. ... > full story

Researchers break speed barrier in solving important class of linear systems (October 22, 2010) -- Computer scientists have devised an innovative and elegantly concise algorithm that can efficiently solve systems of linear equations that are critical to such important computer applications as image processing, logistics and scheduling problems, and recommendation systems. ... > full story

Towards better explosives detectors (October 22, 2010) -- Over the past decade, a team of scientists in Maryland have been working to stop the threat of terrorist-based attacks in the form of explosives or explosive-based devices, by providing a sound measurement and standard infrastructure. ... > full story

Lunar 'permafrost': Evidence for widespread water ice on the moon (October 22, 2010) -- Scientists from NASA's Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment team have detected the widespread presence of water ice in large areas of the moon's south pole. This lunar 'permafrost' is analogous to the high-latitude terrain found on the Earth and on Mars, where subfreezing temperatures persist below the surface throughout the year, scientists say. ... > full story

Spotting suspicious moles (October 22, 2010) -- Most of the spots on our skin are perfectly harmless moles, collections of cells called melanocytes. But occasionally, these melanocytes turn cancerous, creating the potentially deadly skin tumor melanoma. Scientists have now developed a new technique that aims to help doctors distinguish melanomas from harmless moles using high-resolution snapshots of suspicious spots. ... > full story

Forensic metal fingerprinting: Simple, handheld device which can measure corrosion on machine parts (October 22, 2010) -- Groundbreaking research into fingerprint detection now has an industrial application, thanks to a new invention by the scientist who developed the technique. Dr John Bond's method of identifying fingerprints on brass bullet-casings, even after they have been wiped clean, was based on the minuscule amounts of corrosion which can be caused by sweat. Now, Dr. Bond has applied the same technique to industry by developing a simple, handheld device which can measure corrosion on machine parts. ... > full story

Taking a closer look at plaque (October 22, 2010) -- Scientists are using the technique of Raman spectroscopy to study two common dental plaque bacteria, Streptococcus sanguis and mutans. The relative balance of the two may be an indicator of a patient's oral health and risk for tooth decay -- Streptococcus sanguis is associated with "healthy" plaque, while mutans is associated with tooth decay. ... > full story

World's smallest on-chip low-pass filter developed (October 22, 2010) -- A research team from Singapore has successfully designed the world's smallest on-chip low-pass filter which is 1,000 times smaller than existing off-chip filters. ... > full story

Light on silicon better than copper? (October 22, 2010) -- As good as copper has been in zipping information from one circuit to another on silicon inside computers and other electronic devices, optical signals can carry much more, according to electrical engineers. So the engineers have designed and demonstrated microscopically small lasers integrated with thin film-light guides on silicon that could replace the copper in a host of electronic products. ... > full story

Real-time imaging of stroke models (October 22, 2010) -- One of the major impediments to understanding how brain cells die during a stroke and identifying new ways to protect them has been the long-standing inability to image strokes, or "ischemic events" in living tissue. Now researchers have developed methods to induce strokes in animal models and image the events as they unfold. ... > full story

Using PEAT to capture, share and analyze protein experimental data (October 22, 2010) -- Researchers in Ireland have created a novel application that not only facilitates the analysis of experimental data generated in the course of a research project but also ensures that this valuable data is available for future use. ... > full story

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