ScienceDaily Technology Headlines -- for Sunday, March 18, 2012

ScienceDaily Technology Headlines

for Sunday, March 18, 2012

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Icarus experiment measures neutrino speed: Even neutrinos are not faster than light (March 16, 2012) -- The ICARUS experiment at the Italian Gran Sasso laboratory has reported a new measurement of the time of flight of neutrinos from CERN to Gran Sasso. The ICARUS measurement, using last year's short pulsed beam from CERN, indicates that the neutrinos do not exceed the speed of light on their journey between the two laboratories. This is at odds with the initial measurement reported by OPERA last September. ... > full story

Ultracold experiments heat up quantum research (March 16, 2012) -- Physicists have experimentally demonstrated for the first time that atoms chilled to temperatures near absolute zero may behave like seemingly unrelated natural systems of vastly different scales, offering potential insights into links between the atomic realm and deep questions of cosmology. ... > full story

Using virtual worlds to 'soft control' people's movements in the real one (March 16, 2012) -- Computer science researchers have developed a way to exert limited control on how people move, pushing them out of their regular travel patterns. The key: tapping into some of their cell phone applications. The findings could elicit a broader range of user-collected data by driving foot traffic to under-utilized areas. ... > full story

Who wouldn't pay a penny for a sports car? The right strategy doesn't guarantee advantage in auctions, real estate or stock market (March 16, 2012) -- In a study of lowest unique bid auctions, researchers asked: Who wins these auctions, the strategic gambler or the lucky one? The answer is the lucky. But, ironically, it's a lucky person using a winning strategy. The researchers found that all players intuitively use the right strategy, and that turns the auction into a game of pure chance. The findings provide insight into playing the stock market, real estate market and other gambles. ... > full story

Nanopills release drugs directly from the inside of cells (March 16, 2012) -- Researchers in Spain have created nanoparticles which can release drugs directly from the cells' interior. The technology, which has been named "nanopills," was licensed to a firm that has verified its tolerance by administering it in vivo. ... > full story

Live cells 'printed' using standard inkjet printer (March 16, 2012) -- Researchers have found a way to create temporary holes in the membranes of live cells using a standard inkjet printer. Creating temporary pores allow researchers to put molecules inside of cells that wouldn't otherwise fit, and study how the cells react. ... > full story

Checking off symptoms online affects our perceptions of risk (March 16, 2012) -- You've been feeling under the weather. You Google your symptoms. A half-hour later, you're convinced it's nothing serious -- or afraid you have cancer. More than 60 percent of Americans get their health information online, and a majority of those decide whether to see a doctor based on what they find. "Wow, this is an era of self-diagnosis," thought Arizona State University psychologist Virginia Kwan, learning that statistic. Psychologists have asked how might online information affect individual health decisions? ... > full story

Straintronics: Engineers create piezoelectric graphene (March 16, 2012) -- By depositing atoms on one side of a grid of the "miracle material" graphene, researchers ave engineered piezoelectricity into a nanoscale material for the first time. The implications could yield dramatic degree of control in nanotechnology. ... > full story

Nano rescues skin: Shrimp shell nanotech for wound healing and anti-aging face cream (March 16, 2012) -- Nanoparticles containing chitosan have been shown to have effective antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus saprophyticus and Escherichia coli. The materials could be used as a protective wound-healing material to avoid opportunistic infection as well as working to facilitate wound healing. ... > full story

First step taken to image ultra-fast movements in chemical reactions (March 16, 2012) -- Researchers have fired ultra-fast shots of light at oxygen, nitrogen and carbon monoxide molecules as part of a development aimed at mapping the astonishingly quick movements of atoms within molecules, as well as the charges that surround them. The ultra-short laser that spans only a few hundred attoseconds – an attosecond is equivalent to one quintillionth of a second – was fired in a sample of molecules and could pave the way towards imaging the movement of atoms and their electrons as they undergo a chemical reaction – one of the holy grails of chemistry research. ... > full story

Glittering Jewels of Messier 9 (March 16, 2012) -- The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced the so far most detailed image so far of Messier 9, a globular star cluster located close to the centre of the galaxy. This ball of stars is too faint to see with the naked eye, yet Hubble can see over 250 000 individual stars shining in it. ... > full story

New technique lights up the creation of holograms (March 16, 2012) -- Researchers have developed a unique way to create full-color holograms with the aid of surface plasmons. ... > full story