ScienceDaily Technology Headlines -- for Monday, March 26, 2012

ScienceDaily Technology Headlines

for Monday, March 26, 2012

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Materials Inspired by Mother Nature: One-Pound Boat That Could Float 1,000 Pounds (March 25, 2012) -- Combining the secrets that enable water striders to walk on water and give wood its lightness and strength yielded an amazing material so buoyant that, in everyday terms, a boat made from 1 pound of it could carry five kitchen refrigerators, about 1,000 pounds. It is one of the lightest solid substances in the world. ... > full story

Laser hints at how universe got its magnetism (March 24, 2012) -- Scientists have used a laser to create magnetic fields similar to those thought to be involved in the formation of the first galaxies; findings that could help to solve the riddle of how the universe got its magnetism. ... > full story

Shiny new tool for imaging biomolecules (March 23, 2012) -- Researchers have developed a technique for lacing artificial membranes with billions of gold nanoantennas that can boost optical signals from a protein tens of thousands of times without the protein ever being touched. This technique could provide a critical tool in the fight against a wide range of health problems including cancer. ... > full story

New theory on size of black holes: Gas-guzzling black holes eat two courses at a time (March 23, 2012) -- Astronomers have put forward a new theory about why black holes become so hugely massive -- claiming some of them have no 'table manners', and tip their 'food' directly into their mouths, eating more than one course simultaneously. ... > full story

Forces among molecules: Tiny but important (March 23, 2012) -- Forces are not only associated with machines or muscles. You can also find them elsewhere, for instance between molecules. Theoretical chemists are familiar with that. However, they -- or rather their computers -- are not capable of calculating them with high accuracy and efficiency at the same time. ... > full story

Magnetic field researchers target 100-tesla goal: Previous world record shattered during six-experiment pulse (March 23, 2012) -- Researchers have met the grand challenge of producing magnetic fields in excess of 100 tesla while conducting six different experiments. ... > full story

Swarming and transporting (March 23, 2012) -- On its own, an ant is not particularly clever. But in a community, the insects can solve complicated tasks. Researchers intend to put this "swarm intelligence“ to use in the logistics field. Lots of autonomous transport shuttles would provide an alternative to traditional materials-handling technology. ... > full story

Plasma flows may shed light on predicting sunspot cycles (March 23, 2012) -- A geophysics researcher wants to look inside the sun. More accurately, she wants to simulate the sun to study plasma flows associated with sunspot cycles. With the help of simulations scientists recently warned about a series of solar storms in early March, concerned that it could affect global positioning systems, power grids, satellites and airplane travel. ... > full story

Why Wikileaks' bid for radical transparency failed (March 23, 2012) -- The scale and significance of the 2010 WikiLeaks disclosures were overstated, according to new research. Analysis of the WikiLeaks debacle serves to highlight four key reasons why radical transparency is hard to achieve, and why a technological fix alone will not achieve it. ... > full story

Standoff sensing enters new realm with dual-laser technique (March 22, 2012) -- Identifying chemicals from a distance could take a step forward with the introduction of a new two-laser system. ... > full story

NASA GRAIL returns first student-selected moon images (March 22, 2012) -- One of two NASA spacecraft orbiting the moon has beamed back the first student-requested pictures of the lunar surface from its onboard camera. Fourth grade students from the Emily Dickinson Elementary School in Bozeman, Mont., received the honor of making the first image selections by winning a nationwide competition to rename the two spacecraft. ... > full story

Cylinder hides contents and makes them invisible to magnetic fields (March 22, 2012) -- Researchers have created a cylinder which hides contents and makes them invisible to magnetic fields. The device was built using superconductor and ferromagnetic materials available on the market. ... > full story

Quantum copies do new tricks (March 22, 2012) -- New research shows that it is possible to perfectly recover the original from the imperfect quantum copies. Scientists also propose a way that his could be done in practice. ... > full story

National study ranks city governments' use of social media (March 22, 2012) -- Six times as many big-city governments reached citizens via Facebook in 2011 compared to 2009. Use of YouTube and Twitter grew fourfold and threefold respectively. Researchers ranked the online interactivity, transparency and accessibility of the 75 largest U.S. cities. ... > full story

Brown liquor and solar cells to provide sustainable electricity (March 22, 2012) -- A breakthrough for inexpensive electricity from solar cells, and a massive investment in wind power, will mean a need to store energy in an intelligent way. According to new research batteries of biological waste products from pulp mills could provide the solution. ... > full story

Liquid-like materials may pave way for new thermoelectric devices (March 22, 2012) -- In the continual quest for better thermoelectric materials -- which convert heat into electricity and vice versa -- researchers have identified a liquid-like compound whose properties give it the potential to be even more efficient than traditional thermoelectrics. ... > full story

Geologists discover new class of landform -- on Mars (March 22, 2012) -- An odd, previously unseen landform could provide a window into the geological history of Mars, according to new research by geologists. They call the structures periodic bedrock ridges. ... > full story

A one-way street for light (March 22, 2012) -- An optical diode made with silicon technology can be used for quantum information. Researchers propose using ring resonators to construct a micro-optical diode. The technology is silicon-on-insulator, making it compatible with the CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) fabrication processes underlying today’s computer circuits. ... > full story

Runaway planets zoom at a fraction of light speed (March 22, 2012) -- Seven years ago, astronomers boggled when they found the first runaway star flying out of our galaxy at a speed of 1.5 million miles per hour. The discovery intrigued theorists, who wondered: if a star can get tossed outward at such an extreme velocity, could the same thing happen to planets? New research shows that the answer is yes. ... > full story

New technique lets scientists peer within nanoparticles, see atomic structure in 3-D (March 22, 2012) -- Researchers are now able to peer deep within material science's tiniest structures to create three-dimensional images of individual atoms and their positions. The research presents a new method for directly measuring the atomic structure of nanomaterials. ... > full story

What is the monetary value of a healthy ocean? (March 22, 2012) -- Scientists have attempted to measure the ocean's monetary value and to tally the costs and savings associated with human decisions affecting ocean health. The study estimates that if human impacts on the ocean continue unabated, declines in ocean health and services will cost the global economy 8 billion per year by 2050, and .979 trillion per year by 2100. ... > full story

People with autism possess greater ability to process information, study suggests (March 22, 2012) -- People with autism have a greater than normal capacity for processing information even from rapid presentations and are better able to detect information defined as "critical," according to a new study. The research may help explain the apparently higher than average prevalence in the IT industry of people with autism spectrum disorders. ... > full story

Northern Lights: First-ever measurement of auroral turbulence using a nanosatellite radar receiver (March 22, 2012) -- Researchers have taken the first-ever measurement of naturally occurring auroral turbulence recorded using a nanosatellite radar receiver. ... > full story

Getting in rhythm helps children grasp fractions, study finds (March 22, 2012) -- Tapping out a beat may help children learn difficult fraction concepts, according to new findings. An innovative curriculum uses rhythm to teach fractions at a California school where students in a music-based program scored significantly higher on math tests than their peers who received regular instruction. ... > full story

Dawn sees new surface features on giant asteroid Vesta (March 21, 2012) -- NASA's Dawn spacecraft has revealed unexpected details on the surface of the giant asteroid Vesta. New images and data highlight the diversity of Vesta's surface and reveal unusual geologic features, some of which were never previously seen on asteroids. ... > full story

Venice hasn't stopped sinking after all (March 21, 2012) -- The water flowing through Venice's famous canals laps at buildings a little higher every year -- and not only because of a rising sea level. Although previous studies had found that Venice has stabilized, new measurements indicate that the historic city continues to slowly sink, and even to tilt slightly to the east. ... > full story

Designing consumer electronics to minimize environmental impact of future electronic waste (March 21, 2012) -- The percentage of electronic waste occupying our landfills has grown at an alarming rate over the last decade, giving rise to concerns about the toxicity of components used in consumer electronics. ... > full story

Graphene: Potential for modelling cell membrane systems (March 21, 2012) -- Intriguing properties of graphene -— a single atomic-layer of carbon -— such as high electron mobility and fluorescence quenching are being exploited for biosensing and analysis of nucleotides, peptides, and proteins. ... > full story

Graphene produced using microorganisms from an ordinary river (March 21, 2012) -- Scientists have synthesized graphene by reducing graphene oxide using microorganisms extracted from a local river. ... > full story

Hard electronics: Hall effect magnetic field sensors for high temperatures and harmful radiation environments (March 21, 2012) -- Researchers have invented Hall effect magnetic field sensors that are operable at high temperatures and harmful radiation conditions. The sensors will find applications in space craft and nuclear power stations. ... > full story

Scientists use rare mineral to correlate past climate events in Europe, Antarctica (March 21, 2012) -- Are climate changes in one part of the world felt half a world away? To understand the present, scientists look for ways to unlock information about past climate hidden in the fossil record. Scientists have now found a new key in the form of ikaite, a rare mineral that forms in cold waters. ... > full story

Quantum plasmons demonstrated in atomic-scale nanoparticles (March 21, 2012) -- Addressing a half-century-old question, engineers have conclusively determined how collective electron oscillations, called plasmons, behave in individual metal particles as small as just a few nanometers in diameter. This knowledge may open up new avenues in nanotechnology ranging from solar catalysis to biomedical therapeutics. ... > full story

How the alphabet of data processing is growing: Flying 'qubits' generated (March 21, 2012) -- The alphabet of data processing could include more elements than the "0" and "1" in future. Scientists have achieved a new kind of bit with single electrons, called quantum bits, or qubits. With them, considerably more than two states can be defined. So far, quantum bits have only existed in relatively large vacuum chambers. The team has now generated them in semiconductors. They have put an effect in practice, which the physicist Prof. Dr. Andreas Wieck had already theoretically predicted 22 years ago. This represents another step along the path to quantum computing. ... > full story

Computer model of spread of dementia can predict future disease patterns years before they occur in a patient (March 21, 2012) -- Researchers have developed a computer program that has tracked the manner in which different forms of dementia spread within a human brain. They say their mathematical model can be used to predict where and approximately when an individual patient's brain will suffer from the spread, neuron to neuron, of "prion-like" toxic proteins -- a process they say underlies all forms of dementia. ... > full story

Age-old anesthesia question awakened (March 21, 2012) -- Why does inhaling anesthetics cause unconsciousness? New insights into this century-and-a-half-old question may spring from new research. ... > full story

Nanopower: Avoiding electrolyte failure in nanoscale lithum batteries (March 21, 2012) -- It turns out you can be too thin -- especially if you're a nanoscale battery. Researchers have built a series of nanowire batteries to demonstrate that the thickness of the electrolyte layer can dramatically affect the performance of the battery, effectively setting a lower limit to the size of the tiny power sources. ... > full story

'Nanoslinky': A novel nanofluidic technology for DNA manipulation and measurement (March 21, 2012) -- Researchers have developed their own version of the classic Slinky "walking down the stairs" scenario -- albeit 10 million times smaller -- as a novel technology for manipulating and measuring DNA molecules and other nanoscale materials. ... > full story

Groundbreaking, waterless approach to microchip making (March 21, 2012) -- The tiny, high-speed computer chips found in every modern electronic device bear little resemblance to their bulky, slow ancestors of decades ago. Different materials, new designs and new production techniques have ensured successive generations of integrated circuits offer ever more performance at lower cost. ... > full story

Study on swirls to optimize contacts between fluids (March 21, 2012) -- Physicists who have studied the mixing between two incompatible fluids have found that it is possible to control the undercurrents of one circulating fluid to optimize its exposure to the other. ... > full story

Mercury's surprising core and landscape curiosities (March 21, 2012) -- Scientists have found that Mercury's core, already suspected to occupy a greater fraction of the planet's interior than do the cores of Earth, Venus, or Mars, is even larger than anticipated. They also discovered that the elevation ranges on Mercury are much smaller than on Mars or the Moon and indicates that there have been large-scale changes to Mercury's topography since early in the planet's geological history. ... > full story

Dance like a neutrino: Quantum scheme to simulate neutrino oscillations (March 21, 2012) -- The behavior of some of the most elusive particles in the known universe can be simulated using three atoms in a lab, researchers say. ... > full story

Chemical pollution in Europe's seas: The monitoring must catch up with the science, experts say (March 21, 2012) -- According to a recent poll of more than 10,000 citizens from 10 European countries, pollution is the primary concern of the public at large among all issues that threaten the marine environment. A new position paper shows that such public concern is not misplaced and is supported by scientific evidence. ... > full story

Vista stares deep into the cosmos: Treasure trove of new infrared data made available to astronomers (March 21, 2012) -- The European Southern Observatory's VISTA telescope has created the widest deep view of the sky ever made using infrared light. This new picture of an unremarkable patch of sky comes from the UltraVISTA survey and reveals more than 200 000 galaxies. It forms just one part of a huge collection of fully processed images from all the VISTA surveys that is now being made available by ESO to astronomers worldwide. UltraVISTA is a treasure trove that is being used to study distant galaxies in the early Universe as well as for many other science projects. ... > full story

Jellyfish inspires latest ocean-powered robot (March 21, 2012) -- Researchers have created a robotic jellyfish, named Robojelly, which not only exhibits characteristics ideal to use in underwater search and rescue operations, but could, theoretically at least, never run out of energy thanks to it being fueled by hydrogen. Constructed from a set of smart materials, which have the ability to change shape or size as a result of a stimulus, and carbon nanotubes, Robojelly is able to mimic the natural movements of a jellyfish when placed in a water tank and is powered by chemical reactions taking place on its surface. ... > full story

NASA's Swift narrows down origin of important supernova class (March 20, 2012) -- Studies using X-ray and ultraviolet observations from NASA's Swift satellite provide new insights into the elusive origins of an important class of exploding star called Type Ia supernovae. ... > full story

Japan shares space station SMILES via atmospheric data distribution (March 20, 2012) -- Did you panic when you heard in recent news that two massive solar flares from the Sun were hitting Earth's atmosphere? The coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, typically produced by solar flares might pose a danger, if not for Earth's protective atmosphere and magnetosphere. Using International Space Station research and technology, scientists continue to learn more about the atmosphere, adding important new data to the collective understanding of this important defensive veil. ... > full story

Cassini sees Saturn stressing out Enceladus (March 20, 2012) -- Images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft have, for the first time, enabled scientists to correlate the spraying of jets of water vapor from fissures on Saturn's moon Enceladus with the way Saturn's gravity stretches and stresses the fissures. ... > full story

Nuclear fusion simulation shows high-gain energy output (March 20, 2012) -- A computer simulation that shows a release of high-yield fusion energy much greater than previously achieved at Sandia's Z accelerator is being prepared for testing in 2013. ... > full story