ScienceDaily Technology Headlines -- for Friday, March 30, 2012

ScienceDaily Technology Headlines

for Friday, March 30, 2012

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Oscillating gel acts like artificial skin, giving robots potential ability to 'feel' (March 29, 2012) -- Sooner than later, robots may have the ability to "feel." Scientists have now demonstrated that a non-oscillating gel can be resuscitated in a fashion similar to a medical cardiopulmonary resuscitation. ... > full story

Electricity and carbon dioxide used to generate alternative fuel (March 29, 2012) -- Imagine being able to use electricity to power your car and it's not an electric vehicle. Researchers have for the first time demonstrated a method for converting carbon dioxide into liquid fuel isobutanol using electricity. ... > full story

Physicists explain the collective motion of particles called fermions (March 29, 2012) -- Scientists generally believed that certain collective behavior appeared in fermions only when they moved in unison at very long wavelengths. Now, however, collective behavior has been discovered at short wavelengths in one Fermi system, helium-3. ... > full story

New material cuts energy costs of separating gas for plastics and fuels (March 29, 2012) -- In producing hydrocarbons for the chemical industry, refiners must first crack oil at high temperatures and then cool the mixture to liquefy the gases for separation. This energy-intensive chilling step could be eliminated thanks to a new material that can do the gas separation at the high temperatures of cracked petroleum. The material is an iron-based metal-organic framework. ... > full story

First the smart phone, now the smart home: Technology anticipates, meets our needs for health, efficiency (March 29, 2012) -- We have all heard of the smartphone and any day now, most of us will have one. Not far behind: The smart home. Scientists say it won't be long before our homes act as "intelligent agents" that use sensors and software to anticipate our needs and tend to tasks that improve our health, energy efficiency, even social media. ... > full story

Ultrafast laser pulses shed light on elusive superconducting mechanism (March 29, 2012) -- Physicists have used ultra-fast laser pulses to identify the microscopic interactions that drive high-temperature superconductivity. The researchers were able to capture very fine grained data on the speed of the relaxation process and its influence on the properties of the superconducting system, showing that the high-critical temperature of these compounds can be accounted for by purely electronic (magnetic) processes. ... > full story

Physicists find patterns in new state of matter (March 29, 2012) -- Physicists have discovered patterns which underlie the properties of a new state of matter. In a new study, the scientists describe the emergence of "spontaneous coherence," "spin textures" and "phase singularities" when excitons -- the bound pairs of electrons and holes that determine the optical properties of semiconductors and enable them to function as novel optoelectronic devices -- are cooled to near absolute zero. ... > full story

Star explodes and turns inside out (March 29, 2012) -- A new X-ray study of the remains of an exploded star indicates that the supernova that disrupted the massive star may have turned it inside out in the process. Using very long observations of Cassiopeia A, a team of scientists has mapped the distribution elements in the supernova remnant in unprecedented detail. This information shows where the different layers of the pre-supernova star are located three hundred years after the explosion, and provides insight into the nature of the supernova. ... > full story

Titanium paternity test fingers Earth as moon's sole parent (March 29, 2012) -- A new chemical analysis of lunar material collected by Apollo astronauts in the 1970s conflicts with the widely held theory that a giant collision between Earth and a Mars-sized object gave birth to the moon 4.5 billion years ago. ... > full story

Why are we made of matter? Supercomputing the difference between matter and antimatter (March 29, 2012) -- Using breakthrough techniques on some of the world's fastest supercomputers -- scientists have reported a landmark calculation of a kind of subatomic particle decay that's important to understanding matter/antimatter asymmetry. The research helps nail down the exact process of kaon decay, and is also inspiring the development of a new generation of supercomputers. ... > full story

New understanding of how materials change when rapidly heated (March 29, 2012) -- Scientists have made ground-breaking advances in our understanding of the changes that materials undergo when rapidly heated. ... > full story

'Living' micro-robot could detect diseases in humans (March 29, 2012) -- A tiny prototype robot that functions like a living creature is being developed which one day could be safely used to pinpoint diseases within the human body. Called 'Cyberplasm', it will combine advanced microelectronics with latest research in biomimicry. The aim is for Cyberplasm to have an electronic nervous system, 'eye' and 'nose' sensors derived from mammalian cells, as well as artificial muscles that use glucose as an energy source to propel it. ... > full story

Milky Way image reveals detail of a billion stars (March 28, 2012) -- More than one billion stars in the Milky Way can be seen together in detail for the first time in a new image. Large structures of the Milky Way galaxy, such as gas and dust clouds where stars have formed and died, can be seen in the image. ... > full story

Met office to provide space weather warnings for planet Earth and forecasts for exoplanets (March 28, 2012) -- The UK Met Office’s weather and climate model is being adapted to help understand space weather at Earth and the atmospheres of planets orbiting other stars. ... > full story

Two-in-one device uses sewage as fuel to make electricity and clean the sewage (March 28, 2012) -- Scientists have described a new and more efficient version of an innovative device the size of a washing machine that uses bacteria growing in municipal sewage to make electricity and clean up the sewage at the same time. Commercial versions of the two-in-one device could be a boon for the developing world and water-short parts of the U.S. ... > full story

Mathematician publishes 2012 Major League Baseball projections (March 28, 2012) -- The Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals and Arizona Diamondbacks should win their divisions, while the Atlanta Braves and the Cincinnati Reds will make it to Major League Baseball's post-season as wild card teams in the National League in 2012, according to a baseball guru. ... > full story

Toward a test strip for detecting TNT and other explosives in water (March 28, 2012) -- Scientists have developed a new explosives detector that can sense small amounts of TNT and other common explosives in liquids instantly with a sensitivity that rivals bomb-sniffing dogs, the current gold standard in protecting the public from terrorist bombs. ... > full story

Ripping electrons from their cores: Physicists mix two lasers to create light at many frequencies (March 28, 2012) -- Physicists have seen the light, and it comes in many different colors. By aiming high- and low-frequency laser beams at a semiconductor, the researchers caused electrons to be ripped from their cores, accelerated, and then smashed back into the cores they left behind. This recollision produced multiple frequencies of light simultaneously. ... > full story

How will widespread use of electric cars impact the power grid? (March 28, 2012) -- A resource to estimate the impact that greater use of electric vehicles will have on the national grid has been developed by a team of experts. ... > full story

Locating solid, experimental data about protein interactions (March 28, 2012) -- A new service makes it simple to find solid, experimental data about protein interactions. A new non-redundant experimental dataset will make it much easier for researchers to understand the complex set of protein interactions in cells. ... > full story

Online dating scammers looking for money, not love (March 28, 2012) -- Online romance scams, a new form of cybercrime, is under-reported and increasing, and has victimized an estimated 230,000 people in England, costing them nearly billion a year, according to a new article. ... > full story

Solar storm seen from inside and outside Earth's magnetosphere (March 28, 2012) -- For the first time, instrumentation aboard two NASA missions operating from complementary vantage points watched as a powerful solar storm spewed a two million-mile-per-hour stream of charged particles and interacted with the invisible magnetic field surrounding Earth. ... > full story

Many billions of rocky planets in habitable zones around red dwarfs in Milky Way (March 28, 2012) -- Rocky planets not much bigger than Earth are very common in the habitable zones around faint red stars, according to new research. The astronomers estimate that there are tens of billions of such planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone, and probably about one hundred in the Sun's immediate neighborhood. This is the first direct measurement of the frequency of super-Earths around red dwarfs, which account for 80 percent of the stars in the Milky Way. ... > full story

Powerhouse in the Crab Nebula: MAGIC telescopes observe pulsar at highest energies yet and strongly challenge current theories (March 28, 2012) -- The pulsar at the center of the famous Crab Nebula is a veritable bundle of energy. Astronomers observed the pulsar in the area of very high energy gamma radiation from 25 up to 400 gigaelectronvolts (GeV), a region that was previously difficult to access with high energy instruments, and discovered that it actually emits pulses with the maximum energy of up to 400 GeV -- 50 to 100 times higher than theorists thought possible. These latest observations are difficult for astrophysicists to explain. ... > full story

Building lightweight trains (March 28, 2012) -- The less trains weigh, the more economical they are to run. A new material capable of withstanding even extreme stresses has now been developed. It is suitable for a variety of applications, not least diesel engine housings on trains -- and it makes these components over 35 percent lighter than their steel and aluminum counterparts. ... > full story

Playing at home energy savings (March 28, 2012) -- An approach to cutting domestic energy consumption based on playing a game - Energy Battle - can lead to household savings of up to 45% on electricity consumption and lead to better energy-saving habits, says a new study. ... > full story

Wave character of individual molecules revealed (March 28, 2012) -- Quantum theory describes the world of atoms very precisely. Still, it defies our macroscopic conception of the everyday world due to its many anti-intuitive predictions. The wave-particle dualism probably is the best known example and means that matter may spread and interfere like waves. Now, scientists have recorded the interference process of individual molecules. "Seeing how the interference pattern develops with every light spot, molecule after molecule, and how a basic principle of quantum mechanics is visualized enhances our understanding of the atomic world," explains one of the researchers. ... > full story

Odd lipid out may illuminate evolution (March 28, 2012) -- Spectroscopic evidence for the unusual handedness of a mammalian lipid may advance our understanding of evolution. ... > full story

Astronomers detect vast amounts of gas and dust around black hole in early universe (March 27, 2012) -- Astronomers have discovered a large reservoir of gas and dust in a galaxy that surrounds the most distant supermassive black hole known. Light from the galaxy, called J1120+0641, has taken so long to reach us that the galaxy is seen as it was only 740 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was only 1/18th of its current age. ... > full story

Bacteria use chat to play the 'prisoner's dilemma' game in deciding their fate (March 27, 2012) -- When faced with life-or-death situations, bacteria -- and maybe even human cells -- use an extremely sophisticated version of "game theory" to consider their options and decide upon the best course of action. Scientists said microbes "play" a version of the classic "Prisoner's Dilemma" game. ... > full story

New evidence that comets deposited building blocks of life on primordial Earth (March 27, 2012) -- New research provides further support for the idea that comets bombarding Earth billions of years ago carried and deposited the key ingredients for life to spring up on the planet. ... > full story

Capsule for removing radioactive contamination from milk, fruit juices, other beverages (March 27, 2012) -- Amid concerns about possible terrorist attacks with nuclear materials, and fresh memories of environmental contamination from the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan, scientists have developed a capsule that can be dropped into water, milk, fruit juices and other foods to remove more than a dozen radioactive substances. ... > full story

Transparent, flexible '3-D' memory chips may be the next big thing in small memory devices (March 27, 2012) -- New memory chips that are transparent, flexible enough to be folded like a sheet of paper, shrug off 1,000-degree Fahrenheit temperatures -- twice as hot as the max in a kitchen oven -- and survive other hostile conditions could usher in the development of next-generation flash-competitive memory for tomorrow's keychain drives, cell phones and computers, scientists say. ... > full story

Nanostarfruits are pure gold for research (March 27, 2012) -- Starfruit-shaped gold nanorods could nourish applications that rely on surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, such as medical imaging and chemical sensing. ... > full story

Writing graphene circuitry with ion 'pens' (March 27, 2012) -- Researchers coax graphene to grow in previously defined patterns, offering a promising new tool in the quest to develop graphene-based electronic devices. ... > full story

New process converts polyethylene into carbon fiber (March 27, 2012) -- Common material such as polyethylene used in plastic bags could be turned into something far more valuable through a new process. ... > full story

Wind turbines that learn like humans (March 27, 2012) -- A control algorithm inspired by human memory may increase wind turbine efficiency while requiring less computational power than other control methods. ... > full story

Nanoparticles and magnetic current used to damage cancerous cells in mice (March 27, 2012) -- Using nanoparticles and alternating magnetic fields, scientists have found that head and neck cancerous tumor cells in mice can be killed in half an hour without harming healthy cells. The findings mark the first time to the researchers' knowledge this cancer type has been treated using magnetic iron oxide nanoparticle-induced hyperthermia, or above-normal body temperatures, in laboratory mice. ... > full story

Some flame retardants make fires more deadly (March 27, 2012) -- Some of the flame retardants added to carpets, furniture upholstery, plastics, crib mattresses, car and airline seats and other products to suppress the visible flames in fires are actually increasing the danger of invisible toxic gases that are the No. 1 cause of death in fires. ... > full story

Researchers discover a new path for light through metal (March 27, 2012) -- Researchers have coaxed a thin film of titanium nitride into transporting plasmons, tiny electron excitations coupled to light that can direct and manipulate optical signals on the nanoscale. Titanium nitride's addition to the short list of surface-plasmon-supporting materials, formerly comprised only of metals, could point the way to a new class of optoelectronic devices with unprecedented speed and efficiency. ... > full story

Microfluidic chip developed to stem flu outbreaks (March 27, 2012) -- Researchers have developed a rapid, low-cost, accurate, point-of-care device that matches the accuracy of expensive and time-consuming lab-based tests to diagnose influenza. ... > full story

Living human gut-on-a-chip: Tiny device simulates structure, microenvironment, and mechanical behavior of human intestine (March 27, 2012) -- Researchers have created a gut-on-a-chip microdevice lined by living human cells that mimics the structure, physiology, and mechanics of the human intestine -- even supporting the growth of living microbes within its luminal space. As a more accurate alternative to conventional cell culture and animal models, the microdevice could help researchers gain new insights into intestinal disorders and evaluate the safety and efficacy of potential treatments. ... > full story

Ion Beam Laboratory looks at advanced materials for reactors (March 27, 2012) -- Scientists are studying how to rapidly evaluate the tougher advanced materials needed to build the next generation of nuclear reactors and extend the lives of current reactors. ... > full story

New catalyst promises cheaper, greener drugs (March 27, 2012) -- A chemistry team has discovered environmentally-friendly iron-based nanoparticle catalysts that work as well as the expensive, toxic, metal-based catalysts that are currently in wide use by the drug, fragrance and food industry. ... > full story

Engineers set their sights on asteroid deflection (March 27, 2012) -- Engineers are developing an innovative technique based on lasers that could radically change asteroid deflection technology. ... > full story

A planetary system from the early Universe (March 27, 2012) -- Astronomers have discovered an ancient planetary system that is likely to be a survivor from one of the earliest cosmic eras, 13 billion years ago. The system consists of the star HIP 11952 and two planets, which have orbital periods of 290 and 7 days, respectively. Whereas planets usually form within clouds that include heavier chemical elements, the star HIP 11952 contains very little other than hydrogen and helium. The system promises to shed light on planet formation in the early universe – under conditions quite different from those of later planetary systems, such as our own. ... > full story

New dimension for solar energy: Innovative 3-D designs more than double the solar power generated per area (March 27, 2012) -- Intensive research around the world has focused on improving the performance of solar photovoltaic cells and bringing down their cost. But very little attention has been paid to the best ways of arranging those cells, which are typically placed flat on a rooftop or other surface, or sometimes attached to motorized structures that keep the cells pointed toward the sun as it crosses the sky. Now, a team of researchers has come up with a very different approach: building cubes or towers that extend the solar cells upward in three-dimensional configurations. ... > full story

Cassini makes simultaneous measurements of Saturn's nightside aurora and associated electric current system (March 27, 2012) -- Since the NASA / ESA Cassini-Huygens spacecraft arrived at Saturn in 2004, astronomers and space scientists have been able to study the ringed planet and its moons in great detail. Now, for the first time, a team of planetary scientists have made simultaneous measurements of Saturn’s nightside aurora, magnetic field, and associated charged particles. ... > full story