ScienceDaily Technology Headlines -- for Tuesday, September 13, 2011 ~ pulaskitech

ScienceDaily Technology Headlines

for Tuesday, September 13, 2011

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Taming light: Mastering the fine structuring of ultrashort light fields (September 13, 2011) -- Physicists have generated for the first time “white” light pulses. They are able to control their field on a time scale shorter than an optical oscillation. These new tools hold promise for unprecedented control of the motion of electrons. ... > full story

Fast, cheap, and accurate: Detecting CO<sub>2</sub> with a fluorescent twist (September 13, 2011) -- Detecting specific gases in the air is possible using a number of different existing technologies, but typically all of these suffer from one or more drawbacks including high energy cost, large size, slow detection speed, and sensitivity to humidity. Overcoming these deficiencies with a unique approach, scientists have designed an inexpensive new material capable of quick and accurate detection of a specific gas under a wide variety of circumstances. ... > full story

Sustainability scientists suggest how countries can cooperate on climate (September 12, 2011) -- Experts suggest using game theory and a scalable method of rewards and punishments (called linear compensation) to help develop strategies that encourage all nations to participation fully in greenhouse gas mitigation programs. ... > full story

Health fears over CO<sub>2</sub> storage are unfounded, study shows (September 12, 2011) -- Capturing carbon dioxide from power stations and storing it deep underground carries no significant threat to human health, despite recently voiced fears that it might, a new study shows. Researchers found that the risk of death from poisoning as a result of exposure to CO2 leaks from underground rocks is about one in 100 million -- far less than the chances of winning the lottery jackpot. ... > full story

Nanopatterning technique throws new light on photovoltaics (September 12, 2011) -- Do better with less. That is the challenge that Swiss researchers have set for themselves. Their specialty: manufacturing solar cells that are one thousand times thinner than conventional cells. In order to boost the output of the cells, they have developed a new nanopatterning technique. ... > full story

'Trojan Horse' particle sneaks chemotherapy in to kill ovarian cancer cells (September 12, 2011) -- A common chemotherapy drug has been successfully delivered to cancer cells inside tiny microparticles using a method inspired by our knowledge of how the human immune system works. The drug, delivered in this way, reduced ovarian cancer tumors in an animal model by 65 times more than using the standard method. This approach is now being developed for clinical use. ... > full story

New clues to molecular understanding of autism (September 12, 2011) -- The first transgenic mouse model of a rare and severe type of autism called Timothy Syndrome is improving the scientific understanding of autism spectrum disorder in general and may help researchers design more targeted interventions and treatments. ... > full story

Physicist detects movement of macromolecules engineered into our food (September 12, 2011) -- Toxin proteins are genetically engineered into our food because they kill insects by perforating body cell walls, and now researchers studying membrane proteins have detected the molecular mechanism involved. ... > full story

Astronomers find 50 new exoplanets: Richest haul of planets so far includes 16 new super-Earths (September 12, 2011) -- Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's world-leading exoplanet hunter HARPS have announced a rich haul of more than 50 new exoplanets, including 16 super-Earths, one of which orbits at the edge of the habitable zone of its star. By studying the properties of all the HARPS planets found so far, the team has found that about 40% of stars similar to the Sun have at least one planet lighter than Saturn. ... > full story

Airplanes: New tool analyzes black-box data for flight anomalies (September 12, 2011) -- Scientists have created a new tool that analyzes black-box data for flight anomalies. An airplane's digital flight-data recorder, or "black box," holds massive amounts of data, documenting the performance of engines, cockpit controls, hydraulic equipment and GPS systems, typically at regular one-second intervals throughout a flight. Inspectors use such data to reconstruct the final moments of an accident, looking for telltale defects that may explain a crash. More recently, analysts have probed black-box data in an effort to prevent such accidents from ever occurring. Using software tools that can rapidly search data, operators can flag problem areas and determine whether a plane needs to be pulled off the line to be physically inspected, or if there are problems with flight procedures. ... > full story

Breath and sweat used to detect trapped humans (September 12, 2011) -- Molecules in their breath, sweat and skin have been used to detect humans in a simulation of a collapsed building, raising the prospect of portable sensors for use in real-life situations, such as the devastating aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and more recent disasters in New Zealand and Japan. ... > full story

Hubble to target 'Hot Jupiters' (September 12, 2011) -- An international team of astronomers has set out on the largest program to date exploring the alien atmospheres of "Hot Jupiters" -- massive planets in solar systems far away from our own. ... > full story

Physicists report progress in understanding high-temperature superconductors (September 12, 2011) -- Although high-temperature superconductors are widely used in technologies such as MRI machines, explaining the unusual properties of these materials remains an unsolved problem for theoretical physicists. Major progress in this important field has now been reported by physicists in California. ... > full story

Mitosis: New techniques expose surprises in cell division (September 12, 2011) -- Researchers have obtained the first high-resolution, three-dimensional images of a cell with a nucleus undergoing cell division. The observations, made using a powerful imaging technique in combination with a new method for slicing cell samples, indicate that one of the characteristic steps of mitosis is significantly different in some cells. ... > full story

Acoustic tests verify Orion’s sound engineering (September 12, 2011) -- Engineers have successfully completed the first of a series of acoustic tests on the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) ground test vehicle, which consists of two major components of the Orion spacecraft: the crew module and the launch abort system. Built to spaceflight specifications, the Orion MPCV ground test vehicle is the first full-scale spacecraft built to support the development of the final human space flight vehicle, which is slated for its first orbital flight test in about two years. ... > full story

Young stars take a turn in the spotlight (September 12, 2011) -- The European Southern Observatory's New Technology Telescope has captured a striking image of the open cluster NGC 2100. This brilliant star cluster is around 15 million years old, and located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. The cluster is surrounded by glowing gas from the nearby Tarantula Nebula. ... > full story

A guiding light for new directions in energy production: Optofluidics could help solve the energy challenge (September 12, 2011) -- Optofluidics is the study of microfluidics -- the microscopic delivery of fluids through extremely small channels or tubes -- combined with optics. In a new review, researchers argue that optofluidics is poised to take on one of this century's most important challenges: energy. ... > full story

Researchers find way to measure effect of Wi-Fi attacks (September 12, 2011) -- Researchers have developed a way to measure how badly a Wi-Fi network would be disrupted by different types of attacks -- a valuable tool for developing new security technologies. ... > full story

Squeezed laser will bring gravitational waves to the light of day (September 11, 2011) -- Measuring at the limits of the laws of nature -- this is the challenge which researchers repeatedly take up in their search for gravitational waves. The interferometers they use here measure with such sensitivity that a particular quantum phenomenon of light -- shot noise -- limits the measuring accuracy. With the "squeezed light" method, scientists in Germany likewise use quantum physics in a countermove in order to remove the interfering effect. The new type of laser light improves the measuring accuracy of the gravitational wave detector GEO600 by around 50 percent and thus increases its effective sensitivity. This is the first time this technology has been used outside of a test laboratory anywhere in the world. ... > full story

Reducing costs of electric vehicle batteries (September 11, 2011) -- Costs of manufacture of batteries and power trains of electric vehicles can be halved by 2018, if the gaps in the innovation chain can be closed. For reaching this objective, scientists develop concrete, close-to-industry solutions for energy stores and power trains and combine them on the system level. ... > full story

Research on US nuclear levels after Fukushima could aid in future nuclear detection (September 11, 2011) -- What do increased atmospheric radioactivity concentrations in Washington state tell us about what happened in the Fukushima nuclear disaster? For one expert, the story is in the numbers. ... > full story

Researcher sees spring-like protein as key to muscle behavior (September 11, 2011) -- An idea with its origins in ballistic prey catching -- the way toads and chameleons snatch food with their tongues -- may change fundamental views of muscle movement while powering a new approach to prosthetics. ... > full story

NASA Launches Mission to Study Moon From Crust to Core (September 10, 2011) -- NASA's twin lunar Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 9:08 a.m. EDT (6:08 a.m. PDT) Saturday, Sept. 10, to study the moon in unprecedented detail. GRAIL-A is scheduled to reach the moon on New Year's Eve 2011, while GRAIL-B will arrive New Year's Day 2012. The two solar-powered spacecraft will fly in tandem orbits around the moon to measure its gravity field. GRAIL will answer longstanding questions about the moon and give scientists a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed. ... > full story

Nanoscale spin waves can replace microwaves (September 10, 2011) -- Scientists have now demonstrated that theories about nanoscale spin waves agree with observations. This opens the way to replacing microwave technology in many applications, such as mobile phones and wireless networks, by components that are much smaller, cheaper, and that require less resources. ... > full story

Fermi's latest gamma-ray census highlights cosmic mysteries (September 10, 2011) -- Every three hours, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope scans the entire sky and deepens its portrait of the high-energy universe. Every year, the satellite's scientists reanalyze all of the data it has collected, exploiting updated analysis methods to tease out new sources. These relatively steady sources are in addition to the numerous transient events Fermi detects, such as gamma-ray bursts in the distant universe and flares from the sun. Earlier this year, the Fermi team released its second catalog of sources detected by the satellite's Large Area Telescope, producing an inventory of 1,873 objects shining with the highest-energy form of light. ... > full story

Milestones for two radiation machines used to test U.S. defenses against atomic weapons (September 9, 2011) -- Two remarkable pulsed-power machines used to test the nation's defenses against atomic weapons have surpassed milestones at Sandia National Laboratories: 4,000 firings, called "shots," on the Saturn accelerator and 9,000 shots on the HERMES III accelerator. Saturn -- originally projected to last 5 to 10 years -- began operating in 1987. Its major function has been to produce X-rays to test the effectiveness of countermeasures used to protect electronics and other materials against X-ray radiation from nuclear weapons. ... > full story

What's in a name? Names, not social networks, bind us to global cultural and ethnic communities (September 9, 2011) -- Links between hundreds of millions of names belonging to people around the world have been analyzed by geographers in the UK and New Zealand. The results reveal how our forenames and surnames are connected in distinct global networks of cultural, ethnic and linguistic communities. The researchers' methods could be of use to social scientists and health researchers investigating migration, identity and integration. ... > full story

Designing high-rise buildings: World still learning lessons of 9/11 (September 9, 2011) -- A university professor who carried out a major study into the evacuation of the World Trade Centre after 9/11 says the "far-reaching impact" of the attacks is still being felt when it comes to the design of new high-rise buildings across the world. ... > full story

Where does all Earth's gold come from? Precious metals the result of meteorite bombardment, rock analysis finds (September 9, 2011) -- Ultra high precision analyses of some of the oldest rock samples on Earth provides clear evidence that the planet's accessible reserves of precious metals are the result of a bombardment of meteorites more than 200 million years after Earth was formed. ... > full story

New cooling system raises efficiency of oil and gas processing (September 9, 2011) -- Mathematicians in Norway have devised a solution for making sub-sea oil and gas processing more efficient at substantially lower cost. Using their expertise in fluid mechanics they have developed a unique design for a subsea cooling system. Their research can help to recover more oil and gas resources both in the North Sea and elsewhere. The first newly constructed processing facilities could be installed on the seabed as early as 2013. The equipment will be designed to last 30 years, which means that in addition to being smaller and lighter, it has to be durable, maintenance-free and without moving parts. ... > full story

Powered by seaweed: Polymer from algae may improve battery performance (September 9, 2011) -- By looking to Mother Nature for solutions, researchers have identified a promising new binder material for lithium-ion battery electrodes that could not only boost energy storage, but also eliminate the use of toxic compounds now used in manufacturing the components. Known as alginate, the material is extracted from common, fast-growing brown algae. ... > full story

New method to grow synthetic collagen unveiled: New material may find use in reconstructive surgery, cosmetics, tissue engineering (September 9, 2011) -- In a significant advance for cosmetic and reconstructive medicine, scientists have unveiled a new method for making synthetic collagen. The new material, which forms from a liquid in as little as an hour, has many of the properties of natural collagen and may prove useful as a scaffold for regenerating new tissues and organs from stem cells. ... > full story

Managing intellectual property a challenge for firms, innovators (September 9, 2011) -- The increasing complexity of multi-invention technologies such as laptops and smartphones raises serious challenges for firms looking to cash in with the "next big thing," and points to a need for businesses to integrate their patent and business strategies, according to a patent strategy expert. ... > full story

Cotton's potential for padding nonwovens (September 9, 2011) -- Scientists have conducted studies to investigate the use of virgin cotton in nonwoven materials and products. ... > full story

New record for measurement of atomic lifetime (September 8, 2011) -- Researchers in Denmark have measured the lifetime of an extremely stable energy level of magnesium atoms with great precision. Magnesium atoms are used in research with ultra-precise atomic clocks. The new measurements show a lifetime of 2050 seconds, which corresponds to approximately one half hour. This is the longest lifetime ever measured in a laboratory. ... > full story

Researchers power line-voltage light bulb with nanotube wire (September 8, 2011) -- Cables made of carbon nanotubes are inching toward electrical conductivities seen in metal wires, and that may light up interest among a range of industries. ... > full story

New translator app makes sense of foreign-language food menus (September 8, 2011) -- Researchers have created an application that enables cell phones and other portable devices to translate foreign-language food menus for English speakers and could be used for people who must follow restricted diets for medical reasons. ... > full story

'Invisible' world discovered: Planet alternately runs late and early in its orbit, tugged by second hidden world (September 8, 2011) -- Usually, running five minutes late is a bad thing since you might lose your dinner reservation or miss out on tickets to the latest show. But when a planet runs five minutes late, astronomers get excited because it suggests that another world is nearby. NASA's Kepler spacecraft has spotted a planet that alternately runs late and early in its orbit because a second, "invisible" world is tugging on it. ... > full story

Switching from coal to natural gas would do little for global climate, study indicates (September 8, 2011) -- Although the burning of natural gas emits far less carbon dioxide than coal, a new study concludes that a greater reliance on natural gas would fail to significantly slow down climate change. Coal releases more carbon dioxide, but it also releases particles that cool the planet. ... > full story

New material possible boon for lithium ion batteries (September 8, 2011) -- Batteries could get a boost from a discovery that increases power, energy density and safety while dramatically reducing charge time. ... > full story

Neutron scattering confirms DNA is as stretchy as nylon (September 8, 2011) -- Neutron scientists have measured how fast sound travels along DNA to determine its ‘stiffness’. These findings help to explain how DNA folds, coils and denatures. ... > full story

Space instrument observes new characteristics of solar flares; Findings may lead to improved space weather forecasting (September 8, 2011) -- NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which is carrying a suite of instruments, has provided scientists with new information that energy from some solar flares is stronger and lasts longer than previously thought. ... > full story

Computer-aided design used for breast tissue reconstruction (September 8, 2011) -- A technology usually reserved for designing buildings, bridges and aircraft has now been used to aid breast tissue reconstruction in cancer patients. ... > full story

New material shows promise for trapping pollutants (September 8, 2011) -- Water softening techniques are very effective for removing minerals such as calcium and magnesium, which occur as positively-charged ions in "hard" water. But many heavy metals and other inorganic pollutants form negatively-charged ions in water, and existing water treatment processes to remove them are inefficient and expensive. Chemists have now developed a new type of material that can soak up negatively-charged pollutants from water. ... > full story

Forecasting human behavior by supercomputing global news (September 8, 2011) -- A new article combines advanced supercomputing with a quarter-century of worldwide news to forecast and visualize human behavior, from civil unrest to the movement of individuals. ... > full story

Neutron analysis reveals unique atom-scale behavior of 'cobalt blue' (September 8, 2011) -- Neutron scattering studies of "cobalt blue," a compound prized by artists for its lustrous blue hue, are revealing unique magnetic characteristics that could answer questions about mysterious properties in other materials. ... > full story

New video gaming technology used to detect illness, prevent falls in older adults (September 8, 2011) -- Many older adults lose their independence as their health declines and they are compelled to move into assisted care facilities. Researchers at an independent living community have been using motion-sensing technology to monitor changes in residents' health for several years. Now, researchers have found that two devices commonly used for video gaming and security systems are effective in detecting the early onset of illness and fall risk in seniors. ... > full story

Researchers expand capabilities of miniature analyzer for complex samples (September 8, 2011) -- A research team has extended the capabilities a a novel microfluidic lab-on-a-chip system for analyzing the chemical components of complex biological samples. ... > full story