ScienceDaily Technology Headlines
for Saturday, May 29, 2010
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'Law-like' mathematical patterns in human preference behavior discovered (May 28, 2010) -- Scientists have found mathematical patterns underlying the way individuals unconsciously distribute their preferences regarding approaching or avoiding objects in their environment. These patterns appear to meet the strict criteria used to determine whether something is a scientific law and, if confirmed in future studies, could potentially be used to guide diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders. ... > full story
Toward a useful quantum computer: Researchers design and test microfabricated planar ion traps (May 28, 2010) -- Researchers are designing, fabricating and testing planar ion traps that can be more readily combined into large, interconnected trap arrays. In the future, these arrays may be used to create a useful quantum computer. ... > full story
Novel 'cuckoo search algorithm' beats particle swarm optimization in engineering design (May 28, 2010) -- The familiar early summer call of the cuckoo has inspired composer and poet alike, but the sound belies the bird's true parasitic nature. Now, researchers have taken the cuckoo's wont to deposit its eggs in the nests of other birds as inspiration for a new approach to engineering design. ... > full story
Planetary scientists solve 40-year-old mysteries of Mars' northern ice cap (May 28, 2010) -- Scientists have reconstructed the formation of two curious features in the northern ice cap of Mars -- a chasm larger than the Grand Canyon and a series of spiral troughs -- solving a pair of mysteries dating back four decades while finding new evidence of climate change on Mars. ... > full story
Electric supercar team aims for UK first in lead-up to world record attempt across the Americas (May 28, 2010) -- Students driving an electric supercar are attempting to be the first to drive an all-electric vehicle around the M25 twice on one battery charge, in the lead-up to the team's attempt to cross the Americas in July this year and break a world record. ... > full story
Electric ash found in Eyjafjallajokull's plume, say UK researchers (May 28, 2010) -- In the first peer-reviewed scientific paper to be published about the Icelandic volcano since its eruption in April 2010, UK researchers write that the ash plume which hovered over Scotland carried a significant and self-renewing electric charge. ... > full story
Advances made in walking, running robots (May 28, 2010) -- Researchers have made an important fundamental advance in robotics, in work that should lead toward robots that not only can walk and run effectively, but use little energy in the process. By achieving an optimal approach with robotic mechanisms, studies are moving closer to robots that could take on dangerous missions in the military, create prosthetic limbs for humans that work much better, or even help some people who use wheelchairs to gain "walking" abilities. ... > full story
Solar panels can attract breeding water insects ... but scientists propose a simple fix (May 28, 2010) -- Solar power might be nature's most plentiful and benign source of energy, but shiny dark solar cells can lure water insects away from critical breeding areas, scientists warn. Applying white grids or other methods to break up the polarized reflection of light, however, makes mayflies and other aquatic insects far less likely to deposit eggs on the panels thinking that they are water, the group discovered. ... > full story
Optical Legos: Building nanoshell structures (May 28, 2010) -- Imagine creating novel devices with amazing and exotic optical properties not found in nature -- by simply evaporating a droplet of particles on a surface. Scientists have created a way to use light-activated nanoshells as building blocks for 2-D and 3-D structures that could be useful for making chemical sensors, nanolasers and bizarre light-absorbing metamaterials. Much as a child might use Lego blocks to build 3-D models of complex buildings or vehicles, the scientists are using the new chemical self-assembly method to build complex structures that can trap, store and bend light. ... > full story
Nondestructive methods for evaluating ancient coins could be worth their weight in gold (May 28, 2010) -- Researchers have demonstrated that sensitive nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques can be used to determine the elemental composition of ancient coins, even coins that generally have been considered too corroded for such methods. ... > full story
Largest supercomputers to simulate life on Earth, including economies and whole societies (May 28, 2010) -- Scientists are planning to use the largest supercomputers to simulate life on Earth, including the financial system, economies and whole societies. The project is called "Living Earth Simulator" and part of a huge EU research initiative named FuturIcT. ... > full story
Bursting 'bubbles' the origin of galactic gas clouds, astronomers find (May 28, 2010) -- Like bubbles bursting on the surface of a glass of champagne, "bubbles" in our galaxy burst and leave flecks of material in the form of clouds of hydrogen gas, researchers using CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope in eastern Australia have found. Their study explains the origin of these clouds for the first time. ... > full story
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