The EDGE: ScienceDaily Technology Headlines -- for Monday, July 18, 2011

ScienceDaily Technology Headlines

for Monday, July 18, 2011

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New ways to measure magnetism around the sun (July 18, 2011) -- NASA researchers have made use of old mathematical techniques and new insights on how coronal mass ejections travel to devise a fresh way to measure this magnetic environment in the sun's upper atmosphere, the corona. ... > full story

A manganite changes its stripes: Advanced Light Source uncovers colossal conductivity changes in a special material (July 18, 2011) -- Manganites exhibiting colossal magnetoresistance and high-temperature superconductors are among materials that show their stripes, regions where electrical charges concentrate. Until now, only static stripes have been seen. A team of scientists have discovered a manganite whose stripes form or fall apart depending on the temperature, simultaneously giving rise to colossal changes in electrical conductivity. ... > full story

Early talking doll recording discovered (July 17, 2011) -- Scientists recently recovered sound from an artifact that historians believe is the earliest surviving talking doll record. The artifact is a ring-shaped cylinder phonograph record made of solid metal, preserved by the National Park Service at Thomas Edison National Historical Park. Phonograph inventor Thomas Edison made the record during the fall or winter of 1888 in West Orange, New Jersey. ... > full story

Improved hybrid solar collector has higher efficiency, longer lifespan (July 17, 2011) -- A researcher in the Netherlands has developed a new type of hybrid solar collector with a higher efficiency and a longer lifespan than the current hybrid systems. Hybrid solar collectors combine photovoltaic solar cells that convert sunlight into electricity with a solar heater that provides warm water. ... > full story

Breakthrough toward quantum computing (July 16, 2011) -- To build a quantum computer, one needs to create and precisely control individual quantum memory units, called qubits, for information processing. Scientists have made a breakthrough in the creation of massive numbers of entangled qubits, more precisely a multilevel variant thereof called Qmodes. ... > full story

Your brain on androids (July 15, 2011) -- Cognitive scientist have taken a peek inside the brains of people viewing videos of a humanoid robot. The functional MRI study suggests that what may be going on in the "uncanny valley" phenomenon is due to a perceptual mismatch between appearance and motion. ... > full story

Virtual natural environments and benefits to health (July 15, 2011) -- Researchers have compared the benefits of interaction with actual and virtual natural environments and concluded that the development of accurate simulations are likely to be beneficial to those who cannot interact with nature because of infirmity or other limitations: but virtual worlds are not a substitute for the real thing. ... > full story

Most elliptical galaxies are 'like spirals' (July 15, 2011) -- The majority of 'elliptical' galaxies are not spherical but disc-shaped, resembling spiral galaxies such as our own Milky Way with the gas and dust removed, new observations suggest. ... > full story

Childhood cancer no higher in vicinity of nuclear power plants, Swiss study suggests (July 15, 2011) -- A large longitudinal study found no evidence of an increased risk of cancer in children born near nuclear power plants in Switzerland. ... > full story

Swarms of locusts use social networking to communicate (July 15, 2011) -- Social studies of Facebook and Twitter have been adapted to gain a greater understanding of the swarming behavior of locusts. The enormous success of social networking sites has vividly illustrated the importance of networking for humans; however for some animals, keeping informed about others of their kind is even more important. ... > full story

'Amplified' nanotubes may power the future (July 15, 2011) -- Scientists have achieved a pivotal breakthrough in the development of a cable that will make an efficient electric grid of the future possible. Armchair quantum wire (AQW) will be a weave of metallic nanotubes that can carry electricity with negligible loss over long distances. It will be an ideal replacement for the nation's copper-based grid, which leaks electricity at an estimated 5 percent per 100 miles of transmission. ... > full story

How to grow wires and tiny plates: Liquid processing method can control shapes of nanowires and produce complete electronic devices (July 15, 2011) -- Researchers have found a way to grow submicroscopic wires in water with great precision, using a method that makes it possible to produce entire electronic devices through a liquid-based process. ... > full story

Editing the genome: Scientists unveil new tools for rewriting the code of life (July 15, 2011) -- Researchers have unveiled genome-engineering technologies capable of fundamentally re-engineering genomes from the nucleotide to the megabase scale. Treating the chromosome as both an editable and an evolvable template, the researchers have demonstrated methods to rewrite a cell's genome through powerful new tools for biotechnology, energy and agriculture. ... > full story

New opportunity for AM radio (July 15, 2011) -- Radio broadcasters compete for airwave space in the saturated FM range, in detriment to AM wavebands with a poorer sound quality. Nevertheless, frequencies at wavebands less than 30 MHz (AM ones) could well have a new opportunity, with terrestrial digital radio broadcasting. ... > full story

A LEAP in controlling cardiac fibrillation: Researchers develop a new low-energy defibrillation method (July 15, 2011) -- An international team of scientists has developed a new low-energy method for terminating life-threatening cardiac fibrillation of the heart. They have shown that their new technique called LEAP (Low-Energy Anti-fibrillation Pacing) reduces the energy required for defibrillation by more than 80% as compared to the current conventional method. Their discovery opens the path for the painless therapy of life threatening cardiac fibrillation. ... > full story

Conducting energy on a nano scale: Are 'doped' nanocrystals the future of technology? (July 15, 2011) -- Scientists have succeeded in making delicate and sensitive nanocrystals susceptible to the engineering techniques that would make them practical semi-conductors. The new method of "doping" these crystals may lead to advances in solar panels, cell phones and cameras. ... > full story

What activates a supermassive black hole? Galaxy collisions not the culprits, even in the jam-packed early universe (July 14, 2011) -- A new study combining data from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton X-ray space observatory has turned up a surprise. Most of the huge black holes in the centres of galaxies in the past 11 billion years were not turned on by mergers between galaxies, as had been previously thought. ... > full story

Red light from carbon nanotubes (July 14, 2011) -- To the human eye, carbon nanotubes usually appear as a black powder. They can hardly be forced to emit light, as they are excellent electrical conductors and capture the energy from other luminescent chemical species placed nearby. Researchers recently developed a relatively simple method allowing the nanotubes exposed to UV to emit red light. ... > full story

Chemistry: Separation a thousand-fold faster may lead to new composite materials (July 14, 2011) -- Numerous industrial processes make use of blends. Researchers have studied how the external electric field affects the rate of component separation in blends composed of polymers and liquid crystals and those composed of various types of polymers. The observations gathered open interesting opportunities, e.g., for the development of new composite materials. ... > full story

NASA spacecraft to enter asteroid's orbit on July 15 (July 14, 2011) -- On July 15, NASA's Dawn spacecraft will begin a prolonged encounter with the asteroid Vesta, making the mission the first to enter orbit around a main-belt asteroid. ... > full story

Soft memory device opens door to new biocompatible electronics (July 14, 2011) -- Researchers have developed a memory device that is soft and functions well in wet environments -- opening the door to a new generation of biocompatible electronic devices. ... > full story

New planets feature young star and twin Neptunes (July 14, 2011) -- Scientists have discovered 10 new planets. Amongst them is one orbiting a star perhaps only a few tens of million years old, twin Neptune-sized planets, and a rare Saturn-like world. ... > full story

Print your own teeth: Rapid prototyping comes to dentistry (July 14, 2011) -- What if, instead of waiting days or weeks for a cast to be produced and prosthetic dental implants, false teeth and replacement crowns to be made, your dentist could quickly scan your jaw and "print" your new teeth using a rapid prototyping machine known as a 3-D printer? ... > full story

New way to store sun's heat: Modified carbon nanotubes can store solar energy indefinitely, then be recharged by exposure to the sun (July 14, 2011) -- A novel application of carbon nanotubes shows promise as an innovative approach to storing solar energy for use whenever it's needed. Storing the sun's heat in chemical form -- rather than converting it to electricity or storing the heat itself in a heavily insulated container -- has significant advantages, since in principle the chemical material can be stored for long periods of time without losing any of its stored energy. The problem with that approach has been that until now the chemicals needed to perform this conversion and storage either degraded within a few cycles, or included the element ruthenium, which is rare and expensive. ... > full story

Pixel perfect: Lens-free, pinhead-size camera developed (July 14, 2011) -- It's like a Brownie camera for the digital age: The microscopic device fits on the head of a pin, contains no lenses or moving parts, costs pennies to make -- and this camera could revolutionize an array of science from surgery to robotics. ... > full story

New method for making human-based gelatin (July 14, 2011) -- Scientists are reporting development of a new approach for producing large quantities of human-derived gelatin that could become a substitute for some of the 300,000 tons of animal-based gelatin produced annually for gelatin-type desserts, marshmallows, candy and innumerable other products. ... > full story

Narrowest bridges of gold are also the strongest, study finds (July 14, 2011) -- At an atomic scale, the tiniest bridge of gold -- that made of a single atom -- is actually the strongest, according to new research. ... > full story

Faster 3-D nanoimaging a possibility with full color synchrotron light (July 14, 2011) -- Researchers can now see objects more precisely and faster at the nanoscale due to utilizing the full color spectrum of synchrotron light, opening the way for faster 3-D nanoimaging. ... > full story

Expert help from a distance (July 14, 2011) -- When electronic devices refuse to work, you rarely find the solution in the manual. Technicians often face similar problems with industrial machines, and companies end up flying in experts from the manufacturer to get things running again. A new system aims to help manufacturers lend a hand regardless of how far away they are located. ... > full story

Supercomputer: SDSC's Trestles provides rapid turnaround for diverse researchers (July 14, 2011) -- Trestles, a supercomputer launched earlier this year, is proving itself as a valuable resource for researchers across a wide range of disciplines, from astrophysics to molecular dynamics, who need access to computational resources with rapid turnaround. ... > full story

Twin ARTEMIS probes to study moon in 3-D (July 13, 2011) -- Almost 2 years ago, two of five THEMIS satellites were boosted from their orbits around Earth toward the moon. The first transitioned into a lunar orbit on June 27, while the second is destined to arrive on Sunday, July 17, to begin mapping the moon's surface magnetic fields and magnetic environment in 3-D. The probes, renamed the ARTEMIS mission, will also look for evidence of plasmoids produced by magnetic reconnection in Earth's magnetotail. ... > full story

Atomic structure discovered for a sodium channel that generates electrical signals in living cells (July 13, 2011) -- Scientists have determined the atomic structure of a sodium channel, a pore in membranes of excitable cells, such as brain or heart cells, that emit electrical signals. They gate charged particles crossing the cell membrane to generate electrical currents. These encode information in the brain and make heart muscle contract. Many medications and neurotoxins act on sodium channels. Never before have researchers obtained a high resolution crystal structure of all atoms of this complex protein molecule and their three dimensional relationships. ... > full story

Evolved stars locked in fatalistic dance (July 13, 2011) -- White dwarfs are the burned-out cores of stars like our sun. Astronomers have discovered a pair of white dwarfs spiraling into one another at breakneck speeds. Today, these white dwarfs are so near they make a complete orbit in just 13 minutes, but they are gradually slipping closer together. About 900,000 years from now -- a blink of an eye in astronomical time -- they will merge and possibly explode as a supernova. ... > full story

Computerized system to prevent SIDS: 'BabyBeat' also has applications in telemedicine and remote monitoring (July 13, 2011) -- A new system using video and computer software to monitor a baby that could be used to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), as well as for telemedicine applications, has been developed by two engineering students in Israel. Called "BabyBeat," the system uses computer algorithms to convert video footage to pulses that represent a baby's heartbeat and skin tone. In the event that the system detects an abnormal heartbeat, an alarm sounds to awaken the baby, change its breathing pattern and alert the parents. After further testing, if BabyBeat continues to perform as expected, the students will seek to commercially produce and market the innovation. ... > full story

25 Tesla, world-record 'split magnet' makes its debut (July 13, 2011) -- A custom-built, .5 million "split magnet" system with the potential to revolutionize scientific research in a variety of fields has made its debut at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University. ... > full story

New electric concept car has excellent driving dynamics (July 13, 2011) -- Following months of preliminary work on computer simulations, the first completed prototype of the new electric concept car showed in its first driving tests that it possesses excellent driving properties -- not only in theory, but also in practice. ... > full story

Supramolecules get time to shine: Technique reveals interactions between nanotubes, photoluminescent materials (July 13, 2011) -- What looks like a spongy ball wrapped in strands of yarn -- but a lot smaller -- could be key to unlocking better methods for catalysis, artificial photosynthesis or splitting water into hydrogen, according to chemists who have created a platform to analyze interactions between carbon nanotubes and a wide range of photoluminescent materials. ... > full story

Cat litter to become an edible product? (July 13, 2011) -- Sepiolite is a porous clay material used for example in cat litter that absorbs more liquid than any other known mineral. A Franco-Spanish team of scientists has analyzed twenty different sepiolites extracted from mines around the world, using X-ray and electron diffraction. The results open the path to industrial synthesis of sepiolites and to the design of completely new materials for use in catalysis, energy storage and food. ... > full story

Ancient algae: Genetically engineering a path to new energy sources? (July 13, 2011) -- A team of researchers is making a connection between prehistoric times and the present -- ancient algae that can produce their own biofuel -- that could result in genetically creating a replacement for oil and coal shale deposits. Their discovery could have fundamental implications for the future of Earth's energy supplies. ... > full story

Wireless power could cut cord for patients with implanted heart pumps (July 13, 2011) -- A new system to send electricity over short distances has been shown to reliably power a mechanical heart pump. The system could free patients from being tethered to a battery or external power source, lowering their chance of infection and improving their quality of life. ... > full story

Intelligent street lighting saves up to 80% on energy (July 13, 2011) -- Scientists in the Netherlands are currently testing an intelligent street lighting system which uses up to 80% less electricity than the current systems and is also cheaper to maintain. ... > full story

Scientists model physics of a key dark-energy probe: Simulations improve characterization of cosmology’s 'standard ruler’ (July 13, 2011) -- Researchers are leveraging powerful supercomputers to investigate one of the key observational probes of "dark energy." The project focuses on simulations created on Ohio Supercomputer Center systems to simplify and better characterize a subtle dark-matter clustering feature. The new model allows cosmologists to gain a more accurate understanding of certain aspects of large-scale structure, such as the effect of the expansion of the universe on the growth of density fluctuations. ... > full story

A novel enzymatic catalyst for biodiesel production (July 13, 2011) -- Continuous production of biodiesel can now be envisaged thanks to a novel new catalyst. Biofuel production provides an alternative to fossil fuels. Biodiesels, for instance, are processed products based on oils from oleaginous plants such as oilseed rape, palm, sunflower and soybeans. They result from a chemical reaction, catalyzed in either an acidic or preferably a basic medium, between a vegetable oil (90%) and an alcohol (10%). ... > full story

Innovative system for producing carpets (July 13, 2011) -- In Europe 700 million square meters of carpets are produced each year, and in the United States the volume is ten times higher. Researchers have now developed an enzyme-based biological technology that paves the way for manufacturing carpets that are much lighter, sustainable, biodegradable, and 100% recyclable. A wool carpet manufactured using this innovative system is a completely natural and biodegradable product. At the end of its useful life the entire product can be shredded and turned into organic material, which can then be used, for example, as fertilizer for growing plants. ... > full story

New approaches for aircraft operations aboard carriers examined (July 13, 2011) -- New research has examined how aircraft carrier flight deck crews will manage manned and unmanned air vehicles. ... > full story

Computer learns language by playing games (July 12, 2011) -- Researchers have created a system that allows a computer to learn to play a computer game by learning the language required to read the manual. ... > full story

Deeper insight in the activity of cortical cells (July 12, 2011) -- Scientists can now image the processing of information deeper in the cortex with the help of a new multi-photon microscope design. ... > full story

Hubble's Neptune anniversary pictures (July 12, 2011) -- Today, Neptune has arrived at the same location in space where it was discovered nearly 165 years ago. To commemorate the event, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken these "anniversary pictures" of the blue-green giant planet. ... > full story