The EDGE: ScienceDaily Technology Headlines -- for Friday, January 13, 2012

ScienceDaily Technology Headlines

for Friday, January 13, 2012

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Mystery of source of supernova in nearby galaxy solved (January 13, 2012) -- Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have solved a longstanding mystery of the type of star, or so-called progenitor, that caused a supernova in a nearby galaxy. The finding yields new observational data for pinpointing one of several scenarios that trigger such outbursts. ... > full story

Platform safety on the radar for researchers (January 13, 2012) -- Systems used to detect aircraft and ships could soon be fitted in train stations to quickly identify objects – or even people – that have fallen on the tracks, preventing serious accidents and reducing delays that are frequently caused by these mishaps. ... > full story

Electron's negativity cut in half by supercomputer: Simulations slice electron in half -- a physical process that cannot be done in nature (January 13, 2012) -- Using several massive supercomputers, a team of physicists has split a simulated electron perfectly in half. The results are another example of how tabletop experiments on ultra-cold atoms and other condensed-matter materials can provide clues about the behavior of fundamental particles. ... > full story

Backing out of the nanotunnel (January 13, 2012) -- Nanopores provide a versatile tool for probing molecular structures. A new study shows that one can obtain more detailed information about the dynamic behavior of nucleic acids during passage through nanopores by directing them to asymmetric pores for the return journey. ... > full story

NASA's Hubble breaks new ground with distant supernova discovery (January 12, 2012) -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has looked deep into the distant universe and detected the feeble glow of a star that exploded more than 9 billion years ago. The sighting is the first finding of an ambitious survey that will help astronomers place better constraints on the nature of dark energy: the mysterious repulsive force that is causing the universe to fly apart ever faster. ... > full story

When galaxy clusters collide: Collision could help astronomers better understand 'dark matter' (January 12, 2012) -- The collision of two clusters of galaxies 5 billion light years away could help astronomers better understand "dark matter," the invisible stuff that makes up a big chunk of our universe. ... > full story

Planets with double suns are common (January 12, 2012) -- Astronomers have discovered two new circumbinary planet systems -- planets that orbit two stars, like Tatooine in the movie Star Wars. Their find, which brings the number of known circumbinary planets to three, shows that planets with two suns must be common, with many millions existing in our galaxy. ... > full story

Plasma treatment zaps viruses before they can attack cells (January 12, 2012) -- Researchers have tested a pre-emptive anti-viral treatment on a common virus known to cause respiratory infections. ... > full story

Why do dew drops do what they do on leaves? (January 12, 2012) -- Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore once wrote, "Let your life lightly dance on the edges of time like dew on the tip of a leaf." Now, a new study is finally offering an explanation for why small dew drops do as Tagore advised and form on the tips, rather than the flat surfaces, of leaves. ... > full story

Astronomers find three smallest planets outside solar system (January 12, 2012) -- Astronomers have discovered the three smallest confirmed planets ever detected outside our solar system. The three planets, which all orbit a single star, are smaller than Earth and appear to be rocky. Their existence suggests that the galaxy could be teeming with similarly rocky planets—and that there's a good chance that many are in the so-called habitable zone, where liquid water and possibly life could exist. ... > full story

Renewable fuel: Clearing a potential road block to bisabolane (January 12, 2012) -- Researchers have determined the three-dimensional crystal structure of a protein that is key to boosting the microbial-based production of bisabolane as a clean, green and renewable biosynthetic alternative to D2 diesel fuel. ... > full story

Saturn-like ring system eclipses Sun-like star (January 12, 2012) -- A team of astrophysicists has discovered a ring system in the constellation Centaurus that invites comparisons to Saturn. This is the first system of discrete, thin, dust rings detected around a very low-mass object outside of our solar system. ... > full story

Experiments demonstrate nanoscale metallic conductivity in ferroelectrics (January 12, 2012) -- The prospect of electronics at the nanoscale may be even more promising with the first observation of metallic conductance in ferroelectric nanodomains. ... > full story

Rare ultra-blue stars found in neighboring galaxy's hub (January 11, 2012) -- Peering deep inside the hub of the neighboring Andromeda galaxy, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered a large, rare population of hot, bright stars. ... > full story

Sports: Restricting improving technology does not always have expected outcome (January 11, 2012) -- New research by a sports economist shows restricting improving technology does not always have the expected outcome. His study suggests that understanding how people react to regulations can aid in policy-making. ... > full story

Greenhouses and solar power: Crop testing with a special photovoltaic panel for greenhouses (January 11, 2012) -- A new photovoltaic module allows electricity to be generated without greenhouse crops being affected by over-shading. ... > full story

Planet population is plentiful: Planets around stars are the rule rather than the exception (January 11, 2012) -- Astronomers have used the technique of gravitational microlensing to measure how common planets are in the Milky Way. After a six-year search that surveyed millions of stars, the team concludes that planets around stars are the rule rather than the exception. ... > full story

Solar energy: New sunflower-inspired pattern increases concentrated solar efficiency (January 11, 2012) -- A new sunflower-inspired pattern increases concentrated solar efficiency. ... > full story

Keeping electronics cool: Findings on modified form of graphene could have impacts in managing heat dissipation (January 11, 2012) -- An engineering professor has made a breakthrough discovery with graphene, a material that could play a major role in keeping laptops and other electronic devices from overheating. ... > full story

Student team's glucose sensor uses DNA instead of chemicals (January 11, 2012) -- People with diabetes may one day have a less expensive resource for monitoring their blood glucose levels, if research by a group of students becomes reality. ... > full story

Astronomers pinpoint launch of 'bullets' in a black hole's jet (January 11, 2012) -- Astronomers have identified the moment when a black hole in our galaxy launched super-fast knots of gas into space. Racing outward at about one-quarter the speed of light, these "bullets" of ionized gas are thought to arise from a region located just outside the black hole's event horizon, the point beyond which nothing can escape. ... > full story

El Gordo: A 'fat' distant galaxy cluster (January 11, 2012) -- An extremely hot, massive young galaxy cluster is the largest ever seen in the distant universe. The newly discovered galaxy cluster has been nicknamed El Gordo -- the "big" or "fat one" in Spanish. It consists of two separate galaxy subclusters colliding at several million kilometres per hour, and is so far away that its light has travelled for seven billion years to reach Earth. ... > full story

'Google Flu Trends' is a powerful early warning system for emergency departments (January 11, 2012) -- Monitoring Internet search traffic about influenza may prove to be a better way for hospital emergency rooms to prepare for a surge in sick patients compared to waiting for outdated government flu case reports. ... > full story

Quick-cooking nanomaterials in microwave to make tomorrow's air conditioners (January 10, 2012) -- Engineering researchers have developed a new method for creating advanced nanomaterials that could lead to highly efficient refrigerators and cooling systems requiring no refrigerants and no moving parts. The key ingredients for this innovation are a dash of nanoscale sulfur and a normal, everyday microwave oven. ... > full story

Fusion plasma research helps neurologists to hear above the noise (January 10, 2012) -- Fusion plasma researchers and neuroscientists are significantly improving our understanding of the data obtained from noninvasive study of the fast dynamics of networks in the human brain. ... > full story

Before they were stars: New image shows space nursery (January 10, 2012) -- The stars we see today weren't always as serene as they appear, floating alone in the dark of night. Most stars, likely including our sun, grew up in cosmic turmoil -- as illustrated in a new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The image shows one of the most active and turbulent regions of star birth in our galaxy, a region called Cygnus X. ... > full story

Satellite imagery detects thermal 'uplift' signal of underground nuclear tests (January 10, 2012) -- A new analysis of satellite data from the late 1990s documents for the first time the "uplift" of ground above a site of underground nuclear testing, providing researchers a potential new tool for analyzing the strength of detonation. The findings provide another forensic tool for evaluation, especially for the potential explosive yield estimates. ... > full story

Farthest developing galaxy cluster ever found (January 10, 2012) -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered a cluster of galaxies in the initial stages of construction — the most distant such grouping ever observed in the early universe. In a random sky survey made in near-infrared light, Hubble spied five tiny galaxies clustered together 13.1 billion light-years away. They are among the brightest galaxies at that epoch and very young, existing just 600 million years after the universe's birth in the big bang. ... > full story

Light makes write for DNA information-storage device (January 10, 2012) -- Researchers have demonstrated a write-once-read-many-times information-storage device, made of DNA embedded with silver nanoparticles, that uses ultraviolet light to encode data. ... > full story

Robotic therapy may provide lasting gains for immobilized stroke survivors (January 10, 2012) -- Adding robotic assistance to standard rehab was more effective than traditional methods in helping severely impaired stroke survivors regain the ability to walk. The additional therapy was not beneficial for those with less impairment. ... > full story

Astronomers reach new frontiers of dark matter (January 10, 2012) -- For the first time, astronomers have mapped dark matter on the largest scale ever observed. New findings reveal a Universe comprising an intricate cosmic web of dark matter and galaxies spanning more than one billion light years. ... > full story

The path less traveled: Research is driving solutions to improve unpaved roads (January 10, 2012) -- To improve the quality of unpaved roads, a graduate student is working with lignin, a sustainable material found in all plants. Lignin's adhesive properties make it good for binding soil particles together and protecting unpaved roads from erosion. ... > full story

Relay race with single atoms: New ways of manipulating matter (January 9, 2012) -- A relay reaction of hydrogen atoms at a single-molecule level has been observed in real-space. This way of manipulating matter could open up new ways to exchange information between novel molecular devices in future electronics. ... > full story

Mystery of car battery's current solved (January 9, 2012) -- Chemists have solved the 150 year-old mystery of what gives the lead-acid battery, found under the bonnet of most cars, its unique ability to deliver a surge of current. ... > full story

Clearest picture yet of dark matter points the way to better understanding of dark energy (January 9, 2012) -- Scientists have independently made the largest direct measurements of the invisible scaffolding of the universe, using the gravitational lensing effect known as "cosmic shear" to build maps of the distribution of dark matter. Their methods show that surveys with ground-based telescopes can measure cosmic shear with enough accuracy to aid in better understanding the mysterious space-stretching effects of dark energy. ... > full story

Graphene reveals its magnetic personality (January 9, 2012) -- Can organic matter behave like a fridge magnet? Scientists have now shown that it can. Researchers took nonmagnetic graphene and then either 'peppered' it with other nonmagnetic atoms like fluorine or removed some carbon atoms from the chicken wire. The empty spaces, called vacancies, and added atoms all turned out to be magnetic, exactly like atoms of, for example, iron. ... > full story

First hint of the Higgs boson particle (January 8, 2012) -- The answer to one of the most exciting questions in particle physics seems almost close enough to touch: Scientists have observed first signs of the Higgs boson and now believe that they will soon be able to prove the existence of the elementary particle they have been trying so hard to isolate. ... > full story

Sensor improvement brings analysis method into mainstream (January 8, 2012) -- An advance in sensor design could unshackle a powerful yet high-maintenance technique for exploring material, expanding the scope of neutron interferometry from a test of quantum mechanics to a tool for industry. ... > full story

Hybrid silkworms spin stronger spider silk (January 7, 2012) -- Silk produced by transgenically engineered silkworms in the lab exhibit the highly sought-after strength and elasticity of spider silk. This stronger silk could possibly be used to make sutures, artificial limbs and parachutes. ... > full story

Graphene rips follow rules (January 7, 2012) -- Researchers may give science and industry a new way to manipulate graphene, which naturally rips along armchair and zigzag paths. ... > full story

Down to the wire for silicon: Researchers create a wire four atoms wide, one atom tall (January 6, 2012) -- The smallest wires ever developed in silicon -- just one atom tall and four atoms wide -- have been shown by a team of researchers to have the same current-carrying capability as copper wires. ... > full story

Now you see it, now you didn't: Researchers cloak a moment in time (January 6, 2012) -- Think Harry Potter movie magic: Researchers have demonstrated a "temporal cloak" -- albeit on a very small scale -- in the transport of information by a beam of light. ... > full story

New system may one day steer microrobots through blood vessels for disease treatment (January 6, 2012) -- Researchers use a magnetic field to generate both side-to-side and corkscrew-like motions of tiny robots. ... > full story

Traditional social networks fueled Twitter's spread (January 6, 2012) -- Researchers who studied the growth of the newly hatched Twitter from 2006 to 2009 say the site's growth in the United States actually relied primarily on media attention and traditional social networks based on geographic proximity and socioeconomic similarity. In other words, at least during those early years, birds of a feather flocked -- and tweeted -- together. ... > full story

Nanotechnology may speed up drug testing (January 6, 2012) -- Testing the effectiveness of new pharmaceuticals may get faster thanks to a new technique incorporating quantum dots. ... > full story

Scientists find structure of gene-editing protein (January 6, 2012) -- In the two and a half years since scientists discovered how a class of proteins find and bind specific sequences in plant genomes, researchers worldwide have moved fast to use this discovery. Now, the next step has been taken by determining the 3-D structure of a TAL effector bound to DNA. ... > full story

New technology tightens cyber security (January 6, 2012) -- A revolutionary new technology helps with cyber security. ... > full story

Mars rover to spend winter at 'Greeley Haven' (January 6, 2012) -- NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity will spend the next few months during the coldest part of Martian winter at Greeley Haven, an outcrop of rock on Mars recently named informally to honor Ronald Greeley, a professor of planetary geology, who died Oct. 27, 2011. ... > full story