The EDGE: ScienceDaily Technology Headlines -- for Monday, August 13, 2012

ScienceDaily Technology Headlines

for Monday, August 13, 2012

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Full color images at 100,000 dots-per-inch resolution, using metal-laced nano-structures (August 12, 2012) -- Inspired by colorful stained-glass windows, researchers from Singapore have demonstrated an innovative method for producing sharp, full-spectrum color images at 100,000 dpi which can be applicable in reflective color displays, anti-counterfeiting, and high-density optical data recording. ... > full story

Unraveling intricate interactions, one molecule at a time (August 12, 2012) -- In a key step towards the design of better organic electronic devices, an engineering team has succeeded in performing the first quantitative characterization of van der Waals interactions at metal/organic interfaces at the single-molecule level. The researchers reveal the existence of two distinct binding regimes in gold-molecule-gold single-molecule junctions, using molecules containing nitrogen atoms at their extremities that are attracted to gold surfaces. ... > full story

World's most powerful X-ray laser beam refined to scalpel precision (August 12, 2012) -- With a thin sliver of diamond, scientists have transformed the Linac Coherent Light Source into an even more precise tool for exploring the nanoworld. The improvements yield laser pulses focused to higher intensity in a much narrower band of X-ray wavelengths, and may enable experiments that have never before been possible. ... > full story

Scientists' gold discovery sheds light on catalysis (August 12, 2012) -- Physicists have made an important advance in establishing the catalytic properties of gold at a nano level. They discovered that the catalytic activity of nanoporous gold (NPG) originates from high concentrations of surface defects present within its complex three-dimensional structure. ... > full story

Curiosity sends high-resolution color images from Mars' Gale Crater (August 12, 2012) -- NASA's Curiosity rover has shipped back to Earth high-resolution color images of its surroundings on Mars, sharpening our views of an intriguing channel, layered buttes and a layer of cobbles and pebbles embedded in a finer matrix of material. The images show a landscape closely resembling portions of the southwestern United States, adding to the impression gained from the lower-resolution thumbnail images released earlier this week. ... > full story

Hubble's close encounter with the Tarantula (August 11, 2012) -- Turning its eye to the Tarantula Nebula, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a close-up of the outskirts of the main cloud of the Nebula. ... > full story

NASA Curiosity Mars rover installing smarts for driving (August 10, 2012) -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity will spend its first weekend on Mars transitioning to software better suited for tasks ahead, such as driving and using its strong robotic arm. The rover's "brain transplant," which will occur during a series of steps Aug. 10 through Aug. 13, will install a new version of software on both of the rover's redundant main computers. This software for Mars surface operations was uploaded to the rover's memory during the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft's flight from Earth. ... > full story

Quantum cryptography theory has a demonstrated security defect (August 10, 2012) -- Researchers have just demonstrated the incompleteness and limit of the security theory in quantum key distribution. The present theory cannot guarantee unconditional security. ... > full story

Stabilizing shell effects in heaviest elements directly measured (August 10, 2012) -- An international research team has succeeded in directly measuring the strength of shell effects in very heavy elements. The results provide information on the nuclear structure of superheavy elements, thus promising to enable drastically improved predictions concerning the location and extension of the island of stability of superheavy elements. ... > full story

Rooting out rumors, epidemics, and crime -- with math (August 10, 2012) -- Scientists have developed an algorithm that can identify the source of an epidemic or information circulating within a network, a method that could also be used to help with criminal investigations. ... > full story

Project Morpheus vehicle experiences hardware component failure (August 10, 2012) -- NASA's prototype Morpheus lander crashed in a test flight on Thursday (Aug. 9, 2012), at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The vehicle lifted off the ground and then experienced a hardware component failure. This failure prevented the vehicle from maintaining stable flight. No one was injured, and the resulting fire was extinguished by Kennedy Space Center fire personnel. ... > full story

NASA Global Hawk pilots face challenges flying hurricane missions (August 10, 2012) -- NASA's Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel, or HS3, mission will be a complex one for the pilots flying NASA's Global Hawk aircraft from the ground. The mission, set to begin this month, will be the first deployment for the unmanned aircraft away from their regular base of operations at the Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. In addition the pilots will be operating the aircraft from two locations on opposite coasts. ... > full story

Autonomous robotic plane dodges obstacles when flying indoors (August 10, 2012) -- New algorithms allow an autonomous robotic plane to dodge obstacles in a subterranean parking garage, without the use of GPS. ... > full story

Physicists explore properties of electrons in revolutionary material (August 10, 2012) -- Scientists have found a new way to examine certain properties of electrons in graphene – a very thin material that may hold the key to new technologies in computing and other fields. ... > full story

Wireless power for the price of a penny? (August 10, 2012) -- The newspaper-style printing of electronic equipment has led to a cost-effective device that could change the way we interact with everyday objects. ... > full story

The power to heal at the tips of your fingers (August 10, 2012) -- The intricate properties of the fingertips have been mimicked and recreated using semiconductor devices in what researchers hope will lead to the development of advanced surgical gloves. ... > full story

Security risk: Sensitive data can be harvested from a PC even if it is in standby mode, experts say (August 10, 2012) -- When you switch off your computer any passwords you used to login to web pages, your bank or other financial account evaporate into the digital ether, right? Not so fast! Researchers in Greece have discovered a security loophole that exploits the way computer memory works and could be used to harvest passwords and other sensitive data from a PC even if it is in standby mode. ... > full story

Evidence further suggests extra-terrestrial origin of quasicrystals (August 9, 2012) -- Results from an expedition to far eastern Russia that set out to find the origin of naturally occurring quasicrystals have provided convincing evidence that they arrived on Earth from outer space. Scientists reveal that new, naturally occurring quasicrystal samples have been found in an environment that does not have the extreme terrestrial conditions needed to produce them, therefore strengthening the case that they were brought to Earth by a meteorite. ... > full story

Tracking fruit flies to understand the function of the nervous system (August 9, 2012) -- Researchers at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany and the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona, Spain have designed open source software that allows tracking the position of Drosophila fruit flies as well as their larvae during behavioral experiments. The research appeared in two joint publications in the open access journal PLOS ONE. ... > full story

NASA's Curiosity beams back a color 360 of Mars' Gale Crater (August 9, 2012) -- The first images from Curiosity's color Mast Camera, or Mastcam, have been received by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The 130 low-resolution thumbnails, which were received Thursday morning, provide scientists and engineers of NASA's newest Mars rover their first color, horizon-to-horizon glimpse of Gale Crater. ... > full story

Computer scientists reveal how aquatic Olympic gold is captured -- above and below the surface (August 9, 2012) -- Computer scientists have isolated the movements of Olympic swimmers and divers through a cutting-edge technique that reveals their motions above and below the water’s surface. ... > full story

Scientist discovers plate tectonics on Mars (August 9, 2012) -- For years, many scientists had thought that plate tectonics existed nowhere in our solar system but on Earth. Now, a researcher has discovered that the geological phenomenon, which involves the movement of huge crustal plates beneath a planet's surface, also exists on Mars. ... > full story

Soft autonomous robot inches along like an earthworm: Flexible design enables body-morphing capability (August 9, 2012) -- Researchers have engineered a soft autonomous robot that moves via peristalsis, crawling across surfaces by contracting segments of its body, much like an earthworm. ... > full story

Searching salt for answers about life on Earth, Mars (August 9, 2012) -- Researchers have discovered that not only is there evidence of liquid water on Mars, but the planet is also rich with magnesium sulfate. One of the questions researchers are seeking to answer is whether microbial life on Earth can grow at high concentrations of magnesium sulfate. ... > full story

ChemCam sends digital ‘thumbs up’: Martian landing area could be a boon for scientific study (August 9, 2012) -- Members of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover ChemCam team got a digital thumbs up about the operational readiness of their instrument just hours after the rover landed on Martian soil late Sunday evening. ... > full story

First 360-degree panorama from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover (August 9, 2012) -- Remarkable image sets from NASA's Curiosity rover and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are continuing to develop the story of Curiosity's landing and first days on Mars. The images from Curiosity's just-activated navigation cameras, or Navcams, include the rover's first self-portrait, looking down at its deck from above. ... > full story

Freezing magnetic monopoles: How dipoles become monopoles and vice versa (August 9, 2012) -- Scientists have sharpened the theoretical framework under which monopoles can be studied. ... > full story

Cheaper and cleaner catalyst for burning methane (August 9, 2012) -- Researchers have created a material that catalyzes the burning of methane 30 times better than do currently available catalysts. ... > full story

Solar power day and night: New storage systems control fluctuation of renewable energies (August 9, 2012) -- Energy storage systems are one of the key technologies for the energy turnaround. With their help, the fluctuating supply of electricity based on photovoltaics and wind power can be stored until the time of consumption. A number of pilot plants of solar cells, small wind power plants, lithium-ion batteries, and power electronics are now under construction to demonstrate how load peaks in the grid can be balanced and what regenerative power supply by an isolated network may look like in the future. ... > full story

Plenty of dark matter near the Sun (August 9, 2012) -- Astronomers have found large amounts of invisible "dark matter" near the Sun. Their results are consistent with the theory that the Milky Way Galaxy is surrounded by a massive "halo" of dark matter, but this is the first study of its kind to use a method rigorously tested against mock data from high quality simulations. The authors also find tantalizing hints of a new dark matter component in our Galaxy. ... > full story

Oh, my stars and hexagons! DNA code shapes gold nanoparticles (August 8, 2012) -- DNA holds the genetic code for all sorts of biological molecules and traits. But researchers have found that DNA's code can similarly shape metallic structures. The team found that DNA segments can direct the shape of gold nanoparticles -- tiny gold crystals that have many applications in medicine, electronics and catalysis. Each of the four DNA bases codes for a different gold particle shape: rough round particles, stars, flat round discs, and hexagons. ... > full story

Simple mathematical computations underlie brain circuits (August 8, 2012) -- Neuroscientists report that two major classes of brain cells repress neural activity in specific mathematical ways: One type subtracts from overall activation, while the other divides it. ... > full story

Shark teeth help scientists uncover predator's history (August 8, 2012) -- Biologists are studying living great whites and other sharks – as well as fossilized shark teeth – to gain insight into shark behavior and ancestry using the latest in computed tomography scans to analyze shark tooth anatomy, development and evolution. ... > full story

New phenomenon in nanodisk magnetic vortices (August 8, 2012) -- New findings suggest that the road to magnetic vortex RAM might be more difficult to navigate than previously supposed, but there might be unexpected rewards as well. Contrary to suppositions, the formation of magnetic vortices in ferromagnetic nanodisks is an asymmetric phenomenon. ... > full story

Researchers collect and reuse enzymes while maintaining bioactivity (August 8, 2012) -- Researchers are collecting and harvesting enzymes while maintaining the enzyme's bioactivity. The new model system may impact cancer research. ... > full story

New atmospheric compound tied to climate change, human health (August 8, 2012) -- Scientists have discovered a surprising new chemical compound in Earth's atmosphere that reacts with sulfur dioxide to form sulfuric acid, which is known to have significant impacts on climate and health. The new compound, a type of carbonyl oxide, is formed from the reaction of ozone with alkenes, which are a family of hydrocarbons with both natural and human-made sources. ... > full story

How a leaf beetle walks underwater (August 8, 2012) -- Insects are experts when it comes to adhesion on dry surfaces. However, in nature, plants may be covered by water for quite a long period of time, especially after rain. Scientists have now discovered the remarkable ability of the terrestrial leaf beetle to walk underwater. Picking up the beetle’s locomotion mechanism, they designed an artificial material, which sticks to surfaces underwater. ... > full story

Physics and math shed new light on biology by mapping the landscape of evolution (August 8, 2012) -- Researchers capture evolutionary dynamics in a new theoretical framework that could help explain some of the mysteries of how and why species change over time. ... > full story

New substances 15,000 times more effective in destroying chemical warfare agents (August 8, 2012) -- In an advance that could be used in masks to protect against nerve gas, scientists are reporting development of proteins that are up to 15,000 times more effective than their natural counterpart in destroying chemical warfare agents. ... > full story

Advanced explosives detector sniffs out previously undetectable amounts of TNT (August 8, 2012) -- With the best explosive detectors often unable to sniff out the tiny amounts of TNT released from terrorist bombs in airports and other public places, scientists are reporting a potential solution. New research describes the development of a device that concentrates TNT vapors in the air so that they become more detectable. ... > full story

'Exergames' not perfect, but can lead to more exercise (August 8, 2012) -- Active video games, also known as "exergames," are not the perfect solution to the nation's sedentary ways, but they can play a role in getting some people to be more active. ... > full story

Minimally invasive building renovations with prefabricated window modules (August 8, 2012) -- Renovation projects to improve the energy performance of residential buildings involve a lot of messy construction work. Researchers have come up with a new modernization concept that reduces on-site installation times. Prefabricated multifunctional window modules offer a more convenient alternative to the usual renovation methods. ... > full story

The spin racket: Ping-pong champs are intuitive masters of fluid dynamics (August 8, 2012) -- Curve balls may help a pitcher strike out batters in baseball; and some nasty spin can make an opponent sweat to return a tennis serve. But more so than in any other ball game, in table tennis – where the ball is so light and so small –dedicated players must master the physics of spin. ... > full story

Mockup Orion stack shows path to launch (August 8, 2012) -- The Vehicle Assembly Building's transfer aisle offered a glimpse of the future recently as a full-size Orion spacecraft mock-up was placed atop a model of the service module so engineers and technicians could determine the exact dimensions for connectors that will run from the launch pad structure to the spacecraft before liftoff. ... > full story

Mission success for MSL Entry, Descent, & Landing Instrument (MEDLI) (August 8, 2012) -- Mission success for the MSL Entry, Descent, & Landing Instrument (MEDLI) Suite. When the Curiosity rover touched down on the red planet Aug. 6 at 12:32 p.m. CDT, NASA MEDLI researchers were already cheering. The instrumentation payload, carried in the entry vehicle's heatshield, included an intricate array of sophisticated engineering sensors designed to measure heat, pressure and other conditions impacting the heatshield during atmospheric entry and descent. The shield is jettisoned prior to landing. ... > full story

Molecular economics: New computer models calculate systems-wide costs of gene expression (August 8, 2012) -- Bioengineers have developed a method of modeling, simultaneously, an organism's metabolism and its underlying gene expression. In the emerging field of systems biology, scientists model cellular behavior in order to understand how processes such as metabolism and gene expression relate to one another and bring about certain characteristics in the larger organism. ... > full story

First BOSS data: 3-D map of 500,000 galaxies, 100,000 quasars (August 8, 2012) -- Now available to the public: spectroscopic data from over 500,000 galaxies up to 7 billion light years away, over 100,000 quasars up to 11.5 billion light years away, and many thousands of other astronomical objects in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey's Data Release 9. This is the first data from BOSS, the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, the largest spectroscopic survey ever for measuring evolution of large-scale galactic structure. ... > full story

Cost-effective production of infrared lenses (August 8, 2012) -- If visibility is poor, thermal cameras can warn drivers of people or animals on the road. Yet such devices have been very expensive – until now. An important step has been taken to manufacture them more cheaply. A new process will make the infrared lenses – a component of such cameras – up to 70 percent cheaper. ... > full story