The EDGE: ScienceDaily Technology Headlines -- for Tuesday, August 14, 2012

ScienceDaily Technology Headlines

for Tuesday, August 14, 2012

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NASA's 'Mighty Eagle' robotic prototype lander flies again at Marshall (August 13, 2012) -- The "Mighty Eagle," a NASA robotic prototype lander, is soaring high again for a series of tests being conducted at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. ... > full story

Second flight instrument delivered for James Webb Space Telescope (August 13, 2012) -- The second of four main instruments to fly aboard NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) has been delivered to NASA. The Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) will enable the telescope to accurately and precisely point at the correct, intended objects for it to observe. The FGS is packaged together as a single unit with the Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) science instrument. ... > full story

New technology delivers sustained release of drugs for up to six months (August 13, 2012) -- A new technology which delivers sustained release of therapeutics for up to six months could be used in conditions which require routine injections, including diabetes, certain forms of cancer and potentially HIV/AIDS. ... > full story

NASA STEREO observes one of the fastest CMEs on record (August 13, 2012) -- On July 23, 2012, a massive cloud of solar material erupted off the sun's right side, zooming out into space, passing one of NASA's Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft along the way. Using the STEREO data, scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. clocked this giant cloud, known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME, as traveling between 1,800 and 2,200 miles per second as it left the sun. ... > full story

Speedy ions could add zip to quantum computers (August 13, 2012) -- Take that, sports cars! Physicists can accelerate their beryllium ions from zero to 100 miles per hour and stop them in just a few microseconds. The researchers think their zippy ions may be useful in future quantum computers. ... > full story

Supercomputers solve riddle of congenital heart defects (August 13, 2012) -- With the aid of pioneering technology, Danish scientists have charted several of the complex biological processes behind congenital heart defects. In time, the research promises to provide better ways to prevent, diagnose and cure heart disease. ... > full story

New system could predict solar flares, give advance warning (August 13, 2012) -- Researchers may have discovered a new method to predict solar flares more than a day before they occur, providing advance warning to help protect satellites, power grids and astronauts from potentially dangerous radiation. ... > full story

Nanoparticle solar panel coating helps maintain panel efficiency (August 13, 2012) -- A physics researcher has developed a nanoparticle coating for solar panels. This coating helps maintain the panels efficiency and reduces maintenance and operation costs. ... > full story

Nano, photonic research gets boost from new 3-D visualization technology (August 13, 2012) -- For the first time X-ray scientists have combined high-resolution imaging with 3-D viewing of the surface layer of material using X-ray vision in a way that does not damage the sample. This new technique expands the range of X-ray research possible for biology and many aspects of nanotechnology, particularly nanofilms, photonics, and micro- and nano-electronics. This new technique also reduces "guesswork" by eliminating the need for modeling-dependent structural simulation often used in X-ray analysis. ... > full story

Gamma rays from galactic center could be evidence of dark matter (August 13, 2012) -- Gamma-ray photons seen emanating from the center of the Milky Way galaxy are consistent with the intriguing possibility that dark-matter particles are annihilating each other in space, according to new research. ... > full story

A new energy source: Major advance made in generating electricity from wastewater (August 13, 2012) -- Engineers have made a breakthrough in the performance of microbial fuel cells that can produce electricity directly from wastewater, opening the door to a future in which waste treatment plants not only will power themselves while cleaning sewage, but will sell excess electricity. ... > full story

How computation can predict group conflict: Fighting among captive pigtailed macaques provides clues (August 13, 2012) -- When conflict breaks out in social groups, individuals make strategic decisions about how to behave based on their understanding of alliances and feuds in the group. But it's been challenging to quantify the underlying trends that dictate how individuals make predictions, given they may only have seen a small number of fights or have limited memory. In a new study of primates (pigtailed macaques), scientists have developed a computational approach to determine whether individuals behave predictably. ... > full story

Wind farms: A danger to ultra-light aircraft? (August 13, 2012) -- Airfields for ultra-light aircraft are typically constructed on level ground -- and so are wind farms. However, do wind power plants generate turbulence that could endanger lightweight planes? A simulation can compute how these power plants influence aircraft at various wind speeds and wind directions. ... > full story

Scientists 'waltz' closer to using spintronics in computing (August 13, 2012) -- Aiming to use electron spins for storing, transporting and processing information, researchers have revealed the first-ever direct mapping of the formation of a persistent spin helix in a semiconductor. ... > full story

Optics and photonics research priorities, grand challenges presented in new report (August 13, 2012) -- A new report identifies research priorities and grand challenges to fill gaps in optics and photonics. ... > full story

Cyber security risk to smart grids and intelligent buildings (August 13, 2012) -- Building owners and designers, and particularly members of the building services industry, are racing to implement intelligent buildings and smart grids, which are widely heralded as a boon in terms of both energy efficiency and facilities management. But many are overlooking the potential risk of malicious attacks on these highly networked control systems. ... > full story

CERN’s Large Hadron Collider experiments bring new insight into matter of the primordial Universe (August 13, 2012) -- Experiments using heavy ions at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are advancing understanding of the primordial Universe. Scientists have made new measurements of the kind of matter that probably existed in the first instants of the Universe. ... > full story

Optical fibers made from common materials (August 13, 2012) -- Researchers are taking common materials to uncommon places by transforming easily obtainable and affordable materials into fiber. ... > full story

Scientist invents pocket living room TV (August 13, 2012) -- Leaving your TV show midway because you had to leave your home will no longer happen as you can now ‘pull’ the program on your TV screen onto your tablet and continue watching it seamlessly. ... > full story

New eye sweeps the gamma sky (August 13, 2012) -- H.E.S.S. II in Namibia observes the most violent and extreme phenomena of the universe in very high energy gamma-rays. ... > full story

New bacteria-resistant materials discovered (August 13, 2012) -- Using state-of-the-art technology, scientists at have discovered a new class of polymers that are resistant to bacterial attachment. These new materials could lead to a significant reduction in hospital infections and medical device failures. ... > full story

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