The EDGE: ScienceDaily Technology Headlines -- for Wednesday, August 22, 2012

ScienceDaily Technology Headlines

for Wednesday, August 22, 2012

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Lifelike, cost-effective robotic hand can disable IEDs (August 21, 2012) -- Researchers have developed a cost-effective robotic hand that can be used in disarming improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. ... > full story

NASA's Curiosity studies Mars surroundings, nears drive (August 21, 2012) -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has been investigating the Martian weather around it and the soil beneath it, as its controllers prepare for the car-size vehicle's first drive on Mars. ... > full story

Moving closer to extracting uranium from seawater (August 21, 2012) -- Fueling nuclear reactors with uranium harvested from the ocean could become more feasible because of a new material. ... > full story

'Electronic nose' prototype developed: Device has applications in agriculture, industry, homeland security and the military (August 21, 2012) -- Research has led to the development of an "electronic nose" prototype that can detect small quantities of harmful airborne substances. ... > full story

New catalyst could improve production of glass alternatives (August 21, 2012) -- Chemists have identified a catalyst that could dramatically reduce the amount of waste made in the production of methyl methacrylate, a monomer used in the large-scale manufacturing of lightweight, shatter-resistant alternatives to glass such as Plexiglas. ... > full story

Public wave energy test facility begins operation in Oregon (August 21, 2012) -- One of the first public wave energy testing systems in the United States began operation this week off the Oregon coast near Newport, and will allow private industry or academic researchers to test new technology that may help advance this promising form of sustainable energy. ... > full story

Self-charging power cell converts and stores energy (August 21, 2012) -- Researchers have developed a self-charging power cell that directly converts mechanical energy to chemical energy, storing the power until it is released as electrical current. The development eliminates the need to convert mechanical energy to electrical energy for charging a battery. ... > full story

New technology to transform blood processing (August 21, 2012) -- A pioneering surgical blood salvage technology is set to transform the way major surgery is carried out by reducing blood loss in patients. ... > full story

Halo of neutrinos alters physics of exploding stars (August 21, 2012) -- Sparse halos of neutrinos within the hearts of exploding stars exert a previously unrecognized influence on the physics of the explosion and may alter which elements can be forged by these violent events. ... > full story

Intense bursts of star formation drive fierce galactic winds (August 21, 2012) -- Fierce galactic winds powered by an intense burst of star formation may blow gas right out of massive galaxies, shutting down their ability to make new stars. ... > full story

Sun's plasma loops recreated in the lab to help understand solar physics (August 21, 2012) -- In orbit around Earth is a wide range of satellites that we rely on for everything from television feeds to GPS navigation. Although these spacecraft soar high above storms on Earth, they are still vulnerable to weather from the sun. Large solar flares can cause widespread damage, which is why researchers are working to learn more about the possible precursors to solar flares called plasma loops by recreating them in the lab. ... > full story

Computer program recognizes any language (August 21, 2012) -- New technology that allows computers to recognize any language without pre-learning stands to revolutionize automatic speech recognition. ... > full story

Big picture of the universe confirmed, WiggleZ survey of more than 200,000 galaxies shows (August 21, 2012) -- We know that stars group together to form galaxies, galaxies clump to make clusters and clusters gather to create structures known as superclusters. At what scale though, if at all, does this Russian doll-like structure stop? Scientists have been debating this very question for decades because clustering on large scales would be in conflict with our 'standard model' of cosmology. The current model is based on Einstein's equations assuming everything is smooth on the largest scales. If matter were instead clumpy on very large scales, then the entire model would need to be rethought. ... > full story

'CSI' technology holds potential in everyday medicine (August 21, 2012) -- A scientific instrument featured on CSI and CSI: Miami for instant fingerprint analysis is forging another life in real-world medicine, helping during brain surgery and ensuring that cancer patients get effective doses of chemotherapy. ... > full story

New solar panels made with more common metals could be cheaper and more sustainable (August 21, 2012) -- With enough sunlight falling on home roofs to supply at least half of America’s electricity, scientists have described advances toward the less-expensive solar energy technology needed to roof many of those homes with shingles that generate electricity. ... > full story

Symbiotic Nodulation in a Reduced Gravity Environment: Plant research reaps two-fold benefits (August 20, 2012) -- What can we learn from sending codependent bacteria and plants into space? Quite a bit, it would appear. An experiment with the tongue-twisting name Symbiotic Nodulation in a Reduced Gravity Environment, or SyNRGE for short, could yield benefits on Earth as well as space. ... > full story

Radiation Belt Storm Probes: Fundamental physics to benefit life on Earth, in space (August 20, 2012) -- Encircling Earth's equator are two concentric, wide rings of high-intensity particles known as the Van Allen radiation belts. This dynamic region changes in response to the sun, with the potential to affect GPS satellites, satellite television and more. NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) mission aims to study this ever-changing environment in greater detail than ever before. ... > full story

New NASA mission to take first look deep inside Mars (August 20, 2012) -- NASA has selected a new mission, set to launch in 2016, that will take the first look into the deep interior of Mars to see why the Red Planet evolved so differently from Earth as one of our solar system's rocky planets. The new mission, named InSight, will place instruments on the Martian surface to investigate whether the core of Mars is solid or liquid like Earth's, and why Mars' crust is not divided into tectonic plates that drift like Earth's. Detailed knowledge of the interior of Mars in comparison to Earth will help scientists understand better how terrestrial planets form and evolve. ... > full story

Voyager at 35: Break on through to the other side (August 20, 2012) -- Thirty-five years ago Aug. 20, NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft, the first Voyager spacecraft to launch, departed on a journey that would make it the only spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune and the longest-operating NASA spacecraft ever. Voyager 2 and its twin, Voyager 1, that launched 16 days later on Sept. 5, 1977, are still going strong, hurtling away from our sun. Mission managers are eagerly anticipating the day when they break on through to the other side -- the space between stars. ... > full story

Curiosity stretches its arm (August 20, 2012) -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity flexed its robotic arm Aug. 20, 2012 for the first time since before launch in November 2011. The 7-foot-long (2.1-meter-long) arm maneuvers a turret of tools including a camera, a drill, a spectrometer, a scoop and mechanisms for sieving and portioning samples of powdered rock and soil. ... > full story

First evidence discovered of planet's destruction by its star (August 20, 2012) -- The first evidence of a planet's destruction by its aging star has been discovered by an international team of astronomers. A similar fate may await the Earth and other inner planets in our solar system, when the sun expands all the way out to Earth's orbit some five-billion years from now. ... > full story

Nanoparticles added to platelets double internal injury survival rate: Early lab study hold promise for trauma cases (August 20, 2012) -- Naonparticles tailored to latch onto blood platelets rapidly create healthy clots and nearly double the survival rate in the vital first hour after injury lab research shows. ... > full story

Information overload in the era of 'big data' (August 20, 2012) -- The ability of botanists and other scientists to generate data quickly and cheaply is surpassing their ability to access and analyze it. Scientists facing too much information rely on computers to search large data sets for patterns that are beyond the capability of humans to recognize. New tools called ontologies provide the rules computers need to transform information into knowledge, by attaching meaning to data, thereby making those data more retrievable and understandable. ... > full story

Scientists examine effects of manufactured nanoparticles on soybean crops (August 20, 2012) -- Sunscreens, lotions, and cosmetics contain tiny metal nanoparticles that wash down the drain at the end of the day, or are discharged after manufacturing. Those nanoparticles eventually end up in agricultural soil, which is a cause for concern, according to a group of environmental scientists that recently carried out the first major study of soybeans grown in soil contaminated by two manufactured nanomaterials. ... > full story

Toward a portable emergency treatment for stopping life-threatening internal bleeding (August 20, 2012) -- Progress is being made toward a new emergency treatment for internal bleeding - counterpart to the tourniquets, pressure bandages and Quick Clot products that keep people from bleeding to death from external wounds. ... > full story

Boon to fusion: New way to predict heat layer troublemaker (August 20, 2012) -- Researchers at a recent worldwide conference on fusion power have confirmed the surprising accuracy of a new model for predicting the size of a key barrier to fusion. ... > full story

Cleaner fuel for cruise ships and other big vessels from ingredients in detergents, medicines (August 20, 2012) -- Scientists have developed a new fuel mixture to ease the major air pollution and cost problems facing cruise ships, oil tankers and container ships. These vessels tend to burn the cheapest and most highly polluting form of diesel fuel. ... > full story

Electrifying success in raising antioxidant levels in sweet potatoes (August 20, 2012) -- Already ranked by some as number one in nutrition among vegetables, the traditional sweet potato can be nutritionally supercharged with a simple, inexpensive electric current treatment that increases its content of healthful polyphenols or antioxidants by 60 percent, scientists have said. This is believed to be the first electrical enhancement of sweet potatoes, a dietary staple since prehistoric times. ... > full story

Patterning defect-free nanocrystal films with nanometer resolution (August 20, 2012) -- A new process could enable better LED displays, solar cells and biosensors -- and foster basic physics research. ... > full story

Teaching a microbe to make fuel (August 20, 2012) -- A genetically modified organism could turn carbon dioxide or waste products into a gasoline-compatible transportation fuel. ... > full story

Powerful new chip helps diagnose disease, analyzes protein interactions (August 20, 2012) -- Researchers have synthesized a grid-like array of short pieces of a disease-associated protein on silicon chips normally used in computer microprocessors. ... > full story

Chemical physics: NO place for nitrogen (August 20, 2012) -- The finding that nitrogen can combine with oxygen in zirconia to form NO molecules may lead to safer materials for nuclear reactors. ... > full story

Nanomaterials: Shedding light and water (August 20, 2012) -- Studies reveal a new way to make superhydrophobic surfaces with better self-cleaning capabilities. ... > full story

Ultra low power analog-to-digital converter for medical devices and wireless sensor nodes (August 20, 2012) -- Researchers have developed an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that uses only 400 nW, the lowest power consumption reported to date amongst today's standard processing technology. ... > full story

Data storage: Ribbon readers (August 20, 2012) -- Transistors made from graphene nanoribbons make efficient magnetic field sensors, researchers have found. ... > full story

Drug development: Clever crystals (August 20, 2012) -- Water plays a key role in the co-crystallization of active pharmaceutical ingredients, researchers have found. ... > full story

Scientists shed light on glowing materials (August 20, 2012) -- Researchers have succeeded in mapping how light behaves in complex photonic materials inspired by nature, like iridescent butterfly wings. Scientists have broken the limit of light resolution at the nanoscale and delivered a fundamental insight into how light and matter interact, which could lead to the development of enhanced bio-sensors for healthcare and more efficient solar cells and displays. ... > full story

Next generation 3-D theater: Optical science makes glasses a thing of the past (August 20, 2012) -- Even with current digital technology, the latest Hollywood blockbusters still rely on clunky glasses to achieve a convincing 3-D effect. New optics research offers the prospect of glasses-free, 3-D display technology for commercial theaters. Their new technique uses space more efficiently and is cheaper than current 3-D projection technology. ... > full story

High-definition fiber tractography is major advance in brain imaging (August 20, 2012) -- A technique called high-definition fiber tractography (HDFT) provides a powerful new tool for tracing the course of nerve fiber connections within the brain—with the potential to improve the accuracy of neurosurgical planning and to advance scientific understanding of the brain's structural and functional networks. ... > full story

Fueling the future with renewable gasoline and diesel (August 20, 2012) -- A new process for converting municipal waste, algae, corn stalks and similar material to gasoline, diesel and jet fuel is showing the same promise in larger plants as it did in laboratory-scale devices, the developers have reported. ... > full story

Genetically engineered algae for biofuel pose potential risks (August 20, 2012) -- Algae are high on the genetic engineering agenda as a potential source for biofuel, and they should be subjected to independent studies of any environmental risks that could be linked to cultivating algae for this purpose, two prominent researchers say. ... > full story

Imprisoned molecules 'quantum rattle' in their cages (August 20, 2012) -- Scientists have discovered that a space inside a special type of carbon molecule can be used to imprison other smaller molecules such as hydrogen or water. ... > full story

Neural interface for hand prosthesis can restore function in brain areas responsible for motor control (August 20, 2012) -- Amputation disrupts not only the peripheral nervous system but also central structures of the brain. While the brain is able to adapt and compensate for injury in certain conditions, in amputees the traumatic event prevents adaptive cortical changes. A group of scientists reports adaptive plastic changes in an amputee's brain following implantation of multielectrode arrays inside peripheral nerves. ... > full story

New oil spill dispersant made from ingredients in peanut butter, chocolate, ice cream (August 20, 2012) -- With concerns about the possible health and environmental effects of oil dispersants in the Deepwater Horizon disaster still fresh in mind, scientists have developed a new dispersant made from edible ingredients that both breaks up oil slicks and keeps oil from sticking to the feathers of birds. ... > full story

Big Bang theory challenged by big chill (August 20, 2012) -- The start of the Universe should be modeled not as a Big Bang but more like water freezing into ice, according to a team of theoretical physicists. ... > full story

Why aren't there more stars? (August 20, 2012) -- Astronomers may have found the answer to a universal question: Why aren’t there more stars? ... > full story

Evidence that new biomimetic controlled-release capsules may help in gum disease (August 20, 2012) -- Scientists are trying to open a new front in the battle against gum disease, the leading cause of tooth loss in adults and sometimes termed the most serious oral health problem of the 21st century. They have developed a new treatment approach. ... > full story

New biorefinery finds treasure in Starbucks' spent coffee grounds and stale bakery goods (August 20, 2012) -- With 1.3 billion tons of food trashed, dumped in landfills and otherwise wasted around the world every year, scientists have described development and successful laboratory testing of a new "biorefinery" intended to change food waste into a key ingredient for making plastics, laundry detergents and scores of other everyday products. ... > full story