The EDGE: ScienceDaily Technology Headlines -- for Wednesday, August 29, 2012

ScienceDaily Technology Headlines

for Wednesday, August 29, 2012

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Curiosity rover plays first song transmitted from another planet (August 28, 2012) -- For the first time in history, a recorded song has been beamed back to Earth from another planet. Students, special guests and news media gathered at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., today to hear "Reach for the Stars" by musician will.i.am after it was transmitted from the surface of Mars by the Curiosity rover. ... > full story

NASA's Kepler discovers multiple planets orbiting a pair of stars (August 28, 2012) -- Coming less than a year after the announcement of the first circumbinary planet, Kepler-16b, NASA's Kepler mission has discovered multiple transiting planets orbiting two suns for the first time. This system, known as a circumbinary planetary system, is 4,900 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. ... > full story

Adverse effects of mining industry provoke hard questions for medical humanitarian organizations (August 28, 2012) -- Increasingly humanitarian organizations will find themselves responding to health emergencies provoked by the adverse effects of mining and other extractive industries, setting up a potential clash to do with the core principles and values at the heart of humanitarian medicine, according to an expert. ... > full story

Magnetic vortex reveals key to spintronic speed limit (August 28, 2012) -- Spintronics use electron spin to write and read information. To mobilize this emerging technology, scientists must understand exactly how to manipulate spin as a carrier of computer code. Now, scientists have precisely measured a key parameter of electron interactions called non-adiabatic spin torque that is essential to the development of spintronic devices. This unprecedented precision guides the reading and writing of digital information and sets the spintronic speed limit. ... > full story

Beliefs drive investors more than preferences (August 28, 2012) -- New research casts doubt on the widely held theory that individual investors’ decisions are driven mainly by their feelings toward losses and gains. ... > full story

Bright Arctic clouds formed by exhaust from final space shuttle launch (August 28, 2012) -- Scientists are tracking the rapid transport of the exhaust plume from the final launch of the space shuttle in July 2011. The team has found that the plume moved quickly to the Arctic, forming unusually bright polar mesospheric clouds there a day after launch. ... > full story

Space-warping white dwarfs produce gravitational waves (August 28, 2012) -- Gravitational waves, much like the recently discovered Higgs boson, are notoriously difficult to observe. Scientists first detected these ripples in the fabric of space-time indirectly, using radio signals from a pulsar-neutron star binary system. The find, which required exquisitely accurate timing of the radio signals, garnered its discoverers a Nobel Prize. Now a team of astronomers has detected the same effect at optical wavelengths, in light from a pair of eclipsing white dwarf stars. ... > full story

A new look at proteins in living cells (August 28, 2012) -- Scientists have devised a new technique for examining the binding kinetics of membrane proteins. ... > full story

New imaging technique homes in on electrocatalysis of nanoparticles (August 28, 2012) -- A researcher has found a clever way to measure catalytical reactions of single nanoparticles and multiple particles printed in arrays, which will help characterize and improve existing nanoparticle catalysts, and advance the search for new ones. ... > full story

Low cost, high efficiency solar technology developed (August 28, 2012) -- Researchers have developed a new solar technology that could make solar energy more affordable, and thus speed-up its market adoption. ... > full story

Advanced CT scans accurately assess coronary blockages (August 28, 2012) -- An ultra-fast, 320-detector computed tomography scanner can accurately sort out which people with chest pain need -- or don't need -- an invasive procedure such as cardiac angioplasty or bypass surgery to restore blood flow to the heart, according to an international study. ... > full story

Capturing movements of actors and athletes in real time with conventional video cameras (August 28, 2012) -- Within milliseconds, and just with the help of mathematics, computing power and conventional video cameras, computer scientists can automatically capture the movements of several people. The new approach helps not only animation specialists in Hollywood movies but also medical scientists and athletes. ... > full story

NASA rover returns voice and telephoto views from Mars (August 27, 2012) -- NASA's Mars Curiosity has debuted the first recorded human voice that traveled from Earth to another planet and back. The voice playback was released along with new telephoto camera views of the varied Martian landscape. ... > full story

Frankenstein programmers test a cybersecurity monster (August 27, 2012) -- To catch a thief, you have to think like one. Computer scientists are trying to stay one step ahead of cyberattackers by creating their own monster. Their monster can cloak itself as it steals and reconfigures information in a computer program. ... > full story

Cooled coal emissions would clean air and lower health and climate-change costs (August 27, 2012) -- Refrigerating coal-plant emissions would reduce levels of dangerous chemicals that pour into the air -- including carbon dioxide by more than 90 percent -- at a cost of 25 percent efficiency, according to a simple math-driven formula. ... > full story

Study explores injury risk in military Humvee crashes (August 27, 2012) -- A new report examines the risk factors for injuries to U.S. military personnel from crashes involving highly mobile multipurpose wheeled vehicles (HMMWVs), more commonly known as Humvees. According to the study, involvement in combat and serving as the vehicle’s operator or gunner posed the greatest risk for injury. It is the first published analysis of factors associated with Humvee injury risk in a deployed setting. ... > full story

Advanced tornado/hurricane shelter panels from recycled materials (August 27, 2012) -- Recycled materials may become armor against flying debris: Panels for a new high-tech shelter have passed the National Storm Shelter Association’s tornado threat test. ... > full story

Controlling superconductors with light (August 27, 2012) -- By shining a light on a thin layer of molecules coating a material, scientists have been able to control the critical temperature at which the material can act as a superconductor. This method might be used to develop more powerful computing devices able to save data and run continuously without generating heat and wasting energy. ... > full story

Light from self-luminous tablet computers can affect evening melatonin, delaying sleep (August 27, 2012) -- A two-hour exposure to electronic devices with self-luminous “backlit” displays causes melatonin suppression, which might lead to delayed bedtimes, especially in teens. ... > full story

Japanese researchers develop WalkMate System for improving quality of life of Parkinson's patients (August 27, 2012) -- Researchers in Japan have developed an innovative, non-invasive therapeutic intervention that may improve the mobility, stability, and quality of life of Parkinson's disease patients. ... > full story

Laser beam as a '3-D painter' to grow biological tissue or to create micro sensors (August 27, 2012) -- With laser beams, molecules can be fixed at exactly the right position in a three dimensional material. The new method can be used to grow biological tissue or to create micro sensors. ... > full story

By text-mining the classics, professor unearths new literary insights (August 27, 2012) -- One researcher combines programming with text-mining to compare 18th- and 19th century authors’ works with one another based on their stylistic and thematic connections. He crunches massive amounts of text to map how books are connected to one another -- from each's word frequency and choice to its overarching subject matter. ... > full story

'Cyborg' tissues: Merging engineered human tissues with bio-compatible nanoscale wires (August 26, 2012) -- Scientists have, for the first, time created a type of "cyborg" tissue by embedding a three-dimensional network of functional, bio-compatible nanoscale wires into engineered human tissues. ... > full story

Weighing molecules one at a time: Physicists create first-ever mechanical device that measures mass of single molecule (August 26, 2012) -- Scientists have made the first-ever mechanical device that can measure the mass of individual molecules one at a time. ... > full story

New wave of technologies possible after ground-breaking analysis tool for nanometer devices developed (August 26, 2012) -- A revolutionary tool has enabled researchers to analyze nanometer-sized devices without destroying them for the first time, opening the door to a new wave of technologies. ... > full story

New device to remove stroke-causing blood clots proves better than standard tool (August 26, 2012) -- Stroke is the fourth leading cause of death and a common cause of long-term disability in the United States, but doctors have very few proven treatment methods. Now a new device that mechanically removes stroke-causing clots from the brain is being hailed as a game-changer. ... > full story

Neil Armstrong, 1930-2012: U.S. astronaut was first man to walk on the moon (August 25, 2012) -- Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, has died, following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures. He was 82. Armstrong's words "That is one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind," spoken on July 20, 1969, as he became the first person ever to step onto another planetary body, instantly became a part of history. ... > full story

Hubble captures a collection of ancient stars (August 25, 2012) -- The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced a beautiful image of the globular cluster Messier 56 (also known as M 56 or NGC 6779), which is located about 33,000 light years away from Earth in the constellation of Lyra (The Lyre). The cluster is composed of a large number of stars, tightly bound to each other by gravity. ... > full story

Rapid-scanning microscope with no loss of quality (August 24, 2012) -- Scientists have developed a rapid-scanning microscope with no loss of quality. ... > full story

Good diet, proper exercise help protect astronauts’ bones (August 24, 2012) -- Eating right and exercising hard in space helps protect International Space Station astronauts' bones, a finding that may help solve one of the key problems facing future explorers heading beyond low Earth orbit. ... > full story

Microwave ovens may help produce lower cost solar energy technology (August 24, 2012) -- The same type of microwave oven technology that most people use to heat up leftover food has found an important application in the solar energy industry, providing a new way to make thin-film photovoltaic products with less energy, expense and environmental concerns. ... > full story

Boston subway system to be used to test new sensors for biological agents (August 24, 2012) -- The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate has scheduled a series of tests in the Boston subways to measure the real-world performance of new sensors recently developed to detect biological agents within minutes. ... > full story

Superior fuel cell material developed (August 24, 2012) -- Using a mixture of gold, copper and platinum nanoparticles, researchers have developed a more powerful and longer lasting fuel cell material. ... > full story

Flat lens offers a perfect image (August 24, 2012) -- Applied physicists have created an ultrathin, flat lens that focuses light without imparting the distortions of conventional lenses. It operates at telecom wavelengths -- i.e., those used for fiber-optics -- and is scalable to a wider range. ... > full story

Mars surface data: ChemCam laser first analyses yield beautiful results (August 24, 2012) -- Scientists squeezed in a little extra target practice after zapping the first fist-sized rock that was placed in the laser's crosshairs last weekend. Much to the delight of the scientific team, the laser instrument has fired nearly 500 shots so far that have produced strong, clear data about the composition of the Martian surface. ... > full story

Simplified approach for high-power, single-mode lasers (August 24, 2012) -- Researchers have developed a new resonator that creates the purest, brightest, and most powerful single-mode quantum cascade lasers yet at the eight-12 micron range, a wavelength of great interest for both military and industrial use. ... > full story

Modeling metastasis (August 24, 2012) -- A technique used by animators helps scientists model how cancer cells enter the bloodstream. ... > full story

Invention will strike a chord with musicians (August 24, 2012) -- Digital software and hardware is set to revolutionize the music industry around the world. ... > full story

Joining 'unjoinable' materials: New polymer linking technology based on nano crystals (August 24, 2012) -- Ever tried to paint on top of silicone? After a few hours, the paint will peel off. Annoying. Silicone is a so-called low surface energy polymer, well known from flexible baking forms: A synthetic material that has an extremely low adhesion or "stickiness." Teflon is similarly non-sticky and well known from frying pans. Researchers have now developed the first technology which is capable of joining these two "unjoinable" materials. The technology applies passive nano-scaled crystal linkers as internal staples. ... > full story

Physicists search for hidden magnetic states (August 24, 2012) -- Physicists have used the new high magnetic-field beamline at Diamond Light Source, the UK's national synchrotron facility, to search for 'hidden magnetic states'. If found, they will provide important confirmation of a theoretical model, which could have important applications in magnetic data storage. ... > full story

Scientists investigate using artificial intelligence for next-generation traffic control (August 24, 2012) -- Researchers are investigating the application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology for controlling traffic lights. The development of artificial intelligence-based approaches to junction control is one of many new and promising technologies that can make better use of existing urban and road capacity, while reducing the environmental impacts of road traffic. ... > full story

New model gives hands-on help for learning the secrets of molecules (August 24, 2012) -- Squishy models are anything but child’s play as they help researchers understand the building-block nature of proteins. ... > full story

Virus detector harnesses ring of light in 'whispering gallery mode' (August 24, 2012) -- By affixing nanoscale gold spheres onto a microscopic bead of glass, researchers have created a super-sensor that can detect even single samples of the smallest known viruses. The sensor uses a peculiar behavior of light known as "whispering gallery mode," named after the famous circular gallery in St. Paul's Cathedral in London, where a whisper near the wall can be heard around the gallery. ... > full story

Nanoparticles reboot blood flow in brain (August 23, 2012) -- Nanoparticles show promise in restoring blood flow to the brain when administered soon after a traumatic brain or other injury. ... > full story

Collective motion in schools of fish can evolve as finely tuned defense against attack from predators: Virtual fish simulation (August 23, 2012) -- Researchers have designed a video game for predatory fish that has unraveled some lingering evolutionary questions about group formation and movement in animals. ... > full story

Webb Telescope's 'golden spider' (August 23, 2012) -- What looks like a giant golden spider weaving a web of cables and cords, is actually ground support equipment, including the Optical Telescope Simulator (OSIM), for the James Webb Space Telescope. OSIM's job is to generate a beam of light just like the one that the real telescope optics will feed into the actual flight instruments. Because the real flight instruments will be used to test the real flight telescope, their alignment and performance first have to be verified by using the OSIM. Engineers are thoroughly checking out OSIM now in preparation for using it to test the flight science instruments later. ... > full story

Smooth sailing: Space launch system giving Marshall, Langley wind tunnels a workout (August 23, 2012) -- Since well before the inception of NASA, engineers used wind tunnels and scale models to test how vehicles would respond and interact with the atmosphere. At the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., engineers are using wind tunnel testing to enhance the development of NASA's Space Launch System, a heavy-lift launch vehicle that will propel science and human exploration into deep space and launch NASA's Orion spacecraft to expand human presence beyond low Earth orbit. ... > full story

More exoplanets discovered: 41 new transiting planets in Kepler field of view (August 23, 2012) -- Two newly submitted studies verify 41 new transiting planets in 20 star systems. These results may increase the number of Kepler's confirmed planets by more than 50 percent: to 116 planets hosted in 67 systems, over half of which contain more than one planet. ... > full story