The EDGE: ScienceDaily Technology Headlines -- for Thursday, August 30, 2012

ScienceDaily Technology Headlines

for Thursday, August 30, 2012

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Japanese spacecraft to search for clues of Earth's first life (August 29, 2012) -- In a Physics World special report on Japan, Dennis Normile reports on how the Japanese space agency JAXA plans to land a spacecraft onto an asteroid in 2018 to search for clues of how life began on Earth. ... > full story

Saturn and its largest moon reflect their true colors (August 29, 2012) -- Posing for portraits for NASA's Cassini spacecraft, Saturn and its largest moon, Titan, show spectacular colors in a quartet of images being released today. One image captures the changing hues of Saturn's northern and southern hemispheres as they pass from one season to the next. ... > full story

'Nano machine shop' shapes nanowires, ultrathin films (August 29, 2012) -- A new "nano machine shop" that shapes nanowires and ultrathin films could represent a future manufacturing method for tiny structures with potentially revolutionary properties. ... > full story

NASA Curiosity rover begins eastbound trek on Martian surface (August 29, 2012) -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has set off from its landing vicinity on a trek to a science destination about a quarter mile (400 meters) away, where it may begin using its drill. ... > full story

Computer viruses could take a lesson from showy peacocks (August 29, 2012) -- Computer viruses are constantly replicating throughout computer networks and wreaking havoc. But what if they had to find mates in order to reproduce? Researchers have now created the digital equivalent of spring break to see how mate attraction played out through computer programs. ... > full story

Walls of lunar crater may hold patchy ice (August 29, 2012) -- Scientists have estimated the maximum amount of ice likely to be found inside a permanently shadowed lunar crater located near the moon's south pole. As much as 5 to 10 percent of material, by weight, could be patchy ice, according to astronomers. ... > full story

ACE, workhorse of NASA's heliophysics fleet, is 15 (August 29, 2012) -- The Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) is Earth's vanguard. Orbiting around a point 900,000 miles away between Earth and our sun, this satellite is ever vigilant, recording the combination of radiation -- from the sun, from the solar system, from the galaxy -- that streams by. None of this radiation can harm humans on Earth, but the biggest bursts of particles from the sun can flow into near-Earth space causing a dynamic space weather system that can damage satellites and interfere with radio communication transmissions and navigation systems. ... > full story

Rover leaves tracks in Morse code (August 29, 2012) -- NASA's Curiosity rover took its first test stroll Wednesday Aug. 22, 2012, and beamed back pictures of its accomplishment in the form of track marks in the Martian soil. Careful inspection of the tracks reveals a unique, repeating pattern, which the rover can use as a visual reference to drive more accurately in barren terrain. The pattern is Morse code for JPL, the abbreviation for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., where the rover was designed and built, and the mission is managed. ... > full story

Boeing tests CST-100 parachute protector (August 29, 2012) -- The Boeing Company recently completed a jettison test of its forward heat shield, which will protect the parachutes of the company's CST-100 spacecraft during future missions to and from low Earth orbit. The forward heat shield jettison will start the parachute deployment sequence and provide a safe landing for the capsule and its crew members. The test was part of Boeing's work supporting its funded Space Act Agreement (SAA) with NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP) during Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2). ... > full story

NASA's 'Mighty Eagle' robotic prototype lander takes 100-foot free flight (August 29, 2012) -- With a whistle and a roar, the "Mighty Eagle," a NASA robotic prototype lander, sailed to an altitude of 100 feet during another successful free flight Aug. 28 at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. ... > full story

Bonanza of black holes, hot DOGs: NASA's WISE survey uncovers millions of black holes (August 29, 2012) -- NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission has led to a bonanza of newfound supermassive black holes and extreme galaxies called hot DOGs, or dust-obscured galaxies. Images from the telescope have revealed millions of dusty black hole candidates across the universe and about 1,000 even dustier objects thought to be among the brightest galaxies ever found. These powerful galaxies, which burn brightly with infrared light, are nicknamed hot DOGs. ... > full story

New antibacterial coating for sutures could reduce infections after surgery (August 29, 2012) -- Responding to an urgent need for better antibacterial coatings on surgical sutures, scientists are reporting the discovery of a new coating that is almost 1,000 times more effective than the most widely used commercial coating. ... > full story

Warning on deterioration of famous Swedish warship, Vasa (August 29, 2012) -- The famous warship, Vasa, displayed in a museum that gets 1.2 million visitors every year and ranks as one of Sweden's most popular tourist attractions, is deteriorating despite ongoing preservation efforts, scientists are reporting. ... > full story

Making dye-sensitized solar panels more efficient (August 29, 2012) -- Engineers are making dye-sensitized solar panels more efficient. They are using mathematical modeling to test the use of nanotubes and a polymer substrate in the panels. ... > full story

New nanomaterial could help keep pilots and sensitive equipment safe from destructive lasers (August 29, 2012) -- Scientists have developed a new material using nanotechnology, which could help keep pilots and sensitive equipment safe from destructive lasers. ... > full story

Synchronized lasers measure how light changes matter: Effects of light at atomic scale probed by mixing x-ray and optical light waves (August 29, 2012) -- How matter responds to light lies at the core of vision, photosynthesis, solar cells, and many other fields of scientific and practical import. But until now, it hasn't been possible to see just how light does it. Now, scientists have demonstrated for the first time that x-ray and optical wave mixing reveals both structure and evolving charge states on the atomic scale. ... > full story

Smallest antenna can increase Wi-Fi speed 200 times (August 29, 2012) -- Researchers have developed the first compact high performance silicon-based cavity-backed slot (CBS) antenna that operates at 135 GHz. ... > full story

Success in growth of regularly-ordered nanometer-scale crystalline thin film using 3-D porous material (August 29, 2012) -- Japanese scientists have succeeded in fabricating a crystalline thin film with a film thickness of nanometer order, in which molecules of a 3-dimensionally strong porous coordination polymer (PCP) are oriented in a designated direction, and demonstrated that this thin film has a reversible gas adsorption/desorption reaction function. ... > full story

Discovery of new colossal magnetoresistance mechanism (August 29, 2012) -- A research group including the NIMS Superconducting Properties Unit and others, in joint work with the University of Fukui, discovered a new material, NaCr2O4, which was developed by ultra-high pressure synthesis and displays a novel type of colossal magnetoresistance effect. ... > full story

Driving an electron spin vortex 'skyrmion' with a microcurrent (August 29, 2012) -- Scientists have succeeded in forming a skyrmion crystal, in which electron spin is aligned in a vortex shape, in a microdevice using the helimagnet FeGe, and driving the skyrmion crystal with an ultra-low current density less than 1/100,000 that of the current necessary to drive magnetic domain walls in ferromagnets. ... > full story

Activating and deactivating gold nanoparticle catalysts may lead to longer-lasting hydrogen fuel cells (August 29, 2012) -- The latest advance in imaging technology helps optimize catalysts for use in onboard fuel processing. A*STAR researchers have identified the subtle, atomic-scale structural transformations that can activate and de-activate gold nanoparticle catalysts, a finding that may lead to longer-lasting hydrogen fuel cells. ... > full story

Photonics: Think thin, think vibrant (August 29, 2012) -- Flat panel displays and many digital devices require thin, efficient and low-cost light-emitters for applications. The pixels that make up the different colors on the display are typically wired to complex electronic circuits, but now researchers have developed a display technology that requires a much simpler architecture for operation. ... > full story

Graphene-based materials kill bacteria two ways (August 29, 2012) -- Graphene-based materials kill bacteria through one of two possible mechanisms. Researchers have now compared the antibacterial activity of graphite, graphite oxide, graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide using the model bacterium Escherichia coli. ... > full story

Twitter data crunching: The new crystal ball (August 29, 2012) -- Scientists have demonstrated that the elimination of contestants in TV talent shows based on public voting, such as American Idol, can be anticipated. They unveiled the predictive power of microblogging Twitter signals -- used as a proxy for the general preference of an audience -- in a recent study. ... > full story

Math ability requires crosstalk in the brain (August 29, 2012) -- Scientists have found that the strength of communication between the left and right hemispheres of the brain predicts performance on basic arithmetic problems. The findings shed light on the neural basis of human math abilities and suggest a possible route to aiding those who suffer from dyscalculia-- an inability to understand and manipulate numbers. ... > full story

Internet addiction: Causes at the molecular level (August 29, 2012) -- Internet addiction is not a figment of our imagination, researchers in Germany say. Over the past years, the researchers have interviewed a total of 843 people about their Internet habits. An analysis of the questionnaires shows that 132 men and women in this group exhibit problematic behavior in how they handle the online medium; all their thoughts revolve around the Internet during the day, and they feel their wellbeing is severely impacted if they have to go without it. ... > full story

'Anternet' discovered: Behavior of harvester ants as they forage for food mirrors protocols that control Internet traffic (August 29, 2012) -- An ant biologist and a computer scientist has revealed that the behavior of harvester ants as they forage for food mirrors the protocols that control traffic on the Internet. ... > full story

Las Cumbres Observatory spectrographs acquire target robotically (August 29, 2012) -- Two identical FLOYDS spectrographs, installed in recent weeks at telescopes 6,000 miles apart, robotically acquired a supernovae target this week. Due to the level of precision required and the difficulty involved, few if any, other ground-based spectrographs have ever achieved this milestone. ... > full story

Building ultra-low power wireless networks (August 29, 2012) -- Engineering researchers have received funding to create distortion-tolerant communications for wireless networks that use very little power. The research will improve wireless sensors deployed in remote areas where these systems must rely on batteries or energy-harvesting devices for power. ... > full story

Biologists create first predictive computational model of gene networks that control development of sea-urchin embryos (August 29, 2012) -- As an animal develops from an embryo, its cells take diverse paths, eventually forming different body parts -- muscles, bones, heart. In order for each cell to know what to do during development, it follows a genetic blueprint, which consists of complex webs of interacting genes called gene regulatory networks. Biologists have spent the last decade or so detailing how these gene networks control development in sea-urchin embryos. Now, for the first time, they have built a computational model of one of these networks. ... > full story

Building blocks of life found around young star (August 29, 2012) -- A team of astronomers has spotted sugar molecules in the gas surrounding a young Sun-like star. This is the first time sugar been found in space around such a star, and the discovery shows that the building blocks of life are in the right place, at the right time, to be included in planets forming around the star. ... > full story

Shifty, but secure eyes: New biometric security system (August 29, 2012) -- A biometric security system based on how a user moves their eyes is being developed by technologists in Finland. Researchers explain how a person's saccades, their tiny, but rapid, involuntary eye movements, can be measured using a video camera. The pattern of saccades is as unique as an iris or fingerprint scan but easier to record and so could provide an alternative secure biometric identification technology. ... > full story

Lunar 'hit-and-run': New research eclipses existing theories on formation of the moon (August 29, 2012) -- A new study highlights a novel perspective on how the moon was formed. The moon is believed to have formed from a collision, 4.5 billion years ago, between Earth and an impactor the size of Mars, known as "Theia." Over the past decades scientists have simulated this process and reproduced many of the properties of the Earth-moon system; however, these simulations have also given rise to a problem known as the Lunar Paradox: the moon appears to be made up of material that would not be expected if the current collision theory is correct. A recent study proposes a new perspective on the theory in answer to the paradox. ... > full story

Avoiding jack-knifing on the roads (August 29, 2012) -- Jack-knifing is a major cause of devastation in a road traffic accident involving articulated trucks. Researchers in Greece have now designed a device to prevent this often lethal action of such vehicles. In a new article, the team describes the modelling and testing of a sliding kingpin device that allows the so-called kingpin junction between the front "tractor" and the trailer to slide along the rear tractor axle and preclude the jack-knifing motion of the trailer relative to the tractor. ... > full story

Turning chemistry inside-out: Self-assembling smart microscopic reagents to pioneer pourable electronics (August 29, 2012) -- A new project plans to build autonomous self-assembling electronic microreagents that are almost as small as cells. They will exchange chemical and electronic information to jointly direct complex chemical reactions and analyses in the solutions they are poured into. This is a form of embedded computation -- "to compute is to construct" -- in which, for example, the output is a particular catalyst or coating needed in the (input) local chemical environment. ... > full story

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