ScienceDaily Technology Headlines
for Friday, July 16, 2010
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New revelations about Mercury's volcanism, magnetic substorms and exosphere from MESSENGER (July 16, 2010) -- Analysis of data from MESSENGER's third and final flyby of Mercury in September 2009 has revealed evidence of younger volcanism on the innermost planet than previously recognized, new information about magnetic substorms, and the first observations of emission from an ionized species in Mercury's very thin atmosphere or exosphere. ... > full story
How human immune response to virus is triggered at the atomic level (July 15, 2010) -- A team of biochemists has identified the molecular mechanism by which an immune response is triggered by the invading viruses, according to recent research. ... > full story
Database for personalised cancer treatment: Largest study of genomes and cancer treatments releases first results (July 15, 2010) -- The largest study to correlate genetics with response to cancer drugs releases its first results. The researchers behind the study describe in this initial dataset the responses of 350 cancer samples to 18 anticancer therapeutics. These first results will help cancer researchers around the world to seek better understanding of cancer genetics and could help to improve treatment regimens. ... > full story
Giant antenna propped up, ready for joint replacement (July 15, 2010) -- Workers at NASA's Deep Space Network complex in Goldstone, Calif., have been making precise, laser-assisted measurements to ensure a flat surface for pouring new grout as part of a major renovation on the 70-meter-wide (230-foot-wide) "Mars antenna." While officially dubbed Deep Space Station 14, the antenna picked up the Mars name from its first task: tracking NASA's Mariner 4 spacecraft, which had been lost by smaller antennas after its historic flyby of Mars. ... > full story
Submarines could use new nanotube technology for sonar and stealth (July 15, 2010) -- Speakers made from carbon nanotube sheets that are a fraction of the width of a human hair can both generate sound and cancel out noise -- properties ideal for submarine sonar to probe the ocean depths and make subs invisible to enemies. That's the topic of a report on these "nanotube speakers." ... > full story
Team develops non-toxic oil recovery agent (July 15, 2010) -- A team of chemists has developed a non-toxic, recyclable agent that can solidify oil on salt water so that it can be scooped up like the fat that forms on the top of a pot of chilled chicken soup. The agent could potentially be used to recover oil lost in the British Petroleum (BP) spill in the Gulf of Mexico. ... > full story
Super-hot planet with unique comet-like tail discovered (July 15, 2010) -- Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have confirmed the existence of a baked object that could be called a "cometary planet." The gas giant planet, named HD 209458b, is orbiting so close to its star that its heated atmosphere is escaping into space. Observations taken with Hubble's Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) suggest powerful stellar winds are sweeping the cast-off atmospheric material behind the scorched planet and shaping it into a comet-like tail. ... > full story
New light on Leonardo Da Vinci’s faces (July 15, 2010) -- How did Leonardo Da Vinci manage to paint such perfect faces? For the first time a quantitative chemical analysis has been done on seven paintings from the Louvre Museum (including the Mona Lisa) without extracting any samples. This shows the composition and thickness of each layer of material laid down by the painter. ... > full story
Physicists find clues to the origin and evolution of wrinkles in thin sheets (July 15, 2010) -- New experiments offer insights into how defects influence the formation of wrinkles, and could prove helpful in understanding wrinkles in biological tissue. ... > full story
Supercharged proteins enter biology's forbidden zone (July 15, 2010) -- Scientists are reporting discovery of a way to help proteins such as the new generation of protein-based drugs -- sometimes heralded as tomorrow's potential "miracle cures" -- get past the biochemical "Entrance Forbidden" barrier that keeps them from entering cells and doing their work. The new technique represents a new use for an engineered form of green fluorescent protein, the topic of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. ... > full story
Toward room-temperature superconductors: Key advance in understanding 'pseudogap' phase in high-T<sub>c</sub> superconductors (July 15, 2010) -- Scientists have discovered a fundamental difference in how electrons behave at the two distinct oxygen-atom sites in a copper-oxide superconductor. Understanding this broken symmetry in the non-superconducting pseudogap phase may lead to new approaches to understanding the pseudogap, long hypothesized as a key hurdle to achieving room-temperature superconductivity. ... > full story
Noninvasive probing of geological core samples (July 15, 2010) -- Tools to measure a core sample's electrical anisotropy have been sadly lacking, according to a group of researchers. To solve this problem, they found inspiration in a type of logging technology currently used by the modern oil industry. They created a device capable of noninvasively measuring electrical conductivity. ... > full story
Carbon sequestration: Steam process could remove carbon dioxide to regenerate amine capture materials (July 15, 2010) -- Researchers have demonstrated a relatively simple regeneration technique that could utilize waste steam to remove carbon dioxide from solid amine materials used to capture the greenhouse gas from the flue gases of coal-burning facilities. This steam-stripping technique could produce concentrated carbon dioxide ready for sequestration -- while readying the amine materials for further use. ... > full story
Moving polymers through pores (July 15, 2010) -- The movement of long chain polymers through nanopores is a key part of many biological processes, including the transport of RNA, DNA, and proteins. New research offers an improved theoretical model for this type of motion. ... > full story
Bringing molecules into view: Record-breaking high-resolution optical technique resolves objects as small as 0.5 nanometers (July 15, 2010) -- Researchers have developed a technique that enables the use of optical microscopy to image objects or the distance between them with resolutions as small as 0.5 nanometers -- one-half of one billionth of a meter, or an order of magnitude smaller than the previous best. This super-resolution technique has the potential to revolutionize biological imaging. ... > full story
A simple quantum dynamics problem? (July 15, 2010) -- New research provides the first real-time measurements of the time dependence of the individual steps of dissociation of a complex consisting of two rare gas atoms and a halogen molecule. ... > full story
Unravelling the mystery of massive star birth: All stars are born the same way (July 14, 2010) -- Astronomers have obtained the first image of a dusty disc closely encircling a massive baby star, providing direct evidence that massive stars form in the same way as their smaller brethren. ... > full story
Rainbow trapping in light pulses (July 14, 2010) -- Scientists in China have shown how a rather wide spectrum of light -- a rainbow of radiation -- can be trapped in a single structure. They propose to do this by sending the light rays into a self-similar-structured dielectric waveguide -- essentially a light pipe with a cladding of many layers. ... > full story
Consumers under-predict learning curve following initial experience with product (July 14, 2010) -- A new study found that consumers often quit using products that would be beneficial for them in the long run because they experience a short period of pessimism during their initial encounter with skill-based products as varied as knitting needles and mobile devices. ... > full story
Record-breaking X-ray blast briefly blinds space observatory (July 14, 2010) -- A blast of the brightest X-rays ever detected from beyond our Milky Way galaxy's neighborhood temporarily blinded the X-ray eye on NASA's Swift space observatory earlier this summer, astronomers now report. The X-rays traveled through space for 5-billion years before slamming into and overwhelming Swift's X-ray Telescope. The blinding blast is by far the brightest light source ever seen in X-ray wavelengths at cosmological distances. ... > full story
New generation of biological scaffolds (July 14, 2010) -- Scientists in the UK are conducting research into how biological scaffolding can pave the way for off- the-shelf tissue transplants. ... > full story
Lie detection: You can't hide your lyin' eyes (July 14, 2010) -- Shifty eyes long have been thought to signify a person's problem telling the truth. Now a group of researchers are taking that old adage to a new level. Educational psychologists are using eye-tracking technology to pioneer a promising alternative to the polygraph for lie detection. ... > full story
Juno spacecraft armored up to go to Jupiter (July 14, 2010) -- NASA's Juno spacecraft will be forging ahead into a treacherous environment at Jupiter with more radiation than any other place NASA has ever sent a spacecraft, except the sun. In a specially filtered cleanroom in Denver, where Juno is being assembled, engineers recently added a unique protective shield around its sensitive electronics. ... > full story
NASA and Microsoft provide Mars 3-D close encounter (July 14, 2010) -- NASA and Microsoft Research are bringing Mars to life with new features in the WorldWide Telescope software that provide viewers with a high-resolution 3-D map of the Red Planet. ... > full story
Astronomers discover star-studded galaxy tail (July 14, 2010) -- NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer has discovered a galaxy tail studded with bright knots of new stars. The tail, which was created as the galaxy IC 3418 plunged into the neighboring Virgo cluster of galaxies, offers new insight into how stars form. ... > full story
Fascinating images from a new world: Close-ups of the asteroid Lutetia (July 14, 2010) -- The ESA space probe Rosetta flew past the Lutetia planetoid on July 10, 2010. The OSIRIS camera system provided unique images of this rendezvous. They not only show a large number of craters on the surface of the celestial body, but also individual rocks and parallel grooves. ... > full story
Viscosity at the nanoscale: Intriguing 50-year-old puzzle solved (July 13, 2010) -- At a snail's pace – this is how proteins should move inside living cells where viscosity of environment exceeds the viscosity of water by a million times. However, proteins move not much slower than in water. While looking for a solution to this puzzle, scientists from Poland have discovered a new principle of physics. ... > full story
Report on controlling NASA mission costs (July 13, 2010) -- NASA should develop a broad, integrated strategy to contain costs and maintain schedules as earth and space science missions are planned and designed, says a new report by the National Research Council. ... > full story
Hubble snaps sharp image of cosmic concoction (July 13, 2010) -- A colorful star-forming region is featured in a stunning new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 2467. Looking like a roiling cauldron of some exotic cosmic brew, huge clouds of gas and dust are sprinkled with bright blue hot young stars. ... > full story
Stellar explosions provide the key to understanding the fate of the universe (July 13, 2010) -- The mysteries of the universe and how we came to be are set to be unlocked by a technique for modeling fluids, similar to one which is becoming increasingly popular within the film industry to improve the realism of special effects. ... > full story
Magnets trump metallics: Magnetic fields can turn highly conductive nanotubes into semiconductors (July 13, 2010) -- Physicists have been studying the Aharonov-Bohm effect -- the interaction between electrically charged particles and magnetic fields -- and how it relates to carbon nanotubes. While doing so, they came to the unexpected conclusion that magnetic fields can turn highly conductive nanotubes into semiconductors. ... > full story
Avatars as lifelike representations and effective marketing tools (July 13, 2010) -- It is predicted that 80 percent of active Internet consumers and Fortune 500 companies will have an avatar or presence in a virtual community, including social networks, by the end of 2011. A new article investigates the role avatars play in the virtual and consumer environment, how well avatars reflect the personality of their creators, the psychology behind self-representation, and how these virtually made identities are perceived by other members of the virtual community. ... > full story
Fly's brain -- a high-speed computer: Neurobiologists use state-of-the-art methods to decode the basics of motion detection (July 13, 2010) -- The minute brains of flies process visual movements in only fractions of a second. Just how the brain of the fly manages to perceive motion with such speed and precision is predicted quite accurately by a mathematical model. ... > full story
New system to reduce heating costs in cold climates (July 13, 2010) -- A new type of heat pump under development could allow residents in cold climates to cut their heating bills in half. ... > full story
New 3-D imaging techniques for improved lung cancer drug development (July 13, 2010) -- Advanced imaging technologies that promise to improve effective drug development to treat lung cancer are the focus of the current issue of Optics Express. Research outlines standardized approaches to measure and compare tumor size, as well as to validate the accuracy of such measurements. This validation is a critical new area of research as important new applications for these tools are being explored in drug development. ... > full story
Engineering could give reconstructive surgery a facelift (July 13, 2010) -- Facial reconstruction patients may soon have the option of custom-made bone replacements optimized for both form and function, thanks to researchers. A team of scientists applied an engineering design technique called topology optimization to model patient-specific, case-by-case designs for tissue-engineered bone replacements. ... > full story
Biofuel quest: Genome signatures enable tracking of algal complexity (July 13, 2010) -- Researchers have presented the 138-million-nucleotide genome of the multicellular alga Volvox carteri. Scientists are researching the complex mechanisms present in photosynthetic organisms to better understand how they convert sunlight to energy and how photosynthetic cells control their metabolic processes so that this information can inform the production of renewable biofuels. ... > full story
Surgeons find new way to shield vision during radiation for eye cancer: Silicon oil (July 13, 2010) -- Eye cancer patients must enter treatment knowing that their surgeon's strategy to kill the deadly tumor with radiation may also sacrifice their eyesight. Now, researchers have discovered that a commonly used substance called silicon oil shields the eye and appears to protect vision in patients undergoing radiation therapy for ocular melanoma. ... > full story
Origin of key cosmic explosions still a mystery (July 13, 2010) -- When a star explodes as a supernova, it shines so brightly that it can be seen from millions of light-years away. One particular supernova variety -- Type Ia -- brightens and dims so predictably that astronomers use them to measure the universe's expansion. The resulting discovery of dark energy and the accelerating universe rewrote our understanding of the cosmos. Yet the origin of these supernovae, which have proved so useful, remains unknown. ... > full story
Artificial intelligence for improving team sports (July 13, 2010) -- Researchers in Spain are participating in a study to develop a system for evaluating sport performance through application of artificial intelligence techniques to automatically analyze the development of plays. ... > full story
New research can spot cloud computing problems before they start (July 12, 2010) -- Large-scale computer hosting infrastructures offer a variety of services to computer users, including cloud. But when these infrastructures run into problems -- like bottlenecks that slow their operating speed -- it can be costly for both the infrastructure provider and the user. New research will allow these infrastructure providers to more accurately predict such anomalies, and address them before they become a major problem. ... > full story
Neutrinos are likely half as massive as previous estimates suggested (July 12, 2010) -- Neutrinos are so numerous that they affected the evolution of the universe in ways that provide an estimate of their masses. ... > full story
Fibers that can hear and sing: Fibers created that detect and produce sound (July 12, 2010) -- Scientists have announced a new milestone on the path to functional fibers: fibers that can detect and produce sound. Applications could include clothes that are themselves sensitive microphones, for capturing speech or monitoring bodily functions, and tiny filaments that could measure blood flow in capillaries or pressure in the brain. ... > full story
DNA through graphene nanopores (July 12, 2010) -- Researchers in the Netherlands have developed a new type of nanopore devices that may significantly impact the way we screen DNA molecules, for example to read off their sequence. The scientists report a novel technique to fabricate tiny holes in a layer of graphene (a carbon layer with a thickness of only 1 atom) and they managed to detect the motion of individual DNA molecules that travel through such a hole. ... > full story
The proton -- smaller than thought: Scientists measure charge radius of hydrogen nucleus and stumble across physics mysteries (July 12, 2010) -- Big problems sometimes come in small packages. The problem with which physicists must now concern themselves measures a mere 0.0350 millionth of a millionth of a millimetre. This is precisely the difference between the new, smaller, dimension of the proton, the nucleus of the hydrogen atom, and the value which has been assumed so far. Instead of 0.8768 femtometres it measures only 0.8418 femtometres. Researchers have now measured this in experiments which are ten times more accurate than all previous ones. They thus present physics with some tough problems: at least one fundamental constant now changes. And physicists have also to check the calculations of quantum electrodynamics. This theory is assumed to be very well proven, but its predictions do not agree with these latest measurements. ... > full story
Breakthrough in terahertz remote sensing: Unique THz 'fingerprints' will identify hidden explosives from a distance (July 12, 2010) -- A major breakthrough in remote wave sensing by a team of researchers opens the way for detecting hidden explosives, chemical, biological agents and illegal drugs from a distance of 20 meters. ... > full story
Eye movements and sight distance reveal how drivers negotiate winding roads (July 12, 2010) -- New research finds that the further drivers can look ahead, generally in left-hand curves, wide curves and when leaving a curve, the less they have to look at the tangent point. The ultimate goal of the project is to build a device into cars that warns the driver if he is in danger of unintentionally departing from the lane. ... > full story
Surprisingly regular patterns in hurricane energy discovered (July 12, 2010) -- Researchers in Spain have discovered a mathematical relation between the number of hurricanes produced in certain parts of Earth and the energy they release. ... > full story
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