ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Oil and water: An icy interaction when oil chains are short, but steamy when chains are long
• Scientists develop indium-free organic light-emitting diodes
• NASA Voyager 1 encounters new region in deep space
• Multitasking plasmonic nanobubbles kill diseased cells, modify others
• Search for life suggests planetary systems more habitable than ours
• How 'transparent' is graphene?
• Happy face tattoo does serious work
• Squirrels and birds inspire researchers to create deceptive robots
• Steps towards filming atoms dancing
• Complex chemistry within the Martian soil: No definitive detection of organics yet
• Need for speed: High-speed measurements of molecular motion in the cell nucleus
• World's smallest wrench puts new twist on microscopic manipulation; Harnesses laser light's ability to gently push and pull
• Physicist happens upon rain data breakthrough
• Hubble spots a peculiar compact blue dwarf galaxy
• Swirling storms on Saturn
• Have Venusian volcanoes been caught in the act?
• Taking the buzz out of office lights: Flicker-free, shatterproof alternative for large-scale lighting

Oil and water: An icy interaction when oil chains are short, but steamy when chains are long Posted: 03 Dec 2012 03:33 PM PST Water transforms into a previously unknown structure in between a liquid and a vapor when in contact with alcohol molecules containing long oily chains. However, around short oily chains water is more icelike. Water plays a huge role in biological processes, from protein folding to membrane formation, and it could be that this transformation is useful in a way not yet understood.

Scientists develop indium-free organic light-emitting diodes Posted: 03 Dec 2012 01:35 PM PST Scientists have discovered new ways of using a well-known polymer in organic light emitting diodes, which could eliminate the need for an increasingly problematic and breakable metal-oxide used in screen displays in computers, televisions, and cell phones.

NASA Voyager 1 encounters new region in deep space Posted: 03 Dec 2012 12:45 PM PST NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new region at the far reaches of our solar system that scientists feel is the final area the spacecraft has to cross before reaching interstellar space.

Multitasking plasmonic nanobubbles kill diseased cells, modify others Posted: 03 Dec 2012 11:59 AM PST Researchers have found a way to kill some diseased cells and treat others in the same sample at the same time. The process activated by a pulse of laser light leaves neighboring healthy cells untouched.

Search for life suggests planetary systems more habitable than ours Posted: 03 Dec 2012 11:58 AM PST Scattered around the Milky Way are stars that resemble our own sun—but a new study is finding that any planets orbiting those stars may very well be hotter and more dynamic than Earth.

How 'transparent' is graphene? Posted: 03 Dec 2012 10:17 AM PST Researchers find that adding a coating of graphene has little effect on how a surface interacts with liquids -- except in extreme cases.

Happy face tattoo does serious work Posted: 03 Dec 2012 10:11 AM PST A medical sensor that attaches to the skin like a temporary tattoo could make it easier for doctors to detect metabolic problems in patients and for coaches to fine-tune athletes' training routines. And the entire sensor comes in a thin, flexible package shaped like a smiley face.

Squirrels and birds inspire researchers to create deceptive robots Posted: 03 Dec 2012 09:52 AM PST Using deceptive behavioral patterns of squirrels and birds, researchers have developed robots that are able to deceive each other. The applications could be implemented by the military in the future.

Steps towards filming atoms dancing Posted: 03 Dec 2012 09:15 AM PST With their ultra short X-ray flashes, free-electron lasers offer the opportunity to film atoms in motion in complicated molecules and in the course of chemical reactions. However, for monitoring this motion, the arrival time and the temporal profile of the pulses which periodically illuminate the system, must be precisely known. An international team of scientists has now developed a measurement technique that provides complete temporal characterization of individual FEL (free-electron laser) pulses at DESY's soft-X-ray free-electron laser, named FLASH.

Complex chemistry within the Martian soil: No definitive detection of organics yet Posted: 03 Dec 2012 09:07 AM PST NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has used its full array of instruments to analyze Martian soil for the first time, and found a complex chemistry within the Martian soil. Water and sulfur and chlorine-containing substances, among other ingredients, showed up in samples Curiosity's arm delivered to an analytical laboratory inside the rover. Researchers reported that they have no definitive detection of Martian organics at this point, but they will keep looking in the diverse environments of Gale Crater.

Need for speed: High-speed measurements of molecular motion in the cell nucleus Posted: 03 Dec 2012 08:24 AM PST Using a new measurement technique, researchers have succeeded in tracking interactions between proteins and DNA in the cell nucleus at a resolution of 1/1000 of a second. They were able to measure the binding of highly specialized protein complexes that specifically change the spatial structure of the genetic information, thereby controlling the readout of the DNA information.

World's smallest wrench puts new twist on microscopic manipulation; Harnesses laser light's ability to gently push and pull Posted: 03 Dec 2012 06:34 AM PST Harnessing laser light's ability to gently push and pull microscopic particles, researchers have created the fiber-optic equivalent of the world's smallest wrench. This virtual tool can precisely twist and turn the tiniest of particles, from living cells and DNA to microscopic motors and dynamos used in biological and physical research.

Physicist happens upon rain data breakthrough Posted: 03 Dec 2012 06:04 AM PST A physicist and researcher who set out to develop a formula to protect Apollo sites on the moon from rocket exhaust may have happened upon a way to improve weather forecasting on Earth.

Hubble spots a peculiar compact blue dwarf galaxy Posted: 03 Dec 2012 06:02 AM PST The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured an impressive image of the irregular galaxy NGC 5253. NGC 5253 is one of the nearest of the known Blue Compact Dwarf (BCD) galaxies, and is located at a distance of about 12 million light-years from Earth in the southern constellation of Centaurus. The most characteristic signature of these galaxies is that they harbor very active star-formation regions.

Swirling storms on Saturn Posted: 03 Dec 2012 06:00 AM PST NASA's Cassini spacecraft has been traveling the Saturnian system in a set of inclined, or tilted, orbits that give mission scientists a vertigo-inducing view of Saturn's polar regions. This perspective has yielded images of roiling storm clouds and a swirling vortex at the center of Saturn's famed north polar hexagon.

Have Venusian volcanoes been caught in the act? Posted: 03 Dec 2012 05:18 AM PST Six years of observations by the European Space Agency's Venus Express have shown large changes in the sulfur dioxide content of the planet's atmosphere, and one intriguing possible explanation is volcanic eruptions. The thick atmosphere of Venus contains over a million times as much sulfur dioxide as Earth's, where almost all of the pungent, toxic gas is generated by volcanic activity. Most of the sulfur dioxide on Venus is hidden below the planet's dense upper cloud deck, because the gas is readily destroyed by sunlight. That means any sulfur dioxide detected in Venus' upper atmosphere above the cloud deck must have been recently supplied from below.

Taking the buzz out of office lights: Flicker-free, shatterproof alternative for large-scale lighting Posted: 03 Dec 2012 05:16 AM PST Say goodbye to that annoying buzz created by overhead fluorescent light bulbs in your office. Scientists have developed a flicker-free, shatterproof alternative for large-scale lighting. The research using FIPEL technology soon will have home applications as well.

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