ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Hubble sees the remains of a star gone supernova
• NASA's Spitzer puts planets in a petri dish
• Wind, not water, formed mound on Mars, new analysis suggests
• Unique method for creating uniform nanoparticles developed
• More than a good eye: Robot uses arms, location and more to discover objects
• In vivo flexible large scale integrated circuits developed
• Do-it-yourself invisibility with 3-D printing
• Engineers manipulate a buckyball by inserting a single water molecule
• Ubiquitous engineered nanomaterials can cause lung inflammation: Substances are used in everything from paint to sporting equipment
• Invisible pattern can put a stop to counterfeit designer clothing
• Microwave oven cooks up solar cell material

Hubble sees the remains of a star gone supernova Posted: 06 May 2013 01:16 PM PDT A new image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows delicate wisps of gas that make up an object known as SNR B0519-69.0, or SNR 0519 for short. The thin, blood-red shells are actually the remnants from when an unstable progenitor star exploded violently as a supernova around 600 years ago. There are several types of supernovae, but for SNR 0519 the star that exploded is known to have been a white dwarf star -- a Sun-like star in the final stages of its life.

NASA's Spitzer puts planets in a petri dish Posted: 06 May 2013 01:10 PM PDT Our galaxy is teeming with a wild variety of planets. In addition to our solar system's eight near-and-dear planets, there are more than 800 so-called exoplanets known to circle stars beyond our sun. One of the first "species" of exoplanets to be discovered is the hot Jupiters, also known as roasters. These are gas giants like Jupiters, but they orbit closely to their stars, blistering under the heat. Thanks to NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, researchers are beginning to dissect this exotic class of planets, revealing raging winds and other aspects of their turbulent nature.

Wind, not water, formed mound on Mars, new analysis suggests Posted: 06 May 2013 10:24 AM PDT Researchers suggest that Mars' roughly 3.5-mile high Mount Sharp most likely emerged as strong winds carried dust and sand into Gale Crater where the mound sits. If correct, the research could dilute expectations that the mound is the remnant of a massive lake, which would have important implications for understanding Mars' past habitability.

Unique method for creating uniform nanoparticles developed Posted: 06 May 2013 08:40 AM PDT Researchers have developed unique approach for the synthesis of highly uniform icosahedral nanoparticles made of platinum. Results showed that the key factors for the shape control include fast nucleation, kinetically controlled growth, and protection from oxidation by air.

More than a good eye: Robot uses arms, location and more to discover objects Posted: 06 May 2013 08:40 AM PDT A robot can struggle to discover objects in its surroundings when it relies on computer vision alone. But by taking advantage of all of the information available to it -- an object's location, size, shape and even whether it can be lifted -- a robot can continually discover and refine its understanding of objects, say researchers.

In vivo flexible large scale integrated circuits developed Posted: 06 May 2013 08:39 AM PDT A team of researchers in Korea has developed in vivo silicon-based flexible large scale integrated circuits for bio-medical wireless communication.

Do-it-yourself invisibility with 3-D printing Posted: 06 May 2013 07:33 AM PDT Seven years ago, Duke University engineers demonstrated the first working invisibility cloak in complex laboratory experiments. Now it appears creating a simple cloak has become a lot simpler.

Engineers manipulate a buckyball by inserting a single water molecule Posted: 06 May 2013 07:33 AM PDT Engineering researchers have developed a technique to isolate a single water molecule inside a buckyball and drive motion of the "big" nonpolar ball through the encapsulated "small" polar H2O molecule, a controlling transport mechanism in a nanochannel under an external electric field. This method could lead to new applications including effective ways to control drug delivery and to assemble C60-based functional 3D structures at the nanoscale level.

Ubiquitous engineered nanomaterials can cause lung inflammation: Substances are used in everything from paint to sporting equipment Posted: 06 May 2013 07:33 AM PDT Scientists have found that breathing ultrafine particles from a large family of materials that increasingly are found in a host of household and commercial products, from sunscreens to the ink in copy machines to super-strong but lightweight sporting equipment, can cause lung inflammation and damage.

Invisible pattern can put a stop to counterfeit designer clothing Posted: 06 May 2013 06:51 AM PDT There is now a way to differentiate between designer clothing and knockoffs. Researchers have produced a thread with unique optical properties, which can be used to create invisible patterns in fabrics that are only visible under polarized light.

Microwave oven cooks up solar cell material Posted: 06 May 2013 06:49 AM PDT Metallurgists used an old microwave oven to produce a nanocrystal semiconductor rapidly using cheap, abundant and less toxic metals than other semiconductors. They hope it will be used for more efficient photovoltaic solar cells and LED lights, biological sensors and systems to convert waste heat to electricity.

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