ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Martian clay contains chemical implicated in the origin of life, astrobiologists find
• Shape of nanoparticles points the way toward more targeted drugs
• Unfrozen mystery: H2O reveals a new secret
• Scientists size up universe's most lightweight dwarf galaxy
• Scientists discover new family of quasicrystals
• 2-D electronics take a step forward: Semiconducting films for atom-thick circuits
• Simple theory may explain mysterious dark matter
• When will my computer understand me?
• Catching individual molecules in a million with optical antennas inside nano-boxes
• Nanotechnology and the secret life of knots
• Dance of the atoms: Clustering of atoms observed
• World's first large(wafer)-scale production of III-V semiconductor nanowire

Martian clay contains chemical implicated in the origin of life, astrobiologists find Posted: 10 Jun 2013 07:01 PM PDT Researchers have discovered high concentrations of boron in a Martian meteorite. When present in its oxidized form (borate), boron may have played a key role in the formation of RNA, one of the building blocks for life.

Shape of nanoparticles points the way toward more targeted drugs Posted: 10 Jun 2013 12:21 PM PDT The shape of nanoparticles can enhance drug targeting, according to new research. The study found that rod-shaped nanoparticles -- or nanorods -- as opposed to spherical nanoparticles, appear to adhere more effectively to the surface of endothelial cells that line the inside of blood vessels.

Unfrozen mystery: H2O reveals a new secret Posted: 10 Jun 2013 12:21 PM PDT Using revolutionary new techniques, scientists have made a striking discovery about how ice behaves under pressure, changing ideas that date back almost 50 years. Their findings could alter our understanding of how the water molecule responds to conditions found deep within planets and could have implications for energy science.

Scientists size up universe's most lightweight dwarf galaxy Posted: 10 Jun 2013 10:35 AM PDT The least massive galaxy in the known universe has now been measured, clocking in at just 1,000 or so stars with a bit of dark matter holding them together.

Scientists discover new family of quasicrystals Posted: 10 Jun 2013 10:32 AM PDT Scientists have discovered a new family of rare-earth quasicrystals using an algorithm they developed to help pinpoint them. Their research resulted in finding the only known magnetic rare earth icosahedral binary quasicrystals, now providing a "matched set" of magnetic quasicrystals and their closely related periodic cousins.

2-D electronics take a step forward: Semiconducting films for atom-thick circuits Posted: 10 Jun 2013 10:31 AM PDT Scientists have created single-layer films of molybdenum disulfide, a semiconductor and an important component in the development of two-dimensional electronics.

Simple theory may explain mysterious dark matter Posted: 10 Jun 2013 10:28 AM PDT The reason dark matter, which makes up 85 percent of all the matter in the universe, is invisible could be because it possesses a rare, donut-shaped type of electromagnetism instead of the more exotic forces that have been proposed, according to an analysis by theoretic physicists.

When will my computer understand me? Posted: 10 Jun 2013 08:30 AM PDT For more than 50 years, linguists and computer scientists have tried to get computers to understand human language by programming semantics as software, with mixed results. Enabled by supercomputers, researchers are using new methods to more accurately represent language so computers can interpret it.

Catching individual molecules in a million with optical antennas inside nano-boxes Posted: 10 Jun 2013 06:51 AM PDT Detecting one individual biomolecule amongst millions of other neighboring molecules has been technically impossible until now. Scientists have now devised the smallest optical device capable of detecting and sensing individual biomolecules at concentrations that are similar to those found in the cellular context.

Nanotechnology and the secret life of knots Posted: 10 Jun 2013 05:41 AM PDT Nanotechnologies require a  detailed knowledge of the molecular state. For instance, it is useful to know when and how a generic polymer, a long chain of polymers (chain of beads), knots. The study of molecular entanglement  is an important field of study as the presence of knots affects its physical properties, for instance the resistence to traction. Previous studies had mainly obtained "static" data on the knotting probability of such molecules. In other words, they focused on the likelihood that a polymer may knot. The novelty of the new study lies in the fact that this time the dynamic aspect of the phenomenon has been simulated.

Dance of the atoms: Clustering of atoms observed Posted: 10 Jun 2013 05:41 AM PDT Lone people standing in a ballroom don't tend to move a lot. It's only when they find a suitable dance partner that rapid motion sets in. Atoms on iron-oxide surfaces behave in a similar way: Only with the right molecular partner do they dance across the surface. Scientists have now filmed the atoms, proving that carbon monoxide is the partner responsible for the quick motion.

World's first large(wafer)-scale production of III-V semiconductor nanowire Posted: 10 Jun 2013 05:39 AM PDT Researchers have developed large-scale heteroepitaxial growth III-V nanowires on a Si wafer.

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