ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• The sun's magnetic field is about to flip
• Size matters in nanocrystals' ability to adsorb/release gases
• Explosion illuminates invisible galaxy in the dark ages
• New and remarkable details of the sun now available from Big Bear Observatory
• Battery design gets boost from aligned carbon nanotubes
• A layer of tiny grains can slow sound waves
• Altering organic molecules' interaction with light
• Large-area picosecond photodetectors push timing envelope
• High-speed camera captures dancing droplets for scientific 'photo album'
• Quantum communication controlled by resonance in 'artificial atoms'
• New technique allows closer study of how radiation damages materials
• Bringing light to a halt: Physicists freeze motion of light for a minute
• Stunning image of nearby galaxy M31

The sun's magnetic field is about to flip Posted: 06 Aug 2013 02:16 PM PDT Something big is about to happen on the sun. According to measurements from NASA-supported observatories, the sun's vast magnetic field is about to flip.

Size matters in nanocrystals' ability to adsorb/release gases Posted: 06 Aug 2013 02:16 PM PDT More efficient catalytic converters on autos, improved batteries and more sensitive gas sensors are some of the potential benefits of a new system that can directly measure the manner in which nanocrystals adsorb and release hydrogen and other gases.

Explosion illuminates invisible galaxy in the dark ages Posted: 06 Aug 2013 12:57 PM PDT More than 12 billion years ago a star exploded, glowing so brightly that it outshone its entire galaxy by a million times. This brilliant flash traveled across space for 12.7 billion years to a planet that hadn't even existed at the time of the explosion -- our Earth. By analyzing this light, astronomers learned about a galaxy that was otherwise too small, faint and far away for even the Hubble Space Telescope to see.

New and remarkable details of the sun now available from Big Bear Observatory Posted: 06 Aug 2013 11:55 AM PDT Researchers have obtained new and remarkably detailed photos of the sun with the New Solar Telescope. The photographs reveal never-before-seen details of solar magnetism revealed in photospheric and chromospheric features.

Battery design gets boost from aligned carbon nanotubes Posted: 06 Aug 2013 11:54 AM PDT A flexible nano-scaffold could help make rechargeable lithium ion batteries last longer. Applications range from improved cell phone batteries to electric cars that can travel farther on a charge.

A layer of tiny grains can slow sound waves Posted: 06 Aug 2013 10:29 AM PDT Researchers say the findings could lead to a new way of controlling frequencies in electronic devices such as cellphones, but with components that are only a fraction the size of those currently used for that function. On a larger scale, it could lead to new types of blast-shielding material for use in combat or by public-safety personnel or equipment.

Altering organic molecules' interaction with light Posted: 06 Aug 2013 10:28 AM PDT Enhancing and manipulating the light emission of organic molecules is at heart of many important technological and scientific advances, including in the fields of organic light emitting devices, bio-imaging, bio-molecular detection. Researchers have now discovered a new platform that enables dramatic manipulation of the emission of organic molecules when simply suspended on top of a carefully designed planar slab with a periodic array of holes: So-called photonic crystal surface.

Large-area picosecond photodetectors push timing envelope Posted: 06 Aug 2013 10:26 AM PDT The Large Area Picosecond Photodetector (LAPPD) collaboration has developed big detectors that push the timing envelope, measuring the speed of particles with a precision down to trillionths of a second.

High-speed camera captures dancing droplets for scientific 'photo album' Posted: 06 Aug 2013 10:25 AM PDT The splash from rain hitting a windowpane or printer ink hitting paper all comes down to tiny droplets hitting a surface, and what each of those droplets does. Researchers have produced a high-resolution "photo album" of more than 30 shapes an oscillated drop of water can take. The results, a fundamental insight into how droplets behave, could have applications in everything from inkjet printing to microfluidics.

Quantum communication controlled by resonance in 'artificial atoms' Posted: 06 Aug 2013 08:13 AM PDT Researchers have developed a method to control a quantum bit for electronic quantum communication in a series of quantum dots, which behave like artificial atoms in the solid state.

New technique allows closer study of how radiation damages materials Posted: 06 Aug 2013 08:13 AM PDT Scientists have developed a technique that provides real-time images of how magnesium changes at the atomic scale when exposed to radiation. The technique may give researchers new insights into how radiation weakens the integrity of radiation-tolerant materials, such as those used in space exploration and in nuclear energy technologies.

Bringing light to a halt: Physicists freeze motion of light for a minute Posted: 06 Aug 2013 08:11 AM PDT Physicists have been able to stop something that has the greatest possible speed and that never really stops: light. A decade ago, physicists stopped it very for a short moment. In recent years, this extended towards stop times of a few seconds for simple light pulses in extremely cold gases and special crystals. But now the same researchers extended the possible duration and applications for freezing the motion of light considerably. The physicists stopped light for about one minute. They were also able to save images that were transferred by the light pulse into the crystal for a minute -- a million times longer than previously possible.

Stunning image of nearby galaxy M31 Posted: 06 Aug 2013 06:15 AM PDT A stunning image of M31 has now been captured. M31, also known as the Andromeda Galaxy, is the spiral galaxy nearest to our own Milky Way Galaxy, 2.5 million light years from Earth. It is one of the brightest objects listed in the Messier catalog and has garnered the attention of observers since 964 A.D., when the Persian astronomer al-Sufi wrote about it.

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