ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Scents that are sent: oPhone delivers aromas
• Nanoparticles treat muscular dystrophy in mice
• Apollo reflectors performance: Source of 'full moon curse' revealed by eclipse
• Hacking the environment: Bringing biodiversity hardware into the open
• Are wind farms changing Europe's climate?
• NASA spacecraft get a 360-degree view of Saturn's auroras
• First 3-D movies of living sperm help doctors select best for IVF
• Molecular collisions now imaged better than ever
• How to make the wonder material graphene superconducting
• Better RNA interference, inspired by nature: New nanoparticles offer best-ever gene silencing
• Is an earthquake behind the Shroud of Turin image? Radiation from earthquake could have led to 'wrong' 1988 dating
• Helical electron and nuclear spin order in quantum wires
• Why white dots appear larger than equal size black dots: How Galileo's visual illusion works in the mind's eye

Scents that are sent: oPhone delivers aromas Posted: 11 Feb 2014 01:25 PM PST A technological breakthrough is on the horizon: a new kind of smart phone that sends scents. Scientists have created the oPhone, which will allow odors -- oNotes -- to be sent, via Bluetooth and smartphone attachments, to oPhones across the state, country or ocean, where the recipient can enjoy American Beauties or any other variety of rose.

Nanoparticles treat muscular dystrophy in mice Posted: 11 Feb 2014 10:29 AM PST Researchers have demonstrated a new approach to treating muscular dystrophy. Mice with a form of this muscle-weakening disease showed improved strength and heart function when treated with nanoparticles loaded with rapamycin, an immunosuppressive drug recently found to improve recycling of cellular waste.

Apollo reflectors performance: Source of 'full moon curse' revealed by eclipse Posted: 11 Feb 2014 09:18 AM PST Signals bounced off reflectors on the lunar surface return surprisingly faint echoes on full moon nights. Scientists think it's the result of uneven heating of the reflective lenses, which would alter their refractive index, dispersing the return beam, and they found compelling evidence for this explanation during an eclipse as Earth's shadow passed over each reflector in turn.

Hacking the environment: Bringing biodiversity hardware into the open Posted: 11 Feb 2014 09:18 AM PST New technologies are changing the way we collect biodiversity data, providing low-cost and customizable alternative to expensive proprietary data loggers and sensors. A new article describes the construction of a data-logger using the Arduino platform in the hope of encouraging the adoption of new data collection technologies by biodiversity scientists and fostering new collaborations with both electronics hobbyists and electronical engineers.

Are wind farms changing Europe's climate? Posted: 11 Feb 2014 09:18 AM PST The development of wind farms in Europe only has an extremely limited impact on the climate at the continental scale, and this will remain true until at least 2020. These are the main conclusions of a new study.

NASA spacecraft get a 360-degree view of Saturn's auroras Posted: 11 Feb 2014 07:38 AM PST NASA trained several pairs of eyes on Saturn as the planet put on a dancing light show at its poles. While NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, orbiting around Earth, was able to observe the northern auroras in ultraviolet wavelengths, NASA's Cassini spacecraft, orbiting around Saturn, got complementary close-up views in infrared, visible-light and ultraviolet wavelengths. Cassini could also see northern and southern parts of Saturn that don't face Earth.

First 3-D movies of living sperm help doctors select best for IVF Posted: 11 Feb 2014 07:33 AM PST Doctors may soon have a new technique to help them sort the good sperm cells from the less viable ones: a tracking system that takes 3-D movies of living sperm. In addition to showing the sperm's movement and behavior in real time, the novel method simultaneously provides detailed 3-D imaging of the sperm's form and structure to detect potential infertility-causing anomalies.

Molecular collisions now imaged better than ever Posted: 11 Feb 2014 07:31 AM PST Molecular physicists have produced images of the changes in direction of colliding nitrogen monoxide molecules (NO) with unprecedented sharpness. By combining a Stark decelerator with advanced imaging techniques, they were able to obtain very high resolution images of the collision processes.

How to make the wonder material graphene superconducting Posted: 11 Feb 2014 06:42 AM PST Whenever a new material is discovered, scientists are eager to find out whether or not it can be superconducting. This applies particularly to the wonder material graphene. Now scientists have unveiled the superconducting pairing mechanism in calcium doped graphene using the ARPES method.

Better RNA interference, inspired by nature: New nanoparticles offer best-ever gene silencing Posted: 11 Feb 2014 05:40 AM PST Inspired by tiny particles that carry cholesterol through the body, chemical engineers have designed nanoparticles that can deliver snippets of genetic material that turn off disease-causing genes. This approach, known as RNA interference (RNAi), holds great promise for treating cancer and other diseases. However, delivering enough RNA to treat the diseased tissue, while avoiding side effects in the rest of the body, has proven difficult. The new particles, which encase short strands of RNA within a sphere of fatty molecules and proteins, silence target genes in the liver more efficiently than any previous delivery system.

Is an earthquake behind the Shroud of Turin image? Radiation from earthquake could have led to 'wrong' 1988 dating Posted: 11 Feb 2014 05:40 AM PST Neutron radiation caused by 33 A.D. earthquake could have led to "wrong" 1988 radiocarbon dating of Shroud, suggest researchers. An earthquake in Old Jerusalem might be behind the famous image of the Shroud of Turin, says a group of researchers. They believe that neutron radiation caused by an earthquake could have induced the image of a crucified man - which many people believe to be that of Jesus - onto the length of linen cloth, and caused carbon-14 dating done on it in 1988 to be wrong.

Helical electron and nuclear spin order in quantum wires Posted: 11 Feb 2014 05:38 AM PST Physicists have observed a spontaneous magnetic order of electron and nuclear spins in a quantum wire at temperatures of 0.1 kelvin. In the past, this was possible only at much lower temperatures, typically in the microkelvin range. The coupling of nuclei and electrons creates a new state of matter whereby a nuclear spin order arises at a much higher temperature.

Why white dots appear larger than equal size black dots: How Galileo's visual illusion works in the mind's eye Posted: 10 Feb 2014 01:13 PM PST Scientists have studied a visual illusion first discovered by Galileo Galilei, and found that it occurs because of the surprising way our eyes see lightness and darkness in the world. Their results advance our understanding of how our brains are wired for seeing white versus black objects.

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