ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• New application of physics tools used in biology
• Computer models help decode cells that sense light without seeing
• Bottom-up insight into crowd dynamics: Preparing for stampedes, mass evacuations
• Ranking disease-causal mutations within whole genome sequences
• Social media, self-esteem and suicide: Nations with more corruption demonstrate more social media, less suicide
• Efficiently harnessing low frequency vibrations as infinite power source for miniature electronic devices
• Click chemistry could provide total chemical DNA synthesis, study shows
• Large thermoelectric power from a combination of magnets and superconductors
• Synthesized sponge chemical shows promise for cancer
• United States lead in science and technology shrinking
• Nanoparticle pinpoints blood vessel plaques
• Excrement collected worldwide shows co-evolution of herbivores, their gut microbes
• Scientists use 'voting' and 'penalties' to overcome errors in quantum optimization
• Virtual-reality 'assisted' flying? Helping airline passengers experience comfort, space and altered self-perception
• First leadless pacemaker in U.S. implanted into patient

New application of physics tools used in biology Posted: 07 Feb 2014 10:30 AM PST A physicist and his colleagues have found a new application for the tools and mathematics typically used in physics to help solve problems in biology.

Computer models help decode cells that sense light without seeing Posted: 07 Feb 2014 10:30 AM PST Researchers have found that the melanopsin pigment in the retina is potentially more sensitive to light than its more famous counterpart, rhodopsin, the pigment that allows for night vision. Scientists have leveraged supercomputers to study melanopsin, a retina pigment capable of sensing environmental light changes, informing the nervous system and synchronizing it with the day/night rhythm.

Bottom-up insight into crowd dynamics: Preparing for stampedes, mass evacuations Posted: 07 Feb 2014 08:41 AM PST Stampedes unfortunately occur on too regular a basis. Previously, physicists developed numerous models of crowd evacuation dynamics. Now, a new study outlines a procedure for quantitatively comparing different crowd models, which also helps to compare these models with real-world data. In a new paper, researchers have demonstrated that these crowd evacuation dynamics models are a viable decision-making tool in safety preparation and planning concerning real-world human crowds.

Ranking disease-causal mutations within whole genome sequences Posted: 07 Feb 2014 08:41 AM PST Researchers have developed a new method for organizing and prioritizing genetic data. The Combined Annotation–Dependent Depletion method will assist scientists in their search for disease-causing mutation events in human genomes.

Social media, self-esteem and suicide: Nations with more corruption demonstrate more social media, less suicide Posted: 07 Feb 2014 06:40 AM PST In nations where corruption is rife, it seems that citizens these days find an escape from the everyday problems that trickle down to their lives by using online social media more than those elsewhere. Research also suggests that these two factors -- more corruption, more social networking -- also correlate with lower suicide rates.

Efficiently harnessing low frequency vibrations as infinite power source for miniature electronic devices Posted: 07 Feb 2014 06:40 AM PST Researchers have conceptualized a novel strategy to efficiently harness low frequency vibrations as infinite power source for miniature electronic devices.

Click chemistry could provide total chemical DNA synthesis, study shows Posted: 07 Feb 2014 05:38 AM PST An interdisciplinary study has shown for the first time that 'click chemistry' can be used to assemble DNA that is functional in human cells, which paves the way for a purely chemical method for gene synthesis. Human cells can still read through strands of DNA correctly despite being stitched together using a linker not found in nature.

Large thermoelectric power from a combination of magnets and superconductors Posted: 07 Feb 2014 05:37 AM PST Thermoelectric devices can cool materials by passing currents, or convert temperature differences into electric power. However, especially metallic structures have a very poor thermoelectric performance, and therefore most thermoelectrics are made of semiconductors. Now researchers have shown how a proper combination of magnetic metals and superconductors could allow reaching very strong thermoelectric conversion efficiency.

Synthesized sponge chemical shows promise for cancer Posted: 07 Feb 2014 05:37 AM PST A promising compound for cancer treatment has been synthesized in a laboratory by a PhD student.

United States lead in science and technology shrinking Posted: 06 Feb 2014 01:45 PM PST The United States' predominance in science and technology eroded further during the last decade, as several Asian nations -- particularly China and South Korea -- rapidly increased their innovation capacities.

Nanoparticle pinpoints blood vessel plaques Posted: 06 Feb 2014 01:45 PM PST A team of researchers has developed a multifunctional nanoparticle that enables magnetic resonance imaging to pinpoint blood vessel plaques caused by atherosclerosis. The technology is a step toward creating a non-invasive method of identifying plaques vulnerable to rupture -- the cause of heart attack and stroke -- in time for treatment.

Excrement collected worldwide shows co-evolution of herbivores, their gut microbes Posted: 06 Feb 2014 11:20 AM PST An extensive study on excrement and rumen fluids in plant-eating mammals from all over the whole world shows that the ciliates in their guts have evolved in parallel with them. This is the result of a five-year research project performed by evolution biologists, microbiologists and computer scientists.

Scientists use 'voting' and 'penalties' to overcome errors in quantum optimization Posted: 06 Feb 2014 10:39 AM PST Seeking a solution to decoherence -- the "noise" that prevents quantum processors from functioning properly -- scientists have developed a strategy of linking quantum bits together into voting blocks, a strategy that significantly boosts their accuracy. In a new study, the team found that their method results in at least a five-fold increase in the probability of reaching the correct answer when the processor solves the largest problems tested by the researcher, involving hundreds of qubits.

Virtual-reality 'assisted' flying? Helping airline passengers experience comfort, space and altered self-perception Posted: 06 Feb 2014 08:13 AM PST Does this sound familiar? After a long check-in procedure you are finally sitting in your assigned seat on the aircraft. But the seat is too narrow, the foot-well is too tight, you have neighbors using both armrests, and the family with small children in the row in front increases the noise level considerably. If only there was a way to hide the environment or perhaps even create an illusion of comfort and relaxation! This illusion could soon become a reality, leading to a significant improvement of airline passenger comfort.

First leadless pacemaker in U.S. implanted into patient Posted: 06 Feb 2014 07:07 AM PST This February during American Heart Month, a surgeon implanted the United States' first miniature-sized, leadless cardiac pacemaker directly inside a patient's heart without surgery.

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