ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Laser makes microscopes way cooler, incredibly sensitive
• Bats bolster brain hypothesis, maybe technology, too
• On the edge of graphene: Edges have different conductivity
• Possible extended symmetries of field theoretic systems
• Wireless sensors and flying robots: A way to monitor deteriorating bridges
• Politicians need to address transport taboos, not just new technology, to meet carbon targets, say researchers
• Lemongrass fiber as lost circulation material in drilling fluid
• Make your mobile device live up to its true potential: As a data collection tool
• New tool makes a single picture worth far more than a thousand words
• Molecular engineers record an electron's quantum behavior
• Seven tiny grains captured by Stardust likely visitors from interstellar space
• A self-organizing thousand-robot swarm
• Chemists uncover powerful new click chemistry reactivity
• RNA combination therapy for lung cancer offers promise for personalized medicine
• Dark bands in starlight: New Milky Way maps help solve stubborn interstellar material mystery
• Bypass commands from brain to legs through computer
• Fukushima's legacy: Biological effects of Fukushima radiation on plants, insects, and animals
• Computation, collaboration lead to significant advance in malaria
• Hydraulic fracturing: Helping businesses predict national fracking policy
• New non-invasive technique controls size of molecules penetrating the blood-brain barrier
• Realistic computer graphics: Technology from Germany makes it to Walt Disney
• Mobile phones come alive with the sound of music

Laser makes microscopes way cooler, incredibly sensitive Posted: 15 Aug 2014 07:23 AM PDT Laser physicists have found a way to make atomic-force microscope probes 20 times more sensitive and capable of detecting forces as small as the weight of an individual virus. The technique hinges on using laser beams to cool a nanowire probe to -265 degrees Celsius. "The level of sensitivity achieved after cooling is accurate enough for us to sense the weight of a large virus that is 100 billion times lighter than a mosquito," said one researcher.

Bats bolster brain hypothesis, maybe technology, too Posted: 15 Aug 2014 07:23 AM PDT Bats demonstrate remarkable skill in tracking targets such as bugs through the trees in the dark of night. Decades of research on how bats use echolocation to keep a focus on their targets not only lends support to a long debated neuroscience hypothesis about vision but also could lead to smarter sonar and radar technologies.

On the edge of graphene: Edges have different conductivity Posted: 15 Aug 2014 07:23 AM PDT The conductivity at the edges of graphene devices is different to that of the central material, researchers have discovered. Local scanning electrical techniques were used to examine the local nanoscale electronic properties of epitaxial graphene, in particular the differences between the edges and central parts of graphene Hall bar devices.

Possible extended symmetries of field theoretic systems Posted: 15 Aug 2014 07:22 AM PDT Many physical systems, from superfluids to pi mesons, are understood to be manifestations of spontaneous symmetry breaking, whereby the symmetries of a system are not realized by its lowest energy state. A consequence of spontaneous symmetry breaking is the existence of excitations known as Goldstone bosons, which account for the broken symmetries. Here the authors investigate systems with larger than usual amounts of broken symmetry.

Wireless sensors and flying robots: A way to monitor deteriorating bridges Posted: 15 Aug 2014 07:20 AM PDT As a report from the Obama administration warns that one in four bridges in the United States needs significant repair or cannot handle automobile traffic, engineers are employing wireless sensors and flying robots that could have the potential to help authorities monitor the condition of bridges in real time.

Politicians need to address transport taboos, not just new technology, to meet carbon targets, say researchers Posted: 14 Aug 2014 06:25 PM PDT Transport accounts for 30% of CO2 emissions in the EU, with emissions rising 36% between 1990 and 2007. New research has found a need to dissect the widely-held view that new technologies, such as biofuel and improved aircraft design, will result in carbon reduction targets being met.

Lemongrass fiber as lost circulation material in drilling fluid Posted: 14 Aug 2014 06:24 PM PDT The properties of lemongrass fibers are being studied as a potential help in preventing fluid circulation problems while drilling for oil and gas. In the oil and gas industry, drilling mud is used to (1) to suspend cuttings to prevent it sagging at the drill bit during shutdown, (2) to transport it to the surface, (3) to cool and lubricate the drill bit, (4) to provide enough hydrostatics pressure to prevent fluids from formation enter to the well bore and (5) to form a thin filter cake to seal the damage formation.

Make your mobile device live up to its true potential: As a data collection tool Posted: 14 Aug 2014 04:24 PM PDT Easy Leaf Area is a new, free program that calculates leaf surface area from digital images. Leaf measurements are often critical in plant physiological and ecological studies, but traditional methods have been time consuming and sometimes destructive to plant samples. Easy Leaf Area allows users to accurately measure leaf area from digital images in seconds.

New tool makes a single picture worth far more than a thousand words Posted: 14 Aug 2014 04:23 PM PDT A photo is worth a thousand words, but what if the image could also represent thousands of other images? New software seeks to tame the sea of visual data in the world by generating a single photo that can represent massive clusters of images.

Molecular engineers record an electron's quantum behavior Posted: 14 Aug 2014 04:21 PM PDT Scientists have developed a technique to record the quantum mechanical behavior of an individual electron contained within a nanoscale defect in diamond. Their technique uses ultrafast pulses of laser light both to control the defect's entire quantum state and observe how that single electron state changes over time.

Seven tiny grains captured by Stardust likely visitors from interstellar space Posted: 14 Aug 2014 04:19 PM PDT The 1999 Stardust mission flew by comet Wild-2 in 2004, capturing cometary and interstellar dust, and delivered its dust-loaded collectors to Earth in 2006. Scientists now report preliminary results of their eight-year analysis of the interstellar particles: seven dust motes that likely originated in another solar system less than 100 million years ago. The particles are more diverse than expected, and fluffier, like a tossed salad.

A self-organizing thousand-robot swarm Posted: 14 Aug 2014 04:18 PM PDT The first thousand-robot flash mob has assembled at Harvard University. Just as trillions of individual cells can assemble into an intelligent organism, or a thousand starlings can form a great flowing murmuration across the sky, the Kilobots demonstrate how complexity can arise from very simple behaviors performed en masse. To computer scientists, they also represent a significant milestone in the development of collective artificial intelligence.

Chemists uncover powerful new click chemistry reactivity Posted: 14 Aug 2014 04:16 PM PDT Chemists have used click chemistry to uncover unprecedented, powerful reactivity for making new drugs, diagnostics, plastics, smart materials and many other products.

RNA combination therapy for lung cancer offers promise for personalized medicine Posted: 14 Aug 2014 04:15 PM PDT Researchers have improved therapeutic response in a clinically relevant model of lung tumor growth. "This study is a terrific example of the potential of new RNA therapies to treat disease that was done in a highly collaborative way between biologists and engineers," says one researcher.

Dark bands in starlight: New Milky Way maps help solve stubborn interstellar material mystery Posted: 14 Aug 2014 04:13 PM PDT An international team of sky scholars has produced new maps of the material located between the stars in the Milky Way. The results should move astronomers closer to cracking a stardust puzzle that has vexed them for nearly a century.

Bypass commands from brain to legs through computer Posted: 14 Aug 2014 09:45 AM PDT Gait disturbance in individuals with spinal cord injury is attributed to the interruption of neural pathways from brain to the spinal locomotor center, whereas neural circuits locate below and above the lesion maintain most of their functions. An artificial connection that bridges the lost pathway and connects brain to spinal circuits has potential to ameliorate the functional loss. A research team has successfully made an artificial connection from the brain to the locomotion center in the spinal cord by bypassing with a computer and exercised control over walking.

Fukushima's legacy: Biological effects of Fukushima radiation on plants, insects, and animals Posted: 14 Aug 2014 09:45 AM PDT Scientists began gathering biological information only a few months after the disastrous 2011 meltdown of the Fukushima power plant in Japan. Results of these studies are now beginning to reveal serious biological effects of the Fukushima radiation on non-human organisms ranging from plants to butterflies to birds.

Computation, collaboration lead to significant advance in malaria Posted: 14 Aug 2014 09:43 AM PDT A new computational method has been developed to study the function of disease-causing genes, starting with an important new discovery about a gene associated with malaria -- one of the biggest global health burdens. The researchers came up with a computational method that allows biological information to literally flow from gene to gene across a massive network across many genomes, known as the "supergenomic" network.

Hydraulic fracturing: Helping businesses predict national fracking policy Posted: 14 Aug 2014 09:38 AM PDT Hydraulic fracturing is emerging as one of the primary methods of drilling for natural gas, yet is equally controversial in its potential to induce harm to humans and the environment. The uncertainties of the health risks associated with horizontal drilling using fluid pressure to break down shale formations for natural gas extraction has pushed countries worldwide to proactively regulate the use of this technology. A new study can help companies in their decisions about whether or not to drill in a given country.

New non-invasive technique controls size of molecules penetrating the blood-brain barrier Posted: 14 Aug 2014 09:36 AM PDT The size of molecules penetrating the blood-brain barrier can be controlled using acoustic pressure -— the pressure of an ultrasound beam -— to let specific molecules through, a new technique has demonstrated for the first time. This innovative method may help improve drug delivery to the brain. Most small -- and all large -- molecule drugs do not currently penetrate the blood-brain barrier that sits between the vascular bed and the brain tissue. "As a result," one researcher explains, "all central nervous system diseases remain undertreated at best."

Realistic computer graphics: Technology from Germany makes it to Walt Disney Posted: 12 Aug 2014 09:18 AM PDT Creating a realistic computer simulation of how light suffuses a room is crucial not just for animated movies like "Toy Story" or "Cars". Special computing methods should ensure this, but they require great effort. Computer scientists have now developed a novel approach that turned out to be highly promising.

Mobile phones come alive with the sound of music Posted: 12 Aug 2014 09:17 AM PDT Charging mobile phones with sound, like chants from at football ground, could become a reality, according to scientists. Last year, researchers found that playing pop and rock music improves the performance of solar cells. Developing this research further, a team has now created an energy-harvesting prototype (a nanogenerator) that could be used to charge a mobile phone using everyday background noise – such as traffic, music, and our own voices. The team used the key properties of zinc oxide, a material that when squashed or stretched creates a voltage by converting energy from motion into electrical energy, in the form of nanorods.

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