ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Why NASA studies the ultraviolet sun
• Space station inspired robot to help heal sick children
• GPIM spacecraft to validate use of 'green' propellant
• How the sun caused an aurora this week
• Water leads to chemical that gunks up biofuels production
• The power of salt: Power generation from where river water and seawater meet
• Turning waste from rice, parsley and other foods into biodegradable plastic
• Seeing a molecule breathe through scattering of light pulses
• Cut flowers last longer with silver nanotechnology
• Paving the way for cyborg moth 'biobots'
• A semi-artificial leaf faster than 'natural' photosynthesis
• First LOFAR observations of 'Whirlpool Galaxy'
• A spectacular landscape of star formation
• Major step toward optical computing: Non-metallic metamaterial used to 'compress' and contain light
• Сalculations with nanoscale smart particles: Important step towards creating medical nanorobots
• How worms crawl: mathematical model challenges traditional view
• First indirect evidence of so-far undetected strange baryons
• Organic photovoltaic cells of the future: Using charge formation efficiency to screen materials for future devices
• Martian meteorite: Implications of a newly discovered mineral-rich structure
• Using physics to design better drugs
• Bionic liquids from lignin: New results pave the way for closed loop biofuel refineries
• Bacterial nanowires: 'Electric bacteria' not what we thought they were
• Engineering long-lasting joint lubrication by mimicking nature
• Immune system is dazed and confused during spaceflight, study reveals
• Algorithm for reducing errors in transcriptome analysis

Why NASA studies the ultraviolet sun Posted: 20 Aug 2014 03:28 PM PDT You cannot look at the sun without special filters, and the naked eye cannot perceive certain wavelengths of sunlight. Solar physicists must consequently rely on spacecraft that can observe this invisible light before the atmosphere absorbs it.

Space station inspired robot to help heal sick children Posted: 20 Aug 2014 03:22 PM PDT The same companies which developed the robotic arms that helped astronauts build the International Space Station have now created a new research platform. Called KidsArm, this robot allows surgeons to quickly navigate to surgical sites in the body. It has an advanced imaging and control system that makes it extremely precise, and it is designed to explore the potential for automating certain demanding tasks in minimally invasive pediatric surgery.

GPIM spacecraft to validate use of 'green' propellant Posted: 20 Aug 2014 03:20 PM PDT Milestone progress is being made in readying NASA's Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM) for launch in 2016, a smallsat designed to test the unique attributes of a high-performance, non-toxic, "green" fuel on orbit.

How the sun caused an aurora this week Posted: 20 Aug 2014 03:17 PM PDT On the evening of Aug. 20, 2014, the International Space Station was flying past North America when it flew over the dazzling, green blue lights of an aurora. On board, astronaut Reid Wiseman captured this image of the aurora, seen from above.

Water leads to chemical that gunks up biofuels production Posted: 20 Aug 2014 01:43 PM PDT Trying to understand the chemistry that turns plant material into the same energy-rich gasoline and diesel we put in our vehicles, researchers have discovered that water in the conversion process helps form an impurity which, in turn, slows down key chemical reactions.

The power of salt: Power generation from where river water and seawater meet Posted: 20 Aug 2014 08:05 AM PDT Where the river meets the sea, there is the potential to harness a significant amount of renewable energy, according to a team of mechanical engineers. The researchers evaluated an emerging method of power generation called pressure retarded osmosis (PRO), in which two streams of different salinity are mixed to produce energy. In principle, a PRO system would take in river water and seawater on either side of a semi-permeable membrane. Through osmosis, water from the less-salty stream would cross the membrane to a pre-pressurized saltier side, creating a flow that can be sent through a turbine to recover power.

Turning waste from rice, parsley and other foods into biodegradable plastic Posted: 20 Aug 2014 08:05 AM PDT Your chairs, synthetic rugs and plastic bags could one day be made out of cocoa, rice and vegetable waste rather than petroleum, scientists are now reporting. The novel process they developed and their results could help the world deal with its agricultural and plastic waste problems.

Seeing a molecule breathe through scattering of light pulses Posted: 20 Aug 2014 08:04 AM PDT For the first time, chemists have succeeded in measuring vibrational motion of a single molecule with a femtosecond time resolution. The study reveals how vibration of a single molecule differs from the behavior of larger molecular groups. Seeing a single organic bipyridylethylene (BPE) molecule vibrate as a function of time was possible through the scattering of the light pulses. The method is known as time-resolved coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (tr-CARS).

Cut flowers last longer with silver nanotechnology Posted: 20 Aug 2014 08:03 AM PDT Once cut and dunked in a vase of water, flowers are susceptible to bacterial growth that shortens the length of time one has to enjoy the blooms. A few silver nanoparticles sprinkled into the water, might be the answer to longer-lasting cut flowers according to new research.

Paving the way for cyborg moth 'biobots' Posted: 20 Aug 2014 06:17 AM PDT Researchers have developed methods for electronically manipulating the flight muscles of moths and for monitoring the electrical signals moths use to control those muscles. The work opens the door to the development of remotely-controlled moths, or 'biobots,' for use in emergency response.

A semi-artificial leaf faster than 'natural' photosynthesis Posted: 20 Aug 2014 06:16 AM PDT Cooperation between chemists and biologists has resulted in a new method for the very efficient integration of photosynthetic proteins in photovoltaics. Their research offers a new immobilization strategy that yields electron transfer rates exceeding for the first time rates observed in natural photosynthesis. This discovery opens the possibility for the construction of semi-artificial leaves functioning as photovoltaic devices with drastically increased performance.

First LOFAR observations of 'Whirlpool Galaxy' Posted: 20 Aug 2014 06:12 AM PDT Using a radio telescope with frequencies just above those of commercial FM radio stations, a European team of astronomers has obtained the most sensitive image of a galaxy below 1 GHz.

A spectacular landscape of star formation Posted: 20 Aug 2014 06:12 AM PDT A new image shows two dramatic star formation regions in the southern Milky Way. The first is of these, on the left, is dominated by the star cluster NGC 3603, located 20,000 light-years away, in the Carina–Sagittarius spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy. The second object, on the right, is a collection of glowing gas clouds known as NGC 3576 that lies only about half as far from Earth.

Major step toward optical computing: Non-metallic metamaterial used to 'compress' and contain light Posted: 19 Aug 2014 09:59 AM PDT Engineering researchers are designing nano-optical cables small enough to replace the copper wiring on computer chips. The advance could result in radical increases in computing speeds and reduced energy use by electronic devices.

Сalculations with nanoscale smart particles: Important step towards creating medical nanorobots Posted: 19 Aug 2014 08:32 AM PDT Researchers in Russia have made an important step towards creating medical nanorobots, discovering a way of enabling them to produce logical calculations using a variety of biochemical reactions.

How worms crawl: mathematical model challenges traditional view Posted: 19 Aug 2014 08:30 AM PDT A new mathematical model for earthworms and insect larvae challenges the traditional view of how these soft bodied animals get around. Researchers say that there is a far greater role for the body's mechanical properties and the local nerves which react to the surface that the animal is traveling across.

First indirect evidence of so-far undetected strange baryons Posted: 19 Aug 2014 08:30 AM PDT New supercomputing calculations provide the first evidence that particles predicted by the theory of quark-gluon interactions but never before observed are being produced in heavy-ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider.

Organic photovoltaic cells of the future: Using charge formation efficiency to screen materials for future devices Posted: 19 Aug 2014 08:29 AM PDT Organic photovoltaic cells -- a type of solar cell that uses polymeric materials to capture sunlight -- show tremendous promise as energy conversion devices, thanks to key attributes such as flexibility and low-cost production, but have complex power conversion processes. To maneuver around this problem, researchers have developed a method to determine the absolute value of the charge formation efficiency. The secret of their method is the combination of two types of spectroscopy.

Martian meteorite: Implications of a newly discovered mineral-rich structure Posted: 19 Aug 2014 08:29 AM PDT A new ovoid structure discovered in the Nakhla Martian meteorite is made of nanocrystalline iron-rich clay, contains a variety of minerals, and shows evidence of undergoing a past shock event from impact, with resulting melting of the permafrost and mixing of surface and subsurface fluids.

Using physics to design better drugs Posted: 19 Aug 2014 08:28 AM PDT Researchers are working to develop drugs by considering the dynamics -- including specific atomic motions -- of the enzymes that those drugs target.

Bionic liquids from lignin: New results pave the way for closed loop biofuel refineries Posted: 18 Aug 2014 12:25 PM PDT Bionic liquids -- solvents made from lignin and hemicellulose, two by-products of biofuel production -- show great promise for liberating fermentable sugars from lignocellulose and improving the economics of biofuels refineries.

Bacterial nanowires: 'Electric bacteria' not what we thought they were Posted: 18 Aug 2014 12:25 PM PDT Scientists have discovered that bacterial nanowires (which conduct electricity, allowing certain bacteria to breathe) are actually extensions of the bacteria's outer membrane -- not pili, as originally thought. Understanding the way these electric bacteria work has applications well beyond the lab. Such creatures have the potential to address some of the big questions about the nature of life itself, including what types of lifeforms we might find in extreme environments, like space.

Engineering long-lasting joint lubrication by mimicking nature Posted: 18 Aug 2014 10:52 AM PDT By finding a way to bind a slippery molecule naturally found in the fluid that surrounds healthy joints, researchers have engineered surfaces that have the potential to deliver long-lasting lubrication at specific spots throughout the body. The finding could eventually offer a new way to ease the pain of arthritic joints, keep artificial joints working smoothly or even make contact lenses more comfortable.

Immune system is dazed and confused during spaceflight, study reveals Posted: 18 Aug 2014 10:51 AM PDT Research indicates that crew members aboard the International Space Station have changes in blood cytokines that persist during flight.

Algorithm for reducing errors in transcriptome analysis Posted: 18 Aug 2014 06:52 AM PDT Researchers are proposing a new concept for signalome-wide analysis of changes in intracellular pathways, called OncoFinder, which allows for accurate and robust cross-platform analysis of gene expression data. This new technique will allow scientists to derive useful information from and compare the hundreds of thousands of data sets obtained using legacy equipment as well as data sets obtained from biological samples preserved in paraffin blocks and partially-degraded samples.

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