ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Bottling up sound waves: Acoustic bottle beams hold promise for imaging, cloaking, levitation and more
• Mathematical equation to predict happiness: Doesn't depend on how well things go, but on whether things are better than expected
• Massive volcanic outbursts on Jupiter's moon Io: More common than thought?
• Enhancing biofuel yields from biomass with novel new method
• No-power Wi-Fi connectivity could fuel Internet of Things reality
• Patients with hypoventilation may need supplemental oxygen on-board flights
• New tools advance bio-logic
• Camelina used to build better biofuel
• Self-assembly of gold nanoparticles into small clusters
• Baby Universe picture brought closer to theory
• Extracting audio from visual information: Algorithm recovers speech from vibrations of a potato-chip bag filmed through soundproof glass
• Attention, bosses: Web surfing at work has its benefits
• Nanoscale details of electrochemical reactions in electric vehicle battery materials
• Becoming bad through video games: Risk-glorying video games to increases in teens' high-risk behavior
• Video-game playing for less than an hour a day is linked with better-adjusted children, study finds
• NASA Mars rover Curiosity nears mountain-base outcrop
• How 'biological spark plug' in biomolecular motors works
• How science sizzles in the modern kitchen
• World's fastest external phone charger goes: Charges in 15 minutes without need for electrical socket
• New material allows for ultra-thin solar cells
• Designing inexpensive fuel cells: A protecting umbrella against oxygen
• Tool to better visualize, analyze human genomic data developed

Bottling up sound waves: Acoustic bottle beams hold promise for imaging, cloaking, levitation and more Posted: 04 Aug 2014 12:15 PM PDT Researchers have developed a technique for generating acoustic bottles in open air that can bend the paths of sound waves along prescribed convex trajectories. These self-bending bottle beams hold promise for ultrasonic imaging and therapy, and acoustic cloaking, levitation and particle manipulation.

Mathematical equation to predict happiness: Doesn't depend on how well things go, but on whether things are better than expected Posted: 04 Aug 2014 12:14 PM PDT The happiness of over 18,000 people worldwide has been predicted by a mathematical equation, with results showing that moment-to-moment happiness reflects not just how well things are going, but whether things are going better than expected.

Massive volcanic outbursts on Jupiter's moon Io: More common than thought? Posted: 04 Aug 2014 11:10 AM PDT Three massive volcanic eruptions occurred on Jupiter's moon Io within a two-week period in August of last year. This led astronomers to speculate that such "outbursts," which can send material hundreds of miles above the surface, might be much more common than they thought.

Enhancing biofuel yields from biomass with novel new method Posted: 04 Aug 2014 10:43 AM PDT A versatile, relatively non-toxic, and efficient way to convert raw agricultural and forestry residues and other plant matter -- known as lignocellulosic biomass, into biofuels and chemicals -- has been developed by researchers. The method brings researchers closer to solving the long elusive goal of producing fuels and chemicals from biomass at high enough yields and low enough costs to become a viable alternative or replacement for petroleum-based fuels and chemicals.

No-power Wi-Fi connectivity could fuel Internet of Things reality Posted: 04 Aug 2014 10:42 AM PDT Engineers have designed a new communication system that uses radio frequency signals as a power source and reuses existing Wi-Fi infrastructure to provide Internet connectivity to battery-free devices.

Patients with hypoventilation may need supplemental oxygen on-board flights Posted: 04 Aug 2014 09:33 AM PDT Severely overweight people who suffer from hypoventilation can have abnormally low levels of oxygen in their blood during air travel as a result of reduced atmospheric pressure in the cabin of aircrafts.

New tools advance bio-logic Posted: 04 Aug 2014 09:30 AM PDT Researchers are making modular genetic circuits that can perform more complex tasks by swapping protein building blocks. The modular genetic circuits engineered from parts of otherwise unrelated bacterial genomes can be set up to handle multiple chemical inputs simultaneously with a minimum of interference from their neighbors. The work gives scientists more options as they design synthetic cells for specific tasks, such as the production of biofuels, environmental remediation or the treatment of human diseases.

Camelina used to build better biofuel Posted: 04 Aug 2014 09:29 AM PDT A biochemist is improving biofuels with a promising crop: Camelina sativa. The research may help boost rural economies and provide farmers with a value-added product. "Camelina could give farmers an extra biofuel crop that wouldn't be competing with food production," one researcher said. "This research can add value to the local agricultural economy by creating an additional crop that could fit in with the crop rotation."

Self-assembly of gold nanoparticles into small clusters Posted: 04 Aug 2014 07:30 AM PDT Researchers have made an astonishing observation: they were investigating the formation of gold nanoparticles in a solvent and observed that the nanoparticles had not distributed themselves uniformly, but instead were self-assembled into small clusters.

Baby Universe picture brought closer to theory Posted: 04 Aug 2014 07:30 AM PDT The Planck Telescope allowed physicists to draw the most detailed map of the first light emitted after the Big Bang. Some of its features do not entirely fit the standard cosmological theory, but scientists have discovered that these anomalies could be explained by how the data was processed.

Extracting audio from visual information: Algorithm recovers speech from vibrations of a potato-chip bag filmed through soundproof glass Posted: 04 Aug 2014 07:05 AM PDT Researchers at MIT, Microsoft, and Adobe have developed an algorithm that can reconstruct an audio signal by analyzing minute vibrations of objects depicted in video. In one set of experiments, they were able to recover intelligible speech from the vibrations of a potato-chip bag photographed from 15 feet away through soundproof glass.

Attention, bosses: Web surfing at work has its benefits Posted: 04 Aug 2014 07:04 AM PDT Management might call it cyberloafing, but new research reveals how online breaks can benefit employees and employers. Authors say that workers engaged in online work breaks when they reported a high need for recovery (feeling frazzled from an intense work period, recovering from a reported significant loss of physical or emotional energy). Triggers also included breaking monotony or boredom, checking on demands at home and other personal demands, or emotional work-related events that triggered anger or frustration.

Nanoscale details of electrochemical reactions in electric vehicle battery materials Posted: 04 Aug 2014 07:03 AM PDT Using a new method to track the electrochemical reactions in a common electric vehicle battery material under operating conditions, scientists have revealed new insight into why fast charging inhibits this material's performance. The results could inform battery makers' efforts to optimize materials for faster-charging batteries with higher capacity.

Becoming bad through video games: Risk-glorying video games to increases in teens' high-risk behavior Posted: 04 Aug 2014 07:03 AM PDT Previous studies show that violent video games increase adolescent aggressiveness, but new research finds for the first time that teenagers who play mature-rated, risk-glorifying video games are more likely subsequently to engage in a wide range of deviant behaviors beyond aggression, including alcohol use, smoking cigarettes, delinquency and risky sex.

Video-game playing for less than an hour a day is linked with better-adjusted children, study finds Posted: 04 Aug 2014 07:03 AM PDT A new study suggests video game-playing for less than an hour a day is linked with better-adjusted children and teenagers. The research found that young people who indulged in a little video game-playing were associated with being better adjusted than those who had never played or those who were on video games for three hours or more.

NASA Mars rover Curiosity nears mountain-base outcrop Posted: 04 Aug 2014 07:03 AM PDT As it approaches the second anniversary of its landing on Mars, NASA's Curiosity rover is also approaching its first close look at bedrock that is part of Mount Sharp, the layered mountain in the middle of Mars' Gale Crater.

How 'biological spark plug' in biomolecular motors works Posted: 04 Aug 2014 07:01 AM PDT Using high-performance computers and quantum mechanical methods, researchers have simulated processes that reveal how the "biological spark plug" works in the biomolecular motors of cells. The investigations focused on the myosin protein, which, among other things, is responsible for muscle movement. The researchers' extensive simulations show how the release of energy is initiated in this complex motor.

How science sizzles in the modern kitchen Posted: 04 Aug 2014 06:57 AM PDT Some of the world's finest chemists don't wear lab coats. Instead, they don aprons and toques, and masterfully meld their passion for cooking with a growing awareness of the science behind the culinary arts. The results are driving an extraordinary expansion of our cuisine and transforming ordinary meals into fabulous feasts. That's according to a group of prominent chefs.

World's fastest external phone charger goes: Charges in 15 minutes without need for electrical socket Posted: 04 Aug 2014 03:59 AM PDT The world's 'fastest' external phone charger is set to be launched. The Petalite Flux battery can charge itself from empty to full in just 15 minutes. The device, small enough to fit in your pocket or bag, eradicates the need to plug your phone into a wall electricity socket or computer usb slot. Instead, if your Smartphone needs charging, you can simply connect it to the Flux battery and continue with your day.

New material allows for ultra-thin solar cells Posted: 04 Aug 2014 03:59 AM PDT Extremely thin, semi-transparent, flexible solar cells could soon become reality. Scientists have managed to create a semiconductor structure consisting of two ultra-thin layers, which appears to be excellently suited for photovoltaic energy conversion. Several months ago, the team had already produced an ultra-thin layer of the photoactive crystal tungsten diselenide. Now, this semiconductor has successfully been combined with another layer made of molybdenum disulphide, creating a designer-material that may be used in future low-cost solar cells.

Designing inexpensive fuel cells: A protecting umbrella against oxygen Posted: 04 Aug 2014 03:59 AM PDT In the development of fuel cells the effort of generations of scientist and engineers have led to efficient and stable catalysts based on noble metals. These catalysts have reached the required threshold in terms of performance for applications such as electric cars. However, the high costs of the scarce noble metals render their widespread application economically less viable.

Tool to better visualize, analyze human genomic data developed Posted: 03 Aug 2014 04:37 PM PDT A new, web-based tool that enables researchers to quickly and easily visualize and compare large amounts of genomic information resulting from high-throughput sequencing experiments has been developed by researchers. The free tool, called Epiviz, offers a major advantage over browsers currently available: Epiviz seamlessly integrates with the open-source Bioconductor analysis software widely used by genomic scientists, through its Epivizr Bioconductor package.

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