ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Ships without skippers
• Doped graphene nanoribbons with potential
• Seeing below the surface: Ultra-thin, high-speed detector captures unprecedented range of light waves
• Continuing Bragg legacy of structure determination
• Rethinking the basic science of graphene synthesis
• Electronic nose can detect sub-groups of asthma in children
• Improving how companies use technology to ship fresh produce
• Biomedical technique applied to reveal changes within body of ocean
• Motion analysis to detect arthrosis
• Forming consensus in social networks

Ships without skippers Posted: 08 Sep 2014 05:35 AM PDT A 200 meter long vessel moves slowly across the dark sea surface. There is no one at the wheel. It is quiet on the bridge. There are no signs of life in the engine room or on deck. A scene from a horror film or science fiction, perhaps? No. This is the bold aim of a new project.

Doped graphene nanoribbons with potential Posted: 08 Sep 2014 05:33 AM PDT Graphene possesses many outstanding properties: it conducts heat and electricity, it is transparent, harder than diamond and extremely strong. But in order to use it to construct electronic switches, a material must not only be an outstanding conductor, it should also be switchable between "on" and "off" states. This requires the presence of a so-called bandgap, which enables semiconductors to be in an insulating state. The problem, however, is that the bandgap in graphene is extremely small. Empa researchers from the "nanotech@surfaces" laboratory thus developed a method some time ago to synthesize a form of graphene with larger bandgaps by allowing ultra-narrow graphene nanoribbons to "grow" via molecular self-assembly.

Seeing below the surface: Ultra-thin, high-speed detector captures unprecedented range of light waves Posted: 07 Sep 2014 03:17 PM PDT Research could lead to light detectors that can see below the surface of bodies, walls, and other objects, with applications in emerging terahertz fields such as mobile communications, medical imaging, chemical sensing, night vision, and security.

Continuing Bragg legacy of structure determination Posted: 07 Sep 2014 03:06 PM PDT Over 100 years since the Nobel Prize-winning father and son team Sir William and Sir Lawrence Bragg pioneered the use of X-rays to determine crystal structure, researchers have made significant new advances in the field.

Rethinking the basic science of graphene synthesis Posted: 07 Sep 2014 03:06 PM PDT A new route to making graphene could make the 21st century's wonder material easier to ramp up to industrial scale. Graphene -- a tightly bound single layer of carbon atoms with super strength and the ability to conduct heat and electricity better than any other known material -- has potential industrial uses that include flexible electronic displays, high-speed computing, stronger wind turbine blades, and more efficient solar cells, to name just a few under development.

Electronic nose can detect sub-groups of asthma in children Posted: 07 Sep 2014 05:49 AM PDT An electronic nose can be used to successfully detect different sub-groups of asthmatic children, according to a new study. The new study analysed the profile of exhaled breath in samples from 106 children with asthma or wheeze. This involved looking at particles in the breath known as exhaled volatile compounds, which are then analysed by so-called electronic noses.

Improving how companies use technology to ship fresh produce Posted: 04 Sep 2014 03:35 PM PDT A new tracking system could change the way companies ship fresh fruits and vegetables, providing consumers the freshest products available. The researchers placed two radio frequency identification (RFID) devices into each pallet of strawberries as they were picked. The devices allowed them to track the strawberries' temperature from the field, through pre-cooling and into trucks. Their theory is that if you know the quality of the produce and the temperatures to which it has been exposed, you will know which produce to deliver first to stores.

Biomedical technique applied to reveal changes within body of ocean Posted: 04 Sep 2014 11:19 AM PDT For decades, medical researchers have sought new methods to diagnose how different types of cells and systems in the body are functioning. Now scientists have adapted an emerging biomedical technique to study the vast body of the ocean.

Motion analysis to detect arthrosis Posted: 04 Sep 2014 05:45 AM PDT Arthrosis is excessive wear of joints beyond the usual age-related degeneration. Early diagnosis and corresponding therapies could delay or even help to avoid these operations. Joints, however, degrade slowly over several years before causing pain and prompting the persons affected to see a doctor. Researchers are working on a system that detects first indications of arthrosis based on changed motion patterns.

Forming consensus in social networks Posted: 03 Sep 2014 01:36 PM PDT To understand the process through which we operate as a group, and to explain why we do what we do, researchers have developed a novel computational model and the corresponding conditions for reaching consensus in a wide range of situations.

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