ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• U.S., India to collaborate on Mars exploration, Earth-observing mission
• Rosetta to deploy lander on November 12
• Cold Atom Laboratory chills atoms to new lows
• NASA's Swift mission observes mega flares from nearby red dwarf star
• Blades of grass inspire advance in organic solar cells
• New dimension for integrated circuits: 3-D nanomagnetic logic
• Novel method for making electrical cellulose fibers
• High-speed drug screen developed
• Revisiting Stokes drift: Waves of the future
• A heartbeat away? Hybrid 'patch' could replace transplants
• How to make a 'perfect' solar absorber
• New material steals oxygen from the air: One spoonful absorbs all the oxygen in a room
• Entanglement made tangible
• Fuel cell-powered mobile lights tested, proven, ready for commercial use
• Unexpected new mechanism reveals how molecules become trapped in ice
• Taking thin films to the extreme
• Where humans, animals and robots meet
• Space debris expert warns of increasing small satellite collision risk
• Astronomers find 'cousin' planets around twin stars
• Selectively rewiring brain's circuitry to treat depression
• Deceptive-looking vortex line in superfluid led to twice-mistaken identity
• New method to motivate students to reduce energy consumption

U.S., India to collaborate on Mars exploration, Earth-observing mission Posted: 30 Sep 2014 04:49 PM PDT In a meeting Sept. 30, 2014 in Toronto, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and K. Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), signed two documents to launch a NASA-ISRO satellite mission to observe Earth and establish a pathway for future joint missions to explore Mars.

Rosetta to deploy lander on November 12 Posted: 30 Sep 2014 04:47 PM PDT The European Space Agency's Rosetta mission will deploy its lander, Philae, to the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Nov. 12. Philae's landing site, currently known as Site J, is located on the smaller of the comet's two "lobes," with a backup site on the larger lobe.

Cold Atom Laboratory chills atoms to new lows Posted: 30 Sep 2014 04:45 PM PDT NASA's Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL) mission has succeeded in producing a state of matter known as a Bose-Einstein condensate, a key breakthrough for the instrument leading up to its debut on the International Space Station in late 2016.

NASA's Swift mission observes mega flares from nearby red dwarf star Posted: 30 Sep 2014 02:15 PM PDT On April 23, NASA's Swift satellite detected the strongest, hottest, and longest-lasting sequence of stellar flares ever seen from a nearby red dwarf star. The initial blast from this record-setting series of explosions was as much as 10,000 times more powerful than the largest solar flare ever recorded.

Blades of grass inspire advance in organic solar cells Posted: 30 Sep 2014 11:42 AM PDT Using a bio-mimicking analog of one of nature's most efficient light-harvesting structures, blades of grass, an international research team has taken a major step in developing long-sought polymer architecture to boost power-conversion efficiency of light to electricity for use in electronic devices.

New dimension for integrated circuits: 3-D nanomagnetic logic Posted: 30 Sep 2014 11:42 AM PDT Electrical engineers have demonstrated a new kind of building block for digital integrated circuits. Their experiments show that future computer chips could be based on three-dimensional arrangements of nanometer-scale magnets instead of transistors. As CMOS, the main enabling technology of the semiconductor industry, approaches fundamental limits, researchers are exploring 'magnetic computing' as an alternative.

Novel method for making electrical cellulose fibers Posted: 30 Sep 2014 11:34 AM PDT By using liquid salts during formation instead of harsh chemicals, fibers that conduct electricity can be strengthened, according to new research.

High-speed drug screen developed Posted: 30 Sep 2014 10:27 AM PDT Engineers have devised a way to rapidly test hundreds of different drug-delivery vehicles in living animals, making it easier to discover promising new ways to deliver a class of drugs called biologics, which includes antibodies, peptides, RNA, and DNA, to human patients.

Revisiting Stokes drift: Waves of the future Posted: 30 Sep 2014 10:25 AM PDT The 19th-century 'Stokes drift' concept that a tiny sphere on a small wave would trace a spiral, not a closed circle, was assumed to be unlikely to occur in nature. But using 21st-century technologies, scientists found that not only do the particles move, they move predictably, and can even be planned.

A heartbeat away? Hybrid 'patch' could replace transplants Posted: 30 Sep 2014 08:34 AM PDT Because heart cells cannot multiply and cardiac muscles contain few stem cells, heart tissue is unable to repair itself after a heart attack. Now researchers are literally setting a new gold standard in cardiac tissue engineering, using gold particles to increase the conductivity of biomaterials.

How to make a 'perfect' solar absorber Posted: 30 Sep 2014 08:32 AM PDT Researchers have developed a solar cell that can tap the sun's full radiation spectrum. The material is a two-dimensional metallic dielectric photonic crystal, and has the additional benefits of absorbing sunlight from a wide range of angles and withstanding extremely high temperatures. Perhaps most importantly, the material can also be made cheaply at large scales.

New material steals oxygen from the air: One spoonful absorbs all the oxygen in a room Posted: 30 Sep 2014 08:32 AM PDT Researchers have synthesized crystalline materials that can bind and store oxygen in high concentrations. Just one spoon of the substance is enough to absorb all the oxygen in a room. The stored oxygen can be released again when and where it is needed.

Entanglement made tangible Posted: 30 Sep 2014 08:31 AM PDT Scientists have designed a first-ever experiment for demonstrating quantum entanglement in the macroscopic realm. Unlike other such proposals, the experiment is relatively easy to set up and run with existing semiconductor devices.

Fuel cell-powered mobile lights tested, proven, ready for commercial use Posted: 30 Sep 2014 08:16 AM PDT Mobile lighting systems powered by hydrogen fuel cells are cleaner, quieter and now have a proven track record in applications such as nighttime construction, sports and entertainment events and airport operations, making them ready for commercialization and broader use, developers say.

Unexpected new mechanism reveals how molecules become trapped in ice Posted: 30 Sep 2014 08:14 AM PDT Expanding our knowledge of the way molecules interact with ice surfaces is a key goal not only for climate change but also a much wider range of other environmental, scientific and defense-related issues. Now, a team of researchers has discovered a new mechanism they call "stable energetic embedding" of atoms and molecules within ice.

Taking thin films to the extreme Posted: 30 Sep 2014 08:14 AM PDT Applying a well-known optical phenomenon called thin-film interference, a group of researchers has demonstrated the ability to "paint" ultra-thin coatings onto a rough surface -- work that holds promise for making future, flexible electronic devices, creating advanced solar cells and detailing the sides of next-gen rocket ships and spacecraft with extremely lightweight decorative logos.

Where humans, animals and robots meet Posted: 30 Sep 2014 06:04 AM PDT To meet our everyday needs in an increasingly multifaceted technological world is a challenge that pushes researchers to find innovative tools using a multidisciplinary approach. We inhabit a globalized planet, made up of complex systems, where domains such as communications, business, healthcare, energy or transportation converge, interact and integrate. In this context, a thriving technology trend applies the concept of animal swarms or swarming to the development of complex systems that bridge the gap amongst disciplines as dissimilar as biology, robotics or networking.

Space debris expert warns of increasing small satellite collision risk Posted: 30 Sep 2014 06:04 AM PDT The increasing number of small 'CubeSat' satellites being launched combined with a relaxed attitude to debris mitigation could lead to hazards for all space users unless preventative measures are taken, warns a leading space debris expert.

Astronomers find 'cousin' planets around twin stars Posted: 30 Sep 2014 06:04 AM PDT Astronomers have found two new Jupiter-sized extra-solar planets, each orbiting one star of a binary-star system.  Most known extra-solar planets orbit stars that are alone, like our Sun. Yet many stars are part of binary systems, twin stars formed from the same gas cloud. Now, for the first time, two stars of a binary system are both found to host a "hot Jupiter'' exoplanet.

Selectively rewiring brain's circuitry to treat depression Posted: 30 Sep 2014 06:03 AM PDT On Star Trek, it is easy to take for granted the incredible ability of futuristic doctors to wave small devices over the heads of both humans and aliens, diagnose their problems through evaluating changes in brain activity or chemistry, and then treat behavior problems by selectively stimulating relevant brain circuits. While that day is a long way off, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex does treat symptoms of depression in humans by placing a relatively small device on a person's scalp and stimulating brain circuits.

Deceptive-looking vortex line in superfluid led to twice-mistaken identity Posted: 30 Sep 2014 06:01 AM PDT Researchers have shown that a group of scientists were incorrect when they concluded that a mysterious effect found in superfluids indicated the presence of solitons -- exotic, solitary waves. Instead, they explain, the result was due to more pedestrian, whirlpool-like structures in the fluid. Mysterious effect found in superfluids were pedestrian whirlpool-like structures, not exotic solitons.

New method to motivate students to reduce energy consumption Posted: 29 Sep 2014 07:53 AM PDT Energy consumption can be reduced significantly by students if they can see the amount of energy they are using in real-time and are motivated by their peers to save energy, a study has shown.

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