ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Heat-conducting plastic: 10 times better than conventional counterparts
• Matched 'hybrid' systems may hold key to wider use of renewable energy
• DNA survives critical entry into Earth's atmosphere
• Invisible shield found thousands of miles above Earth blocks 'killer electrons'
• High-tech mirror beams heat away from buildings into space
• 'Eye of Sauron' provides new way of measuring distances to galaxies
• Shaping the future of energy storage with conductive clay
• Laser physicists 'see' how electrons make atomic and molecular transitions
• Engineers make sound loud enough to bend light on a computer chip: Device could improve wireless communications systems
• Cognitive test battery developed to assess impact of long duration spaceflights on astronauts' brain function
• New guide to genetic jungle of muscles can help health research
• Hacked emails slice spam fast
• An 'eel-lectrifying' future for autonomous underwater robots
• The mysterious 'action at a distance' between liquid containers
• Particles, waves and ants
• Protons fuel graphene prospects
• Global quantum communications: No longer the stuff of fiction?
• It's particle-hunting season! Scientists launch Higgs Hunters Project
• Classical enzymatic theory revised by including water motions
• Studying the speed of multi-hop Bluetooth networks
• Van der Waals force re-measured: Physicists verified nonlinear increase with growing molecular size
• 'Giant' charge density disturbances discovered in nanomaterials
• A colorful gathering of middle-aged stars
• Web-savvy older adults who regularly indulge in culture may better retain 'health literacy'

Heat-conducting plastic: 10 times better than conventional counterparts Posted: 26 Nov 2014 02:16 PM PST The spaghetti-like internal structure of most plastics makes it hard for them to cast away heat, but a research team has made a plastic blend that does so 10 times better than its conventional counterparts.

Matched 'hybrid' systems may hold key to wider use of renewable energy Posted: 26 Nov 2014 11:42 AM PST The use of renewable energy in the United States could take a significant leap forward with improved storage technologies or more efforts to 'match' different forms of alternative energy systems that provide an overall more steady flow of electricity, researchers say in a new report.

DNA survives critical entry into Earth's atmosphere Posted: 26 Nov 2014 11:41 AM PST The genetic material DNA can survive a flight through space and re-entry into Earth's atmosphere -- and still pass on genetic information. Scientists obtained these astonishing results during an experiment on the TEXUS-49 research rocket mission.

Invisible shield found thousands of miles above Earth blocks 'killer electrons' Posted: 26 Nov 2014 10:38 AM PST An invisible shield has been discovered some 7,200 miles above Earth that blocks so-called 'killer electrons,' which whip around the planet at near-light speed and have been known to threaten astronauts, fry satellites and degrade space systems during intense solar storms.

High-tech mirror beams heat away from buildings into space Posted: 26 Nov 2014 10:38 AM PST Engineers have invented a material designed to help cool buildings. The material reflects incoming sunlight, and it sends heat from inside the structure directly into space as infrared radiation.

'Eye of Sauron' provides new way of measuring distances to galaxies Posted: 26 Nov 2014 10:27 AM PST Scientists have developed a new way of measuring precise distances to galaxies tens of millions of light years away, using the W. M. Keck Observatory near the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The method is similar to what land surveyors use on Earth, by measuring the physical and angular, or 'apparent', size of a standard ruler in the galaxy, to calibrate the distance from this information.

Shaping the future of energy storage with conductive clay Posted: 26 Nov 2014 10:26 AM PST Materials scientists have invented clay, which is both highly conductive and can easily be molded into a variety of shapes and sizes. It represents a turn away from the rather complicated and costly processing -- currently used to make materials for lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors -- and toward one that looks a bit like rolling out cookie dough with results that are even sweeter from an energy storage standpoint.

Laser physicists 'see' how electrons make atomic and molecular transitions Posted: 26 Nov 2014 09:44 AM PST By solving a six-dimensional equation that had previously stymied researchers, physicists have pinpointed the characteristics of a laser pulse that yields electron behavior they can predict and essentially control.

Engineers make sound loud enough to bend light on a computer chip: Device could improve wireless communications systems Posted: 26 Nov 2014 09:44 AM PST Engineering researchers have developed a chip on which both sound wave and light wave are generated and confined together so that the sound can very efficiently control the light.

Cognitive test battery developed to assess impact of long duration spaceflights on astronauts' brain function Posted: 26 Nov 2014 09:39 AM PST A cognitive test battery, known as Cognition, has been developed for the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) to measure the impact of typical spaceflight stressors (like microgravity, radiation, confinement and isolation, exposure to elevated levels of CO2, and sleep loss) on cognitive performance. This computer-based test has already been tested by astronauts on Earth. It will be performed for the first time in a pilot study on the International Space Station (ISS) on November 28.

New guide to genetic jungle of muscles can help health research Posted: 26 Nov 2014 08:12 AM PST A comprehensive overview of how tens of thousands of genes interact in relation to the behavior of muscles has been developed by scientists. At the same time, they have developed a guide to the enormous amounts of data and thus paved the way for new knowledge about diseases associated with lack of activity.

Hacked emails slice spam fast Posted: 26 Nov 2014 08:12 AM PST Spam spreads much faster and to more people when it is being propagated by hacked, or otherwise compromised, email accounts rather than legitimate accounts, according to new research.

An 'eel-lectrifying' future for autonomous underwater robots Posted: 26 Nov 2014 07:39 AM PST Scientists have developed and built a prototype for an eel-like robotic fish to be operable remotely, small, sophisticated and intelligent enough to operate autonomously underwater. A new form of central pattern generator model is presented, by which the swimming pattern of a real Anguilliform fish is successfully applied to the robotic prototype. Mathematical model, control law design, different locomotion patterns, and locomotion planning are presented for an Anguilliform robotic fish.

The mysterious 'action at a distance' between liquid containers Posted: 26 Nov 2014 07:38 AM PST For several years, it has been known that superfluid helium housed in reservoirs located next to each other acts collectively, even when the channels connecting the reservoirs are too narrow and too long to allow for substantial flow. A new theoretical model reveals that the phenomenon of mysterious communication 'at a distance' between fluid reservoirs is much more common than previously thought.

Particles, waves and ants Posted: 26 Nov 2014 06:42 AM PST Particles or waves traveling through disordered media are scattered at small impurities. Surprisingly, the density of these impurities does not affect the overall dwell time the particle -- or wave -- spends inside the medium. This remarkable finding applies not only to particles and waves, but also to crawling ants or drunken sailors hitting streetlamps.

Protons fuel graphene prospects Posted: 26 Nov 2014 06:42 AM PST Graphene, impermeable to all gases and liquids, can easily allow protons to pass through it researchers have found.

Global quantum communications: No longer the stuff of fiction? Posted: 26 Nov 2014 06:42 AM PST Neither quantum computers nor quantum cryptography will become prevalent technologies without memory systems able to manipulate quantum information easily and effectively. Scientists have recently made inroads into popularizing quantum information technologies by creating an atomic memory with outstanding parameters and an extremely simple construction.

It's particle-hunting season! Scientists launch Higgs Hunters Project Posted: 26 Nov 2014 06:40 AM PST Scientists have launched the Higgs Hunters project, which will allow members of the general public to study images recorded at the Large Hadron Collider and to help search for previously unobserved particles.

Classical enzymatic theory revised by including water motions Posted: 26 Nov 2014 04:51 AM PST Enzymes are macromolecular biological catalysists that lead most of chemical reactions in living organisms. The main focus of enzymology lies on enzymes themselves, whereas the role of water motions in mediating the biological reaction is often left aside owing to the complex molecular behavior. Scientists have now revised the classical enzymatic steady state theory by including long-lasting protein-water coupled motions into models of functional catalysis.

Studying the speed of multi-hop Bluetooth networks Posted: 26 Nov 2014 04:51 AM PST Bluetooth technology is the most widespread standard wireless communication. One of its applications is the creation of electronic sensor networks. Researchers have studied the performance of Bluetooth networks and measured the delays taking place in information transmission time.

Van der Waals force re-measured: Physicists verified nonlinear increase with growing molecular size Posted: 26 Nov 2014 04:51 AM PST Van der Waals forces act like a sort of quantum glue on all types of matter. Using a new measuring technique, scientists experimentally determined for the first time all of the key details of how strongly the single molecules bind to a surface. With an atomic force microscope, they demonstrated that the forces do not just increase with molecular size, but that they even grow disproportionately fast.

'Giant' charge density disturbances discovered in nanomaterials Posted: 26 Nov 2014 04:50 AM PST In metals such as copper or aluminium, so-called conduction electrons are able to move around freely, in the same way as particles in a gas or a liquid. If, however, impurities are implanted into the metal's crystal lattice, the electrons cluster together in a uniform pattern around the point of interference, resembling the ripples that occur when a stone is thrown into a pool of water. Scientists have, with the help of computer simulations, now discovered a combination of materials that strengthens these Friedel oscillations and bundles them, as if with a lens, in different directions. With a range of 50 nanometers, these "giant anisotropic charge density oscillations" are many times greater than normal and open up new possibilities in the field of nanoelectronics to exchange or filter magnetic information.

A colorful gathering of middle-aged stars Posted: 26 Nov 2014 04:50 AM PST The MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile has captured a richly colorful view of the bright star cluster NGC 3532. Some of the stars still shine with a hot bluish color, but many of the more massive ones have become red giants and glow with a rich orange hue.

Web-savvy older adults who regularly indulge in culture may better retain 'health literacy' Posted: 25 Nov 2014 05:58 PM PST Older people who are active Internet users and who regularly indulge in a spot of culture may be better able to retain their health literacy, and therefore maintain good health, suggests research.

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