ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Earth's most abundant mineral finally has a name
• Training elderly in social media improves well-being, combats isolation
• More-flexible digital communication
• Is an understanding of dark matter around the corner? Experimentalists unsure
• Real data rather than theory used to measure the cosmos
• Avoid work pain by using computer models of humans first
• New way to diagnose brain damage from concussions, strokes, and dementia
• Myelin linked to speedy recovery of human visual system after tumor removal
• Worms' mental GPS helps them find food
• Sharing that crowded holiday flight with countless hitchhiking dust mites
• No lead pollution in the oil sands region of Alberta, study says
• Link between power lines, ill-health called into question
• Breakthrough simplifies design of gels for food, cosmetics and biomedicine

Earth's most abundant mineral finally has a name Posted: 12 Dec 2014 12:01 PM PST An ancient meteorite and high-energy X-rays have helped scientists conclude a half century of effort to find, identify and characterize a mineral that makes up 38 percent of the Earth.

Training elderly in social media improves well-being, combats isolation Posted: 12 Dec 2014 08:16 AM PST Training older people in the use of social media improves cognitive capacity, increases a sense of self-competence and could have a beneficial overall impact on mental health and well-being, according to a landmark study carried out in the UK.

More-flexible digital communication Posted: 12 Dec 2014 07:18 AM PST Communication protocols for digital devices are very efficient but also very brittle: They require information to be specified in a precise order with a precise number of bits. If sender and receiver -- say, a computer and a printer -- are off by even a single bit relative to each other, communication between them breaks down entirely. Humans are much more flexible. Two strangers may come to a conversation with wildly differing vocabularies and frames of reference, but they will quickly assess the extent of their mutual understanding and tailor their speech accordingly.

Is an understanding of dark matter around the corner? Experimentalists unsure Posted: 12 Dec 2014 07:16 AM PST Scientists working on the three newest dark matter experiments are hopeful that we'll soon understand a quarter of the universe -- but they're making no promises.

Real data rather than theory used to measure the cosmos Posted: 12 Dec 2014 05:49 AM PST For the first time researchers have measured large distances in the Universe using data, rather than calculations related to general relativity.

Avoid work pain by using computer models of humans first Posted: 12 Dec 2014 05:49 AM PST Most of us suffer from work related pain at some time. It is estimated that 70% of the working population are affected by problems with muscles or the skeleton in the Western World. Researchers want to improve the health for operators in the automotive industry by creating computer models based on human movements.

New way to diagnose brain damage from concussions, strokes, and dementia Posted: 11 Dec 2014 05:09 AM PST New optical diagnostic technology promises new ways to identify and monitor brain damage resulting from traumatic injury, stroke or vascular dementia—in real time and without invasive procedures.

Myelin linked to speedy recovery of human visual system after tumor removal Posted: 10 Dec 2014 02:13 PM PST An interdisciplinary team of neuroscientists and neurosurgeons has used a new imaging technique to show how the human brain heals itself in just a few weeks following surgical removal of a brain tumor. The team found that recovery of vision in patients with pituitary tumors is predicted by the integrity of myelin -- the insulation that wraps around connections between neurons -- in the optic nerves.

Worms' mental GPS helps them find food Posted: 10 Dec 2014 01:21 PM PST A theory to explain how animals gather information and switch attention has been devised by scientists who have developed a mathematical theory -- based on roundworm foraging -- that predicts how animals decide to switch from localized to very broad searching. This new theory could begin to explain animal behavior in a more unified way, laying the groundwork for general rules of behavior that could help us understand complex or erratic attention-related behaviors, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and even let us predict how extraterrestrials might behave.

Sharing that crowded holiday flight with countless hitchhiking dust mites Posted: 10 Dec 2014 11:08 AM PST As if holiday travel isn't stressful enough. Now researchers say we're likely sharing that already overcrowded airline cabin with countless tiny creatures including house dust mites.

No lead pollution in the oil sands region of Alberta, study says Posted: 10 Dec 2014 10:13 AM PST Contrary to current scientific knowledge, there's no atmospheric lead pollution in Alberta's oil sands region, researchers say. A soil and water scientist who specializes in heavy metal pollution, examined sphagnum moss from 21 separate peat bogs in three locations around the oil sands area, near open pit mines and processing facilities.

Link between power lines, ill-health called into question Posted: 10 Dec 2014 05:06 AM PST New evidence suggesting that power lines and mobile phones do not cause physical harm to humans has been found by researchers. "More work on other possible links will need to be done but this study definitely takes us nearer to the point where we can say that power-lines, mobile phones and other similar devices are likely to be safe for humans," concluded a co-lead author of the new paper.

Breakthrough simplifies design of gels for food, cosmetics and biomedicine Posted: 10 Dec 2014 05:05 AM PST Scientistshave created methods that dramatically simplify the discovery of biological gels for food, cosmetics and biomedicine.

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