ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Superbugs from space offer new source of power
• Technique creates piezoelectric ferroelectric nanostructures
• Gold coaxed into nanowires to allow inexpensive detection of poisonous industrial gases
• Fastest wind from stellar-mass black hole
• Plant toughness: Key to cracking biofuels?
• Rare element, tellurium, detected for the first time in ancient stars
• Implantable, wireless sensors share secrets of healing tissues
• Robotic dinosaurs on the way for next-gen paleontology
• Hubble reveals a new class of extrasolar planet
• One step closer to a new kilogram
• Tongue drive system goes inside the mouth to improve performance and user comfort
• Toward better electronics: Researchers develop new way to oxidize promising graphene
• How the tiger got its stripes: Proving Turing's tiger stripe theory

Superbugs from space offer new source of power Posted: 21 Feb 2012 06:26 PM PST Scientists have created a "designer slime" that can double the electrical output of existing microbial fuel cells. Bacillus stratosphericus -- a microbe commonly found in high concentrations in the stratosphere orbiting Earth with the satellites -- is a key component of a new 'super' biofilm.

Technique creates piezoelectric ferroelectric nanostructures Posted: 21 Feb 2012 01:58 PM PST Researchers have developed a "soft template infiltration" technique for fabricating free-standing piezoelectrically active ferroelectric nanotubes and other nanostructures from PZT – a material that is attractive because of its large piezoelectric response.

Gold coaxed into nanowires to allow inexpensive detection of poisonous industrial gases Posted: 21 Feb 2012 12:15 PM PST Researchers have coaxed gold into nanowires as a way of creating an inexpensive material for detecting poisonous gases found in natural gas.

Fastest wind from stellar-mass black hole Posted: 21 Feb 2012 11:58 AM PST Astronomers have clocked the fastest wind yet discovered blowing off a disk around a stellar-mass black hole. This result has important implications for understanding how this type of black hole behaves.

Plant toughness: Key to cracking biofuels? Posted: 21 Feb 2012 09:52 AM PST Along with photosynthesis, the plant cell wall is one of the features that most set plants apart from animals. A structural molecule called cellulose is necessary for the manufacture of these walls. Cellulose is synthesized in a semi-crystalline state that is essential for its function in the cell wall function, but the mechanisms controlling its crystallinity are poorly understood. New research reveals key information about this process.

Rare element, tellurium, detected for the first time in ancient stars Posted: 21 Feb 2012 09:51 AM PST Researchers has detected the element tellurium for the first time in three ancient stars. Tellurium is rare on Earth.

Implantable, wireless sensors share secrets of healing tissues Posted: 21 Feb 2012 09:47 AM PST A new implantable sensor can wirelessly transmit data from the site of a recent orthopedic surgery. Inexpensive to make and highly reliable, this new sensor holds the promise of more accurate, more cost-effective, and less invasive post-surgery monitoring and diagnosis.

Robotic dinosaurs on the way for next-gen paleontology Posted: 21 Feb 2012 07:40 AM PST Researchers are bringing the latest technological advancements in 3-D printing to the study of ancient life. Using scale models of real fossils, for the first time, they will be able to test hypotheses about how dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals moved and lived in their environments.

Hubble reveals a new class of extrasolar planet Posted: 21 Feb 2012 07:37 AM PST Observations by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have come up with a new class of planet, a waterworld enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere. It's smaller than Uranus but larger than Earth.

One step closer to a new kilogram Posted: 20 Feb 2012 06:06 AM PST Researchers have produced technology capable of accurate measurements of Planck's constant, which is a significant step towards changing the international definition of the kilogram -- currently based on a lump of platinum-iridium metal kept in Paris, France.

Tongue drive system goes inside the mouth to improve performance and user comfort Posted: 20 Feb 2012 05:56 AM PST The Tongue Drive System is getting less conspicuous and more capable. The newest system prototype allows people with high-level spinal cord injuries to wear an inconspicuous dental retainer embedded with sensors to operate a computer and electric wheelchair simply by moving their tongues.

Toward better electronics: Researchers develop new way to oxidize promising graphene Posted: 19 Feb 2012 11:33 AM PST Many experts think graphene could change the face of electronics -- especially if the scientific community can overcome a major challenge intrinsic to the material. Oxidation could be the answer.

How the tiger got its stripes: Proving Turing's tiger stripe theory Posted: 19 Feb 2012 11:33 AM PST Researchers have provided the first experimental evidence confirming a great British mathematician's theory of how biological patterns such as tiger stripes or leopard spots are formed.

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