ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Nanoparticles affect nutrient absorption, study suggests
• Teach your robot well
• Polymer scientists and physicists, inspired by curly leaves, develop new technique for shaping thin gel sheets
• Ultrafast sonograms shed new light on rapid phase transitions
• Optimizing routes for underwater vehicles: Sometimes the quickest path is not a straight line
• Origami-inspired paper sensor could test for malaria and HIV for less than 10 cents, report chemists
• Computer processors: Saving power, saving money
• Proposed nuclear clock may keep time with the universe
• Large solar flares generate geomagnetic storm
• Daya Bay: Discovery of new kind of neutrino transformation

Nanoparticles affect nutrient absorption, study suggests Posted: 08 Mar 2012 02:46 PM PST Nanoparticles are everywhere. From cosmetics and clothes, to soda and snacks. But as versatile as they are, nanoparticles also have a downside, say researchers. These tiny particles, even in low doses, could have a big impact on our long-term health.

Teach your robot well Posted: 08 Mar 2012 12:35 PM PST A new study identifies the types of questions a robot can ask during a learning interaction that are most likely to characterize a smooth and productive human-robot relationship.

Polymer scientists and physicists, inspired by curly leaves, develop new technique for shaping thin gel sheets Posted: 08 Mar 2012 11:31 AM PST Inspired by nature's ability to shape a petal, and building on simple techniques used in photolithography and printing, researchers have developed a new tool for manufacturing three-dimensional shapes easily and cheaply, to aid advances in biomedicine, robotics and tunable micro-optics. Researchers have just described their new method of halftone gel lithography for photo-patterning polymer gel sheets.

Ultrafast sonograms shed new light on rapid phase transitions Posted: 08 Mar 2012 10:28 AM PST A method for taking ultrafast "sonograms" of materials undergoing phase transitions sheds new light on the dynamics of this important phenomenon in the world's fastest phase-change material.

Optimizing routes for underwater vehicles: Sometimes the quickest path is not a straight line Posted: 08 Mar 2012 09:00 AM PST Scientists have developed a mathematical procedure that can optimize path planning for automated underwater vehicles, even in regions with complex shorelines and strong shifting currents. The system can provide paths optimized either for the shortest travel time or for the minimum use of energy, or to maximize the collection of data that is considered most important.

Origami-inspired paper sensor could test for malaria and HIV for less than 10 cents, report chemists Posted: 08 Mar 2012 09:00 AM PST Inspired by the paper-folding art of origami, chemists have developed a 3-D paper sensor that may be able to test for diseases such as malaria and HIV for less than 10 cents a pop. The sensors can be printed out on an office printer, and take less than a minute to assemble.

Computer processors: Saving power, saving money Posted: 08 Mar 2012 08:56 AM PST Engineers have proposed a method of cutting power use and costs in computer processors. Called fine-grained power gating, the method would shut off energy to unused portions of datapath and memory blocks. Current processors fully power all components but rarely are all fully engaged.

Proposed nuclear clock may keep time with the universe Posted: 08 Mar 2012 07:13 AM PST A proposed new time-keeping system tied to the orbiting of a neutron around an atomic nucleus could have such unprecedented accuracy that it neither gains nor loses 1/20th of a second in 14 billion years -- the age of the universe.

Large solar flares generate geomagnetic storm Posted: 08 Mar 2012 07:07 AM PST A pair of unusually large solar flares early March 7, 2012 generated a Coronal Mass Ejection that was expected to reach Earth around mid-day March 8. It will likely cause at least a strong geomagnetic storm that could affect satellites in space and trigger auroral displays. The effects at ground level are expected to be limited, but there is a good chance for some excellent auroral displays in the north.

Daya Bay: Discovery of new kind of neutrino transformation Posted: 08 Mar 2012 04:10 AM PST The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment collaboration has announced a precise measurement of the last of the unsolved neutrino "mixing angles," which determine how neutrinos oscillate among different types. The ground-breaking collaboration is the most sensitive reactor neutrino experiment in the world. The results promise new insight into why enough ordinary matter survived after the big bang to form everything visible in the universe.

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