ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Milky Way now has a twin (or two): Astronomers find first group of galaxies just like ours
• Batteries made from world’s thinnest material could power tomorrow’s electric cars
• Scientists create chemical 'brain': Giant network links all known compounds and reactions
• Elusive metal discovered: Nickel oxide turned into an electricity-conducting metal
• Researchers probe invisible vacancies in fuel cell materials
• Mars rover Curiosity begins driving at Bradbury landing
• Future memory: Ferroelectric materials could bring down cost of cloud computing and electronic devices
• Long-standing chemistry mystery cracked
• Glass offers improved means of storing nuclear waste, researchers say
• New cancer scanner halves radiation
• Semiconductor lasers: Surface emitters set a new world record for spectral bandwidth
• Fueling nuclear power with seawater: Tests adsorbent to extract uranium from the ocean

Milky Way now has a twin (or two): Astronomers find first group of galaxies just like ours Posted: 22 Aug 2012 07:13 PM PDT Researchers have found the first group of galaxies that is just like ours, a rare sight in the local Universe. The Milky Way is a fairly typical galaxy on its own, but when paired with its close neighbours -- the Magellanic Clouds -- it is very rare, and could have been one of a kind, until a survey of our local Universe found another two examples just like us.

Batteries made from world’s thinnest material could power tomorrow’s electric cars Posted: 22 Aug 2012 03:12 PM PDT Engineering researchers have made a sheet of paper from the world's thinnest material, graphene, and then zapped the paper with a laser or camera flash to blemish it with countless cracks, pores, and other imperfections. The result is a graphene anode material that can be charged or discharged 10 times faster than conventional graphite anodes used in today's lithium-ion batteries.

Scientists create chemical 'brain': Giant network links all known compounds and reactions Posted: 22 Aug 2012 01:47 PM PDT Scientists have connected 250 years of organic chemical knowledge into one giant computer network -- a chemical Google on steroids. This "immortal chemist" will never retire and take away its knowledge but instead will continue to learn, grow and share. The software optimizes syntheses of drug molecules and other important compounds, combines long (and expensive) syntheses of compounds into shorter and more economical routes and identifies suspicious chemical recipes that could lead to chemical weapons.

Elusive metal discovered: Nickel oxide turned into an electricity-conducting metal Posted: 22 Aug 2012 12:47 PM PDT Scientists have discovered the conditions under which nickel oxide can turn into an electricity-conducting metal. Nickel oxide is one of the first compounds to be studied for its electronic properties, but until now scientists have not been able to induce a metallic state. The compound becomes metallic at enormous pressures of 2.4 million times the atmospheric pressure (240 gigapascals).

Researchers probe invisible vacancies in fuel cell materials Posted: 22 Aug 2012 12:46 PM PDT Knowing the position of missing oxygen atoms could be the key to cheaper solid oxide fuel cells with longer lifetimes. New microscopy research is enabling scientists to map these vacancies at an atomic scale.

Mars rover Curiosity begins driving at Bradbury landing Posted: 22 Aug 2012 12:40 PM PDT NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has begun driving from its landing site, which scientists announced Aug. 22 they have named for the late author Ray Bradbury. Making its first movement on the Martian surface, Curiosity's drive combined forward, turn and reverse segments. This placed the rover roughly 20 feet (6 meters) from the spot where it landed 16 days ago.

Future memory: Ferroelectric materials could bring down cost of cloud computing and electronic devices Posted: 22 Aug 2012 10:12 AM PDT A new class of organic materials boasts an attractive but elusive property: Ferroelectricity. The crystalline materials also have a great memory, which could be very useful in computer and cellphone memory applications, including cloud computing. The very long crystals with desirable properties are made using just two small organic molecules that are extremely attracted to each other. The starting compounds are simple and inexpensive, making the lightweight materials scalable for technology applications.

Long-standing chemistry mystery cracked Posted: 22 Aug 2012 09:50 AM PDT Chemists have answered a key question concerning the widely-used Fenton reaction – important in wastewater treatment to destroy hazardous organic chemicals and decontaminate bacterial pathogens and in industrial chemical production.

Glass offers improved means of storing nuclear waste, researchers say Posted: 22 Aug 2012 07:11 AM PDT Researchers have shown, for the first time, that a method of storing nuclear waste normally used only for high level waste, could provide a safer, more efficient, and potentially cheaper, solution for the storage and ultimate disposal of intermediate level waste.

New cancer scanner halves radiation Posted: 22 Aug 2012 04:14 AM PDT Particle physicists have developed a new medical technology that combines PET and MRI in one. Benefit: Improved image quality and less radiation.

Semiconductor lasers: Surface emitters set a new world record for spectral bandwidth Posted: 22 Aug 2012 04:14 AM PDT Scientists have developed semiconductor lasers that emit light over a wavelength range of 100 nm, a new world record for a single semiconductor laser. Such lasers might allow more efficient, lower-cost operation of future fiberoptic telecommunications networks and the development of high-responsivity gas sensors.

Fueling nuclear power with seawater: Tests adsorbent to extract uranium from the ocean Posted: 21 Aug 2012 06:26 PM PDT A new absorbent material may be able to soak up enough trace uranium in seawater to help fuel future nuclear power plants. Tests showed the material can soak up more than two times the uranium than a similar material developed in Japan.

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