ScienceDaily: Top Technology News |
- 'Cry' of a shredded star heralds a new era for testing relativity
- Vaporizing Earth in computer simulations to aid search for super-Earths
- Animation research could offer unparalleled control of characters without skeletons
- Fingering the culprit that polluted the Solar System
- Within reach: Engineers to add arms and hands to unmanned aerial vehicles
- Smart wirelessly controlled power outlets
- The science of running: Follow the bouncing ball
- Usain Bolt could break his own record with the help of altitude and the wind
- How do you make the perfect sandcastle? A little water can give you a five meter high castle
- A direct look at graphene: Direct imaging confirms importance of electron-electron interactions in graphene
- New chemical sensor makes finding landmines and buried IEDs easier
- New structural information on functionalization of gold nanoparticles
- Internet research to level the playing field
- Exploring forbidden reactions to discover new ways of chemical synthesis
| 'Cry' of a shredded star heralds a new era for testing relativity Posted: 02 Aug 2012 03:39 PM PDT Last year, astronomers discovered a quiescent black hole in a distant galaxy that erupted after shredding and consuming a passing star. Now researchers have identified a distinctive X-ray signal observed in the days following the outburst that comes from matter on the verge of falling into the black hole.  |
| Vaporizing Earth in computer simulations to aid search for super-Earths Posted: 02 Aug 2012 12:32 PM PDT Scientists have vaporized the Earth -- if only by simulation, that is mathematically and inside a computer. They weren't just practicing their evil overlord skills. By baking model Earths, they are trying to figure out what astronomers should see when they look at the atmospheres of super-Earths in a bid to learn the planets' compositions.  |
| Animation research could offer unparalleled control of characters without skeletons Posted: 02 Aug 2012 12:32 PM PDT Computer-generated characters have become so lifelike in appearance and movement that the line separating reality is almost imperceptible at times. But while bipeds and quadrupeds have reigned supreme in CG animation, attempts to create and control their skeleton-free cousins using similar techniques has proved time-consuming and laborious. Researchers have found a possible solution to this challenge by developing a way to simulate and control movement of computer-generated characters without a skeletal structure.  |
| Fingering the culprit that polluted the Solar System Posted: 02 Aug 2012 10:36 AM PDT For decades it has been thought that a shock wave from a supernova explosion triggered the formation of our Solar System. The shock wave also injected material from the exploding star into a cloud of dust and gas, and the newly polluted cloud collapsed to form the Sun and its surrounding planets. New work provides the first fully three-dimensional models for how this process could have happened.  |
| Within reach: Engineers to add arms and hands to unmanned aerial vehicles Posted: 02 Aug 2012 09:23 AM PDT Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), such as those used by the military for surveillance and reconnaissance, could be getting a hand –- and an arm -– from engineers as part of a project to investigate adding dexterous limbs to the aircrafts. The project, whose subject harkens to the hovering android iconography of sci-fi movies, could be a step toward the use of UAVs for emergency response and search and rescue scenarios.  |
| Smart wirelessly controlled power outlets Posted: 02 Aug 2012 08:13 AM PDT Many homeowners dream of being able to wash a load of laundry when the photovoltaic panels on the roof are delivering a maximum of electricity, even when they are not at home. A new Internet-enabled power outlet will soon allow users to control household appliances via their smartphone, and reduce their energy costs into the bargain.  |
| The science of running: Follow the bouncing ball Posted: 02 Aug 2012 08:13 AM PDT Muscle size, genetics and training are among the countless factors that separate Olympic sprinters from the average person. On a fundamental level, however, the mechanics of running are the same for all humans. In fact, they're basically identical for animals too.  |
| Usain Bolt could break his own record with the help of altitude and the wind Posted: 02 Aug 2012 07:12 AM PDT Imagine the following situation. The 100 meters finals in the London Olympic Games. The Jamaican Usain Bolt wins. Up to this point everything sounds normal except for the fact that he would break his own record again with a time of 9.48 seconds. According to the New Zealand researchers, this would be his record if there were a two meter per second tailwind (maximum allowable wind) and the race took place at an altitude of 999 meters. The 100 meter final will take place on Sunday at London 2012.  |
| How do you make the perfect sandcastle? A little water can give you a five meter high castle Posted: 02 Aug 2012 07:11 AM PDT All children who build sandcastles on the beach know that in addition to sand you also need to add a little water to prevent the structure from collapsing. But why is this? The function of water in sandcastles is to form small 'bridges' which make the grains of sand stick together, thus increasing the solidity of the structure. The researchers show that the optimum amount of water is very small (only a few per cent). If this optimum concentration is used, sandcastles reaching five meters in height can be built.  |
| Posted: 02 Aug 2012 06:22 AM PDT Researchers have recorded the first direct observations at microscopic lengths of how electrons and holes respond to a charged impurity in graphene. The results point to interactions between electrons as being critical to graphene's extraordinary properties.  |
| New chemical sensor makes finding landmines and buried IEDs easier Posted: 02 Aug 2012 04:32 AM PDT A new chemical sensing system is believed to be the first of its kind capable of detecting vapors from buried landmines and other explosive devices with the naked eye rather than advanced scientific instrumentation.  |
| New structural information on functionalization of gold nanoparticles Posted: 02 Aug 2012 04:31 AM PDT Nanometer-scale gold particles are currently intensively investigated for possible applications as catalysts, sensors, biolabels, drug delivery devices, biological contrast agents and as components in photonics and molecular electronics. Researchers now report the first structural study on the atomistic processes of a ligand-exchange reaction of a well-defined gold nanoparticle that has 102 gold atoms and 44 ligand sites in the molecular overlayer.  |
| Internet research to level the playing field Posted: 01 Aug 2012 06:37 AM PDT The Internet as we know it today has been optimized to transmit large amounts of data or "greedy streams" - the type of transmission involved in downloading large files or watching online TV.  |
| Exploring forbidden reactions to discover new ways of chemical synthesis Posted: 01 Aug 2012 06:36 AM PDT The complex chemical compounds, like many of the drugs currently used, are obtained through sequences of synthesis that in the case of some complex anti-tumor drugs may involve up to forty stages. Multicomponent reactions, instead, allow synthesizing complex molecules in very few steps since the different chemical bonds are formed almost simultaneously in a single operation. For medicinal chemistry, these direct reactions are of great interest, although only a few have been described. Now, researchers have discovered new multicomponent reactions providing cyclic amidines, compounds with interesting pharmacological applications.  |
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