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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

ScienceDaily: Top Technology News


Study debunks myths about gender and math performance

Posted: 12 Dec 2011 12:31 PM PST

A major study of recent international data on school mathematics performance casts doubt on some common assumptions about gender and math achievement -- in particular, the idea that girls and women have less ability due to a difference in biology.

Diamonds and dust for better cement

Posted: 12 Dec 2011 11:42 AM PST

Scientists are seeking ways to use cement more efficiently and reduce the carbon emissions associated with its manufacture have revealed new properties of the mineral tobermorite. Using X-ray-diffraction to probe its crystalline structure, which corresponds to Portland cement's most important component, they squeezed the mineral in a diamond anvil cell to pressures equivalent to 100 miles deep in the Earth.

Targeted proton transfer within a molecule: Smallest conceivable switch

Posted: 12 Dec 2011 10:26 AM PST

For a long time miniaturization has been the magic word in electronics. Physicists have now presented a novel molecular switch. Decisive for the functionality of the switch is the position of a single proton in a porphyrin ring with an inside diameter of less than half a nanometer. The physicists can set four distinct states on demand.

Early black holes grew big eating cold, fast food

Posted: 12 Dec 2011 09:45 AM PST

Researchers have discovered what caused the rapid growth of early supermassive black holes -- a steady diet of cold, fast food. Computer simulations show that thin streams of cold gas flow uncontrolled into the center of the first black holes, causing them to grow faster than anything else in the universe.

Star explosion leaves behind a rose

Posted: 12 Dec 2011 07:02 AM PST

About 3,700 years ago, people on Earth would have seen a brand-new bright star in the sky. It slowly dimmed out of sight and was eventually forgotten, until modern astronomers later found its remains, called Puppis A. In this new image from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), Puppis A looks less like the remains of a supernova explosion and more like a red rose.

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