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Thursday, November 7, 2013

ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

ScienceDaily: Top Technology News


Russian fireball yields scientific treasure trove: Researchers obtain crucial data from meteoroid impact

Posted: 06 Nov 2013 01:41 PM PST

A team of NASA and international scientists for the first time have gathered a detailed understanding of the effects on Earth from a small asteroid impact. The unprecedented data obtained as the result of the airburst of a meteoroid over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk on Feb. 15, 2013, has revolutionized scientists' understanding of this natural phenomenon.

Rare new microbe found in two spacecraft clean rooms

Posted: 06 Nov 2013 01:26 PM PST

A rare, recently discovered microbe that survives on very little to eat has been found in two places on Earth: spacecraft clean rooms in Florida and South America. Microbiologists often do thorough surveys of bacteria and other microbes in spacecraft clean rooms. Fewer microbes live there than in almost any other environment on Earth, but the surveys are important for knowing what might hitch a ride into space. If extraterrestrial life is ever found, it would be readily checked against the census of a few hundred types of microbes detected in spacecraft clean rooms.

From one collapsing star, two black holes form and fuse

Posted: 06 Nov 2013 12:24 PM PST

Over billions of years, small black holes can slowly grow into supermassive black holes by taking on mass from their surroundings, and also by merging with other black holes. But this slow process can't explain how supermassive black holes existing in the early universe would have formed less than one billion years after the Big Bang. New findings help to test a model that solves this problem.

Bringing sun's light and energy to interior rooms: Innovative solar technology may lead to interior lighting revolution

Posted: 06 Nov 2013 12:24 PM PST

Researchers have seen the light -- a bright, powerful light -- and it just might change the future of how building interiors are brightened. In fact, that light comes directly from the sun. And with the help of tiny, electrofluidic cells and a series of open-air "ducts," sunlight can naturally illuminate windowless work spaces deep inside office buildings and excess energy can be harnessed, stored and directed to other applications.

Threats to cloud data storage, mobile devices

Posted: 06 Nov 2013 12:22 PM PST

As more businesses find their way into the cloud, few engage in security measures beyond those provided by the associated cloud storage firm, a new report notes. Even fewer seek heightened data protection because of concerns that usability and access to remote data would be significantly reduced.

A shot in the dark: Detector on the hunt for dark matter

Posted: 06 Nov 2013 11:12 AM PST

Physicists are using a detector to hunt for an elusive particle called an axion, a leading candidate for the makeup of cold dark matter that accounts for about one-quarter of the mass of the universe.

Carbon nanotube jungles created to better detect molecules

Posted: 06 Nov 2013 10:20 AM PST

Researchers have developed a new method of using nanotubes to detect molecules at extremely low concentrations enabling trace detection of biological threats, explosives and drugs.

Inkjet-based circuits created at fraction of time and cost

Posted: 06 Nov 2013 09:20 AM PST

Researchers have developed a novel method to rapidly and cheaply make electrical circuits by printing them with commodity inkjet printers and off-the-shelf materials. For about $300 in equipment costs, anyone can produce working electrical circuits in the 60 seconds it takes to print them.

Three-dimensional carbon goes metallic

Posted: 06 Nov 2013 08:41 AM PST

A theoretical, three-dimensional form of carbon that is metallic under ambient temperature and pressure has been discovered by an international research team. The findings may significantly advance carbon science.

Perfect faults: A self-correcting crystal may unleash the next generation of advanced communications

Posted: 06 Nov 2013 08:40 AM PST

Researchers are engineering and measuring a potentially important new class of nanostructured materials for microwave and advanced communication devices. These new multilayered crystalline sandwiches might enable a whole new class of compact, high-performance, high-efficiency components for devices such as cellular phones.

Cocktail novelties inspired by nature's designs

Posted: 06 Nov 2013 08:40 AM PST

A mathematician and a celebrity chef have combined talents to create two culinary novelties inspired by nature.

New compact atomic clock design uses cold atoms to boost precision

Posted: 06 Nov 2013 08:40 AM PST

Physicists have demonstrated a compact atomic clock design that relies on cold rubidium atoms instead of the usual hot atoms, a switch that promises improved precision and stability.

Locking down the cloud

Posted: 06 Nov 2013 08:39 AM PST

A software re-encryption system could allow users to pay for and run applications "in the cloud" without revealing their identity to the cloud host. The same approach would also allow the software providers to lock out malicious users.

Determining the quantum geometry of a crystal

Posted: 06 Nov 2013 06:13 AM PST

Physicists have succeeded in measuring geometric properties of energy bands in light crystals.

Audio processing: Computers following the brain's lead

Posted: 06 Nov 2013 05:44 AM PST

When designed to process sound based on familiar patterns, sound recognition by computers becomes more robust.

Holograms set for greatness

Posted: 06 Nov 2013 05:44 AM PST

A new technique that combines optical plates to manipulate laser light improves the quality of holograms.

Unnecessary TB deaths to be thing of the past thanks to mobile drug resistance test device

Posted: 06 Nov 2013 05:44 AM PST

Thousands of deaths from tuberculosis (or TB), an infectious bacterial disease, could be prevented using a new hand-held device that is being developed to detect potentially fatal drug resistance in less than 15 minutes.

Playing pop and rock music boosts performance of solar cells

Posted: 06 Nov 2013 04:39 AM PST

Playing pop and rock music improves the performance of solar cells, according to new research.

Sports Decision Review System: Hawk-eye or human eye?

Posted: 06 Nov 2013 04:37 AM PST

For ardent sports fans, decision review technology – popularly known as Hawk-Eye – is having a 'marmite moment'. It's either welcomed as a definitive mechanism to assist a referee make the right decision or an imperfect tool which has done nothing to improve the enjoyment of sporting fixtures.  Now used in a wide range of games including football, tennis, hurling and Gaelic football, it has often proved controversial.   

Astronomers establish the strength of high-inclination asteroids

Posted: 06 Nov 2013 04:35 AM PST

Astronomers have been observing faint asteroids with highly inclined orbits. They found that a smaller fraction of tiny bodies occur among high-inclination asteroids than those near the ecliptic plane. This means that large asteroids in high-velocity collisions between asteroids probably have a greater increase of strength in resisting disruption than those in the present mean-velocity collisions. Clarification of the relationship between collisional velocity and asteroids' disruptive strength is helpful in understanding the collisional evolution of asteroids in the early Solar System.

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