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Wednesday, July 16, 2014

ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

ScienceDaily: Top Technology News


Extending Moore's Law: Shrinking transistor size for smaller, more efficient computers

Posted: 15 Jul 2014 01:59 PM PDT

Over the years, computer chips have gotten smaller thanks to advances in materials science and manufacturing technologies. This march of progress, the doubling of transistors on a microprocessor roughly every two years, is called Moore's Law. But there's one component of the chip-making process in need of an overhaul if Moore's law is to continue: the chemical mixture called photoresist. In a bid to continue decreasing transistor size while increasing computation and energy efficiency, chip-maker Intel has partnered with researchers to design an entirely new kind of resist.

Best-ever efficiency points to clean, green gas-diesel engine

Posted: 15 Jul 2014 01:58 PM PDT

The one-cylinder test engine in the basement of a University of Wisconsin-Madison lab is connected to a life-support system of pipes, tubes, ducts and cables. You might think that the engine resembles a patient in intensive care, but in this case, the patient is not sick. Instead, the elaborate monitoring system shows that the engine can convert 59.5 percent of the chemical energy in its fuel into motion — significantly better than the 52 percent maximum in modern diesel truck engines.

3-D nanostructure could benefit nanoelectronics, gas storage: functional advantages of 3-D boron nitride predicted

Posted: 15 Jul 2014 12:45 PM PDT

A three-dimensional porous nanostructure would have a balance of strength, toughness and ability to transfer heat that could benefit nanoelectronics, gas storage and composite materials that perform multiple functions, according to engineers.

New assay to spot fake malaria drugs could save thousands of lives

Posted: 15 Jul 2014 12:45 PM PDT

Chemists have created a new type of chemical test, or assay, that's inexpensive, simple, and can tell whether or not one of the primary drugs being used to treat malaria is genuine -- an enormous and deadly problem in the developing world. If widely used it could help save hundreds of thousands of lives.

Nanophotonics experts create powerful molecular sensor

Posted: 15 Jul 2014 11:28 AM PDT

Nanophotonics experts have created a unique sensor that amplifies the optical signature of molecules by about 100 billion times. Newly published tests found the device could accurately identify the composition and structure of individual molecules containing fewer than 20 atoms.

New materials for future green tech devices

Posted: 15 Jul 2014 11:17 AM PDT

Thermoelectric devices, which convert heat to electricity and vice versa, can harness that wasted heat, and possibly provide the green tech energy efficiency that's needed for a sustainable future. A new study shows how porous substances can act as thermoelectric materials -- pointing the way for engineering the use of such materials in thermoelectric devices of the future.

Directly visualizing hydrogen bonds

Posted: 15 Jul 2014 11:17 AM PDT

Using a newly developed, ultrafast femtosecond infrared light source, chemists have been able to directly visualize the coordinated vibrations between hydrogen-bonded molecules -- the first time this sort of chemical interaction, which is found in nature everywhere at the molecular level, has been directly visualized.

'Game theory' model reveals vulnerable moments for metastatic cancer cells' energy production

Posted: 15 Jul 2014 11:17 AM PDT

Cancer's no game, but researchers are borrowing ideas from evolutionary game theory to learn how cells cooperate within a tumor to gather energy. Their experiments, they say, could identify the ideal time to disrupt metastatic cancer cell cooperation and make a tumor more vulnerable to anti-cancer drugs.

Removing disordered regions of shape-shifting protein explains how blood clots

Posted: 15 Jul 2014 11:13 AM PDT

Researchers used x-ray crystallography to publish the first image of prothrombin. The protein's flexible structure is key to the development of blood-clotting. Blood-clotting has long ensured our survival, stopping blood loss after an injury. However, when triggered in the wrong circumstances, clotting can lead to debilitating or fatal conditions such as a heart attack, stroke or deep vein thrombosis.

Physicists detect process even rarer than the long-sought Higgs particle

Posted: 15 Jul 2014 06:55 AM PDT

Scientists running the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and most powerful "atom smasher," report the first evidence of a process that can be used to test the mechanism by which the recently discovered Higgs particle imparts mass to other fundamental particles.

Kids' 'community' knowledge from internet leaves researcher hopeful

Posted: 15 Jul 2014 06:55 AM PDT

Many parents assume the Internet leads to negative behavior in their children. But a team of researchers found kids found a sense of "community" by using the Internet in two after-school programs. By increasing at-risk children's exposure to various community-based websites, Facebook pages and other social media, one researcher said, they learn to use the Internet in a positive way.

Researchers assess emergency radiology response after Boston Marathon bombings

Posted: 15 Jul 2014 05:52 AM PDT

An after-action review of one hospital's emergency radiology response to the Boston Marathon bombings highlights the crucial role medical imaging plays in emergency situations and ways in which radiology departments can improve their preparedness for mass casualty events.

Fuel cells for powering homes

Posted: 15 Jul 2014 05:51 AM PDT

Fuel cells are similar to batteries, but they differ from them mainly in that they are continually resupplied by the reagents consumed, typically oxygen and hydrogen. One of the applications that fuel cells may have is the supplying of homes with electrical power. When considering applications of this type that call for greater power, a research group has studied the use of one type of material, perovskites, for the design of these cells.

Cancer patients: How strongly does tissue decelerate the therapeutic heavy ion beam?

Posted: 15 Jul 2014 05:51 AM PDT

A method for the more exact dosing of heavy ion irradiation in the case of cancer has been developed by researchers. Research in this relatively new therapy method is focused again and again on the exact dosing: how must the radiation parameters be set in order to destroy the cancerous cells "on the spot" with as low a damage as possible to the surrounding tissue?

Smallest Swiss cross: Made of 20 single atoms

Posted: 15 Jul 2014 05:50 AM PDT

The manipulation of atoms has reached a new level: Physicists were able to place 20 single atoms on a fully insulated surface at room temperature to form the smallest "Swiss cross", thus taking a big step towards next generation atomic-scale storage devices.

Flower development in 3-D: Timing is the key

Posted: 14 Jul 2014 07:59 AM PDT

Developmental processes in all living organisms are controlled by genes. At the same time there is a continuous metabolism taking place. Researchers have analyzed this interaction between metabolism and developmental processes in flowering plants. In a recent study on flower development, changes in metabolism were linked to three-dimensional morphometric data using micro-computed tomography for the first time.

Nanotech microchip to diagnose type-1 diabetes invented

Posted: 13 Jul 2014 12:55 PM PDT

An inexpensive, portable, microchip-based test for diagnosing type-1 diabetes could improve patient care worldwide and help researchers better understand the disease, according to the device's inventors. the test employs nanotechnology to detect type-1 diabetes outside hospital settings. The handheld microchips distinguish between the two main forms of diabetes mellitus, which are both characterized by high blood-sugar levels but have different causes and treatments.

Breakthrough MitraClip procedure repairs one heart structurally, another emotionally

Posted: 10 Jul 2014 03:34 PM PDT

Mary York's heart broke when she heard her husband of 65 years say he didn't want to live anymore. However, physicians were able to repair his heart -- and ultimately hers, too -- when her husband became one of the first in Alabama to receive a MitraClip.

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