ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Whirligig beetles inspire energy-efficient robots
• Mimicking public health strategies could improve cyber security
• Scientists discover water ice on Mercury: Ice and organic material may have been carried to the planet by passing comets
• Adapting fish defenses to block human infections: Antimicrobial peptide of fish gills inspire clean surfaces
• Precisely engineering 3-D brain tissues
• The beginning of everything: New paradigm shift for the infant universe
• Nanobiotechnology: Versatile 3-D nanostructures using DNA 'bricks'
• Can life emerge on planets around cooling stars?
• Too much dark matter in galaxy cluster? 'Dark core' may not be so dark after all
• Rules devised for building ideal protein molecules from scratch
• Attosecond 'lighthouses': Simple method for generating isolated ultrashort pulses
• Predicting material fatigue: Polymer composites: luminescent zinc oxide tetrapod filler makes inner damage visible
• Mathematics helps mobiles and tablets match eyes' ability to switch from sunshine to shadow
• Multi-wavelength view of radio galaxy Hercules A

Whirligig beetles inspire energy-efficient robots Posted: 29 Nov 2012 02:39 PM PST While many may have found the movements of whirligig beetles curious, scientists have puzzled over the apparatus behind their energy efficiency -- until now, thanks to a new study.

Mimicking public health strategies could improve cyber security Posted: 29 Nov 2012 02:37 PM PST Mimicking public health strategies, such as maintaining good "cyber hygiene," could improve cyber security, according to a new article.

Scientists discover water ice on Mercury: Ice and organic material may have been carried to the planet by passing comets Posted: 29 Nov 2012 12:13 PM PST Mercury, the smallest and innermost planet in our solar system, revolves around the sun in a mere 88 days, making a tight orbit that keeps the planet incredibly toasty. Surface temperatures on Mercury can reach a blistering 800 degrees Fahrenheit -- hot enough to liquefy lead.

Adapting fish defenses to block human infections: Antimicrobial peptide of fish gills inspire clean surfaces Posted: 29 Nov 2012 11:35 AM PST Living in an environment teaming with bacteria and fungi, fish have evolved powerful defenses, including antimicrobial peptides located in their gills. Undergraduate researchers are studying the biology and mechanics of one of those peptides with the aim of creating engineered surfaces that can kill bacteria responsible for foodborne illnesses and hospital-acquired infections.

Precisely engineering 3-D brain tissues Posted: 29 Nov 2012 11:34 AM PST Borrowing from microfabrication techniques used in the semiconductor industry, engineers have developed a simple and inexpensive way to create three-dimensional brain tissues in a lab dish.

The beginning of everything: New paradigm shift for the infant universe Posted: 29 Nov 2012 11:34 AM PST A new paradigm for understanding the earliest eras in the history of the universe has been developed. The new paradigm shows, for the first time, that the large-scale structures we now see in the universe evolved from fundamental fluctuations in the essential quantum nature of "space-time," which existed even at the very beginning of the universe.

Nanobiotechnology: Versatile 3-D nanostructures using DNA 'bricks' Posted: 29 Nov 2012 11:32 AM PST Researchers have created more than 100 three-dimensional nanostructures using DNA building blocks that function like Lego bricks -- a major advance from the two-dimensional structures the same team built a few months ago.

Can life emerge on planets around cooling stars? Posted: 29 Nov 2012 11:31 AM PST New research hints that planets orbiting white and brown dwarfs, even in the habitable zone, face a "difficult path to habitability."

Too much dark matter in galaxy cluster? 'Dark core' may not be so dark after all Posted: 29 Nov 2012 10:06 AM PST Astronomers were puzzled earlier this year when NASA's Hubble Space Telescope spotted an overabundance of dark matter in the heart of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 520. This observation was surprising because dark matter and galaxies should be anchored together, even during a collision between galaxy clusters.

Rules devised for building ideal protein molecules from scratch Posted: 29 Nov 2012 06:39 AM PST By following certain rules, scientists can prepare architectural plans for building ideal protein molecules not found in the real world. Based on computer renditions, previously non-existent proteins can be produced from scratch in the lab. In our imperfect world, proteins can be beset by bulges, kinks, strains, and improperly buried parts, and many diseases arise from protein malformations. The researchers achieved a library of several ideal structures. The principles could aid in designing drugs, vaccines, industrial enzymes, fuels, and pollutant removers.

Attosecond 'lighthouses': Simple method for generating isolated ultrashort pulses Posted: 29 Nov 2012 06:34 AM PST Electrons move extremely rapidly inside atoms and molecules (the order of magnitude is the attosecond, i.e. 10-18 of a second). One way to observe these phenomena is to use isolated ultrashort pulses of light, which are successfully characterized at this time scale. There is a particularly well-adapted light source that can be used to carry out such research into how matter behaves, a new study shows.

Predicting material fatigue: Polymer composites: luminescent zinc oxide tetrapod filler makes inner damage visible Posted: 29 Nov 2012 06:33 AM PST Detection of material failure is a difficult task for engineers, because cracks inside a material block can hardly be identified from the outside. However, early detection can prevent fatal disasters such as the world's deadliest high-speed train accident in 1998 near Eschede, Germany, caused by failure of a metal wheel. It is even more difficult to detect material failure in composite materials. A research team has now developed a new concept to design so-called self-reporting composite materials.

Mathematics helps mobiles and tablets match eyes' ability to switch from sunshine to shadow Posted: 29 Nov 2012 06:33 AM PST Researchers have pushed the boundaries of High Dynamic Range (HDR) video to match our own eyes' ability to cope with the real world's ever rapidly changing light intensity - such as sun simply going behind clouds. Now researchers have found a way to compress and stream HDR video directly to monitors and mobile devices, such as an iPad, bringing enormous benefits to industries including gaming and security.

Multi-wavelength view of radio galaxy Hercules A Posted: 29 Nov 2012 06:29 AM PST Spectacular jets are powered by the gravitational energy of a supermassive black hole in the core of the elliptical galaxy Hercules A.

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