ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Doctoral student unravels 'tin whisker' mystery
• New NASA Mars rover to launch in 2020
• New optical tweezers trap specimens just a few nanometers across
• Quantum thermodynamics: A better understanding of how atoms soak up their surroundings
• New way to protect historic limestone buildings
• Synchrotron gives insight into green energy enzymes
• Boosting heat transfer with nanoglue: New method for significantly increasing heat transfer rate across two different materials
• Bridge to the quantum world: Dirac electrons found in unique material
• Dance of quantum tornadoes: Quantum fluid trapped on top of semiconductor chip
• Titan, Saturn's largest moon, icier than thought
• Cork the key to unlocking the potential of graphene
• Census of the invisible universe reveals extraordinary high star-formation rates across history of the universe
• Planet rings could be behind the formation of solar system satellites
• Webcams offer a low-cost way to tune lasers for serious science
• Smartphones might soon develop emotional intelligence: Algorithm for speech-based emotion classification developed
• DNA analysis of microbes in a fracking site yields surprises
• Sharp spike in computer-related injuries predicted for medical workers, find studies
• Uncovering unique properties in a two-dimensional crystal: Potential for optoelectronics, solar cells, valleytronics

Doctoral student unravels 'tin whisker' mystery Posted: 04 Dec 2012 04:42 PM PST A doctoral student has discovered how and why tin whiskers grow. These hair-like fibers of metal grow out of the tin used as solder and coating on many electronic circuits. The presence of these whiskers can cause short-circuits since they act as bridges to conduct electricity to closely-spaced parts, a problem expected to become more prevalent as devices are designed smaller and smaller.

New NASA Mars rover to launch in 2020 Posted: 04 Dec 2012 03:44 PM PST Building on the success of Curiosity's Red Planet landing, NASA has announced plans for a robust multi-year Mars program, including a new robotic science rover set to launch in 2020. This announcement affirms the agency's commitment to a bold exploration program that meets our nation's scientific and human exploration objectives.

New optical tweezers trap specimens just a few nanometers across Posted: 04 Dec 2012 12:44 PM PST A microscale technique known as optical trapping uses beams of light as tweezers to hold and manipulate tiny particles. Researchers have found a new way to trap particles smaller than 10 nanometers -- and potentially down to just a few atoms in size -- which until now have escaped light's grasp.

Quantum thermodynamics: A better understanding of how atoms soak up their surroundings Posted: 04 Dec 2012 11:59 AM PST The best yet calculations of the effect of blackbody radiation on the wavefunction of ytterbium atoms, should help produce a better atomic clock.

New way to protect historic limestone buildings Posted: 04 Dec 2012 11:59 AM PST Buildings and statues constructed of limestone can be protected from pollution by applying a thin, single layer of a water-resistant coating, according to new research. Researchers developed a new way to minimize chemical reactions that cause limestone buildings to deteriorate.

Synchrotron gives insight into green energy enzymes Posted: 04 Dec 2012 11:59 AM PST Chemists have been using a Japanese synchrotron to get a detailed look at enzymes that could help power the green economy.

Boosting heat transfer with nanoglue: New method for significantly increasing heat transfer rate across two different materials Posted: 04 Dec 2012 11:56 AM PST Scientists have developed a new method for significantly increasing the heat transfer rate across two different materials. Results could enable new advances in cooling computer chips and lighting-emitting diode devices, collecting solar power, harvesting waste heat, and other applications.

Bridge to the quantum world: Dirac electrons found in unique material Posted: 04 Dec 2012 11:56 AM PST In a discovery that helps clear a new path toward quantum computers, University of Michigan physicists have found elusive Dirac electrons in a superconducting material.

Dance of quantum tornadoes: Quantum fluid trapped on top of semiconductor chip Posted: 04 Dec 2012 08:22 AM PST Tornado-like vortexes can be produced in bizarre fluids which are controlled by quantum mechanics, completely unlike normal liquids. New research demonstrates how massed ranks of these quantum twisters line up in rows, and paves the way for engineering quantum circuits and chips measuring motion ultra-precisely.

Titan, Saturn's largest moon, icier than thought Posted: 04 Dec 2012 08:22 AM PST Scientists have long suspected that a vast ocean of liquid water lies under the crusty exterior of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. New analysis suggests that the internally generated heat that keeps that ocean from freezing relies on the moon's interactions with Saturn and its other moons.

Cork the key to unlocking the potential of graphene Posted: 04 Dec 2012 08:22 AM PST Scientists have taken inspiration from one of the oldest natural materials, cork, to engineer graphene, which normally exists layers one atom thick, into useful 3D forms for the first time.

Census of the invisible universe reveals extraordinary high star-formation rates across history of the universe Posted: 04 Dec 2012 08:20 AM PST By combining the observing powers of ESA's Herschel space observatory and the ground-based Keck telescopes, astronomers have characterized hundreds of previously unseen starburst galaxies, revealing extraordinary high star-formation rates across the history of the Universe. Starburst galaxies give birth to hundreds of solar masses' worth of stars each year in short-lived but intense events.

Planet rings could be behind the formation of solar system satellites Posted: 04 Dec 2012 08:20 AM PST Two researchers have recently proposed the first ever model explaining how the great majority of regular satellites in our solar system were formed out of planet rings. The model, the only one of its kind, was first tested in 2010 on Saturn's moons. It seems to account for the present distribution of "giant" planets and also explains how the satellites of the "terrestrial" planets such as Earth or Pluto  came into being. These results are a major step forward in understanding and explaining the formation of planet systems across the universe.

Webcams offer a low-cost way to tune lasers for serious science Posted: 04 Dec 2012 08:19 AM PST Using a handful of inexpensive components -- including an off-the-shelf computer webcam and a small diffraction grating, a device for splitting and diffracting light into several beams -- researchers have built a diffraction spectrometer that can tune lasers with better than one part-per-million accuracy.

Smartphones might soon develop emotional intelligence: Algorithm for speech-based emotion classification developed Posted: 04 Dec 2012 05:13 AM PST If you think having your phone identify the nearest bus stop is cool, wait until it identifies your mood. Engineers may soon make that possible. Researchers have developed a new computer program that gauges human feelings through speech, with substantially greater accuracy than existing approaches.

DNA analysis of microbes in a fracking site yields surprises Posted: 03 Dec 2012 11:58 AM PST Researchers have made a genetic analysis of the microbes living deep inside a deposit of Marcellus Shale at a hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," site, and uncovered some surprises.

Sharp spike in computer-related injuries predicted for medical workers, find studies Posted: 03 Dec 2012 09:17 AM PST As U.S. health care goes high tech, spurred by $20 billion in federal stimulus incentives, the widespread adoption of electronic medical records and related digital technologies is predicted to significantly boost musculoskeletal injuries among doctors and nurses.

Uncovering unique properties in a two-dimensional crystal: Potential for optoelectronics, solar cells, valleytronics Posted: 03 Dec 2012 09:17 AM PST When the dry lubricant molybdenum disulfide is stripped down to a single layer of atoms, a tightly bound quasi-particle comprised of two electrons and a hole forms with unique spin and valley properties. The charged quasi-particles offer potential use in new solar cells and other electronic devices that are controlled by light or designed to control light, to study what physicists call "many-body interactions"and a new concept of electronics called valleytronics.

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