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Thursday, February 7, 2013

ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

ScienceDaily: Top Technology News


Hydrothermal liquefaction: The most promising path to sustainable bio-oil production

Posted: 06 Feb 2013 01:22 PM PST

A new generation of the HTL process can convert all kinds of biomasses to crude bio-oil, which is sufficiently similar to fossil crude oil that a simple thermal upgrade and existing refinery technology can be employed to subsequently obtain all the liquid fuels we know today. What is more, the HTL process only consumes approximately 10-15 percent of the energy in the feedstock biomass, yielding an energy efficiency of 85-90 percent.

Improved X-ray microscopic imaging

Posted: 06 Feb 2013 01:22 PM PST

X-ray microscopy requires radiation of extremely high quality. In order to obtain sharp images instrument and sample must stay absolutely immobile even at the nanometer scale during the recording. Researchers have now developed a method that relaxes these hard restrictions. Even fluctuations in the material can be visualized.

The last big bump before a supernova explodes

Posted: 06 Feb 2013 10:11 AM PST

Astronomers have found the first causal evidence that massive stars shed huge amounts of material in a "penultimate outburst" before they finally detonate as Type IIn supernovae. After characterizing supernova 2010mc, the scientists found evidence of previous outbursts in the same location and were able to conclusively relate them to the supernova explosion.

Mercury contamination in water can be detected with a mobile phone

Posted: 06 Feb 2013 08:10 AM PST

Chemists have manufactured a sheet that changes color in the presence of water contaminated with mercury. The results can be seen with the naked eye but when photographing the membrane with a mobile phone the concentration of this extremely toxic metal can be quantified.

Earth-size planets may be next door, Kepler data suggest

Posted: 06 Feb 2013 08:09 AM PST

Using publicly available data from NASA's Kepler space telescope, astronomers have found that six percent of red dwarf stars have habitable, Earth-sized planets. Since red dwarfs are the most common stars in our galaxy, the closest Earth-like planet could be just 13 light-years away.

The wings of the Seagull Nebula

Posted: 06 Feb 2013 06:47 AM PST

A new image from the European Southern Observatory shows a section of a cloud of dust and glowing gas called the Seagull Nebula. These wispy red clouds form part of the "wings" of the celestial bird and this picture reveals an intriguing mix of dark and glowing red clouds, weaving between bright stars.

New coal technology harnesses energy without burning, nears pilot-scale development

Posted: 06 Feb 2013 06:35 AM PST

A new form of clean coal technology reached an important milestone recently, with the successful operation of a research-scale combustion system at Ohio State University.

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