ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Benefit vs. risk of facial recognition technology
• Exotic atoms hold clues to unsolved physics puzzle at the dawn of the universe
• Spintronics discovery: Scientists find new 'magic' in magnetic material
• Researchers find a way to make steel without greenhouse-gas emissions
• People organize daily travel efficiently: Population-level study discovers small-scale details about individuals' choices
• Graphene quantum dots may someday tell if it will rain on Mars
• Astronomers discover surprising clutch of hydrogen clouds lurking among our galactic neighbors
• Improved material for 'laser welding' of tissue in intestinal surgery
• First biological evidence of a supernova
• Engineers fine-tune the sensitivity of nano-chemical sensor
• Speed test of quantum versus conventional computing: Quantum computer wins
• Quantum optics with microwaves: Hong-Ou-Mandel effect demonstrated
• 'Invisibility cloak' for thermal flow constructed
• Elucidating energy shifts in optical tweezers
• An electronic nose can tell pears and apples apart

Benefit vs. risk of facial recognition technology Posted: 08 May 2013 06:32 PM PDT Law enforcement agencies are using facial recognition software as a crime-fighting tool. Now businesses are looking to use the technology to reach customers. But a professor questions whether customers are ready for it.

Exotic atoms hold clues to unsolved physics puzzle at the dawn of the universe Posted: 08 May 2013 02:21 PM PDT An international team of physicists has found the first direct evidence of pear shaped nuclei in exotic atoms. The findings could advance the search for a new fundamental force in nature that could explain why the Big Bang created more matter than antimatter -- a pivotal imbalance in the history of everything.

Spintronics discovery: Scientists find new 'magic' in magnetic material Posted: 08 May 2013 02:19 PM PDT Researchers have reported a fundamental finding that will help advance the development of next-generation electronics called "spintronics."

Researchers find a way to make steel without greenhouse-gas emissions Posted: 08 May 2013 10:31 AM PDT Steelmaking, a major emitter of climate-altering gases, could be transformed by a new process.

People organize daily travel efficiently: Population-level study discovers small-scale details about individuals' choices Posted: 08 May 2013 10:31 AM PDT Studies of human mobility usually focus on either the small scale -- determining the origins, destinations and travel modes of individuals' daily commutes -- or the very large scale, such as using air-travel patterns to track the spread of epidemics over time. The large-scale studies, most of which are made possible by the vast data generated and collected by new technologies like sensors and cellphones, are very good at describing the big picture, but don't provide much detail at the individual level. Smaller-scale studies have the opposite characteristic: Their findings generally can't be scaled up from the individual to be applied broadly to populations. But a new study bridges that gap.

Graphene quantum dots may someday tell if it will rain on Mars Posted: 08 May 2013 10:18 AM PDT Chemical engineers may be able to improve humidity and pressure sensors, particularly those used in outer space.

Astronomers discover surprising clutch of hydrogen clouds lurking among our galactic neighbors Posted: 08 May 2013 10:17 AM PDT In a dark, starless patch of intergalactic space, astronomers have discovered a never-before-seen cluster of hydrogen clouds strewn between two nearby galaxies, Andromeda (M31) and Triangulum (M33). The researchers speculate that these rarefied blobs of gas -- each about as massive as a dwarf galaxy -- condensed out of a vast and as-yet undetected reservoir of hot, ionized gas, which could have accompanied an otherwise invisible band of dark matter.

Improved material for 'laser welding' of tissue in intestinal surgery Posted: 08 May 2013 09:30 AM PDT A new "solder" for laser welding of tissue during surgical operations has the potential to produce stronger seals and expand use of this alternative to conventional sutures and stapling in intestinal surgery, scientists are reporting.

First biological evidence of a supernova Posted: 08 May 2013 09:30 AM PDT In fossil remnants of bacteria, researchers have found a radioactive iron isotope that they trace back to a supernova in our cosmic neighborhood. This is the first proven biological signature of a starburst. An age determination showed that the supernova must have occurred about 2.2 million years ago, roughly around the time when the modern human developed.

Engineers fine-tune the sensitivity of nano-chemical sensor Posted: 08 May 2013 09:28 AM PDT Researchers have discovered a technique for controlling the sensitivity of graphene chemical sensors.

Speed test of quantum versus conventional computing: Quantum computer wins Posted: 08 May 2013 09:28 AM PDT A quantum computer system is "thousands of times faster" than conventional computing in solving an important problem type, a computer science professor finds.

Quantum optics with microwaves: Hong-Ou-Mandel effect demonstrated Posted: 08 May 2013 06:30 AM PDT Physicists have demonstrated one of the quintessential effects of quantum optics -- known as the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect -- with microwaves, whose frequency is 100,000 times lower than that of visible light. The experiment takes quantum optics into a new frequency regime and could eventually lead to new technological applications.

'Invisibility cloak' for thermal flow constructed Posted: 08 May 2013 06:29 AM PDT By means of special metamaterials, light and sound can be passed around objects. Researchers have now succeeded in demonstrating that the same materials can also be used to specifically influence the propagation of heat. A structured plate of copper and silicon conducts heat around a central area without the edge being affected.

Elucidating energy shifts in optical tweezers Posted: 08 May 2013 06:29 AM PDT Physicists are providing an all-in-one guide to help calculate the effect the use of optical tweezers has on the energy levels of atoms under study. A small piece of paper sticks to an electrically charged plastic ruler. The principle of this simple classroom physics experiment is applied at the microscopic scale by so-called optical tweezers to get the likes of polystyrene micro-beads and even living cells to "stick" to a laser beam, or to trap atoms at ultra-low temperatures.

An electronic nose can tell pears and apples apart Posted: 08 May 2013 06:28 AM PDT Engineers have created a system of sensors that detects fruit odors more effectively than the human sense of smell. For now, the device can distinguish between the odors compounds emitted by pears and apples. Scientists have created an electronic nose with 32 sensors that can identify the odors given off by chopped pears and apples.

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