ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Largest magnetic fields in the universe
• Behavior of turbulent flow of superfluids is opposite that of ordinary fluids
• Centaurs: NASA's WISE finds mysterious centaurs may be comets
• Scientists discover surprising importance of 'I Love Q' for understanding neutron stars
• NASA's IRIS telescope offers first glimpse of sun's mysterious atmosphere
• NASA's Van Allen Probes discover particle accelerator in the heart of Earth’s radiation belts
• Researchers get better metrics on laser potential of key material
• Novel nanometer scaffolds regulate the biological behaviors of neural stem cells
• New nuclear fuel-rod cladding could lead to safer power plants
• Watching catalysts at work at the atomic scale
• What if quantum physics worked on a macroscopic level? Researchers have successfully entangled optic fibers populated by 500 photons
• Elementary physics in a single molecule
• Laser-controlled molecular switch turns blood clotting on, off on command

Largest magnetic fields in the universe Posted: 26 Jul 2013 01:34 AM PDT Numerical simulations show for the first time the occurrence of an instability in the interior of neutron stars that can lead to gigantic magnetic fields, possibly triggering one of the most dramatic explosions observed in the Universe.

Behavior of turbulent flow of superfluids is opposite that of ordinary fluids Posted: 25 Jul 2013 12:21 PM PDT A superfluid moves like a completely frictionless liquid, seemingly able to propel itself without any hindrance from gravity or surface tension. The physics underlying these materials -- which appear to defy the conventional laws of physics -- has fascinated scientists for decades.

Centaurs: NASA's WISE finds mysterious centaurs may be comets Posted: 25 Jul 2013 12:15 PM PDT The true identity of centaurs, the small celestial bodies orbiting the sun between Jupiter and Neptune, is one of the enduring mysteries of astrophysics. Are they asteroids or comets? A new study of observations from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) finds most centaurs are comets.

Scientists discover surprising importance of 'I Love Q' for understanding neutron stars Posted: 25 Jul 2013 11:17 AM PDT Astrophysicists have discovered why scientists can learn a tremendous amount about neutron stars and quark stars without knowing the details of their internal structure.

NASA's IRIS telescope offers first glimpse of sun's mysterious atmosphere Posted: 25 Jul 2013 11:16 AM PDT The moment when a telescope first opens its doors represents the culmination of years of work and planning -- while simultaneously laying the groundwork for a wealth of research and answers yet to come. It is a moment of excitement and perhaps even a little uncertainty. On July 17, 2013, the international team of scientists and engineers who supported and built NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, all lived through that moment. As the spacecraft orbited around Earth, the door of the telescope opened to view the mysterious lowest layers of the sun's atmosphere and the results thus far are nothing short of amazing. The data is crisp and clear, showing unprecedented detail of this little-observed region.

NASA's Van Allen Probes discover particle accelerator in the heart of Earth’s radiation belts Posted: 25 Jul 2013 11:07 AM PDT Scientists have discovered a massive particle accelerator in the heart of one of the harshest regions of near-Earth space, a region of super-energetic, charged particles surrounding the globe called the Van Allen radiation belts. Scientists knew that something in space accelerated particles in the radiation belts to more than 99 percent the speed of light but they didn't know what that something was. New results from NASA's Van Allen Probes now show that the acceleration energy comes from within the belts themselves. Particles inside the belts are sped up by local kicks of energy, buffeting the particles to ever faster speeds, much like a perfectly timed push on a moving swing.

Researchers get better metrics on laser potential of key material Posted: 25 Jul 2013 09:54 AM PDT Researchers have developed more accurate measurements of how efficiently a polymer called MEH-PPV amplifies light, which should advance efforts to develop a new generation of lasers and photonic devices.

Novel nanometer scaffolds regulate the biological behaviors of neural stem cells Posted: 25 Jul 2013 07:49 AM PDT The surface characteristics of nanoscaffolds made by nanotechnology are more similar to the three-dimensional topological structure of the extracellular matrix and the effects on the biological behaviors of cells and tissue repair are more beneficial.

New nuclear fuel-rod cladding could lead to safer power plants Posted: 25 Jul 2013 07:49 AM PDT In the aftermath of Japan's earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was initially driven into shutdown by the magnitude 9.0 quake; its emergency generators then failed because they were inundated by the tsunami. But the greatest damage to the complex, and the greatest release of radiation, may have been caused by explosions of hydrogen gas that built up inside some of the reactors. That hydrogen buildup was the result of hot steam coming into contact with overheated nuclear fuel rods covered by a cladding of zirconium alloy, or "zircaloy" -- the material used as fuel-rod cladding in all water-cooled nuclear reactors, which constitute more than 90 percent of the world's power reactors. When it gets hot enough, zircaloy reacts with steam to produce hydrogen, a hazard in any loss-of-coolant nuclear accident. A team of researchers is developing an alternative that could provide similar protection for nuclear fuel, while reducing the risk of hydrogen production by roughly a thousandfold.

Watching catalysts at work at the atomic scale Posted: 25 Jul 2013 07:48 AM PDT Developing materials with novel catalytic properties is one of the most important tasks in energy research. It is especially important to understand the dynamic processes involved in catalysis at the atomic scale, such as the formation and breaking of chemical bonds as well as ligand exchange mechanism.

What if quantum physics worked on a macroscopic level? Researchers have successfully entangled optic fibers populated by 500 photons Posted: 25 Jul 2013 07:48 AM PDT Quantum physics concerns a world of infinitely small things. But for years, researchers have been attempting to observe the properties of quantum physics on a larger scale, even macroscopic.

Elementary physics in a single molecule Posted: 25 Jul 2013 06:11 AM PDT Physicists have succeeded in performing an extraordinary experiment: They demonstrated how magnetism that generally manifests itself by a force between two magnetized objects acts within a single molecule. This discovery is of high significance to fundamental research and provides scientists with a new tool to better understand magnetism as an elementary phenomenon of physics.

Laser-controlled molecular switch turns blood clotting on, off on command Posted: 24 Jul 2013 05:04 PM PDT Researchers have designed tiny, light-controlled gold particles that can release DNA controls to switch blood clotting off and on.

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