ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Carbon under pressure exhibits interesting traits
• Simple math sheds new light on a long-studied biological process
• First hundred thousand years of our universe
• Scientists create tiny bendy power supply for even smaller portable electronics
• Synthetic polymers enable cheap, efficient, durable alkaline fuel cells
• Micro-machines for the human body: Researchers adapt microscopic technology for bionic body parts and other medical devices
• Regulating electron 'spin' may be key to making organic solar cells competitive
• Q-glasses could be a new class of solids
• New high-tech laser method allows DNA to be inserted 'gently' into living cells
• Quasar observed in six separate light reflections
• Gold 'nanoprobes' hold the key to treating killer diseases
• If we landed on Europa, what would we want to know?
• The Odd Couple: Two very different gas clouds in the galaxy next door
• An infallible quantum measurement

Carbon under pressure exhibits interesting traits Posted: 07 Aug 2013 12:54 PM PDT High pressures and temperatures cause materials to exhibit unusual properties, some of which can be special. Understanding such new properties is important for developing new materials for desired industrial uses and also for understanding the interior of Earth, where everything is hot and squeezed.

Simple math sheds new light on a long-studied biological process Posted: 07 Aug 2013 12:51 PM PDT One of the most basic and intensively studied processes in biology —- one which has been detailed in biology textbooks for decades —- has gained a new level of understanding, thanks to the application of simple math to a problem that scientists never before thought could benefit from mathematics.

First hundred thousand years of our universe Posted: 07 Aug 2013 10:45 AM PDT Researchers have taken the furthest look back through time yet -- 100 years to 300,000 years after the Big Bang -- and found tantalizing new hints of clues as to what might have happened.

Scientists create tiny bendy power supply for even smaller portable electronics Posted: 07 Aug 2013 10:42 AM PDT Scientists have created a powerful micro-supercapacitor, just nanometers thick and less than half a centimeter across, that could help electronics companies develop mobile phones and cameras that are smaller, lighter and thinner than ever before.

Synthetic polymers enable cheap, efficient, durable alkaline fuel cells Posted: 07 Aug 2013 10:42 AM PDT A new cost-effective polymer membrane can decrease the cost of alkaline batteries and fuel cells by allowing the replacement of expensive platinum catalysts without sacrificing important aspects of performance.

Micro-machines for the human body: Researchers adapt microscopic technology for bionic body parts and other medical devices Posted: 07 Aug 2013 10:42 AM PDT Tiny sensors and motors tell your smartphone screen to rotate and your camera to focus. But now researchers have found a way to print biocompatible components for these micro-machines, making them ideal for use in medical devices like bionic arms.

Regulating electron 'spin' may be key to making organic solar cells competitive Posted: 07 Aug 2013 10:34 AM PDT Organic solar cells that use carbon-based molecules to convert light to electricity have not been able to match the efficiency silicon-based cells. Now, researchers have discovered a synthetic, high-performance polymer that could make inexpensive, highly efficient organic solar panels a reality.

Q-glasses could be a new class of solids Posted: 07 Aug 2013 10:01 AM PDT There may be more kinds of stuff than we thought. Scientists have reported possible evidence for a new category of solids, things that are neither pure glasses, crystals, nor even exotic quasicrystals.

New high-tech laser method allows DNA to be inserted 'gently' into living cells Posted: 07 Aug 2013 09:59 AM PDT Many methods exist for inserting DNA into a cell, but they tend to be clumsy and destructive, imprecise or damaging to other cells in the process. Now scientists have developed the most precise method ever used to "transfect" DNA into cells. Using a laser and optical tweezers, the team's approach is a breakthrough in precision and control at the single-cell level.

Quasar observed in six separate light reflections Posted: 07 Aug 2013 09:59 AM PDT Quasars are active black holes -- primarily from the early universe. Using a special method where you observe light that has been bent by gravity on its way through the universe, a group of physics students have observed a quasar whose light has been deflected and reflected in six separate images. This is the first time a quasar has been observed with so many light reflections.

Gold 'nanoprobes' hold the key to treating killer diseases Posted: 07 Aug 2013 09:58 AM PDT Researchers have developed a technique to help treat fatal diseases more effectively. They are using gold nanoprobes to identify different types of cells, so that they can use the right ones in stem cell therapies.

If we landed on Europa, what would we want to know? Posted: 07 Aug 2013 09:23 AM PDT Most of what scientists know of Jupiter's moon Europa they have gleaned from a dozen or so close flybys from NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1979 and NASA's Galileo spacecraft in the mid-to-late 1990s. Even in these fleeting, paparazzi-like encounters, scientists have seen a fractured, ice-covered world with tantalizing signs of a liquid water ocean under its surface. Such an environment could potentially be a hospitable home for microbial life. But what if we got to land on Europa's surface and conduct something along the lines of a more in-depth interview? What would scientists ask?

The Odd Couple: Two very different gas clouds in the galaxy next door Posted: 07 Aug 2013 06:43 AM PDT ESO's Very Large Telescope has captured an intriguing star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud -- one of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies. A sharp new image reveals two distinctive glowing clouds of gas: red-hued NGC 2014, and its blue neighbour NGC 2020. While they are very different, they were both sculpted by powerful stellar winds from extremely hot newborn stars that also radiate into the gas, causing it to glow brightly.

An infallible quantum measurement Posted: 05 Aug 2013 06:23 AM PDT For quantum physicists, entangling quantum systems is one of their every day tools. Entanglement is a key resource for upcoming quantum computers and simulators. Now, physicists in Austria and Switzerland have developed a new, reliable method to verify entanglement in the laboratory using a minimal number of assumptions about the system and measuring devices.

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