ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• New 'pomegranate-inspired' design solves problems for lithium-ion batteries
• Researchers hijack cancer migration mechanism to 'move' brain tumors
• Nanoelectronics key to advances in renewable energy
• Harvesting light, the single-molecule way: Molecular mechanism of light harvesting may illuminate path forward to future solar cells
• Using crowdsourcing to solve complex problems
• Robotic fish aids understanding of how animals move
• Repeal of Missouri's background check law associated with increase in state's murders
• Is truth stranger than fiction? Yes, especially for science fiction
• Chronology of geological events prior to the great extinction 66 million years ago
• Vehicle-to-vehicle communications research moves forward in the United States
• Cancer drugs hitch a ride on 'smart' gold nanoshells
• Could action video games help people with dyslexia learn to read?

New 'pomegranate-inspired' design solves problems for lithium-ion batteries Posted: 16 Feb 2014 12:17 PM PST A novel battery electrode features silicon nanoparticles clustered like pomegranate seeds in a tough carbon rind. The design could enable smaller, lighter rechargeable batteries for electric cars, cell phones and other devices.

Researchers hijack cancer migration mechanism to 'move' brain tumors Posted: 16 Feb 2014 12:14 PM PST One factor that makes glioblastoma cancers so difficult to treat is that malignant cells from the tumors spread throughout the brain by following nerve fibers and blood vessels to invade new locations. Now, researchers have learned to hijack this migratory mechanism, turning it against the cancer by using a film of nanofibers thinner than human hair to lure tumor cells away.

Nanoelectronics key to advances in renewable energy Posted: 16 Feb 2014 12:14 PM PST An electrical engineer explains why advances in nanoelectronics will shape the future of renewable energy technologies.

Harvesting light, the single-molecule way: Molecular mechanism of light harvesting may illuminate path forward to future solar cells Posted: 16 Feb 2014 12:14 PM PST Scientists have reached new insights into one of the molecular mechanisms behind light harvesting, which enables photosynthetic organisms to thrive, even as weather conditions change from full sunlight to deep cloud cover. Probing these natural systems is helping us understand the basic mechanisms of light harvesting -- work that could help improve the design and efficiency of devices like solar cells in the future.

Using crowdsourcing to solve complex problems Posted: 16 Feb 2014 06:16 AM PST Computer scientists havae designed new forms of crowd-supported, mixed-initiative systems that tightly integrate crowd work, community process and intelligent user interfaces to solve complex problems that no machine nor person could solve alone. The systems can ease challenges in designing a custom trip or planning an academic conference, for example. Researchers created a tool that uses crowd sourcing to plan custom trip itineraries which enables an academic community to plan a conference by "community-sourcing."

Robotic fish aids understanding of how animals move Posted: 15 Feb 2014 04:18 PM PST The weakly electric black ghost knifefish of the Amazon basin has inspired scientists to develop agile fish robots that could lead to a vast improvement in underwater vehicles used to study fragile coral reefs or repair damaged deep sea oil rigs.

Repeal of Missouri's background check law associated with increase in state's murders Posted: 15 Feb 2014 09:25 AM PST Missouri's 2007 repeal of its permit-to-purchase (PTP) handgun law, which required all handgun purchasers to obtain a license verifying that they have passed a background check, contributed to a sixteen percent increase in Missouri's murder rate, according to a new study.

Is truth stranger than fiction? Yes, especially for science fiction Posted: 14 Feb 2014 12:20 PM PST From warp drives to hyperspace, science fiction has continuously borrowed from, and sometimes anticipated, the state of the art in scientific progress. This has resulted in the perception that science and science fiction have a causal relationship, one finding direction from and fulfilling the science fantasy laid out before it. But that is rarely the case, according to Lawrence Krauss, a Foundation professor at Arizona State University.

Chronology of geological events prior to the great extinction 66 million years ago Posted: 14 Feb 2014 04:54 AM PST New research focusing on the last 3 million years of the Cretaceous period, managed to detail exactly the chronology of the climatic, magnetic and biological events prior to the great extinction of 66 million years ago (Ma.), which includes the disappearance of almost all dinosaurs (except birds). Scientists analyzed gravitational interactions between the Earth, the Moon, the Sun and the planets of the solar system (principally Jupiter) in their work.

Vehicle-to-vehicle communications research moves forward in the United States Posted: 14 Feb 2014 04:53 AM PST Following a U.S. Department of Transportation call to require vehicle-to-vehicle communication technology for all cars and light trucks on the nation's highways, scientists are designing the delivery integration framework that will allow vehicles to "talk" with their drivers and with other automobiles on the roadway.

Cancer drugs hitch a ride on 'smart' gold nanoshells Posted: 13 Feb 2014 07:04 PM PST Nanoparticles capable of delivering drugs to specifically targeted cancer cells have been created by a group of researchers from China.

Could action video games help people with dyslexia learn to read? Posted: 13 Feb 2014 09:23 AM PST In addition to their trouble with reading, people with dyslexia also have greater difficulty than typical readers do when it comes to managing competing sensory cues, according to a study. The findings suggest that action video games might improve literacy skills in those with dyslexia, which represent five to ten percent of the population.

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