ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• High-tech materials purify water with sunlight
• Potentially safer, greener alternative to BPA could come from papermaking waste
• Bionic plants: Nanotechnology could turn shrubbery into supercharged energy producers
• Novel membrane reveals water molecules will bounce off a liquid surface
• Mercury's contraction much greater than thought, new imaging shows
• Thermal vision: Graphene light detector first to span infrared spectrum
• Heart cells respond to stiff environments
• A battery that 'breathes' could power next-gen electric vehicles
• Harnessing everyday motion to power mobile devices
• New nanoparticle that only attacks cervical cancer cells
• In the lab, scientists coax E. coli to resist radiation damage
• DNA can be damaged by very low-energy radiation
• Recovering metals and minerals from waste
• Innovative solar-powered toilet ready for India unveiling
• Mathematical, biochemical 'design features' for cell decoding of pulses revealed
• Heat-based technique offers new way to measure microscopic particles
• Enabling next-generation wireless networks
• Watching welds: Modeling of friction welds will help aerospace manufacturers assess safety of components
• Ensuring solid-state drives are up to scratch: Data buffering scheme improves performance of solid-state drives
• Self-powered wireless light detectors
• Rocking robot pays tribute to Robyn

High-tech materials purify water with sunlight Posted: 16 Mar 2014 05:32 PM PDT Sunlight plus a common titanium pigment might be the secret recipe for ridding pharmaceuticals, pesticides and other potentially harmful pollutants from drinking water. Scientists reported that they have combined several high-tech components to make an easy-to-use water purifier that could work with the world's most basic form of energy, sunlight, in a boon for water purification in rural areas or developing countries.

Potentially safer, greener alternative to BPA could come from papermaking waste Posted: 16 Mar 2014 05:31 PM PDT A waste product from making paper could yield a safer, greener replacement for the potentially harmful chemical BPA, now banned from baby bottles but still used in many plastics. Scientists made the BPA alternative from lignin, which gives wood its strength, and they say it could be ready for the market within five years.

Bionic plants: Nanotechnology could turn shrubbery into supercharged energy producers Posted: 16 Mar 2014 12:33 PM PDT Plants have many valuable functions: They provide food and fuel, release the oxygen that we breathe, and add beauty to our surroundings. Now, researchers wants to make plants even more useful by augmenting them with nanomaterials that could enhance their energy production and give them completely new functions, such as monitoring environmental pollutants.

Novel membrane reveals water molecules will bounce off a liquid surface Posted: 16 Mar 2014 12:33 PM PDT Consider the nearest water surface: a half-full glass on your desk, a puddle outside your window, or a lake across town. All of these surfaces represent liquid-vapor interfaces, where liquid meets air. Molecules of water vapor constantly collide with these liquid surfaces: Some make it through the surface and condense, while others simply bounce off. The probability that a vapor molecule will bounce, or reflect, off a liquid surface is a fundamental property of water, much like its boiling point. And yet, in the last century, there has been little agreement on the likelihood that a water molecule will bounce off the liquid surface.

Mercury's contraction much greater than thought, new imaging shows Posted: 16 Mar 2014 12:32 PM PDT New global imaging and topographic data from MESSENGER show that the innermost planet has contracted far more than previous estimates. The results are based on a global study of more than 5,900 geological landforms, such as curving cliff-like scarps and wrinkle ridges, that have resulted from the planet's contraction as Mercury cooled. The findings are key to understanding the planet's thermal, tectonic, and volcanic history, and the structure of its unusually large metallic core.

Thermal vision: Graphene light detector first to span infrared spectrum Posted: 16 Mar 2014 12:32 PM PDT The first room-temperature light detector that can sense the full infrared spectrum has the potential to put heat vision technology into a contact lens. Unlike comparable mid- and far-infrared detectors currently on the market, the new detector doesn't need bulky cooling equipment to work.

Heart cells respond to stiff environments Posted: 16 Mar 2014 10:27 AM PDT Proteins associated with the regulation of organ size and shape have been found to respond to the mechanics of the microenvironment in ways that specifically affect the decision of adult cardiac stem cells to generate muscular or vascular cells.

A battery that 'breathes' could power next-gen electric vehicles Posted: 16 Mar 2014 07:27 AM PDT Sales of electric vehicles (EVs) nearly doubled in 2013, but most won't take you farther than 100 miles on one charge. To boost their range toward a tantalizing 300 miles or more, researchers are reporting progress on a "breathing" battery that has the potential to one day replace the lithium-ion technology of today's EVs.

Harnessing everyday motion to power mobile devices Posted: 16 Mar 2014 07:27 AM PDT Imagine powering your cell phone by simply walking around your office or rubbing it with the palm of your hand. Rather than plugging it into the wall, you become the power source. Scientists were recently working on a miniature generator based on an energy phenomenon called the piezoelectric effect, which is electricity resulting from pressure. To their surprise, it produced more power than expected.

New nanoparticle that only attacks cervical cancer cells Posted: 14 Mar 2014 06:21 PM PDT One of the most promising technologies for the treatment of various cancers is nanotechnology, creating drugs that directly attack the cancer cells without damaging other tissues' development. Researchers have now developed a therapy to attack cervical cancer tumors.

In the lab, scientists coax E. coli to resist radiation damage Posted: 14 Mar 2014 01:41 PM PDT Capitalizing on the ability of an organism to evolve in response to punishment from a hostile environment, scientists have coaxed the model bacterium Escherichia coli to dramatically resist ionizing radiation and, in the process, reveal the genetic mechanisms that make the feat possible. The study provides evidence that just a handful of genetic mutations give E. coli the capacity to withstand doses of radiation that would otherwise doom the microbe. The findings are important because they have implications for better understanding how organisms can resist radiation damage to cells and repair damaged DNA.

DNA can be damaged by very low-energy radiation Posted: 14 Mar 2014 06:37 AM PDT That energetic particles damage DNA is not surprising. It is now appears that very low-energy OH radicals also damage DNA, with a propensity that depends on how vigorously OH rotates: rotationally 'hot' OH induce irreparable double breaks. These findings utilize OH formed in plasma created when intense IR femtosecond laser pulses propagate in water containing DNA. Industry characterizes as 'eye-safe' IR lasers. With such wavelengths being proficient at inducing DNA damage, how safe is 'eye-safe'?

Recovering metals and minerals from waste Posted: 14 Mar 2014 06:36 AM PDT Scarcity of clean water is one of the most serious global challenges. Scientists have now developed energy-efficient methods for reuse of water in industrial processes and means for recovering valuable minerals and materials from waste for recycling. Rapid tools were also developed for identification of environmental pollutants.

Innovative solar-powered toilet ready for India unveiling Posted: 13 Mar 2014 01:45 PM PDT A revolutionary toilet fueled by the sun that is being developed to help some of the 2.5 billion people around the world lacking safe and sustainable sanitation will be unveiled in India this month. The self-contained, waterless toilet has the capability of heating human waste to a high enough temperature to sterilize human waste and create biochar, a highly porous charcoal.

Mathematical, biochemical 'design features' for cell decoding of pulses revealed Posted: 13 Mar 2014 08:19 AM PDT Every cell in the body has to sense and respond to chemicals such as hormones and neurotransmitters. They do so by relaying information from receptors to intracellular biochemical pathways that control cell behavior, but relatively little is known about how cells decode the information in dynamic stimuli. Researchers have found that differences in response kinetics working down the intracellular signalling pathway dictate differential sensitivity to different features of pulsatile hormone inputs.

Heat-based technique offers new way to measure microscopic particles Posted: 13 Mar 2014 06:26 AM PDT Researchers have developed a new heat-based technique for counting and measuring the size of microscopic particles. The technique is less expensive than light-based techniques and can be used on a wider array of materials than electricity-based techniques.

Enabling next-generation wireless networks Posted: 13 Mar 2014 06:25 AM PDT A modulator that converts an electrical signal into an optical signal could enable faster wireless data transmission. Wireless transmission at microwave frequencies is important for high-data-rate transmission applications, such as mobile phone networks, satellite links and remote imaging. Now, scientists have investigated different designs of silicon modulator that enable fast data conversion from electrical to optical signals.

Watching welds: Modeling of friction welds will help aerospace manufacturers assess safety of components Posted: 13 Mar 2014 06:25 AM PDT Modeling of friction welds, informed by X-ray diffraction data, will help aerospace manufacturers to assess the safety of components. Aerospace engineers are constantly seeking new manufacturing methods that will reduce the cost, weight and energy expenditure of aircraft. One promising method, called linear friction welding, involves rubbing two components together under strong compressive forces until they become joined. Unlike traditional fusion welding, linear friction welding can achieve strong, high-quality welds for different metals and complex-shaped components.

Ensuring solid-state drives are up to scratch: Data buffering scheme improves performance of solid-state drives Posted: 13 Mar 2014 06:25 AM PDT A data buffering scheme improves the performance of solid-state drives in large-scale, data-intensive applications. Solid-state drives (SSDs) store digital information using electronic circuits. The power efficiency of SSDs and their ability to read and write data quickly means that they are becoming the primary storage device in computers. A major drawback of SSDs, however, is the limited number of times that data can be stored and deleted -- an aspect that hinders the use of these devices for data-intensive applications known as data-center environments.

Self-powered wireless light detectors Posted: 13 Mar 2014 06:25 AM PDT A low-power photodetection system can harness enough energy to power an autonomous sensor and monitoring network.

Rocking robot pays tribute to Robyn Posted: 13 Mar 2014 06:24 AM PDT When a team of mechatronics students built a robot dedicated to Robyn, they didn't expect the pop star to become personally involved. The dancing "Robyt" makes its world debut this week and earns props from its inspiration.

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