ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Misleading mineral may have resulted in overestimate of water in moon
• Good vibrations: Using light-heated water to deliver drugs
• 'Sewing machine' idea gives insight into origins of Alzheimer's
• Enhanced autopilot system could help prevent accidents like 2009 Air France 447 crash
• Overcoming structural uncertainty in computer models
• Wind energy: New insight into best arrangement of wind turbines on large installations
• Nanosheets and nanowires
• Carbon nanotubes grow in combustion flames
• Knowledge transfer between computers: Computers teach each other Pac-Man
• Beer lovers tweet what they drink: Twitter maps show Americans' beer preferences
• Electrical transmission at atomic level: New approach to building signal processing components from individual atoms
• World record set with a new 38 tesla magnet
• Better management of parking ventilation systems
• Biochar stimulates more plant growth but less plant defense, research shows
• Mobile tools can increase tobacco screening, cessation counseling rates

Misleading mineral may have resulted in overestimate of water in moon Posted: 01 Apr 2014 10:11 AM PDT The amount of water present in the moon may have been overestimated by scientists studying the mineral apatite, researchers have discovered. For decades, scientists believed the moon was almost entirely devoid of water. However, the discovery of hydrogen-rich apatite within lunar rocks in 2010 seemed to hint at a more watery past. Scientists originally assumed that information obtained from a small sample of apatite could predict the original water content of a large body of magma, or even the entire moon, but a new study indicates that apatite may, in fact, be deceptive.

Good vibrations: Using light-heated water to deliver drugs Posted: 01 Apr 2014 10:10 AM PDT A new mechanism for using light to activate drug-delivering nanoparticles and other targeted therapeutic substances inside the body has been developed by a collaboration of materials scientists, engineers and neurobiologists. This discovery represents a major innovation. Up to now, only a handful of strategies using light-triggered release from nanoparticles have been reported.

'Sewing machine' idea gives insight into origins of Alzheimer's Posted: 01 Apr 2014 09:23 AM PDT A new imaging tool inspired by the humble sewing machine has been invented, providing fresh insight into the origins of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. These diseases are caused by tiny toxic proteins too small to be studied with traditional optical microscopy.

Enhanced autopilot system could help prevent accidents like 2009 Air France 447 crash Posted: 01 Apr 2014 09:23 AM PDT Thirty lines of computer code might have saved Air France flight 447, and 228 passengers and crew aboard, from plunging into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, 2009, according to new research. Scientists have now developed a computer system that detects and corrects faulty airspeed readings, such as those that contributed to the AF447 crash. Their approach to detecting errors could be applicable in many systems that rely on sensor readings.

Overcoming structural uncertainty in computer models Posted: 01 Apr 2014 08:21 AM PDT A computer model is a representation of the functional relationship between one set of parameters, which forms the model input, and a corresponding set of target parameters, which forms the model output. A true model for a particular problem can rarely be defined with certainty. The most we can do to mitigate error is to quantify the uncertainty in the model. Scientists have now offered a method to incorporate judgments into a model about structural uncertainty that results from building an 'incorrect' model.

Wind energy: New insight into best arrangement of wind turbines on large installations Posted: 01 Apr 2014 08:19 AM PDT Researchers have developed a new way to study wake effects that includes the airflow both within and around a wind farm and challenges the conventional belief that turbines arrayed in checker board patterns produce the highest power output. Their study provides insight into factors that determine the most favorable positioning.

Nanosheets and nanowires Posted: 01 Apr 2014 07:29 AM PDT Researchers have found a convenient way to selectively prepare germanium sulfide nanostructures, including nanosheets and nanowires, that are more active than their bulk counterparts. Germanium monosulfide, GeS, is emerging as one of the most important "IV-VI" semiconductor materials with potential in opto-electronics applications for telecommunications and computing, and as an absorber of light for use in solar energy conversion. One important property is its much lower toxicity and environmental impact when compared to other semiconductors made with cadmium, lead and mercury.

Carbon nanotubes grow in combustion flames Posted: 01 Apr 2014 07:29 AM PDT Quantum chemical simulations reveal an unprecedented relationship between the mechanism of carbon nanotube growth and hydrocarbon combustion processes. Results of these simulations illustrate the importance in the role of carbon chemical bonding and molecular transformations in CNT growth.

Knowledge transfer between computers: Computers teach each other Pac-Man Posted: 01 Apr 2014 07:27 AM PDT Researchers have developed a method to allow a computer to give advice and teach skills to another computer in a way that mimics how a real teacher and student might interact. Researchers had the agents -- as the virtual robots are called -- act like true student and teacher pairs: student agents struggled to learn Pac-Man and a version of the StarCraft video game. The researchers were able to show that the student agent learned the games and, in fact, surpassed the teacher.

Beer lovers tweet what they drink: Twitter maps show Americans' beer preferences Posted: 01 Apr 2014 07:23 AM PDT Researchers who mapped tweets revealed how "beer space" on Twitter reflects real-world preferences of brews and beer brands in the United States. For example, tweet preferences for Bud Light were found in the Eastern half of the US, while preferences for Coors Light originate in the Western half, particularly near Colorado and surrounding states. Other beer spaces included Miller Lite preferences in the Midwest and Great Plains, and brands like Corona and Dos Equis in the Southern border regions of the US.

Electrical transmission at atomic level: New approach to building signal processing components from individual atoms Posted: 01 Apr 2014 07:23 AM PDT In a study on the transport of atoms in ultracold gases, a team of physicists has developed a new approach to how signals might be transmitted at the atomic level. This could be especially important for realizing logic structures with strictly defined functions on the basis of individual atoms, which in turn could find application in transistors or diodes.

World record set with a new 38 tesla magnet Posted: 31 Mar 2014 08:38 AM PDT A new world record has just been set: the generation of a continuous magnetic field of 38 tesla in a resistive (i.e. non-superconducting) magnet. Strong magnetic fields of this type are crucial for materials research. The new design proves that expensive superconducting coils are not needed to achieve 38 tesla, which lowers the purchasing costs by a factor of ten.

Better management of parking ventilation systems Posted: 31 Mar 2014 05:40 AM PDT A recent study at an urban multiuse parking garage has demonstrated a new method that greatly reduces energy consumptions, carbon dioxide emissions and ventilation systems cost, all compared with to the systems currently used. The ventilation of an indoor parking garage consists of introducing acceptable air from outside and to filter the polluted air caused by car emissions, especially carbon monoxide (CO). The goal is to reduce all contaminants to reasonable healthy levels.

Biochar stimulates more plant growth but less plant defense, research shows Posted: 31 Mar 2014 05:37 AM PDT In the first study of its kind, research has cast significant doubt over the use of biochar to alleviate climate change. Biochar is produced when wood is combusted at high temperatures to make bio-oil and has been proposed as a method of geoengineering. When buried in the soil, this carbon rich substance could potentially lock-up carbon and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. The global potential of biochar is considered to be large, with up to 12 percent of emissions reduced by biochar soil application.

Mobile tools can increase tobacco screening, cessation counseling rates Posted: 31 Mar 2014 05:36 AM PDT Smartphones and tablets may hold the key to getting more clinicians to screen patients for tobacco use and advise smokers on how to quit. Even though tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the U.S., clinicians often don't ask about smoking during patient exams.

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