ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• BOSS quasars track the expanding universe: Most precise measurement yet
• Trees go high-tech: Process turns cellulose into energy storage devices
• Rebar technique strengthens case for graphene: Hybrid nanotube-graphene material promises to simplify manufacturing
• Personal touch signature makes mobile devices more secure
• Rage-quitting: Feelings of failure, not violent content, foster aggression in video gamers
• Twitter use linked to infidelity and divorce
• Hi-tech innovation gauges science learning in preschoolers
• Organic solar cells more efficient with molecules face-to-face
• New findings to help extend high efficiency solar cells' lifetime
• Switching off anxiety with light: Cone opsins coupled with serotonin receptors
• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions: Focus on urban transport solutions distracts from poor planning
• A bird? A plane? Or both? Bio-inspired unmanned aircraft capable of soaring like birds
• Role of magnetic nanoparticles in breast cancer treatment
• Groundbreaking optical device could enhance optical information processing, computers
• Amino acid fingerprints revealed in new study
• Non-invasive imaging instead of repeated biopsy in active monitoring of prostate cancer
• Self-assembled silver superlattices create molecular machines with hydrogen-bond 'hinges' and moving 'gears'
• Tracking the transition of early-universe quark soup to matter-as-we-know-it
• To bridge LED green gap, think small ... really small: Nanostructures half a DNA strand-wide show promise for efficient LEDs
• ChargeLounge: Fast charging reinvented
• Fighting cancer with lasers, nanoballoons that pop
• Bioengineer studying how the brain controls movement

BOSS quasars track the expanding universe: Most precise measurement yet Posted: 07 Apr 2014 11:37 AM PDT Scientists have made novel measurements of the structure of the universe when it was only about 3 billion years old, using quasars collected by the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). Results include the most precise measurement of expansion since galaxies formed. BOSS, the largest component of the third Sloan Digital Sky Survey, pioneered the use of quasars to chart universal expansion and the role of dark energy.

Trees go high-tech: Process turns cellulose into energy storage devices Posted: 07 Apr 2014 10:10 AM PDT A fundamental chemical discovery should allow tress to soon play a major role in making high-tech energy storage devices. A method has been discovered to turn cellulose -- the most abundant organic polymer on Earth and a key component of trees –- into the building blocks for supercapacitors.

Rebar technique strengthens case for graphene: Hybrid nanotube-graphene material promises to simplify manufacturing Posted: 07 Apr 2014 10:10 AM PDT Carbon nanotubes become reinforcing bars that make two-dimensional graphene much easier to handle in a hybrid material. Chemists set nanotubes into graphene in a way that not only mimics how steel rebar is used in concrete but also preserves and even improves the electrical and mechanical qualities of both. The technique should make large, flexible, conductive and transparent sheets of graphene much easier to manipulate, which should be of interest to electronics manufacturers.

Personal touch signature makes mobile devices more secure Posted: 07 Apr 2014 10:09 AM PDT Researchers have developed a new security system that continuously monitors how a user taps and swipes a mobile device. If the movements don't match the owner's tendencies, the system recognizes the differences and can be programmed to lock the device.

Rage-quitting: Feelings of failure, not violent content, foster aggression in video gamers Posted: 07 Apr 2014 08:31 AM PDT The disturbing imagery or violent storylines of videos games like World of Warcraft or Grand Theft Auto are often accused of fostering feelings of aggression in players. But a new study shows hostile behavior is linked to gamers' experiences of failure and frustration during play—not to a game's violent content.

Twitter use linked to infidelity and divorce Posted: 07 Apr 2014 07:17 AM PDT Scientists found that active Twitter users are far more likely to experience Twitter–related conflict with their romantic partners. However, new research shows that Twitter use could actually be damaging to users' romantic relationships. Scientists found that active Twitter users are far more likely to experience Twitter-related conflict with their romantic partners.

Hi-tech innovation gauges science learning in preschoolers Posted: 07 Apr 2014 07:17 AM PDT An iPad app is the first of its kind to examine how preschoolers can learn about science by getting back to nature. The iPad application is being used to streamline a research technique known as behavior mapping. The researchers say this form of data collection has been used for 40 years to assist environmental psychologists and landscape architects in studying the connection between behaviors and physical characteristics of space.

Organic solar cells more efficient with molecules face-to-face Posted: 07 Apr 2014 07:14 AM PDT New research reveals that energy is transferred more efficiently inside of complex, three-dimensional organic solar cells when the donor molecules align face-on, rather than edge-on, relative to the acceptor.

New findings to help extend high efficiency solar cells' lifetime Posted: 07 Apr 2014 06:05 AM PDT Scientists have made a surprising discovery about the degradation of solar cells that could help pave the way to creating a longer lifetime for these cells.  Key factors for creating cost-efficient solar cells to compete with conventional energy sources like fossil fuels include fabrication cost, efficiency and lifetime of the cells.

Switching off anxiety with light: Cone opsins coupled with serotonin receptors Posted: 07 Apr 2014 06:04 AM PDT Receptors for the messenger molecule serotonin can be modified in such a way that they can be activated by light, a study shows. An imbalance in serotonin levels seems to cause anxiety and depression. The researchers have provided a new model system for investigating the mechanism underlying these dysfunctions in cell cultures as well as living organisms.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions: Focus on urban transport solutions distracts from poor planning Posted: 07 Apr 2014 06:04 AM PDT If you think transportation solutions are essential for reducing greenhouse emissions and growing economic opportunity in rapidly-expanding cities, think again. Scientists now say we're looking at the problem the wrong way.

A bird? A plane? Or both? Bio-inspired unmanned aircraft capable of soaring like birds Posted: 07 Apr 2014 06:03 AM PDT Researchers are developing a bio-inspired unmanned aircraft capable of soaring like birds, boosting energy efficiency and endurance. The research team is aiming to be the first in the world to demonstrate an autonomous unmanned aircraft that can mimic birds by using updrafts around buildings to stay airborne.

Role of magnetic nanoparticles in breast cancer treatment Posted: 07 Apr 2014 06:02 AM PDT While exploring the promise of magnetic nanoparticle (mNP) hyperthermia in breast cancer treatment, a researcher reviews preclinical studies and discusses plans for early-phase clinical studies in humans. This evolving treatment approach involves the injection of nanoparticles into the tumor, which are then activated with magnetic energy. Once activated the nanoparticles produce heat inside the cancer cell. The heat kills the cancer cell with minimal damage to surrounding tissue.

Groundbreaking optical device could enhance optical information processing, computers Posted: 06 Apr 2014 01:24 PM PDT At St. Paul's Cathedral in London, a section of the dome called the Whispering Gallery makes a whisper audible from the other side of the dome as a result of the way sound waves travel around the curved surface. Researchers have used the same phenomenon to build an optical device that may lead to new and more powerful computers that run faster and cooler.

Amino acid fingerprints revealed in new study Posted: 06 Apr 2014 01:24 PM PDT A major step has been taken toward the sequencing of proteins, demonstrating the accurate identification of amino acids, by briefly pinning each in a narrow junction between a pair of flanking electrodes and measuring a characteristic chain of current spikes passing through successive amino acid molecules.

Non-invasive imaging instead of repeated biopsy in active monitoring of prostate cancer Posted: 06 Apr 2014 01:24 PM PDT A novel method to 'manipulate the lipid metabolism in the cancer cell to trick them to use more radiolabeled glucose, the basis of PET scanning' is being described by researchers. The current study used the clinically safe drug etomoxir to block prostate cancer cells' ability to oxidize lipids. With the lipid energy source removed, cells switched to glucose metabolism and both cells and mouse models roughly doubled their uptake of radiolabeled glucose.

Self-assembled silver superlattices create molecular machines with hydrogen-bond 'hinges' and moving 'gears' Posted: 06 Apr 2014 01:22 PM PDT A combined computational and experimental study of self-assembled silver-based structures known as superlattices has revealed an unusual and unexpected behavior: arrays of gear-like molecular-scale machines that rotate in unison when pressure is applied to them.

Tracking the transition of early-universe quark soup to matter-as-we-know-it Posted: 04 Apr 2014 10:58 AM PDT By smashing together ordinary atomic nuclei at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, scientists recreate the primordial soup of the early universe thousands of times per second. Using sophisticated detectors to track what happens as exotic particles emerge from the collision zone and "freeze out" into more familiar forms of matter, they are turning up interesting details about how the transition takes place.

To bridge LED green gap, think small ... really small: Nanostructures half a DNA strand-wide show promise for efficient LEDs Posted: 04 Apr 2014 06:29 AM PDT Nanostructures half the breadth of a DNA strand could improve the efficiency of light emitting diodes according to new simulations. Nanostructure LEDs made from indium nitride could lead to more natural-looking white lighting while avoiding some of the efficiency loss today's LEDs experience at high power.

ChargeLounge: Fast charging reinvented Posted: 04 Apr 2014 05:55 AM PDT The ChargeLounge is set to change what recharging electric vehicles is all about: high-charging capacity, easy installation, access to a stylish lounge during recharging and an innovative business model are all part of the unique ChargeLounge.

Fighting cancer with lasers, nanoballoons that pop Posted: 03 Apr 2014 05:44 AM PDT Researchers are developing a better delivery method for cancer drugs by encapsulating the drugs in nanoballoons -- which are tiny modified liposomes that, upon being struck by a red laser, pop open and deliver concentrated doses of medicine. The innovation could improve cancer treatment, reduce its side effects and boost research about the disease, which annually kills millions of people worldwide.

Bioengineer studying how the brain controls movement Posted: 02 Apr 2014 06:19 PM PDT Bioengineers are working to understand how the brain circuitry controls how we move. The goal is to develop new technologies to help patients with Parkinson's disease and other debilitating medical conditions navigate the world on their own. Outcomes of this research are contributing to the system-level understanding of human-machine interactions, and motor learning and control in real world environments for humans, and are leading to the development of a new generation of wireless brain and body activity sensors and adaptive prosthetics devices.

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