ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Cracks in Pluto's moon could indicate it once had an underground ocean
• Aromatic flavors of haze on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, recreated
• Emotional contagion sweeps Facebook, finds new study
• Who's using your data? New technology to track how your private data is used online
• Crossing the goal line: New tech tracks football in 3-D space
• High electron mobility gases generated in semiconductor nanowires for first time
• Breakthrough for information technology using Heusler materials: May lead to very high performance spintronic components
• Researchers 'cage' water to see it change form
• Iberian Peninsula’s geothermal power can generate current electrical capacity five times over
• Muon detector could help UK reduce carbon emissions
• Identifying cyst-laden meat: Sarcocystis thermostable PCR detection kit developed
• Creating a water layer for a clearer view
• Forging new ground in oil forensics: Deepwater Horizon Oil on shore even years later, after most has degraded
• New computer program aims to teach itself everything about any visual concept
• Quantum computation: Fragile yet error-free
• Long-range tunneling of quantum particles
• Active particles may enhance phase separation
• DNA-linked nanoparticles form switchable 'thin films' on a liquid surface
• Smart transportation systems for U.S. freeways: Guarding against 'Carmageddon' cyberattacks

Cracks in Pluto's moon could indicate it once had an underground ocean Posted: 13 Jun 2014 12:28 PM PDT If the icy surface of Pluto's giant moon Charon is cracked, analysis of the fractures could reveal if its interior was warm, perhaps warm enough to have maintained a subterranean ocean of liquid water, according to a new study.

Aromatic flavors of haze on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, recreated Posted: 13 Jun 2014 12:28 PM PDT Scientists have created a new recipe that captures key flavors of the brownish-orange atmosphere around Saturn's largest moon, Titan. The recipe is used for lab experiments designed to simulate Titan's chemistry. With this approach, the team was able to classify a previously unidentified material discovered in the moon's smoggy haze.

Emotional contagion sweeps Facebook, finds new study Posted: 13 Jun 2014 11:25 AM PDT When it hasn't been your day – your week, your month, or even your year – it might be time to turn to Facebook friends for a little positive reinforcement. Emotions can spread contagiously among users of online social networks, both positive and negative, researchers report. The experiment is the first to suggest that emotions expressed via online social networks influence the moods of others, they say.

Who's using your data? New technology to track how your private data is used online Posted: 13 Jun 2014 10:07 AM PDT By now, most people feel comfortable conducting financial transactions on the Web. The cryptographic schemes that protect online banking and credit card purchases have proven their reliability over decades. As more of our data moves online, a more pressing concern may be its inadvertent misuse by people authorized to access it. Every month seems to bring another story of private information accidentally leaked by governmental agencies or vendors of digital products or services.

Crossing the goal line: New tech tracks football in 3-D space Posted: 13 Jun 2014 07:16 AM PDT Referees may soon have a new way of determining whether a football team has scored a touchdown or gotten a first down. Researchers have developed a system that can track a football in three-dimensional space using low-frequency magnetic fields.

High electron mobility gases generated in semiconductor nanowires for first time Posted: 13 Jun 2014 05:44 AM PDT Nanotechnology, optics and photovoltaic energy are among the fields that can benefit from advances in knowledge on semiconductor nanowire systems. Researchers have succeeded to prove, for the first time, the accumulation of high electron mobility gases in multilayer nanowires from a technique called "remote doping".

Breakthrough for information technology using Heusler materials: May lead to very high performance spintronic components Posted: 13 Jun 2014 05:44 AM PDT It is the breakthrough that physicists and chemists around the world have long anticipated and it will play a pivotal role in information technology in coming years. Researchers have managed, for the first time, to directly observe the 100 percent spin polarization of a Heusler compound. Heusler alloys are composed of several metallic elements arranged in a lattice structure. They are among those materials that potentially can be used for ever smaller data storage components with ever greater storage capacity.

Researchers 'cage' water to see it change form Posted: 13 Jun 2014 05:44 AM PDT Scientists are using a pioneering method of 'caging' and cooling water molecules to study the change in orientation of the magnetic nuclei at the center of each hydrogen atom - a process which transforms the molecule from one form of water to another. By trapping water molecules in carbon spheres and cooling them, scientists have been able to follow the change in form (or isomer) of the molecules.

Iberian Peninsula’s geothermal power can generate current electrical capacity five times over Posted: 13 Jun 2014 05:44 AM PDT About 500 power stations around the world use geothermal power to generate electricity, although there are yet to be any in Spain. The temperature increases by 30 ºC for every kilometer further underground. This thermal gradient, generated by the flow of heat from the inside of the Earth and the breakdown of radioactive elements in the crust, produces geothermal power.

Muon detector could help UK reduce carbon emissions Posted: 13 Jun 2014 05:44 AM PDT A specialist detector which is set to play a fundamental part in helping the UK reduce its carbon emissions is being developed. Muon detectors which exploit cosmic-ray muons, a natural radiation to see through kilometers of rock -- in a similar way to X-rays being used to see inside a patient's body -- are being developed to improve monitoring of the process of subsurface carbon storage.

Identifying cyst-laden meat: Sarcocystis thermostable PCR detection kit developed Posted: 12 Jun 2014 06:24 PM PDT Consumption of undercooked cyst-laden meat from cattle, sheep and goats may cause infection in humans. Researchers have successfully invented a PCR kit which provides a suitable and feasible means of screening, detection and identification with high sensitivity and specificity of the parasite.

Creating a water layer for a clearer view Posted: 12 Jun 2014 06:24 PM PDT Scientists have invented a new permanent surface coating that attracts water instead of repelling it, for a better, clearer view. The patented technology simplifies the coating process, making it more cost-effective for manufacturers.

Forging new ground in oil forensics: Deepwater Horizon Oil on shore even years later, after most has degraded Posted: 12 Jun 2014 12:30 PM PDT Years after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil spill, oil continues to wash ashore as oil-soaked 'sand patties,' persists in salt marshes abutting the Gulf of Mexico, and questions remain about how much oil has been deposited on the seafloor. Scientists have developed a unique way to fingerprint oil, and have successfully identified Macondo Well oil, even after most of it has degraded.

New computer program aims to teach itself everything about any visual concept Posted: 12 Jun 2014 12:27 PM PDT In today's digitally driven world, access to information appears limitless. But when you have something specific in mind that you don't know, like the name of that niche kitchen tool you saw at a friend's house, it can be surprisingly hard to sift through the volume of information online and know how to search for it. Or, the opposite problem can occur -- we can look up anything on the Internet, but how can we be sure we are finding everything about the topic without spending hours in front of the computer? Computer scientists have created the first fully automated computer program that teaches everything there is to know about any visual concept.

Quantum computation: Fragile yet error-free Posted: 12 Jun 2014 11:22 AM PDT Physicists have experimentally encoded one quantum bit (qubit) in entangled states distributed over several particles and for the first time carried out simple computations on it. The 7-qubit quantum register could be used as the main building block for a quantum computer that corrects any type of error.

Long-range tunneling of quantum particles Posted: 12 Jun 2014 11:22 AM PDT One of the most remarkable consequences of the rules in quantum mechanics is the capability of a quantum particle to penetrate through a potential barrier even though its energy would not allow for the corresponding classical trajectory. This is known as the quantum tunnel effect and manifests itself in a multitude of well-known phenomena. For example, it explains nuclear radioactive decay, fusion reactions in the interior of stars, and electron transport through quantum dots. Tunneling also is at the heart of many technical applications, for instance it allows for imaging of surfaces on the atomic length scale in scanning tunneling microscopes.

Active particles may enhance phase separation Posted: 12 Jun 2014 05:51 AM PDT A research team has studied the phase separation of a mixture of active and passive particles via molecular dynamics simulations and integral equation theoretical calculations. The distinctive feature of the model used is that the "activity" of the particles is tunable, containing passive particles as a limiting case for which already phase separation occurs.

DNA-linked nanoparticles form switchable 'thin films' on a liquid surface Posted: 11 Jun 2014 06:31 AM PDT Scientists have used DNA-linked nanoparticles to form a single-particle-thick layer on a liquid surface where the properties of the layer can be easily switched. Understanding the assembly of such nanostructured thin films provides a possible pathway to adjustable filters, surfaces with variable mechanical response, or even new ways to deliver genes for biomedical applications.

Smart transportation systems for U.S. freeways: Guarding against 'Carmageddon' cyberattacks Posted: 11 Jun 2014 06:30 AM PDT The tightly integrated computing and networking systems required to turn the nation's freeways in "smart transportation systems" are currently under development. The efforts of the Smart Roads Cyber-Physical Systems project to identify cyber attacks against these systems and to develop software to protect them is dramatized by the video scenario "Mitigating Carmageddon" featured at the SmartAmerica Expo in Washington DC.

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