ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Study of animal urination could lead to better-engineered products
• Study helps unlock mystery of high-temp superconductors
• Reigning in chaos in particle colliders yields big results
• Potentially habitable Earth-like planet discovered; May have similar temperatures to our planet
• 19th century math tactic gets a makeover -- and yields answers up to 200 times faster
• Energy storage technology: More pores for more power
• Artificial enzyme mimics natural detoxification mechanism in liver cells
• Smashing new look at nanoribbons: Researchers unzip nanotubes by shooting them at 15,000 mph
• Interlayer distance in graphite oxide gradually changes when water is added
• Doctors urge caution with Fourth of July fireworks
• Green spaces in cities may increase erosion of building materials such as stone, concrete and steel
• Scientists develop force sensor from carbon nanotubes
• Bio-printing transplantable tissues, organs: Another step closer
• Mysterious features on Saturn's Titan reveal the moon's seasonal changes
• Water samples teeming with information: Emerging techniques for environmental monitoring
• Young teens who receive sexts are six times more likely to report having had sex
• Videoconferencing with family, friends lowers stress for pediatric patients
• Bosses use private social media more than staff
• Quantum dots created with single-atom precision
• Algae as chemical raw materials
• Insights from nature for more efficient water splitting
• Silver in the washing machine: Nano-coatings release almost no nano-particles, experts say
• Successful test of saucer-shaped vehicle for future Mars missions
• Counterintuitive phenomenon: Coexistence of superconductivity with dissipation
• Improved method for isotope enrichment could secure a vital global commodity
• Single-pixel 'multiplex' captures elusive terahertz images
• Watching individual neurons respond to magnetic therapy
• Marine bacteria are natural source of chemical fire retardants
• Notorious pathogen forms slimy 'streamers' to clog up medical devices
• Silver lining found for making new drugs

Study of animal urination could lead to better-engineered products Posted: 30 Jun 2014 01:40 PM PDT A new study investigated how quickly 32 animals urinate. It turns out that it's all about the same. Even though an elephant's bladder is 3,600 times larger than a cat's (18 liters vs. 5 milliliters), both animals relieve themselves in about 20 seconds.

Study helps unlock mystery of high-temp superconductors Posted: 30 Jun 2014 01:39 PM PDT Physicists say they have unlocked one key mystery surrounding high-temperature superconductivity. Their research found a remarkable phenomenon in copper-oxide (cuprate) high-temperature superconductors.

Reigning in chaos in particle colliders yields big results Posted: 30 Jun 2014 11:08 AM PDT Physicists have published details on an important method of detecting and correcting unwanted chaotic behavior in particle colliders. The method is helping accelerator physicists design high-performing, cost-efficient accelerators in an era of constrained science budgets.

Potentially habitable Earth-like planet discovered; May have similar temperatures to our planet Posted: 30 Jun 2014 10:34 AM PDT A potentially habitable Earth-like planet that is only 16 light years away has been discovered. The "super-Earth" planet, GJ 832 c, takes 16 days to orbit its red-dwarf star, GJ 832, and has a mass at least five times that of Earth. It receives about the same average stellar energy as Earth does and may have similar temperatures to our planet. These characteristics put it among the top three most Earth-like planets.

19th century math tactic gets a makeover -- and yields answers up to 200 times faster Posted: 30 Jun 2014 09:49 AM PDT A relic from long before the age of supercomputers, the 169-year-old math strategy called the Jacobi iterative method is widely dismissed today as too slow to be useful. But thanks to a curious, numbers-savvy engineering student and his professor, it may soon get a new lease on life.

Energy storage technology: More pores for more power Posted: 30 Jun 2014 09:43 AM PDT When can we expect to drive the length of Germany in an electric car without having to top up the battery? Chemists have now synthesized a new material that could show the way forward to state-of-the-art lithium-sulfur batteries.

Artificial enzyme mimics natural detoxification mechanism in liver cells Posted: 30 Jun 2014 08:41 AM PDT Molybdenum trioxide nanoparticles oxidize sulfite to sulfate in liver cells in analogy to the enzyme sulfite oxidase, researchers have found. The functionalized Molybdenum trioxide nanoparticles can cross the cellular membrane and accumulate at the mitochondria, where they can recover the activity of sulfite oxidase.

Smashing new look at nanoribbons: Researchers unzip nanotubes by shooting them at 15,000 mph Posted: 30 Jun 2014 08:41 AM PDT Scientists have discovered they can unzip nanotubes into graphene nanoribbons without chemicals by firing them at a target at 15,000 miles per hour. Materials scientists discovered that nanotubes that hit a target end first turn into mostly ragged clumps of atoms. But nanotubes that happen to broadside the target unzip into handy ribbons that can be used in composite materials for strength and applications that take advantage of their desirable electrical properties.

Interlayer distance in graphite oxide gradually changes when water is added Posted: 30 Jun 2014 08:41 AM PDT Physicists have solved a mystery that has puzzled scientists for half a century. They show with the help of powerful microscopes that the distance between graphite oxide layers gradually increases when water molecules are added. That is because the surface of graphite oxide is not flat, but varies in thickness with 'hills' and 'valleys' of nanosize.

Doctors urge caution with Fourth of July fireworks Posted: 30 Jun 2014 08:34 AM PDT Nothing says "Fourth of July" like fireworks, but doctors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center urge caution with consumer fireworks and suggest leaving these displays to the experts. Vanderbilt doctors annually treat burns and eye injuries and even see patients with hearing loss due to fireworks usage.

Green spaces in cities may increase erosion of building materials such as stone, concrete and steel Posted: 30 Jun 2014 07:31 AM PDT Green spaces in towns and cities need extra consideration as they may be damaging buildings in the area, according to new research. When organic chemicals from trees and vegetation mix with air pollutants the resulting corrosive gas can increase the erosion of building materials, including stone, concrete and steel.

Scientists develop force sensor from carbon nanotubes Posted: 30 Jun 2014 07:31 AM PDT Scientists have developed a microscopic force sensor based on carbon nanotubes. The scientists proposed using two nanotubes, one of which is a long cylinder with double walls one atom thick. These tubes are placed so that their open ends are opposite to each other. Voltage is then applied to them, and a current of about 10nA flows through the circuit. Carbon tube walls are good conductors, and along the gap between the ends of the nanotubes the current flows thanks to the tunnel effect, which is a quantum phenomenon where electrons pass through a barrier that is considered insurmountable in classical mechanics.

Bio-printing transplantable tissues, organs: Another step closer Posted: 30 Jun 2014 07:31 AM PDT Researchers have made a giant leap towards the goal of 'bio-printing' transplantable tissues and organs for people affected by major diseases and trauma injuries, a new study reports. Scientists have bio-printed artificial vascular networks mimicking the body's circulatory system that are necessary for growing large complex tissues.

Mysterious features on Saturn's Titan reveal the moon's seasonal changes Posted: 30 Jun 2014 06:48 AM PDT At first glance, Titan has little in common with Earth. The largest moon of Saturn, temperatures on Titan's surface dip nearly 300 F below zero, its seas slosh with liquid methane, and its sky is a murky shade of creamsicle. And yet, fresh analysis of mysterious features spotted on the moon indicates that it experiences one of the same global processes that is important here on Earth. Bright spots in a large lake on Titan suggest that Saturn's largest moon supports processes similar to Earth's water cycle.

Water samples teeming with information: Emerging techniques for environmental monitoring Posted: 30 Jun 2014 06:48 AM PDT Setting effective conservation policies requires near real-time knowledge of environmental conditions. Scientists propose using genetic techniques as a low-cost, quick way to collect such data.

Young teens who receive sexts are six times more likely to report having had sex Posted: 30 Jun 2014 06:47 AM PDT A study provides new understanding of the relationship between 'sexting' and sexual behavior in early adolescence, contributing to the ongoing conversation about whether sexually explicit text messaging is a risk behavior or just a technologically enabled extension of normal teenage flirtation. The latest research found that among middle school students, those who reported receiving a sext were six times more likely to also report being sexually active.

Videoconferencing with family, friends lowers stress for pediatric patients Posted: 30 Jun 2014 06:47 AM PDT To ease isolation during extended hospitalizations, secure videoconferencing for patients and families can enhance quality of life during long hospital stays. Research clinicians wondered if the technology also offered clinical benefits. To answer that, a team studied 367 children who were hospitalized for at least four days, and found that this access significantly reduced patient stress.

Bosses use private social media more than staff Posted: 30 Jun 2014 06:46 AM PDT New research shows that managers hold more negative attitudes to private use of social media at work than subordinates.

Quantum dots created with single-atom precision Posted: 30 Jun 2014 06:45 AM PDT Physicists have used a scanning tunneling microscope to create quantum dots with identical, deterministic sizes. The perfect reproducibility of these dots opens the door to quantum dot architectures completely free of uncontrolled variations, an important goal for technologies from nanophotonics to quantum information processing as well as for fundamental studies.

Algae as chemical raw materials Posted: 30 Jun 2014 06:36 AM PDT Chemists and biologists have succeeded in transforming algae oil into high-quality chemical raw materials via so-called isomerizing alkoxycarbonylation. This provides the foundation for the use of algae as a basic chemical component for a broad spectrum of materials and products, beyond the use of algae as a substitute for crude oil.

Insights from nature for more efficient water splitting Posted: 30 Jun 2014 06:36 AM PDT Water splitting is one of the critical reactions that sustain life on Earth, and could be a key to the creation of future fuels. It is a key in the process of photosynthesis, through which plants produce glucose and oxygen from water and carbon dioxide, using sunlight as energy. However, there are still significant mysteries about the process.

Silver in the washing machine: Nano-coatings release almost no nano-particles, experts say Posted: 30 Jun 2014 06:33 AM PDT The antibacterial properties of silver-coated textiles are popular in the fields of sport and medicine. Scientists have now investigated how different silver coatings behave in the washing machine, and they have discovered something important: textiles with nano-coatings release fewer nano-particles into the washing water than those with normal coatings.

Successful test of saucer-shaped vehicle for future Mars missions Posted: 30 Jun 2014 05:12 AM PDT NASA has successfully conducted the first of three planned tests for the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project, developed to evaluate new landing technologies for future Mars missions. While this initial test was designed to determine the flying ability of the vehicle, it also deployed two new landing technologies as a bonus. Those landing technologies will be officially tested in the next two flights, involving clones of the saucer-shaped vehicle.

Counterintuitive phenomenon: Coexistence of superconductivity with dissipation Posted: 29 Jun 2014 11:21 AM PDT A novel way to fabricate superconducting nanocircuitry has been developed. However, the newly designed extremely small zinc nanowires did some unexpected -- and sort of funky -- things.

Improved method for isotope enrichment could secure a vital global commodity Posted: 29 Jun 2014 11:20 AM PDT Researchers have devised a new method for enriching a group of the world's most expensive chemical commodities, stable isotopes, which are vital to medical imaging and nuclear power. For many isotopes, the new method is cheaper than existing methods. For others, it is more environmentally friendly.

Single-pixel 'multiplex' captures elusive terahertz images Posted: 29 Jun 2014 11:20 AM PDT In an effort that advances attempts to generate images using terahertz light waves, researchers report that they've developing a single-pixel 'multiplex' device that uses boutique metamaterials to capture images in the terahertz realm, which scientists say could play a crucial role in future medical and security imaging initiatives.

Watching individual neurons respond to magnetic therapy Posted: 29 Jun 2014 11:20 AM PDT A method to record an individual neuron's response to transcranial magnetic stimulation therapy has been developed by researchers. The advance will help researchers understand the underlying physiological effects of TMS -- a procedure used to treat psychiatric disorders -- and optimize its use as a therapeutic treatment.

Marine bacteria are natural source of chemical fire retardants Posted: 29 Jun 2014 11:17 AM PDT Researchers have discovered a widely distributed group of marine bacteria that produce compounds nearly identical to toxic human-made fire retardants.

Notorious pathogen forms slimy 'streamers' to clog up medical devices Posted: 26 Jun 2014 06:33 PM PDT A research team has moved a step closer to preventing infections of the common hospital pathogen, Staphylococcus aureus, by revealing the mechanisms that allow the bacteria to rapidly clog up medical devices.

Silver lining found for making new drugs Posted: 26 Jun 2014 09:18 AM PDT Chemists have discovered a new chemical to aid drug manufacturing processes, making it more environmentally friendly and easier to scale up for industry. The scientists discovered that a positively charged molecule known as TMA could replace silver in the manufacturing process, making it more sustainable.

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