ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Hi-ho! Astronomers discover seven dwarf galaxies with new telescope
• NASA spacecraft observes further evidence of dry ice gullies on Mars
• Orbital Sciences’ second mission to deliver delights to space station
• NASA’s newest near Earth network antenna is operational
• Your next Angry Birds opponent could be a robot
• Uncertainty gives scientists new confidence in search for novel materials
• Powerful new source of up-to-date information on economic activity
• Neutron crystallography resolves long-standing molecular mystery
• Sun-like stars reveal their ages
• Standardization of safe imaging protocols for children needed, experts say
• Silicon oxide for better computer memory: Use of porous silicon oxide reduces forming voltage, improves manufacturability
• Computer security: 'Melbourne Shuffle' secures data in the cloud
• Radio-burst discovery deepens astrophysics mystery
• Agile aperture antenna tested on aircraft to survey ground emitters, maintain satellite connection
• Straits of Mackinac 'worst possible place' for a Great Lakes oil spill, researcher concludes
• Mobile phone bling may be personal, and also cultural thing
• Hubble spots spiral bridge of young stars linking two ancient galaxies
• Advancing the limits for ultrafast nano-devices
• How to uncover the true face of atomic nuclei
• Speeding up data storage by a thousand times with 'spin current'
• New window into high-energy processes on the sun

Hi-ho! Astronomers discover seven dwarf galaxies with new telescope Posted: 10 Jul 2014 03:36 PM PDT Meet the seven new dwarf galaxies. Astronomers, using a new type of telescope made by stitching together telephoto lenses, recently discovered seven celestial surprises while probing a nearby spiral galaxy. The previously unseen galaxies may yield important insights into dark matter and galaxy evolution, while possibly signaling the discovery of a new class of objects in space.

NASA spacecraft observes further evidence of dry ice gullies on Mars Posted: 10 Jul 2014 03:30 PM PDT Repeated high-resolution observations made by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) indicate the gullies on Mars' surface are primarily formed by the seasonal freezing of carbon dioxide, not liquid water. The first reports of formative gullies on Mars in 2000 generated excitement and headlines because they suggested the presence of liquid water on the Red Planet, the eroding action of which forms gullies here on Earth. Mars has water vapor and plenty of frozen water, but the presence of liquid water on the neighboring planet, a necessity for all known life, has not been confirmed.

Orbital Sciences’ second mission to deliver delights to space station Posted: 10 Jul 2014 01:35 PM PDT Satellites, Girl Scouts and good ole Charlie Brown highlight Orbital Sciences Corporation's second commercial resupply voyage to the International Space Station. The mission, Orbital-2, will both deliver new scientific investigations to the space station, as well as help build upon and expand prior studies. The launch of Orbital's Antares rocket is planned for July 12 from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport's Pad 0A at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia. Antares is schedule to deliver the Cygnus spacecraft to the space station on July 15.

NASA’s newest near Earth network antenna is operational Posted: 10 Jul 2014 12:53 PM PDT A ribbon-cutting ceremony near the base of the new NASA antenna within the Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF) marked the official beginning for the Near Earth Network (NEN) asset. Operated by the University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF), the facility is a prime polar location for NASA and part of its globally distributing ground-based network providing communication services for orbiting spacecraft.

Your next Angry Birds opponent could be a robot Posted: 10 Jul 2014 12:17 PM PDT With the help of a smart tablet and Angry Birds, children can now do something typically reserved for engineers and computer scientists: program a robot to learn new skills. The project is designed to serve as a rehabilitation tool and to help kids with disabilities.

Uncertainty gives scientists new confidence in search for novel materials Posted: 10 Jul 2014 11:16 AM PDT Scientists have found a way to estimate uncertainties in computer calculations that are widely used to speed the search for new materials for industry, electronics, energy, drug design and a host of other applications. The technique should quickly be adopted in studies that produce some 30,000 scientific papers per year.

Powerful new source of up-to-date information on economic activity Posted: 10 Jul 2014 11:15 AM PDT Researchers have developed a new data infrastructure for measuring economic activity. The infrastructure uses aggregated and de-identified data on transactions and account balances from Check, a mobile payments app, to produce accurate and comprehensive measures of consumers' spending and income on a daily basis.

Neutron crystallography resolves long-standing molecular mystery Posted: 10 Jul 2014 11:14 AM PDT Scientists have solved a long-standing mystery in biology, by identifying the molecular structure of a vital biological chemical. The debate -- which has raged within the scientific community for years -- boils down to something as simple as a hydrogen atom: is it there, or is it not?

Sun-like stars reveal their ages Posted: 10 Jul 2014 10:10 AM PDT A new technique for measuring the age of a star using its spin -- gyrochronology -- is coming into its own. Today astronomers are presenting the gyrochronological ages of 22 sun-like stars. Before this, only two sun-like stars had measured spins and ages.

Standardization of safe imaging protocols for children needed, experts say Posted: 10 Jul 2014 10:10 AM PDT The benefits of medical imaging far outweigh the risks when children receive The Right Exam, ordered The Right Way, with The Right Radiation Dose. However, overuse and misuse of imaging change the benefit-risk ratio, say researchers. "No hospital or medical imaging facility in the country should be granted the privilege of imaging children unless it first meets fundamental safe practice performance measures," says the lead author and radiologist.

Silicon oxide for better computer memory: Use of porous silicon oxide reduces forming voltage, improves manufacturability Posted: 10 Jul 2014 10:10 AM PDT A breakthrough silicon oxide technology for high-density, next-generation computer memory is one step closer to mass production, thanks to a refinement that will allow manufacturers to fabricate devices at room temperature with conventional production methods.

Computer security: 'Melbourne Shuffle' secures data in the cloud Posted: 10 Jul 2014 08:19 AM PDT Encryption might not be enough for all that data stored in the cloud. Usage patterns -- which files are accessed and when -- can give away secrets as well. Computer scientists have developed an algorithm to sweep away those digital footprints. They call it the Melbourne Shuffle.

Radio-burst discovery deepens astrophysics mystery Posted: 10 Jul 2014 08:15 AM PDT The discovery of a split-second burst of radio waves by scientists using the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico provides important new evidence of mysterious pulses that appear to come from deep in outer space. Exactly what may be causing such radio bursts represents a major new enigma for astrophysicists.

Agile aperture antenna tested on aircraft to survey ground emitters, maintain satellite connection Posted: 10 Jul 2014 08:15 AM PDT A software-defined, electronically-reconfigurable Agile Aperture Antenna has now been tested on the land, sea and air. Two of the low-power devices, which can change beam directions in a thousandth of a second, were demonstrated in an aircraft during recent flight tests. One device, looking up, maintained a satellite data connection as the aircraft changed headings, banked and rolled, while the other antenna looked down to track electromagnetic emitters on the ground.

Straits of Mackinac 'worst possible place' for a Great Lakes oil spill, researcher concludes Posted: 10 Jul 2014 08:15 AM PDT Because the strong currents in the Straits of Mackinac reverse direction every few days, a rupture of the oil pipeline beneath the channel would quickly contaminate shorelines miles away in both lakes Michigan and Huron, according to a new study. An oil spill in the Straits of Mackinac would devastate the local tourism industry as well as the area's fish and wildlife, researchers say. The best way to remedy the threat, according to the organization, is to replace the pipeline under the straits.

Mobile phone bling may be personal, and also cultural thing Posted: 10 Jul 2014 07:15 AM PDT Choosing mobile phone cases and customizing phones with charms and decorations may reveal a lot about a person's culture, as well as increase attachment to the devices, according to researchers. "The more you customize your phone for aesthetic reasons the more it reflects who you are," said one author. "You see your phone as your self."

Hubble spots spiral bridge of young stars linking two ancient galaxies Posted: 10 Jul 2014 07:14 AM PDT NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has photographed an unusual structure 100,000 light-years long, which resembles a corkscrew-shaped string of pearls and winds around the cores of two colliding galaxies. The unique structure of the star spiral may yield new insights into the formation of stellar superclusters that result from merging galaxies and gas dynamics in this rarely seen process.

Advancing the limits for ultrafast nano-devices Posted: 10 Jul 2014 05:14 AM PDT A recent study provides new insights on the physical mechanisms governing the interplay of spin and heat at the nanoscale, and addresses the fundamental limits of ultrafast spintronic devices for data storage and information processing.

How to uncover the true face of atomic nuclei Posted: 10 Jul 2014 05:12 AM PDT Protons and neutrons are the basic constituents of atomic nuclei. Are they distributed homogeneously, or perhaps in quartets consisting of two protons and two neutrons? Physicists have recently presented an idea how this issue may be investigated in future experiments.

Speeding up data storage by a thousand times with 'spin current' Posted: 10 Jul 2014 05:12 AM PDT A hard drive stores bits in the form of tiny magnetic domains. The directions of the magnetic north and south poles of these domains, which are referred to as the magnetization, determine whether they are a 0 or a 1. Data is stored by changing the direction of the magnetization of the associated bits. At present this is done using a write head to create a local magnetic field, which makes a bit change direction.

New window into high-energy processes on the sun Posted: 09 Jul 2014 03:22 PM PDT Understanding the sun from afar isn't easy. NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft -- which orbits Mercury, and so is as close as 28 million miles from the sun versus Earth's 93 million miles -- is near enough to the sun to detect solar neutrons that are created in solar flares.

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