ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• New way to make lighter, stronger steel -- in a flash
• Want better math teachers? Then train them better
• Engineers envision 2-dimensional graphene metamaterials and 1-atom-thick optical devices
• New driving force for chemical reactions
• Meteorite holds clues to organic chemistry of early Earth
• The downside -- and surprising upside –- of microcredit
• Chemists devise better way to prepare workhorse molecules
• Physicists hit on mathematical description of superfluid dynamics
• Magnetic bubbles reside at solar system edge, NASA probes suggest
• Chemistry with sunlight
• New supernova remnant lights up: SN1987A shines again

New way to make lighter, stronger steel -- in a flash Posted: 09 Jun 2011 02:37 PM PDT A Detroit entrepreneur surprised university engineers recently when he invented a heat-treatment that makes steel 7 percent stronger than any steel on record -- in less than 10 seconds. In fact, the steel has tested stronger and more shock-absorbing than the most common titanium alloys used by industry.

Want better math teachers? Then train them better Posted: 09 Jun 2011 12:15 PM PDT It's time for the United States to consider establishing higher standards for math teachers if the nation is going to break its "vicious cycle" of mediocrity, an education scholar argues.

Engineers envision 2-dimensional graphene metamaterials and 1-atom-thick optical devices Posted: 09 Jun 2011 11:15 AM PDT Engineers have proposed the possibility of two-dimensional metamaterials. These one-atom- thick metamaterials could be achieved by controlling the conductivity of sheets of graphene, which is a single layer of carbon atoms.

New driving force for chemical reactions Posted: 09 Jun 2011 11:15 AM PDT Chemists have shown for the first time that a mechanism called tunneling control may drive chemical reactions in directions unexpected from traditional theories.

Meteorite holds clues to organic chemistry of early Earth Posted: 09 Jun 2011 11:15 AM PDT Carbonaceous chondrites are organic-rich meteorites that contain samples of the materials that took part in the creation of our planets nearly 4.6 billion years ago. The complex suite of organic materials found in carbonaceous chondrites can vary substantially. New research shows that most of these variations are the result of hydrothermal activity that took place within a few million years of the solar system's formation, when the meteorites were still part of larger bodies.

The downside -- and surprising upside –- of microcredit Posted: 09 Jun 2011 11:15 AM PDT Microcredit, which involves giving small loans to very small businesses in an effort to promote entrepreneurship, has been widely touted as a way to reduce poverty and stimulate economic growth. But in a new study, researchers find that the practice may not be an efficient tool in promoting business growth or improving the lives of its beneficiaries, but could instead have just the opposite effect. However, they did discover other surprising advantages.

Chemists devise better way to prepare workhorse molecules Posted: 09 Jun 2011 11:15 AM PDT Scientists report a new environmentally friendly way to make substituted aromatic molecules that can be customized for different industrial needs.

Physicists hit on mathematical description of superfluid dynamics Posted: 09 Jun 2011 11:15 AM PDT A century after the discovery of superfluids, scientists using a powerful supercomputer have devised a theoretical framework that explains the real-time behavior of superfluids.

Magnetic bubbles reside at solar system edge, NASA probes suggest Posted: 09 Jun 2011 10:21 AM PDT Observations from NASA's Voyager spacecraft, humanity's farthest deep space sentinels, suggest the edge of our solar system may not be smooth, but filled with a turbulent sea of magnetic bubbles.

Chemistry with sunlight Posted: 09 Jun 2011 09:33 AM PDT Researchers can make the oxidation reactions used in the synthesis of organic molecules cleaner by hitching photovoltaics to electrochemistry. The idea is simple and yet it has huge implications. To underscore the simplicity of the idea, researchers used a $6 solar cell sold on the Internet and intended to power toy cars to run a variety of chemical reactions. If their suggestion were widely adopted by the chemical industry, it would eliminate the toxic byproducts currently produced by a class of reactions commonly used in chemical synthesis -- and with them the environmental and economic damage they cause.

New supernova remnant lights up: SN1987A shines again Posted: 09 Jun 2011 08:29 AM PDT Light from an exploding star in a neighboring galaxy has suddenly begun to glow brighter as the shock wave and X-rays hit surrounding debris. What we are witnessing the the change from an active supernova to a supernova remnant.

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