ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Microscopic worms could hold the key to living life on Mars
• Efficiency metrics for energy storage devices need standardization
• 3-D printer used to make bone-like material
• A smarter way to make ultraviolet light beams
• Making a light-harvesting antenna from scratch
• Graphene lights up with new possibilities: Two-step technique makes graphene suitable for organic chemistry
• E. coli bacteria engineered to eat switchgrass and make transportation fuels
• Imperfections may improve graphene sensors
• The interplay of dancing electrons
• Big success with tiny crystals
• Shocking new way to create nanoporous materials
• Kilobots are leaving the nest: Swarm of tiny, collaborative robots will be made available to researchers, educators, and enthusiasts

Microscopic worms could hold the key to living life on Mars Posted: 29 Nov 2011 04:31 PM PST The astrophysicist Stephen Hawking believes that if humanity is to survive we will have up sticks and colonize space. But is the human body up to the challenge? Scientists believe that Caenorhabditis elegans, a microscopic worm which has biologically similarities to human beings, could help us understand how humans might cope with long-duration space exploration.

Efficiency metrics for energy storage devices need standardization Posted: 29 Nov 2011 03:59 PM PST Solving the mystery of prematurely dead cell phone and laptop batteries may prove to be a vital step toward creating a sustainable energy grid according to researchers. Scientists now call for a new, standardized gauge of performance measurement for energy storage devices.

3-D printer used to make bone-like material Posted: 29 Nov 2011 03:59 PM PST It looks like bone. It feels like bone. For the most part, it acts like bone. And it came off an inkjet printer. Researchers have used a 3-D printer to create a bone-like material that can be used in orthopedic procedures, dental work, and to deliver medicine for treating osteoporosis. Paired with actual bone, it acts as a scaffold for new bone to grow on and ultimately dissolves with no apparent ill effects.

A smarter way to make ultraviolet light beams Posted: 29 Nov 2011 01:29 PM PST Existing coherent ultraviolet light sources are power hungry, bulky and expensive. Researchers have found a better way to build compact ultraviolet sources with low power consumption that could improve information storage, microscopy and chemical analysis.

Making a light-harvesting antenna from scratch Posted: 29 Nov 2011 11:20 AM PST Scientists have succeeded in making a light-harvesting antenna from scratch. The new antenna, modeled on the chlorosome found in green bacteria, is a giant assembly of pigment molecules. Perhaps nature's most spectacular light-harvesting antennae, chlorosomes allow green bacteria to photosynthesize even in the dim light in ocean deeps.

Graphene lights up with new possibilities: Two-step technique makes graphene suitable for organic chemistry Posted: 29 Nov 2011 09:35 AM PST The future brightened for organic chemistry when researchers found a highly controllable way to attach organic molecules to pristine graphene, making the miracle material suitable for a range of new applications.

E. coli bacteria engineered to eat switchgrass and make transportation fuels Posted: 29 Nov 2011 09:33 AM PST Strains of E. coli bacteria were engineered to digest switchgrass biomass and synthesize its sugars into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. The switchgrass, which is among the most highly touted of the potential feedstocks for advanced biofuels, was pre-treated with ionic liquid, a key to the success of this study.

Imperfections may improve graphene sensors Posted: 29 Nov 2011 08:23 AM PST Although they found that graphene makes very good chemical sensors, researchers have discovered an unexpected "twist" -- that the sensors are better when the graphene is "worse" -- more imperfections improved performance.

The interplay of dancing electrons Posted: 29 Nov 2011 06:20 AM PST Negative ions play an important role in everything from how our bodies function to the structure of the universe. Scientists have now developed a new method that makes it possible to study how the electrons in negative ions interact in, which is important in, for example, superconductors and in radiocarbon dating.

Big success with tiny crystals Posted: 29 Nov 2011 06:13 AM PST A little piece of iron wire is magnetic – just like a huge iron rod. When it comes to material properties, size usually does not matter. Surprisingly, researchers from Austria and India have now discovered that some materials show very unusual behavior, when they are studied in the form of tiny crystals. This could now lead to new materials with tailor-made electronic and magnetic properties.

Shocking new way to create nanoporous materials Posted: 27 Nov 2011 04:43 PM PST Scientists have developed a new method of creating nanoporous materials with potential applications in everything from water purification to chemical sensors.

Kilobots are leaving the nest: Swarm of tiny, collaborative robots will be made available to researchers, educators, and enthusiasts Posted: 22 Nov 2011 08:20 AM PST

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