ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• NASA developing comet harpoon for sample return
• Preparing for future human exploration, RAD measures radiation on journey to Mars
• Small reactors could figure into US energy future
• New path to flex and stretch electronics: Artificial electronic skin device capable of detecting and responding to touch
• Tycho's star shines in gamma rays, NASA's Fermi shows
• First electronic optical fibers with hydrogenated amorphous silicon are developed
• High-energy physicists set record for network data transfer
• Trillion-frame-per-second video: Researchers have created an imaging system that makes light look slow
• Inspired by insect cuticle, scientists develop material that's tough and strong
• Possible hints of Higgs boson remain in latest analyses, physicists say
• Largest ever gas mix caught in ultra-freeze trap
• The Internet Protocol IPv6: A universal language

NASA developing comet harpoon for sample return Posted: 13 Dec 2011 04:02 PM PST The best way to grab a sample of a rotating comet that is racing through the inner solar system at up to 150,000 miles per hour while spewing chunks of ice, rock and dust may be to avoid the risky business of landing on it. Instead, researchers want to send a spacecraft to rendezvous with a comet, then fire a harpoon to rapidly acquire samples from specific locations with surgical precision while hovering above the target. Using this "standoff" technique would allow samples to be collected even from areas that are much too rugged or dangerous to permit the landing and safe operation of a spacecraft.

Preparing for future human exploration, RAD measures radiation on journey to Mars Posted: 13 Dec 2011 04:02 PM PST The Radiation Assessment Detector, the first instrument on NASA's next rover mission to Mars to begin science operations, was powered up and began collecting data Dec. 6, almost 2 weeks ahead of schedule. RAD is the only instrument scheduled to collect science data on the journey to Mars. The instrument is measuring the energetic particles inside the spacecraft to characterize the radiation environment an astronaut would experience on a future human mission to the Red Planet.

Small reactors could figure into US energy future Posted: 13 Dec 2011 04:01 PM PST A new study concludes that small modular reactors may hold the key to the future of U.S. nuclear power generation.

New path to flex and stretch electronics: Artificial electronic skin device capable of detecting and responding to touch Posted: 13 Dec 2011 04:00 PM PST Researchers have developed a promising new inexpensive technique for fabricating large-scale flexible and stretchable backplanes using semiconductor-enriched carbon nanotube solutions. To demonstrate the utility of their carbon nanotube backplanes, the researchers constructed an artificial electronic skin device capable of detecting and responding to touch.

Tycho's star shines in gamma rays, NASA's Fermi shows Posted: 13 Dec 2011 01:47 PM PST In early November 1572, observers on Earth witnessed the appearance of a "new star" in the constellation Cassiopeia, an event now recognized as the brightest naked-eye supernova in more than 400 years. It's often called "Tycho's supernova" after the great Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, who gained renown for his extensive study of the object. Now, years of data collected by NASA's Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope reveal that the shattered star's remains shine in high-energy gamma rays.

First electronic optical fibers with hydrogenated amorphous silicon are developed Posted: 13 Dec 2011 11:47 AM PST A new chemical technique for depositing a non-crystalline form of silicon into the long, ultra-thin pores of optical fibers is the first of its kind to use high-pressure chemistry for making well-developed films and wires of this particular kind of silicon semiconductor. The research will help scientists to make more-efficient and more-flexible optical fibers.

High-energy physicists set record for network data transfer Posted: 13 Dec 2011 11:47 AM PST Researchers have set a new world record for data transfer, helping to usher in the next generation of high-speed network technology. They transferred data in opposite directions at a combined rate of 186 gigabits per second (Gbps) in a wide-area network circuit. The rate is equivalent to moving two million gigabytes per day, fast enough to transfer nearly 100,000 full Blu-ray disks -- each with a complete movie and all the extras -- in a day.

Trillion-frame-per-second video: Researchers have created an imaging system that makes light look slow Posted: 13 Dec 2011 10:34 AM PST Researchers have created a new imaging system that can acquire visual data at a rate of one trillion exposures per second. That's fast enough to produce a slow-motion video of a burst of light traveling the length of a one-liter bottle, bouncing off the cap and reflecting back to the bottle's bottom.

Inspired by insect cuticle, scientists develop material that's tough and strong Posted: 13 Dec 2011 09:26 AM PST Researchers have developed "Shrilk," a new material that replicates the exceptional strength, toughness, and versatility of one of nature's more extraordinary substances -- insect cuticle.

Possible hints of Higgs boson remain in latest analyses, physicists say Posted: 13 Dec 2011 08:49 AM PST Two experiments at the Large Hadron Collider have nearly eliminated the space in which the Higgs boson could dwell, scientists announced in a seminar held at CERN Dec. 13. However, the ATLAS and CMS experiments see modest excesses in their data that could soon uncover the famous missing piece of the physics puzzle. Theorists have predicted that some subatomic particles gain mass by interacting with other particles called Higgs bosons. The Higgs boson is the only undiscovered part of the Standard Model of physics, which describes the basic building blocks of matter and their interactions.

Largest ever gas mix caught in ultra-freeze trap Posted: 13 Dec 2011 06:20 AM PST A team of scientists have made it easier to study atomic or subatomic-scale properties of the building blocks of matter (which also include protons, neutrons and electrons) known as fermions by slowing down the movement of a large quantity of gaseous atoms at ultra-low temperature.

The Internet Protocol IPv6: A universal language Posted: 12 Dec 2011 06:27 AM PST We are at the dawn of the age of IPv6, the Internet protocol that will succeed version 4, experts say. With 340 undecillion available addresses, IPv6 ensures that the Internet can continue growing and offers advantages in terms of stability, flexibility, and simplicity in network administration.

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