ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Dawn sees new surface features on giant asteroid Vesta
• Graphene: Potential for modelling cell membrane systems
• Graphene produced using microorganisms from an ordinary river
• Quantum plasmons demonstrated in atomic-scale nanoparticles
• How the alphabet of data processing is growing: Flying 'qubits' generated
• Nanopower: Avoiding electrolyte failure in nanoscale lithum batteries
• 'Nanoslinky': A novel nanofluidic technology for DNA manipulation and measurement
• Groundbreaking, waterless approach to microchip making
• Study on swirls to optimize contacts between fluids
• Mercury's surprising core and landscape curiosities
• Dance like a neutrino: Quantum scheme to simulate neutrino oscillations
• Vista stares deep into the cosmos: Treasure trove of new infrared data made available to astronomers
• Jellyfish inspires latest ocean-powered robot
• Camera peers around corners: New imaging system uses opaque walls, doors or floors as 'mirrors'
• How electrons outrun vibrating nuclei -- the X-ray movie
• Controlling light at will: Metamaterials will change optics
• Speed of single-molecule measurements greatly increased

Dawn sees new surface features on giant asteroid Vesta Posted: 21 Mar 2012 05:47 PM PDT NASA's Dawn spacecraft has revealed unexpected details on the surface of the giant asteroid Vesta. New images and data highlight the diversity of Vesta's surface and reveal unusual geologic features, some of which were never previously seen on asteroids.

Graphene: Potential for modelling cell membrane systems Posted: 21 Mar 2012 12:25 PM PDT Intriguing properties of graphene -— a single atomic-layer of carbon -— such as high electron mobility and fluorescence quenching are being exploited for biosensing and analysis of nucleotides, peptides, and proteins.

Graphene produced using microorganisms from an ordinary river Posted: 21 Mar 2012 12:25 PM PDT Scientists have synthesized graphene by reducing graphene oxide using microorganisms extracted from a local river.

Quantum plasmons demonstrated in atomic-scale nanoparticles Posted: 21 Mar 2012 11:30 AM PDT Addressing a half-century-old question, engineers have conclusively determined how collective electron oscillations, called plasmons, behave in individual metal particles as small as just a few nanometers in diameter. This knowledge may open up new avenues in nanotechnology ranging from solar catalysis to biomedical therapeutics.

How the alphabet of data processing is growing: Flying 'qubits' generated Posted: 21 Mar 2012 11:29 AM PDT The alphabet of data processing could include more elements than the "0" and "1" in future. Scientists have achieved a new kind of bit with single electrons, called quantum bits, or qubits. With them, considerably more than two states can be defined. So far, quantum bits have only existed in relatively large vacuum chambers. The team has now generated them in semiconductors. They have put an effect in practice, which the physicist Prof. Dr. Andreas Wieck had already theoretically predicted 22 years ago. This represents another step along the path to quantum computing.

Nanopower: Avoiding electrolyte failure in nanoscale lithum batteries Posted: 21 Mar 2012 10:20 AM PDT It turns out you can be too thin -- especially if you're a nanoscale battery. Researchers have built a series of nanowire batteries to demonstrate that the thickness of the electrolyte layer can dramatically affect the performance of the battery, effectively setting a lower limit to the size of the tiny power sources.

'Nanoslinky': A novel nanofluidic technology for DNA manipulation and measurement Posted: 21 Mar 2012 10:18 AM PDT Researchers have developed their own version of the classic Slinky "walking down the stairs" scenario -- albeit 10 million times smaller -- as a novel technology for manipulating and measuring DNA molecules and other nanoscale materials.

Groundbreaking, waterless approach to microchip making Posted: 21 Mar 2012 09:38 AM PDT The tiny, high-speed computer chips found in every modern electronic device bear little resemblance to their bulky, slow ancestors of decades ago. Different materials, new designs and new production techniques have ensured successive generations of integrated circuits offer ever more performance at lower cost.

Study on swirls to optimize contacts between fluids Posted: 21 Mar 2012 09:38 AM PDT Physicists who have studied the mixing between two incompatible fluids have found that it is possible to control the undercurrents of one circulating fluid to optimize its exposure to the other.

Mercury's surprising core and landscape curiosities Posted: 21 Mar 2012 07:55 AM PDT Scientists have found that Mercury's core, already suspected to occupy a greater fraction of the planet's interior than do the cores of Earth, Venus, or Mars, is even larger than anticipated. They also discovered that the elevation ranges on Mercury are much smaller than on Mars or the Moon and indicates that there have been large-scale changes to Mercury's topography since early in the planet's geological history.

Dance like a neutrino: Quantum scheme to simulate neutrino oscillations Posted: 21 Mar 2012 07:53 AM PDT The behavior of some of the most elusive particles in the known universe can be simulated using three atoms in a lab, researchers say.

Vista stares deep into the cosmos: Treasure trove of new infrared data made available to astronomers Posted: 21 Mar 2012 06:41 AM PDT The European Southern Observatory's VISTA telescope has created the widest deep view of the sky ever made using infrared light. This new picture of an unremarkable patch of sky comes from the UltraVISTA survey and reveals more than 200 000 galaxies. It forms just one part of a huge collection of fully processed images from all the VISTA surveys that is now being made available by ESO to astronomers worldwide. UltraVISTA is a treasure trove that is being used to study distant galaxies in the early Universe as well as for many other science projects.

Jellyfish inspires latest ocean-powered robot Posted: 21 Mar 2012 06:41 AM PDT Researchers have created a robotic jellyfish, named Robojelly, which not only exhibits characteristics ideal to use in underwater search and rescue operations, but could, theoretically at least, never run out of energy thanks to it being fueled by hydrogen. Constructed from a set of smart materials, which have the ability to change shape or size as a result of a stimulus, and carbon nanotubes, Robojelly is able to mimic the natural movements of a jellyfish when placed in a water tank and is powered by chemical reactions taking place on its surface.

Camera peers around corners: New imaging system uses opaque walls, doors or floors as 'mirrors' Posted: 20 Mar 2012 11:19 AM PDT A new imaging system could use opaque walls, doors or floors as "mirrors" to gather information about scenes outside its line of sight.

How electrons outrun vibrating nuclei -- the X-ray movie Posted: 20 Mar 2012 08:51 AM PDT Researchers have resolved spatial oscillations of electrons in a crystal by taking a real-time 'movie' with ultrashort x-ray flashes. Outer electrons move forth and back over the length of a chemical bond and modulate the electric properties while the tiny elongation of the inner electrons and the atomic nuclei is less than 1 % of this distance.

Controlling light at will: Metamaterials will change optics Posted: 18 Mar 2012 11:39 AM PDT Engineers believe that continued advances in creating ever-more exotic and sophisticated human-made materials will greatly improve their ability to control light at will.

Speed of single-molecule measurements greatly increased Posted: 18 Mar 2012 11:39 AM PDT Engineers have devised a way to measure nanopores -- tiny holes in a thin membrane that can detect single biological molecules such as DNA and proteins -- with less error than can be achieved with commercial instruments. They've miniaturized the measurement by designing a custom integrated circuit using commercial semiconductor technology.

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