ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Nanotechnology-related safety and ethics problem emerging
• DNA fingerprinting enters 21st century
• Wearable electronics:Transparent, lightweight, flexible conductor could revolutionize electronics industry
• Hubble images searchlight beams from a preplanetary nebula
• Cassini finds Saturn moon has planet-like qualities
• Golden potential for gold thin films
• Researchers combat global disease with a cell phone, Google Maps and a lot of ingenuity
• Contributing to the nuclear fusion project
• Bejeweled: Nanotech gets boost from nanowire decorations
• Atomic clock comparison via data highways
• Anti-reflective coatings: Beauty is in the moth's eyes
• New particle discovered at CERN
• Mathematics: First-ever image of a flat torus in 3-D
• What is the best way of stacking apples?

Nanotechnology-related safety and ethics problem emerging Posted: 27 Apr 2012 09:02 PM PDT A scientist provides an example of a nanotechnology-related safety and ethics problem that is unfolding right now.

DNA fingerprinting enters 21st century Posted: 27 Apr 2012 01:34 PM PDT Researchers have created a three-step algorithm, lobSTR, that in one day accurately and simultaneously profiles more than 100,000 short tandem repeats in one human genome sequence -- a feat that previous systems could never complete.

Wearable electronics:Transparent, lightweight, flexible conductor could revolutionize electronics industry Posted: 27 Apr 2012 01:34 PM PDT The most transparent, lightweight and flexible material ever for conducting electricity has just been invented. Called GraphExeter, the material could revolutionize the creation of wearable electronic devices, such as clothing containing computers, phones and MP3 players.

Hubble images searchlight beams from a preplanetary nebula Posted: 27 Apr 2012 11:26 AM PDT The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has been at the cutting edge of research into what happens to stars like our sun at the ends of their lives. One stage that stars pass through as they run out of nuclear fuel is called the preplanetary or protoplanetary nebula stage. A new Hubble image of the Egg Nebula shows one of the best views to date of this brief but dramatic phase in a star's life.

Cassini finds Saturn moon has planet-like qualities Posted: 27 Apr 2012 11:22 AM PDT Data from NASA's Cassini mission reveal Saturn's moon Phoebe has more planet-like qualities than previously thought. Scientists had their first close-up look at Phoebe when Cassini began exploring the Saturn system in 2004. Using data from multiple spacecraft instruments and a computer model of the moon's chemistry, geophysics and geology, scientists found Phoebe was a so-called planetesimal, or remnant planetary building block.

Golden potential for gold thin films Posted: 27 Apr 2012 11:21 AM PDT Researchers have directed the first self-assembly of nanoparticles into multi-layered thin films of gold that are device-ready for potential applications in computer memory storage, energy harvesting, energy storage, remote-sensing, catalysis, light management and plasmonics.

Researchers combat global disease with a cell phone, Google Maps and a lot of ingenuity Posted: 27 Apr 2012 07:02 AM PDT Researchers have developed a compact and cost-effective RDT reader platform to combine digital reading of all existing rapid-diagnostic-tests. The team's new reader is installed on a cell phone that can work with various lateral flow immuno-chromatographic assays and similar tests to sense the presence of a target analyte in samples.

Contributing to the nuclear fusion project Posted: 27 Apr 2012 07:01 AM PDT Many regard nuclear fusion as the main energy source of the future. Among others, the ITER project is seeking to turn this venture into reality and is making use of the Tokamak reactor for this purpose. Reactors of this type have a number of control problems, and to solve them the electronics engineers have come up with some tools.

Bejeweled: Nanotech gets boost from nanowire decorations Posted: 27 Apr 2012 07:01 AM PDT Engineers have found a novel method for "decorating" nanowires with chains of tiny particles to increase their electrical and catalytic performance. The new technique is simpler, faster and more effective than earlier methods and could lead to better batteries, solar cells and catalysts.

Atomic clock comparison via data highways Posted: 27 Apr 2012 06:59 AM PDT In the future, optical fibers could connect all optical atomic clocks within Europe -- a milestone for various users of optical frequencies in research and industry.

Anti-reflective coatings: Beauty is in the moth's eyes Posted: 27 Apr 2012 06:56 AM PDT If you wear glasses, you are probably reading this article by looking through a tiny, transparent layer of nanomaterial. Anti-reflective coatings (ARCs), based on nanomaterials that reduce the amount of reflected light, are used in most optical devices, including glasses, photo lenses, TV screens, solar cells, LED lights and many others.

New particle discovered at CERN Posted: 27 Apr 2012 06:56 AM PDT Physicists have discovered a previously unknown particle composed of three quarks in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator. A new baryon could thus be detected for the first time at the LHC. The baryon known as Xi_b^* confirms fundamental assumptions of physics regarding the binding of quarks.

Mathematics: First-ever image of a flat torus in 3-D Posted: 25 Apr 2012 06:43 AM PDT Just as a terrestrial globe cannot be flattened without distorting the distances, it seemed impossible to visualize abstract mathematical objects called flat tori in ordinary three-dimensional space. However, a team of mathematicians and computer scientists has succeeded in constructing and visually representing an image of a flat torus in three-dimensional space. This is a smooth fractal, halfway between fractals and ordinary surfaces.

What is the best way of stacking apples? Posted: 25 Apr 2012 06:43 AM PDT When stacking apples on a market stall, fruit sellers "naturally" adopt a particular arrangement: a regular pyramid with a triangular base. Scientists have now demonstrated that this arrangement is favored for reasons of mechanical stability. This work could contribute to the design of organized porous materials.

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