ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Evidence further suggests extra-terrestrial origin of quasicrystals
• NASA's Curiosity beams back a color 360 of Mars' Gale Crater
• Computer scientists reveal how aquatic Olympic gold is captured -- above and below the surface
• Scientist discovers plate tectonics on Mars
• Soft autonomous robot inches along like an earthworm: Flexible design enables body-morphing capability
• Searching salt for answers about life on Earth, Mars
• First 360-degree panorama from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover
• Freezing magnetic monopoles: How dipoles become monopoles and vice versa
• Cheaper and cleaner catalyst for burning methane
• Solar power day and night: New storage systems control fluctuation of renewable energies
• Plenty of dark matter near the Sun
• Simple mathematical computations underlie brain circuits

Evidence further suggests extra-terrestrial origin of quasicrystals Posted: 09 Aug 2012 04:07 PM PDT Results from an expedition to far eastern Russia that set out to find the origin of naturally occurring quasicrystals have provided convincing evidence that they arrived on Earth from outer space. Scientists reveal that new, naturally occurring quasicrystal samples have been found in an environment that does not have the extreme terrestrial conditions needed to produce them, therefore strengthening the case that they were brought to Earth by a meteorite.

NASA's Curiosity beams back a color 360 of Mars' Gale Crater Posted: 09 Aug 2012 04:00 PM PDT The first images from Curiosity's color Mast Camera, or Mastcam, have been received by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The 130 low-resolution thumbnails, which were received Thursday morning, provide scientists and engineers of NASA's newest Mars rover their first color, horizon-to-horizon glimpse of Gale Crater.

Computer scientists reveal how aquatic Olympic gold is captured -- above and below the surface Posted: 09 Aug 2012 01:25 PM PDT Computer scientists have isolated the movements of Olympic swimmers and divers through a cutting-edge technique that reveals their motions above and below the water's surface.

Scientist discovers plate tectonics on Mars Posted: 09 Aug 2012 12:58 PM PDT For years, many scientists had thought that plate tectonics existed nowhere in our solar system but on Earth. Now, a researcher has discovered that the geological phenomenon, which involves the movement of huge crustal plates beneath a planet's surface, also exists on Mars.

Soft autonomous robot inches along like an earthworm: Flexible design enables body-morphing capability Posted: 09 Aug 2012 12:13 PM PDT Researchers have engineered a soft autonomous robot that moves via peristalsis, crawling across surfaces by contracting segments of its body, much like an earthworm.

Searching salt for answers about life on Earth, Mars Posted: 09 Aug 2012 12:13 PM PDT Researchers have discovered that not only is there evidence of liquid water on Mars, but the planet is also rich with magnesium sulfate. One of the questions researchers are seeking to answer is whether microbial life on Earth can grow at high concentrations of magnesium sulfate.

First 360-degree panorama from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover Posted: 09 Aug 2012 11:58 AM PDT Remarkable image sets from NASA's Curiosity rover and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are continuing to develop the story of Curiosity's landing and first days on Mars. The images from Curiosity's just-activated navigation cameras, or Navcams, include the rover's first self-portrait, looking down at its deck from above.

Freezing magnetic monopoles: How dipoles become monopoles and vice versa Posted: 09 Aug 2012 11:16 AM PDT Scientists have sharpened the theoretical framework under which monopoles can be studied.

Cheaper and cleaner catalyst for burning methane Posted: 09 Aug 2012 11:16 AM PDT Researchers have created a material that catalyzes the burning of methane 30 times better than do currently available catalysts.

Solar power day and night: New storage systems control fluctuation of renewable energies Posted: 09 Aug 2012 09:46 AM PDT Energy storage systems are one of the key technologies for the energy turnaround. With their help, the fluctuating supply of electricity based on photovoltaics and wind power can be stored until the time of consumption. A number of pilot plants of solar cells, small wind power plants, lithium-ion batteries, and power electronics are now under construction to demonstrate how load peaks in the grid can be balanced and what regenerative power supply by an isolated network may look like in the future.

Plenty of dark matter near the Sun Posted: 09 Aug 2012 06:04 AM PDT Astronomers have found large amounts of invisible "dark matter" near the Sun. Their results are inconsistent with the theory that the Milky Way Galaxy is surrounded by a massive "halo" of dark matter, but this is the first study of its kind to use a method rigorously tested against mock data from high quality simulations. The authors also find tantalizing hints of a new dark matter component in our Galaxy.

Simple mathematical computations underlie brain circuits Posted: 08 Aug 2012 01:31 PM PDT Neuroscientists report that two major classes of brain cells repress neural activity in specific mathematical ways: One type subtracts from overall activation, while the other divides it.

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