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Friday, August 31, 2012

ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

ScienceDaily: Top Technology News


'Nanoresonators' might improve cell phone performance

Posted: 30 Aug 2012 02:33 PM PDT

Researchers have learned how to mass produce tiny mechanical devices that could help cell phone users avoid the nuisance of dropped calls and slow downloads. The devices are designed to ease congestion over the airwaves to improve the performance of cell phones and other portable devices.

Photonic interactions measured at atomic level

Posted: 30 Aug 2012 02:33 PM PDT

By measuring the unique properties of light on the scale of a single atom, researchers believe that they have characterized the limits of metal's ability in devices that enhance light.

'Promiscuous' enzymes still prevalent in metabolism: Challenges fundamental notion of enzyme specificity and efficiency

Posted: 30 Aug 2012 12:23 PM PDT

Open an undergraduate biochemistry textbook and you will learn that enzymes are highly efficient and specific in catalyzing chemical reactions in living organisms, and that they evolved to this state from their "sloppy" and "promiscuous" ancestors to allow cells to grow more efficiently. This fundamental paradigm is being challenged in a new study by bioengineers who reported in the journal Science what a few enzymologists have suspected for years: many enzymes are still pretty sloppy and promiscuous, catalyzing multiple chemical reactions in living cells, for reasons that were previously not well understood.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft prepares for trek toward dwarf planet

Posted: 30 Aug 2012 11:18 AM PDT

NASA's Dawn spacecraft is on track to become the first probe to orbit and study two distant solar system destinations, to help scientists answer questions about the formation of our solar system. The spacecraft is scheduled to leave the giant asteroid Vesta on Sept. 4 PDT (Sept. 5 EDT) to start its two-and-a-half-year journey to the dwarf planet Ceres.

Radiation belt storm probes: Spacecraft pair to explore mysterious region where other satellites fear to tread

Posted: 30 Aug 2012 10:05 AM PDT

Spacecraft pair will explore the mysterious region where other satellites fear to tread.

Surprisingly bright superbubble in nearby nebula

Posted: 30 Aug 2012 10:04 AM PDT

A new composite image shows a superbubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located about 160,000 light years from Earth. Many new stars, some of them very massive, are forming in the star cluster NGC 1929, which is embedded in the nebula N44.

NASA launches radiation belt storm probes mission

Posted: 30 Aug 2012 04:50 AM PDT

NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP), the first twin-spacecraft mission designed to explore our planet's radiation belts, launched into the predawn skies at 4:05 a.m. EDT Thursday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The two satellites, each weighing just less than 1,500 pounds, comprise the first dual-spacecraft mission specifically created to investigate this hazardous regions of near-Earth space, known as the radiation belts. These two belts, named for their discoverer, James Van Allen, encircle the planet and are filled with highly charged particles. The belts are affected by solar storms and coronal mass ejections and sometimes swell dramatically. When this occurs, they can pose dangers to communications, GPS satellites and human spaceflight.

Record-breaking stellar explosion helps astronomers understand far-off galaxy

Posted: 30 Aug 2012 03:58 AM PDT

Astronomers took advantage of the most distant supernova of its type to probe a galaxy some 9.5 billion light years away. The light from the exploding star, allowed astronomers to confirm that the gas environment between the stars in the distant galaxy is "reassuringly normal."

A whisker-inspired approach to tactile sensing

Posted: 30 Aug 2012 03:57 AM PDT

Inspired by the twitching whiskers of common rats and Etruscan shrews, researchers have developed rodent-like robots and an innovative tactile sensor system that could be used to help find people in burning buildings, make vacuum cleaners more efficient and eventually improve keyhole surgery.

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