ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Photovoltaic cell manufacture: Device tosses out unusable PV wafers
• Small UAV supports development of lightweight sensors
• New insight into graphene grain boundaries
• Chemistry resolves toxic concerns about carbon nanotubes, experts say
• Flexible, nanoscale 'bed of nails' created for possible drug delivery
• Neon lights up exploding stars

Photovoltaic cell manufacture: Device tosses out unusable PV wafers Posted: 15 Jan 2013 11:38 AM PST Silicon wafers destined to become photovoltaic cells can take a bruising through assembly lines, as they are oxidized, annealed, purified, diffused, etched, and layered to reach their destinies as efficient converters of the sun's rays into useful electricity. All those refinements are too much for five percent to 10 percent of the costly wafers. They have micro-cracks left over from incomplete wafer preparation, which causes them to break on the conveyors or during cell fabrication.

Small UAV supports development of lightweight sensors Posted: 15 Jan 2013 11:37 AM PST Engineers are developing an airborne testing capability for sensors, communications devices and other payloads. Their aerial test bed is known as the GTRI Airborne Unmanned Sensor System (GAUSS).

New insight into graphene grain boundaries Posted: 15 Jan 2013 08:17 AM PST Making the one-atom thick sheets of carbon known as graphene in a way that could be easily integrated into mass production methods has proven difficult. Now, research is giving new insight into the electronics behavior of graphene.

Chemistry resolves toxic concerns about carbon nanotubes, experts say Posted: 15 Jan 2013 08:15 AM PST Safety fears about carbon nanotubes, due to their structural similarity to asbestos, have been alleviated following research showing that reducing their length removes their toxic properties.

Flexible, nanoscale 'bed of nails' created for possible drug delivery Posted: 15 Jan 2013 07:15 AM PST Researchers have come up with a technique to embed needle-like carbon nanofibers in an elastic membrane, creating a flexible "bed of nails" on the nanoscale that opens the door to development of new drug-delivery systems.

Neon lights up exploding stars Posted: 15 Jan 2013 05:55 AM PST An international team of nuclear astrophysicists has shed new light on the explosive stellar events known as novae. These dramatic explosions are driven by nuclear processes and make previously unseen stars visible for a short time. The team of scientists measured the nuclear structure of the radioactive neon produced through this process in unprecedented detail. Their findings show there is much less uncertainty in how quickly one of the key nuclear reactions will occur as well as in the final abundance of radioactive isotopes than has previously been suggested.

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