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Thursday, October 31, 2013

ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

Staggering turbines improves performance 33%

Posted: 30 Oct 2013 03:51 PM PDT

Researchers have found staggering and spacing out turbines in an offshore wind farm can improve performance by as much as 33 percent.

How the universe's violent youth seeded cosmos with iron

Posted: 30 Oct 2013 12:29 PM PDT

By detecting an even distribution of iron throughout a massive galaxy cluster, astrophysicists can tell the 10-billion-year-old story of how exploding stars and black holes sowed the early cosmos with heavy elements.

Lava world baffles astronomers: Planet Kepler-78b 'shouldn't exist'

Posted: 30 Oct 2013 11:29 AM PDT

Kepler-78b is a planet that shouldn't exist. This scorching lava world circles its star every eight and a half hours at a distance of less than one million miles - one of the tightest known orbits. According to current theories of planet formation, it couldn't have formed so close to its star, nor could it have moved there.

First results from LUX dark matter detector: Searching for elusive dark matter

Posted: 30 Oct 2013 09:55 AM PDT

In its first three months of operation, the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment has proven itself to be the most sensitive dark matter detector in the world, scientists with the experiment have announced. Researchers are now preparing the detector, located a mile underground in an old South Dakota gold mine, for a 300-day run next year in hopes of detecting for the first time weakly interacting particles thought to account for most of the matter in the universe. Though dark matter has not yet been detected directly, scientists are fairly certain that it exists.

Media Consumption To Average 15.5 Hours A Day By 2015

Posted: 30 Oct 2013 08:13 AM PDT

A new report looks at media consumption by individuals in and out of the home, excluding the workplace, between 2008 and 2015, breaking "media" down into 30 categories of media type and delivery (e.g. television, social media, computer gaming) and conclude that the average person will consume 15.5 hours per day by 2015.

Recycling valuable materials used in TVs, car batteries, cell phones

Posted: 30 Oct 2013 07:41 AM PDT

Many of today's technologies, from hybrid car batteries to flat-screen televisions, rely on materials known as rare earth elements (REEs) that are in short supply, but scientists are reporting development of a new method to recycle them from wastewater. The process could help alleviate economic and environmental pressures facing the REE industry.

Gimball: A crash-happy flying robot

Posted: 30 Oct 2013 07:39 AM PDT

Gimball bumps into and ricochets off of obstacles, rather than avoiding them. This 34-cm in diameter spherical flying robot buzzes around the most unpredictable, chaotic environments, without the need for fragile detection sensors.

Future Internet aims to sever links with servers

Posted: 30 Oct 2013 07:38 AM PDT

A prototype new IP layer for the internet has been designed. Called PURSUIT, it replaces a system in which we obtain information from servers with a model similar to p2p file-sharing, but on a massive, internet-wide scale. Content would be accessed not from servers, but in fragments from other people's computers.

Brain regions can be specifically trained with video games

Posted: 30 Oct 2013 07:38 AM PDT

Video gaming causes increases in the brain regions responsible for spatial orientation, memory formation and strategic planning as well as fine motor skills. This has been shown in a new study. The positive effects of video gaming may also prove relevant in therapeutic interventions targeting psychiatric disorders.

World's most powerful terahertz quantum cascade laser

Posted: 30 Oct 2013 07:35 AM PDT

Terahertz waves are invisible, but incredibly useful; they can penetrate many materials which are opaque to visible light and they are perfect for detecting a variety of molecules. Terahertz radiation can be produced using tiny quantum cascade lasers, only a few millimeters wide. This special kind of lasers consists of tailor made semiconductor layers on a nanometer scale. A new world record has now been set; using a special merging technique, two symmetrical laser structures have been joined together, resulting in a quadruple intensity of laser light.

Understanding the difference between 'human smart' and 'computer smart'

Posted: 30 Oct 2013 07:35 AM PDT

Considering 798 to be an odd number is endemic to human cognition, reveals a new study. A common assumption in the cognitive sciences is that thinking consists of following sets of rules (as it does in a computer). A recent research argues that unlike digital computers, which are designed to follow rules, the computations performed by the neural networks that make up our brain are inherently context dependent. People sometimes make seemingly strange mistakes like thinking that 798 is an odd number despite knowing how to identify odd and even numbers.

'Molecular Velcro' may lead to cost-effective alternatives to natural antibodies

Posted: 30 Oct 2013 06:31 AM PDT

Taking inspiration from the human immune system, researchers have created a new material that can be programmed to identify an endless variety of molecules. The new material resembles tiny sheets of Velcro, each just 100 nanometers across. But instead of securing your sneakers, this molecular Velcro mimics the way natural antibodies recognize viruses and toxins, and could lead to a new class of biosensors.

Vibrating micro plates bring order to overcrowded radio spectrum

Posted: 30 Oct 2013 06:30 AM PDT

GSM, WiFi, Bluetooth, 4G, GPS: a smartphone already has to handle many wireless standards. And this number will only increase further. There are still no good filters to keep all those future standards separate. Researchers have now taken an important step with a new type of filter, based on micromechanics.

Re-examination of JFK assassination medical data reviews single shooter versus conspiracy theories

Posted: 30 Oct 2013 06:28 AM PDT

Fifty years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the medical and scientific evidence may support the possibility of the "single shooter, three bullet theory" of the event. Yet new insights into the old medical data simultaneously suggest there may have been multiple shooters, according to a new article.

Safer nuclear fuels: New uranium pellets with degradation-resistant cladding for enhanced safety

Posted: 29 Oct 2013 02:16 PM PDT

Exploratory research on revolutionary new types of nuclear fuel pellets that would be safer in the event of a nuclear disaster has yielded promising results, according to scientists.

Seeing in the dark: For infrared tracking and recognition, two sensors are better than one

Posted: 29 Oct 2013 11:28 AM PDT

Thermal infrared (IR) energy is emitted from all things that have a temperature greater than absolute zero. Human eyes, primarily sensitive to shorter wavelength visible light, are unable to detect or differentiate between the longer-wavelength thermal IR "signatures" given off both by living beings and inanimate objects. While mechanical detection of IR radiation has been possible since Samuel Pierpont Langley invented the bolometer in 1880, devices that also can recognize and identify an IR source after detection have been more challenging to develop.

Optimal industrial mixer creates a pattern that resembles a cat's eye

Posted: 29 Oct 2013 11:28 AM PDT

As any amateur baker knows, proper mixing is crucial to a perfect pastry. Mix too little and ingredients will not be evenly distributed; beat instead of fold, and a soufflé will fall flat. Mixing strategies are even more critical for industrial products, where every batch that is manufactured must meet the same exacting standards and yet, to manage costs, be created in the least amount of time.

'Shakers' help engineers develop inexpensive system for testing condition of bridges

Posted: 29 Oct 2013 11:28 AM PDT

Engineering researchers have developed a novel dynamic testing system for characterizing and evaluating the structural condition of short- to medium-span bridges – structures up to 300 feet long.

New forensic technique for identifying cloth fibers

Posted: 29 Oct 2013 10:31 AM PDT

Analysis of chemical signatures on common fibers may help solve crimes, and research is helping to push that forward.

Extracting energy from bacteria: Microbial electrode catalysts that turn wastewater into watts

Posted: 29 Oct 2013 10:31 AM PDT

Most of us wouldn't consider bacteria a promising energy source of the future. That would be shortsighted according to a microbial-electrochemist who believes that the focus of his research -- electrode reactions catalyzed by microorganisms -- may one day provide cheap, clean and abundant energy by converting the carbon dioxide in seawater to fuel and the organic matter in wastewater into electrical power.
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