ScienceDaily Technology Headlines
for Tuesday, November 4, 2008
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Mending Broken Hearts With Tissue Engineering (November 4, 2008) -- Broken hearts could one day be mended using a novel scaffold. The new scaffold approach could also aid the engineering of other tissues. ... > full story
Fluid Transducer: Electricity From Gas And Water (November 4, 2008) -- A large number of technical systems work with air or water. Air compression systems and water pipes are just two examples. Researchers have now successfully managed to convert this fluidic energy into electricity. This could enable sensors to supply themselves with energy in future. ... > full story
Smart Fabrics, The New Black (November 4, 2008) -- Smart fabrics and intelligent textiles – material that incorporates cunning molecules or clever electronics – is thriving and European research efforts are tackling some of the sector’s toughest challenges. ... > full story
Odorprints Like Fingerprints? Personal Odors Remain Distinguishable Regardless Of Diet (November 3, 2008) -- Scientists present behavioral and chemical findings to reveal that an individual's underlying odor signature remains detectable even in the face of major dietary changes. The findings indicate that biologically-based odorprints, like fingerprints, could be a reliable way to identify individual humans. ... > full story
Good Code, Bad Computations: A Computer Security Gray Area (November 3, 2008) -- If you want to make sure your computer or server is not tricked into undertaking malicious or undesirable behavior, it's not enough to keep bad code out of the system. New research shows that the process of building bad programs from good code using "return-oriented programming" can be automated and that this vulnerability applies to multiple computer architectures. ... > full story
Satellites Approach Theoretical Shannon Limit (November 3, 2008) -- Satellites are achieving unparalleled efficiency with a new protocol, DVB-S2. The performance of DVB-S2 satellite systems is very close to the theoretical maximum, defined by the Shannon Limit. That efficiency could be pushed even further by network optimization tools and equipment recently developed by European researchers. ... > full story
Credit Card-swipe Device To Test For Hundreds Of Diseases (November 3, 2008) -- Scientists successfully created a sensitive prototype device that could test for dozens or even hundreds of diseases simultaneously by acting like a credit card-swipe machine to scan a card loaded with microscopic blood, saliva or urine samples. The prototype works on the same principle -- giant magnetoresistance or GMR -- that is used to read data on computer hard drives or listen to tunes on portable digital music players. ... > full story
'Superenzymes' Could Streamline Biofuels Refining (November 3, 2008) -- Stain removers that make even the most stubborn spots on your clothes vanish in the wash may be powered by molecules known as enzymes. Scientists are in search of similarly strong, fast-acting enzymes. But the ones they want would be put to work not in your laundry room, but instead at biofuels refineries, where the enzymes' job would be to break down the cell walls of bioenergy crops such as switchgrass. ... > full story
Videoconferencing More Confusing For Decision-makers Than Face-to-face Meetings (November 3, 2008) -- Although videoconferencing has become a billion-dollar substitute for flying business people to meetings, it leaves distant participants less likely to make sound judgments about speakers being viewed over a screen, according to a study in a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. ... > full story
'Ghost Of Mirach' Materializes In Space Telescope Image (November 3, 2008) -- NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer has lifted the veil off a ghost known to haunt the local universe, providing new insight into the formation and evolution of galaxies. The eerie creature, called NGC 404, is a type of galaxy known as "lenticular." Lenticular galaxies are disk-shaped, with little ongoing star formation and no spiral arms. NGC 404 is the nearest example of a lenticular galaxy, and therefore of great interest. But it lies hidden in the glare from a red giant star called Mirach. For this reason, NGC 404 became known to astronomers as the "Ghost of Mirach." ... > full story
Magnetic Portals Connect Sun And Earth (November 2, 2008) -- During the time it takes you to read this article, something will happen high overhead that until recently many scientists didn't believe in. A magnetic portal will open, linking Earth to the sun 93 million miles away. Tons of high-energy particles may flow through the opening before it closes again, around the time you reach the end of the page. ... > full story
Cleaning Heavily Polluted Water At A Fraction Of The Cost (November 2, 2008) -- A European research project has succeeded in developing a water treatment system for industrial oil polluted water at a tenth of the cost of other commercially available tertiary treatments, leaving water so clean it can be pumped safely back out to sea without endangering flora or fauna. ... > full story
Minimizing Downtime By Decentralizing Control In Complex, Computerized Systems (November 2, 2008) -- When complex, computerized control systems encounter a malfunction in any part of the process they control, the whole operation often grinds to a halt while the problem is diagnosed and fixed. New software overcomes that problem by decentralization. ... > full story
Sea Urchin Yields Key Secret Of Biomineralization (November 1, 2008) -- The teeth and bones of mammals, the protective shells of mollusks, and the needle-sharp spines of sea urchins and other marine creatures are made-from-scratch wonders of nature. ... > full story
Quantum Computers? Internet Security Code Of The Future Cracked (November 1, 2008) -- Computer science experts have managed to crack the so-called McEliece encryption system. This system is a candidate for the security of Internet traffic in the age of the quantum computer -- the predicted super-powerful computer of the future. ... > full story
Optical Firewall Aims To Clear Internet Security Bottlenecks (November 1, 2008) -- Researchers are developing the world’s first optical firewall capable of analyzing data on fiber optic networks at speeds of 40 gigabits per second. The work promises to save the internet from the looming threat of network security bottlenecks. ... > full story
Hubble Back In Business: Pair Of Gravitationally Interacting Galaxies In Full View (November 1, 2008) -- The Hubble Space Telescope is back in business with a snapshot of the fascinating galaxy pair Arp 147. Just a couple of days after the orbiting observatory was brought back online, Hubble aimed its prime working camera, the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), at a particularly intriguing target, a pair of gravitationally interacting galaxies called Arp 147. ... > full story
Social Media And Presidential Election: Impact Of YouTube, MySpace (November 1, 2008) -- What is the impact of media on the political landscape in the US? Researchers are investigating the impact of hugely popular social media's impact on the upcoming presidential contest. ... > full story
More Hidden Territory On Mercury Revealed By MESSENGER Spacecraft (October 31, 2008) -- A NASA spacecraft gliding over the battered surface of Mercury for the second time this year has revealed more previously unseen real estate on the innermost planet. The probe also has produced several science firsts and is returning hundreds of new photos and measurements of the planet's surface, atmosphere and magnetic field. ... > full story
Sniffing Out A Better Chemical Sensor (October 31, 2008) -- Marrying a sensitive detector technology capable of distinguishing hundreds of different chemical compounds with a pattern-recognition module that mimics the way animals recognize odors, researchers have created a new approach for 'electronic noses' that is more adept than conventional methodologies at recognizing molecular features even for chemicals it has not been trained to detect. ... > full story
New Model Predicts A Glacier's Life (October 31, 2008) -- Researchers have developed a numerical model that can re-create the state of Switzerland's Rhône Glacier as it was in 1874 and predict its evolution until the year 2100. This is the longest period of time ever modeled in the life of a glacier, involving complex data analysis and mathematical techniques. The work will serve as a benchmark study for those interested in the state of glaciers and their relation to climate change. ... > full story
Over-use Of Organic Fertilizers In Agriculture Could Poison Soils, Study Finds (October 31, 2008) -- Excessive doses of organic residues in agricultural fields could be dangerous for plants, invertebrates and micro-organisms living in the soil. This is the finding of a new study that shows that the use of appropriate levels of fertilizers would prevent this toxic impact on the soil biota. ... > full story
By Imaging Live Cells, Researchers Show How Hepatitis C Replicates (October 31, 2008) -- The hepatitis C virus is a prolific replicator, able to produce up to a trillion particles per day in an infected person by hijacking liver cells in which to build up its viral replication machinery. Now new research -- in which scientists have for the first time used fluorescent proteins to image hepatitis C virus replication in live cells -- shows that the microscopic viral factories are a diverse mix of big, immobile structures and tiny replication complexes that zip zanily around inside the cell. ... > full story
Mathematician Cracks Mystery Beatles Chord (October 31, 2008) -- It's the most famous chord in rock 'n' roll, an instantly recognizable twang rolling through the open strings on George Harrison's 12-string guitar: the opening chord to the Beatles song "A Hard Day's Night." Now, a researcher has used a mathematical calculation known as Fourier transform to solve the Beatles' riddle. The process allowed him to decompose the sound into its original frequencies using computer software and parse out which notes were on the record. ... > full story
Clues To Planets' Birth Discovered In Meteorites (October 31, 2008) -- Meteorites that are among the oldest rocks ever found have provided new clues about the conditions that existed at the beginning of the solar system, solving a longstanding mystery and overturning some accepted ideas about the way planets form. ... > full story
Ultrafast Lasers Show Snapshot Of Electrons In Action (October 31, 2008) -- In the quest to slow down and ultimately understand chemistry at the level of atoms and electrons, scientists have found a new way to peer into a molecule that allows them to see how its electrons rearrange as the molecule changes shape. ... > full story
Astronauts To Vote From Space (October 31, 2008) -- In this day and age, people engage in their right to vote from all over the world. But this Nov. 4, few ballots will have traveled as far as those cast by two NASA astronauts. ... > full story
Engineering Technique Can Identify Disease-causing Genes (October 31, 2008) -- Scientists believe that complex diseases such as schizophrenia, major depression and cancer are not caused by one, but a multitude of dysfunctional genes. ... > full story
A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Locksmiths (October 31, 2008) -- Computer scientists have built a software program that can perform key duplication without having the key. Instead, the computer scientists only need a photograph of the key. ... > full story
Researchers Find New Way Of Measuring 'Reality' Of Virtual Worlds (October 31, 2008) -- A research team has developed a new way of measuring how "real" online virtual worlds are -- an important advance for the emerging technology that can be used to foster development of new training and collaboration applications by companies around the world. ... > full story
Amateur Sports Can Lead to Unexpected Health Problems Later in Life (October 30, 2008) -- Taking up bowling or tennis is an excellent way to stay fit. But if you're not careful, you might find that these amateur sports can have unexpected long-term health risks. ... > full story
Searching For Primordial Antimatter (October 30, 2008) -- Scientists are on the hunt for evidence of antimatter -- matter's arch nemesis -- left over from the very early Universe. New results using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Compton Gamma Ray Observatory suggest the search may have just become even more difficult. ... > full story
Artificial Pancreas Could Revolutionize Treatment Of Type 1 Diabetes (October 30, 2008) -- Researchers across the globe are testing a computerized, subcutaneous system that could one day transform the way Type 1 diabetics manage their disease. ... > full story
World's Smallest Hand-held Instrument For Detecting Health And Safety Threats (October 30, 2008) -- Researchers in Indiana are describing development of the world's smallest complete mass spectrometer (MS), a miniature version of a standard lab device -- some of which would dominate a living room -- to identify tiny amounts of chemicals in the environment. ... > full story
Gender Affects Perceptions Of Infidelity (October 30, 2008) -- A new study explored how men and women perceive online and offline sexual and emotional infidelity. When given the choice, men were more upset by sexual infidelity and women were more upset by emotional infidelity. ... > full story
Catching Earthquake Details With Ordinary Laptop Computers (October 30, 2008) -- Inside your laptop is a small accelerometer chip, there to protect the delicate moving parts of your hard disk from sudden jolts. It turns out that the same chip is a pretty good earthquake sensor, too -- especially if the signals from lots of them are compared, in order to filter out more mundane sources of laptop vibrations, such as typing. ... > full story
Real Robinson Crusoe: Evidence Of Alexander Selkirk’s Desert Island Campsite (October 30, 2008) -- An archaeological dig unearths evidence of the campsite of castaway Alexander Selkirk, the model for Robinson Crusoe. ... > full story
Why Some Marine Algae Are Shaped Like Crumpled Paper (October 30, 2008) -- What is the connection between crumpled paper and marine algae? Saddle-like shapes similar to those found in an Elizabethan "ruff" collar, say physicists in a new article. ... > full story
New Supercomputer Can Do 50 Trillion Operations Per Second (October 30, 2008) -- In less time than the blink of an eye, the Translational Genomics Research Institute's new supercomputer at Arizona State University can do operations equal to every dollar in the recent Wall Street bailout. That would be 700 billion computations in less than 1/60th of a second. ... > full story
Progress Toward New Storage Media: Reliable Nanopatterns On Chips (October 30, 2008) -- Scientists have produced reliable nanopatterns of a spin-transition compound on silicon oxide chips. This is a decisive step toward a new generation of molecular storage media. ... > full story
Computer Scientists Seek New Framework For Computation (October 30, 2008) -- There have been several revolutions during the 60 year history of electronic computation, such as high level programming languages and client/server separation, but one key challenge has yet to be fully resolved. This is to break down large complex processes into small more manageable components that can then be reused in different applications. ... > full story
Toward Non-invasive Disease Diagnosis With Wellness Cards (October 29, 2008) -- Scientists are reporting development of a device that could serve as the electronic "reader" for a coming generation of "wellness cards," specimen holders used to diagnose disease from a drop of a patient's saliva or blood. ... > full story
Reduce Computer Power Usage? Silicon Optical Fiber Made Practical (October 29, 2008) -- Scientists have, for the firsts time, been able to make a practical optical fiber with a silicon core. ... > full story
NASA's Phoenix Mission Faces Survival Challenges (October 29, 2008) -- In a race against time and the elements, engineers with NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander mission hope to extend the lander's survival by gradually shutting down some of its instruments and heaters, starting this week. ... > full story
Virtual Screening Leads To Real Progress In Drug Design (October 29, 2008) -- Around 150 thousand people per year get the parasitic disease African sleeping sickness, but the only medicines to treat it are either difficult to administer, expensive, or toxic. Now a team of scientists has put computers to work to find a solution. ... > full story
Monitoring Broken Bones Without Using Electronics: Wireless Bone Monitor (October 29, 2008) -- The novel sensor is intended one day to help doctors monitor broken bones as they grow back together. Depending on the values of the forces measured by the sensor, they can decide whether the healing process is progressing normally or whether there is a danger that the fracture or implants might be overloaded. Until now doctors have used expensive and complicated electronic devices which sent the measured data to the outside world as radio signals. ... > full story
How Toxic Environmental Chemical DBT Affects The Immune System (October 29, 2008) -- Scientists have issued a report on the mechanism of toxicity of a chemical compound called Dibutyltin (DBT). DBT is part of a class of high toxic and widely distributed chemical compounds called organotins, DBT is most commonly used as an anti-fouling agent in paint, for example in the fishing and shipbuilding industries. It is also used in the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic tubes and bottles. ... > full story
'Digital Dark Age' May Doom Some Data (October 29, 2008) -- What stands a better chance of surviving 50 years from now, a framed photograph or a 10-megabyte digital photo file on your computer's hard drive? The framed photograph will inevitably fade and yellow over time, but the digital photo file may be unreadable to future computers -- an unintended consequence of our rapidly digitizing world that may ultimately lead to a "digital dark age." ... > full story
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