ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Dawn Sees Hydrated Minerals on Giant Asteroid
• Physicists reveal striking similarities in sporting performance
• NASA's solar fleet peers into coronal cavities
• Many proteins exist in a state of 'disorder' and yet are functional
• Research uncovers path to defect-free thin films
• Astrochemistry enters a bold new era with ALMA
• Landing pads being designed for extraterrestrial missions

Dawn Sees Hydrated Minerals on Giant Asteroid Posted: 20 Sep 2012 05:20 PM PDT NASA's Dawn spacecraft has revealed that the giant asteroid Vesta has its own version of ring around the collar. Two new papers based on observations from the low-altitude mapping orbit of the Dawn mission show that volatile, or easily evaporated materials, have colored Vesta's surface in a broad swath around its equator. Pothole-like features mark some of the asteroid's surface where the volatiles, likely water, released from hydrated minerals boiled off. While Dawn did not find actual water ice at Vesta, there are signs of hydrated minerals delivered by meteorites and dust evident in the giant asteroid's chemistry and geology.

Physicists reveal striking similarities in sporting performance Posted: 20 Sep 2012 04:46 PM PDT Finding the similarities between volleyball and snooker may seem quite tricky. However, a group of physicists have found that the spread of scores, otherwise known as distribution, across their ranking systems are almost identical.

NASA's solar fleet peers into coronal cavities Posted: 20 Sep 2012 01:46 PM PDT The sun's atmosphere dances. Giant columns of solar material -- made of gas so hot that many of the electrons have been scorched off the atoms, turning it into a form of magnetized matter we call plasma -- leap off the sun's surface, jumping and twisting. Sometimes these prominences of solar material shoot off, escaping completely into space; other times they fall back down under their own weight. The prominences are sometimes also the inner structure of a larger formation, appearing from the side almost as the filament inside a large light bulb. The bright structure around and above that light bulb is called a streamer, and the inside "empty" area is called a coronal prominence cavity. Scientists have published new research on the temperatures of the sun's coronal cavities. By understanding aspects of these cavities -- that is the shape, density and temperature -- scientists can better understand the space weather that can disrupt technologies near Earth.

Many proteins exist in a state of 'disorder' and yet are functional Posted: 20 Sep 2012 11:11 AM PDT For 100 years, the dogma has been that amino acid sequence determines protein folding and that the folded structure determines function. But researchers explain in a new study, a large class of proteins doesn't adhere to the structure-function paradigm. Called intrinsically disordered proteins, these proteins fail fold either in whole or in part and yet they are functional.

Research uncovers path to defect-free thin films Posted: 20 Sep 2012 11:02 AM PDT Scientists have discovered a strain relaxation phenomenon in cobaltites that has eluded researchers for decades and may lead to advances in fuel cells, magnetic sensors and a host of energy-related materials.

Astrochemistry enters a bold new era with ALMA Posted: 20 Sep 2012 09:05 AM PDT New technology for both laboratory and telescope improves and speeds the process of identifying the "fingerprints" of chemicals in the cosmos, enabling previously-impracticable research.

Landing pads being designed for extraterrestrial missions Posted: 20 Sep 2012 07:10 AM PDT When the Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity rover landed on Aug. 6, it was another step forward in the effort to eventually send humans to the Red Planet. Using the lessons of the Apollo era and robotic missions to Mars, NASA scientists and engineers are studying the challenges and hazards involved in any extraterrestrial landing.

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