ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Physicists take photonic topological insulators to the next level
• Suspend the crystals, and they grow better
• May the force be with the atomic probe
• Data storage: A fast and loose approach improves memory
• Nanotechnology: Spotting a molecular mix-up
• Production of 5-aminovaleric and glutaric acid by metabolically engineered microorganism
• Unlocking new talents in nature: Protein engineers create new biocatalysts
• Science's breakthrough of the year: Discovery of the Higgs boson

Physicists take photonic topological insulators to the next level Posted: 21 Dec 2012 09:35 AM PST Researchers have designed a simulation that for the first time emulates key properties of electronic topological insulators. Topological insulators, a state of matter that was only discovered in the past decade, may enable dramatic advances in quantum computing and spintronics.

Suspend the crystals, and they grow better Posted: 21 Dec 2012 08:39 AM PST The idea is so simple you wonder why no one thought of it before. Crystals growing near the bottom of a beaker are subject to convection, but it is much quieter near the top of the beaker. In that case, why not just let them grow hanging in the beaker? Well, the idea was there for the taking, and that is exactly what researchers have done.

May the force be with the atomic probe Posted: 21 Dec 2012 05:16 AM PST A new models suggest devising means of probing a surface at a sub-micrometric level as this will help us understand how electrons' diffusion affects long-range attractive forces. Theoretical physicists created models to study the attractive forces affecting atoms located at a wide range of distances from a surface, in the hundreds of nanometers range.

Data storage: A fast and loose approach improves memory Posted: 20 Dec 2012 12:31 PM PST An unconventional design for a nanoscale memory device uses a freely moving mechanical shuttle to improve performance.

Nanotechnology: Spotting a molecular mix-up Posted: 20 Dec 2012 12:31 PM PST Information within the bonds of molecules known as super benzene oligomers pave the way for new types of quantum computers.

Production of 5-aminovaleric and glutaric acid by metabolically engineered microorganism Posted: 20 Dec 2012 11:37 AM PST Scientists have applied a systems metabolic engineering approach to develop recombinant Escherichia coli for the production of 5-aminovaleric acid and glutaric acid, the promising C5 platform chemicals, by fermentation.

Unlocking new talents in nature: Protein engineers create new biocatalysts Posted: 20 Dec 2012 11:35 AM PST Protein engineers have tapped into a hidden talent of one of nature's most versatile catalysts. The enzyme cytochrome P450 is nature's premier oxidation catalyst -- a protein that typically promotes reactions that add oxygen atoms to other chemicals. Now the researchers have engineered new versions of the enzyme, unlocking its ability to drive a completely different and synthetically useful reaction that does not take place in nature.

Science's breakthrough of the year: Discovery of the Higgs boson Posted: 20 Dec 2012 11:35 AM PST The observation of an elusive sub-atomic particle, known as the Higgs boson, has been heralded by the journal Science as the most important scientific discovery of 2012. This particle, which was first hypothesized more than 40 years ago, holds the key to explaining how other elementary particles (those that aren't made up of smaller particles), such as electrons and quarks, get their mass.

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