ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Lab instruments inside Curiosity eat Mars rock powder
• Future evidence for extraterrestrial life might come from dying stars
• Rethinking wind power
• New look at high-temperature superconductors
• Research to probe deep within a solar cell
• Non-volatile bistable memory circuits for highly energy-efficient CMOS logic systems
• The cradle of the nanoparticle
• Spiderman's webbing would be strong enough to stop a moving train, say physics students
• Scientists develop a whole new way of harvesting energy from the sun
• European Space Agency's AIDA mission now has a target: asteroid Didymos

Lab instruments inside Curiosity eat Mars rock powder Posted: 25 Feb 2013 03:56 PM PST Two compact laboratories inside NASA's Mars rover Curiosity have ingested portions of the first sample of rock powder ever collected from the interior of a rock on Mars. Curiosity science team members will use the laboratories to analyze the rock powder in the coming days and weeks.

Future evidence for extraterrestrial life might come from dying stars Posted: 25 Feb 2013 10:16 AM PST Even dying stars could host planets with life -- and if such life exists, we might be able to detect it within the next decade. This encouraging result comes from a new theoretical study of Earth-like planets orbiting white dwarf stars. Researchers found that we could detect oxygen in the atmosphere of a white dwarf's planet much more easily than for an Earth-like planet orbiting a Sun-like star.

Rethinking wind power Posted: 25 Feb 2013 09:19 AM PST "People have often thought there's no upper bound for wind power—that it's one of the most scalable power sources," says an applied physicist. After all, gusts and breezes don't seem likely to "run out" on a global scale in the way oil wells might run dry.

New look at high-temperature superconductors Posted: 25 Feb 2013 07:25 AM PST A new method allows direct detection of rapid fluctuations that may help to explain how high-temperature superconducting materials work.

Research to probe deep within a solar cell Posted: 25 Feb 2013 07:25 AM PST Engineers and scientists have pioneered a new technique to analyze PCBM, a material used in polymer photovoltaic cells, obtaining details of the structure of the material which will be vital to improving the cell's efficiency.

Non-volatile bistable memory circuits for highly energy-efficient CMOS logic systems Posted: 25 Feb 2013 07:21 AM PST Non-volatile bistable memory circuits pave the way for highly energy-efficient CMOS logic systems.

The cradle of the nanoparticle Posted: 25 Feb 2013 06:20 AM PST A new model facilitates predictions about how nanoparticles form and gives clues about how the process can be controlled.

Spiderman's webbing would be strong enough to stop a moving train, say physics students Posted: 25 Feb 2013 06:20 AM PST In Spiderman 2, the superhero uses his webbing to bring a runaway train to a standstill moments before it plummets over the end of the track. But could a material with the strength and toughness of spiders' web really stop four crowded subway cars? According to physics students, the answer is yes.

Scientists develop a whole new way of harvesting energy from the sun Posted: 24 Feb 2013 11:29 AM PST A new method of harvesting the sun's energy is emerging. Though still in its infancy, the research promises to convert sunlight into energy using a process based on metals that are more robust than many of the semiconductors used in conventional methods.

European Space Agency's AIDA mission now has a target: asteroid Didymos Posted: 22 Feb 2013 08:11 AM PST The European Space Agency's proposed Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment mission now has a target: asteroid Didymos. The recent Russian meteor and, on the same day, our planet's close encounter with an even larger chunk of celestial debris underline the need for us to learn more about these high-speed space rocks.

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