ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

---

• New, inexpensive production materials boost promise of hydrogen fuel
• Smart SPHERES are about to get a whole lot smarter
• Orion testing provides lessons and data for splashdown recovery operations
• NASA's IRIS spots its largest solar flare
• Will plug-in cars crash the electric grid? Not with newly proposed system
• Tracking catalytic reactions in microreactors
• Curiosity Mars rover adds reverse driving for wheel protection
• NASA Mars Orbiter views Opportunity Rover on ridge
• Shocking behavior of a runaway star: High-speed encounter creates arc
• What has happened to the tsunami debris from Japan?
• Drawing the map of West African Internet
• Jupiter will be at its highest point in the sky for many years to come
• Early warning system for epidemics: Risk map correlates environmental, health data
• Optimizing custody is child's play for physicists
• Microparticles show molecules their way: Three-dimensional Structures Using Three Chemically Different Patches
• Liquid metal pump a breakthrough for micro-fluidics
• Essential step toward printing living human tissues
• Pond-dwelling powerhouse's genome points to biofuel potential

New, inexpensive production materials boost promise of hydrogen fuel Posted: 21 Feb 2014 03:45 PM PST Generating electricity is not the only way to turn sunlight into energy we can use on demand. The sun can also drive reactions to create chemical fuels, such as hydrogen, that can in turn power cars, trucks and trains. Scientists have now combined cheap, oxide-based materials to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases using solar energy with a solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 1.7 percent, the highest reported for any oxide-based photoelectrode system.

Smart SPHERES are about to get a whole lot smarter Posted: 21 Feb 2014 12:35 PM PST Smart devices -- such as tablets and phones -- increasingly are an essential part of everyday life on Earth. The same can be said for life off-planet aboard the International Space Station. Our reliance on these mobile and social technologies means equipment and software upgrades are an everyday occurrence -- like buying a new pair of shoes to replace a pair of well-worn ones. That's why the Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. is working to upgrade the smartphones currently equipped on a trio of volleyball-sized free-flying satellites on the space station called Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES).

Orion testing provides lessons and data for splashdown recovery operations Posted: 21 Feb 2014 12:33 PM PST The first full joint testing between NASA and the U.S. Navy of Orion recovery procedures off the coast of California was suspended after the team experienced issues with handling lines securing a test version of Orion inside the well deck of the USS San Diego.

NASA's IRIS spots its largest solar flare Posted: 21 Feb 2014 12:31 PM PST On Jan. 28, 2014, NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, witnessed its strongest solar flare since it launched in the summer of 2013. Solar flares are bursts of x-rays and light that stream out into space, but scientists don't yet know the fine details of what sets them off.

Will plug-in cars crash the electric grid? Not with newly proposed system Posted: 21 Feb 2014 12:04 PM PST The world's growing fleet of plug-in cars will put strain on aging electrical distribution systems. Now research presents a solution: to prevent the electric grid from crashing, break-up requests for power from each car into packets. The new tool is efficient, fair, and protects drivers' privacy and freedom.

Tracking catalytic reactions in microreactors Posted: 21 Feb 2014 08:41 AM PST Researchers have demonstrated a technique that for the first time allows the catalytic reactivity inside a microreactor to be mapped in high resolution from start to finish. This technique opens a more effective and efficient synthesis of pharmaceutical drugs and other flow reactor chemical products.

Curiosity Mars rover adds reverse driving for wheel protection Posted: 21 Feb 2014 08:07 AM PST Terrain that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is now crossing is as smooth as team members had anticipated based on earlier images from orbit. On Tuesday, Feb. 18, the rover covered 329 feet (100.3 meters), the mission's first long trek that used reverse driving and its farthest one-day advance of any kind in more than three months.

NASA Mars Orbiter views Opportunity Rover on ridge Posted: 21 Feb 2014 08:04 AM PST A new image from a telescopic camera orbiting Mars shows NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity at work on "Murray Ridge," without any new impact craters nearby.

Shocking behavior of a runaway star: High-speed encounter creates arc Posted: 21 Feb 2014 08:01 AM PST Roguish runaway stars can have a big impact on their surroundings as they plunge through the Milky Way galaxy. Their high-speed encounters shock the galaxy, creating arcs, as seen in a newly released image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

What has happened to the tsunami debris from Japan? Posted: 21 Feb 2014 07:39 AM PST The amount of debris in the ocean is growing exponentially, becoming more and more hazardous and harmful to marine life and therefore to our ocean food source. Measuring and tracking the movements of such debris are still in their infancy. The driftage generated by the tragic 2011 tsunami in Japan gave scientists a unique chance to learn about the effects of the ocean and wind on floating materials as they move across the North Pacific Ocean.

Drawing the map of West African Internet Posted: 21 Feb 2014 07:38 AM PST Internet has nowadays become a booster of development. This knowledge sharing space allows people to communicate with ease anywhere and anytime, and it considerably reduces the prices of services while opening new horizons for progress: e-government, e-education, telemedicine, e-commerce, research, e-companies, remote assistance, e-tourism, etc. Its adoption and rapid expansion lower the rate of poverty in some developing countries, hence considered to be emergent.

Jupiter will be at its highest point in the sky for many years to come Posted: 21 Feb 2014 07:38 AM PST In just over a week, Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, will be at its highest point in the sky for many years to come. Near their closest to Earth, Jupiter and its moons will appear obvious in the sky, offering fantastic opportunities to view the giant planet through a telescope.

Early warning system for epidemics: Risk map correlates environmental, health data Posted: 21 Feb 2014 07:38 AM PST The environment has an impact on our health. Preventing epidemics relies on activating the right counter-measures, and scientists are now trying to find out how better use of forecasting can help. The EU's EO2HEAVEN project developed a risk map for correlating environmental and health data in order to identify where a disease may break out next.

Optimizing custody is child's play for physicists Posted: 21 Feb 2014 04:38 AM PST Ensuring that parents in recomposed families see their children regularly is a complex network problem, according to a new study. The lead researcher set out to resolve one of his real-life problems: finding a suitable weekend for both partners in his recomposed family to see all their children at the same time. He then joined forces with a mathematician and a complex systems expert. The answer they came up with is that such an agreement is not possible, in general.

Microparticles show molecules their way: Three-dimensional Structures Using Three Chemically Different Patches Posted: 21 Feb 2014 04:38 AM PST Scientists produced novel microparticles, whose surface consists of three chemically different segments. These segments can be provided with different (bio-) molecules. Thanks to the specific spatial orientation of the attached molecules, the microparticles are suited for innovative applications in medicine, biochemistry, and engineering.

Liquid metal pump a breakthrough for micro-fluidics Posted: 21 Feb 2014 04:38 AM PST Scientists have developed the world's first liquid metal enabled pump, a revolutionary new micro-scale device with no mechanical parts. The unique design will enable micro-fluidics and lab-on-a-chip technology to finally realize their potential, with applications ranging from biomedicine to biofuels.

Essential step toward printing living human tissues Posted: 19 Feb 2014 06:55 AM PST A new bioprinting method creates intricately patterned 3-D tissue constructs with multiple types of cells and tiny blood vessels. The work represents a major step toward a longstanding goal of tissue engineers: creating human tissue constructs realistic enough to test drug safety and effectiveness. The method also represents an early but important step toward building fully functional replacements for injured or diseased tissue that can be designed from CAT scan data using computer-aided design (CAD), printed in 3D at the push of a button, and used by surgeons to repair or replace damaged tissue.

Pond-dwelling powerhouse's genome points to biofuel potential Posted: 19 Feb 2014 04:57 AM PST Duckweed is a tiny floating plant that's been known to drive people daffy. It's one of the smallest and fastest-growing flowering plants that often becomes a hard-to-control weed in ponds and small lakes. But it's also been exploited to clean contaminated water and as a source to produce pharmaceuticals. Now, the genome of Greater Duckweed (Spirodela polyrhiza) has given this miniscule plant's potential as a biofuel source a big boost.

You are subscribed to email updates from Top Technology News -- ScienceDaily To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610