ScienceDaily Technology Headlines -- for Saturday, May 21, 2011 ~ techdeck

Sabtu, 21 Mei 2011

ScienceDaily Technology Headlines -- for Saturday, May 21, 2011

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ScienceDaily Technology Headlines

for Saturday, May 21, 2011

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Radio telescopes capture best-ever snapshot of black hole jets (May 20, 2011) -- An international team, using radio telescopes located throughout the Southern Hemisphere, has produced the most detailed image of particle jets erupting from a supermassive black hole in a nearby galaxy. ... > full story

Buying 'legal highs' from the Internet is risky business (May 20, 2011) -- Many drugs sold as "legal highs" on the Internet do not contain the ingredients they claim. Some instead contain controlled substances and are illegal to sell over the internet. These are findings of a doctor, who bought a range of tablets from different websites to see what each contained. ... > full story

Researchers create nanopatch for the heart (May 20, 2011) -- Engineers have a promising new approach to treating heart-attack victims. The researchers created a nanopatch with carbon nanofibers and a polymer. In laboratory tests, natural heart-tissue cell density on the nanoscaffold was six times greater than the control sample, while neuron density had doubled. ... > full story

Laser modules in matchbox size (May 20, 2011) -- Miniaturized laser beam sources which are suitable for a variety of applications, from material processing to display technology have recently been developed. ... > full story

Record efficiency of 18.7 percent for flexible solar cells on plastics, Swiss researchers report (May 20, 2011) -- Swiss scientists have further boosted the energy conversion efficiency of flexible solar cells made of copper indium gallium (di)selenide (also known as CIGS) to a new world record of 18.7 percent -- a significant improvement over the previous record of 17.6 percent achieved by the same team in June 2010. The measurements have been independently certified. ... > full story

Wireless sensor network monitors microclimate in the forest (May 20, 2011) -- During a forest monitoring operation, forestry scientists measure various environmental values. This is how they obtain indications about how the forests are changing and what can be done to preserve them. However, installing and maintaining the wired measuring stations is complex: Researchers developed a wireless alternative. ... > full story

It's not easy being green: Scientists grow understanding of how photosynthesis is regulated (May 19, 2011) -- The seeds sprouting in your spring garden may still be struggling to reach the sun. If so, they are consuming a finite energy pack contained within each seed. Once those resources are depleted, the plant cell nucleus must be ready to switch on a "green" photosynthetic program. Researchers recently showed a new way that those signals are relayed. ... > full story

Looking deep into a huge storm on Saturn (May 19, 2011) -- The atmosphere of the planet Saturn normally appears placid and calm. But about once per Saturn year (about thirty Earth years), as spring comes to the northern hemisphere of the giant planet, something stirs deep below the clouds that leads to a dramatic planet-wide disturbance. This is only the sixth of these huge storms to be spotted since 1876. It is the first ever to be studied in the thermal infrared -- to see the variations of temperature within a Saturnian storm -- and the first ever to be observed by an orbiting spacecraft. ... > full story

Neutrons provide first sub-nanoscale snapshots of Huntington's disease protein (May 19, 2011) -- Scientists have for the first time successfully characterized the earliest structural formation of the disease type of the protein that causes Huntington's disease. The researchers have used a small-angle neutron scattering instrument, called Bio-SANS, to explore the earliest aggregate species of the protein that are believed to be the most toxic. ... > full story

Microscope: Handy, quick and flat (May 19, 2011) -- In the future, doctors can pull out a new type of microscope to get to the bottom of suspicious changes in the skin that may indicate melanoma. The new device provides a high-resolution image of skin areas of any size -- and so quickly that you can hold it in your hand without blurring the resulting picture. ... > full story

Antibody production gets confused during long-term spaceflight (May 19, 2011) -- The trip to Mars just got more difficult since researchers discovered that antibodies that fight off disease might become compromised during long-term space flights. A new report shows that antibodies produced in space are less effective than those produced on Earth. This reduced effectiveness of antibodies makes astronauts more susceptible to illness, increasing the danger posed by bacteria and viruses likely to coexist with wayfaring astronauts. ... > full story

Cell phone use may reduce male fertility, Austrian-Canadian study suggests (May 19, 2011) -- Men who have been diagnosed with poor sperm quality and who are trying to have children should limit their cell phone use, a new study suggests. Researchers in Austria and Canada have found that while cell phone use appears to increase the level of testosterone circulating in the body, it may also lead to low sperm quality and a decrease in fertility. ... > full story