Tech

Technical improvements to a microchip-based device for detecting and analyzing tumor cells in the bloodstream are revealing cellular differences that may reflect a tumor's aggressiveness and long-term response to treatment.

With funding from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, engineers at Boston University are working on a theoretical approach to improve automated mission control and decision-making for fleets of unmanned aerial vehicles.

While unmanned systems currently rely on the automation of low-level functions, such as navigation, stabilization and trajectory, operating these systems is still quite labor-intensive for Air Force pilots given the variable flying conditions experienced by UAVs.

NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite, better known as TRMM has been tracking Cyclone Paul's rainfall over the last week, and has watched is it made landfall in the Northern Territory and is now tracking Paul as it heads back toward the Gulf of Carpentaria for a return over water.

Did you know that filling out your census card will help computer scientists model how diseases spread in the United States?

Over the last four years, researchers at RTI International in North Carolina have been transforming data from the 2000 census—which described the country's 281 million people and 116 million households—into a virtual U.S. population. They finished the "synthetic population" last year, and they plan to update it when the 2010 census results come out.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University scientists have defined a hidden second option plants have for making an essential amino acid that could be the first step in boosting plants' nutritional value and improving biofuel production potential.

The amino acid phenylalanine is required to build proteins and is a precursor for more than 8,000 other compounds essential to plants, including lignin, which allows plants to stand upright but acts as a barrier in the production of cellulosic ethanol.

WASHINGTON -- A new congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council evaluates various technologies and methods that could improve the fuel economy of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, such as tractor-trailers, transit buses, and work trucks. The report also recommends approaches that federal agencies could use to regulate these vehicles' fuel consumption. Currently there are no fuel consumption standards for such vehicles, which account for about 26 percent of the transportation fuel used in the U.S.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A self-administered test to screen for early dementia could help speed the diagnosis and subsequent treatment of memory disorders, including Alzheimer's disease. It could also provide health care providers and caregivers an earlier indication of life-changing events that could lie ahead.

An Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist participated in a project to fine-tune computer models that can indicate when forest "carbon sinks" become net carbon generators instead. The results will help pinpoint the effectiveness of trees in offsetting carbon releases that contribute to higher atmospheric temperatures and global climate change.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Call them tattletale pills.

Seeking a way to confirm that patients have taken their medication, University of Florida engineering researchers have added a tiny microchip and digestible antenna to a standard pill capsule. The prototype is intended to pave the way for mass-produced pills that, when ingested, automatically alert doctors, loved ones or scientists working with patients in clinical drug trials.

Rainer Blatt's and Piet Schmidt's research team from the University of Innsbruck have successfully realized a single-atom laser, which shows the properties of a classical laser as well as quantum mechanical properties of the atom-photon interaction. The scientists have published their findings in the journal Nature Physics.

Montreal, March 30, 2010 – A new study has found that fathers give toddlers more leeway and that allows them to actively explore their environments, according to a new study on parent-child attachment published in Early Child Development and Care.

A newly discovered path for the conversion of sunlight to electricity could brighten the future for photovoltaic technology. Researchers with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have found a new mechanism by which the photovoltaic effect can take place in semiconductor thin-films. This new route to energy production overcomes the bandgap voltage limitation that continues to plague conventional solid-state solar cells.

A group of University of Colorado at Boulder faculty and students involved in the international Large Hadron Collider project in Europe are celebrating the most powerful smashing of subatomic particles into each other today in a quest to discover the physical conditions immediately following the Big Bang.

Jülich, 31 March 2010 – A quantum computer could provide an enormous improvement in the processing speed of existing computers. However, as yet they only exist in the laboratory in the form of small prototypes with a capacity of a few bits. They can now be explored in more detail, at least in simulations. The Jülich supercomputer JUGENE can now simulate the largest quantum computer system in the world with 42 bits.

Essential oils could be a cheap and effective alternative to antibiotics and potentially used to combat drug-resistant hospital superbugs, according to research presented at the Society for General Microbiology's spring meeting in Edinburgh this week.