Tech
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Tech
Fishy fat from soy is headed for U.S. dinner tables
Most people have heard about omega-3 fatty acids, the primary constituents of fish oil. Stearidonic acid, one of those omega-3s, is hardly a household term. But it should become one, researchers argued this week at the 2011 Experimental Biology meeting.
- Tech
U.S. network detects Fukushima plume
Traces of radioactivity attributable to the earthquake-damaged Fukushima reactor complex in Japan have reached the West Coast of the United States.
- Tech
Chernobyl’s lessons for Japan
Radioactive iodine released by the Chernobyl nuclear accident has left a legacy of thyroid cancers among downwinders — one that shows no sign of diminishing. The new data also point to what could be in store if conditions at Japan’s troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power complex continue to sour.
- Tech
Radiation: Japan’s third crisis
As if the magnitude-9 earthquake on March 11 and killer tsunami weren’t enough, a new round of aftershocks — psychological ones over fear of radiation — are rocking Japan and its neighbors.
- Tech
Physics of burrowing sandfish revealed
A new study shows how sandfish lizards swim through Saharan sands, a find that could inspire better burrowing tools for use in the aftermath of disasters.
- Tech
Model copes with chaos to deliver relief
A computer program can get supplies to disaster areas efficiently even when the transportation system is part of the problem.
- Tech
New batteries fix themselves
Self-healing lithium-ion batteries may last longer than current versions and be less likely to burst into flames.
- Tech
The numbers prove it: This is a data age
An assessment of the world’s computing capacity documents a staggering rise in power and storage since 1986.
- Tech
Pint-sized Princess Leia nearer reality
Faster but fuzzier holographic 3-D teleconferencing debuts.
- Math
Fruit flies teach computers a lesson
Insect's nerve cell development is a model of efficiency for sensing networks.
- Tech
Dirty money 2: Expect traces of BPA
BPA showed up on 21 of the 22 greenbacks surveyed in a new study. And the clean dollar? It appeared quite new, suggesting that dollars only become contaminated as they circulate.
- Tech
Terrorist-resistant ‘source’ of moly-99 hits the U.S.
Molybdenum-99 is the radioactive feedstock for the most widely used diagnostic nuclear-medicine isotope. On December 6, the first commercial batch of moly-99 that had been produced using a terrorist-resistant process arrived in the United States from a reactor in South Africa.
