Tech
We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.
- 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.
- Tech
Heavier crudes, heavier footprints
BLOG: Refining heavy oils and tar sands could greatly exaggerate the greenhouse gases associated with fossil-fuel use, a new study finds.
- Tech
Newfound water risk: Lead-leaching valves
Hidden elements in drinking-water lines can shed large amounts of lead, a toxic heavy metal. And it's quite legal, even if it does skirt the intent of federal regulations.
- Tech
Lots of blame over BP well blowout, panel reports
Crews responsible for drilling BP’s Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, this past spring, missed plenty of signs that a catastrophic accident was looming, according to a November 17 interim report by the National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council.
