Tech
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Tech
Dawn of the commercial space age
On Oct. 4, a privately funded, piloted craft called SpaceShipOne reached a height of 378,000 feet (115.1 kilometers), breaking a world altitude record for rocket-powered planes and claiming the $10 million Ansari X prize.
- Tech
Bartending lessons for microassembly
Engineers have demonstrated the feasibility of quickly assembling identical microcircuit components by agitating subunits in a liquid.
- Tech
Transmuting a powerful poison
A new chemical process for fuel cells powered by hydrocarbons eliminates carbon monoxide that would clog fuel-cell electrodes while also extracting energy from the troublesome gas.
- Tech
Hungry for Nano
The food industry is turning to nanotechnology as it searches for innovations that could bring safer, healthier, and tastier products to consumers.
- Tech
Tiny Timepiece: Atomic clock could fit almost anywhere
Physicists have shrunk the high-tech heart of an atomic clock to the size of a rice grain.
- Tech
Electrifying Toxic Cleanup: Electrodes could stimulate removal of radioactive waste
Researchers have devised a bioremediation system that electrically stimulates bacteria to break down toxic chemicals in the environment.
- Tech
Helping circuits get enough oxygen
The search for new insulators needed for making ever-smaller circuits may get a boost from a new electron microscopy technique sensitive to a single oxygen atom missing from a crystal layer.
- Tech
Sound power for deep-space travel beyond sun’s reach
An unusually efficient new type of power unit for spacecraft uses sound to convert heat to electricity.
- Tech
Ocean Envy
By mimicking the flippers of penguins, whales, and dolphins, engineers hope to make ocean vessels that are as maneuverable and efficient as the marine animals.
- Tech
A new deep-sea submersible
Scientists have announced a 4-year, $21.6-million design-and-construction effort to replace the aging research submersible Alvin.
- Tech
Aerodynamics for Beginners
NASA’s Glenn Research Center offers an extensive online tutorial on the basics of aerodynamics. Aimed at elementary and high school teachers, the site provides lots of useful information and has slides and worksheets suitable for classroom use at various levels. Go to: http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/bga.html
- Tech
Neutrons may spotlight cancers
Researchers have taken a first step toward developing neutron beams as a medical diagnostic tool that might provide earlier detection of cancers.
