ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

New images have revealed detailed clues about how the first stars and structures were formed in the Universe and suggest the formation of the Galaxy got off to a fitful start.

They are regarded as one of the most interesting materials for future electronics: Topological insulators conduct electricity in a special way and hold the promise of novel circuits and faster mobile communications. A research team has now unraveled a fundamental property of this new class of materials: How exactly do the electrons in the material respond when they are 'startled' by short pulses of so-called terahertz radiation? The results are not just significant for our basic understanding of this novel quantum material, but could herald faster mobile data communication or high-sensitivity detector systems for exploring distant worlds in years to come, the team reports.

The sharpest knives available are made of either steel or ceramic, both of which are human-made materials that must be forged in furnaces under extreme temperatures. Now, researchers have developed a potentially more sustainable way to make sharp knives: using hardened wood. The method makes wood 23 times harder and a knife made from the material is nearly three times sharper than a stainless-steel dinner table knife.

Researchers have developed a new method to profile the activity of cellular genes involved in correcting DNA damage, and applied this method to pave the way for dramatic improvements to genome editing technologies.

A team has discovered evidence of a giant impact in the nearby HD 17255 star system, in which an Earth-sized terrestrial planet and a smaller impactor likely collided at least 200,000 years ago, stripping off part of one planet's atmosphere.

Researchers report an uncanny resemblance between the superconductivity of magic graphene and that of high temperature superconductors. Magic graphene may hold the key to unlocking new mechanisms of superconductivity, including high temperature superconductivity.

As the fall chill settles in across the U.S., people are getting out their cozy sweaters and electric blankets, or stocking up on handheld heat packets for extra warmth. But sweaters and blankets are bulky, and heat packs only work for a little while. Now, researchers demonstrate a conductive, durable yarn for lightweight wearable heaters that are re-usable and provide constant, portable warmth.

Ocean waves can be powerful, containing enough energy to push around sand, pebbles and even boulders during storms. These waves, as well as smaller, more gentle ones, could be tapped as a source of renewable energy. Now, researchers have developed flexible power generators that mimic the way seaweed sways to efficiently convert surface and underwater waves into electricity to power marine-based devices.

Using a handheld device that looks a little like a ray gun, scientists recorded how plant leaves on different Alaskan mountains reflect light. And, it turns out, different populations of plants of the same species -- for instance, plants living on neighboring mountaintops -- reflect light differently, in ways that echo their genetic variation from each other.

Researchers have long suspected a connection between information and the physical universe, with various paradoxes and thought experiments used to explore how or why information could be encoded in physical matter. A researcher attempts to shed light on exactly how much of this information is out there and presents a numerical estimate for the amount of encoded information in all the visible matter in the universe -- approximately 6 times 10 to the power of 80 bits of information.