ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

Scientists have developed CROPSR, the first open-source software tool for genome-wide design and evaluation of guide RNA (gRNA) sequences for CRISPR/Cas9 experiments. This tool significantly shortens the time required to design a CRISPR experiment and reduces the challenge of working with complex crop genomes. It should accelerate bioenergy crop development as well as broader crop improvements and other gene-editing research.

Rapid hydroelectric dam expansion in the Amazon poses a serious threat to Earth's largest and most biodiverse river basin. There are 158 dams in the Amazon River basin, with another 351 proposed; these projects are typically assessed individually, with little coordinated planning. A new study provides a computational approach for evaluating basin-level tradeoffs between hydropower and ecosystem services, with the goal of guiding sustainable dam siting.

A new imaging technology uses polarized 'optical vortices' to provide a detailed, dynamic view of molecules in motion.

Geologists know well how rock towers and arches shimmy, twist and sway in response to far-off earthquakes, wind and even ocean waves. Their latest research compiles a first-of-its-kind dataset to show that the dynamic properties, i.e. the frequencies at which the rocks vibrate and the ways they deform during that vibration, can be largely predicted using the same mathematics that describe how beams in built structures resonate.

Data stored in spin states of ytterbium atoms can be transferred to surrounding atoms in a crystal matrix.

A team of astronomers has discovered a rare pair of brown dwarfs that has the widest separation of any brown dwarf binary system found to date. They're 12 billion miles apart, or three times the separation of Pluto from the Sun. The discovery is exceptional considering brown dwarf binaries share a weaker gravitational force than binary stars with the same separation, and thus are more likely to break up over time.

Astrophysicists for the first time have calculated the original mass and size of a dwarf galaxy that was shredded in a collision with the Milky Way billions of years ago.

A team of researchers from music, chemistry and computer science is using sound to better understand biochemical processes such as the physical mechanisms of protein folding.

A new study describes previously unexpected properties in a complex quantum material, findings that have implications for future quantum devices.

Chemical engineers tested how different-sized polymer nanoparticles circulate in the body and interact with platelets, the cells that promote blood clotting. Such particles could be used to help stop internal bleeding after traumatic injuries.

Synthetic biologists have developed a low-cost, easy-to-use, hand-held device that can let users know -- within mere minutes -- if their water is safe to drink. The new device works by using powerful and programmable genetic networks, which mimic electronic circuits, to perform a range of logic functions.

A new method is using Monte Carlo simulations to extend the capabilities of transmission electron microscopy and answer fundamental questions in polymer science.

Tunability in lenses typically requires bulky components, but researchers have created a metasurface lens that uses a piezoelectric thin film to change focal length when a small voltage is applied. The compact and lightweight lens could be useful for portable medical diagnostic instruments, drone-based 3D mapping and other applications where miniaturization can open new possibilities.

Eddies in an exotic liquid known as a superfluid merge to form large vortices, analogous to how cyclones form in the turbulent atmosphere.

The time a person spends on different smartphone apps is enough to identify them from a larger group in more than one in three cases say researchers, who warn of the implications for security and privacy. They fed 4,680 days of app usage data into statistical models. Each of these days was paired with one of the 780 users, such that the models learnt people's daily app use patterns. The researchers then tested whether models could identify an individual when provided with only a single day of smartphone activity that was anonymous and not yet paired with a user. Software granted access to a smartphone's standard activity logging could render a reasonable prediction about a user's identity even when they were logged out of their account. An identification is possible with no monitoring of conversations or behaviors within apps themselves.

A research team has developed a large-area suspended graphene and irradiated the thinnest graphene target with an ultra-intense laser to realize high-energy ion acceleration. Their findings will be applied to the development of compact, efficient ion accelerators used for cancer treatment, nuclear fusion and so on.