ScienceDaily Technology Headlines -- for Saturday, March 24, 2012

ScienceDaily Technology Headlines

for Saturday, March 24, 2012

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Shiny new tool for imaging biomolecules (March 23, 2012) -- Researchers have developed a technique for lacing artificial membranes with billions of gold nanoantennas that can boost optical signals from a protein tens of thousands of times without the protein ever being touched. This technique could provide a critical tool in the fight against a wide range of health problems including cancer. ... > full story

New theory on size of black holes: Gas-guzzling black holes eat two courses at a time (March 23, 2012) -- Astronomers have put forward a new theory about why black holes become so hugely massive -- claiming some of them have no 'table manners', and tip their 'food' directly into their mouths, eating more than one course simultaneously. ... > full story

Forces among molecules: Tiny but important (March 23, 2012) -- Forces are not only associated with machines or muscles. You can also find them elsewhere, for instance between molecules. Theoretical chemists are familiar with that. However, they -- or rather their computers -- are not capable of calculating them with high accuracy and efficiency at the same time. ... > full story

Swarming and transporting (March 23, 2012) -- On its own, an ant is not particularly clever. But in a community, the insects can solve complicated tasks. Researchers intend to put this "swarm intelligence“ to use in the logistics field. Lots of autonomous transport shuttles would provide an alternative to traditional materials-handling technology. ... > full story

Plasma flows may shed light on predicting sunspot cycles (March 23, 2012) -- A geophysics researcher wants to look inside the sun. More accurately, she wants to simulate the sun to study plasma flows associated with sunspot cycles. With the help of simulations scientists recently warned about a series of solar storms in early March, concerned that it could affect global positioning systems, power grids, satellites and airplane travel. ... > full story

Why Wikileaks' bid for radical transparency failed (March 23, 2012) -- The scale and significance of the 2010 WikiLeaks disclosures were overstated, according to new research. Analysis of the WikiLeaks debacle serves to highlight four key reasons why radical transparency is hard to achieve, and why a technological fix alone will not achieve it. ... > full story

Standoff sensing enters new realm with dual-laser technique (March 22, 2012) -- Identifying chemicals from a distance could take a step forward with the introduction of a new two-laser system. ... > full story

NASA GRAIL returns first student-selected moon images (March 22, 2012) -- One of two NASA spacecraft orbiting the moon has beamed back the first student-requested pictures of the lunar surface from its onboard camera. Fourth grade students from the Emily Dickinson Elementary School in Bozeman, Mont., received the honor of making the first image selections by winning a nationwide competition to rename the two spacecraft. ... > full story

Cylinder hides contents and makes them invisible to magnetic fields (March 22, 2012) -- Researchers have created a cylinder which hides contents and makes them invisible to magnetic fields. The device was built using superconductor and ferromagnetic materials available on the market. ... > full story

National study ranks city governments' use of social media (March 22, 2012) -- Six times as many big-city governments reached citizens via Facebook in 2011 compared to 2009. Use of YouTube and Twitter grew fourfold and threefold respectively. Researchers ranked the online interactivity, transparency and accessibility of the 75 largest U.S. cities. ... > full story

Liquid-like materials may pave way for new thermoelectric devices (March 22, 2012) -- In the continual quest for better thermoelectric materials -- which convert heat into electricity and vice versa -- researchers have identified a liquid-like compound whose properties give it the potential to be even more efficient than traditional thermoelectrics. ... > full story

Geologists discover new class of landform -- on Mars (March 22, 2012) -- An odd, previously unseen landform could provide a window into the geological history of Mars, according to new research by geologists. They call the structures periodic bedrock ridges. ... > full story