ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Nanowrinkles, nanofolds yield strange hidden channels
• Blocked holes can enhance rather than stop light going through
• Highly efficient method for creating flexible, transparent electrodes developed
• New strategy could lead to dose reduction in X-ray imaging
• Tiny flame shines light on supernovae explosions
• Robojelly gets an upgrade: Underwater robot learns to swim more like the real thing
• Carbon nanotube forest camouflages 3-D objects
• Butterfly wings inspire design of water-repellent surface
• Mechanism of wine swirling explained
• Ingredients involved in 'splashing' revealed

Nanowrinkles, nanofolds yield strange hidden channels Posted: 22 Nov 2011 08:09 PM PST Wrinkles and folds, common in nature, do something unusual at the nanoscale. Researchers have discovered that wrinkles on super-thin films have hidden long waves. The team also found that folds in the film produce nanochannels, like thousands of tiny subsurface pipes. The research could lead to advances in medicine, electronics and energy.

Blocked holes can enhance rather than stop light going through Posted: 22 Nov 2011 10:33 AM PST Conventional wisdom would say that blocking a hole would prevent light from going through it, but engineers have discovered the opposite to be true. A research team has found that placing a metal cap over a small hole in a metal film does not stop the light at all, but rather enhances its transmission.

Highly efficient method for creating flexible, transparent electrodes developed Posted: 22 Nov 2011 08:32 AM PST Researchers demonstrate a new method for making transparent electrodes from nanomaterials. By fusing AgNWs with metal oxide nanoparticles and organic polymers, highly transparent conductors were produced that could provide an alternative to the ITO. The research team has also built solar cells using the new electrodes and found that the performance of the cell is comparable to that of solar cells made with indium tin oxide.

New strategy could lead to dose reduction in X-ray imaging Posted: 22 Nov 2011 08:32 AM PST For more than a century, the use of X-rays has been a prime diagnostic tool when it comes to human health. As it turns out, X-rays also are a crucial component for studying and understanding molecules, and a new approach may dramatically improve what researchers can learn using the technique.

Tiny flame shines light on supernovae explosions Posted: 22 Nov 2011 08:32 AM PST Starting from the behavior of small flames in the laboratory, a team of researchers has gained new insights into the titanic forces that drive Type Ia supernova explosions. These stellar explosions are important tools for studying the evolution of the universe, so a better understanding of how they behave would help answer some of the fundamental questions in astronomy.

Robojelly gets an upgrade: Underwater robot learns to swim more like the real thing Posted: 22 Nov 2011 08:32 AM PST Engineers have developed a robot that mimics the graceful motions of jellyfish so precisely that it has been named Robojelly. Developed for the U.S. Office of Naval Research in 2009, this vehicle was designed to conduct ocean underwater surveillance, enabling it potentially to detect chemical spills, monitor the presence of ships and submarines, and observe the migration of schools of fish.

Carbon nanotube forest camouflages 3-D objects Posted: 21 Nov 2011 08:48 AM PST Researchers demonstrate that a carbon nanotube coating can absorb light nearly perfectly, making structural details disappear into a black background.

Butterfly wings inspire design of water-repellent surface Posted: 21 Nov 2011 08:48 AM PST Researchers mimic the many-layered nanostructure of blue mountain swallowtail wings to make a silicon wafer that traps both air and light.

Mechanism of wine swirling explained Posted: 21 Nov 2011 07:41 AM PST Wine drinkers know that swirling a good vintage around in a glass aerates the wine and releases its bouquet. Just how the process -- known as "orbital shaking" -- works, however, has been something of a mystery.

Ingredients involved in 'splashing' revealed Posted: 21 Nov 2011 07:41 AM PST "Splashing" plays a central role in the transport of pollutants and the spread of diseases, but while the sight of a droplet striking and splashing off of a solid surface is a common experience, the actual physical ingredients and mechanisms involved in splashing aren't all that well understood. A team of researchers has discovered that there is indeed more involved in splashing than previously believed.

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