Fishing line of different diameters, formed into the coiled-coils used in these experiments. Science/AAAS Take a rubber band and twist it. Keep twisting it until it starts to collapse onto itself and form larger loops—it’s something you can do with almost any strand-like structure. Now, scientists from the University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson are taking advantage of this property in everyday materials such as fishing line and sewing thread and using it to make artificial muscles. The scientists took pieces of fiber that were a few hundred micrometers long and twisted them until they began to coil. As the pieces coiled, the twisted fibers became shorter and thicker; once tightly coiled, the scientists heat-treated them to prevent the fibers from unfolding. If heat is applied to the finished coil after this procedure, the individual fibers try to untwist. The untwisting causes the coils to expand in volume as they shorten in length, just like a muscle. The researchers found that if they made the fiber form larger coils in the same direction as the initial twists, the fibers contracted. If the fibers were made to coil in the opposite direction from the twist, the fibers expanded. By combining large quantities of these twisted fibers, the team could produce artificial muscles with above-average characteristics. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Artificial muscles made with fishing line
According to an early report from Bloomberg News reporter Sarah Frier, Facebook is set to buy WhatsApp for $16 billion. An SEC filing confirms the acquisition for $4 billion in cash to WhatsApp’s security holders, along with $12 billion in Facebook stock and an additional $3 billion in Facebook stock that will vest over four years. WhatsApp has been one of a handful of booming messaging apps that has grown especially large in the last year (GroupMe, WeChat, Kik, and Line are others). In December, the app was reported to have over 400 million monthly users, and Facebook now reports that the service has 450 million. Meanwhile, Facebook maintains roughly 1.2 billion as of last October. Facebook has yet to release usage numbers for either its messaging feature on the whole or its dedicated Messenger app. The Verge noted in December that it was “telling” that few other messaging apps release their usage numbers like WhatsApp does, which suggests its user base dwarfs its competitors. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments 
According to a new job advertisement posted this week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is currently seeking a contractor to build and operate a national license plate reader database. While license plate readers are on the rise by federal and local law enforcement agencies, they typically are not linked together into a one-stop shop beyond federally-funded “fusion centers,” which depend on local data. Apparently that is not enough for the feds anymore. The DHS further posted a 29-page document (PDF) outlining its requirements, including “featuring Smartphone technology based application for at least one Smartphone type, i.e. Android/iPhone/BlackBerry etc. currently in use by [Department of Homeland Security / Immigration and Customs Enforcement] allowing for license plate pictures to be taken and uploaded. Any positive matches shall return to the Smartphone an alert notification indicating to the User a positive match.” Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments 
Microsoft marketing chief Tami Reller announced that the company has sold 200 million Windows 8 licenses in the 15 or so months that it has been on the market. This number includes only OEM and retail copies of the operating system and excludes volume licenses. The company previously announced that Windows 8 had reached 100 million copies sold in May of last year, a rate of sales that matched Windows 7. That operating system, however, reached 240 million sales within the first 12 months, demonstrating that Windows 8 is clearly not selling as fast. Still, in a PC market that’s shrinking—and which started shrinking even before the release of Windows 8—200 million copies is perhaps not too shabby. PCs as a whole are not selling as fast as they were during Windows 7’s heyday, and both Windows and Office are suffering as a result. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments 
In the modern responsive Web Three Point Oh Internet, Slashdot stands like a thing frozen in time—it’s a coelacanth stuck incongruously in an aquarium full of more colorful fish. The technology news aggregator site has been around since 1997, making it positively ancient as websites are reckoned. More importantly, Slashdot’s long focus on open source technology news and topics has caused it to accrete a user base that tends to be extremely technical, extremely skilled, and extremely opinionated. That user base is itself the main reason why Slashdot continues to thrive, even as its throwback interface makes it look to untrained eyes like a dated relic. Though the site is frequently a source of deep and rich commentary on topics, the barrier for new users to engage in the site’s discussions is relatively high—certainly higher than, say, reddit (or even Ars). This doesn’t cause much concern to the average Slashdot user, but tech job listing site Dice.com (which bought Slashdot in September 2012, along with Sourceforge and a number of other digital properties) appears to have decided it’s time to drag Slashdot’s interface into the 21st century in order to make things comfortable for everyone—old and new users alike. And the Slashdot user base is not pleased. Read 16 remaining paragraphs | Comments 
