Jungus

We look at how Hollywood became a driving force in the invention of new technologies — from Technicolor to the rise of digital special effects — and how new ideas and technologies, such as the Internet, are still shaping the movie industry today.

We bring you a roundup of research being presented at this week’s American Chemical Society meeting in Philadelphia.

New research published this week in the journal Science looks at “automatic mental associations” and finds that they can be good predictors of which way an undecided voter will sway.

Is persuasion an art or a science? We talk to Robert Cialdini, a social psychologist, who thinks a little psychology can improve your shot at getting what you want.

Developers have created flexible sheets of ‘nanoantennas’ that could aid in getting energy from solar energy or from other heat sources. The sheets could harvest up to 80 percent of the infrared light that falls upon them and the researchers say the material could cost just pennies a yard.