-
Contents
- Sweet Confusion: Does high fructose corn syrup deserve such a bad rap?
- Closed Thinking: Without scientific competition and open debate, much psychology research goes nowhere
- subscribe
- give a gift
- renew
- RSS Feeds
- email alerts
- Digital Edition
- Podcast
- Past issues
Read articles, including Science News stories written for ages 9-14, on the
SNK website.
-
Contents
- Teens take home science gold: A low-cost, self-driving vehicle; battery alternatives and analyses of galaxy clusters claim top prizes at a global high school science competition
- Flagging loose bolts: “Smart alert washer” automatically flags when a nut is coming loose, warning of potential danger
- Pee is for power: The water in urine can be a source of hydrogen for electrical generators
Physics
- A new study suggests that a surprising number of universes, even those with laws of physics different from those in our universe, can still support stars.
- God doesn’t play dice, Einstein said in his critique of quantum theory. But any alternative theory to quantum mechanics would require certain quantum events to influence each other 10,000 times faster than the speed of light, physicists have shown.
- Simulating new materials could help in building them — but only quantum simulators could fully model reality. A team reports a first step in realizing quantum simulation.
- Scientists may have solved the mystery of what triggers the events that spark the northern and southern lights.
- The length of bonds connecting water molecules could demonstrate quantum effects and help explain some of water’s weirdness.
- An essay by Tom Siegfried, SN's Editor in Chief, explores how signals from space to Earth could establish the reality of Einstein's worst fear.
- Raman spectroscopy may offer doctors, dentists and forensic scientists a better tool for molecular detection.
- Electron microscopes can now image single atoms of hydrogen.
- When the Large Hadron Collider powers up this fall, protons moving at almost the speed of light will collide with energies high enough, physicists hope, to solve matter’s biggest mysteries.
- An optical trap lets atoms in but not out, and it can be used to study matter at ultracold temperatures.
- The mathematics of soapy water yields some clues to the origin of the genetic code.
- Scientists reveal new details on how extendable jaws help fish capture prey.
- Surfaces that mimic the back of an African beetle can collect water from fog.
- A light microscope with high resolution may enable scientists to view the 3-D structures within living cells.
- Time-lapse snapshots of molecules show that they change shapes less often than theory predicted.
- Researchers have shown that a grip that’s too tight can be counterproductive, especially on a microscopic object — but the findings could apply to fields ranging from ecology to sociology.
- Musical theorists see inuitive links between musical chords and geometries.
- A new neutron detector might help identify smuggled radioactive materials.
- A new analysis suggests that five different spacecraft gained more speed as they flew past Earth than can be accounted for by Einstein's theory of gravitation.
- Physicists have created the optical analog of a black hole's surface of no return, a setup that could help test whether actual black holes glow.
- Starlings in a flock adjust their trajectories to those of their closest neighbors, which helps the flock stay together when under attack.
- Physicists use atom interferometry to measure gravity and other forces with unrivaled precision, and the technique could potentially guide airplanes and uncover buried caches of oil and diamonds.
- Microscopic gratings that select scattered X rays might improve luggage screening and cancer detection.
- Scientists tracking H2O's highs and lows are finding new clues as to how and why the familiar substance is so odd. Recent research, for example, suggests that water may exist in two distinct liquid phases at ultralow temperatures.
- Artificial cousins of ball lightning contain microscopic particles, just like a model says they should. With video.
- When light bends at an interface, it also shifts depending on its polarization. With animation.
- Physicists have found that a water-skating insect leaps off the water surface by applying just the right amount of force. With video.
Follow Us
features
blogs & columns
-
Eruption early in human prehistory may have been more whimper than bang
-
Greed may breed financial fitness, but evolution allows unselfishness to survive
multimedia
-
Fine-tuning of technique used in other animals could enable personalized medicine
-
Simulation suggests long-term effect on sea level not as dire as some predictions
Not to miss
-
Coverage of the 2013 American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting
-
The Year in Science 2012
-
Three-part series on the scientific struggle to explain the conscious self
-
Tables of contents, columns and FAQs on SN Prime for iPad
bookshelf
