Uncategorized
- Computing
Straining for Speed
Hitting fundamental limits on how small they can make certain structures within semiconductor transistors, chip makers are deforming the silicon crystals from which those transistors are made to eke out some extra speed.
By Peter Weiss - Astronomy
Finding the star that was
Sifting through archival images, astronomers have identified the star whose explosive demise was recorded by telescopes last year.
By Ron Cowen - Chemistry
Radical molecule could produce plastic magnets
A team of chemists has synthesized an unusual organic molecule that could lead to cheaper and lighter magnets.
- Physics
Nuclear pudding—to go
Moving at nearly the speed of light, atomic nuclei hurtling through a huge particle collider may become mostly dense, flattened puddings of nuclear particles known as gluons.
By Peter Weiss - Health & Medicine
Putting the brakes on toxic shock
Scientists have discovered the cascade of molecular events that underpins many cases of toxic shock syndrome.
By Nathan Seppa - Physics
New supergas debuts
A cloud of ultracold potassium atoms, manipulated by means of a magnetic field, has coalesced into a new super form of matter called a fermionic condensate.
By Peter Weiss - Health & Medicine
Some T cells may be a fetus’ best friend
While pregnant, mice overproduce a kind of T cell that reins in other immune cells that might target the fetus.
By Nathan Seppa - Planetary Science
A view of Mars, European style
Although the Mars lander Beagle 2 is presumed dead, its mother craft, the European Space Agency's Mars Express, has transmitted its first data from a polar orbit about the Red Planet.
By Ron Cowen - Math
Computing on a Cellular Scale
The behavior of leaf pores resembles that of mathematical systems known as cellular automata.
- Math
Computation’s New Leaf
Plants in which large numbers of simple units interact with one another appear to compute how to coordinate the actions of their cells effectively.
- Astronomy
Bare-Naked Galaxies
A decade's worth of observations is spotlighting how the vast sea of gas surrounding a cluster of galaxies can alter the shape of a galaxy plowing through it.
By Ron Cowen - Tech
The rat in the hat
A compact positron-emission tomography (PET) brain scanner may make possible studies of awake rats that link brain functions and behaviors.
By Peter Weiss