All Stories by Davide Castelvecchi
- Materials Science
Pliable carbon
The layers of carbon atoms that form graphite can be assembled into strong but flexible "graphene paper."
-
- Humans
More math helps young scientists
Taking more math in high school improves students' college grades in physics, chemistry, and biology.
- Physics
Slick serpent
Oil poured into a pan of the same liquid drags along a surrounding air layer, which can make it skip in and out of the surface before it mixes in.
- Materials Science
Crystal matchmaker
Nonperiodic structures called quasicrystals can act as interfaces between different crystal structures that would ordinarily not stick to each other.
- Tech
Double-decker solar cell
A two-layer, polymer-based solar cell has good efficiency and could be cheap to mass-produce.
- Physics
The Power of Induction
A new technology based on classical electromagnetic theory uses oscillating magnetic fields to transfer electric power wirelessly across a room.
- Physics
Pulling Strings: Stretching proteins can reveal how they fold
Unfolding a single protein by pulling on its ends reveals the molecular forces that make it fold up.
- Physics
Dropping the Ball: Air pressure helps objects sink into sand
A ball plunges deeper into sand under atmospheric pressure than under a vacuum, because the presence of air allows sand to flow like a liquid.
- Physics
Smallest laser minds the gap
The smallest, most efficient laser yet represents a step toward speedier information transfer within computers.
- Physics
Pas de deux for a three-scoop particle
Physicists have discovered the first particle containing one member of each of the three families of quarks.
- Tech
Biowarfare: Engineered virus can invade bacterial film
A genetically engineered virus not only kills bacteria but makes an enzyme that breaks up the biofilm in which the bacteria live.
