All Stories by Gabriel Popkin
- Materials Science
Invisibility cloaks could slim down with active approach
The new light-canceling technique could hide objects of any shape and size.
- Quantum Physics
Quantum information storage that lasts and lasts
Physicists have stored a snippet of quantum information at room temperature for more than 1,000 times the previous record.
- Microbes
Surprising metals found in microbes
Scientists discover the first case of an organism needing a rare earth element for survival.
- Climate
Storms are becoming more intense, moving toward poles
Researchers find that altered rainfall patterns have the fingerprints of human-caused climate change.
- Climate
Historical events linked to changes in Earth’s temperature
Ozone treaty, wars and Great Depression influenced global warming rate, scientists find.
- Climate
Natural aerosols confound climate predictions
Natural aerosol emissions complicate scientists’ attempts to predict future climate change.
- Cosmology
Dark energy search gets murkier
Supernova measurements muddle scientists’ efforts to explain universe’s accelerating expansion.
- Astronomy
An Earth-sized hell circles faraway star
Kepler-78b, an Earth-sized, extremely hot exoplanet made of rock and iron, is the smallest with known diameter and mass.
- Physics
Material looks cool while heating up
Substance that tricks infrared camera could pave the way for new types of camouflage and heating technology.
- Astronomy
Oort cloud tosses astronomers a cometary curveball
In late November, ISON will deliver debris from the dawn of the solar system to Earth’s doorstep.
- Agriculture
Fertilizer has staying power
Nitrogen-based fertilizer may remain in the soil for eight decades, complicating efforts to reduce pollution from runoff into rivers.
- Physics
New limit placed on physics constant
An analysis of how much the fine structure constant varies with the density of matter may help scientists determine whether the parameter changes with time.
