All Stories by Peter Weiss
- Physics
An Electron Runs through It
Now that physicists can observe electrons beneath the surface of microchips, they have uncovered electron-flow patterns that are both surprising and visually startling, as well as new details of electron behavior that may lead to faster electronics and quantum computing.
- Physics
Swift Lift: Birds may get a rise out of swirling air
The wings of airborne birds may generate whirlpools of air to produce lift for flying, just as insects do.
- Physics
Spinning Earth drags space
Slight deviations of two Earth-circling satellites from their expected orbits appear to confirm a curious prediction from Einstein's relativity theory.
- Tech
Lighthearted Transistor: Electronic workhorse moonlights as laser
A versatile new transistor amplifies electricity and emits a laser beam.
- Physics
Piddly Puddle Peril: Little water pools foil road friction
Physicists have proposed an explanation for how even slight wetness can cut road-to-rubber friction.
- Physics
Light step toward quantum networks
During the transfer of a quantum data bit from matter to light, a cloud of extremely cold atoms emitted a photon carrying a version of the cloud's quantum state.
- Materials Science
Metal Makeover
Metallic glasses with extraordinary strength and corrosion resistance have been known for decades, but only recently have researchers been able to make such alloys on a large scale from inexpensive iron.
- Tech
Laser Landmark: Silicon device spans technology gap
By coaxing a silicon microstructure into acting as a laser, engineers have achieved a long-sought and important step toward microchips capable of simultaneously manipulating electrons and light.
- Tech
Wee wires that can crawl
Self-propelled strands of a muscle protein coated with gold offer a way to arrange and control the nanoworld.
- Physics
Graphite in Flatland: Carbon sheets may rival nanotubes
Researchers have created freestanding carbon films as thin as one atom.
- Physics
Dancing the heat away
By laser-zapping nanocapsules of water, scientists find that the specific molecular motions caused by the excitation, not just simple heat diffusion, determine how energy and heat flow through such minuscule structures.
- Physics
Tiny tubes tune in colors
At the right length and conductivity, ultrathin filaments of carbon known as carbon nanotubes can receive visible light waves in the same the way as larger antennas receive radio signals.
