All Stories by Peter Weiss
- Physics
Fusion Boost: Promising path to heavy nuclei
By using radioactive nuclei as projectiles in accelerator-based nuclear collisions, scientists may be able to produce more readily than expected many exotic heavy nuclei that are impossible to make today but are crucial for future advances in nuclear physics.
- Tech
High-flying wing destroyed in crash
The unmanned NASA aircraft that holds the world record for high-altitude flight without rocket propulsion recently broke up over the Pacific Ocean.
- Physics
Icy telescope spots hot neutrinos
The first sky map from an innovative neutrino telescope indicates that the instrument works properly and is poised to find never-before-seen signals from the universe's most violent events.
- Humans
In Search of a Scientific Revolution
A year after self-publishing a best-selling book in which he proposes a new framework for doing science, Stephen Wolfram is taking new steps to transform science.
- Physics
Electric Foam: Scientists uncover basis of material oddball
Specially treated polypropylene foam can mimic the defining behavior and other desirable properties of ceramic piezoelectric materials, which generate electric signals when squeezed.
- Physics
Gluing building blocks with geometry
Using blocks with simple shapes, researchers have found ways to construct strong panels with no fasteners securing most of the blocks.
- Physics
Fast Findings on Fluid Frenzy: Taking turbulence models to a new level
A new way to simulate turbulence by including some of the microscopic, molecular properties of fluids is influencing automobile design and may soon affect many other fields.
- Tech
Press ‘n’ Peel Lasers: Coaxing light beams out of cheap plastic
Researchers have devised a way to imprint lasers in plastic—an achievement that may one day lead to ultracheap lasers mass-produced like poker chips.
- Physics
Mastering the Mixer
Almost anything can happen when a batch of grains or powders is mixed—including striking, swirling patterns and spontaneous, total separation—so researchers are playing with beads, salt, sand, and other particles in simple tumblers to find out what's going on.
- Tech
Counting calories on the road
People are programmed to spend about the same number of calories per day—roughly the energy of one hot dog—on daily travel, according to new analysis of British transportation statistics.
- Tech
Soft blow hardens Columbia-disaster theory
By blasting a gaping hole in a shuttle wing with a block of foam fired from a gun, a NASA investigative team appears to have confirmed the leading theory of what caused the Feb. 1 destruction of the space shuttle Columbia.
- Tech
Giving solar cells the rough treatment
A new solar cell design that traps photons in the crevices of a bumpy surface uses low-cost materials and may make these cells more commercially appealing.
