All Stories by Peter Weiss
- Physics
Heightened Resistance: Sharper shaft points to smaller bits
Scientists have exploited a method for detecting the orientations of magnetic fields to achieve a remarkable leap in detector sensitivity.
- Physics
Twice-charmed particles spotted?
Exotic cousins of protons and neutrons known as doubly-charmed baryons may have made their laboratory debut.
- Physics
Double or Nothing
The hunt for a rare, hypothetical nuclear transformation known as neutrinoless double-beta decay may answer one of the most urgent questions in physics today: How much do elementary particles called neutrinos weigh?
- Tech
Putting squish into artificial organs
Artificial organs and tissues may someday feel more like the real thing if a new, rubbery polymer supplants mostly stiff materials available today for tissue engineering.
- Tech
Making a Little Impression: New chip-making method may mold the industry
A simple mechanical means of embossing silicon may offer an alternative to conventional chip-making methods.
- Materials Science
Wiregate: Metallic picket fence flips magnetic bits
Rather than relegate magnetic fields to the usual backup role of data storage for computers, a new microcircuit exploits those fields for computation, possibly leading to cheaper, lower-power chips than traditional electronic ones.
- Physics
Loud Loop: New explanation of whip-snapping unfurls
The wake of a loop zooming along a whip may silence the faster-moving tip so the loop actually causes the whip's loud bang.
- Physics
Atom laser gets a full tank
A method to refill Bose-Einstein condensates—ultracold clouds of atoms all in the same quantum state—may soon make possible the first atom lasers that can shoot a stream of condensate atoms indefinitely.
- Tech
Paint-on displays get closer to reality
By smearing on a coating and hardening it with light, researchers have created a new kind of electronic display.
- Chemistry
Steering reactions with light
A light-based scheme for guiding the motion of chemical wave fronts may suggest ways to control analogous waves present in epileptic seizures and heart arrhythmias.
- Tech
Deep Vision
Increasingly available virtual-reality gear gives scientists, engineers, and planetarium visitors new perspectives.
- Physics
Tiny tungsten beams lord over light
By filtering radiated heat, a novel microstructure of crisscrossed tungsten beams promises to improve the efficiency of light bulbs and of heat-to-electricity conversion devices.
