All Stories by Peter Weiss
- Tech
Cyber attack depletes cell phone batteries
In a new type of cyber attack, assailants using computers connected to the Internet can secretly induce distant cell phones to rapidly deplete their batteries.
- Physics
Radiant plasma may combat cavities
Dentists may someday disinfect teeth with a newly demonstrated, handheld stylus that exudes glowing plasma deadly to cavity-causing bacteria.
- Tech
Wheel of Life: Bacteria provide horsepower for tiny motor
Crawling bacteria can power a micromotor.
- Chemistry
Lacy molecular order
A lacy honeycomb arrangement of molecules on copper suggests the possibility of creating useful nanoscale patterns on surfaces by fine-tuning intermolecular forces.
- Tech
The ups and downs of routing fluids on chips
A new way to build microscale pipes in three dimensions boosts the sophistication of chips that manipulate fluids to perform chemical reactions and other tasks.
- Humans
Mutant Maps
Struck by an analogy between genetic mutations and flaws in antique printed documents, a biologist has devised a method to analyze such flaws to pinpoint publication dates of rare, undated documents.
- Chemistry
Tricky Transformation: Bubbling gases tighten, then loosen, the grip of novel molecules on grime
New compounds make oil mix with water, or not, depending simply on which gases are bubbled through the water.
- Tech
Nanotubes signal when engine oil needs changing
A new, easy-to-fabricate sensor made from carbon nanotubes detects when automobile-engine oil needs replacement.
- Tech
Hydrogen hopes in carbon shells
Lithium atoms added to buckyball surfaces bestow on these molecules a remarkable capacity to store hydrogen.
- Physics
On-chip lamp scores a bull’s-eye
Etching nanoscale, concentric ridges around a lamp-on-a-chip known as a light-emitting diode, or LED, brightens the device's glow seven-fold.
- Tech
Glare gives silicon goose bumps
New experiments show that fluorescent lights cause undesirable bumpiness on the surface of silicon, identifying what may be a previously unrecognized cause of flaws in microchips that could become increasingly important.
- Tech
Microbial Mug Shots: Telltale patterns finger bad bacteria
A sophisticated pattern-recognition technique that borrows from automated face recognition may permit identification of harmful bacteria faster and more cheaply than conventional methods do.
