Peter Weiss

All Stories by Peter Weiss

  1. Computing

    Hairy Calculations: Picturing tresses in a truer light

    Hard-to-simulate blond hair may look more natural in future animations thanks to a new computer model that allows for hairs' transparency and includes the illumination produced by light propagating from hair to hair.

  2. Tech

    Litmus test gets tiny

    When zapped by a laser, new, light-sensitive nanobaubles could provide a reading of pH, or how acidic or basic a solution is, even from deep inside living cells.

  3. Physics

    Terrific Timekeeper: Optical atomic clock beats world standard

    An innovative atomic clock is more precise than the breed of clocks that's been the best for 50 years.

  4. Physics

    Out of Sight

    Shields that confer invisibility on objects and people may be on the horizon.

  5. Tech

    Power Play: Shift from loss to gain may boost silicon devices

    By tapping solar cell-like behavior in a silicon optical amplifier, engineers have shown that light-manipulating components made from silicon can become power recyclers rather than power wasters, an advance that boosts prospects for silicon optical devices.

  6. Tech

    Hot Prospect: Simple burner keeps pollution counts down

    A new type of combustion chamber reduces pollution with less complexity and a safer, more reliable design.

  7. Tech

    Blinding spies’ digital eyes

    To prevent unauthorized picture taking, an automated antispy system spots digital cameras and zaps them with confounding flashes of light.

  8. Tech

    Humanlike touch from chemical film

    A nanoparticle-laden, pressure-detecting membrane feels textures with about the same sensitivity as human skin.

  9. Tech

    Pumping Alloy

    A new way to power artificial muscles improves the prospects for making lifelike humanoid robots and prosthetic limbs.

  10. Materials Science

    Greenhouse Glass: Squeezing and heating carbon dioxide yields exotic, see-through solid

    Researchers have forged solid glass from carbon dioxide.

  11. Physics

    String Trio: Novel instrument strums like guitar, rings like bell

    A new type of musical instrument, equipped with Y-shaped strings, may be the first of a family of string instruments with unusual overtones typically heard in bells or gongs.

  12. Physics

    As waters part, polygons appear

    When rapidly swirled inside a stationary bucket, liquids can form whirlpools of surprising shapes, such as triangles and hexagons.