All Stories by Peter Weiss
- Tech
Soaking Up Rays
Although light shines through body parts of a primitive marine sponge much as it does through sophisticated optical fibers for telecommunications, scientists differ on whether sponges hold clues to better fibers for humankind.
- Physics
Insects in the wind lead to less power
A previously puzzling pattern of power loss in wind turbines results from coatings of insects that were smashed by the blades during low winds.
- Physics
Turning magnetic resonance inside out
A new method of manipulating magnetic signals makes it possible to gather useful information about a chemical sample—or perhaps one day a person—without often-claustrophobic confinement inside a magnetic coil.
- Physics
Quantum queerness gets quick, compact
New ways to trap and cool atoms may hasten practical uses of strange ultracold atom clouds known as Bose-Einstein condensates.
- Tech
Setting electronics in artificial stone
Electronics components made of Portland cement may one day be part of buildngs and roadways that double as gargantuan sensors or other current-carrying devices.
- Tech
Having gathered moss, water drops roll
A coating of water-repellent powder transforms water droplets into remarkably mobile and resiliant balls, hoops, or peanut-shaped blobs.
- Tech
Biotechnology may fortify U.S. Army
A government-sponsored study says the U.S. Army may benefit from advances in biotechnology during the next 25 years, including sensors that identify soldiers by the food they ate, protein-based computers, near-instant vaccines, and automated wound treatments.
- Tech
Optics oddity challenges microchip makers
An obscure optical effect called instrinsic birefringence has suddenly appeared as a threat to technology for making denser, faster microchips.
- Physics
Antimatter mystery transcends new data
The discovery of a disparity in decays of subatomic particles known as B mesons and anti-B mesons sheds light on how matter and antimatter differ but deepens the mystery of why matter predominates in the universe today.
- Chemistry
Wee dots yield rainbow of molecule markers
Chemists report a scheme for creating a versatile color-based tagging system out of tiny atomic clusters, called quantum dots, that may enable scientists to track biomolecules with more finesse than ever.
- Tech
Dances with Robots
Soldiers, rescue workers, and others may attain superhuman strength, speed, and endurance as a result of a new military program to develop powered robotic exoskeletons contoured to a person's body.
- Physics
Physics Bedrock Cracks, Sun Shines In
The first data from a new Canadian detector of particles called neutrinos not only resolve a 30-year-old puzzle about how the sun works, but also revise estimates of mysterious "dark" matter in the universe and strengthen a key challenge to the prevailing theory of particle physics.
