Peter Weiss

All Stories by Peter Weiss

  1. Tech

    Quantum-Dot Leap

    Multiple electrons from photons in quantum dots could be a boon to solar cells and other technologies.

  2. Materials Science

    Gripping Tale: Metal oozes in nanotubes’ grasp

    Carbon nanotubes can squeeze substances inside them with such high pressures that even hard metals squish like putty.

  3. Physics

    A well-spun egg also jumps

    Physicists have demonstrated that spinning a hard-boiled egg horizontally makes it jump into the air.

  4. Tech

    Rounding out an insect-eye view

    A new humanmade version of an insect's compound eye could perform like the real thing.

  5. Tech

    Speed Bump: Tip’s tricks sort DNA, write at nanoscale

    An atomic-force microscope tip has been transformed into a microinstrument for sorting DNA and depositing nanostructures by means of cleverly applied voltages that propel molecules along the tip's surface.

  6. Physics

    Confined gas rejects compromise

    Pairs of tiny gas clouds of unequal energies mixing inside narrow tubes retain their original energy differences.

  7. Physics

    Universe in Flux: Constant of nature might have changed

    Researchers have found signs that one of the constants of nature has undergone a subtle shift since the universe's infancy.

  8. Physics

    Abuzz about uranium

    A type of atomic vibration never before seen in ordinary solid materials has been observed in uranium.

  9. Tech

    Switch-a-Vision: Electric spectacles could aid aging eyes

    A new type of eyeglasses that change their focus in response to electric signals may one day replace bifocals and other types of reading glasses.

  10. Physics

    Revealing Covert Actions

    The recent merger of high-speed video technology and centuries-old techniques for seeing ordinarily invisible fluctuations of the air is enabling engineers to visualize and study the previously unseen, large-scale behavior of shock waves in explosions and aerodynamics research.

  11. Tech

    Cool Wire: Nanostructure boosts superconductor

    The extraordinary performance of a prototype superconductive wire is encouraging superconductivity specialists, even though the prototype is unlikely to be mass-produced.

  12. Tech

    Corralling Brownian motion

    A new microscope system uses electrically controlled fluid motions to counteract Brownian motion, preventing those random jitters from driving proteins, viruses, and other tiny objects out of the field of view.