Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Physics
Laser tweezers manipulate objects just 50 nanometers wide
Technique could allow scientists to move proteins, viruses and nanomaterials.
- Physics
Metamaterials give sound a twist
The design allows researchers rotate a wave at precise angles so that it originates from the opposite direction, which could have implications for improving ultrasound imaging.
- Quantum Physics
Finding a quantum way to make free will possible
Maybe quantum influences from the Big Bang make humans unpredictable, permitting the possibility of free will.
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- Particle Physics
Catching Particle Fever
Interspersed with the plot of Particle Fever are artful explanatory animations and commentary by six articulate physicists. Through these characters, we learn that the Higgs is a stepping stone toward a deeper understanding of the universe.
- Physics
Graphene film blocks wireless signals
A transparent film made of graphene layered with quartz absorbed 90 percent of radio waves.
- Quantum Physics
Quantum timekeeping
Recent advances in controlling the quantum behavior of particles have inspired physicists to dream of a global clock that would tell the same time everywhere. It would be hundreds of times as accurate as current atomic clocks.
- Materials Science
Making artificial muscles with a spin
Scientists have given ordinary fishing line and sewing thread a new twist. When coiled into tight corkscrews, the fibers can lift loads more than 100 times as heavy as those hefted by human muscles.
- Particle Physics
More precision added to mass estimate of electron
The electron has been weighed with unprecedented precision. Its new and improved mass is 17 times as precise as the previous best estimate.
- Quantum Physics
Einstein was wrong about spooky quantum entanglement
Einstein’s biggest blunder wasn’t about vacuum energy in space, but in confusing people about quantum entanglement.
- Physics
Levitating objects with sound
Physicists have levitated millimeter-sized objects. Now, the objects can levitate and move in all directions.
- Quantum Physics
History affects superfluid’s flow, study shows
The speed to stop the stirring motion can be slower than what was need to set the fluid spinning in the first place, which shows that what happens to the current state of the superatom depends on what it has already experienced.
