Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Physics
Turning water to steam, no boiling required
A new material can convert water into steam with sunlight alone, and could be useful for making fresh water from salty.
- Oceans
Readers question ocean health
Ocean plastics, ant behavior, pollution solutions and more in reader feedback.
- Astronomy
Possible source of high-energy neutrino reported
Scientists may have found the cosmic birthplace of an ultra-high energy neutrino: a blazar 9 billion light years away.
- Physics
Faint gravitational waves could soon be on LIGO’s radar
In a few years, LIGO could detect hints of faint gravitational waves from black holes too far away to be seen directly.
- Physics
New type of catalyst could aid hydrogen fuel
A substance that can switch states might make an efficient catalyst for extracting hydrogen from water.
- Physics
Like birds of a feather, sperm flock together
Studies of sperm show that they swim in groups because of the elasticity of the mucus they travel through.
- Materials Science
Playing with building blocks for metamaterial design
Legos show promise as a low-cost method to assist scientists in developing novel metamaterials.
- Materials Science
New process encourages ice to slip, slide away
Researchers discover new process for making durable ice-phobic materials.
- Astronomy
Black hole smashup generated yottawatts of power
For a split second, LIGO’s black hole collision generated 36 septillion yottawatts of power, or 50 times the power from all the stars in the universe.
- Quantum Physics
Finding wonders in fat
In the latest issue of Science News, Editor in Chief Eva Emerson talks fat cells, thermodynamics, and lead poisoning.
- Quantum Physics
Ultrasmall engines bend second law of thermodynamics
Car engines and batteries run because of the second law of thermodynamics, which appears to work, with just a little bending, for ultrasmall engines in the quantum realm as well.
- Physics
Bubble blowing gets scientific scrutiny
A new study uncovers the basic physics of blowing soap bubbles.
