Physics

More Stories in Physics

  1. tiny animals from the Chinese zodiac, made in hydrogels of different colors. Top row from left: purple monkey, yellow and purple pig, yellow and purple snake, bluish gray dog, green rabbit. Bottom row from left: green tiger, yellow goat, orange horse, purple rooster, teal rat.
    Materials Science

    Want a ‘Shrinky Dinks’ approach to nano-sized devices? Try hydrogels

    Patterning hydrogels with a laser and then shrinking them down with chemicals offers a way to make nanoscopic structures out of many materials.

    By James R. Riordon
  2. The Pantheon in Rome still stands including its soaring dome.
    Chemistry

    These chemists cracked the code to long-lasting Roman concrete

    Roman concrete has stood the test of time, so scientists searched ruins to unlock the ancient recipe that could help architecture and climate change.

    By Carolyn Gramling
  3. A telecom tower stands atop the Säntis mountain in Switzerland against a cloudy sky. A green laser marks the path of the powerful laser in this story.
    Physics

    A powerful laser can redirect lightning strikes

    In a mountaintop experiment, a laser beamed into the sky created a virtual lightning rod that snagged several bolts before they hit the ground.

    By Maria Temming
  4. image of pink dots representing Gamma Rays passing through Earth's atmosphere
    Physics

    Rare ‘dark lightning’ might briefly touch passengers when flying

    Gamma-ray blasts from thunderstorms might occasionally zap passing airplanes, briefly exposing passengers to unsafe levels of radiation.

    By Nikk Ogasa
  5. A green laser beam travels through a lens and creates a 90 degree turn
    Physics

    Here’s how to make a fiber-optic cable out of air using a laser

    A hollowed-out laser beam heats a tube of air that surrounds cooler air, providing a way to guide light much the way fiber optics do.

    By James R. Riordon
  6. In this image of an icicle, turned on its side, fluorescent green dye reveals where the contamination ends up.
    Physics

    Tiny bubbles that make icicles hazy are filled with water, not air

    Like tree rings, layers of itty-bitty water pockets also preserve a record of an icicle’s growth.

    By James R. Riordon
  7. A photo of a jumping bean moth resting on a seed pod.
    Animals

    Jumping beans’ random strategy always leads to shade — eventually

    Jumping beans use randomness to maximize their chances of getting out of the sun’s heat, a new study finds.

    By James R. Riordon
  8. An illustration of green and white dots that make up a wormhole tunnel with a spaceship heading into the middle
    Physics

    We could get messages back from spacecraft sent through a wormhole

    A simulation of a probe sent to the other side of a wormhole shows it could send speedy messages back before the hole closes and the probe is lost.

    By James R. Riordon
  9. Apollo astronaut Harrison “Jack” Schmitt collects moon samples
    Space

    Humans haven’t set foot on the moon in 50 years. That may soon change

    In 1972, the era of crewed missions to the moon came to an end. Fifty years later, a new one has begun.

    By James R. Riordon