Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
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- Physics
Physics Nobel goes to graphene
Discovered only six years ago, the 2-D carbon sheets have spun off a new field of research.
- Physics
Glacier found to be deeply cracked
A new study finds deep fissures in Alaska ice that could affect future responses to melting.
- Physics
Being single a real drag for spores
Launching thousands of gametes at once helps a fungus waft its offspring farther.
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- Math
Potato chips: A symptom of the U.S. R&D problem
Last year, U.S. consumers spent $7.1 billion on potato chips — $2 billion more than the federal government’s total 2009 investment on research and development. There’s something wrong, here, when Americans are more willing to empty their wallets for the junk food that will swell their waistlines than for investments in the engine driving the creation of jobs, economic growth and national security.
- Tech
Everything really is relative
Two tabletop experiments demonstrate the time-warping principle at the human scale.
- Tech
A compass that lights the way
Researchers develop a highly sensitive optical instrument for measuring magnetic fields.
- Physics
String theory entangled
Scientists forge an intriguing mathematical link between black holes and the physics of the very small.
- Tech
Tar sands ‘fingerprint’ seen in rivers and snow
A new study refutes a government claim (one echoed by industry) that the gonzo-scale extraction of tar sands in western Canada — and their processing into crude oil — does not substantially pollute the environment.
- Physics
Very tiny, very cool
Physicists outline a scheme to build a ‘refrigerator’ that can cool to near absolute zero and is based on only a few particles.
- Chemistry
Deep-sea plumes: A rush to judgment?
A new report suggests a deep-sea plume of oil in the Gulf of Mexico has been gobbled up by microbes. But the scientist who described the incident doesn't "know" that. He can't — yet.
