Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Math
Swarming locusts impossible to predict
A mathematical analysis shows that random factors underlie the insects’ movements across the landscape.
- Health & Medicine
Good vibrations: A greener way to pasteurize milk
Many people like the taste of raw – as in unpasteurized – milk. The problem, of course, is that germs may infect raw milk, so food safety regulations require that commercial producers heat-treat their milk. But food scientists at Louisiana State University think they’ve stumbled onto a tastier way to sterilize milk. They bombard it with sound waves.
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- Chemistry
Different strokes
Though they share the same design, new micromachines are not a synchronized swimming team.
- Physics
Taming turbulence from afar
New research shows that measurements of smooth fluid motion away from an object can be used to characterize the roiling flow right up next to it.
- Space
The incredible shrinking proton
If the subatomic particle really is smaller than thought, a cherished theory may need tweaking.
- Space
Making lemonade with quantum lemons
Physicists produce “spooky action at a distance,” using a phenomenon that would usually disrupt it.
- Physics
Memories made of light
Physicists find a more efficient way to store quantum information in a crystal, a step towards super-secure quantum communications.
- Physics
Physics in free fall
Physicists drop supercold atoms down an elevator shaft to see what will happen.
- Physics
Bouncing beads outwit Feynman
Ratchet-and-pawl thought experiment whirs to life, extracting work from bouncing beads.
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- Physics
A giant proposal for a new type of molecule
Atoms linked across vast distances, can point in two directions at once
