Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Physics
Dusty Fireball: Can lab-made blob explain ball lightning?
Artificial cousins of ball lightning contain microscopic particles, just like a model says they should. With video.
- Physics
Bathtub Optics: Bending light also shifts it sideways
When light bends at an interface, it also shifts depending on its polarization. With animation.
- Physics
Tiptoe acrobats get it just right
Physicists have found that a water-skating insect leaps off the water surface by applying just the right amount of force. With video.
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- Physics
Light Swell: Optical rogue waves resemble oceanic ones
Signals in optical fibers can combine into rare, short-lived spikes that resemble oceanic rogue waves.
- Physics
15 = 3 × 5: Photons do their first quantum math
Physicists have performed the first calculation involving manipulation of the quantum states of photons, another step on the road to optical quantum computers.
- Physics
Sharper than expected
A new technique beats the resolution limits of ordinary microscopes in a way that seems to defy conventional optical theory.
- Physics
Einstein Unruffled: Relativity passes stringent new tests
The moon's orbit and the dilated time of speeding atoms give new meaning to 'Einstein was right.'
- Materials Science
Snappy Transition: Venus flytrap inspires new materials
Inspired by the quick-shut action of the Venus flytrap, researchers have designed a patterned surface with microscale hills that can rapidly flip to form valleys.
- Physics
Shadow World
Physicists have found new evidence for a 10-year-old conjecture that bridges the gap between the many-dimensional space of string theory and more familiar theorizing.
- Physics
Rock, paper, toxins
A computer model simulates a kind of rock-paper-scissors competition among three species of virtual bacteria.
- Materials Science
Printing scheme could yield 3-D photonic crystals
An innovative printing scheme makes three-dimensional crystal structures that could be used to control the flow of light.
