Physics

  1. Physics

    Swift Lift: Birds may get a rise out of swirling air

    The wings of airborne birds may generate whirlpools of air to produce lift for flying, just as insects do.

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  2. Materials Science

    Transparent Transistor: See-through component for flexible displays

    Transparent transistors deposited on flexible sheets of plastic could find their way into computer displays embedded in car windshields and other curved surfaces.

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  3. Physics

    Letters from the November 27, 2004, issue of Science News

    Dark Secrets Astronomers and physicists seem to speak of black holes as though they took matter completely out of the universe (“Information, Please,” SN: 9/25/04, p. 202: Information, Please). An evaporating black hole would not fizz away into nothingness. It would lose energy and reappear in normal space as a very dense object (complete with […]

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  4. Physics

    Spinning Earth drags space

    Slight deviations of two Earth-circling satellites from their expected orbits appear to confirm a curious prediction from Einstein's relativity theory.

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  5. Physics

    CERN at 50

    This year, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) celebrates its 50th anniversary with a variety of special events. CERN’s Web pages commemorating the anniversary include a timeline showing historical milestones in the development of the laboratory, archival photos, and other materials. Go to: http://www.cern.ch/CERN50/

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  6. Materials Science

    New lithium battery design charges up

    Researchers have developed a new, safer type of electrode for lithium batteries.

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  7. Materials Science

    A hard new material with a soft touch

    Adding exotic substances called quasicrystals to polymers creates nonabrasive hard materials, which could soon serve as coatings in machine parts.

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  8. Materials Science

    Nanotubes: Knot just for miniature work

    A new technique can spin individual nanotubes into durable ribbons and threads visible to the naked eye.

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  9. Materials Science

    Nanotubes get as small as they can

    Two research teams have created stable carbon nanotubes with the smallest diameter that scientists believe is physically possible, at just 0.4 nanometer across.

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  10. Physics

    Silk and soap settle a century-old flap

    The leading explanation for why flags flap in the breeze has run afoul of new experimental findings.

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  11. Physics

    Piddly Puddle Peril: Little water pools foil road friction

    Physicists have proposed an explanation for how even slight wetness can cut road-to-rubber friction.

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  12. Physics

    Particle hunt off, collider comes down

    Despite tantalizing, last-minute hints of a long-sought, mass-giving particle called the Higgs boson, dismantling of the Large Electron-Positron collider has begun.

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