Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Quantum Physics
Quantum computers braided ‘anyons,’ long-sought quasiparticles with memory
Particle-like quantum states called non-abelian anyons remember being swapped and could be useful for protecting information in quantum computers.
- Environment
This house was built partly from recycled diapers
Disposable diapers can replace nearly a third of the materials used in load-bearing structures, offering a potential path to more affordable housing.
- Planetary Science
Jupiter’s lightning bolts contort the same way as Earth’s
Jovian lightning extends in jagged steps as it does on Earth, data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft suggest. The finding might aid the search for life.
- Physics
Science explains why shouting into the wind seems futile
Sending a sound upwind, against the flow of air, makes the sound louder due to an acoustical effect called convective amplification. Sound sent downwind is quieter.
- Physics
Black holes resolve paradoxes by destroying quantum states
A classic quantum experiment done near a black hole would create a paradox, physicists report. But not if the black hole collapses quantum states.
- Physics
These worms can escape tangled blobs in an instant. Here’s how
Tangled masses of California blackworms form over minutes but untangle in tens of milliseconds. Now scientists know how.
- Quantum Physics
A sapphire Schrödinger’s cat shows that quantum effects can scale up
The atoms in a piece of sapphire oscillate in two directions at once, a mimic of the hypothetically dead-and-alive feline.
- Materials Science
A vegan leather made of dormant fungi can repair itself
Researchers developed a leather alternative made from dormant fungus that can be reanimated and then regrow when damaged.
- Health & Medicine
A graphene “tattoo” could help hearts keep their beat
A proof-of-concept electronic heart tattoo relies on graphene to act as an ultrathin, flexible pacemaker. In rats, it treated an irregular heartbeat.
- Physics
Videos of gold nanoparticles snapping together show how some crystals grow
Real-time electron microscopy shows gold nanoparticles tumbling and sliding in a fluid before snapping together in crystalline structures.
- Physics
The W boson might not be heavier than expected after all
A new and improved look at the mass of the W boson is in close alignment with theory, but it doesn’t negate an earlier, controversial measurement.
- Chemistry
Here’s why some Renaissance artists egged their oil paintings
Some Renaissance artists created eggs-quisite paintings by adding yolks to oil paints, which may have helped add texture and prevent yellowing.
