Physics

  1. Physics

    Candy Science: M&Ms pack more tightly than spheres

    Squashed or stretched versions of spheres snuggle together more tightly than randomly packed spheres do.

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  2. Physics

    Two New Elements Made: Atom smashups yield 113 and 115

    Two new elements—115 and 113—have joined the periodic table.

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  3. Materials Science

    Light whips platinum into shape

    Scientists are exploiting the molecular machinery behind photosynthesis to create unique nanostructures out of platinum.

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  4. Physics

    Goo’s melting could keep battery cool

    Using the sometimes dangerous heat of lithium batteries to melt wax or similar materials may keep the potent cells cool enough for safe use in electric vehicles while also boosting the batteries' performance.

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  5. Physics

    Electron cloud mirrors fossil life-form

    Remarkable molecules whose electron clouds would resemble now-extinct marine creatures called trilobites could appear in experiments on ultracold atom clouds known as Bose-Einstein condensates, theorists predict.

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  6. Physics

    Solid-state insights yield physics Nobel

    The 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics went to three scientists and inventors whose work laid the foundation of modern information technology, particularly through their invention of rapid transistors, laser diodes, and integrated circuits.

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  7. Materials Science

    Pumping Carbon: Researchers watch nanofibers grow

    The first atomic-scale movies of carbon nanofiber growth show particles of a metal catalyst pulsating wildly while carbon and metal atoms scuttle across the particle’s surface.

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  8. Materials Science

    Flexible E-Paper: Plastic circuits drive paperlike displays

    In a major step toward electronic paper, researchers have made electronic-ink displays on flexible plastic sheets.

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  9. Physics

    Skipping stones 101

    Using their own stone-skipping machine, physicists have found what may be the best angle for a rock to hit the water in order to achieve the most skips.

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  10. Physics

    New signs of shadow particles

    The influence of as-yet-undiscovered heavy particles outside of today's prevailing theory of particle physics may have accelerated the rate at which subatomic muons wobbled in a recent experiment.

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  11. Materials Science

    Nanotube implants could aid brain research

    Electrically conducting carbon nanotubes could be the ideal material for probing the brain and treating neural disorders.

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  12. Physics

    Wet ‘n’ Wild

    Scientists have tracked the weirdness of water to microscopic arrangements of molecules and perhaps to the existence of a second, low-temperature form of the familiar substance.

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