Physics

  1. 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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  2. 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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  3. 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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  4. 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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  5. 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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  6. 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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  7. 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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  8. 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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  9. Physics

    Breaking the Law

    Can quantum mechanics + thermodynamics = perpetual motion?

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  10. Materials Science

    Marine Superglue: Mussels get stickiness from iron in seawater

    The secret behind the binding power of mussel glue lies in iron extracted from seawater.

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  11. Physics

    A Solid Like No Other: Frigid, solid helium streams like a liquid

    Frozen helium prepared in a laboratory has apparently transformed into a superfluid solid, or supersolid—a never-before-seen phase of matter that theorists predicted more than 30 years ago.

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  12. Materials Science

    Nanowires grow on viral templates

    Researchers are using viruses to assemble semiconducting nanowires—the building blocks of future electronic circuits.

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