Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Materials Science
Nanotech Goes to New Lengths: Scientists create ultralong carbon nanotubes
In an advance toward making superstrong fibers, chemists have synthesized a 4-centimeter-long carbon nanotube, the longest nanotube reported to date.
- Physics
Extreme Impersonations
By creating tiny clouds of remarkable new kinds of ultracold gases, physicists are, in essence, bringing to their lab benches chunks of some of the most extraordinary and hard-to-study matter in the universe.
- Materials Science
Falling into Place: Atom mist yields nanobricks and mortar
Researchers have induced tiny particles of nickel to spontaneously assemble into exceptionally uniform, three-dimensional arrays of macroscopic size.
- Materials Science
Model Growth: Simulations expose branching nature of polymer crystals
Using computer models, scientists have uncovered previously unknown facets of the physics underlying polymer crystal growth.
- Physics
Gold quantum dots
Scientists have created a new type of quantum dot that could find applications in everything from biological imaging to computer displays.
- Materials Science
Face to Face: Crystal-growth method bodes electric payoff
A new method for growing silicon carbide eliminates crystal defects that have long prevented the compound's wider use in electric devices.
- Materials Science
Warm Reflections: Window tint kicks in when it’s hot
A novel window coating automatically transforms into a heat mirror only when warmed above room temperature.
- Physics
Antimatter loses again
A study of subatomic B mesons reveals a new way in which the laws of physics differ for matter and antimatter, providing another clue to why there's almost no antimatter in the universe today.
- Materials Science
Bacterial glue: The stuff that binds?
A sticky slime secreted by bacteria could soon find its way into a host of wood products, including plywood and particleboard.
- Materials Science
Sea urchin shell lights the way for optical material
Using the porous skeleton of a sea urchin as a template, materials scientists have fabricated a photonic crystal.
- Materials Science
Savvy Sieve: Carbon nanotubes filter petroleum, polluted water
A filter made out of carbon nanotubes has potential for such applications as processing crude oil and decontaminating drinking water.
- Materials Science
To make bronze, tin flakes do a wild dance
Upsetting some prevailing ideas about how alloys form, rafts of tin atoms jitterbug madly around on a pure copper surface and leave spots of bronze in their wakes.
