Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Materials Science
A New Cool: Prototype chills fast and electrifies, too
Researchers have incorporated an efficient thermoelectric material into a prototype device that can cool or produce electricity.
- Physics
Snowflake Central
Stunning photos, fascinating historical material, and an informative snowflake physics primer highlight this Web site, which is devoted to natural and designer snow crystals. Assembled by Caltech physicist Kenneth G. Libbrecht, the site includes tips on how to photograph snow crystals and spotlights efforts to study how snow crystals form. Go to: http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/.
- Materials Science
A Hard Little Lesson: Squeezed nanospheres grow superstrong
A substance not known for its hardness—silicon—becomes one of the hardest of materials when formed into ultrasmall spheres.
- Physics
Origins at CERN
Starting on Nov. 11, the Exploratorium in San Francisco begins a series of Webcasts taking viewers to research laboratories around the world where scientists are investigating the origins of matter, the universe, Earth, and life itself. The first programs come from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, location of the world’s […]
- Materials Science
A new carbon nanotool springs to life
Physicists have pulled out the inside cylinders of multiwall carbon nanotubes, as if expanding a telescope, indicating how the devices may serve as tiny bearings and springs in future nanomachines.
- Physics
Matter’s Missing Piece Shows Up
The first direct evidence of the tau neutrino, the last of the 12 subatomic particles considered the fundamental building blocks of matter, has finally been found.
- Physics
Muon Manna? Particle shower may spotlight loose nukes
Radiation from space may help border guards spot loose nukes stowed in shipping containers.
- Physics
Squirming through space-time
In the exotic realm of curved space, the topography of space itself might provide a propulsion assist—albeit a tiny one.
- Physics
In orbit, water makes the stretch
An astronaut-at-play stumbled upon an unexpected behavior of water in near-zero gravity: The formation of durable films—some as wide as saucers—that would instantly break here on Earth.
- Physics
Bunches of atoms madly morph
While investigating the instability of tiny clusters of atoms, scientists observe ultrasmall salt grains switching shapes at a stupendous rate.
- Physics
New approach smooths wrinkle analysis
A simple new theory of wrinkle formation predicts basic traits of wrinkled surfaces, such as how close together the folds will be, without miring scientists in impossible-to-solve equations.
- Materials Science
Making Polymers That Self-Destruct: Layers break apart in controlled way
A new polymer film chews itself apart under certain conditions, making it a potential candidate for the controlled delivery of therapeutic drugs.
