Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Physics
Icicle waves go with the flow
A new model of icicle growth may explain the strange fact that ripples often found on those icy spikes typically sit about 1 centimeter apart, whether the icicles themselves are big or small.
- Materials Science
Nanotube ID: New signatures aid nanotech progress
Researchers have developed a means for rapidly distinguishing among 33 semiconducting varieties of carbon nanotubes.
- Physics
Cold War Conductor: Ultracold plutonium compound shows no resistance
Researchers studying the crystalline properties of radioactive plutonium have discovered the first plutonium-based superconductor.
- Physics
Speedy impacts send microwave distress calls
Laboratory smash-ups mimicking those between fast-moving space debris and satellites appear to emit microwave bursts, suggesting that microwave detectors might someday prove useful for monitoring the health of spacecraft.
- Materials Science
Worm’s teeth conceal odd mineral material
A worm's teeth contain a copper mineral that could serve as a model for new materials.
- Physics
Motor design flouts physical law
A proposed silicon device the size of a red blood cell would transform random thermal motion into useful mechanical power in violation of the second law of thermodynamics, its designers claim.
- Materials Science
Knitting with nanotubes
Researchers can draw fine yarns of carbon nanotubes from a reservoir of the microscopic cylinders.
- Physics
Putting the brakes on antihydrogen
By mixing ultracold antiprotons and antielectrons, physicists have created the first atoms of antihydrogen that move at a leisurely enough pace for direct measurements of their properties.
- Materials Science
Metal Manipulation: Technique yields hard but stretchy materials
Researchers have combined a standard metalworking technology—rolling—with a programmed sequence of cooling and heating steps to process copper into a form that contains both nanoscale and microscale crystal grains.
- Physics
Neptunium Nukes? Little-studied metal goes critical
Researchers have measured with far greater accuracy than ever before how much neptunium it would take to make a bomb.
- Materials Science
Molecular Separations: New artificial sieve traps molecules
Researchers have created a metal-laced organic solid that acts as a sieve with nanosize pores for capturing molecules.
- Materials Science
Carbon nanotubes do some bonding
Researchers have welded together carbon nanotubes to make junctions that could be useful in the construction of tiny electronic devices.
