Physics

  1. Physics

    Quantum queerness gets quick, compact

    New ways to trap and cool atoms may hasten practical uses of strange ultracold atom clouds known as Bose-Einstein condensates.

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  2. Materials Science

    Environment’s stuck with nonstick coatings

    Some nonstick coatings such as Teflon break down at high temperatures into undesirable compounds that persist in the environment.

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  3. Materials Science

    Titanium dioxide hogs the spotlight

    Researchers have created new coatings that break down toxins and keep mirrors from fogging when the materials are exposed to visible light.

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  4. Physics

    Antimatter mystery transcends new data

    The discovery of a disparity in decays of subatomic particles known as B mesons and anti-B mesons sheds light on how matter and antimatter differ but deepens the mystery of why matter predominates in the universe today.

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  5. Physics

    Physics Bedrock Cracks, Sun Shines In

    The first data from a new Canadian detector of particles called neutrinos not only resolve a 30-year-old puzzle about how the sun works, but also revise estimates of mysterious "dark" matter in the universe and strengthen a key challenge to the prevailing theory of particle physics.

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  6. Physics

    New probe zooms in on midgets of magnetism

    A new microscope for peering at magnetic materials provides the first glimpses of how such materials behave on a scale of only tens of atoms.

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  7. Materials Science

    Scientists get a handle on crystal shape

    Researchers have discovered how the orientation of amino acid molecules can make a growing crystal take on either a right- or a left-handed form.

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  8. Physics

    Pitching Science

    A new computer model of baseball pitching helps give pitching robots humanlike abilities and may have enabled engineers to solve a half-century-old puzzle of baseball science.

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  9. Physics

    Stretching and twisting a bright idea

    A new, stretchy type of liquid-crystal component makes it possible to change a laser's color by simply pulling on the membrane—a much easier, cheaper means of adjustment than that used for today's complex and expensive tunable lasers.

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  10. Physics

    In a squeeze, nitrogen gets chunky

    Remarkable already for being a semiconductor and, perhaps, an explosive, a new, solid form of nitrogen made by crushing the ordinary gas to the highest pressures ever also stands out because it continues to survive when the pressure is released.

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  11. Physics

    Electrons trip on tiny semiconductor steps

    A first glimpse of how a semiconductor's surface alters electrons' magnetic fields, or spins, suggests that tiny steps in the surfaces are tripping up efforts to create so-called spintronics circuits from semiconductors.

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  12. Materials Science

    Nanotubes form dense transistor array

    Researchers have made an array of transistors out of carbon nanotubes.

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