Physics

  1. Plants

    Here’s why blueberries are blue

    Nanostructures in a blueberry’s waxy coating make it look blue, despite having dark red pigments — and no blue ones — in its skin, a new study reports.

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  2. Tech

    ‘Nuts and Bolts’ showcases the 7 building blocks of modern engineering

    Science News reviews Roma Agrawal's book, which updates the classic list of simple machines and reveals the heart and soul of engineering.

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  3. Physics

    A pivotal quantum theory holds up even in extreme electric fields 

    Quantum electrodynamics, which describes how charged particles and light interact, works in the strong fields around highly ionized uranium atoms.

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  4. Animals

    Parrots can move along thin branches using ‘beakiation’

    The movement involves swinging along the underside of branches with their beaks and feet, similar to how primates swing between trees.

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  5. Physics

    A predicted quasicrystal is based on the ‘einstein’ tile known as the hat

    The einstein tile can cover an infinite plane only with a nonrepeating pattern. A material based on it has features of both crystals and quasicrystals.

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  6. Physics

    What happens when lawn sprinklers suck in water? Physicists answer that quirky question

    Experiments with a floating sprinkler and laser-illuminated microparticles revealed the surprisingly complex physics behind a simple question.

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  7. Physics

    50 years ago, timekeepers deployed the newly invented leap second

    After more than 50 years, metrologists will stop using the leap second to align the time kept by atomic clocks with the rate of Earth’s spin.

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  8. Materials Science

    Artificial intelligence helped scientists create a new type of battery 

    It took just 80 hours, rather than decades, to identify a potential new solid electrolyte using a combination of supercomputing and AI.

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  9. Materials Science

    A fiber inspired by polar bears traps heat as well as down feathers do

    Scientists took a cue from polar bear fur to turn an ultralight insulating material into knittable thread.

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  10. Physics

    Here’s the science behind the burbling sound of water being poured

    The height of the pour and the thickness of the stream help determine the loudness of the falling water.

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  11. Physics

    Here’s how much fruit you can take from a display before it collapses

    About 10 percent of the fruit in a tilted market display can be removed before it all crashes down, computer simulations show.

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  12. Earth

    STEVE and other aurora-like glows perplex scientists with their complex physics

    New views of STEVE from citizen scientists keep raising questions about the atmospheric light show — but computer models may offer some answers.

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