Latest science news in Physics & Chemistry
Rice physicists discover ultrasensitive microwave detector
Physicists from Rice University and Princeton University have discovered how to use one of the information technology industry's mainstay materials - gallium arsenide semiconductors - as an ultrasensitive microwave detector...
Theoretical breakthrough: Generating matter and antimatter from the vacuum
Under just the right conditions - which involve an ultra-high-intensity laser beam and a two-mile-long particle accelerator - it could be possible to create something out of nothing, according to...
NASA Sold Computer Hard Drives Containing Sensitive Government Info
At least the Wikileaks guy meant to do it.
2.8-megawatt fuel cell to anchor Energy Innovation Park
Construction of a fuel cell with enough capacity to power 2,800 homes has begun on the UC San Diego campus as part of a renewable energy project with the city...
Using new materials to make more reliable nanoelectromechanical systems
Given their outstanding mechanical and electrical properties, carbon nanotubes are attractive building blocks for next-generation nanoelectromechanical devices, including high-performance sensors, logic devices, and memory elements. However, manufacturing challenges associated with...
Molecular beam epitaxy facility to design custom materials for scientists
The instrument used for molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) looks a little like the lunar module, with spindly metal legs feeding into a large cylindrical canister. But this device isn't headed...
Building mental muscles through theoretical physics
A grant from the D. J. Angus-Scientech Educational Foundation has made it possible for a student from a suburban Indianapolis high school to co-author, along with his mentor and two...
Condensed matter: The supersolid's nemesis
John Reppy has come out of retirement to question the high-profile discovery of a new kind of quantum matter.
Size matters: The strange behavior of small particles at density interfaces
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts have found a remarkable effect while studying...
Ultra-thin solar blind EUV imager reported by Imec
Yesterday at the International Electron Devices Meeting in San Francisco imec presents an ultra-thin hybrid AlGaN-on-Si-based extreme ultraviolet (EUV) imager with only 10µm pixel-to-pixel pitch. The wide-bandgap material (AlGaN) provides...
Physicists demonstrate teleportation-based optical quantum entangling gate
(PhysOrg.com) -- Taking a step toward the realization of futuristic quantum technologies, a team of physicists from China and Germany has demonstrated a key element an entangling gate ...
Nanodiamond encrusted bones
Tiny nanodiamonds could be used to reinforce biodegradable polymers used in surgical screws that dissolve once their purpose is served
Add-on device converts cell phones into wide-field fluorescent microscopes
UCLA researchers have developed a matchbox-sized attachment that converts a cell phone's camera into a fluorescent microscope.
Flame On: Negative Online Posts Attract More Attention
Online trolls rejoice, for your methods have been found successful
Cosmic Log: Viruses in your batteries?
Researchers harness a particularly nasty plant virus to help fabricate faster, smaller and more efficient batteries.
Green: Nuclear 'Renaissance' Is Short on Largess
Federal aid is insufficient, a panel agrees, and low natural gas prices and a failure to legislate a price on carbon dioxide emissions don't help either.
Quark–gluon mania returns to CERN
LHC ends 2010 run on a high, but understanding its latest data is only beginning
Green: Hertz Adds Electric Cars to N.Y. Fleet
Plug-in-hybrid and electric models will be available at car-sharing locations in the city starting on Dec. 15.
Panasonic, Imec present new thin film packaged MEMS resonator
Panasonic and imec present at the International Electron Devices Meeting in San Francisco an innovative SiGe (silicon germanium) thin film packaged SOI-based MEMS resonator featuring an industry-record Q factor combined...
Doctor Who's trusty invention is anything but sci-fi: Sonic screwdriver to solve future DIY woes
Ultrasonic engineers have uncovered how a real life version of the fictional screwdriver -- which uses sonic technology to open locks and undo screws -- could be created.
In Quantum Computing Leap, Tiny Lasers Target Individual Atoms
If we're ever going to create the next-gen quantum computers that promise to solve complex and difficult problems at super-fast speeds, first we'll need to a means to manipulate atoms individually. So researchers...
Notre Dame receives TARDEC grant for next-generation batteries
Faculty from the University of Notre Dames Colleges of Engineering and Science have been awarded more than $1.3 million from the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center...
High levels of toxic particles found in fireworks
(PhysOrg.com) -- Fireworks can be spectacular. However, the gas and smoke produced by the colorful explosions carry extremely high levels of toxic particles, according to a study by Audrey Smargiassi,...
In the lab, engineer's novel liquid provides a solid fix for broken bones
A bone-healing fluid that can be injected into breaks with a syringe shows such strong promise in lab testing, that it has been licensed from Brown by a Massachusetts biotech...
Duelling dipoles: In search of a new theory of photosynthetic energy transfer
Chemists have refuted a basic postulate of Förster theory, which describes energy transfers between pigment molecules, such as those that underlie photosynthesis. A revised version of the theory could have...
Understanding nitric oxide toxicity
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at MIT, the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI), and the University of California at Davis have succeeded in characterizing the dinitrosyl iron complexes (DNICs) produced during...
Bad virus put to good use: Breakthrough batteries
(PhysOrg.com) -- Viruses have a bad rep--and rightly so. The ability of a virus to quickly and precisely replicate itself makes it a destructive scourge to animals and plants alike....
Alliance heralds era of smartphone wallets
The mobile phone may soon be someone's ticket to board any transit system in the world.