Latest science news in Physics & Chemistry
Synthetic Skin Gets A Soft Touch
Materials Science: Pressure sensors give artificial skin a sense of touch.
Energy Express focus issue: Thin-film photovoltaic materials and devices
WASHINGTON, September 13 -- Developing renewable energy sources has never been more important, and solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies show great potential in this field. They convert direct...
Smart meters 'may not cut energy'
Installing smart meters may not be enough to help UK households cut energy consumption, a study suggests.
Temporal coherence: Future laser technology reaches new era
Even as the Linac Coherent Light Source delivers X-rays with unprecedented power, marking a new era of X-ray science, a team of SLAC researchers is working to make such X-ray...
Sofia pressured on key oil pipeline
SOFIA, Bulgaria, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- The Bulgarian government may be balking on the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline because of diplomatic pressure, a Russian bank executive said. ...
Fuel reduced by engine heat
Fuel consumption can be potentially reduced – using an innovative and sustainable system – by using wasted engine heat.
Move to the red! Design and synthesis of rigid fluorophores
(PhysOrg.com) -- Stable dyes with sharp absorption and fluorescence emission bands in the red or NIR region of the spectrum, combined with high molar absorption coefficients and high fluorescence quantum...
LHC lawsuit case dismissed by US court
(PhysOrg.com) -- A Hawaiian man's lawsuit to try to prevent operations of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has been dismissed due to a failure to show a "credible threat of...
Green Column: Texas Clean Energy Hampered by Location
Texas is by far the biggest producer of wind energy in the United States, but the industry is running into a significant constraint: There are too few transmission lines to...
Isotope effect seen on single molecule
Membrane-based nanoreactor can measure reaction rates at the level of single molecules and the effect of isotopic atoms
Flying high with cold quantum matter
In Pardorama, situated 2600 m above sea level, in Ischgl/Tyrol, European researchers in the field of quantum matter will meet to discuss the newest findings in one of the most...
Russell Stannard: We can't know everything | My bright idea
The physics professor is convinced that some questions will be too taxing for mankindIt is the hubris of other scientists that bothers Russell Stannard, emeritus professor of physics at the Open University. Claims...
LiXEdrom: Innovative measuring chamber for X-ray study of liquid jets
X-rays are the medium of choice for many scientific studies. When you shine them on a sample, they literally shed light on the material's structure, providing loads of information about...
Many roads lead to superconductivity
Since their discovery in 2008, a new class of superconductors has precipitated a flood of research the world over. Unlike the previously familiar copper ceramics (cuprates), the basic structure of...
Graphene may hold key to speeding up DNA sequencing
In a paper published as the cover story of the September 9, 2010 Nature, researchers from Harvard University and MIT have demonstrated that graphene, a surprisingly robust planar sheet of...
World's Tiniest Refrigerator Is 1 Qutrit
In almost everything, size matters. And usually, being bigger helps. I don't know anyone who couldn't use a larger refrigerator but University of Bristol physicists have done the unthinkable...
Speed Of Thought A Little Faster Than...Thought, And What It Means For Computing
When nerve cells communicate with each other, they do so through electrical pulses. Most everything in our bodies comes down to induction when you think about it. Since the...
A Bit Cold: Physicists Devise a Quantum Particle "Refrigerator"
Call it the little chill. A group of theoretical physicists has mapped out the physics framework for what may be the smallest refrigerators imaginable. Each device would target just one...
Playing snooker with atoms
Scientists speak of sputtering when energy-rich ions hit a solid object and cause atoms to be released from its surface. The phenomenon can be exploited to apply microscopically thin coatings...
Superconductors face the future
Futuristic ideas for the use of superconductors, materials that allow electric current to flow without resistance, are myriad: long-distance, low-voltage electric grids with no transmission loss; fast, magnetically levitated trains;...
Most powerful microscope in the UK unveiled
The most powerful atom resolving microscope in the UK was today revealed at the University of Cambridge. The new electron microscope, which will enable scientists to view individual atoms in...
US widens probe of HP bribery allegations
(AP) -- U.S. investigators have widened their probe of alleged kickbacks paid to Russian authorities by employees of a Hewlett-Packard Co. subsidiary in Germany.
Accessing the risk of arsenic ingestion with mineralogy
Canadian researchers working at Brookhaven's National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) have created a method for determining how much of the arsenic in soil tailings -- byproducts of the mining industry...
Spending review: Is poor advice betraying UK science and engineering?
The UK is reputedly poor at capitalising on its scientific excellence. Is this due to a lack of vision in the advice given to politicians?Crises provide opportunities, as every good manager knows.From my...
Japanese researchers succeed in quantum cryptographic key distribution from single-photon emitter at 50 km
Institute for Nano Quantum Information Electronics, The University of Tokyo, Fujitsu, and NEC Corp. today announced that they have achieved quantum cryptographic key distribution at a world-record distance of 50...
Scientists observe single ions moving through tiny carbon-nanotube channel
For the first time, a team of MIT chemical engineers has observed single ions marching through a tiny carbon-nanotube channel. Such channels could be used as extremely sensitive detectors or...
A well-known effect in breakfast cereal helps physicists understand the universe
Have you ever noticed how the last bits of cereal in the bowl always seem to cling to one another, making it easy to spoon up the remaining stragglers? Physicists...
Separating the Catalysts from the Chaff
When studying how specific catalysts drive reactions, scientists are often frustrated by the actions of unrelated molecules in the samples. Now, thanks to a device created by a team at...