Latest science news in Physics & Chemistry
Nanotechnologists reveal the frictional characteristics of atomically thin sheets
Nanotechnology researchers have used friction force microscopy to determine the nanoscale frictional characteristics of four atomically-thin materials, discovering a universal characteristic for these very different materials. Friction across these thin...
MIT makes significant step toward lightweight batteries
A team of researchers at MIT has made significant progress on a technology that could lead to batteries with up to three times the energy density of any battery that...
Engineers turn noise into vision
A new technique for revealing images of hidden objects may one day allow pilots to peer through fog and doctors to see more precisely into the human body without surgery...
Refinery Explosion Kills Three Workers
Investigation: Chemical Safety Board heads to Washington State.
Broadband used in ocean images
FALMOUTH, Mass., April 2 (UPI) -- Two advanced broadband acoustic systems will help oceanographers pinpoint tiny zooplankton even in rough seas, scientists in Massachusetts said.
Why Pat Venditte Has a Major League Advantage
Pat Venditte is the only ambidextrous pitcher in professional baseball. Throwing both left-handed and right-handed gives Venditte some advantages.
Fossilized Weather
Fossilized Weather If you want to know what the weather is doing you can do as the candlelight fisherman in the song did, and "open the pane and pop out the...
Explosive Silicon Gas Casts Shadow on Solar Power Industry
In 2007, outside Bangalore, India, an explosion decapitated an industrial worker, hurling his body through a brick wall. In 2005 a routine procedure at a manufacturing plant in Taiwan caused...
Fiber Optical Transmission In Demand Of Higher Capacity
(PhysOrg.com) -- With the increasing high volume content over the internet, such as multimedia and high definition images, new transmission methods need to be found to handle the increasing data...
Grad Student Adventure in Antarctica
Michigan Technological University graduate student Chris Johnon had never flown in a plane. Then he hitched a ride to Antarctica on a military cargo transport to do research.
Probe to explore Big Bang's burst
How did the universe blossom from an infinitesimally small speck to astronomical proportions in its first trillionth second of existence? While scientists are still debating the answer to that question,...
Mixed reaction to new U.S. fuel standards
WASHINGTON, April 2 (UPI) -- Reactions were mixed to a move by U.S. transportation and environmental agencies in Washington to raise fuel efficiency targets by 10 miles per gallon...
Startup to develop new solid-state technology at UCLA for use in medical imaging
While today many medical-imaging needs are being met with traditional vacuum tube-based technology, large segments of the X-ray-imaging market are poorly served, and there is widespread demand for both performance...
U.S. irked by Pakistani gas pipeline plans
WASHINGTON, April 2 (UPI) -- Washington advises its partners in Islamabad to rethink a deal signed with Tehran for a gas pipeline, U.S. officials said following a trip to...
Invisibility cloak that generates virtual images gets closer to realization
(PhysOrg.com) -- In a twist on the concept of an invisibility cloak, researchers have designed a material that not only makes an object invisible, but also generates one or more...
PARC Develops iPod-Sized HIV-Detection Device to Bring Affordable Testing To Rural Communities
The monetary and energy expense of HIV testing machines prevent their deployment to remote or impoverished areas; the very places that need them the most. To rectify that inequity, Palo Alto Research Center...
Solar Brings Light to Haiti
With a crucial meeting at the United Nations today on the rebuilding of Haiti, renewable energy advocates and entrepreneurs are urging donors to consider the role that solar power can...
Thirty Meter Telescope Highlights: Milestones in Mirror Polishing; Advances in Adaptive Optics; Exoplanet Capabilities
The April 2010 issue of Segments, the quarterly newsletter of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) Project, describes the progress TMT has made in the polishing of its primary mirror segments,...
Nanoscale 'stealth' probe slides into cell walls seamlessly, say Stanford engineers
A nanometre-scale probe designed to slip into a cell wall and fuse with it could offer researchers a portal for extended eavesdropping on the inner electrical activity of individual cells...
Shining Light on Graphene-Metal Interactions
(PhysOrg.com) -- By controlling the layered growth of graphene - a relatively "new" form of carbon that's just a single atom thick - researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory have uncovered...
A Terrascope spring break
A group of 58 MIT students, alumni and staff recently returned from a five-day trip to Abu Dhabi to study the practical application of technology for renewable energy solutions.The trip was part...
Using computational chemistry to create 'designer molecules' for industry
A new company established by UK researchers will give manufacturers the chance to use computational chemistry to create "designer molecules" for the first time in an industrial setting.
Letters: There's more to life than gross domestic product
The claim by Iain Morgan (Letters, 29 March) that "only by science and technology generating inventions and wealth can we afford the luxury of art" is staggering in its narrow perspective and...
Ordinary T-shirts could become body armor
By combining the carbon in a T-shirt's cotton with boron, the scientists have created a tough, lightweight fabric of boron carbide, the same material used to protect tanks. ...
Someday, a way to 'see' nuclear, chemical threats
Ordinarily, the small square of plastic and glass has a reddish color. But when Drexel University graduate student Sameet Shriyan flicks a switch, applying a bit of electricity, suddenly the...
Chemists Identify New Way to Create Photovoltaic Devices
(PhysOrg.com) -- A promising new polymer-based method for creating photovoltaic devices, which convert sunlight into electricity, has been identified by chemists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Their new technique...
Beyond the quantum limit: Scientists create multi-particle entanglement of atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensate on a microchip
The microcosm, the realm of quantum physics, is ruled by probability and chance. The behavior of quantum particles cannot be predicted with certainty but only with certain probabilities given by...
Artificial muscles push on through
French scientists have designed a new type of polymer actuator that can push and pull instead of bending