Latest science news in Physics & Chemistry
New kind of magnetism discovered: Experiments demonstrate ‘quantum spin liquid'
Following up on earlier theoretical predictions, researchers have now demonstrated experimentally the existence of a fundamentally new kind of magnetic behavior, adding to the two previously known states of magnetism....
New dynamic dual-core optical fiber enhances data routes on information superhighway
Optical fibers—the backbone of the Internet–carry movies, messages, and music at the speed of light. But for all their efficiency, these ultrathin strands of pristine glass must connect to sluggish...
Synthetic Biology Future: Fuels From Ice Cream?
A future without fossil fuels is ideal but impractical in the short term. However, for people not afraid of science, a PNAS paper showing that synthetic biology can be used to...
Small, Portable Sensors Allow Users to Monitor Exposure to Pollution on Their Smart Phones
Computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego have built a small fleet of portable pollution sensors that allow users to monitor air quality in real time on their...
Coal said to overtake oil as energy source
PARIS, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Coal's share of the global energy mix is rising and it could overtake oil as the world's top energy source by 2017, an energy...
New method for estimating thermal comfort in low-energy buildings at the design stage
Indoor environments that are too hot, too cold or draughty create discomfort and lower human productivity. A new method for estimating the actual level of human thermal comfort in low-energy...
Cutting carbon dioxide emissions with innovative technology
Researchers are testing a variety of technological solutions in the battle to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. On this technological front, there is room for not just one but many winners.
Liquid metal used to create wires that stretch eight times their original length
Researchers have created conductive wires that can be stretched up to eight times their original length while still functioning. The wires can be used for everything from headphones to phone...
Synchrotron X-Rays Bring New Light To Old Fossils
Synchrotron-based imaging techniques of a 50 million-year-old lizard skin have identified the presence of teeth which are invisible to visible light, demonstrating for the first time that this fossil animal...
Researchers find a 'glitch' in pulsar 'glitch' theory
(Phys.org)—Researchers from the University of Southampton have called in to question a 40 year-old theory explaining the periodic speeding up or 'glitching' of pulsars.
pH measurements: How to see the real face of electrochemistry and corrosion?
For several decades antimony electrodes have been used to measure the acidity/basicity -- and so to determine the pH value. Unfortunately, they allow for measuring pH changes of solutions only...
A mathematical formula to decipher the geometry of surfaces like that of cauliflower
Scientists at the Universidad Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M) have taken part in a research project that describes, for the first time, that laws that govern the development of certain...
Entrepreneur receives funding for 'tornado' power generator
(Phys.org)—Electrical engineer and entrepreneur Louis Michaud's AVEtec company has received funding from PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel's Breakout Labs program to build an experimental Atmosphere Vortex Engine (AVE). The $300,000 in...
Boron vapour trail leads to heterofullerenes
A simple way to produce fullerenes with other atoms in their structure could result in materials with exciting properties for solar cells and molecular electronics
Mapping the wind as part of DOE offshore wind demonstration project
Mapping the wind patterns off the Oregon coast is just one part of the innovative work that scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will be performing in a new demonstration...
Water footprint could tip scale for sustainable, emission-reducing energy options
Green energy won't be sustainable if it uses too much blue. Low-carbon energy options that increase water consumption could be swapping one problem for another.
Nanoparticle research and the future of medicine
(Phys.org)—A review paper by UCD researchers describing how nanoparticles can gather a cloak of molecules onto themselves in the human body is featured on the front cover of Nature Nanotechnology.
Asking the hard questions about climate change: Q&A with climate and geoengineering expert
David Keith is Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. The award-winning scientist, who...
Cruze debuts industry-first flexible venting driver air bag
The 2013 Chevrolet Cruze introduces an industry-first driver-side air bag that uses a flexible venting technology designed to deploy more efficiently while providing equivalent crash protection to more expensive and...
Superconductors that work by themselves: Scientists discover new possibilities in chryoelectronics
(Phys.org)—Scientists from the University of Tübingen, working with colleagues from Tel Aviv University and the Kiel University have proposed [1] and experimentally demonstrated [2] a new type of superconducting element...
Industrial chemicals: A new breed of stable anti-aromatic compound
The novel compound is a new chapter in a story that began in 1825, when English scientist Michael Faraday first isolated benzene from gas lights. Benzene would later be identified...
Compact MOS-Varactor simulation model for development of CMOS millimeter wave circuits
Toshiba Corporation today announced the development of a compact MOS-Varactor simulation model that delivers high level accuracy from DC to the millimeter wave (60 GHz) region. The new model was...
On the road or in the kitchen: Novel storage solutions top engineering design competition
With a bicycle accessory that integrates several currently separate components, two University of Wisconsin-Madison mechanical engineering seniors won first place and $2,500 in the 2012 EMA/ME Design Competition, held December...
Highly efficient electrocatalyst for the reduction of oxygen in fuel cells and batteries
(Phys.org)—Be it a battery or a fuel cell, efficient electrodes are the be-all and end-all of every electrochemical cell. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, a team of Korean and American...
Sopranos - Under MRI
The first scientific study to employ real-time magnetic resonance imaging (RT) MRI to obtain midsagittal vocal tract sequential image data from a total of 5 soprano singers was published in...
Physics World's 2012 Book of the Year
An entertaining tale of how an oddball group of physicists revived interest in quantum fundamentals wins this year's top honour
Anti-science fiction | Simon Dunn
If pseuodoscience proponents can be criticised for distorting complex science for their own ends, then the same argument could be applied to science fiction writers, Simon Dunn argues."Theorising that one could time travel...
'Gusty winds' in space turbulence: First direct measurement of its kind in the lab
Imagine riding in an airplane as the plane is jolted back and forth by gusts of wind that you can't prove exist but are there nonetheless. Similar turbulence exists in...