Latest science news in Physics & Chemistry
Taking the heat: Silver-diamond composite offers unique capabilities for cooling powerful defense microelectronics
Researchers are developing a solid composite material to help cool small, powerful microelectronics used in defense systems. The material, composed of silver and diamond, promises an exceptional degree of thermal...
New developments in quantum computing
Quantum computers are computers that exploit the weird properties of matter at extremely small scales. Many experts believe that a full-blown quantum computer could perform calculations that would be hopelessly...
SiGNa Chemistry Inc creates a water-rechargeable battery
When you think about charging a battery you probably picture an outlet, not a bottle of water. One company is out to change all of that. A company called SiGNa...
Researchers Convert Algae to Butanol; Fuel Can be Used in Automobiles
A team of chemical engineers at the University of Arkansas has developed a method for converting common algae into butanol, a renewable fuel that can be used in existing combustible...
Queen's University professor uses nanotechnology to prolong machine and engine life
Guojun Liu has discovered a way to use nanotechnology to reduce friction in automobile engines and machines...
Relaxation leads to lower elasticity
Many materials, when observed over a sufficiently long period of time, show changes in their mechanical properties. The exact course of these developments depends on the underlying microscopic mechanisms. However,...
Clean fuel worsens climate impacts for some vehicle engines: UBC study
A pioneering program by one of the world's largest cities to switch its vehicle fleet to clean fuel has not significantly improved harmful vehicle emissions in more than 5,000 vehicles...
New 'frozen smoke' may improve robotic surgery, energy storage
A spongy substance that could be mistaken for packing material has the nanotechnology world buzzing...
Microscope could 'solve the cause of viruses'
Writing in the journal Nature Communications, the team have created a microscope which shatters the record for the smallest object the eye can see, beating the diffraction limit of light...
Surgeons predict the future of nanomedicine in practice
A new review published in WIREs Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology explores how nanotechnology may provide powerful new tools that could have a marked impact on the therapeutic and diagnostic measures available...
Scientists unravel the mysterious mechanics of spider silk
Scientists now have a better understanding of why spider silk fibres are so incredibly strong. Recent research, published by Cell Press on February 15th in Biophysical Journal, describes the architecture...
Volkswagen resurrects its microbus
VW revisits its 1960s Samba bus with the Bulli concept, an electric vehicle that echoes the design of its legendary predecessor
Army's new fitness tests add taste of battlefield
(AP) -- Sit-ups don't make a soldier, the Army has decided. So its 30-year-old fitness requirements are getting a battlefield-inspired makeover.
Shedding light on risks of LEDs
If you haven't taken down your Christmas lights yet, do it very carefully. Those modern, light-emitting diode bulbs marketed as safe, environmentally preferable alternatives to traditional lights actually contain lead,...
Discovery of source of glycogen 'manufacturing' errors sheds light on fatal disease
Scientists have solved a perplexing mystery regarding one of the body's main energy storage molecules, in the process shedding light on a possible route to treatment of a rare but...
Acid Art: An Artist Uses Mine Drainage, Dissolved Electronics, and Other Pollutants as Paint
This morning Wired Science posted a fascinating Q+A with San Francisco-based geologist-artist Dave Janesko, who creates works of art by intervening in natural--and unnatural--environmental processes. Using acid runoff from mines (above) and the...
Surgical instruments with electronic serial numbers
Be it a heart transplant or a caesarean section, every operation requires a wide variety of surgical instruments, from simple retractors, clamps, scalpels and scissors to more specialist devices such as cerclage wire...
Technique for measuring methane gas from cattle flatulence
Recently, scientists developed a methane release measuring technique as way of tracking the discharge of the gas without disrupting the regular management of the herd.
Hospital's Tim Hortons turned into emergency room
Staff at Royal Columbian Hospital near Vancouver were forced to turn the facility's Tim Hortons outlet into an emergency room on Monday night because of a shortage of beds.
Drug delivery with nanoparticles
Researchers are able to produce medicine encapsulated in nanoparticles the size of viruses, but new research has shown another great challenge in nanomedicine -- the immune system -- and the...
Nature's building blocks brought to life
Periodic table of shapes could aid theoretical physics
Latest American Chemical Society podcast: Sewage plant waste water as a huge new energy source
WASHINGTON, March 1, 2011 -- The latest episode in the American Chemical Society's (ACS) award-winning podcast series, "Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions," focuses on the discovery that...
Time travel experiment demonstrates how to avoid the grandfather paradox
(PhysOrg.com) -- Among the many intriguing concepts in Einsteins relativity theories is the idea of closed timelike curves (CTCs), which are paths in spacetime that return to their starting points....
Green: A Home for Captured Carbon Dioxide
The Energy Department's pilot project for capturing carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants has chosen a place to impound this greenhouse gas in Morgan County, Ill.
Earth’s missing xenon could be hiding in quartz
Researchers in Canada synthesise xenon dioxide, adding weight to theory that xenon can bond within quartz
EU reviewing energy targets?
BRUSSELS, March 1 (UPI) -- The European Union said it was considering holding off on serious talks on changing the goal of improving energy efficiency by 20 percent by...
Research elucidates the effect of disorder on magnetic vortex gyration
Much of the worlds information is stored in memories consisting of magnetic domains, and researchers continue to develop new domain arrangements to enable smaller and faster such memories.
U.S., Emirates team up on solar power
WASHINGTON, March 1 (UPI) -- A partnership between Washington and Abu Dhabi on solar power technology encourages the transition to a green economy, an official said.