Latest science news in Physics & Chemistry
Video: "Star Wars" Fans' 15 Seconds of Fame
An interactive website devoted to remaking the classic film one tiny bit at a time has won a passionate following - and an Emmy Award. David Morgan reports.
Best Sunspot Photo Ever
A new photo of a sunspot on the surface of the sun is the most detailed seen in visible light.
Sustainable farming options snap open for bivalves
Two sets of global standards - one for pangasius farming and the other for bivalve farming - were finalised today by the Aquaculture Dialogues...
Magnetism's subatomic roots
The modern world - with its ubiquitous electronic devices and electrical power - can trace its lineage directly to the discovery, less than two centuries ago, of the link between...
Rutgers-Camden professor engineers E. coli to produce biodiesel
One mention of E. coli conjures images of sickness and food poisoning, but the malevolent bacteria may also be the key to the future of renewable energy...
Transition metal catalysts could be key to origin of life, scientists report
One of the big, unsolved problems in explaining how life arose on Earth is a chicken-and-egg paradox: How could the basic biochemicals - such as amino acids and nucleotides -...
UCLA chemists, engineers achieve world record with high-speed graphene transistors
Graphene, a one-atom-thick layer of graphitic carbon, has great potential to make electronic devices such as radios, computers and phones faster and smaller. But its unique properties have also led...
Stephen Hawking's big bang gaps | Paul Davies
The laws that explain the universe's birth are less comprehensive than Stephen Hawking suggestsCosmologists are agreed that the universe began with a big bang 13.7 billion years ago. People naturally want to know...
Google celebrates 25 years of the 'buckyball'
Google Doodle marks the discovery of the spherical molecule Buckminsterfullerine, the first of the ball-shaped family of particlesThe Buckminsterfullerine molecule was first discovered 25 years ago by a group of...
Fleet of robots designed to clean up oil
Scientists at MIT have created Seaswarm, which uses super- absorbent 'nanofabric' to suck up slick on the surface of the ocean. It's too late for the gulf spill, but it...
Letters: A mystery wrapped in an enigma
Stephen Hawking assumes that the big bang started from "nothing" (Universe not created by God, says Hawking, 2 September). I would like to know what his definition of "nothing" is. It is...
Ontario Scientists Retain Legislative Independence from Engineers
OTTAWA—The Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) appears to have staved off legislation that would...
Wind Turbine or Airplane? New Radar Could Cut Through the Signal Clutter
Wind turbines function best in wide-open spaces where they can capture airflow unobstructed by buildings or mountains. Unfortunately, these same conditions are also optimal for aircraft takeoffs and landings, creating...
Ukraine seeks gas contract revision
KIEV, Ukraine, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Ukraine, claiming the current agreement "is not advantageous," is seeking to revise terms of a natural gas deal with Russia. ...
Lithuania to set up natural gas exchange
VILNIUS, Lithuania, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Lithuania's Energy Ministry has drawn up guidelines to establish a Lithuanian natural gas trading exchange. ...
Bangladeshi govt. power sector concerns
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Bangladeshi State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Mohammad Enamul Haque is urging the power sector to work for the good of...
Magnetism's subatomic roots: Study of high-tech materials helps explain everyday phenomenon
Theoretical physicists have created a new model that helps define the subatomic origins of ferromagnetism -- the everyday "magnetism" of compass needles and refrigerator magnets. The model was created to...
Australians embrace alternative energy
SYDNEY, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Concerns about rising utility bills are causing many Australians to switch to alternative sustainable energy sources. ...
India's Tata to enter Indonesian market
MUMBAI, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Tata Power, India's largest private power utility firm, is leading a consortium to construct a massive geothermal power project in Indonesia. ...
UBC lab aims to design better traffic systems, reduce accidents
Engineers at the University of British Columbia are building what they hope will be a reliable system for predicting the likelihood of car crashes in a specific area, a development...
Fashion student designs edible clothes
Emily Crane's research into growing edible materials has enabled her to bring a touch of haute cuisine to her haute couture.
Cleaning blood with carbon
Simple three-step synthesis produces mesoporous millimetre-sized carbon spheres that remove toxic substances from blood
Next step in evolution? A technical life form that passes on knowledge and experience
Dutch biologist Gerard Jagers op Akkerhuis has developed the ‘operator hierarchy’ -- a system based on the complexity of particles and of organisms, which can predict the next step in...
Video: Stephen Hawking, God and physics on Channel 4 News
Video: Jon Snow interviews Guardian science blogger Jon Butterworth about physics and Stephen Hawking's apparent conversion to atheism
HP finds partner to build memristors into chips
Hewlett-Packard Co. has found an ally to take a breakthrough research project of HP's and build the technology into computer chips.
Cheaper, better solar cell is full of holes
A new low-cost etching technique developed at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory can put a trillion holes in a silicon wafer the size of a compact...
Physicists find fractal boundaries in crystals
Blacksmiths make horseshoes by heating, beating and bending iron, but what's happening to the metal's individual atoms during such a process? Cornell researchers, using computational modeling, are providing new insight...
Analogy Watch: Hydrogen Bonding
A video posted on A Blog Around the Clock a few days ago discusses the mechanisms behind hydrogen bonding. The first half of the video is visually basic -- simple...