Latest science news in Physics & Chemistry
Breaking up phosphorus with ultraviolet light may offer a safer, simpler way to build many industrial and household chemicals
Phosphorus, a mineral element found in rocks and bone, is a critical ingredient in fertilizers, pesticides, detergents and other industrial and household chemicals. Now chemists have developed a new way...
Variations in fine-structure constant suggest laws of physics not the same everywhere
(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the most controversial questions in cosmology is why the fundamental constants of nature seem fine-tuned for life. One of these fundamental constants is the fine-structure constant,...
New Method Swaps Pressurized Biomass For Petroleum in Plastics, Cosmetics
An accidental chemistry discovery could lead to a new method for making antifreeze, moisturizer and plastic bottles out of biomass rather than petroleum, according to researchers at Iowa State University. Professor Walter Trahanovsky...
Caltech chemists develop simple technique to visualise atomic-scale structures
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have devised a new technique - using a sheet of carbon just one atom thick - to visualise the structure of molecules....
Connection between light at night (LAN) and cancer revealed in additional study
A new study from the Centre for Interdisciplinary Chronobiological Research at the University of Haifa has found an additional link between Light At Night (LAN) and cancer. This research joins...
Hawking: God Not Needed for Creation of Universe
After Appearing to Accept Possibility of a Creator, Physicist Now Says "It Is Not Necessary to Invoke God"
Man Aims Laser Beam at Pilots
A man tried to dazzle pilots with a laser beam as they were landing at a Paris airport.
Memristor revolution backed by HP
A potentially revolutionary circuit component, once a laboratory curiosity, is to be mass-produced for the first time.
Nature Offers Template for Solar Energy Materials
A researcher looks to plant photosynthesis as inspiration to harness the power of the sun.
Supersolidity flows back
Doubts over the existence of the mysterious quantum phenomenon may soon be laid to rest.
Nanopore-Based Screening
DNA Analysis: Method detects single molecules passing through holes in graphene.
Listening To Colors In Ancient Art, Thanks To Alexander Graham Bell
McGill chemists using a technique known as photoacoustic infrared spectroscopy say they can identify the composition of pigments used in art decades or even centuries old. Pigments give artist's materials...
Businesses see advantage in green buildings
The Subway sandwich shop on Chicago's State Street may look like any other new restaurant, but its tile, crown molding and most wall coverings are made from recycled materials. In...
MIT's Self-Assembling PV Cells Recycle Themselves Repeatedly, Just Like Plant Cells
MIT's Test Cell Patrick Gillooly, MIT Plants are extremely efficient converters of light into energy, more or less setting the bar for researchers creating photovoltaic cells that convert sunlight into electricity. As such,...
Virtual Characters Behave Based On Human Unconscious Behavior
A new system published in The Visual Computer uses sensors and wireless devices to measure three physiological parameters in real time, heart rate, respiration, and the galvanic (electric) skin response,...
Mineral physicists find new scenery at Earth's core-mantle boundary
Using a diamond-anvil cell to recreate the high pressures deep within the earth, researchers have found unusual properties in an iron-rich magnesium- and iron-oxide mineral that may explain the existence...
Scientists investigate how ice melts below freezing due to nanowire's pressure
(PhysOrg.com) -- The many ways in which water differs from other molecules is both a scientific curiosity and an important factor in shaping the Earth. Among water's unique properties are...
Paul Greengard receives Karolinska Institutet’s Bicentennial Gold Medal
The gold medal is the highest award conferred by the Karolinska Institutet, one of the world’s leading medical universities, during its 200th anniversary celebrations. The medal recognizes the work of...
Researchers discover proton diode
Biophysicists in Bochum have discovered a diode for protons: just like the electronic component determines the direction of flow of electric current, the "proton diode" ensures that protons can only...
Effect of heat treatment on the superconducting properties of Ag-doped Sr0.6K0.4Fe2As2 compounds
The Key Laboratory of Applied Superconductivity, Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, and China Research have collaborated to reveal the heat treatment effects...
Miniature auto differential helps tiny aerial robots stay aloft
Engineers have created a millionth-scale automobile differential to govern the flight of minuscule aerial robots that could someday be used to probe environmental hazards, forest fires, and other places too...
NSF Funds Expedition intoSoftware for Efficient Computing in the Age of Nanoscale Devices
As semiconductor manufacturers build ever smaller components, circuits and chips at the nano scale become less reliable and more expensive to produce. The variability in their behavior from device to...
A room full of physics and ice
Quantum mechanics research with implications on everyday technologies are conducted in a room of ‘cold molecules’.
Get ready for a world of nanotechnology | Thomas Barfield
If the biggest technological leap since the Industrial Revolution is to benefit us all, governments and educators have work to doThe prefix "nano" is gaining an increasing presence in public consciousness, from invocations...
Adaptive headlamp system introduced
(PhysOrg.com) -- The independent industrial group Valeo, which is headquartered in France, has introduced a "BeamAtic" adaptive headlight system that enables drivers to keep their lights on high beam without...
Quantum dots track who gets into cell nucleus
(PhysOrg.com) -- UC Berkeley researchers Karsten Weis, Jan Liphardt, and colleagues have used fluorescent probes called quantum dots to determine which molecules get into the nucleus via its nano-pores and...
Start-up company aims to harness the full potential of producing electricity from waste heat
(PhysOrg.com) -- Matt Scullin co-founded Alphabet Energy just one year ago, but already the CEO has ambitions of turning the San Francisco-based start-up company into the "Intel of waste heat."...
Delving into the world of the ultra-cold
(PhysOrg.com) -- In Swinburne University's 'cold molecules lab', where temperatures one millionth of a degree above absolute zero are routinely achieved, researchers are making significant advances in understanding the weird...