Latest science news in Physics & Chemistry
Gulf Oil Spill Fight Turns to Chemicals
Responders are deploying huge amounts of oil dispersant to limit onshore damage from the Gulf of Mexico, but the chemicals don’t make oil disappear. ...
Scientists near bionic breakthrough
OAK RIDGE, Tenn., April 26 (UPI) -- U.S. government scientists say they have created a new way of processing carbon nanotubes that might lead the way toward futuristic bionic...
Caltech-led team designs novel negative-index metamaterial that responds to visible light
A group of scientists led by researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has engineered a type of artificial optical material - a metamaterial - with a particular three-dimensional...
UCLA engineer invents world's smallest, lightest telemedicine microscope
Aydogan Ozcan, whose invention of a novel lensless imaging technology for use in telemedicine could radically transform global health care, has now taken his work a step further ? or...
IBM Research creates world's smallest 3D map; brings low-cost, ease of use to creation of nanoscale objects
IBM scientists have created a 3D map of the earth so small that 1,000 of them could fit on one grain of salt. The scientists accomplished this through a new,...
Causes and Consequences of the Helium-3 Supply Crisis
Industries such as nuclear detection, oil and gas, and medical diagnostics could face crippling shortages of Helium 3, a nuclear weapons production byproduct that has become increasing scarce.
Space-Bound Antimatter Detector Gets Last-Minute Overhaul
The long, strange tale of one of the more ambitious particle physics experiments ever...
New way to guide a car: With your eyes, not hands
Tired of spinning that steering wheel? Try this: German researchers have developed a new technology that lets drivers steer cars using only their eyes.
Highlight: Fast and furious microcapacitors
The April 23 issue of Science reports that by improving the power density of tiny capacitors -- devices that can store and release energy in quick bursts -- researchers may...
Fujitsu Releases 18 New 8-bit Low-Voltage Operation Microcontrollers in Three Series
Fujitsu Semiconductor announced the development of three new series in its F2MC-8FX family of high-performance 8-bit microcontrollers with embedded flash memory. The new products, which feature very low voltage requirements,...
Purple Pokeberries Hold Secret to Affordable Solar Power Worldwide
Pokeberries - the weeds that children smash to stain their cheeks purple-red and that Civil War soldiers used to write letters home - could be the key to spreading solar...
Homespun power: Energy solution blows in wind with turbine
Last June, Frank Towns put up a wind turbine behind his home to generate electricity. Turns out it's generating interest, too. People driving by often stop to ask about it,...
IBM Scientists Create Tiniest 3-D World Map
1,000 of the maps could fit on a grain of salt IBM scientists working across three countries have created the smallest-ever 3D map of the world -- so tiny that 1,000 maps...
New Scripps Research and GNF study helps explain how we can sense temperatures
LA JOLLA, CA -- April 22, 2010 -- Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) have shed new light...
U.S. finds Iran sanctions pressure muted
WASHINGTON, April 23 (UPI) -- More than 40 foreign companies have worked in Iran to develop the country's oil and gas sector despite international pressure, a U.S. congressional report...
IBM demonstrates nonoscale 3D patterning technique (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- IBM Research in Zurich has demonstrated a new nanoscale patterning technique that could replace electron beam lithography (EBL). The demonstration carved a 1:5 billion scale three-dimensional model of...
Carbene Size Guides Coupling
Organometallic Chemistry: Ligand bulk affects outcome of aldehyde-alkyne pairing.
Making Complanadine A
Transition metals are key in syntheses of alkaloid that aids production of nerve growth factors.
Delivering drugs in gels
Scientists have designed and tested biocompatible material that forms a gel in vivo and is capable of slowly releasing protein drugs
Size affects structure of hollow nanoparticles
A new study shows that size plays a key role in determining the structure of certain hollow nanoparticles. The researchers focused on nickel nanoparticles, which have interesting magnetic and catalytic...
Peru bets on renewable energy production
Peru has approved 26 projects to provide its population with renewable energy from wind farms, solar panels and biomass.
Solar energy: Cheaper solar concentrator with fewer photovoltaic cells
A new solar concentrator design from an electrical engineering Ph.D. student could lead to solar concentrators that are less expensive and require fewer photovoltaic cells than existing solar concentrators.
New sensors to predict landslides
Researchers at the University of Southampton expect to have sensor probes which can predict the onset of landslides by the end of this year.
New mechanism for superconductivity discovered in iron-based superconductors
(PhysOrg.com) -- A research team at RIKEN, Japan`s flagship research organisation has experimentally determined the mechanism underlying the formation of electron pairs in iron-based high-temperature superconductors. The landmark finding, reported...
Flying Car Could Transform Warfare
DARPA’s looking to equip soldiers with a flying car that will cruise in the air like a plane and drive on the ground like an SUV.
Crystal Defect Shown to be Key to Making Hollow Nanotubes
Scientists have no problem making a menagerie of nanometer-sized objects -- wires, tubes, belts, and even tree-like structures. What they sometimes have been unable to do is explain precisely...
Team reveals all three structures of single transporter protein
A team of researchers from the Universities of Leeds, Oxford and Imperial College London have captured the 3D atomic models of a single transporter protein in each of its three...
How to identify chiral superconductivity in new materials
(PhysOrg.com) -- "Chiral superconductivity is the dream of mankind," Carlo Beenakker tells PhysOrg.com. "All sorts of scientists are working on it, and there are many labs trying to create materials...