Latest science news in Physics & Chemistry
Lightning Strike In Africa Helps Take Pulse Of Sun
Scientists have developed a more definitive and reliable tool for measuring the sun's rotation when sunspots aren't visible ---- and even when they are -- based on observations of common...
A Physics Paradox: Holes That Block Light
Punch holes in an almost-transparent film of gold, and light can't get through [Read more]
The Future in Two Words: Ionic Liquids
(PhysOrg.com) -- Ionic liquids are molecular solutions that have a wide range of potential applications, including next-generation solar cells, hydrogen fuel cells and lithium batteries.
Light Walks Oil Drops Across Water
Chemists use the power of light to control surface tension and drive liquid droplets across a liquid surface.
Energy-saving powder
It is currently estimated that natural gas resources will be exhausted in 130 years; however, those reserves where extraction is cost-effective will only flow for another 60 years or so....
Right first time: Pioneering new methods of drug manufacture
Engineers at the University of Leeds have developed a simple technology which can be used in existing chemical reactors to ensure 'right first time' drug crystal formation...
Understanding mechanical properties of silicon nanowires paves way for nanodevices
Silicon nanowires are attracting significant attention from the electronics industry due to the drive for ever-smaller electronic devices, from cell phones to computers. The operation of these future devices, and...
Tiny Injector To Speed Development Of New, Safer, Cheaper Drugs
Engineering researchers have fabricated a palm-sized, automated, micro-injector that can insert proteins, DNA and other biomolecules into individual cells at volumes exponentially higher than current procedures, and at a fraction...
Researchers Discover Use for Carbon Dioxide in Conversion of Biomass Into Biofuel
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Columbia University have successfully discovered a beneficial use for carbon dioxide in the conversion of organic materials, such as grass and bark, into fuel. Their findings...
China's farming ambitions in Mozambique take shape
A farming research centre is set to open in Mozambique with funding, seeds and advice from China.
Structural snapshots of complex molecules
New spectroscopy technique uncovers the precise sequence of atomic movements occurring during complex chemical transformations
Nanotubes to soak up oil spills
Low density ‘nanotube aerogel’ sponge can selectively absorb 180 times its own weight in oil from water surface
Underground lines that bypass monuments
A team of mathematicians from the Engineering and Architecture Schools of the University of Seville has created a method to design underground lines whereby a city's historical buildings are unaffected....
Better Ion Engines May Keep Satellites Alive Longer
Carbon nanotubes can create more reliable satellite thrusters that save on propellant, reduce launch and cut maintenance costs for satellites.
New 'finFETS' promising for smaller transistors, more powerful chips
Purdue University researchers are making progress in developing a new type of transistor that uses a finlike structure instead of the conventional flat design, possibly enabling engineers to create faster...
Sculptured materials allow multiple channel plasmonic sensors
Sensors, communications devices and imaging equipment that use a prism and a special form of light - a surface plasmon-polariton - may incorporate multiple channels or redundant applications if manufacturers...
Caltech scientists develop DNA origami nanoscale breadboards for carbon nanotube circuits
In work that someday may lead to the development of novel types of nanoscale electronic devices, an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has combined...
Winnipeg enviro-car design gets international nod
An upstart Winnipeg engineering team's idea for the world's most energy-efficient - but still practical - car of the future has been shortlisted to be showcased at a major international...
Researchers Hunt For New Zeolites
In all the world, there are about 200 types of zeolite, a compound of silicon, aluminum and oxygen that gives civilization such things as laundry detergent, kitty litter and gasoline....
Upping The Power Triggers An Ordered Helical Plasma
If you keep twisting a straight elastic string, at some moment it starts kinking in a wild way. Something similar occurs when one increases the electrical current flowing in a...
Research helps overcome barrier for organic electronics
(PhysOrg.com) -- Electronic devices can't work well unless all of the transistors, or switches, within them allow electrical current to flow easily when they are turned on. A team of...
Costs Of Plug-in Cars Key To Broad Consumer Acceptance
A new survey shows widespread consumer interest in buying plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. But the cost of the cars is much more influential than environmental and other non-economic factors as...
Hydrogen milestone moves energy independence one step forward
(PhysOrg.com) -- Big things often come in small packages. That's certainly the case with the potential created by recent successes in hydrogen research at Idaho National Laboratory.
Argonne 'homegrown' hybrid solar cell aims for low-cost power
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy`s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have refined a technique to manufacture solar cells by creating tubes of semiconducting material and then "growing"...
Old Soviet Warheads Fuel America's Nuclear Power Industry
Could the Cold War be heating and lighting your home? If you are one of many Americans whose life is powered by a nuclear power plant, there's a good chance it is;...
Green heating and cooling technology turns carbon from eco-villain to hero
Carbon is usually typecast as a villain in terms of the environment but researchers at the University of Warwick have devised a novel way to miniaturise a technology that will...
Polymers produce bright white light
White light for colour displays can be produced from organic polymers
GE And Evergreen Close Solar Plants
Renewable Energy: Price crunch affects U.S. solar panel makers.