Latest science news in Physics & Chemistry
Boat Tail Reduces Truck Fuel Consumption By 7.5 Percent
A boat tail, a tapering protrusion mounted on the rear of a truck, leads to fuel savings of 7.5 percent. This is due to dramatically improved aerodynamics, as shown by...
Seattle Team Wins $900,000 in Space Elevator Contest
A Seattle-based team has won $900,000 in this year's Space Elevator Games, a NASA-sponsored contest to build machines powered by laser beams that can climb a cable in the sky.
Big bang goes phut as bird drops baguette into Cern machinery
• Hadron collider halted again by power cut• Scientists stop testing for relaunch after fowl playIt is the machine that scientists hope will recreate the conditions present at the beginning of time. But...
Juelich neutron scientists inaugurate unique device in the US
A unique large-scale research device from Juelich went into operation in the USA yesterday. At the strongest neutron source in the world, the spallation source SNS in Oak Ridge, Tennessee,...
PTB Terahertz calibration satisfies US laser manufacturer
Terahertz radiation still lies in a metrological no man's land - a metrology gap. The Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) can now close this gap. For the first time, a commercial Terahertz...
Chemists describe solar energy progress and challenges, including the 'artificial leaf'
Scientists are making progress toward development of an 'artificial leaf' that mimics a real leaf's chemical magic with photosynthesis - but instead converts sunlight and water into a liquid fuel...
Materials Scientists Find Better Model For Glass Creation
Materials scientists have come up with what they believe is a new way to model the formation of glasses, a type of amorphous solid that includes common window glass.
Mimicking Nature, Scientists Can Now Extend Redox Potentials
New insight into how nature handles some fundamental processes is guiding researchers in the design of tailor-made proteins for applications such as artificial photosynthetic centers, long-range electron transfers, and fuel-cell...
Quantum gas microscope offers glimpse of quirky ultracold atoms
Harvard physicists have created a quantum gas microscope that can be used to observe single atoms at temperatures so low the particles follow the rules of quantum mechanics, behaving in...
Nanotechnology: A risky frontier?
Inside a cramped back room at Rushford Hypersonic, a start-up headquartered in southeastern Minnesota, sits a cube-like machine that throws a mean atomic fastball. At the push of a button,...
F1 designer unveils electric car
A new sustainable electric car designed for city or town use is the result of a £9m investment programme.
Fundamental physics enters war on cancer
A dozen new US research centres receive cash to apply physics to oncology
New Digital 'Electronics' Concept May Continue Moore's Law
(PhysOrg.com) -- Computers of the future could be operating not on electrons, but on tiny waves traveling through an electron "fluid," if a new proposal is successful. The new circuit...
Solar power generation around the clock
(PhysOrg.com) -- A Californian company, SolarReserve, is developing a solar power system that can store seven hours' worth of solar energy by focusing mirrors onto millions of gallons of molten...
Toshiba Introduces 320GB 1.8-inch HDD
Toshiba Corporation today introduced a new line up of 1.8-inch HDDs with a maximum capacity of 320GB, the highest yet announced by the industry, targeted at thin and light...
Japan Uses Controverisal Nuke Fuel
Critics of Weapons-Grade "MOX" Fuel Say It's Too Volatile and Generates High Amounts of Radioactive Waste
Measuring distances in microseconds
(PhysOrg.com) -- Standard laser devices are fast enough for measuring the size of a room, but they need to be faster for outdoor mobile applications. Researchers have brought these scanners...
Gadgets: Verbatim SureFire, RockBuds earphones, Targus Lap Chill Mat
Bigger, better and faster is what you get from the new Verbatim SureFire portable hard drive.
Blowin' in the wind
MIT students and staff worked together last month to install wind-monitoring equipment on a lighting post in the west campus athletic fields to evaluate whether to erect a wind turbine there in the...
Applause For The SmartHand: Human-machine Interface Is Essential Link In Groundbreaking Prosthetic Hand
Professor Yosi Shacham-Diamand of Tel Aviv University's Department of Engineering, working with a team of European Union scientists, has successfully wired a state-of-the-art artificial hand to existing nerve endings in...
Termites? gut reactions show how to improve renewable fuel, researchers say
(PhysOrg.com) -- Termite damage costs the U.S. more than $1 billion each year, but that same destructive power might help solve one of the nation`s most pressing economic quandaries: sustainable...
Family Wind Turbines Gain Momentum in Denmark
Part of a growing trend, a Danish family of seven has installed its own wind turbine to produce all the electricity the family needs while reducing its carbon footprint. Video.
No Sprinting Advantage With Prosthetic Limbs
Amputees' prostheses generate less force and possibly limit top speeds [Read more]
Highlight: STM banopatterning on pristine Nb-doped SrTiO3 surfaces
Collaborative users from the Advanced Photon Source at the Argonne National Laboratory, working with the Electronic & Magnetic Materials & Devices Group, have found a controllable way to modify the...
New Optical Tool Could Produce 'Virtual Biopsies' for Brain Cancer
As an electrical engineer, Jin U. Kang has spent years tinkering with lasers and optical fiber, studying what happens when light strikes matter. Now, he's taking on a new challenge:...
A delicate grip
(PhysOrg.com) -- Solar wafers for use in the production of photovoltaic systems are extremely sensitive. In a test and demonstration center research is being conducted on grippers to determine the...
Gamma ray ‘race’ tests Einstein’s theory
Timing is everything, especially to physicists seeking to unite the mechanics of gravity with the quantum world of particles. So when the opportunity came, a team stepped up to the...
Texas Tech University Hosts Major Textile Conference in India
The Institute of Environmental and Human Health at Texas Tech University will host the 6th annual international conference on Advances in Textiles, Machinery, Nonwovens and Technical Textiles.