Latest science news in Physics & Chemistry
Precision Measurement Of W Boson Mass Portends Stricter Limits For Higgs Particle
Scientists have achieved the world's most precise measurement of the mass of the W boson by a single experiment. Combined with other measurements, the reduced uncertainty of the W boson...
Atmospheric 'Sunshade' Could Reduce Solar Power Generation
The concept of delaying global warming by adding particles into the upper atmosphere to cool the climate could unintentionally reduce peak electricity generated by large solar power plants by as...
Physicist develops battery using new source of energy
Researchers at the University of Miami and at the Universities of Tokyo and Tohoku, Japan, have been able to prove the existence of a "spin battery," a battery that is...
Renewable energy's role 'underestimated'
Renewable energy could account for a much higher proportion of the global energy supply than previously estimated — if we pay up.
New invisibility cloak allows object to 'see' out through the cloak
(PhysOrg.com) -- "Many groups have been working devices that make objects invisible," Che Ting Chan tells PhysOrg.com. `Most of these devices, however, encompass the object to be cloaked.` Chan, a...
Canadian to make film with robot eye
Rob Spence, a Toronto-based filmmaker who was blinded in the right eye when he was a teenager, is turning his prosthetic eye into a camera he'll use while filming an...
Nanoball Batteries Could Charge Electric Cars in 5 Minutes
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at MIT have designed a new battery that can recharge devices about 100 times faster than conventional lithium ion batteries. The design could lead to electric car...
Team Discover Metal that Becomes Transparent Under High Pressure
An international team of scientists have discovered a transparent form of the element sodium (Na).
Eric Isaacs named director of Argonne National Laboratory
Eric D. Isaacs, a prominent University of Chicago physicist and senior administrator at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, has been selected to become the next director of...
Nanowires may lead to better fuel cells
The creation of long platinum nanowires at the University of Rochester could soon lead to the development of commercially viable fuel cells. Described in a paper published today in the...
Shining light on diabetes-related blindness
A group of scientists in California is trying to develop a cheaper, less invasive way to spot the early stages of retinal damage from diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of...
New System Minimizes Pesticide Pollution Of Aquifers
Scientists have developed and patented a encapsulation system for controlled release of herbicides and pesticides. The encapsulation retains the pesticide in a liposome and clay structure, that hold and slowly...
Nanostructure Boosts Efficiency In Energy Transport
Chemists have grown a titanium nanostructure that delivers a 33 percent gain in power-collecting efficiency. Part catalyst and part conductor, the novel material could serve clean power applications like water-splitting,...
'Nanostitching' Could Strengthen Airplane Skins, More
MIT engineers are using carbon nanotubes only billionths of a meter thick to stitch together aerospace materials in work that could make airplane skins and other products some 10 times...
Quantum Dots Could Boost Solar Cell Efficiency
(PhysOrg.com) -- The transition to environmentally benign energy sources is one of the most significant challenges of the 21st century. Solar power, which uses sunlight to generate electricity, is one...
Researchers work to make wood a new energy source
Is wood the new coal? Researchers at North Carolina State University think so, and they are part of a team working to turn woodchips into a substitute for coal by...
Surfaces take a turn to do work
Light-driven molecular motors that rotate perpendicular to a surface can control the surface's properties
Building nano-scale electronic contacts
Researchers have welded carbon nanotubes to metal particles to create conducting junctions
Metals lose identity under pressure
Lithium and sodium become insulators and semiconductors in diamond anvil cells
AG Holder on sidelines in Clemens steroid probe
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attorney General Eric Holder has recused himself from any role in deciding whether to charge Roger Clemens with lying to Congress about steroids....
Polarizers may enhance remote chemical detection
Chemists can analyze the composition of a suspected bomb -- without actually touching and possibly detonating it -- using a technique called laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, or LIBS. The tool is...
Infrared Nanotube Films Offer Advantages for Solar Cells and More
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have already known that carbon nanotube thin films have mechanical and conductive advantages that could make them useful as electrodes in solar cells, solid state lighting, and...
Laser TV - The Next Step in Flat Screens
LCD and plasma TV's can only reproduce about 60% of the colors your eye can see. New laser-pumped screens can show you 90%. And they use only half as much...
Dot Earth: No Skepticism on the Energy Gap
If there's broad agreement on the energy challenge, is the climate fight necessary?.
Review: Bookmark for public radio saves your place
(AP) -- I'm sort of a public radio junkie, so if I'm in my car and the kids haven't usurped the radio dial, I'm likely tuned to "Morning Edition,"...
Scientists set record for smallest letters
STANFORD, Calif., March 11 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've set a record for the world's smallest letters by pushing individual molecules into specifically arranged patterns.
Engineers Ride 'Rogue' Laser Waves To Build Better Light Sources
A freak wave at sea is a terrifying sight. Seven stories tall, wildly unpredictable, and incredibly destructive, such waves have been known to emerge from calm waters and swallow ships...
FOR KIDS: The metal detector in your mouth
The taste of metal is sweet, spicy, bitter, delicious and perhaps other, mystery tastes