Latest science news in Physics & Chemistry
Toys Made Of Liquid Wood
Most plastics are based on petroleum. A bio-plastic that consists of one hundred percent renewable raw materials helps to conserve this resource. Researchers have now optimized the plastic in such...
New Insights On Fusion Power
Research carried out at MIT's Alcator C-Mod fusion reactor may have brought the promise of fusion as a future power source a bit closer to reality, though scientists caution that...
Aristotle May Provide the Key to Quantum Gravity
This deepest and most long-standing of all problems in fundamental physics still needs a revolutionary new idea or two for which we are still grasping. More revolutionary even than time-reversal....
Fabric can wipe away toxic chemicals: study
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A new dry wipe can clean up chemical agents such as mustard gas, giving soldiers a more convenient way to deal with toxic materials on the battlefield,...
U.N. urges radiation to spur plant growth
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- The United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency is urging increased use of radiation to produce high-yielding plants to help people avoid hunger.
ESA tests laser to measure atmospheric carbon dioxide
A recent ESA campaign has demonstrated how a technique using lasers could be employed to measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The campaign supports one of the main objectives of...
Interview: Discovering the Texas molecule
Jonathan Sessler talks to Michael Brown about what motivated him to discover texaphyrin and about the aims of the companies he co-founded
Managing Carbon Loss
The push for alternative energy has created a large demand for corn stover, a popular feedstock used to produce cellulosic ethanol, but utilizing these materials, rather than using it as...
Air pollution model takes off
Australia's capabilities in understanding the impact of air pollution have advanced with a new version of software that can predict the direction and concentration of odours and pollutants. 'The Air...
Ship-in-a-bottle kit on a microchip
Sometimes physicists resort to tried and trusted model-making tricks. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research, the University of Stuttgart and the Colorado School of Mines have constructed...
Particulate emissions from laser printers
We regularly hear reports that laser printers release pathogenic toner dust into the ambient air. How much of it can we believe? What kind of particles do the printers really...
New holographic method could be used for lab-on-a-chip technologies
Researchers at Purdue University have developed a technique that uses a laser and holograms to precisely position numerous tiny particles within seconds, representing a potential new tool to analyse biological...
Operations engineering for more efficient operating rooms
Work by specialists from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering has led to significant improvements in turnover times for operating rooms at three California safety net hospitals, allowing 'many more...
Obama to Review Costs of Shuttle Replacement Vehicle
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's NASA transition team is asking U.S. space agency officials to quantify how much money could be saved by canceling the Ares 1 rocket and scaling back...
Magnetic nanotags allow sensitive detection of cancer biomarkers
(PhysOrg.com) -- The detection of cancer-associated proteins, or biomarkers, in blood samples is a potentially powerful tool for early diagnosis of cancer and monitoring of cancer treatment. A team led...
Self-powered devices may soon be possible
COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say they are utilizing materials known as piezoelectrics to move science closer to self-powering devices, such as cellular telephones.
Plastic as a conductor
(PhysOrg.com) -- Plastic that conducts electricity and metal that weighs no more than a feather? It sounds like an upside-down world. Yet researchers have succeeded in making plastics conductive and...
Mysterious nanobubble burst?
(PhysOrg.com) -- The nanobubbles that develop on submerged surfaces should not really be able to exist. Because of the enormous internal pressure, they should disappear within a short time. Nevertheless,...
Open Source film wins audience award in Amsterdam
Montreal filmmaker Brett Gaylor's documentary exploring copyright issues in the information age has won an audience award at the 21st International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.
Intel & Hitachi Team up for Enterprise Grade SSDs
(PhysOrg.com) -- Intel and Hitachi announced that they are joining forces to produce Enterprise-grade SSDs that will incorporate Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and Fiber Channel (FC) interfaces. Both firms plan...
A Promising Catalyst for Solar-Based Hydrogen Energy Production
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have found that a polymer material is an excellent catalyst in a process to produce hydrogen fuel using sunlight and water. The material meets the basic requirements...
First light for US 'laser jumbo'
A plane equipped with a powerful laser has moved a step closer to becoming a viable weapon to shoot down missiles.
Instant insight: Digging deep with microtools
Jaime Castillo, Maria Dimaki and Winnie E. Svendsen explain how micro and nano manipulation techniques are helping researchers understand biological systems
Un-masking A Faster Solution For Chip-making
Researchers have developed a promising solution to ‘mask-less’ semiconductor lithography and generated intense interest among major industry players.
Laser technique produces bevy of antimatter
Blasting a gold target with high-powered lasers creates huge amounts of antimatter, reported scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory at a conference last week.
Chemists look for cleaner, cheaper rocket fuel
Mark Gordon recently held up a small vial containing three liquids layered one on top of another. That middle layer, the brownish one, is an ionic liquid, Gordon explained.
Vital Signs: Regimens: For the Best Pick-Me-Up, Lie Down
A small study suggests that for improved physical and mental performance, an afternoon nap works better than caffeine.
Cells Reorganize Shape To Fit The Situation, Scientists Discover
Flip open any biology textbook and you're bound to see a complicated diagram of the inner workings of a cell, with its internal scaffolding, the cytoskeleton, and how it maintains...