Posts Tagged ‘physics’
Science & Technology - Oct 27, 2009 16:56 - 1 Comment
Break of curveball in eye of batter?
USC (US)—The answer to the question of whose curveball breaks harder—that of the Yankees’ A.J. Burnett or the Phillies’ Cole Hamels—may be neither. (more…)
Science & Technology - Oct 27, 2009 13:23 - 0 Comments
T-ray tool takes extreme measures
IOWA STATE (US)—A terahertz ray (T-ray) facility is allowing researchers to take a close and unique look at materials reliability, biofuels combustion, environmental clean-up, cancer screening, biomass conversion, ionic liquids, and many other research areas in science and engineering. (more…)
Science & Technology - Oct 20, 2009 11:00 - 0 Comments
Cassini reshapes view of solar system
JOHNS HOPKINS (US)—It turns out that the solar system may look more like a basketball than a comet. Images from one of the sensors on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft suggest that the heliosphere—the region of our sun’s influence—may not have the comet-like shape predicted by existing models. (more…)
Science & Technology - Oct 2, 2009 12:55 - 0 Comments
Map helps quantum dots go ‘designer’
U. MICHIGAN (US)—The creation of the first atomic-scale maps of quantum dots may speed progress toward the goal of producing “designer dots” that can be tailored for specific applications. (more…)
Science & Technology - Sep 30, 2009 12:41 - 1 Comment
‘Beautiful’ stellar jet recreated in lab
U. ROCHESTER (US)—Certain stars stream vast amounts of matter into space, creating some of the most beautiful—and inexplicable—objects in the universe. Now, astrophysicists have replicated the physics of a stellar jet in a laboratory. (more…)
Science & Technology - Sep 29, 2009 11:52 - 0 Comments
Messenger makes final Mercury flyby
U. COLORADO (US)—NASA’s Messenger spacecraft will zip by Mercury for the third and final time today, September 29, cruising within 142 miles of the planet’s surface at more than 100,000 mph. Messenger will take high-resolution color images of the surface terrain before making a clever gravity-assist maneuver that will steer it into orbit around the rocky planet beginning in March 2011. (more…)
Science & Technology - Sep 23, 2009 4:22 - 2 Comments
Molecules star in holographic 3-D movies
NYU (US)–A new technique for recording three-dimensional movies of microscopic systems, such as biological molecules, through holographic video has the potential to improve medical diagnostics and drug discovery. (more…)
Science & Technology - Sep 23, 2009 4:00 - 1 Comment
Watching glass age in slow motion
U. PENN (US)–Despite thousands of years of household and industrial use, certain aspects of glasses have perplexed physicists. Now researchers have found new clues to why the dynamics of glasses get slower and more sluggish as they age. (more…)
Science & Technology - Sep 22, 2009 12:01 - 0 Comments
Crystals to grow in low gravity on Space Station
IOWA STATE (US)—An experiment to study crystal growth patterns in a microgravity environment that is on its way to the International Space Station may have important implications for developing new materials. (more…)
Science & Technology - Sep 17, 2009 19:27 - 7 Comments
Nanotubes may yield greener solar cells
In a carbon nanotube-based photodiode, electrons (blue) and holes (red) release their excess energy to efficiently create more electron-hole pairs when light is shined on the device. (Credit: Nathan Gabor)
Science & Technology - Sep 2, 2009 14:59 - 0 Comments
Honey, who shrunk the laser light?
A bright point of light from a single plasmon laser emanates from the optical setup used by UC Berkeley researchers. (Courtesy: Xiang Zhang Lab/UC Berkeley)
Science & Technology - Aug 21, 2009 11:19 - 0 Comments
‘Supercool’ atoms try to act like electrons
These three false-color images, from left, depict the density of cesium atoms in a superfluid (conducting) state, in a transition state and finally in an insulating state. The original sample consisted of a single-layer of cesium atoms that formed a sheet measuring 80 microns in diameter, barely visible to the naked eye. Green indicates the lowest density of atoms. Red indicates a high, constant density. Physicists call this a plateau, which a team of scientists have observed for the first time. (Courtesy: Nathan Gemelke and Cheng Chin/University of Chicago)
Science & Technology - Aug 13, 2009 13:27 - 0 Comments
Water finally caught in the icy act
Lead author Jessica Hernández-Guzmán says when she finally saw the transition from liquid state to crystal, “I felt like I had won the lottery.”
Science & Technology - Aug 7, 2009 4:00 - 1 Comment
Stars in early galaxies zoom, zoom, zoom
“We do find stars with comparable speeds in mature galaxies in today’s nearby universe, but those galaxies are typically many tens of thousands of light years across,” says lead researcher Pieter van Dokkum. “Here we have a very small galaxy in the young universe whose stars behave as if they were in a giant galaxy.” (Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Field/STScI)
Science & Technology - Aug 3, 2009 13:51 - 0 Comments
Don’t believe what you hear about Mars
EMORY (US)—“Every year about this time, people say to me, ‘Gee, I hear Mars is going to get really close to the Earth in August, and it will look as big as the moon,’” says astronomer Horace Dale, who has developed a Mars distance calculator that—he hopes—will help “stamp out this rumor.” (more…)
Science & Technology - Jul 30, 2009 17:01 - 0 Comments
Getting on geometry’s sweet side
Researchers studied oil droplets in water to solve a longstanding packing puzzle—determining how many particles will fit inside a specific space, like the number of candies inside a jar. (Credit: Brujic Lab and Martin Lacasse/NYU)
Science & Technology - Jul 30, 2009 14:41 - 0 Comments
Golden combo yields do-it-all nanotool
A quantum dot (red) encapsulated in a gold shell, combining two useful nanoparticles in one package. The total structure measures less than 20 nanometers across.
Science & Technology - Jul 27, 2009 13:02 - 0 Comments
At extremes, hot and cold act oddly alike
A small blob of lithium-6 gas, chilled ultracold by a laser light trap, does an unexpected thing when the trap is released. (Courtesy: John Thomas/Duke University)
