News
- Physics
Hot little levers write beaucoup bits
Arrays of microscopic tips may offer a way to pack digital data more tightly and transfer it more quickly than is possible with magnetic hard disks.
- Physics
Light step toward quantum networks
During the transfer of a quantum data bit from matter to light, a cloud of extremely cold atoms emitted a photon carrying a version of the cloud's quantum state.
- Physics
When all is a spin, calm is dragged in
When laboratory vortices are mixed to create the equivalent of a tornado in a hurricane, the "hurricane" may gobble up spots of calm from the outside world.
- Health & Medicine
Marker signals esophageal cancer
Silencing of the gene that encodes the cancer-suppressing protein APC is common in people with esophageal cancer, suggesting that physicians might use this genetic abnormality as a marker for the disease.
- Health & Medicine
Is penicillin-allergy rate overstated?
A study finds that 20 of 21 people who reported having a penicillin allergy when filling out paperwork during a hospital visit in fact don't have one, suggesting that the prevalence of this allergy is overstated.
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Man’s brain incurs disgusting loss
A brain-damaged man yields clues to the neural organization responsible for experiencing disgust.
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Brain sets sights on mind’s eye
Brain regions implicated in vision may also contribute to the images in the "mind's eye."
- Astronomy
More moons for Saturn
With the discovery of two additional moons, the ringed planet now has a retinue of 24 known satellites orbiting it.
- Astronomy
What a blast!
Astronomers have glimpsed a rare, long-lived neutron-star explosion that may represent the burning of carbon just beneath the surface of this superdense star.
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Wayfaring Sleepers: Brain area linked to slumber-aided recall
Enhanced activity in an inner-brain structure called the hippocampus during sleep solidifies memories of recently visited places and the routes taken to get to them.
- Tech
Smashing the Microscope: Tiny crashes harnessed for nanoconstruction
A new technique supplies loose atoms for nanoscale experiments by using the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope to gouge out craters from a surface.
- Materials Science
Electronics Detox: Leadfree material for ecofriendly gadgetry
Responding to growing concern over the disposal of electronic devices, scientists in Japan have created a lead-free piezoceramic that could replace the toxic components in many of these gadgets.
