All Stories by Peter Weiss
- Tech
Bartending lessons for microassembly
Engineers have demonstrated the feasibility of quickly assembling identical microcircuit components by agitating subunits in a liquid.
- Physics
Orbiting relativity test gets slow start
Unexpected but necessary adjustments to a satelliteborne test of relativity theory have slashed the time available to collect data.
- Tech
Transmuting a powerful poison
A new chemical process for fuel cells powered by hydrocarbons eliminates carbon monoxide that would clog fuel-cell electrodes while also extracting energy from the troublesome gas.
- Physics
Extreme Impersonations
By creating tiny clouds of remarkable new kinds of ultracold gases, physicists are, in essence, bringing to their lab benches chunks of some of the most extraordinary and hard-to-study matter in the universe.
- Materials Science
Falling into Place: Atom mist yields nanobricks and mortar
Researchers have induced tiny particles of nickel to spontaneously assemble into exceptionally uniform, three-dimensional arrays of macroscopic size.
- Tech
Tiny Timepiece: Atomic clock could fit almost anywhere
Physicists have shrunk the high-tech heart of an atomic clock to the size of a rice grain.
- Tech
Helping circuits get enough oxygen
The search for new insulators needed for making ever-smaller circuits may get a boost from a new electron microscopy technique sensitive to a single oxygen atom missing from a crystal layer.
- Tech
Sound power for deep-space travel beyond sun’s reach
An unusually efficient new type of power unit for spacecraft uses sound to convert heat to electricity.
- Materials Science
Face to Face: Crystal-growth method bodes electric payoff
A new method for growing silicon carbide eliminates crystal defects that have long prevented the compound's wider use in electric devices.
- Materials Science
Warm Reflections: Window tint kicks in when it’s hot
A novel window coating automatically transforms into a heat mirror only when warmed above room temperature.
- Physics
Antimatter loses again
A study of subatomic B mesons reveals a new way in which the laws of physics differ for matter and antimatter, providing another clue to why there's almost no antimatter in the universe today.
- Tech
Neutrons may spotlight cancers
Researchers have taken a first step toward developing neutron beams as a medical diagnostic tool that might provide earlier detection of cancers.
