All Stories by Peter Weiss
- Materials Science
To make bronze, tin flakes do a wild dance
Upsetting some prevailing ideas about how alloys form, rafts of tin atoms jitterbug madly around on a pure copper surface and leave spots of bronze in their wakes.
- Physics
Starting from Square One
Physicists appear to have wedded the arcane theory of quarks to cutting-edge computer science, giving themselves tools for precisely predicting properties of subatomic matter and possibly observing new physical phenomena.
- Physics
Inside Plastic Transistors: Crystal-clear window opens on hidden flows
By creating a new type of plastic transistor, researchers have identified crucial details regarding electric flow through plastic semiconductors.
- Physics
Feel the Force: Magnetic probe finds lone electron
Scientists have observed a single electron's magnetism.
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- Physics
Quantum snare entraps key fifth photon
By coaxing five quantum particles into a state of entanglement, physicists have taken an important step toward dependable quantum computers and more-versatile schemes for transferring quantum information.
- Tech
Nanorods go for the gold
Gold blobs grown onto the ends of tiny, rod-shaped crystals provide potential points for electric contact and chemical liaisons that could enable such semiconductor bits to self-organize into complex circuits or structures.
- Physics
Grainy Geyser: Tall squirts reveal sand’s liquid ways
Dropping a steel ball into fine, loosely packed sand produces towering jets of grains.
- Tech
Chair becomes personalized posture coach
Pressure imprints made by a person in a chair provide a new type of computer input useful for tracking posture or, perhaps, other clues to someone's activities and state of mind.
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- Physics
Misbehavin’ Meson: Perplexing particle flouts the rules
The discovery of what appears to be a new subatomic particle with bizarre properties is challenging theorists' understanding of how matter behaves.
- Physics
New pass at neutrino mass
The first experiment to create neutrinos in an accelerator and then beam them a long distance has found a long-awaited, new form of evidence that those fundamental particles weigh something.
