Physics

  1. Physics

    This is your brain on a chip

    Biophysicists have put neurons on a chip and induced them to form multiple patterns of synchronized firing, the mechanism at the basis of memory.

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  2. Physics

    Quantum Capture: Photosynthesis tries many paths at once

    The wavelike behavior of energy in chlorophyll might explain how plants are so efficient at using solar energy.

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  3. Materials Science

    Color-tunable sunglasses

    Engineers have developed sunglasses that can change from dark, filtering hues to clear—and back—at the flip of a switch.

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  4. Materials Science

    Taken for a Spin

    Considering silk from the spider's perspective may offer the best chance of replicating these creatures' tough threads.

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  5. Physics

    Formula for Panic: Crowd-motion findings may prevent stampedes

    The physics of pedestrian flows could help prevent stampedes such as the one that killed hundreds during a pilgrimage to Mecca in 2006.

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  6. Physics

    Meet me at 79°50′ N, 56° W

    Violations of Newtonian physics could explain away dark matter.

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  7. Physics

    Closer to Vanishing: Bending light as a step toward invisibility cloaks

    Invisibility cloaks may be a long shot, but new optical tricks could help in the design of future computers.

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  8. Physics

    Warming Up to Criticality: Quantum change, one bubble at a time

    Physicists can now observe matter as it gradually turns into a Bose-Einstein condensate—the exotic state of matter that displays quantum behavior at macroscopic scales.

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  9. Materials Science

    The New Black: A nanoscale coating reflects almost no light

    A "carpet" of microscopic filaments sprayed onto a surface can prevent it from reflecting light, a potentially useful trait for technologies from solar cells to fiber-optic communications.

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  10. Physics

    Breaking a molecule’s mirror image

    The theory of entanglement explains a newly observed behavior in a symmetrical hydrogen molecule: When the molecule fractures, the directions in which its constituent particles move are not always random.

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  11. Physics

    Waves from the Big Bang: Upcoming detectors may view newborn universe

    Ripples in space-time may soon give scientists a glimpse of the universe as it looked a tiny fraction of a second after its birth.

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  12. Physics

    The mystery of the missing mass

    Researchers found that, for one kind of particle at least, being located inside a nucleus slightly reduces its mass.

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