Physics

  1. Physics

    Particle Interactions

    The world’s leading particle physics laboratories have collaborated to provide a one-stop online resource for communicating research in the world of particle physics. Updated daily, the site provides news stories, science policy papers, conference information, and much more. An image bank contains photos and illustrations showing accelerators, detectors, particle collisions, historical events, aerial views, and […]

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  2. Physics

    Doppler Toppler: Experiment upends normal frequency shift

    The expected drop in frequency of a signal from a receding source—the Doppler effect—becomes a frequency increase when a high-current electric pulse creates extraordinary electromagnetic conditions in a web of electrical components.

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  3. Materials Science

    This Won’t Hurt . . . Tiny needles deliver drugs painlessly

    Microscopic needles may provide a painless alternative to syringes and patches.

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  4. Materials Science

    No Assembly Required: DNA brings carbon nanotube circuits in line

    Using DNA as a scaffold, researchers have devised a simple way of creating carbon nanotube transistors—a feat that paves the way for more complex circuits made from these nanomaterials.

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  5. Physics

    Quantum Pileup: Ultracold molecules meld into oneness

    Scientists have for the first time transformed molecules into an exotic state of matter called a Bose-Einstein condensate.

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  6. Physics

    Humpty-Dumpty Effect: Acoustically, people resemble large eggs

    The first measurements of how people intrinsically scatter sound waves indicate that, acoustically, a human body resembles a hard ellipsoid of the same height and girth as the person.

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  7. Materials Science

    Water Repellency Goes Nano: Carpet of carbon nanotubes cleans itself

    Forests of carbon nanotubes coated with Teflon yield a superhydrophobic material—the ultimate self-cleaning surface.

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  8. Physics

    New type of material that heat can’t bloat

    A newfound material exhibits the desirable property of not expanding when heated over a wide temperature range, but from an apparent cause never seen before—electrons changing positions inside the new compound's crystal structure.

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  9. Physics

    Shedding Light on the Infrared

    For students and teachers, this NASA-sponsored Web site offers illuminating insights into infrared light. It explains the fundamentals of infrared astronomy, using animations, images, classroom lessons and activities, games, and more. Take a look at infrared views of familiar objects, from Yellowstone’s “Old Faithful” geyser to a pot-bellied pig. Go to: http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/

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  10. Physics

    A Spin through Space-Time

    After 40 years of preparation, satellite Gravity Probe B is scheduled to launch next month and test the prediction that massive bodies, such as Earth, twist space itself as they rotate.

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  11. Physics

    Super Spinner: Seven-atom speck acts like superfluid

    Scientists have for the first time directly observed the onset in liquid helium of superfluidity—a quantum-mechanical state in which liquids flow without friction—as helium atoms accumulated one by one to form a droplet of liquid around a gas molecule.

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  12. Physics

    New Quarktet: Subatomic oddity hints at pentaparticle family

    Evidence for the second particle ever found to include five of the fundamental building blocks known as quarks and antiquarks suggests that a whole family of such so-called pentaquarks exists.

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