Physics

  1. Health & Medicine

    Chip of tooth tells radiation dose

    A two-milligram dot of tooth enamel serves as a radiation dosimeter.

    By
  2. Space

    Shaving extra dimensions

    More news from the American Physical Society meeting.

    By
  3. Physics

    Hogan’s noise

    A cosmologist suggests a novel way to uncover the nature of spacetime on the smallest scales.

    By
  4. Chemistry

    Naming an atomic heavyweight

    More than a decade after its debut in a German lab, element 112 is officially named copernicium.

    By
  5. Tech

    Leasing car batteries to the power company

    Most people, on average, drive their cars only an hour or two a day. The rest of the time, those pricey vehicles sit parked on the street or in some garage. But if those cars had a big bank of batteries – typical of today’s gasoline hybrids or soon-to-hit-the-road plug-in hybrids – they could be earning their owners money while sitting parked. Maybe $5 to $10 a day, just by serving as a back-up energy-storage system for the electric-utility grid.

    By
  6. Quantum Physics

    Higgs and his particle prove elusive

    Peter Higgs and colleagues receive particle theory prize; scientists still hunting the proposed boson

    By
  7. Physics

    Hot and heavy matter runs a 4 trillion degree fever

    Protons and neutrons melted in collisions of gold atoms have created the hottest matter ever made in a lab

    By
  8. Materials Science

    A charge for freezing water at different temperatures

    Experiments use positive and negative forces to control ice formation at temperatures well below the normal freezing point.

    By
  9. Physics

    Algae use quantum trick to harvest light

    A new study finds that proteins used in photosynthesis take advantage of electrons’ wavelike properties

    By
  10. Chemistry

    Self-stirring liquids

    Chemistry, not force, leads to fluid flow, mixes solution.

    By
  11. Physics

    Quantum computer simulates hydrogen molecule just right

    Team builds device that uses two photons to calculate electron energies.

    By
  12. Earth

    Tsunamis could telegraph their imminent arrival

    Telecommunication cables could give early warnings of giant waves.

    By