Physics

  1. Space

    Half-life (more or less)

    Physicists are stirred by claims that the sun may change what’s unchangeable—the rate of radioactive decay.

    By
  2. Chemistry

    Silk

    Mimicking how spiders make their complex array of silks could usher in a tapestry of new materials, and other animals or plants could be designed to be the producers.

    By
  3. Physics

    Book Review: Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking by Charles Seife

    Review by Davide Castelvecchi.

    By
  4. Physics

    Facts and Speculations in Cosmology by Jayant V. Narlikar and Geoffrey Burbidge

    Cambridge Univ. Press, 2008, 287 p., $60.

    By
  5. Chemistry

    Long Live Plastics

    With plastics in museums decomposing, a new effort seeks to halt the demise of materials commonly thought to be unalterable.

    By
  6. Physics

    Magic tape

    Physicists discover an unexpected source of X-rays.

    By
  7. Life

    Heat sensors guide insects to a hot meal

    Bugs home in on seeds by detecting infrared radiation.

    By
  8. Physics

    Clean coal for cars has a dirty side

    Getting liquid fuels from coal would likely increase carbon emissions, and certainly not reduce them.

    By
  9. Tech

    Coal Country’s New Foresters

    New techniques may be shaving a century or two off the recovery of mined mountain tops.

    By
  10. Tech

    Trading Forests for Coal

    Forested mountain peaks have been giving way to grassy planes in Appalachian coal country.

    By
  11. Climate

    Eggs, Tea and Mr. IPCC

    Even jet-lagged, the world's lead climate negotiator took time out to brief a few reporters.

    By
  12. Materials Science

    Material Scientists: Cast Your Vote

    You can vote early, if not officially.

    By