Physics

  1. Life

    Heat sensors guide insects to a hot meal

    Bugs home in on seeds by detecting infrared radiation.

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  2. Physics

    Clean coal for cars has a dirty side

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

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  3. Tech

    Coal Country’s New Foresters

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

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  4. Tech

    Trading Forests for Coal

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

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  5. Climate

    Eggs, Tea and Mr. IPCC

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

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  6. Materials Science

    Material Scientists: Cast Your Vote

    You can vote early, if not officially.

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  7. Physics

    An attractive source for spintronics

    Discovery may lead to battery that generates magnetic currents

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  8. Physics

    Nobel Prize in physics shared for work that unifies forces of nature

    Understanding of broken symmetry has been crucial to the standard model of particle physics.

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  9. Physics

    Charging up fuel injection

    A new device uses an electric field to increase cars’ gas mileage.

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  10. Chemistry

    Oops! A Fluorescent Light Breaks

    Toxic mercury will be released whenever a fluorescent lamp breaks.

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  11. Physics

    Shaping up the sun

    The most accurate measurements yet of the sun’s shape show that magnetic activity plays a role in making the sun appear more oval than it really is.

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  12. Chemistry

    Fluorescent bulbs offer mercury advantage

    Featured blog: Switching to light bulbs that contain mercury might, surprisingly, reduce overall mercury releases to the environment. Plus, what to do when you break your fluorescent bulb.

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