Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
Heat sensors guide insects to a hot meal
Bugs home in on seeds by detecting infrared radiation.
- Physics
Clean coal for cars has a dirty side
Getting liquid fuels from coal would likely increase carbon emissions, and certainly not reduce them.
- Tech
Coal Country’s New Foresters
New techniques may be shaving a century or two off the recovery of mined mountain tops.
- Tech
Trading Forests for Coal
Forested mountain peaks have been giving way to grassy planes in Appalachian coal country.
- 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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- Physics
An attractive source for spintronics
Discovery may lead to battery that generates magnetic currents
- 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.
- Physics
Charging up fuel injection
A new device uses an electric field to increase cars’ gas mileage.
- Chemistry
Oops! A Fluorescent Light Breaks
Toxic mercury will be released whenever a fluorescent lamp breaks.
- 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.
- 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.
