Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Chemistry
Slippery when dry
Surfaces that mimic the back of an African beetle can collect water from fog.
- Physics
Catching the cell in action
A light microscope with high resolution may enable scientists to view the 3-D structures within living cells.
- Chemistry
Phlegmatic molecules
Time-lapse snapshots of molecules show that they change shapes less often than theory predicted.
- Materials Science
Like the Nobel, Only Norwegian
Two weeks from now, an astrophysicist, neuroscientist, and nanoscience researcher will each be named to receive $1 million Kavli Prizes.
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- Physics
John Wheeler (1911-2008)
SN Editor in Chief Tom Siegfried remembers the late physicist John Wheeler, who coined the term "black hole" in 1967, with excerpts from conversations the two had engaged in over the past two decades.
- Math
Less is more
Researchers have shown that a grip that’s too tight can be counterproductive, especially on a microscopic object — but the findings could apply to fields ranging from ecology to sociology.
- Physics
Gödel, Escher, Chopin
Musical theorists see inuitive links between musical chords and geometries.
- Climate
Air Pollution Can Be So Cool — ing
Fossil-fuel pollution has been offsetting global warming to the tune of about 30 percent per year. Cleaning up that pollution, a must, threatens to accelerate warming unless humanity changes its fuel-use strategy.
- Tech
Down with the transistor
A new type of electronic component could shrink computer chips and make them more powerful.
- Materials Science
Squid beaks are hardly soft
Water softens squid beaks toward their base, so they don't cut into the squid's own soft tissue.
- Materials Science
Quantum Cocoon
Diamond can hold quantum information even at room temperature, which makes it a candidate material for future quantum computers.
