Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Physics
Tiny particles baffle physicists, again
An experiment failed to confirm the existence of a new elementary particle called the sterile neutrino, but its results could still point to some new physics.
- Physics
Toward imaging single biomolecules
Experiments have given additional evidence that a future generation of X-ray sources called free-electron lasers may be able to image single biomolecules.
- Physics
This is your brain on a chip
Biophysicists have put neurons on a chip and induced them to form multiple patterns of synchronized firing, the mechanism at the basis of memory.
- Physics
Quantum Capture: Photosynthesis tries many paths at once
The wavelike behavior of energy in chlorophyll might explain how plants are so efficient at using solar energy.
- Materials Science
Color-tunable sunglasses
Engineers have developed sunglasses that can change from dark, filtering hues to clear—and back—at the flip of a switch.
- Materials Science
Taken for a Spin
Considering silk from the spider's perspective may offer the best chance of replicating these creatures' tough threads.
- Physics
Formula for Panic: Crowd-motion findings may prevent stampedes
The physics of pedestrian flows could help prevent stampedes such as the one that killed hundreds during a pilgrimage to Mecca in 2006.
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- Physics
Closer to Vanishing: Bending light as a step toward invisibility cloaks
Invisibility cloaks may be a long shot, but new optical tricks could help in the design of future computers.
- Physics
Warming Up to Criticality: Quantum change, one bubble at a time
Physicists can now observe matter as it gradually turns into a Bose-Einstein condensate—the exotic state of matter that displays quantum behavior at macroscopic scales.
- Materials Science
The New Black: A nanoscale coating reflects almost no light
A "carpet" of microscopic filaments sprayed onto a surface can prevent it from reflecting light, a potentially useful trait for technologies from solar cells to fiber-optic communications.
- Physics
Breaking a molecule’s mirror image
The theory of entanglement explains a newly observed behavior in a symmetrical hydrogen molecule: When the molecule fractures, the directions in which its constituent particles move are not always random.
