Physics
- Physics
Swift Lift: Birds may get a rise out of swirling air
The wings of airborne birds may generate whirlpools of air to produce lift for flying, just as insects do.
- Materials Science
Transparent Transistor: See-through component for flexible displays
Transparent transistors deposited on flexible sheets of plastic could find their way into computer displays embedded in car windshields and other curved surfaces.
- Physics
Letters from the November 27, 2004, issue of Science News
Dark Secrets Astronomers and physicists seem to speak of black holes as though they took matter completely out of the universe (“Information, Please,” SN: 9/25/04, p. 202: Information, Please). An evaporating black hole would not fizz away into nothingness. It would lose energy and reappear in normal space as a very dense object (complete with […]
- Physics
Spinning Earth drags space
Slight deviations of two Earth-circling satellites from their expected orbits appear to confirm a curious prediction from Einstein's relativity theory.
- Physics
CERN at 50
This year, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) celebrates its 50th anniversary with a variety of special events. CERN’s Web pages commemorating the anniversary include a timeline showing historical milestones in the development of the laboratory, archival photos, and other materials. Go to: http://www.cern.ch/CERN50/
- Materials Science
New lithium battery design charges up
Researchers have developed a new, safer type of electrode for lithium batteries.
- Materials Science
A hard new material with a soft touch
Adding exotic substances called quasicrystals to polymers creates nonabrasive hard materials, which could soon serve as coatings in machine parts.
- Materials Science
Nanotubes: Knot just for miniature work
A new technique can spin individual nanotubes into durable ribbons and threads visible to the naked eye.
- Materials Science
Nanotubes get as small as they can
Two research teams have created stable carbon nanotubes with the smallest diameter that scientists believe is physically possible, at just 0.4 nanometer across.
- Physics
Silk and soap settle a century-old flap
The leading explanation for why flags flap in the breeze has run afoul of new experimental findings.
- Physics
Piddly Puddle Peril: Little water pools foil road friction
Physicists have proposed an explanation for how even slight wetness can cut road-to-rubber friction.
- Physics
Particle hunt off, collider comes down
Despite tantalizing, last-minute hints of a long-sought, mass-giving particle called the Higgs boson, dismantling of the Large Electron-Positron collider has begun.
