Physics

  1. Physics

    Protons may waltz off nuclear dance floor

    Detection of proton pairs simultaneously emitted from neon nuclei raises the possibility that a new and long-sought window into the nucleus has been found and unlocked.

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  2. Materials Science

    Cinching nanotubes into tough fibers

    Irradiating bundles of carbon nanotubes can lead to tougher fibers.

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  3. Physics

    Radioactive sprinkles keep machines true

    Needing tiny radioactive sources to calibrate medical scanners with ever-sharper vision, an Australian team dipped tiny balls the size of candy sprinkles into a radioactive liquid.

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  4. Physics

    Bubble Fusion: Once-maligned claim rebounds

    Researchers who reported 2 years ago that they created nuclear-fusion reactions inside bubbles imploding in a vat of liquid acetone have now bolstered their controversial claim with new evidence.

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  5. Materials Science

    Hard Stuff: Cooked diamonds don’t dent

    When exposed to high heat and pressure, single-crystal diamonds become extraordinarily hard.

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  6. Physics

    Nuclear pudding—to go

    Moving at nearly the speed of light, atomic nuclei hurtling through a huge particle collider may become mostly dense, flattened puddings of nuclear particles known as gluons.

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  7. Physics

    New supergas debuts

    A cloud of ultracold potassium atoms, manipulated by means of a magnetic field, has coalesced into a new super form of matter called a fermionic condensate.

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  8. Physics

    Candy Science: M&Ms pack more tightly than spheres

    Squashed or stretched versions of spheres snuggle together more tightly than randomly packed spheres do.

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  9. Physics

    Two New Elements Made: Atom smashups yield 113 and 115

    Two new elements—115 and 113—have joined the periodic table.

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  10. Materials Science

    Light whips platinum into shape

    Scientists are exploiting the molecular machinery behind photosynthesis to create unique nanostructures out of platinum.

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  11. Physics

    Goo’s melting could keep battery cool

    Using the sometimes dangerous heat of lithium batteries to melt wax or similar materials may keep the potent cells cool enough for safe use in electric vehicles while also boosting the batteries' performance.

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  12. Physics

    Electron cloud mirrors fossil life-form

    Remarkable molecules whose electron clouds would resemble now-extinct marine creatures called trilobites could appear in experiments on ultracold atom clouds known as Bose-Einstein condensates, theorists predict.

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