Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Materials Science
Face to Face: Crystal-growth method bodes electric payoff
A new method for growing silicon carbide eliminates crystal defects that have long prevented the compound's wider use in electric devices.
- Materials Science
Warm Reflections: Window tint kicks in when it’s hot
A novel window coating automatically transforms into a heat mirror only when warmed above room temperature.
- Physics
Antimatter loses again
A study of subatomic B mesons reveals a new way in which the laws of physics differ for matter and antimatter, providing another clue to why there's almost no antimatter in the universe today.
- Materials Science
Bacterial glue: The stuff that binds?
A sticky slime secreted by bacteria could soon find its way into a host of wood products, including plywood and particleboard.
- Materials Science
Sea urchin shell lights the way for optical material
Using the porous skeleton of a sea urchin as a template, materials scientists have fabricated a photonic crystal.
- Materials Science
Savvy Sieve: Carbon nanotubes filter petroleum, polluted water
A filter made out of carbon nanotubes has potential for such applications as processing crude oil and decontaminating drinking water.
- Materials Science
To make bronze, tin flakes do a wild dance
Upsetting some prevailing ideas about how alloys form, rafts of tin atoms jitterbug madly around on a pure copper surface and leave spots of bronze in their wakes.
- Materials Science
Charging gold with a single electron
Dropping a single electron onto a gold atom with a scanning tunneling microscope converts gold from its neutral state to an ionic state.
- Physics
Starting from Square One
Physicists appear to have wedded the arcane theory of quarks to cutting-edge computer science, giving themselves tools for precisely predicting properties of subatomic matter and possibly observing new physical phenomena.
- Physics
Inside Plastic Transistors: Crystal-clear window opens on hidden flows
By creating a new type of plastic transistor, researchers have identified crucial details regarding electric flow through plastic semiconductors.
- Physics
Feel the Force: Magnetic probe finds lone electron
Scientists have observed a single electron's magnetism.
- Physics
Quantum snare entraps key fifth photon
By coaxing five quantum particles into a state of entanglement, physicists have taken an important step toward dependable quantum computers and more-versatile schemes for transferring quantum information.
