Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Materials Science
Flexible E-Paper: Plastic circuits drive paperlike displays
In a major step toward electronic paper, researchers have made electronic-ink displays on flexible plastic sheets.
- Physics
Skipping stones 101
Using their own stone-skipping machine, physicists have found what may be the best angle for a rock to hit the water in order to achieve the most skips.
- Physics
New signs of shadow particles
The influence of as-yet-undiscovered heavy particles outside of today's prevailing theory of particle physics may have accelerated the rate at which subatomic muons wobbled in a recent experiment.
- Materials Science
Nanotube implants could aid brain research
Electrically conducting carbon nanotubes could be the ideal material for probing the brain and treating neural disorders.
- Physics
Wet ‘n’ Wild
Scientists have tracked the weirdness of water to microscopic arrangements of molecules and perhaps to the existence of a second, low-temperature form of the familiar substance.
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- Materials Science
Marine Superglue: Mussels get stickiness from iron in seawater
The secret behind the binding power of mussel glue lies in iron extracted from seawater.
- Physics
A Solid Like No Other: Frigid, solid helium streams like a liquid
Frozen helium prepared in a laboratory has apparently transformed into a superfluid solid, or supersolid—a never-before-seen phase of matter that theorists predicted more than 30 years ago.
- Materials Science
Nanowires grow on viral templates
Researchers are using viruses to assemble semiconducting nanowires—the building blocks of future electronic circuits.
- Physics
Light pulse hovers in atom capsule
A new way to freeze light pulses in midflight preserves the pulses' optical energy and may eventually lead to using stationary light in optical circuits and quantum computers.
- Physics
Sounds of Music
Interested in the relationship between musical instruments and the physics of sound? This Rice University Web site offers illustrated explanations of physics terms such as pitch, frequency, and standing waves. It also demonstrates tuning systems, intervals, octaves, and more. There’s a quiz at the end of each module. Go to: http://cnx.rice.edu/content/m11060/latest/
- Materials Science
News That’s Fit to Print—and Preserve
Analyses of newsprint materials suggest that, despite their frail appearance, newspapers can last more than 200 years in storage—a fact that calls into question the merits of microfilming.
