Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Materials Science
This Won’t Hurt . . . Tiny needles deliver drugs painlessly
Microscopic needles may provide a painless alternative to syringes and patches.
- Materials Science
No Assembly Required: DNA brings carbon nanotube circuits in line
Using DNA as a scaffold, researchers have devised a simple way of creating carbon nanotube transistors—a feat that paves the way for more complex circuits made from these nanomaterials.
- Physics
Quantum Pileup: Ultracold molecules meld into oneness
Scientists have for the first time transformed molecules into an exotic state of matter called a Bose-Einstein condensate.
- Physics
Humpty-Dumpty Effect: Acoustically, people resemble large eggs
The first measurements of how people intrinsically scatter sound waves indicate that, acoustically, a human body resembles a hard ellipsoid of the same height and girth as the person.
- Materials Science
Water Repellency Goes Nano: Carpet of carbon nanotubes cleans itself
Forests of carbon nanotubes coated with Teflon yield a superhydrophobic material—the ultimate self-cleaning surface.
- Physics
New type of material that heat can’t bloat
A newfound material exhibits the desirable property of not expanding when heated over a wide temperature range, but from an apparent cause never seen before—electrons changing positions inside the new compound's crystal structure.
- Physics
Shedding Light on the Infrared
For students and teachers, this NASA-sponsored Web site offers illuminating insights into infrared light. It explains the fundamentals of infrared astronomy, using animations, images, classroom lessons and activities, games, and more. Take a look at infrared views of familiar objects, from Yellowstone’s “Old Faithful” geyser to a pot-bellied pig. Go to: http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/
- Physics
A Spin through Space-Time
After 40 years of preparation, satellite Gravity Probe B is scheduled to launch next month and test the prediction that massive bodies, such as Earth, twist space itself as they rotate.
- Physics
Super Spinner: Seven-atom speck acts like superfluid
Scientists have for the first time directly observed the onset in liquid helium of superfluidity—a quantum-mechanical state in which liquids flow without friction—as helium atoms accumulated one by one to form a droplet of liquid around a gas molecule.
- Physics
New Quarktet: Subatomic oddity hints at pentaparticle family
Evidence for the second particle ever found to include five of the fundamental building blocks known as quarks and antiquarks suggests that a whole family of such so-called pentaquarks exists.
- Physics
Cassini confirms Einstein’s theory
En route to a 2004 rendezvous with Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft has verified a key prediction of Einstein’s theory of general relativity to an accuracy 50 times better than that of previous measurements.
- Physics
Hot Crystal
In seeming violation of one of the laws of physics, a new type of metal microstructure promises to lead to far more efficient incandescent light bulbs and also to boost the development of light-based microcircuits and heat-to-electricity generators.
