Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Materials Science
A Soft Touch: Imaging technique reveals hidden atoms
Researchers have devised a new imaging technique for visualizing every carbon atom in the basic unit of graphite.
- Materials Science
Charging cartilage
A hybrid material made of biodegradable polymers and carbon nanotubes yields an optimal scaffold for growing cartilage.
- Materials Science
Soft spheres yield photonic structures
A novel technique for patterning light-guiding channels through photonic crystals made of hydrogel nanoparticles may lead to faster, all-optical telecommunications technologies.
- Materials Science
Molecular Memory: Carbon-nanotube device stores data in molecules
Scientists have created a memory device in which data are encoded in switching molecules called catenanes that are attached to a carbon nanotube.
- Physics
One-Atom Laser: Trapped atom shoots steady light beam
A single, ultracold cesium atom sandwiched between two mirrors yields the most orderly beam of laser light ever.
- Physics
Particle decays hint at new matter
A surprising disagreement between particle-physics theory and a Japan-based research team's measurement of decay rates of matter and antimatter hints that unknown, heavy subatomic particles may exist.
- Physics
Electron breakup? Physics shake-up
A controversial theoretical proposal that challenges more than a century of theory and experiments suggests that loose electrons in liquid helium may break into pieces, dubbed electrinos.
- Physics
One-molecule chemistry gets big reaction
Carrying out a widely used chemical reaction on one molecule at a time, researchers demonstrate unprecedented control of molecular behavior and, possibly, the ability to make novel nanotechnology devices and compounds that can't be created with ordinary chemistry.
- Physics
Fusion Boost: Promising path to heavy nuclei
By using radioactive nuclei as projectiles in accelerator-based nuclear collisions, scientists may be able to produce more readily than expected many exotic heavy nuclei that are impossible to make today but are crucial for future advances in nuclear physics.
- Materials Science
Sopping Up Heavy Metal: Hybrid material removes mercury from water
A hybrid material consisting of a bacterial protein and a temperature-sensitive polymer proves efficient at removing mercury from contaminated water.
- Materials Science
Plastic Chips: New materials boost organic electronics
A new class of electrically conducting organic molecules provides researchers with improved materials with which to fabricate plastic electronic devices.
- Physics
Hydrogen hoops give superfluid clues
Tiny rings of hydrogen molecules show signs of possible superfluid behavior, suggesting that helium might not be the only superfluid after all.
