Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Physics
Speedy impacts send microwave distress calls
Laboratory smash-ups mimicking those between fast-moving space debris and satellites appear to emit microwave bursts, suggesting that microwave detectors might someday prove useful for monitoring the health of spacecraft.
- Materials Science
Worm’s teeth conceal odd mineral material
A worm's teeth contain a copper mineral that could serve as a model for new materials.
- Physics
Motor design flouts physical law
A proposed silicon device the size of a red blood cell would transform random thermal motion into useful mechanical power in violation of the second law of thermodynamics, its designers claim.
- Materials Science
Knitting with nanotubes
Researchers can draw fine yarns of carbon nanotubes from a reservoir of the microscopic cylinders.
- Physics
Putting the brakes on antihydrogen
By mixing ultracold antiprotons and antielectrons, physicists have created the first atoms of antihydrogen that move at a leisurely enough pace for direct measurements of their properties.
- Materials Science
Metal Manipulation: Technique yields hard but stretchy materials
Researchers have combined a standard metalworking technology—rolling—with a programmed sequence of cooling and heating steps to process copper into a form that contains both nanoscale and microscale crystal grains.
- Physics
Neptunium Nukes? Little-studied metal goes critical
Researchers have measured with far greater accuracy than ever before how much neptunium it would take to make a bomb.
- Materials Science
Molecular Separations: New artificial sieve traps molecules
Researchers have created a metal-laced organic solid that acts as a sieve with nanosize pores for capturing molecules.
- Materials Science
Carbon nanotubes do some bonding
Researchers have welded together carbon nanotubes to make junctions that could be useful in the construction of tiny electronic devices.
- Physics
Interacting with Physics
Drag an electric charge to see how it affects a nearby water molecule. Fool around with a laser to cool an atom. The University of Colorado’s Physics 2000 Web site relies heavily on interactive animations to demonstrate important concepts and discoveries in modern physics. Topics range from X rays and CAT scans to the quantum […]
- Materials Science
Bigger, Cheaper, Safer Batteries: New material charges up lithium-ion battery work
A new material could make rechargeable lithium-ion batteries smaller, cheaper, and safer.
- Materials Science
Materials with Memory
Metal alloys and polymers that can remember a preprogrammed shape may literally reshape technologies ranging from warfare to medicine and car repair.
