Physics
-
Physics
Lead blocks may catch nuclear killer
New measurements of neutron bursts from blocks of lead may help researchers solve a decades-old cosmic whodunit.
By Peter Weiss -
Physics
Maybe this watched pot already boiled
Researchers smashing nuclei in hopes of producing a primordial state of matter called the quark-gluon plasma may have already made the stuff without realizing it.
By Peter Weiss -
Physics
New probe reveals unfamiliar inner proton
Researchers taking one of the closest looks yet into the intact proton have found an unexpectedly complex interior electromagnetic environment.
By Peter Weiss -
Materials Science
Inorganic tubes get smaller than ever
Researchers have created the smallest stable, freestanding inorganic nanotubes yet.
-
Materials Science
Novel nanotubes are now made-to-order
Researchers have made nanotubes with specific sizes and traits by designing molecules that self-assemble.
-
Physics
Surface reaction recorded in real time
Ultrafast laser pulses may have for the first time revealed the incredibly rapid, step-by-step progress of a complete chemical reaction on a surface, at the actual speed at which it took place.
By Peter Weiss -
Physics
Cold sliver may sense electron quiver
By detecting vibrations of less than an atom's width of a tiny cantilever, physicists have made the most sensitive measurement of force ever by mechanical means.
By Peter Weiss -
Physics
Moon may radio cosmic rays’ biggest hits
Efforts to use the moon to detect the highest-energy cosmic rays get a boost from an experiment showing that gamma rays zipping through a giant sandbox cause the kind of microwave bursts moon-watchers are hoping to see.
By Peter Weiss -
Physics
Frigid ‘dynamite’ assembles into superatom
Although it's now the fifth element to be made into the strange state of ultracold matter known as Bose-Einstein condensate, helium may prove to be the most revealing so far because of unusually high energies within the newly condensed atoms.
By Peter Weiss -
Physics
Some swell materials give up their secret
The discovery of a previously overlooked crystal structure in the best so-called piezoelectric materials may explain their remarkable amount of swelling when zapped by an electric field.
By Peter Weiss -
Materials Science
Crystals step up to a new surface
Researchers have made crystals that reversibly change their surface shape when hit by light.
-
Materials Science
SQUID can catch concealed corrosion
A new technology that can detect corrosion deep within aluminum aircraft parts has revealed that high concentrations of salt don't corrode hidden joints any more than low levels of salt.