Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Science & Society
Banana peel slipperiness wins IgNobel prize in physics
Cartoons taught us that banana peels make for a slick trip to the floor, but scientists decided to find out just how slippery they could be.
- Math
Sharks’ hunting paths may not be driven by math
Penguins, tuna, sharks and other marine hunters have been shown to use math to find food. But simulations suggest the behavior is a result of rough water, not complex calculation.
- Materials Science
Making metamaterials ‘digital’ could simplify invisibility cloaks
The digital world of 1s and 0s has inspired a simpler way to make complex metamaterials.
- Quantum Physics
Three photons entangled, not just two
Physicists have found a way to entangle a trio of photons, but it works only once in every quadrillion attempts.
- Tech
Hydrogen made using sunlight, cheap materials
Photosynthesis-inspired fuel cell uses water to make hydrogen gas and could feature in next-generation cars.
- Quantum Physics
New analysis rescues quantum wave-particle duality
An experiment that supposedly contradicted the wave-particle duality principle of quantum physics has been reanalyzed, revealing a flaw.
- Particle Physics
Evidence for new Higgs-related particle fades away
A close look at data from the Large Hadron Collider finds no evidence that the Higgs boson decays into a new, unknown particle.
- Quantum Physics
Artificial atom probes sound’s quantum side
Scientists have designed an artificial atom to emit sound that is divided into quantum particles.
- Materials Science
Buckyballs, diamonds inspire new synthetic molecule
Hitching a hollow ball of carbon to a diamond-shaped lattice yields a useful piece of electrical circuitry.
- Quantum Physics
Holography entangles quantum physics with gravity
Spacetime geometry, and therefore gravity, emerges from quantum entanglement, analyses using tensor networks show.
- Physics
Unusual turbulence seen along North Carolina coast
Storm winds in Currituck Sound, North Carolina, may have created just the right conditions for scientists to see a rare type of turbulence in ocean waves for the first time.
- Quantum Physics
Molecules stop tumbling with hit of laser light
Stopping molecules' rotation with a custom laser could help scientists harness them for quantum computing.
