Tech
We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Physics
Lasing Beyond Light
Laser physicists have set their sights on new types of waves — manufacturing beams of sound, creating plasma swells and looking for ripples in spacetime.
- Physics
Inventing the Light Fantastic
The history of the laser: An idea that began with Albert Einstein inspired a race to create a special beam of light that has since infiltrated numerous aspects of everyday life.
- Physics
Laser pioneer reflects on making Einstein’s idea real
Science News reporter Ron Cowen's Q&A with Nobel laureate and laser-technology pioneer Charles Townes.
- Chemistry
Study reports hints of phthalate threat to boys’ IQs
You may have a hard time spelling phthalates, but there’s no avoiding them. They’re in the air you breathe, water you drink and foods you eat. And this ubiquity may carry a price, particularly for young boys, emerging data suggest. Including a drop in their IQ.
- Tech
Smokin’ entrees: Charcoal grilling tops the list
At the American Chemical Society meeting, earlier this week, I stayed at a hotel that fronted onto the kitchen door of a Burger King. This explained the source of the beefy scent that perfumed the air from mid-morning on – the restaurant’s exhaust of smoke and meat-derived aerosols. A study presented at the meeting confirmed what my nose observed: that commercial grilling can release relatively huge amounts of pollutants.
- Chemistry
Building a cheaper catalyst
Using perovskite instead of platinum in catalytic converters could shave many hundreds of dollars off the cost of a diesel car.
- Chemistry
Cool roof coating: Mechanism kept under wraps
The American Chemical Society held a news briefing March 21 to feature a new energy-saving technology. It’s an ostensibly “smart” coating for roofing materials that knows when to reflect heat, like in summer time, and when to instead let the sun’s rays help heat a structure.
- Earth
Frogs: Weed killer creates real Mr. Moms
Several months back, a Berkeley undergraduate began witnessing distinctly odd behavior in frogs she was caring for in the lab. At about 18-months old, some frisky guys began regularly mounting tank mates, as if to copulate. Except that their chosen partner was invariably male. He had to be. Because genetically, every animal in the tank was male.
- Tech
Leasing car batteries to the power company
Most people, on average, drive their cars only an hour or two a day. The rest of the time, those pricey vehicles sit parked on the street or in some garage. But if those cars had a big bank of batteries – typical of today’s gasoline hybrids or soon-to-hit-the-road plug-in hybrids – they could be earning their owners money while sitting parked. Maybe $5 to $10 a day, just by serving as a back-up energy-storage system for the electric-utility grid.
- Computing
Leaf veins loopy for a reason
A computer simulation finds that leaves' circular networks are efficient at getting around damaged spots and varying distribution load.
- Earth
Tsunamis could telegraph their imminent arrival
Telecommunication cables could give early warnings of giant waves.
- Tech
2009 Science News of the Year: Technology
A polymer doped with a color-changing molecule turns red seconds before snapping. Credit: D. Stevenson, A. Jerez, A. Hamilton, D. Davis About to breakEngineers one day may not need to guess when a bridge is near its breaking point. New materials that flush red in response to damage may provide a visual warning sign of […]
