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Nonionic surfactants are molecules with both hydrophobic and hydrophilic components, which lets them interact both with hydrophilic liquids like water as well as hydrophobic liquids like oil. This surface-active property makes them invaluable in enhanced oil recovery, where they can be used to greatly increase oil yields. During the 72nd ACA meeting, Thomas Fitzgibbons, of Dow, will detail how nonionic surfactants behave under the high-pressure conditions found in oil wells; adding nonionic surfactants to the injection fluid can help in several ways.

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Rama Madhurapantula, of the Illinois Institute of Technology, will describe how synchrotron X-ray diffraction can aid in diagnosing invisible traumatic brain injuries in their presentation, "X-ray fiber diffraction to elucidate tissue transition and changes to molecular packing in relation damage," held Sunday, July 31 at the annual ACA meeting. While traditional imaging methods work on the micron scale, Madhurapantula's team showed synchrotron X-ray diffraction can capture much smaller changes to myelin on the nanometer to angstrom scale in situ.

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In Applied Physics Letters, researchers highlight the latest nanostructured components integrated on image sensor chips that are most likely to make the biggest impact in multimodal imaging and detailed a promising approach to detect multiple-band spectra by fabricating an on-chip spectrometer. The developments could enable autonomous vehicles to see around corners instead of just a straight line, biomedical imaging to detect abnormalities at different tissue depths, and telescopes to see through interstellar dust.

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In the American Journal of Physics, Aaron Slepkov from Trent University explores the physics of how polarization-filtered colors emerge, how they can be controlled, and why subtle changes in viewing angle, sample orientation, and the order of layers of films between polarizers can have dramatic effects on the observed colors. The research emphasizes visual examples of concepts related to birefringence, such as addition, subtraction, and order-of-operations.

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AIP is launching "Initial Conditions: A Physics History Podcast" on July 21. Weekly episodes will delve into the collections of the Niels Bohr Library & Archives to uncover the unexpected stories behind physics discoveries. Co-hosts Maura Shapiro and Justin Shapiro use their knowledge of science and history to tell the stories that have been overlooked in the history of physics. The first three episodes will examine how climate change was studied in the 20th century and how those debates about climate still resonate today.

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In Chaos, researchers explore the factors driving background checks, and whether coordination between U.S. states may exist and if one state exerts influence over others in terms of enacting gun laws or acquiring firearms. They researchers constructed a rigorous mathematical approach to interpret the patterning of firearm background check data and found these patterns of frequency oscillations are different at various time points. This suggests states may have interacted differently with each other during the terms of Bush, Obama, and Trump.

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The journal Biomicrofluidics has selected Ikram Khan as the winner of its 2021 Best Paper award. The designation highlights significant contributions by emerging authors in microfluidics and nanofluidics and is determined by an expert panel of judges. In the winning paper, "A low-cost 3D printed microfluidic bioreactor and imaging chamber for live-organoid imaging," the authors developed a system capable of supporting brain organoid growth while allowing long-term live imaging and drug delivery support. Organoids, or biological systems grown in vitro, act as important models for studying normal and diseased development.

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In AIP Advances, Qing-Bin Lu, a scientist from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, reveals a large, all-season ozone hole in the lower stratosphere over the tropics comparable in depth to that of the well-known springtime Antarctic hole, but roughly seven times greater in area. His observed data agree well with the cosmic-ray-driven electron reaction (CRE) model and strongly indicate the identical physical mechanism working for both Antarctic and tropical ozone holes.

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An optical fiber as thin as a strand of hair holds promise for use in minimally invasive deep-tissue studies of patients' brains that show the effects Alzheimer's disease and other brain disorders. The challenge is efficiently increasing image resolution at the subcellular level, because loss of information is inevitable from light scrambling. In APL Photonics, researchers in the Netherlands address this challenge with speckle-based compressive imaging that exploits the light scrambling of multimode fibers to their advantage.

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In APL Bioengineering, researchers from Tufts University examine some of the latest advances in wearable electronic devices and systems being developed using electrospinning – the fabrication of nanofibers with tunable properties from a polymer base – and showcase the many advantages electrospun materials have over conventional bulk materials. Their high surface-to-volume ratio endows them with enhanced porosity and breathability, which is important for long-term wearability, and with the appropriate blend of polymers, they can achieve superior biocompatibility.

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Chinese researchers may have found a new approach to treat cancer by using a plasma treatment to induce apoptosis, without any obvious side effect to normal cells. A plasma-activated medium (PAM) can be treated as a drug, with a dose-effect relationship. In Physics of Plasmas, the scientists' definition of a plasma dose, the equivalent total oxidation potential (ETOP), can be used for PAM to reveal the plasma dose-response relationship for different cell types.

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In The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, scientists in Denmark review recent experiments and find noise regulations may need to be changed to protect porpoises, seals, and other sea-dwelling mammals. Current guidance for seals and porpoises is based on few measurements in a limited frequency range; the guidance is still valid for these frequencies, but investigators found substantial deviations in recent studies of the impact of low frequency noise on seals and high frequency noise on porpoises.

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In Biomicrofluidics, scientists reveal their development of a new type of prosthetic using microfluidics-enabled soft robotics that promises to greatly reduce skin ulcerations and pain in patients who have had an amputation between the ankle and knee. They started with a recent device that uses pneumatic actuators and miniaturized the actuators by designing a microfluidic chip with 10 integrated pneumatic valves to control each actuator. The control box is small and light enough to be worn as part of the prosthesis.

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The American Institute of Physics is happy to announce the appointment of James Taylor as its new chief federation officer. Starting Aug. 1, Taylor will spearhead AIP's efforts to advance the success of its 10 Member Societies, who have a combined membership of more than 116,000 physical scientists, engineers, students, and educators. Taylor will be leading initiatives that drive the federation's success, collective action, shared impact, and reach.

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The Journal of Chemical Physics, in its commitment to recognizing the excellent work of early-career investigators, is proud to announce the 2021 winners of the JCP Best Paper by an Emerging Investigator Awards. The awardees, Andrew Musser and Yoav Green, were selected for their research on molecular polaritons and electroneutrality breakdown in nanopores, respectively. The award includes a $2,000 honorarium and an invitation to write a perspective article for JCP.

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In Physics of Fluids, researchers carefully studied bubbles that form when water droplets come into contact with heated cooking oil and found that the type and number of bubbles formed depends on the amount of water absorbed by the chopsticks as well as the chopstick material. The water droplet explodes when it hit the hot oil, in three types of bubble events: an explosion cavity, an elongated cavity, and an oscillating cavity.

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Recent efforts have sought to make low-boom supersonic aircraft, but noise issues due to sonic booms may become more pronounced in cities, where buildings form canyons that distort the booms. In The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, researchers conducted simulations comparing how sonic booms reflect differently over a single building, two neighboring buildings, and multiple buildings spaced at regular intervals. The researchers found the wider the streets compared to the height of buildings, the less booms are affected. Narrower streets introduced more complex boom propagation.

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The knowledge a medical physicist brings to treatment plans for patients usually focuses on science and technology. But more and more, these scientists are taking the lead on a people-first approach to better health care for those who need it. During the President's Symposium at the annual AAPM meeting, three keynote speakers will discuss treatment of the Alzheimer's epidemic, the dynamics of patient engagement, and two research initiatives prioritized by the Biden administration.

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TEAM-UP Together announces the launch of a multimillion-dollar scholarship program focused on rolling back underrepresentation of African American students in physics and astronomy over the next five years. The program will provide financial assistance to those students to help them achieve their bachelor's degrees and the awards of up to $10,000 per student per school year aim to reduce the financial barriers preventing many Black students from completing their undergraduate degree programs in physics and astronomy.

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There is much more that comes out of the pop of an opening champagne bottle than meets the senses. In Physics of Fluids, computational fluid dynamics simulations revealed the formation, evolution, and dissipation of shock wave patterns as the carbon dioxide mixture shoots through the bottleneck in the first millisecond after cork popping. The findings could provide insight into the complex and transient behavior of supersonic flow in applications ranging from rocket launchers, ballistic missiles, and wind turbines to electronics manufacturing and underwater vehicles.

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In Physics of Fluids, researchers create a model to connect what biologists have learned about COVID-19 superspreading with how such events have occurred in the real world. They use occupancy data to test several features ranging from viral loads to the occupancy and ventilation of social contact settings. They found that 80% of infections occurring at superspreading events arose from only 4% of those who were carrying the virus into the event. The top feature driving the wide variability in superspreading events was the number of viral particles found in index cases.

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In Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, researchers in China and the United States outline a computer simulation model addressing the challenge of solar power's inherent intermittency by adding biomass as another renewable energy source to advance a reliable, affordable heating solution while reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The proposed solar-biomass hybrid system is based on distributed multi-generation technology that integrates photovoltaic-thermal and biomass power sources.

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In Journal of Applied Physics, researchers from the United States and Germany present a comparative analysis of urban magnetic fields between two U.S. cities: Berkeley, California, and the Brooklyn borough of New York City. They explore what kinds of information can be extracted using data from magnetic field sensors to understand the working of cities and provide insights that may be crucial for preventative studies.

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When an offshore wind farm pops up, there is a period of noisy but well-studied and in most cases regulated construction. Once the turbines are operational, they provide a valuable source of renewable energy while emitting a constant lower level of sound.

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After more than a year of recording on the surface, the team reduced the data to a Martian playlist that features about five hours of sounds.

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For someone using an assistive listening device in a crowded place, it might make little difference whether the device is on or off. Nearby conversation directed at the user might be drowned out by distant conversation between other people, ambient noise from the environment, or music or speech piped through a loudspeaker system. Corey and his colleagues worked to eliminate at least one source of noise, the one emanating from loudspeakers or other broadcast systems.

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Altogether, the hundreds of thousands of animals living in the reef sound like static on the radio, or the snap, crackle, and pop of a bowl of Rice Krispies as you pour milk on the cereal, when the coral reef is healthy. The sound changes for reefs that are not healthy, becoming quieter and less diverse.

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Infrasound waves can probe some of the most complex weather patterns hidden to normal observations, but finding a powerful enough source of infrasound waves can be a challenge unless there is a munitions factory nearby.

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Atherosclerosis, a buildup of plaque, can lead to heart disease, artery disease, and chronic kidney disease and is traditionally treated by inserting and inflating a balloon to expand the artery. During the 182nd ASA Meeting, Rohit Singh, of the University of Kansas, will present a method that combines a low-power laser with ultrasound to remove arterial plaque safely and efficiently.

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As in-person scientific meetings and gathering have been replaced by virtual meetings during the pandemic, students and young professionals are seeing career fairs and networking events transition into remote experiences that simply lack the same impact as getting together.

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In her presentation, "Aging effects on listening effort in cochlear-implant users," Kristina DeRoy Milvae will discuss the results of two experiments that examined impacts on listening effort. The session will take place May 24 at 12:50 p.m. Eastern U.S. at the 182nd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel.

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Everyone has an accent. But the intelligibility of speech doesn't just depend on that accent; it also depends on the listener. Visual cues and the diversity of the listener's social network can impact their ability to understand and transcribe sentences after listening to the spoken word.

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Naomi Matsuura, of the University of Toronto, and her team are adapting microbubbles to become more potent tools for cancer therapy. By shrinking the bubbles and directly loading them with anti-cancer drugs, the bubbles can lower the dose of free drug that is injected and diffuses into nontumor tissue in the body. This results in more targeted treatment and fewer side effects for the patient. Matsuura will discuss her team's results in her presentation, "Ultrasound-stimulated, drug-loaded bubbles for cancer therapy," as part of the 182nd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel. The session will take place May 24 at 11:30 a.m. Eastern U.S.

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Most biofuel cells provide low power output and short-term operational stability due to their poor electron transfer between enzymes and electrodes and between neighboring enzymes. These electron transfer issues are closely related to the performance of almost all electrochemical sensors, including BFCs and other bioelectronics.

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When reading news and analyses of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, researchers in Spain perceived many conflicting messages being transmitted. The most notable one is the theory of “two Ukraines” or the existence of ideologically pro-West and pro-Russian regions. This doesn’t match the unity of Ukrainians against the Russian invasion, so they wondered if they could provide any solid proof to support or reject such a theory via data analysis tools?

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As part of the 182nd ASA Meeting, Luisa Still, of Sensor Data and Information Fusion, will discuss the important factors in determining shooter localization accuracy. In an urban setting, buildings or other obstacles can reflect, refract, and absorb sound waves, which can severely impact said accuracy. Preemptively predicting this is crucial for mission planning in urban environments. Still and her team used geometric considerations to model acoustic sensor measurements. This modeling, combined with information on sensor characteristics, the sensor-to-shooter geometry, and the urban environment, allowed them to calculate a prediction of localization accuracy.

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As the size and number of acoustic datasets increase, accurately and quickly matching the bioacoustics signals to their corresponding sources becomes more challenging and important. This is especially difficult in noisy, natural acoustic environments. At the 182nd ASA Meeting, Elizabeth Ferguson, from Ocean Science Analytics, will describe how DeepSqueak, a deep learning tool, can classify underwater acoustic signals. It uses deep neural network image recognition and classification methods to determine the important features within spectrograms, then match those features to specific sources.

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Raceways can produce noise from many kinds of vehicles, such as race cars, street race cars, racing motorcycles, go-karts, monster trucks, and cheering spectators. During the 182nd ASA Meeting, Bonnie Schnitta, from SoundSense LLC, will discuss her efforts to reduce the noise in a Michigan neighborhood from a nearby raceway. She and her team examined several different types of barriers, including berms, acoustic barriers, or dense foliage, to block that noise from reaching surrounding houses and businesses.

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A group of high school students used a tiny, inexpensive computer to try to measure Earth's magnetic field from the International Space Station, showing a way to affordably explore and understand our planet.

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In Physics Today, science writer Toni Feder describes the impact of war on Ukrainian and Russian scientists in the June issue cover article, “In Ukraine, science will need rebuilding postwar; in Russia, its isolation could endure.”

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In Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, scientists determined that by increasing the accuracy of weather forecasts over the last decade, consumers netted at least $384 million in energy savings. The researchers based their predictions on NOAA's High Resolution Rapid Refresh model, which provides daily weather forecasts for every part of the U.S. These include wind speed and direction data, which utilities can use to gauge how much energy their turbines will produce. Every few years, NOAA releases an updated model and spends a year testing it out, and by looking at the difference in errors from each model, the researchers were able to put a dollar amount on each upgrade.

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In AIP Advances, researchers in Japan developed a desktop air curtain system that blocks all incoming aerosol particles. An air curtain, or air door, is a fan-powered ventilation system that creates an air seal over an entryway, but one challenge in developing smaller air curtains is fully blocking emitted aerosol particles over time because it is difficult to maintain the air wall over a long distance. The DACS contains a discharge and suction port to help address this problem. A generator at the top of the DACS produces the airflow, which is guided to the suction port at the bottom of the device.

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In Physics of Fluids, researchers assessed the potential impact of a rocket launch on atmospheric pollution by investigating the heat and mass transfer and rapid mixing of the combustion byproducts. The team modeled the exhaust gases and developing plume at several altitudes along a typical trajectory of a standard present-day rocket. They did this as a prototypical example of a two-stage rocket to transport people and payloads into Earth's orbit and beyond and found the impact on the atmosphere locally and momentarily in the mesosphere can be significant.

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Ruobing Qian and Wenhui Liu jointly received the annual Future Luminary Award by APL Photonics, a publication of AIP Publishing, for developing a parallelized diffuse correlation spectroscopy system to capture high-quality in vivo blood flow signals. In the winning paper, "Fast and sensitive diffuse correlation spectroscopy with highly parallelized single photon detection," Qian, Liu, and their colleagues improve upon biophotonics technology using a single-photon avalanche diode array with thousands of independent detection channels.

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Press conferences at the 182nd ASA Meeting will be held Tuesday, May 24, at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel in Plaza Court 2. Media availabilities will focus on wide range of newsworthy sessions at the upcoming meeting from how racialized identities impact speech perception to the first sounds recorded from the Perseverance rover on Mars. To register for in-person attendance or for more information regarding the livestream, please email [email protected].

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In Physics of Fluids, scientists describe their work on an at-home study of rheology, which is used to study the way non-Newtonian liquids or semisolid substances flow. The projects assigned to students had two parts: gathering qualitative visual evidence of rheological properties and taking quantitative measurements. The students checked for four behaviors – shear thinning viscosity, viscoelasticity, shear normal stress difference, and extensional viscosity – and even without access to laboratory rheometers, they developed creative and unique ways to carry out their measurements.

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In Physics of Fluids, researchers present clinicians with information about the risk factors for atherosclerotic plaque formation from a mechanical point of view. The scientists are exploring whether it is possible to screen and intervene early for people at risk for atherosclerotic disease from the perspective of hemodynamics, using color Doppler ultrasound, coronary computed tomography angiography, and other screenings. The researchers used a multipoint, noncontact laser flow measurement method called microparticle image velocimetry.

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AIP Publishing is proud to announce APL Machine Learning, a new open access scientific journal, and the appointment of its founding editor-in-chief, Adnan Mehonic. APL Machine Learning will feature research addressing how machine learning and artificial intelligence can aid physicists, material scientists, engineers, chemists, and biologists in advancing scientific discovery — and how insights from these disciplines can pave the way for development of better AI systems. It will begin accepting submissions in mid-2022 with a target to publish in January 2023.

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In Biomicrofluidics, researchers developed a soft robotic sleeve controlled with a microfluidic chip that reduces cost, weight, and power consumption for treatment of lymphedema. The prototype is more portable than previous devices, and the underlying mechanisms can extend to other treatments, such as prosthetics. The microfluidic chip has 16 channels, each with a different resistance. The differing resistances create a time delay between the flow through each channel, causing balloons in the sleeve to sequentially inflate and push fluid upwards, out of the arm.

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In Physics of Fluids, researchers use principal component analysis along with fluid dynamics simulation models to show the crucial importance of proper fit for all types of masks and how face shape influences the most ideal fit. They modeled a moderate cough jet from a mouth of an adult male wearing a cloth mask over the nose and mouth with elastic bands wrapped around the ears and calculated the maximum volume flow rates through the front of mask and peripheral gaps at different material porosity levels.