Researchers are asking whether there is a "right" size for the U.S. power grid; they believe that smaller grids would reduce the likelihood of severe outages, such as the 2003 Northeast blackout, likening the grid behavior to sandpiles: “Sandpiles are stable until you get to a certain height. Then you add one more grain and the whole thing starts to avalanche.”
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have developed a new way to study wake effects that includes the airflow both within and around a wind farm and challenges the conventional belief that turbines arrayed in checker board patterns produce the highest power output. Their study provides insight into factors that determine the most favorable positioning, described in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy.
A research team in Spain has the enviable job of testing out new electromechanical gear for potential use in future missions to the "Red Planet." They do it within their Mars environmental simulation chamber, which is specially designed to mimic conditions on the fourth planet from the sun -- right down to its infamous Martian dust.
A powerful, new three-dimensional model provides fresh insight into the turbulent death throes of supernovas, whose final explosions outshine entire galaxies and populate the universe with elements that make life on Earth possible. Described in AIP Advances, it shows how the turbulent mixing of elements inside stars causes them to expand, contract, and spit out matter before they finally detonate.
How exactly does Twitter, with its 241 million users tweeting out 500 million messages daily, shape public opinion? That question was tackled by a group of researchers in China, who investigated how opinions evolve on Twitter by gathering about 6 million messages (tweeted over a six month period), which they ran through algorithms and analyzed. Described in the journal Chaos, the work reveals several surprises about how Twitter shapes public opinion, researchers say.
Animal flight behavior is an exciting frontier for engineers to both apply knowledge of aerodynamics and to learn from nature's solutions to operating in the air. Flying snakes are particularly intriguing to researchers because they lack wings or any other features that remotely resemble flight apparatus.
A Chinese-U.S. research team is exploring the use of metamaterials -- artificial materials engineered to have exotic properties not found in nature -- to create devices that manipulate sound in versatile and unprecedented ways. In the journal Applied Physics Letters, the team reports a simple design for a device, called an acoustic field rotator, which can twist wave fronts inside it so that they appear to be propagating from another direction.
Support for the Clearinghouse for the Open Research of the United States (CHORUS) reached a milestone with the endorsement of its 100th signatory.
By exploring how creatures in nature are able to fly by flapping their wings, Virginia Tech researchers hope to apply that knowledge toward designing small flying vehicles known as "micro air vehicles" with flapping wings.
Measuring electron pair emission measurements has always been difficult because it was traditionally done using highly expensive synchrotron light sources, which are available in only a few laboratories worldwide. Now a team of researchers has developed a new way to measure the emission of electron pairs directly by combining two common laboratory instruments called time-of-flight spectrometers, a setup they describe in the journal Applied Physics Letters.
AIP is accepting nominations for the 2014 AIP Science Communication Awards through February 28, 2014. These awards are established to recognize the best science writing in books; magazines and newspapers; works intended for children; and new media.
From the sleek hulls of racing yachts to Michael Phelps’ shaved legs, most objects that move through the water quickly are smooth. But researchers from UCLA have found that bumpiness can sometimes be better. They modeled the fluid flow between two surfaces covered with tiny ridges and found that even in turbulent conditions the rough surface reduced the drag created by the friction of flowing water. The researchers report their findings in Physics of Fluids.
"Supercapacitors" take the energy-storing abilities of capacitors (which store electrical charge that can be quickly dumped to power devices) a step further, storing a far greater charge in a much smaller package. In AIP Advances, researchers describe the possibility of fabricating a new class of high heat-tolerant electronics that would employ supercapacitors made from a material called calcium-copper-titanate, or CCTO, which the researchers have identified for the first time as a practical energy-storage material.
Howard Ratner, well known in the scholarly publishing community for his leadership work in technical services and standards, has been appointed as Executive Director of the new CHOR, Inc. not-for-profit organization.
The American Institute of Physics (AIP) and the American Astronomical Society (AAS) are pleased to announce that astrophysicist Piero Madau has been selected as the 2014 recipient of the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics, which is given annually to recognize outstanding work in the field.
Governor Rick Scott declared, in an official proclamation, that the upcoming week of January 4-11, 2013 will be "Physics Education Week" in Florida.
The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) has announced its 2014 Winter Meeting in Orlando, Florida. The meeting will take place on January 4-7. Plenary sessions will feature the Oersted Medal winner, Dean Zollman; the Richtmyer Memorial Award recipient, Professor Sir Michael Berry; NASA Astronaut, Donald R. Tettit; and the Kennedy Space Center’s Philip Metzger.
The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) along with the Society for Physics Students (SPS) will host the Students Exploring Engineering and Science (SEES) program for 100 Title I 8th grade students from Howard Middle School at the Rosen Plaza Hotel in Orlando, Florida.
The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) will host a Meet & Greet with NASA Astronaut Donald Pettit at its winter meeting in Orlando, Florida. The event will be held at the Rosen Plaza Hotel on Sunday, January 5th from 7:30 – 8:30PM. Pettit will also serve as a plenary speaker on the topic, Techno-Stories from Space during the meeting.
Ultrasound-stimulated microbubbles have been showing promise in recent years as a non-invasive way to break up dangerous blood clots. But though many researchers have studied the effectiveness of this technique, not much was understood about why it works. Now a team of researchers in Toronto has collected the first direct evidence showing how these wiggling microbubbles cause a blood clot’s demise. The team’s findings are featured in the AIP Publishing journal Applied Physics Letters.
To technology insiders, graphene is a certified big deal. The one-atom thick carbon-based material elicits rhapsodic descriptions as the strongest, thinnest material known. It also is light, flexible, and able to conduct electricity as well as copper. Graphene-based electronics promise advances such as faster internet speeds, cheaper solar cells, novel sensors, space suits spun from graphene yarn, and more. Now a research team at NIST may help bring graphene’s promise closer to reality.
Through a process known as thermionic conversion, heat energy can be converted into electricity with very high efficiency. Because of its promise, researchers have been trying for more than half a century to develop a practical thermionic generator, with little luck. That luck may soon change, thanks to a new design -- dubbed a thermoelectronic generator -- described in Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy.
The American Institute of Physics announced today that the Boston-based American Meteorological Society (AMS) has become the institute’s newest member society.
The ever-increasing market for portable electronic devices has resulted in an equally heavy demand for rechargeable batteries, Lithium-ion (Li-ion) being among the most popular. Scientists and engineers are seeking ways to improve the power density, durability and overall performance of Lithium-ion batteries, and in a recent paper in the journal APL Materials, Japanese researchers from a public-private team report an advance in Li-ion battery technology that they describe as a major breakthrough.
A team of biochemists and mathematicians have developed a sophisticated geometric model to predict how a biological molecule will interact with water molecules, computing the results up to 20 times faster than other existing approaches. This new approach may help researchers find new drugs to treat human diseases, said the team, who described their theoretical approach in The Journal of Chemical Physics, which is produced by AIP Publishing.
The source and mechanism of a whistling kettle has never been fully described scientifically; acknowledging the vibrations made by the build-up of steam escaping through two metal spout plates is about as far as the explanation went. That wasn’t enough for a team of engineers at the University of Cambridge, who, through a series of experiments, have produced the world's first accurate model of the whistling mechanism inside the classic stovetop kettle.
Researchers across the globe are racing to find ways to improve the cooling of hot surfaces -- for technologies ranging from small electronics to nuclear power plants. Zeroing in on the physics at play underlying surface phenomena, MIT and Boston University researchers made a significant breakthrough. Although somewhat counterintuitive, they discovered that by creating sparsely packed textures on surfaces rather than densely packed ones, they were able to hold droplets in place and enable cooling.
Researchers have identified some of the physics that may explain how insects can so quickly recover from a midflight stall -- unlike conventional fixed wing aircraft, where stalls often lead to crash landings. The analysis, in which the researchers studied the flow around a rotating model wing, improves the understanding of how insects fly and informs the design of small flying robots built for intelligence gathering, surveillance, search-and-rescue, and other purposes.
The sizzle of melting polar ice, the deafening roar of a Formula 1 engine, and the mechanics of tongue twister trip-ups will feature alongside killer whales’ night-time hunting ploys, the acoustics of disco dining, and efforts to squelch the squeak of subway wheels at the 166th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), to be held Dec. 2-6, 2013, at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square.
Conventional processes for producing AIN layers run at temperatures as high as 1150 degrees Celsius, and offer limited control over the thickness of the layers. Now a new technique, described in the AIP Publishing journal Applied Physics Letters, offers a way to produce high-quality AlN layers with atomic-scale thickness and at half the temperature of other methods.
The AVS has selected its major award winners for 2013. The AVS established an annual awards program to encourage excellence in research and innovation in technical areas of interest to the AVS.
We use aluminum to make planes lightweight, store sodas in recyclable containers, keep the walls of our homes energy efficient and ensure that the Thanksgiving turkey is cooked to perfection. Now, thanks to a group of Japanese researchers, there may soon be a new application for the versatile metal: hydrogen storage for fuel cells.
In a new synthesis of past work, researchers found that women consistently score lower than men on common assessments of conceptual understanding of physics. However, when examining the factors that may account for these differences (such as student background and test-taking strategies), no clear pattern emerged. Thus, despite previous claims that the causes of this gender gap have been pinpointed, the problem remains unsolved and poorly understood. This has critical importance for science education reform.
A new technology called an "acoustic diode," envisioned by researchers in China's Nanjing University, may dramatically improve future ultrasound images by changing the way sound waves are transmitted.
AIP has named a journalist and a children's book author as winners of the 2013 AIP Science Communications Awards for their works on the discovery of the Higgs boson and a dog’s imaginary trip to the Moon. Tom Siegfried will receive the science writing category prize for his essay “Nature’s Secrets Foretold,” published in Science News. Jeffrey Bennett will receive the writing for children category award for his book Max Goes to the Moon.
Using Magnets and Opposing Jets, Researchers in France and England Create the Optimal Industrial Mixer, Which Creates a Pattern that Resembles a Cat's Eye
For Infrared Tracking and Recognition, Two Sensors are Better than One, According to Article in the Journal "Review of Scientific Instruments"
One key to healthful living with diabetes is monitoring sugar levels to ensure they remain stable. People can easily do this at home using devices that read sugar levels in a drop of blood. Now a team of researchers has devised a non-invasive way to make monitoring easier. Using infrared laser light applied on top of the skin, they measure sugar levels in the fluid in and under skin cells to read blood sugar levels.
Every day, all day, our DNA gets beaten up by chemicals and radiation -- but remarkably, most of us stay healthy. Now, an investigation by a team of French and Canadian researchers has produced insights into a little-studied but common radiation threat to DNA: low-energy electrons (LEEs), with energies of 0-15 electron volts.
Photovoltaic devices offer a green -- and potentially unlimited -- alternative to fossil fuel use. So why haven’t solar technologies been more widely adopted? Quite simply, "they’re too expensive," says Ji-Seon Kim, a scientist at Imperial College London, who, along with her colleagues, has come up with a technology that might help bring the prices down. They describe their new approach to making cheaper, more efficient solar panels in The Journal of Chemical Physics.
Researchers modeling how changes in air flow patterns affect wind turbines’ output power have found that the wind can supply energy from an unexpected direction: below.
With the use of high voltage equipment, very small plasmas can be used to manipulate fluid flows. In recent years, the development of devices known as plasma actuators has advanced the promise of controlling flows in new ways that increase lift, reduce drag and improve aerodynamic efficiencies -- advances that may lead to safer, more efficient and more quiet land and air vehicles in the near future.
Foodborne illnesses spread easily and, as such, are a difficult-to-control problem -- even more so in developing nations. Quick detection can play a critical role in halting the spread of contamination. Traditional detection methods, however, tend to be haltingly slow. Recognizing the need for a real-time biosensing system to detect pathogenic bacteria, a team at Auburn University came up with a novel design, which they describe in the AIP's Journal of Applied Physics.
Scientists studying the behavior of platinum particles immersed in hydrogen peroxide may have discovered a new way to propel microscopic machines. The new mechanism is described in The Journal of Chemical Physics, which is produced by AIP Publishing.
In a new paper in the journal Physics of Fluids, researchers Junho Park and Paul Billant of the CNRS Laboratoire d’Hydrodynamique in France describe their study of one such geophysical vortex behavior, radiative instability, and how it is affected by two factors, density stratification and background rotation.
One might wonder why researchers would care about the nuances of the one-millimeter long nematode worm, let alone study them. But the answer is simple: they can provide powerful insights into human health and disease. New research performed at Texas Tech University and published Physics of Fluids demonstrates just that. By studying how this worm swims, researchers hope to provide insights into applications from drug screening to setting the stage for designing smart soft robots.
Researchers in the United States and China have teamed to develop a speedway for future devices, an exotic type of electrical conductor called a topological insulator (TI). In a new paper in the journal AIP Advances, the international collaborators report that they grew two types of TI materials inside an ultra-high vacuum chamber on both smooth and rough surfaces and then evaluated their abilities to transport electrons.
Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel have been awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for the developments of multiscale models for complex chemical systems,” which highlights the cross-disciplinary nature of today’s research environment.
The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to François Englert and Peter Higgs "for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider." To help journalists and the public understand the context of this remarkable theory, AIP has compiled a Physics Nobel Prize Resources page featuring relevant scientific papers and articles, quotes from experts, multimedia, and other resources.
When you heat a tiny droplet of liquid tin with a laser, plasma forms on the surface of the droplet and produces extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light, which has a higher frequency and greater energy than normal ultraviolet. Now, for the first time, researchers have mapped this EUV emission and developed a theoretical model that explains how the emission depends on the three-dimensional shape of the plasma. In doing so, they found a previously untapped source of EUV light, which could be useful for various applications including semiconductor lithography, the process used to make integrated circuits.
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