• share
• favorite_border

Formerly unrealized defect results in clumping and unwanted chemical interactions.

• share
• favorite_border

An international team of researchers has discovered a new class of highly electronegative chemical species called hyperhalogens, which use superhalogens as building blocks around a metal atom. The new chemical species may have application in many industries.

• share
• favorite_border

THE 2010 NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS will be awarded to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov of the University of Manchester, U.K. for their pioneering work with graphene, a single-atom-thick sheet of carbon. Discovered in 2004 by Geim and his colleagues, graphene is an extraordinary and versatile material.

• share
• favorite_border

University of Oregon scientists have invented a method to change the color of single photons in a fiber optic cable. The laser-tweaked feat could be a quantum step forward for transferring and receiving high volumes of secured data for future generations of the Internet.

• share
• favorite_border

Research reported in the Journal of Chemical Physics describes a technique that analyzes the reflection of neutrons to locate buckyballs within composite materials. The work, conducted by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, may lead to more effective research on photovoltaic devices.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers in Ukraine and the United States have uncovered a novel way to power tiny devices using waste heat. In an article in the Journal of Applied Physics, the arrays of tiny ferroelectric nanowires are shown to rapidly generate a current in response to any change in the ambient temperature.

• share
• favorite_border

Individuals within a networked system coordinate their activities by communicating to each other information such as their position, speed, or intention. At first glance, it seems that more of this communication will increase the harmony and efficiency of the network. However, scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found that this is only true if the communication and its subsequent action are immediate.

• share
• favorite_border

A group of researchers in England and Spain has discovered that certain barium titanate ceramics do not follow Ohm's Law. Applying a voltage to them gradually changes their electrical resistance. The work, described in the journal Applied Physics Letters, may help explain how ceramics used in electrical circuits degrade.

• share
• favorite_border

Research published in The Journal of Chemical Physics describes the emerging technique of X-ray powder diffraction, which has been used to map the movement of electrons in real time and to observe a concerted electron and proton transfer that is quite different from any previously known phase transitions in the model crystal, ammonium sulfate.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at NIST have found theoretical evidence of a new way to generate the high-frequency waves used in modern communication devices such as cell phones using exotic 'soliton' waves in magnetism. The technique might enable wireless technology that would be more secure and resistant to interference than conventional devices.

• share
• favorite_border

In the first lecture of the season on October 6th at Perimeter Institute, William R. Newman, Distinguished Professor in History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University, will highlight a curious fascination of one of the most profound scientists to have ever lived, Sir Isaac Newton.

• share
• favorite_border

Over the past 60 years, lead zirconate titanate, or PZT, has been the material of choice for piezoelectric applications from ink jet printers to gas grill igniters. Despite this success, many scientists would like to find a more environmentally-friendly, lead-free material. Now an article in the journal Applied Physics Letters shows the theoretical potential of another class of materials.

• share
• favorite_border

Research reported in The Journal of Chemical Physics uses fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) to investigate the processes at the surface of a growing crystal. This work may help to improve the crystallization of biomolecules -- an important tool in pharmaceutical research and other fields.

• share
• favorite_border

NIST researchers have “unveiled” a quartet of graphene’s electron states and discovered that electrons in graphene can split up into an unexpected and tantalizing set of energy levels when exposed to extremely low temperatures and extremely high magnetic fields.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at The University of Alabama in Huntsville will team with scientists across the country on what is being described as the premier solar and heliophysics mission of the 21st century.

• share
• favorite_border

Measurements taken at NIST may help physicists develop a clearer understanding of high-temperature superconductors, whose behavior remains in many ways mysterious decades after their discovery. A new copper-based compound exhibits properties never before seen in a superconductor and could be a step toward solving part of the mystery.

• share
• favorite_border

A new experiment proposed by NIST physicists may allow researchers to test the effects of gravity with unprecedented precision at very short distances--a scale at which exotic new details of gravity's behavior may be detectable.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at NIST have created 'quantum cats' made of photons, boosting prospects for manipulating light in new ways to enhance precision measurements as well as computing and communications based on quantum physics.

• share
• favorite_border

In December 2010, IceCube -- the world’s first kilometer-scale neutrino observatory, located beneath the Antarctic ice -- will finally be completed after two decades of planning. In an article in the journal Review of Scientific Instruments, Francis Halzen, the principal investigator of the IceCube project, and his colleague Spencer Klein of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory provide a comprehensive description of the observatory, its instrumentation, and its scientific mission.

• share
• favorite_border

The University of Chicago’s new center in Beijing will host its first academic conference, on novel quantum states in condensed matter, from Sept. 1 to 3.

• share
• favorite_border

Because they are portable and easy to operate at ambient temperatures, cold atmospheric pressure plasma jets (APPJs) should find innovative applications in biomedicine, materials science and fabrication industries. Research reported in the Journal of Applied Physics investigates an APPJ that extends from the ground electrode of a circuit.

• share
• favorite_border

Cheaper light may encourage more use.

• share
• favorite_border

Breakthrough discovery enables nanoscale manipulation of the piezoelectric effect.

• share
• favorite_border

An international team of astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has devised a new method for measuring perhaps the greatest puzzle of our universe - dark energy. This mysterious phenomenon, discovered in 1998, is pushing our universe apart at ever-increasing speeds. The team's results appear in the August 20, 2010 issue of the journal Science.

• share
• favorite_border

In a step toward solving a long-standing problem in semiconductor manufacturing, scientists at JILA have used their unique version of a 'fine-toothed comb' to detect minute traces of contaminant molecules in the arsine gas used to make a variety of photonics devices, where a mere trace of contaminants can damage or ruin tiny devices.

• share
• favorite_border

A new paper in The Journal of Chemical Physics provides a theoretical model that compares the transport characteristics of straight- and branched-chain polymers in various channels -- work that could aid in the development of carrier molecules for delivering drugs at a controlled rate in the body.

• share
• favorite_border

UK researchers report in the journal Review of Scientific Instruments have developed a way to use a kite itself to measure wind speed.

• share
• favorite_border

Imagine building cheaper electronics on a variety of substrates -- materials like plastic, paper, or fabric. Researchers at Taiwan's National Chiao Tung University have made a discovery that opens this door, allowing them to build electronic components like diodes on many different substrates.

• share
• favorite_border

From Star Trek's Romulans, who could cloak their warships, to Harry Potter's magical garment, the power to make someone or something invisible has intrigued mankind. Now a Michigan Technological University scientist is doing it for real, building a working invisibility cloak.

• share
• favorite_border

In a major step toward understanding the mysterious “pseudogap” state in high-temperature cuprate superconductors, a team of scientists have found a “broken symmetry,” where electrons act like molecules in a liquid crystal: Electrons between copper and oxygen atoms arrange themselves differently “north-south” than “east-west.”

• share
• favorite_border

A new approach to processing X-ray data could lower by a factor of ten or more the amount of radiation patients receive during cone beam CT scans, report researchers from the University of California, San Diego.

• share
• favorite_border

Binghamton University physicist Michael Lawler and his colleagues have made a breakthrough that could lead to advances in superconductors. Their findings will be published this week in the prestigious British journal Nature.

• share
• favorite_border

ols to measure a core sample's electrical anisotropy have been sadly lacking, says John Kickhofel. To solve this problem, he and colleagues at Schlumberger found inspiration in a type of logging technology currently used by the modern oil industry. They created a device capable of noninvasively measuring electrical conductivity.

• share
• favorite_border

Now a group of scientists at Nanjing University in China have shown how a rather wide spectrum of light -- a rainbow of radiation -- can be trapped in a single structure. They propose to do this by sending the light rays into a self-similar-structured dielectric waveguide (SDW) -- essentially a light pipe with a cladding of many layers.

• share
• favorite_border

The movement of long chain polymers through nanopores is a key part of many biological processes, including the transport of RNA, DNA, and proteins. New research reported in The Journal of Chemical Physics describes an improved theoretical model for this type of motion.

• share
• favorite_border

Research reported in The Journal of Chemical Physics, which is published by the American Institute of Physics, provides the first real-time measurements of the time dependence of the individual steps of dissociation of a complex consisting of two rare gas atoms and a halogen molecule.

• share
• favorite_border

Physicists at NIST have demonstrated an ion trap with a built-in optical fiber that collects light emitted by single ions, allowing quantum information stored in the ions to be measured. The advance could simplify quantum computer design and serve as a step toward swapping information between matter and light in future quantum networks.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at JILA, working with Italian theorists, have discovered another notable similarity between ultracold atomic gases and high-temperature superconductors, suggesting there may be a relatively simple shared explanation for equivalent behaviors of the two very different systems.

• share
• favorite_border

With the attention of sports fans worldwide focused on South Africa and the 2010 FIFA World Cup, U.S. scientist John Eric Goff has made the aerodynamics of the soccer ball a focus of his research.

• share
• favorite_border

Physicists concerned about proliferation of smaller, more efficient technologies that could be used to build nuclear weapons.

• share
• favorite_border

Old glass is not the same as new glass -- and the difference is not just due to manufacturing techniques. Unlike crystalline solids, glasses change as they age, increasing packing density and stability. Ideally, a glass should be cooled slowly, maybe over 10,000 years or so, but that is not usually practical.

• share
• favorite_border

Since Richard Feynman's first envisioned the quantum computer in 1982, there have been many studies of potential candidates -- computers that use quantum bits, or qubits, capable of holding an more than one value at a time and computing at speeds far beyond existing silicon-based machines for certain problems. Most of these candidate systems, such as atoms and semiconducting quantum dots, work for quantum computing, but only at very low temperatures.

• share
• favorite_border

BC5, a diamond-like material with an extremely high boron content, offers exceptional hardness and resistance to fracture, but unlike diamond, it is a superconductor rather than an insulator. A research team in China studying BC5 describes its potential in the Journal of Applied Physics.

• share
• favorite_border

In an important advance, scientists at the Tokyo Institute of Technology have created a stable, rewritable memory device that exploits a liquid crystal property called the “anchoring transition.” The work is described in the latest issue of the Journal of Applied Physics, which is published by the American Institute of Physics (AIP).

• share
• favorite_border

Two scientists in India have conceptually designed a new, cleaner motorcycle engine that uses compressed air to turn a small air turbine, generating enough power to run a motorcycle for up to 40 minutes. Their design is described in a recent issue of the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy.

• share
• favorite_border

An understanding of particle diffusion in the presence of constrictions is essential in fields as diverse as drug delivery, cellular biology, nanotechnology, materials engineering, and spread of pollutants in the soil. When a driving force is applied, displacement of particles occurs as well as diffusion. A paper in The Journal of Chemical Physics quantifies the effects of periodic constrictions on drift and diffusion in systems experiencing a driving force.

• share
• favorite_border

Atmospheric research often focuses on clouds’ impact on weather and climate. Yet even low clouds are a long way off, with a base some 6,000 feet above earth. University of Notre Dame fluid dynamics and engineering professor Harindra Fernando works the other end of the air column closer to home—the bottom of the atmosphere in the city, which is known as the urban boundary layer.

• share
• favorite_border

The secret life of water just got weirder. For years water has been known to exist in 15 phases -- not just the merry threesome of solid, liquid and gas from grade school science. Now, University of Utah chemists have confirmed the coexistence of ice and liquid after water crystallizes at very low temperatures.

• share
• favorite_border

Anyone who is an online shopper and humanitarian might find this research project appealing. Physics professor John Scales is working on a low-cost, human-focused, high technology effort to stop the devastation of unexploded buried land mines with a novel acoustical/microwave detection system.

• share
• favorite_border

With controlled stretching of molecules, Cornell researchers have demonstrated that single-molecule devices can serve as powerful new tools for fundamental science experiments. Their work has resulted in detailed tests of long-existing theories on how electrons interact at the nanoscale.