|
Mobile version
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
TB or not TB?: Novel detector could shorten testing times, aid treatment efforts Scientific American Share    
Researchers in Colorado are developing a portable, rapid TB sensor that could help reduce the death toll from the disease and make treatment more efficient. Read the associated abstract at the APS Annual Meeting going on this week in Portland. More
With a bit of math, researchers find a way to see through opaque materials Popular Science Share
Light is essential to vision, at least the kind we perform with our naked eyes. This is why we can see through a glass lens but not through a brick wall (though we're working on that). But what about materials that let some light pass while scattering it in seemingly chaotic ways? Our naked eyes can't reassemble that light into coherent images, but using some clever math, a team of researchers has devised a way to focus light through opaque materials to "see" objects on the other side -- provided they have enough data about the material. Read the associated viewpoint article on APS Physics. More Supertwisty light proposed ScienceNews Share
Light, it seems, can be like Shirley Temple's curls: more twisty than anyone could possibly have imagined. In a paper to be published in Physical Review Letters, researchers suggest that electromagnetic waves, including light, can possess an excess twistiness beyond what physicists would ordinarily expect. The effect is probably limited to microscopic realms, but scientists had never before even speculated that it could occur. More
Polymer remembers four shapes PhysOrg Share
A new study by General Motors has found that a polymer used commercially in fuel cell membranes can "memorize" four shapes, each assigned to a different temperature. The material could find applications in fields such as space exploration and biomedical engineering. More Enter the 'thermopower wave' PhysicsWorld Share
Researchers in the U.S. and Korea have discovered that igniting a carbon nanotube, coated in chemically flammable material, can trigger a high-speed wave to race along the tube at 10,000× the speed of the spreading chemical reaction. The new phenomenon, dubbed a "thermopower wave," could lead to a new way of generating electricity and may enable micro power sources to drive nanoscale devices. More
Study peels back more of the magnetic sun ScienceNow Share
Researchers have discovered that one of the mysterious forces that sweep the sun's surface shows an unexpectedly strong connection with the number of sunspots, magnetic disturbances that can affect Earth's weather and telecommunications. The findings should improve predictions of the sun's dynamics and might even help scientists develop better climate models. More Pi day: Five tasty facts about the famous ratio NewScientist Share
Mathematics enthusiasts celebrated Pi day, which falls on March 14 in honor of the famous ratio's first few digits, 3.14. You probably know that pi is the circumference of a circle divided by its diameter, but here are some less familiar facts about the mathematical constant. More For quantum computer, add a dash of disorder ScienceNews Share
Embracing chaos just might help physicists build a quantum brain. A new study shows that disorder can enhance the coupling between light and matter in quantum systems, a find that could eventually lead to fast, easy-to-build quantum computers. More
New WMAP data can't erase "dark flow" Ars Technica Share
New research using the five-year data set from the WMAP cosmic microwave background imager and X-ray luminosity data, reveals that the recently detected flow of dark matter in maps of the universe is still there, and that it runs deeper than previously thought. More A new spin on conductivity: Electric signals can propagate through an insulator Scientific American Share
At the interface between the magnetic insulator and the conductor, the two materials can exchange angular momentum from spin, which might offer a new way to transmit signals in spin-based electronics. More |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
