Random Numbers Faster from ScienceNews With a laser, a mirror and some simple calculations, researchers have created a fast, reliable way to produce long strings of random numbers. This speedy method, reported in the July 10 Physical Review Letters, may one day be used to improve data encryption, computer simulations and even gambling software. Full Article 'Invisible' Building Design Could Reduce Earthquake Damage from ABC News Engineers have been developing earthquake-resistant buildings for years, but a group of physicists now believe it's possible to make an entire building effectively disappear from an earthquake's destructive path, avoiding serious damage. Full Article July Eclipse is Best Chance to Look for Gravity Anomaly from NewScientist From remote observatories on the Tibetan plateau to a cave in a Shanghai suburb, Chinese researchers are poised to conduct an audacious once-in-a-century experiment. The plan is to test a controversial theory: the possibility that gravity drops slightly during a total eclipse. Full Article Cesium Atoms are Able to Take a "Quantum Walk" from Ars Technica Quantum walks, proposed by Richard Feynman, have long been a theoretical twinkle in computer scientists' eyes. Now, researchers in Germany have finally found particles capable of conducting physical quantum walks, which could mean big future advances in quantum computing. Full Article

Why Does Water Expand When it Cools? A New Explanation
from PhysOrg
Most of us, when we take our first science classes, learn that when things cool down, they shrink. (When they heat up, we learn, they usually expand.) However, water seems to be the exception to the rule. Full Article

A Saharan Lizard Is a Sand Swimmer
from The New York Times
To survive in its hot Saharan habitat, the sandfish, like other desert-dwelling creatures, spends a lot of time underground. But this lizard doesn’t just lie around in a burrow — it travels quite quickly through the sand. The question has been, how? Full Article

Ethereal Yet Weighty
from The Economist
Most of reality appears to be missing. Physicists reckon that the missing matter must be there, but that it is dark. Finding the stuff is damned tricky because dark matter, by definition, cannot be seen. So some of those physicists have been busy trying to devise ways of glimpsing it indirectly—and two groups of them now think their methods are ready to test. Full Article

Airport Travelators Actually Slow Passengers Down
from NewScientist
Your flight leaves in 10 minutes and you've only just made it through security. As you run to your gate you come to a corridor with a moving walkway. Should you hop on? Maybe not. People on travelators actually tend to slow their pace, making time-savings minimal, and a new study helps to explain why. Full Article