• Physics helps father-daughter team prevail in soapbox derby

    Updated: 2010-07-30 14:58:46
    Physics Today News Picks A blog of hand-picked science news from the staff of Physics Today Home Print edition Advertising Buyers Guide Jobs Events calendar Ocean greenery under warming stress News Picks home US nuclear forensics skill at risk , says report Physics helps father-daughter team prevail in soapbox derby By Physics Today on July 30, 2010 10:58 AM No Comments No TrackBacks Rockford Register Star Thanks to the application of some elementary physics , Mark Overmyer of Oregon , Illinois , enabled his daughter Laura shown here to triumph in the speed event of last week's 73rd All-American Soap Box Derby in Akron , Ohio . For the past three years , Mark Overmyer has been perfecting two soapbox innovations : a polyurethane and rubber compound for the wheels and prism glasses , which

  • 'Straintronics' debuts in graphene

    Updated: 2010-07-29 19:08:00
    'Wonder material' has yet another wondrous property

  • Mobile electrons spotted on topological insulator

    Updated: 2010-07-29 19:00:00
    Experiment confirms high surface conductivity

  • Energy department funds center dedicated to artificial photosynthesis

    Updated: 2010-07-29 15:10:05
    Physics Today News Picks A blog of hand-picked science news from the staff of Physics Today Home Print edition Advertising Buyers Guide Jobs Events calendar Asteroid could hit Earth in September 2182 News Picks home Energy department funds center dedicated to artificial photosynthesis By Physics Today on July 29, 2010 11:10 AM No Comments No TrackBacks Nature Photovoltaic solar panels convert sunlight into electrical energy with efficiencies up to 20 No photosynthesizing plant , alga , or bacterium can match that efficiency sugar cane comes closest with 8. But the photosynthesizers have one big advantage over the photovoltaics : Chemical energy in the form of fuel is much easier to store and transport than electrical energy is . Recognizing that advantage , the US Department of Energy has

  • Small satellites, big science

    Updated: 2010-07-29 15:03:03
    , Physics Today News Picks A blog of hand-picked science news from the staff of Physics Today Home Print edition Advertising Buyers Guide Jobs Events calendar How smart aliens would try to contact us News Picks home Undergraduates need better guidance on research projects Small satellites , big science By Physics Today on July 29, 2010 11:03 AM No Comments No TrackBacks SPACE.com Miniaturization is all the rage now in such devices as laptop computers and cell phones—and now satellites can be added to the list . Nanosatellites , some no bigger than a Klondike ice cream bar , can contain the same components as their full-size counterparts but cost less and create less space debris . And because of their small size , they don’t require a dedicated launch vehicle they can piggyback on someone

  • From early particle accelerators to the LHC in 12 minutes

    Updated: 2010-07-28 23:00:10
    Check out a 12-minute public television program that traces the invention of the cyclotron in Berkeley in the 1930s, the development of SLAC's two-mile-long linear accelerator in the 60s, and how they relate to what's going on at the Large Hadron Collider.

  • How smart aliens would try to contact us

    Updated: 2010-07-28 14:51:28
    Time: Science-fiction author and physicist Gregory Benford, his twin brother James, and James's son Dominic have come up with a new proposal for detecting signals beamed into the galaxy by aliens who want to be discovered. According to the Benfords, aliens are most likely to send bursts of pulses now and again, rather than strong continuous beams, which consume far more energy. To find those pulses, the best strategy is to monitor several stars continuously, rather than slowly sweep the entire galaxy. Time's Michael Lemonick describes the proposal, which the Benfords wrote to mark the 50th anniversary of the SETI program.

  • Rolling rubber bands stretch students

    Updated: 2010-07-27 16:19:45
    Tumbling ribbons have surprising shapes

  • Steel wires promote the formation of prions

    Updated: 2010-07-27 14:29:09
    Physics Today News Picks A blog of hand-picked science news from the staff of Physics Today Home Print edition Advertising Buyers Guide Jobs Events calendar OLED shortage forces HTC to switch to LCD displays for its smartphones News Picks home Steel wires promote the formation of prions By Physics Today on July 27, 2010 10:29 AM No Comments No TrackBacks Nature Prions are particles of misfolded proteins that cause several neurodegenerative diseases , including bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cows , scrapie in sheep , and Creutzfeldt Jakob disease in humans . Although those diseases can be transmitted by ingesting prions , what causes prions to form in the first place is a mystery . Now , as Nature s Daniel Cressey reports , a team from London has demonstrated that prions will form

  • ECASIA 2011

    Updated: 2010-07-27 00:00:00
    Conference: 4 Sep 2011 - 9 Sep 2011, Cardiff City Hall, Cardiff, United Kingdom.

  • IOP Annual Plasma Physics Conference 2011

    Updated: 2010-07-27 00:00:00
    Conference: 4 Apr 2011 - 7 Apr 2011, Marine Hotel, North Berwick, Scotland, United Kingdom. Organized by the IOP Plasma Physics group.

  • Fermilab homes in on Higgs mass

    Updated: 2010-07-26 16:28:11
    Higgs likely lighter, and more elusive

  • Experimental investigation of an eight-qubit unit cell in a superconducting optimization processor

    Updated: 2010-07-21 02:45:25
    Anyone who follows this blog and wants to get a real in-depth insight into the way that D-Wave’s processors are built, and how they solve problems, should definitely read this paper: Phys. Rev. B. 82, 024511 (2010), R. Harris et al. The paper itself is quite long (15 pages) but it really gives a great [...]

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