Science News

The glass shouldn't have boiled. But it did. Physicists had to figure out why that wasn't against the laws of physics.

Direct imaging of dynamic cracks as they occur can tell us a great deal about the physics of fracturing and properties of fracturing materials, which would benefit many fields ranging from materials science to engineerin...

When you were a kid, did you ever sign a classmate's cast after they broke an arm or a leg? Your name would be on display there for the rest of the semester. Broken bones are one of the worst trade-offs in childhood--a f...

What exactly happens inside neutron stars - the final stage of a giant star - is subject to speculation. In terms of physics, the interiors of neutron stars, cold atomic gasses and nuclear systems all have one thing in c...

In modern medicine, physicians treat organs in isolation. People with heart conditions go to heart specialists, just as those with kidney ailments seek kidney specialists. While this model has made tremendous progress an...

(Vienna University of Technology) Scientists at TU Wien have found a way to build the 'opposite' of a laser -- a device that absorbs a specific light wave perfectly. This can be done even in complicated systems, in which...

Rice University physicists Matthew Foster and Seth Davis want to view a vexing quantum puzzle from an entirely new perspective. They just need the right vantage point and a place colder than deep space.

The force is strong not only in Star Wars lore but also as a fundamental property in physics. For example, scientists can put two uncharged metal plates close together in a vacuum, and "voila!" ---they will attract each ...

Electronic devices such as transistors are getting smaller and will soon hit the limits of conventional performance based on electrical currents.

Magnetic materials have a worldwide market share of some $50 billion per year. A new frontier in the study of these materials, femtomagnetism, could lead to ultrafast magnetic storage devices that would transform informa...

Results provide new insight into evolution, IQ and development of the human brain.

In the animal kingdom, birds band together to ward off predators, and honeybees work collectively to benefit the entire hive. Animals of the human persuasion can act cooperatively too, at times, though this behavior is n...

Internet-connected cars promise to reduce traffic incidents with sensors that can stop a car, but if they were hacked whole cities could shut down

A recently discovered Weyl semimetal delivers the largest intrinsic conversion of light to electricity of any material, an international team lead by a group of Boston College researchers reports today in the journal Nat...

Sorting a stack of pancakes by size is a vexing challenge for mathematicians, but Microsoft's Bill Gates came up with an enduring solution.

Research on rats suggests microdosing DMT may have beneficial effects for those suffering depression and anxiety, but also probable adverse changes in neuronal structures and metabolism.

Theory suggests that metallic hydrogen should be a superconductor at room temperature; however, this material has yet to be produced in the lab. Metal superhydrides are packed with hydrogen atoms in a configuration simil...

Scientists at the University of Bath have levitated particles using sound in an experiment which could have applications in so-called "soft robotics" and help reveal how planets start to form.

A gel made from urea, the main compound in urine, spontaneously forms braided nanofibres that could help with engineering new medicines

Qubits, the units used to encode information in quantum computing, are not all created equal. Some researchers believe that topological qubits, which are tougher and less susceptible to environmental noise than other kin...

When people on different sides of the political spectrum work together to edit Wikipedia articles, the results are better than when everyone agrees

Researchers have found a way to pre-treat a laser beam so that it enters opaque surfaces without dispersing--like a headlight that's able to cut through heavy fog at full strength.