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Researchers detect the smallest force ever recorded

Researchers have detected the smallest force ever recorded – 42 yoctonewtons – using a system of super-cooled atoms. Yocto-what? The Newton, named after sir Isaac Newton, is the international unit of measure for force. 1 Newton is equal to 1 kilogram times 1 meter over 1 second square (1N = 1 kg * 1 m […]

Parasitic vines may serve as lightning rods

The tropical rainforests of Central and South America aren’t threatened only by deforestation – they are also overrun by lianas, parasitic woody vines that clamber up trees and smother the forest canopy as they reach for sunlight. But the vines may actually help the trees in a way – scientists suspect they may in fact act as […]

Teleportation is possible, and is already a reality at the quantum scale

When people think of teleportation,  inevitably a Star Trek reference like “beam me up, Scotty’ comes to mind. You’ve got to admit though, it’s a really cool idea – how many times did you think about instantly traveling to some place distant? I used to wish for teleportation every single day of my life when […]

Something from nothing? Scientists find a way to turn light into matter

Three physicists involved with fusion research have found an elegant way to convert light to matter. And, it can be accomplished with current technology. Demonstrating the process would round out a critical set of theories about energy and matter, so a race may soon be on to test it. The Einstein relationship, E= mc2, states […]

Who's got the most efficient muscle engine : the tuna or the grey whale?

The humongous grey whale and the skipjack tuna, though of contradicting sizes, both employ similar propelling mechanisms through water. Pound per pound, however, which of the two animals is most energy efficient? Engineers at Northwestern University have developed a new metric for analyzing such problems and found that the two marine animals are almost just as […]

Ground-breaking ‘Ultra-bright Atom Laser’ Developed in Crete - 7 times stronger than any developed to date

Researchers working in the Greek island of Crete have developed the world’s most powerful atom laser – fully seven times stronger than any developed to date. What’s an atom laser? Optical lasers not really top notch technology anymore, but atom lasers are relatively new – the first one was demonstrated in 1996 at MIT. But like […]

The Oh-My-God-Particle

The Oh-My-God particle was an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray (most likely a proton) detected on the evening of 15 October 1991 over Dugway Proving Ground, in Utah. The particle was 20 million times more energetic than the highest energy measured in radiation emitted by an extragalactic object – in other words, this subatomic particle had the energy of […]

Making graphene in a kitchen blender

A team led by Jonathan Coleman at Trinity College Dublin reports they’ve patented a technique that can easily produce large quantities of quality graphene. The method is so simple that the researchers have even been able to scale it down for use in a kitchen blender. The exact ‘recipe’ has yet to be disclosed, but nevertheless […]

Excitons observed in action for the first time

A technique developed by MIT researchers reveals the motion of energy-carrying quasiparticles (excitons) in solid material. Let’s work that out in common English. Quasiparticles aren’t technically particles, but they act like they are. It’s hard to give a definition without going into more complicated physics here, but a quasiparticle is a disturbance, in a medium, that behaves […]

New exotic subparticle confirmed by LHC scientists

Once with the discovery and confirmation of the Higgs boson, the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva proved its money worth and garnered international appraise. Despite the LHC is currently shutdown for its periodical maintenance (the restart procedure is well underway, with the particle accelerator expected to become fully operational again in 2015), physicists aren’t slaking. […]

The LHC is gearing up for long-awaited restart

The Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is the most complex machinery devised by mankind. Here, scientists all over the world joined forces to recreate conditions similar those in the very first moments of the Universe, following the Big Bang. There’s a lot at stake here, and so far the LHC has […]

Breakthrough: first time monolayer graphene made in bulk

We’ve written extensively about graphene here on ZME Science, awarding it much praise and promise. Truly, if you read a bit about what graphene can do [strength, conductivity, cost, etc], you’ll soon learn to love it. So, why aren’t we seeing graphene used everywhere, from computers to aerospace like so many science papers herald its […]

The moon formed much later than thought, but new questions arise

A new massive computer model that simulates the formation of the solar system from its early days when all it used to comprise was a huge disk of matter to present day shows that Earth’s moon formed some 65 million years later than previous estimates led us to believe. The method provides a new way […]

A new method for filtering light coming from a specific direction

Using only material geometry and interference patterns, MIT researchers have devised a novel way of passing light of any colour only if it comes from a specific angle. Light coming from other directions will be reflected, something which can be desirable in certain applications. Those who could benefit immediately from the findings are solar photovoltaics, detectors […]

Fiber optic tubes inserted through your veins could accelerate diagnosis

The backbone of today’s modern telecommunication industry is held by fiber optic cables. These information highways have accelerated data transfer and help people all over the globe stay connected, but that’s not all they’re good for. A group of international researchers are exploring the idea of using fiber optics as a lab-on-chip device. The tubes […]

Scientists develop non-toxic paint that never fades, by mimicking bird feathers

A team of Harvard engineers has developed a way of producing color that could produce paint that never fades, and displays that never go dark. How color works If you’ve never wondered how color works, it’s a pretty nifty thing. The color we usually see, like on paints and trees works by absorbing certain wavelengths […]

First direct evidence supporting the "Cosmic Inflation" theory helps explains how the Universe came to be

The BICEP2 experiment at the South Pole reported the first ever piece of evidence that support the cosmic inflation theory of how the universe cam to be. Their data suggests that scientists have come across signals left over by the super-rapid expansion of space that must have occurred just fractions of a second after everything came […]

Graphene Technology Could Give Us Predator Vision Contact Lenses

As a kid, looking at the Predator movies gave me goosebumps; it wasn’t the physical superiority of the Predator, but the technological advantages. I mean, he has all that shooting stuff, and teleportation and camouflage, and the vision… it was all too much! But the way science is crazily developing, we’re already starting to experiment […]

Physicists brake ions to slowest rotational temperature yet

Physicists at Max Planck Institute and Aarhus in Denmark have slowed down the rotational temperature of molecular ions to its lowest yet. This precise control now allows for further research that previously was difficult, if not impossible to recreate in labs on Earth like astrochemical reactions that go out in space. In addition, the process […]

Bending light in a chip could turn your phone into a projector

Imagine going to a meeting, flipping your phone on the table and then instantly project your slide presentation or traveling to a remote location, where there aren’t any displays or projectors, and use nothing but your phone to project a multimedia application [a movie, a video game, etc.]. Such ideas are being currently manipulated by […]

Spider silk, five times stronger than steel and three times tougher than Kevlar will finally be commercialized

It may be the birth of a new supermaterial – not long ago, spider silk materials were considered science fiction. Despite being a bio-material and basically a protein, spider silk has some amazing properties: it is by weight five times stronger than steel and three times tougher than Kevlar. Just so we’re clear, strength is […]

Mass of the electron re-weighed for a precision of parts per trillion

Typically in physics, your calculations and such are as precise as your use of constants. Meaning, if you have a skewed value for your constant, this will obviously affect all the computations where this constant is used. Today, all the important physical constants are rather precisely known, whether we’re talking about the speed of light […]

Synthetic magnetic monopole simulated by quantum cloud

The scientists created an isolated monopole – a north pole in a stimulated magnetic field, realizing a thought experiment that was theoretically foreseen over eighty years ago. The difference that has been artificially pointed out by the scientists comes to prove that in a natural environment north and south magnetic poles are exclusively connected and […]

Physicists explain 'gravity-defying' chain trick

It seems more like a magic trick than pure physics – the fountain-like motion of a chain of beads has puzzled millions around the world with its apparently gravity-defying behaviour. Now, physicists have found an explanation for it – but it’s far from intuitive. British science presenter Steve Mould, who made the experiment famous with […]

Smart ‘curtains’ open and close just by responding to light only

Researchers at University of California, Berkeley toyed around with novel materials and found a way to make them move and twist in response to light. A first application would be smart curtains that simply open or close according to how much light is in the room – no remote, no batteries, no electricity. It uses […]

A novel strategy for spotting time travelers

In the movie “Back to the Future”, Marty McFly almost ends up erasing himself from existence after nearly having prevented his parents from falling in love. This idea is often referred to as the “grandfather paradox” – if you traveled back in time and killed your grandfather, then your father or mother would have never […]

New, more precise method to measure exoplanet mass

In the past two decades alone, some 900 exoplanets – planets outside our solar system – have been identified, with some 2300 more in queue. Most of these were confirmed using the now discontinued Kepler space telescope. It’s remarkable how much scientists can find out about a distant plant, hundreds of light years away, simply […]

Perpetual motion machines still an impossibility - even in the quantum world

New research shows that negative absolute temperatures and perpetual motion machines are still out of reach, no matter how you tackle it, and no matter how small you try to make it. The concept of a perpetual motion machine has been an enticing one since it was first thought of. Unfortunately, it’s doomed to fail […]

New graphene treatment may help the wonder material turn mainstream

Graphene, a 2-D array of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagon shape, is one of the most researched material today. We’ve written extensively before about its properties and uses, and indeed the future seems to belong to graphene where it’s sure to dominate the electronics industry. Before this can happen, however, graphene production and manipulation […]

Our Universe may be just a Hologram, complex simulations show

In a black hole, Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity clashes with quantum physics; for decades, scientists have tried to find a way to bridge the cap between these monumental theories, but so far, they simply seem irreconcilable. But the conflict could be solved if our Universe were in fact a holographic projection. String theory, dimensions […]

In a Rainbow Universe, time may have no beginning

It’s one of the most alluring but hard to prove (and unlikely) theories: a Rainbow Universe. A Universe in which time simply stretches back indefinitely, without a big bang to start things off, simply with no beginning – something pretty hard to fathom. The name comes from the so-called Rainbow Gravity; basically gravity’s effects on […]

New theory suggests quantum entanglement and wormholes are linked together

One of the predictions derived from Einsten’s theory of general relativity is the existence of wormholes – spacetime shortcuts. In theory such bridges may offer instantaneous travel between the two bridgeheads or wormholes even if these are light-years away from each other. Two independent studies suggest that there’s a link between quantum entanglement and wormholes, […]

Developing a flying, jellyfish-like machine

It’s been previously shown that the jellyfish are the world’s most efficient swimmers, and researchers wanted to see if they could implement some of its features into a flying machine. New York University researchers have built a small vehicle whose flying motion resembles the movements of a jellyfish – possibly paving the way for small […]

Harvard and MIT scientists create photon molecules

Photons and molecules Scientists managed to ‘trick’ photons (the elementary particles of light and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation) into forming molecules for the first time – a state of matter that until recently had been purely theoretical. Scientists from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are challenging the current paradigm […]

New technique that allows self-soldering of carbon nanotubes may help replace silicon transistors

Carbon nanotubes and graphene have been hailed time and again as the wonder materials that will change the face of technology in the future. Before silicon can be dethroned from its reigning position, however, a lot of manufacturing issues need to be addressed. A new technique developed by researchers at University of Illinois provides a […]

Armada of instruments witness the brightest cosmic event of the century: the birth of a black hole

Astronomers all over the world rejoiced recently after they were treated to a most privileged event. Using the RAPTOR (RAPid Telescopes for Optical Response) system in New Mexico and Hawaii, in conjunction with the most sophisticated observatories in the world, researchers witnessed what may be the most brightest event this century: an extreme flash of light […]

New research could totally change the way organic solar cells are made

Stanford researchers claim the inherent disordered molecular structure of polymer semiconductors is actually desirable. Current organic solar cells made with semiconducting polymers try to mimic orderly silicon structures as much as possible; this direction of research may be fundamentally wrong according to the Stanford researchers. A balance between molecular order and disorder at the polymer […]

Storing one bit per atom: more storage power and closer to quantum computers

There’s only so much you can cram into conventional magnetic storage devices. We’re already seeing these slowly, but surely lose ground in the face of solid-state drives, which offer more storage density and don’t have any moving parts (last longer, make no noise, etc.). What about even further ahead in the future? Well, it’s most […]

Accidental exposure of crystal to light increases electrical conductivity 400 fold

A team of researchers at Washington State University achieved a dramatic 400 fold increase in electrical conductivity for a crystal after it was accidentally left exposed to light one day. This readings are attributed to photoconductivity, a phenomenon which causes a material to become more electrically conductive due to the absorption of electromagnetic radiation such as […]

Mathematical equation helps predict calamities, financial crashes or epilepsy seizures

In science we have what are called “laws”, be them Newton’s Laws of Motion or Archimedes’ Principle, because these mathematical expressions describe systems in a rigid set of boundaries, essentially helping predict how these systems will behave in the future. What about overly complex, highly dynamic systems; could we use a single mathematical equation to […]

Forget incandescent light bulbs, make way for quantum dot LEDs

Capable of illuminating in a wide array of pure colors and operating at high efficiency, quantum dot LEDs are set to become the future’s foremost illuminating medium. However, at this time, these fantastic quantum dot light emitting diodes are limited by a physical effect which triggers after a certain photon barrier is crossed, becoming highly […]

MIT 'DarkLight' experiment seeks to create dark matter in the lab

Mysterious and elusive, dark matter has escaped scientists time and time again; yet confirming its existence is quintessential to current efforts of studying the Universe. With this in mind, detecting dark matter has become one of the foremost goals in the physics of the 21st century. An experiment at MIT, called DarkLight, aims to prove […]

World record wireless transmission of 100 Gbit/s achieved

German researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have achieved a new world record for wireless data transmission after they successfully reached  100 gigabits/second over a distance of 20 meters and  at a frequency of 237.5 GHz. This translates into a  transfer rate of 12.5 gigabytes per second – equivalent to exchanging the contents of a blue-ray disk or […]

MIT readies neutron microscope - new kind of imaging

A joint project between scientists at NASA and MIT is focusing on creating a new kind of microscope that uses neutrons instead of beams of light or electrons to create high-resolution images. Since the subatomic particles are electrically neutral, such a microscope would allow scientists to peer through places otherwise inaccessible today, like inside metals […]

Researchers make Mars clouds on Earth

Researchers at MIT have recreated Mars-like conditions within a three-story-tall cloud chamber in Germany, adjusting the temperature and humidity to match those on Mars – basically creating Martian clouds. Judging by the images Curiosity has sent us, Martian clouds look quite similar to ours – the gauzy, high-altitude wisps look a lot like the cirrus […]

2013 Nobel prize in physics awarded to 'God particle' scientists: Peter Higgs and Francois Englert

Just a few moments ago, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics to Francois Englert and Peter Higgs on Tuesday for their 1964 postulation of the existence of the Higgs boson. The elementary particle was finally confirmed in 2012 by a team of international researchers using the Large Hadron Collider […]

Why a jellyfish is the ocean's most efficient swimmer [with video]

Jellyfish are really impressive creatures, for all their simplicity; now, a new research has shown that the elastic body allows moon jellyfish to travel extra distance at no energy cost. The sockeye salmon is a sleek, muscular torpedo which rams up waterfalls. The jellyfish is a blob, drifting on aimlessly in the oceans. Obviously, the […]

Closer then ever to nuclear fusion, according to physicists

Physicists have been dreaming of achieving controlled nuclear fusion for decades, and year by year we’ve been getting closer to turning it into reality. A recent paper published in the journal Physics of Plasmas reports improvements in the design of an experimental set-up capable of igniting a self-sustained fusion reaction with high yields of energy. Researchers at […]

4D printing may pave way for a new kind of smart materials

A team of scientists, part of a collaborative effort involving multiple Universities from the U.S., are proposing to take 3D printing one step further by adding a new dimension – time. Their work involves building a new class of materials that can morph, change their physical properties and functionality over time based on external stimuli […]

The Leidenfrost effect and a cool water maze

Last week we showed you some great fluid dynamics at work – water bridges between two beakers connected to high voltage current. Water and fluids in particular sometimes behave in amazing ways under certain conditions. Today, I’d like to show another dazzling display: the Leidenfrost effect. This is a phenomenon that occurs when liquid, say […]

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