Physics
- Chemistry
This rewritable paper depends on disappearing ink
Scientists have made a new rewritable paper that can hold text and images for at least six months. It also can be reused more than 100 times.
- Physics
Much of a proton’s mass comes from the energy of the particles inside it
Thanks, Einstein! Your famous E=mc2 formula now explains much of a proton’s ‘mass.’ Its building-block quarks make up just a small part of its left, calculations now show.
- Tech
Electro-tweezers let scientists safely probe cells
These nanotweezers can sample the innards of cells without killing them. They use an electric field to net materials for study. And they are gentle enough to repeatedly probe the same cell.
- Animals
How wombats make their unique cube-shaped poop
The elasticity of the wombat’s intestines helps the creature to shape its distinctive scat.
- Animals
How do elephants eat cereal? With a pinch
Elephant trunks can grab everything from whole trees to cereal bits. To pick up fine grains, they press, then pinch.
- Materials Science
Some plastics learn to repair themselves
A new material can fix its own scratches and small cracks. One day, it also may make self-healing paints and plastics possible.
- Physics
Harry Potter can apparate. Can you?
In the world of Harry Potter, wizards apparate and disapparate with ease. How would that work in the non-magical world? Physics has some answers.
- Physics
Scientists vote to fix the world’s weight-loss problem
Scientists will soon vote to change the definition of the kilogram. The event shows how much we depend on a tiny metal cylinder locked in an underground vault in France.
- Tech
Super-water-repellent surfaces can generate energy
Scientists knew they could get power by running salt water over an electrically charged surface. But making that surface super-water-repellent boosts that energy production, new data show.
- Fossils
T. rex pulverized bones with an incredible amount of force
Tyrannosaurus rex’s powerful bite and remarkably strong teeth helped the dinosaur crush bones.
- Space
Scientists Say: Multiverse
The multiverse is an idea that there are many universes out there, including the one we live in. Each universe has an alternate reality.
- Space
Only a small fraction of space has been searched for aliens
In their hunt for extraterrestrial intelligence, SETI searches have only scouted an area the equivalent of a hot tub out of Earth’s oceans, a new calculation indicates.
