Physics
- Animals
Snot may be key to dolphins’ tracking of prey
Dolphins produce clicking noises that bounce off of prey, like sonar, showing where they are. Mucus in the animals’ nasal passages may make that ‘sonar’ work.
- Physics
Scientists Say: Absolute zero
Even when we think it’s cold out, most molecules are moving. Only at absolute zero will all of their motions stop.
- Chemistry
Nanowires could lead to super-long-lived battery
Scientists have long been looking for ways to make rechargeable batteries that last forever. They now may be close. Their solution: gel-dipped nanowires.
- Earth
Cool Jobs: Getting to know volcanoes
It’s too hot to explore the insides of a volcano. These scientists examine their lava, their low-frequency rumblings and their ‘vog’.
- Animals
Insects can patch their broken ‘bones’
When insects suffer wounds, they can mend their ‘skeleton’ with a patch on the inside. This makes the leg strong again, new data show.
- Physics
Possibility of strange new particle surprises physicists
Last winter, physicists at the Large Hadron Collider detected hints of a particle beyond their wildest dreams. Soon they may learn if it’s real.
- Materials Science
How to make window ‘glass’ from wood
Scientists have come up with a way to make wood transparent. The new material could be used in everything from windows to packaging.
- Physics
Scientists Say: Frequency
The distance between one wave peak and another is wavelength. But how fast those peaks are moving along is frequency.
- Materials Science
Sunlight + gold = steaming water (no boiling needed)
Nano-gold is the new black, at least when it comes to absorbing heat. When tiny gold particles get together, they become energy super-absorbers — turning them black.
- Physics
Scientists Say: Yottawatt
On Earth, scientists measure energy use in watts. When you have lot of those watts — one million billion billion — you have a yottawatt.
- Computing
Feeling objects that aren’t there
A new technology uses high-frequency sound waves to create virtual objects you can feel. Its uses include better video games and safer driving.
- Health & Medicine
Why Paralympic sprinters have trouble with curves
Whether an artificial leg is on the right or left side of the body may affect how fast runners can take a turn.
