Physics

Controlling Bubbles in Boiling Water Could Make Power Plants More Efficient

The act of boiling water helps us brew coffee and cook pasta—and it’s also what fuels most of the world’s energy sources. But boiling is really all about the bubbles, and until now their formation had been seen as random and haphazard. MIT engineers say they can now control the formation of bubbles, which might…

Physics & Chemistry Alissa Walker Oct 28

A Tiny Silicon Disc Is the World’s Fastest Nanoscale Optical Switch

With the future of computing looking increasingly likely to become light-based, it pays to work out how to make the switching of light as efficient as possible. Enter tiny silicon discs, which have now been shown to be the fastest ever optical switches at the nanoscale. Created by a team of researchers from Lomonosov Moscow…

Physics & Chemistry Jamie Condliffe Oct 28

Watch a Sonic Tractor Beam Levitate a Helpless Ball

The tractor beam, a beloved staple of science fiction, has been inching closer and closer to reality. We’ve got physicists building optical beams that can pull micro-scale balls through water. NASA and Arx Pax (of “hoverboard” fame) are building a magnetic tractor beam that can control satellites. The latest incarnation of this Star Trek-inspired technology?…

Physics & Chemistry Maddie Stone Oct 27

A Simple Design Change Could Make a Thruster To Get Us to Mars

A Hall thruster is powering many of the satellites moving around Earth right now. It needs 100 million (yes, you read that right, 100 million) times less fuel than chemical thrusters. But it was never remotely sturdy enough to get anything to Mars—until now. The Road to Conventional Hall Thrusters Typical chemical thrusters are pretty…

Physics & Chemistry Esther Inglis-Arkell Oct 27

This Is Why Some Sand Dunes Sing

Certain sand dunes make their own desert music, singing, booming, or even “burping” — a naturally occurring musical instrument. Scientists have discovered that these distinct sounds are each created by different types of waves moving through the dunes. The 13th century explorer Marco Polo claimed in his writings that the sand dunes in the Gobi…

Physics & Chemistry Jennifer Ouellette Oct 27

It’s Body Length, Not Mass, That Lets the Cheetah Run So Fast

Cheetahs sprint at a blistering top speed of about 59 MPH, while the domestic cat runs at about 30 MPH, close to a blue whale’s 31 MPH, and a three-toed sloth runs less than one MPH. A new paper by a pair of French physicists concludes that it’s the body length, not the mass, of…

Biology Jennifer Ouellette Oct 23

How to Poison a Nuclear Reactor

The most famous disaster in the history of nuclear power was the result of many small problems—but perhaps the most important problem was the unrecognized presence of a “neutron poison.” On April 26, 1986, an accident occurred during a systems test at the Chernobyl Power Plant in Ukraine, involving an explosion and a 10-day outbreak…

Physics & Chemistry Esther Inglis-Arkell Oct 23

This Artist Painted Physicists Into a 3D Living Chalkboard

That’s not a painting or chalk drawing above, it’s a photograph of two painted physicists interacting in real time within a three-dimensional chalkboard “canvas” — and apart from cropping, it hasn’t had a lick of Photoshop. “What you see is photographs of real people covered in paint, even though your brain interprets them as two-dimensional…

Physics & Chemistry Jennifer Ouellette Oct 21

How We Figure Out the Composition of a Substance by Hurling Neutrons at It

Archaeologists can figure out how old a substance is by radiocarbon dating, but to do that they need to know what the substance is—and that’s not always clear. Radioactive material comes to the rescue again! Scientists have discovered or manufactured quite a few new elements by hurling neutrons at old elements. Along the way they…

Physics & Chemistry Esther Inglis-Arkell Oct 21

What Does it Take to Make the Blackest Black?

The ever-entertaining American Chemical Society gives us a run down on what black is, how very little black we see as we go about our lives, and what it takes to make real black. Black is the absence of light, but most of the time, the black we see is just the comparative absence of…

Physics & Chemistry Esther Inglis-Arkell Oct 20

Antioxidants Might Actually Make Cancer Worse

Antioxidants have made a fortune for the dietary supplement industry, but how many people really know what they are and why they’re supposedly good for you? One common claim is that the these molecules can protect you from cancer. This is supposedly because they can counteract other molecules known as “reactive oxygen species” or “free…

Health Victoria Sanz-Moreno — The Conversation Oct 20

Slow-Mo Footage Reveals How Balloons Burst in Two Different Ways

When a balloon bursts, it doesn’t just simply burst. New high-speed camera footage shows that they either snap cleanly open or become covered in many cracks, depending on the stresses within the skin. A team of researchers from Paris Diderot University have been analysing the exact ways in which balloons burst, inspired by footage of…

Physics & Chemistry Jamie Condliffe Oct 19

Watch the Laws of Physics Come to Life as Magnetic Putty Devours Everything

Silly putty is a pretty weird substance, but magnetic putty is like an alien life form. Not only can it be twisted, stretched, and compressed every which way, give this souped-up putty enough time and it’ll devour your magnetic objects like a voracious amoeba, all thanks to the laws of magnetism. Visual effects master Joey…

Physics & Chemistry Maddie Stone Oct 17

Far From Equilibrium Translates Turbulence Into Dance

Turbulent motion is a tricky concept to convey to the public without resorting to complicated mathematical equations. But what if you could take those abstract notions and turn them into a dance? Elizabeth Hicks is an astrophysicist with a PhD from the University of Chicago who founded her own nonprofit lab to explore the intersection…

Physics & Chemistry Jennifer Ouellette Oct 16

How Many Laser Pointers Would It Take to Kill a Human?

Everybody knows not to shine laser pointers in your eye. They could damage your vision! (Emphasis on could, since your eye’s blink reflex would probably protect your retina.) But what if you were an evil villain determined to make a death ray? How many laser pointers would it take to create a deadly weapon? This…

Physics & Chemistry Adam Clark Estes Oct 15

How to Use Magnets to Trap a Skittering Droplet of Liquid Oxygen

A liquid oxygen droplet flattens, rushes back and forth, and then seems to be caught in an invisible trap in the above video. Why does this happen? There are two phenomena at work here: the Leidenfrost effect and paramagnetism. You’re most likely to see the Leidenfrost effect at breakfast, when you heat up a pan…

Physics & Chemistry Esther Inglis-Arkell Oct 14

Californium: The Element That Kickstarts Nuclear Reactors

This element is one of many first made at UC Berkeley in the 1950s. Unlike most manufactured elements, though, this one is actually useful. This is how it starts up nuclear reactions. Researchers first made californium in 1950. They didn’t make much. The first cube of the element had sides 27 nanometers long. A human…

Physics & Chemistry Esther Inglis-Arkell Oct 13

How Is It Possible That Galaxies Are Moving Away From Us Faster Than the Speed of Light?

According to Albert Einstein, the speed of light is an absolute constant beyond which nothing can move faster. So, how can galaxies be traveling faster than the speed of light if nothing is supposed to be able to break this cosmic speed limit? I’m a little world of contradictions. “Not even light itself can escape…

Space & Spaceflight Fraser Cain—Universe Today Oct 13

Behold the Mysterious Beauty of a Black Hole Collision

Toss a pebble in a pond and watch the tiny ripples radiate outwards. The waves you’ve created bear striking resemblance to another phenomenon, one taking place trillions of miles away at the center of a distant galaxy. The difference is, when two black holes collide, their impact surges across the fabric of spacetime itself. Black…

Physics & Chemistry Maddie Stone Oct 11

Watch Water Get Tied in a Knot

How do you tie water in a knot? First you make parts of it into vortices, which move more like long continuous strings than groups of autonomous molecules. Then you need to tangle those strings together. Scientists have known that water can be tied in a knot for some time, and actually succeeded in “tying…

Physics & Chemistry Esther Inglis-Arkell Oct 9

Controlling Bubbles in Boiling Water Could Make Power Plants More Efficient

A Tiny Silicon Disc Is the World’s Fastest Nanoscale Optical Switch

Watch a Sonic Tractor Beam Levitate a Helpless Ball

A Simple Design Change Could Make a Thruster To Get Us to Mars

This Is Why Some Sand Dunes Sing

It’s Body Length, Not Mass, That Lets the Cheetah Run So Fast

How to Poison a Nuclear Reactor

This Artist Painted Physicists Into a 3D Living Chalkboard

How We Figure Out the Composition of a Substance by Hurling Neutrons at It

What Does it Take to Make the Blackest Black?

Antioxidants Might Actually Make Cancer Worse

Slow-Mo Footage Reveals How Balloons Burst in Two Different Ways

Watch the Laws of Physics Come to Life as Magnetic Putty Devours Everything

Far From Equilibrium Translates Turbulence Into Dance

How Many Laser Pointers Would It Take to Kill a Human?

How to Use Magnets to Trap a Skittering Droplet of Liquid Oxygen

Californium: The Element That Kickstarts Nuclear Reactors

How Is It Possible That Galaxies Are Moving Away From Us Faster Than the Speed of Light?

Behold the Mysterious Beauty of a Black Hole Collision

Watch Water Get Tied in a Knot

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