Experiments by Sam Dillavou and Shmuel Rubinstein at Harvard University have, for the first time, revealed that the friction between two surfaces has a “memory”. This means that the force can depend not only on the present state of the interface but also on how the interface has reached its current state. This new insight […]
Your smartphone has a particle detector on it, and scientists want you to help them uncover how the universe really works and maybe even discover the true nature of dark matter. There are just a few bugs to work out. High-energy particles from space, called cosmic rays, constantly bombard the Earth. There are all sorts […]
EPFL physicists have found a way to reverse electron spins using electric fields for the first time, paving the way for programmable spintronics technologies. Spintronics is a field of physics that studies the spin of electrons, an intrinsic type of magnetism that many elementary particles have. The field of spintronics has given rise to technological […]
We’ve seen supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies tearing stars to shreds. We’ve detected the energy wave from relatively tiny black holes slamming together to create a wobble in space-time a billion light-years away. But what about the medium-sized black holes in between these extremes? Scientists have been looking for such objects, and […]
Physicists working at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in the US say they have passed another important milestone in their quest for nuclear fusion energy. They have shown that the fusion energy generated by the laser implosion of a deuterium-tritium fuel capsule is twice that of the kinetic energy of the implosion. By further trebling […]
Physicists are both thrilled and baffled by a new report from a neutrino experiment at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago. The MiniBooNE experiment has detected far more neutrinos of a particular type than expected, a finding that is most easily explained by the existence of a new elementary particle: a “sterile” neutrino that’s […]
University of Virginia physicists have recently played key roles in new particle physics discoveries. The scientists are involved with large international collaborations using major facilities designed for expanding our knowledge of the most intimate details of how the smallest known pieces of atoms may have given birth to the universe. The research projects are led […]
You might have a pretty rigid understanding of the way stuff should look, at the most basic level. It should have a nucleus that is orbited by electrons. The nucleus should have protons and neutrons, inside each of which reside three quarks. But experiment and theory have demonstrated a quirky nature to the most basic […]
People can use it to summon tech support advisers on their Amazon devices within seconds, after all, and those reps can help people fix whatever issue they’re having through live video at the push of a button. While Amazon launched the feature with great fanfare, it’s now quietly sending it to its grave: Mayday will […]
Google has been hyping up augmented reality on the web, and it’s easy to understand why — it promises an immersive experience without requiring a special app. But what does that look like in practice? The company now has an easy way to find out. It recently released Chacmool, a previously seen tech demo for […]
China’s take-no-prisoners Big Tech war is playing out in An Huang’s little family grocery in Hangzhou, a three-hour drive southwest of Shanghai. What’s going on: A year ago, Huang and his father had a visit from representatives of Alibaba, China’s e-commerce giant. What did they think of transforming their dowdy place into a state-of-the-art, digitalized […]
A snout and two little black eyes pop out from the hole, too late: A foot already covers them and the hole will be quickly filled with dry ice. This new weapon in the hands of New York’s sanitation service spells certain death for the rat. Rick Simeone’s team is at work in Sara D. […]
