Applied Physics

How Lithium Batteries Degrade During Use

One thing that prevents cost-effective uptake of large-scale alternative energy, like solar and wind energy, is a lack of storage solutions. On the small scale, it is only an annoyance that battery technology has not really advanced in decades. One thing ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 18 2015 - 7:56am

How Water Learns To Dance

Perovskites are materials used in batteries, fuel cells, and electronic components, and occur in nature as minerals. Despite their important role in technology, little is known about the reactivity of their surfaces. How do water molecules behave when the ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 21 2015 - 3:40pm

It's Christmas Time...To Think About Temporality

Well, it’s that time of year again – and there it is; just four words into an article on Christmas I’ve used the word ‘time.’ Among the hodge-podge of rituals and holidays that survive in the post-Christian West, Christmas might just be the one that tells ...

Article - The Conversation - Dec 24 2015 - 10:00am

DIY Stereograph

In my previous article, Subscription Box Chemistry Set, I tested the Google Cardboard headset from the starter kit as a stereograph viewer with stereographs I found online. Unfortunately, the screen widths for my iPod and Android phone were too small to u ...

Article - Steve Schuler - Dec 30 2015 - 9:11am

Generating Electric Current Without Energy Consumption- At Room Temperature

Researchers have identified the requirements for the development of new types of extremely low power consumption electric devices by studying Cr-doped (Sb, Bi) 2 Te 3 thin films.  At extremely low temperatures, an electric current flows around the edge of ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 1 2016 - 2:08pm

Lift A Car With Two Phone Books

No matter how much force is applied (within reason, no hammer of Thor stuff) you can't separate two interleaved phone books by pulling on their spines. A new experiment shows it is even possible to suspend a car from them. Using a model that reproduce ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 9 2016 - 9:06am

New Type Of Nanowires, Built With Natural Gas

A new simple nanowire manufacturing technique uses self-catalytic growth process assisted by thermal decomposition of natural gas. According to the research team, this method is simple, reproducible, size-controllable, and cost-effective in that lithium-i ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 30 2016 - 9:59am

Why Diamonds Are More Of A Scientific Miracle Than You Think

Diamonds are made of carbon, graphite is also made of carbon. Both are natural, yet one is quite valuable and the other is a commodity. Because of basic similarities, everyone wants to know if the value and hype of diamonds are justified, especially when ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 4 2016 - 10:46am

LIGO, Gravitational Waves, And Laser Interferometry

UPDATE: LIGO has detected gravitational waves. ...

Article - Steve Schuler - Feb 11 2016 - 11:08am

Superconductivity Hypothesis Gets Some Experimental Confirmation

Superconductivity, a quantum phenomenon in which metals below a certain temperature develop flow of current with no loss or resistance, has been one of the most intriguing problems in physics, for over a century. First discovered in the element mercury in ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 6 2016 - 8:30am