Applied Physics

There is continual debate taking place over whether organisms are the result of intelligent design or evolution. The proponents of intelligent design believe that chance and selection are too casual and slow to allow complex new properties to arise. In par ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 16 2008 - 9:30am

Cutting Emissions With Improved Aerodynamics In Trucks

A lot of discussion on emissions revolves around mitigation rather than optimization but researchers at TU Delft have shown that creating an improved aerodynamic shape for truck trailers by mounting sideskirts can lead to a cut in fuel consumption and emis ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 17 2008 - 10:22am

Graphene Makes World's Smallest Transistor

In recent decades, manufacturers have added more and more components onto integrated circuits. As a result, the number of transistors and the power of these circuits have roughly doubled every two years. This has become known as Moore’s Law. But the abilit ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 17 2008 - 10:03pm

Star Wars Tech May Be Closer Than We Think

An exhibit developed by the Museum of Science, Boston, in collaboration with Lucasfilm, Ltd. explores the possibility that some of the robots, vehicles and devices of the Star Wars films are closer to reality than one might think. The exhibition, at the Fr ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 18 2008 - 12:18am

Self-Healing Ceramics Protect Against Radiation

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory found that the restless movement of oxygen atoms heals radiation-induced damage in the engineered ceramic yttria-stabilized zirconia. This may lead to development of radia ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 18 2008 - 6:17pm

It's I-LIMB Versus Fluidhand For The Prosthetic Hand World Title

Eighteen-year-old Sören Wolf was born with only one hand but when it comes to a prosthetic second one, he's enthusiastic about both the “i-LIMB” and the ”Fluidhand.” The new “i-LIMB” prosthetic hand developed and distributed by Scottish company “Touch ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 23 2008 - 1:47am

Stiction Nanotubes Mimic Van Der Waals Adhesion In Geckos

Nanotubes are the big hope for the first decade of the 21st century. They offer promise to produce a new class of composite materials that are stronger than conventional composites for use in aircraft and vehicles. Now researchers at Purdue University say ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 28 2008 - 6:28pm

Researchers Engineer World's Best Moisture Barrier For OLEDs, 1000X Better Than Current Methods

A breakthrough barrier technology from Singapore A*STAR’s Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) protects sensitive devices like organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and solar cells from moisture 1000 times more effectively than any other ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 29 2008 - 1:00am

Rydberg Constant Experiment May Be A Test For Quantum Theory

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Germany believe they can achieve a significant increase in the accuracy of one of the fundamental constants of nature by boosting an electr ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 29 2008 - 6:29pm

Nutcracker Man's Diet Was More Like Jell-O

New findings suggest that the ancient human “cousin” known as the “Nutcracker Man” wasn’t regularly eating anything like nuts after all. A University of Arkansas professor and his colleagues used a combination of microscopy and fractal analysis to examine ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 30 2008 - 12:27am