Applied Physics

I'm Forever Imploding Bubbles- New Sensor Measures Localized Ultrasonic Cavitation

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) has developed the first sensor capable of measuring localized ultrasonic cavitation – the implosion of bubbles in a liquid when a high frequency sound wave is applied. The sensor will help hospitals ensure that their ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 7 2009 - 9:20am

Your Future Computer Memory, Courtesy Of Magnetic Vortex Chirality?

Researchers at the University of Arkansas have shown that changing the chirality, or direction of spin, of a nanoscale magnetic vortex creates an electric pulse, suggesting that such a pulse might be of use in creating computer memory and writing informati ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 8 2009 - 9:22pm

'Near-Field' Radiation Therapy For Overheating Laptops

Our modern age has become accustomed to regular improvements in information technology, says Slava Rotkin, but these advances do not come without a cost. Take the laptop, for example. Its components, especially its billions of semiconductor electronic circ ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 13 2009 - 1:31pm

No More Long Boot Times- 'Instant On' Computing Thanks To Ferroelectric Materials

The ferroelectric materials found in today's "smart cards" used in subway, ATM and fuel cards soon may eliminate the time-consuming booting and rebooting of computer operating systems by providing an "instant-on" capability as well ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 17 2009 - 3:41pm

Discovery- Waltzing Algae (Or Minueting Volvox, If You Prefer)

Scientists at Cambridge University have discovered that freshwater algae can form stable groupings in which they dance around each other, miraculously held together only by the fluid flows they create. Their research was published today in Physical Review ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 20 2009 - 9:48am

Photoelectric Effect- At Short Wavelengths And Very High Intensities, Things Get Even Weirder

By way of the classical photoeffect, Einstein proved in 1905 that light also has particle character. However, with extremely high light intensities, remarkable things happen in the process, say scientists of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 24 2009 - 11:06am

Sensors In Your Skin?

(Sensors in the skin- does that sound like Frank Sinatra singing?) Of the professors at Reading University, perhaps the one with the highest media profile is Kevin Warwick, well known for planting microchips inside himself as signalling devices. However, ...

Article - Robert H Olley - Apr 25 2009 - 10:13pm

Solve The Mystery Of Chalk And Make Someone Else Billions Of Dollars

A piece of chalk in a laboratory at the University of Stavanger in Norway may be the key to unlocking a great mystery. If the mystery is solved, it will generate billions in additional income.  Okay, it will be billions of dollars  for the oil industry and ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 26 2009 - 1:13am

How Better Pizza Led To Better Micro Motors

If pizza isn't already on the list of 7 greatest inventions of the post-modern world (because nothing goes with wanting to strangle someone who invokes Foucault like a nice slice of pepperoni) a new discovery may put it there; the physics of the perfe ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 27 2009 - 4:32pm

Wait, This Maneuver In Top Gun Was Real?

Scott Altman is a pretty cool guy.   He's the commander of the Atlantis mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope (and, as noted previously, astronaut John Grunsfeld is also carrying along Edwin Hubble's basketball, another level of awesome) a ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - May 12 2009 - 5:34pm