Applied Physics

Origami Transformers? Programmable Matter May Be More Than Meets The Eye

Researchers at Harvard and MIT using what is called programmable matter have demonstrated how a single thin sheet composed of interconnected triangular sections could transform itself into a boat- or plane-shape, all without the help of people. They envisi ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 28 2010 - 5:02pm

The Physics Of The Vuvuzela

If you've watched any World Cup games so far (and a record 15 million in the US watched Saturday's match versus Ghana, so statistically, ummm, 50,000 people in our audience have watched at least one) you may have heard an omnipresent buzzing soun ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Feb 12 2012 - 10:45pm

Science Of Soccer Balls- Houston, We Have A Drag Crisis

It's World Cup time and that means sports fans worldwide are focused on important issues, like complaining about vuvuzelas and this year's soccer ball, the Jabulani, which will push fan and player hatred of the 2006 ball, Teamgeist, into the back ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Jul 1 2010 - 4:41pm

Creating 300 Tesla... Without Applying A Magnetic Field?

Researchers have reported the creation of pseudo-magnetic fields far stronger than the strongest magnetic fields ever sustained in a laboratory, just by putting the right kind of strain onto a patch of graphene. Graphene is a form of carbon that consists o ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 12 2010 - 5:50pm

Introducing The World's Smallest Mirror

Traditional mirrors work by directing the path of photons of light but atoms possessing a magnetic moment can likewise be controlled using a magnetic mirror.  A new study investigates the feasibility of using magnetic domain walls to direct and ultimately ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 10 2010 - 10:41am

After The Singularity, Music Quality Will Be Even Crappier Than It Is Now

I took a moment to look at Ray Kurzweil's response to PZ Myers' second-hand dissection of his talk at the Singularity Summit (1) I attended last weekend (see The Singularity Stole My ATM Card) because Andrea Kuszewki is on the case and trying to ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Aug 20 2010 - 5:14pm

Is It A Bird? A Plane? No, It's... A Fish

Fish in a wind tunnel?   How else will you learn how they fly? It turns out flying fish can remain airborne for over 40 seconds and cover distances of up to a quarter mile hitting a top speed up to 40 miles an hours, says Haecheon Choi, a mechanical engine ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 10 2010 - 2:44pm

World's Tiniest Refrigerator Is 1 Qutrit

In almost everything, size matters.  And usually, being bigger helps.   I don't know anyone who couldn't use a larger refrigerator but University of Bristol physicists have done the unthinkable and made the smallest refrigerator ever. ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 10 2010 - 11:47pm

Micro-Missiles?

Retirement in less than three week’s time!  What shall I sing?  How about this? And now the end is near And so I face the final curtain Well, that’s my second most hated song, suited either to a dictator facing trial at the International Criminal Court or ...

Article - Robert H Olley - Sep 11 2010 - 9:50am

E-Skin: Nanotechnology's Artificial Skin Breakthrough

Artificial skin, dubbed "e-skin" by the researchers, is the first such material made out of inorganic single crystalline semiconductors.  It's a pressure-sensitive electronic material made from semiconductor nanowires and this sort of touch- ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 13 2010 - 3:16pm