An international team of high-energy physicists says the discovery of an electrically charged subatomic particle called Z_c(4020) is a sign that they have begun to unveil a whole new family of four-quark objects.  

The Beijing Spectrometer (BESIII) collaboration previously announced the discovery of a four-quark particle called Z_c(3900) in April of this year.  The results have come about through a dedicated study of the byproducts of the anomalous Y(4260) particle. 

Outside the companies getting subsidy money from the government, not many people like wind turbines.

You have seen lots of advertisements for causes or companies asking you to 'like' them on Facebook. In the world of pretend Internet money, a 'like' has value but charities know the cold, bleak truth; once people have taken the action you ask for, they feel like they have done their part for a long time, so asking for a 'like' or a 'Tweet' is going to cost a donation.

A new analysis from scholars at the University of British Columbia adds fuel to assertions that social media platforms are turning people into "slacktivists" by making it easy for them to feel like they associate with or have helped a cause without committing resources to support it. 

EcoBot, a robot that can function completely on its own by collecting waste and converting it into electricity, has an "engine room" that is modeled on the human heart.The artificial device incorporates shape memory alloys - smart materials - and has been tested,The results are in Bioinspiration and Biomimetics.

Researchers based at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, a joint venture between the University of the West of England and University of Bristol, have created four generations of EcoBots in the past 10 years, each of which is powered by electricity-generating microbial fuel cells that employ live microorganisms to digest waste organic matter and generate low-level power.

Astronomers viewing the asteroid belt with the Hubble Telescope havd found an asteroid with six comet-like tails of dust radiating from it like spokes on a wheel.

P/2013 P5 is different from all other known asteroids. It looks kind of like a rotating lawn sprinkler.

P/2013 P5 has been ejecting dust periodically for at least five months. Astronomers believe it is possible the asteroid's rotation rate increased to the point where its surface started flying apart. They do not believe the tails are the result of an impact with another asteroid because they have not seen a large quantity of dust blasted into space all at once.

Anyone who has watched water exit a toilet bowl has learned something about fluid dynamics. But you can learn a thing or two by watching the pee that goes into it also.

Boring physicists apply the equations of fluid motion to boring thing like a flag in the wind or river currents, the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics (DFD) meeting in Pittsburgh will make things a little more practical for home research.