Feature Stories

Researchers fold origami with light

(Phys.org) -- Replacing the need for nimble fingers, researchers have demonstrated how to make origami using light of a specific wavelength. They call the new folding technique photo-origami, and it could ...

Physics / General Physics

created May 10, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast feature

Two stopped light pulses interact with each other

(Phys.org) -- For the first time, physicists have experimentally demonstrated the interaction of two motionless light pulses. Because the stopped light pulses have a long interaction time, it increases the ...

Physics / General Physics

created May 08, 2012 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (16) | comments 8 | with audio podcast feature

Statistical analysis could predict bankrupt stocks

(Phys.org) -- During the 20-year period from 1989 to 2008, 21% of of all stocks listed in US stock markets became bankrupt. Since bankruptcies affect many investors and have played a large role in the recent ...

Other Sciences / Economics & Business

created May 03, 2012 | popularity 3.3 / 5 (7) | comments 9 | with audio podcast feature

The shape of things, illuminated: Metamaterials, surface topology and light-matter interactions

(Phys.org) -- Finding new connections between different disciplines leads to new – and sometimes useful – ideas. That’s exactly what happened when scientists in the Department of Physics, Queens College, ...

Physics / General Physics

created Apr 28, 2012 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (7) | comments 1 | with audio podcast feature

Does the quantum wave function represent reality?

(Phys.org) -- At the heart of quantum mechanics lies the wave function, a probability function used by physicists to understand the nanoscale world. Using the wave function, physicists can calculate a system's ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Apr 25, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (38) | comments 136 | with audio podcast feature

Quantum dot LEDs get brighter, more efficient

(Phys.org) -- While quantum dot-based light-emitting diodes (QLEDs) are not made of organic materials, they share many of the same advantages as organic LEDs (OLEDs). For instance, both QLEDs and OLEDs outshine ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Apr 20, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (14) | comments 11 | with audio podcast feature

Adam's rib, revisited: Evolutionary divergence of mammalian sex chromosomes

(Phys.org) -- Males and females... Mars and Venus... XY and XX chromosomes -- all are common memes. At the same time, the evolution of therian (placental and marsupial) sex chromosomes is less widely understood. ...

Biology / Evolution

created Apr 18, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (14) | comments 18 | with audio podcast feature

Retroreflector transmits light with negligible power consumption

(Phys.org) -- In free-space optical communications (FSO), data is wirelessly transmitted by light propagating through open space. Among their applications, FSO systems are used for communications between spacecraft ...

Technology / Engineering

created Apr 17, 2012 | popularity 3.3 / 5 (6) | comments 2 | with audio podcast feature

Trade-off coding for quantum communication provides more benefits than previously thought

(Phys.org) -- In optical communication systems, the overall performance depends on the strategy used to transmit photons from one location to another. In previous attempts to optimize this performance, scientists ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Apr 16, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (9) | comments 0 | with audio podcast feature

143 is largest number yet to be factored by a quantum algorithm

(Phys.org) -- While factoring an integer is a simple problem when the integer is small, the complexity of factorization greatly increases as the integer increases. When the integer grows to more than 100,000 ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Apr 11, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (19) | comments 10 | with audio podcast feature

Particles magnetically 'click' to form superstructures

(Phys.org) -- Geomag, the popular children's toy, contains small metal spheres that can be magnetically connected with a click to build a variety of towers, bridges, and sculptures. In a new study, scientists ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Apr 10, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 1 | with audio podcast feature

Lenses can bend light and sound in almost any direction

(PhysOrg.com) -- When an optical fiber is bent by 90° or more, the light begins to leak away, posing a problem for fiber optics communications. But by using special lenses that can bend light by not only ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Apr 02, 2012 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (12) | comments 17 | with audio podcast feature

Noxious nanotech: Water-borne nanomaterials promote multidrug-resistance gene transfer

(PhysOrg.com) -- The arms race between effective antibiotic prophylaxis and closely related strains or species of bacteria is continually escalating. Bacteria can quickly develop genetic resistance to a range ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Mar 30, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast feature

Scientists investigate mystery of telephone cord buckles

(PhysOrg.com) -- Ranging in thickness from a few nanometers to several micrometers, thin films and coatings play a role in a wide variety of applications. The reflective metal layer on a mirror, the coatings ...

Physics / General Physics

created Mar 27, 2012 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (4) | comments 4 | with audio podcast feature

Physicists search for new physics in primordial quantum fluctuations

(PhysOrg.com) -- Inflation, the brief period that occurred less than a second after the Big Bang, is nearly as difficult to fathom as the Big Bang itself. Physicists calculate that inflation lasted for just ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Mar 26, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (25) | comments 99 | with audio podcast feature