http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers are developing new technologies that combine a laser and electric fields to manipulate fluids and tiny particles such as bacteria, viruses and DNA for a range of potential applications, from drug manufacturing to food safety. http://phys.org/news229087545.html Nanotechnology Tue, 05 Jul 2011 12:26:11 EST news229087545 Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a powerful tool for chemical analysis and, in the form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), an indispensable technique for medical diagnosis. But its uses have been limited by the need for strong magnetic fields and big, expensive, superconducting magnets. Now Berkeley Lab scientists and their colleagues have demonstrated that they can do NMR in a zero magnetic field without using any magnets at all. http://phys.org/news224916059.html Physics Wed, 18 May 2011 05:42:31 EST news224916059 Some planets that roam the galaxy without a star to call home still may be able to host life. Finding such rogue planets is difficult, but new research suggests these wandering worlds could be detected by their atmospheric auroras. http://phys.org/news224431856.html Space & Earth Thu, 12 May 2011 16:40:01 EST news224431856 A new analysis of data from NASA's Galileo spacecraft has revealed that beneath the surface of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io is an "ocean" of molten or partially molten magma. http://phys.org/news224426940.html Space & Earth Thu, 12 May 2011 14:00:12 EST news224426940 A Purdue University researcher has found a way to eliminate bacteria in packaged foods such as spinach and tomatoes, a process that could eliminate worries concerning some food-borne illnesses. http://phys.org/news155230070.html Chemistry Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:28:11 EST news155230070 (PhysOrg.com) -- Neutral atoms--having no net electric charge--usually don't act very dramatically around a magnetic field. But by “dressing them up” with light, researchers at the Joint Quantum Institute, a collaborative venture of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Maryland at College Park, have caused ultracold rubidium atoms to undergo a startling transformation. http://phys.org/news154769672.html Physics Wed, 25 Feb 2009 07:36:38 EST news154769672 (PhysOrg.com) -- The rotating black hole has been described as one of nature's most perfect objects. As described by the Kerr solution of Einstein's gravitational field equations, its spacetime geometry is completely characterized by only two numbers — mass and spin — and is sometimes described by the aphorism "black holes have no hair.'' http://phys.org/news154627589.html Physics Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:06:59 EST news154627589 (PhysOrg.com) -- Launched in September of 2007, and propelled by any one of a trio of hyper-efficient ion engines, NASA's Dawn spacecraft passed the orbit of Mars last summer. At that time, the asteroid belt (where Dawn's two targets, asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres reside), had never been closer. In early July the spacecraft began to lose altitude, falling back towards the inner solar system. Then on October 31, 2008, after 270 days of almost continuous thrusting, the ion drive turned off. http://phys.org/news153759402.html Space & Earth Fri, 13 Feb 2009 14:57:28 EST news153759402 (PhysOrg.com) -- ESA is now gearing up to return to Russia to oversee preparations for the launch of its GOCE satellite - now envisaged for launch on 16 March 2009. This follows implementation of the corrective measures after the anomaly with the Rockot launcher that delayed the launch of GOCE by Eurockot Launch Services last October. http://phys.org/news152966011.html Space & Earth Wed, 04 Feb 2009 10:34:10 EST news152966011 The antiepileptic drug vigabatrin (VGB) has been shown to be one of the best treatments against a special form of epilepsy in infants, called infantile spasm. However, its use has been limited in many countries because it has been shown to cause a permanent narrowing of visual fields in approximately 40 percent of adults who have been exposed at school age or later. A new study published in Epilepsia examined school-aged children who had been treated with VGB in infancy. The findings showed normal visual fields in 15 of the 16 children studied children. http://phys.org/news152811904.html Medicine & Health Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:45:50 EST news152811904 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have discovered that a carefully built magnetic sandwich that interleaves layers of a magnetic alloy with a few nanometers of silver “spacer” has dramatically enhanced sensitivity—a 400-fold improvement in some cases. This material could lead to greatly improved magnetic sensors for a wide range of applications from weapons detection and non-destructive testing to medical devices and high-performance data storage. http://phys.org/news152380708.html Physics Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:58:58 EST news152380708 (PhysOrg.com) -- Your refrigerator’s humming, electricity-guzzling cooling system could soon be a lot smaller, quieter and more economical thanks to an exotic metal alloy discovered by an international collaboration working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)’s Center for Neutron Research (NCNR).* http://phys.org/news152380484.html Physics Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:55:15 EST news152380484 (PhysOrg.com) -- MIT physicists have discovered that several high-temperature superconductors display patchwork quilt-like variations at the atomic scale, a surprising finding that could help scientists understand a new class of unconventional materials. http://phys.org/news152379510.html Physics Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:39:03 EST news152379510 (PhysOrg.com) -- A joint team of researchers at CIC nanoGUNE (San Sebastian, Spain) and the Max Planck Institutes of Biochemistry and Plasma Physics (Munich, Germany) report the non-invasive and nanoscale resolved infrared mapping of strain fields in semiconductors. The method, which is based on near-field microscopy, opens new avenues for analyzing mechanical properties of high-performance materials or for contact-free mapping of local conductivity in strain-engineered electronic devices (Nature Nanotechnology, advanced online publication, 11 Jan. 2009). http://phys.org/news151930864.html Nanotechnology Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:01:37 EST news151930864 (PhysOrg.com) -- After announcing last April a method for growing exceptionally long, straight, numerous and well-aligned carbon cylinders only a few atoms thick, a Duke University-led team of chemists has now modified that process to create exclusively semiconducting versions of these single-walled carbon nanotubes. http://phys.org/news151762245.html Nanotechnology Wed, 21 Jan 2009 12:11:23 EST news151762245 It has been known for some time that plants respond to environmental cues that guide their flowering. Chief among these signals are light, temperature and vernalization, when flowering is promoted by prolonged exposure to cold temperatures. http://phys.org/news151251480.html Biology Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:18:00 EST news151251480 (PhysOrg.com) -- A joint team of researchers at CIC nanoGUNE (San Sebastian, Spain) and the Max Planck Institutes of Biochemistry and Plasma Physics (Munich, Germany) report the non-invasive and nanoscale resolved infrared mapping of strain fields in semiconductors. The method, which is based on near-field microscopy, opens new avenues for analyzing mechanical properties of high-performance materials or for contact-free mapping of local conductivity in strain-engineered electronic devices (Nature Nanotechnology, advanced online publication, 11 Jan. 2009). http://phys.org/news150998994.html Nanotechnology Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:09:54 EST news150998994 The Nasca civilization is perhaps best known for the drawings its people etched onto the desert floor in southwest Peru, a massive and mysterious body of simple and intricate works that span several hundred square miles. http://phys.org/news150654634.html Other Sciences Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:30:34 EST news150654634 Observing and betting on cricket fights has been part of Chinese cultural tradition since at least the Sung Dynasty (A.D. 960-1278). This ancient practice has resulted in quite a detailed list of characteristics that Chinese practitioners think make for champion fighters. "Because money was involved, there was a strong incentive for the practitioners of this sport to observe their cricket fighters closely," says Kevin Judge, a biology postdoctoral researcher at University of Toronto Mississauga. http://phys.org/news150541753.html Biology Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:09:13 EST news150541753 (PhysOrg.com) -- Observing and betting on cricket fights has been part of Chinese cultural tradition since at least the Sung Dynasty (A.D. 960-1278). This ancient practice has resulted in a detailed list of characteristics that Chinese practitioners think make for champion fighters. “Because money was involved, there was a strong incentive for the practitioners of this sport to observe their cricket fighters closely,” says Kevin Judge, a biology postdoctoral researcher at U of T Mississauga. http://phys.org/news150396535.html Biology Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:48:55 EST news150396535 The mystery of why ancient South American peoples who created the mysterious Nazca Lines also collected human heads as trophies has long puzzled scholars who theorize the heads may have been used in fertility rites, taken from enemies in battle or associated with ancestor veneration. http://phys.org/news150373491.html Other Sciences Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:24:51 EST news150373491 A team of engineers at Singapore's Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R) has created a white-space sensing device that has received approval for further development by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). http://phys.org/news149180778.html Technology Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:06:18 EST news149180778 (PhysOrg.com) -- Earth's magnetic field, which shields our planet from particles streaming outward from the Sun, often develops two holes that allow the largest leaks, according to researchers sponsored by NASA and the National Science Foundation. http://phys.org/news148665600.html Space & Earth Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:00:00 EST news148665600 (PhysOrg.com) -- Not much is known about the Earth before 4 billion years ago, the earliest period in the planet’s 4.5-billion-year history. Because Earth has lost almost all geological records of this era from its surface, it’s often considered the planet’s dark ages. http://phys.org/news147960214.html Space & Earth Mon, 08 Dec 2008 12:03:34 EST news147960214 (PhysOrg.com) -- Sometimes physicists resort to tried and trusted model-making tricks. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research, the University of Stuttgart and the Colorado School of Mines have constructed micromachines using the same trick that model makers use to get ships into a bottle where the masts and rigging of the sailing ship are not erected until it is in the bottle. In the same way, the scientists link the valves, pumps and stirrers of a microlaboratory to create a micro device on a chip. To do this, they introduce colloidal particles - tiny magnetizable plastic spheres - as components into the channels on the chip. A rotating magnetic field is used to link the components into larger aggregates and set them into motion as micromachines. (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), December 2, 2008) http://phys.org/news147443726.html Physics Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:35:26 EST news147443726 How marine animals find their way back to their birthplace to reproduce after migrating across thousands of miles of open ocean has mystified scientists for more than a century. But marine biologists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill think they might finally have unraveled the secret. http://phys.org/news147374782.html Biology Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:26:22 EST news147374782 Researchers in Ohio and France have solved a longstanding scientific mystery involving magnetic resonance -- the physical phenomenon that allows MRI instruments in modern hospitals to image tissues deep within the human body. Their discovery, a new mathematical algorithm, should lead to new MRI techniques with more informative and sharper images. http://phys.org/news146838211.html Physics Tue, 25 Nov 2008 12:23:31 EST news146838211 A new study from Georgia Tech shows that when patients with macular degeneration focus on using another part of their retina to compensate for their loss of central vision, their brain seems to compensate by reorganizing its neural connections. Age–related macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. The study appears in the December edition of the journal Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience. http://phys.org/news146409395.html Medicine & Health Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:16:35 EST news146409395 Physicists in the USA and at the London Centre for Nanotechnology have found a way to extend the quantum lifetime of electrons by more than 5,000 per cent, as reported in this week's Physical Review Letters. Electrons exhibit a property called 'spin' and work like tiny magnets which can point up, down or a quantum superposition of both. The state of the spin can be used to store information and so by extending their life the research provides a significant step towards building a usable quantum computer. http://phys.org/news145938390.html Physics Sat, 15 Nov 2008 02:26:30 EST news145938390 (PhysOrg.com) -- This image gives the first clear view of the faint boundary of the Crab Nebula's X-ray-emitting pulsar wind nebula. The nebula is powered by a rapidly-rotating, highly-magnetized neutron star, or "pulsar" (white dot near the center). http://phys.org/news145202582.html Space & Earth Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:03:02 EST news145202582