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. Network scientists at Northeastern University have created a mathematical model that can simulate human mobility over the course of several months or even years. http://phys.org/news203760886.html Other Sciences Wed, 15 Sep 2010 09:14:55 EST news203760886 A researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, together with Israeli and foreign collaborators, has revealed how physical qualities -- and not only chemical ones - may have an influence in determining how adult stem cells from the bone marrow develop into differentiated ones. This represents an important step in understanding the mechanisms that direct and regulate the specialization of stem cells from their undefined state. http://phys.org/news203076893.html Physics Tue, 07 Sep 2010 11:15:08 EST news203076893 Measurements taken* at the National Institute of Standards and Technology may help physicists develop a clearer understanding of high-temperature superconductors, whose behavior remains in many ways mysterious decades after their discovery. A new copper-based compound exhibits properties never before seen in a superconductor and could be a step toward solving part of the mystery. http://phys.org/news202562620.html Physics Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:23:53 EST news202562620 A team of researchers led by Dr. Hernan Makse, professor of physics at The City College of New York (CCNY), has shed new light on the way that information and infectious diseases proliferate across complex networks. Writing in Nature Physics, they report that, contrary to conventional wisdom, persons with the most connections are not necessarily the best spreaders. http://phys.org/news202139512.html Physics Sun, 29 Aug 2010 13:00:05 EST news202139512 Using powerful lasers, Hui Zhao, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Kansas, and graduate student Lalani Werake have discovered a new way to recognize currents of spinning electrons within a semiconductor. http://phys.org/news201873528.html Physics Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:59:07 EST news201873528 (PhysOrg.com) -- An old mathematical solution proposed as a prototype of the infamous ocean rogue waves responsible for many maritime catastrophes has been observed in a continuous physical system for the first time. http://phys.org/news201764943.html Physics Mon, 23 Aug 2010 06:49:40 EST news201764943 Quantum cryptography is the safest way to encrypt data. It utilizes the fact that transmitted information can only be measured with a strictly limited degree of precision. Scientists at Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich and ETH Zurich have now discovered how the use of a quantum memory affects this uncertainty. http://phys.org/news199443918.html Physics Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:30:01 EST news199443918 Researchers at Mathematics Research Centre and Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain) have discovered the mathematical relation between the number of hurricanes produced in certain parts of the planet and the energy they release. The distribution is valid for all series of hurricanes under study, independent of when and where they occurred. The research, which will be published on sunday online edition of Nature Physics, suggests that the evolution of hurricane intensity will be very difficult to predict. http://phys.org/news198147850.html Physics Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:40:01 EST news198147850 An international group of physicists from the University of Augsburg in Germany, the University of Florida in Gainesville, and the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen have succeeded in creating a theoretical modelling of the microscopic defects in superconductors and in discovering the main cause for the drastic drop in the electric current. The results have been published in the internationally recognized scientific journal, Nature Physics. http://phys.org/news197901636.html Physics Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:41:32 EST news197901636 Scientists at JILA, working with Italian theorists, have discovered another notable similarity between ultracold atomic gases and high-temperature superconductors, suggesting there may be a relatively simple shared explanation for equivalent behaviors of the two very different systems. http://phys.org/news197806277.html Physics Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:11:36 EST news197806277 When high-temperature superconductors were first announced in the late 1980s, it was thought that they would lead to ultra-efficient magnetic trains and other paradigm-shifting technologies. http://phys.org/news196855931.html Physics Sun, 27 Jun 2010 13:00:26 EST news196855931 Researchers have discovered precisely why strands of some fluids containing long molecules called polymers form beads when stretched, findings that could be used to improve industrial processes and for administering drugs in "personalized medicine." http://phys.org/news195320293.html Physics Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:38:49 EST news195320293 Internet, networks of connections between Hollywood actors, etc, are examples of complex networks, whose properties have been intensively studied in recent times. The small-world property (that everyone has a few-step connection to celebrities), for instance, is a prominent result derived in this field. A group of scientists around Professor Cirac, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (Germany), has now introduced complex networks in the microscopic, so called, quantum regime (Nature Physics, Advanced Online Publication). http://phys.org/news194080900.html Physics Wed, 26 May 2010 08:22:02 EST news194080900 (PhysOrg.com) -- Information processing circuits in digital computers are static. In our brains, information processing circuits—neurons—evolve continuously to solve complex problems. Now, an international research team from Japan and Michigan Technological University has created a similar process of circuit evolution in an organic molecular layer that can solve complex problems. This is the first time a brain-like "evolutionary circuit" has been realized. http://phys.org/news191249136.html Physics Sun, 25 Apr 2010 13:00:08 EST news191249136 (PhysOrg.com) -- As a way to simplify lab-on-a-chip devices that could offer quicker, cheaper and more portable medical tests, University of Michigan researchers have created microfluidic integrated circuits. http://phys.org/news191093935.html Physics Wed, 21 Apr 2010 18:39:19 EST news191093935 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers from Imperial College London have created a structure that acts like a single pole of a magnet, a feat that has evaded scientists for decades. The researchers say their new Nature Physics study takes them a step closer to isolating a 'magnetic monopole.' http://phys.org/news190318257.html Physics Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:11:21 EST news190318257 (PhysOrg.com) -- Superconductors, the wonder materials that transport electricity without any resistance or energy loss, appear to be more complex than previously thought, according to research published online this week in Nature Physics by scientists at the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science, a joint institute of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University. http://phys.org/news189798601.html Physics Tue, 06 Apr 2010 18:50:21 EST news189798601 Rainer Blatt's and Piet Schmidt's research team from the University of Innsbruck have successfully realized a single-atom laser, which shows the properties of a classical laser as well as quantum mechanical properties of the atom-photon interaction. The scientists have published their findings in the journal Nature Physics. http://phys.org/news189248689.html Physics Wed, 31 Mar 2010 10:05:17 EST news189248689 Desktop experiments could point the way to dark matter discovery, complementing grand astronomical searches and deep underground observations. According to recent theoretical results, small blocks of matter on a tabletop could reveal elusive properties of the as-yet-unidentified dark matter particles that make up a quarter of the universe, potentially making future large-scale searches easier. This finding was announced today by theorists from the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science (SIMES), a joint institute of the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University, at the American Physical Society meeting in Portland, Oregon. http://phys.org/news187874895.html Physics Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:28:42 EST news187874895 Friction in human relations is all too obvious and prevalent, but friction in physics has had a "secret life" of its own that has now been revealed by scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. http://phys.org/news187273306.html Physics Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:24:52 EST news187273306 (PhysOrg.com) -- Neutron scattering experiments performed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory give strong evidence that, if superconductivity is related to a material's magnetic properties, the same mechanisms are behind both copper-based high-temperature superconductors and the newly discovered iron-based superconductors. http://phys.org/news184337478.html Physics Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:30:01 EST news184337478 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new experiment that reproduces the magnetic fields of the Earth and other planets has yielded its first significant results. The findings confirm that its unique approach has some potential to be developed as a new way of creating a power-producing plant based on nuclear fusion -- the process that generates the sun's prodigious output of energy. http://phys.org/news183544566.html Physics Sun, 24 Jan 2010 13:00:07 EST news183544566 When University of Utah scientists discovered a new kind of laser that was generated by an electrically conducting plastic or polymer, no one could explain how it worked and some doubted it was real. Now, a decade later, the Utah researchers have found these "random lasers" occur because of natural, mirror-like cavities in the polymers, and they say such lasers may prove useful for diagnosing cancer. http://phys.org/news183546072.html Physics Sun, 24 Jan 2010 13:00:04 EST news183546072 Scientists at Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics (IPP) in Garching and Greifswald and Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin, Germany, have discovered a new way in which high-energy radiation in water can release slow electrons. Their results have now been published in the renowned journal, Nature Physics. Free electrons play a major role in chemical processes. In particular, they might be responsible for causing radiation damage in organic tissue. http://phys.org/news183205589.html Physics Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:00:01 EST news183205589 (PhysOrg.com) -- The remarkable feat of tying light in knots has been achieved by a team of physicists working at the universities of Bristol, Glasgow and Southampton, UK, reports a paper in Nature Physics this week. http://phys.org/news182957628.html Physics Sun, 17 Jan 2010 13:34:30 EST news182957628 Very often in science, the unexpected discovery turns out to be the most significant. Rice University Professor Junichiro Kono and his team weren't looking for a breakthrough in the transmission of terahertz signals, but there it was: a plasmonic material that would, with adjustments to its temperature and/or magnetic field, either stop a terahertz beam cold or let it pass completely. http://phys.org/news179426778.html Physics Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:40:01 EST news179426778 (PhysOrg.com) -- Due to their violent nature and long distance from Earth, black holes and their surroundings are very difficult to study. Currently, the main method to observe a black hole is to use an X-ray satellite to detect the X-ray fluorescence emitted by a black hole’s companion star as the star’s material falls into the black hole. But now, scientists have developed a laser-driven method to generate a flash of brilliant Planckian X-rays in the lab that can be used to simulate the X-rays that exist near black holes. The new results contrast with the generally accepted explanation for the origins of these astronomical features, and may also help scientists test the complex computer codes used in X-ray astronomy. http://phys.org/news179398351.html Physics Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:30:02 EST news179398351 The concept of confinement is one of the central ideas in modern physics. The most famous example is that of quarks which bind together to form protons and neutrons. Now Prof. Bella Lake from Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (Germany) together with an international team of scientists report for the first time an experimental realization and a proof of confinement phenomenon observed in a condensed matter system. http://phys.org/news178724926.html Physics Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:49:37 EST news178724926 Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have demonstrated the first "universal" programmable quantum information processor able to run any program allowed by quantum mechanics -- the rules governing the submicroscopic world -- using two quantum bits (qubits) of information. The processor could be a module in a future quantum computer, which theoretically could solve some important problems that are intractable today. http://phys.org/news177515046.html Physics Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:45:25 EST news177515046 Does your laptop sometimes get so hot that it can almost be used to fry eggs? New technology may help cool it and give information technology a unique twist, says Jairo Sinova, a Texas A&M University physics professor. http://phys.org/news176037299.html Physics Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:15:50 EST news176037299