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. A couple years ago, researchers introduced a new material that they said could make any object invisible to both radar and the human eye. Invisibility cloaking would have a major impact on defense technology, they explained, but there was only one problem: The current materials used in this novel application were only capable of hiding the object from a single frequency wave. http://phys.org/news281689539.html Physics Tue, 05 Mar 2013 07:07:03 EST news281689539 (Phys.org)—Crime can happen anywhere, but it usually doesn't. Researchers have noticed that criminal activity seems to be concentrated in self-perpetuating hotspots. Crime leads to more crime. Then, from these epicenters, crime spreads outward through the community. http://phys.org/news279185144.html Other Sciences Mon, 04 Feb 2013 07:25:54 EST news279185144 Waves do not spread in a disordered medium if there is less than one wavelength between two defects. Physicists from the universities of Zurich and Constance have now proved Nobel Prize winner Philip W. Anderson's theory directly for the first time using the diffusion of light in a cloudy medium. http://phys.org/news275222836.html Physics Thu, 20 Dec 2012 10:47:54 EST news275222836 (Phys.org)—Researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute have demonstrated that photons (light particles) emitted from light sources embedded in a complex and disordered structure are able to mutually coordinate their paths through the medium. This is a consequence of the photons' wave properties, which give rise to the interaction between different possible routes. The results are published in the scientific journal, Physical Review Letters. http://phys.org/news275216905.html Physics Thu, 20 Dec 2012 09:08:44 EST news275216905 Hear music of concert hall quality at any place in the room from a stereo recording. The device created by EPFL spin-off Illusonic creates an "acoustic space." http://phys.org/news274951099.html Technology Mon, 17 Dec 2012 07:18:24 EST news274951099 An acoustic navigation system being developed by a team of University of Texas at Austin researchers studying the science of sound propagation inside burning buildings may one day become a life-saving addition to firefighters' arsenal of tools. http://phys.org/news270214521.html Physics Tue, 23 Oct 2012 13:00:02 EST news270214521 According to a NOAA-led paper published today in the journal Conservation Biology, high levels of background noise, mainly due to ships, have reduced the ability of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales to communicate with each other by about two-thirds. http://phys.org/news264252036.html Biology Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:00:13 EST news264252036 (Phys.org) -- The propagation of every animal on the planet is the result of sexual activity between males and females of a given species. But how did things get this way? Why two sexes instead of one? Why are sperm necessary for reproduction and how did they evolve?  http://phys.org/news263710809.html Biology Thu, 09 Aug 2012 06:00:37 EST news263710809 (Phys.org) -- One of the main sticking points to creating a true quantum computer capable of performing meaningful work, is the problem of storing quantum state information in memory. Recent efforts have resulted in highly efficient memory that lasted only a short time or low efficient memory that lasts longer. Now, a combined group of two teams, one from China and one from Germany, have come up with a way that appears to offer the best of both worlds. As they describe in their paper published in the journal Nature Physics, they found that they were able to store quantum information in atomic spin waves. http://phys.org/news257589516.html Physics Wed, 30 May 2012 09:38:46 EST news257589516 (Phys.org) -- Humidity emanating from a flower's nectar stores tells a moth if the flower is worth a visit, research led by a UA entomologist has discovered. http://phys.org/news257585789.html Biology Wed, 30 May 2012 08:36:45 EST news257585789 The coupled normal mode method is a powerful approach for solving range-dependent propagation problems in underwater acoustics. An important area of study is to improve stability and efficiency so as to be able to deal with complex scenarios in a realistic environment. Professor LUO Wenyu and his group from the State Key Laboratory of Acoustics, Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, set out to tackle this problem. After several years of innovative research, they have developed an accurate, efficient, and numerically stable coupled normal mode method to solve the range-dependent propagation problem. Their work, entitled "A numerically stable coupled-mode formulation for acoustic propagation in range-dependent waveguides", was published in SCIENCE CHINA Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy. 2012, Vol. 55(4). http://phys.org/news253252106.html Physics Tue, 10 Apr 2012 04:48:34 EST news253252106 Obstacles in an organism's path can help it to move faster, not slower, researchers from New York University's Applied Math Lab at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences have found through a series of experiments and computer simulations. Their findings, which appear in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, have implications for a better understanding of basic locomotion strategies found in biology, and the survival and propagation of the parasite that causes malaria. http://phys.org/news247921219.html Biology Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:01:08 EST news247921219 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of researchers have devised a means for observing the speed with which quasiparticles can travel through an optical lattice. The experiment performed at the Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, as described in the paper the team has published in Nature, was a demonstration of a method that can be used to measure propagation through a non-relativistic lattice, a first of its kind. http://phys.org/news246788363.html Physics Thu, 26 Jan 2012 09:20:01 EST news246788363 Azalea web blight, caused by a species of the plant pathogen Rhizoctonia, occurs each year on some containerized azalea cultivars during nursery production, particularly in the southern and eastern United States. Azalea shoots can harbor the pathogen, spreading the devastating, costly disease through propagation. http://phys.org/news242997888.html Biology Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:24:57 EST news242997888 Researchers in Spain have investigated the temporal patterns of human communication and how the latter impacts the spread of information in social networks. The results, published in the journal Physical Review E, show how communication between people comes in bursts. http://phys.org/news235211413.html Other Sciences Wed, 14 Sep 2011 09:30:24 EST news235211413 Researchers at Northwestern University have created a new kind of cloaking material that can render objects invisible in the terahertz range. http://phys.org/news234196115.html Physics Fri, 02 Sep 2011 15:29:58 EST news234196115 (PhysOrg.com) -- In a globalized world, infectious diseases such as SARS, swine flu or seasonal influenza can be transmitted over the entire planet by travellers. To enable a more effective response to this threat, scientists are trying to predict the propagation pathways and speed of such pandemics. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-organization (MPIDS) in Gottingen and at University of Gottingen, Northwestern University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA, have now, for the first time, managed to develop mathematical models which account for individual mobility patterns. Not only did new calculations confirm that earlier models had significantly overestimated the speed with which diseases are propagated. The previously known criteria for a global outbreak also had to be broadened. The new study was selected by the American Physical Society for publication in the first issue of its new high-profile journal, Physical Review X. http://phys.org/news234002149.html Other Sciences Wed, 31 Aug 2011 09:36:04 EST news234002149 (PhysOrg.com) -- The next generation of communications systems could be built with a sewing machine. http://phys.org/news233227478.html Technology Mon, 22 Aug 2011 10:24:58 EST news233227478 A University at Buffalo-led research team has developed a mathematical framework that could one day form the basis of technologies that turn road vibrations, airport runway noise and other "junk" energy into useful power. http://phys.org/news230391256.html Other Sciences Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:34:37 EST news230391256 The irradiation of a metal surface with light or electrons can result in the formation of coherent electronic oscillations called surface plasmons, an effect ideal for applications such as optical communications on optoelectronic chips. Unfortunately, however, surface plasmons quickly lose their energy during transit, limiting their on-chip propagation distance. Jing Hua Teng at the A*STAR Institute of Materials Research and Engineering and co-workers from Nankai University and Nanyang Technological University under the Singapore-China Joint Research Program have now developed nanoscale structures that are able to replenish as well as guide surface plasmons on chips. “These structures can be used as plasmonic sources for lab-on-a-chip applications,” says Teng. http://phys.org/news226921140.html Physics Fri, 10 Jun 2011 10:39:22 EST news226921140 Light does not travel at the same speed in all directions under the effect of an electromagnetic field. Although predicted by theory, this counter-intuitive effect has for the first time been demonstrated experimentally in a gas by a French team from the Laboratoire 'Collisions Agregats Reactivite' at CNRS. The researchers measured with extreme precision, of around one billionth m/s, the difference between the light propagation speeds in one direction and in the opposite direction. These results open the way to more in-depth research aimed at improving the model that describes elementary particle interactions. Published on the 11 May 2011 in the journal Physical Review Letters, they point to novel applications in optics. http://phys.org/news224503136.html Physics Fri, 13 May 2011 11:00:14 EST news224503136 Researchers at Northwestern University have created a new kind of cloaking material that can render objects invisible in the terahertz range. http://phys.org/news223139122.html Physics Wed, 27 Apr 2011 16:05:49 EST news223139122 Applications on modern wireless devices make demands on data rate and connectivity far beyond anything experienced in the past. One way to meet these stringent requirements is to give the device multiple antennas or multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology. The problem of physically accommodating these additional antennas in the latest consumer products is investigated in new research from the University of Bristol. http://phys.org/news220092546.html Technology Wed, 23 Mar 2011 09:50:04 EST news220092546 New research by academics in the University of Bristol's Centre for Communications Research has highlighted the problems of reduced sensitivity in wireless communications, along with developing new solutions to overcome the loss of connectivity. http://phys.org/news218111564.html Technology Mon, 28 Feb 2011 10:33:13 EST news218111564 An NRL research team led by physicist, Dr. Ted Jones, Plasma Physics Division, performed the first successful long distance acoustic propagation and shock generation demonstration of their novel underwater photo-ionization laser acoustic source. These tests, performed at the Lake Glendora Test Facility of Naval Surface Warfare Center-Crane, expanded on their earlier laboratory research on pulsed laser propagation through the atmosphere. http://phys.org/news214048279.html Physics Wed, 12 Jan 2011 09:51:37 EST news214048279 (PhysOrg.com) -- One company already has licensed the technology from the UA, and patents are pending to meet growing computer industry demand for the error-correction algorithm developed by Bane Vasic. http://phys.org/news207242597.html Technology Mon, 25 Oct 2010 16:24:02 EST news207242597 Contrary to some previous, highly publicized, reports, ocean acidification is not likely to worsen the hearing of whales and other animals, according to a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientist who studies sound propagation in the ocean. http://phys.org/news206097123.html Biology Tue, 12 Oct 2010 10:12:14 EST news206097123 (PhysOrg.com) -- When light passes through materials that we consider opaque, such as paint, biological tissue, fabric and paper, it is scattered in such a complex way that an image does not come through. "It is possible to see the light, but not the information," Sylvain Gigan tells PhysOrg.com. "We wanted to create a way to see the information through opaque media." http://phys.org/news188121598.html Physics Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:40:02 EST news188121598 Light readily bounces off obstacles in its path. Some of these reflections are captured by our eyes, thus participating in the visual perception of the objects around us. In contrast to this usual behavior of light, MIT researchers have implemented for the first time a one-way structure in which microwave light flows losslessly around obstacles or defects. This concept, when used in lightwave circuits, might one day reduce their internal connections to simple one-way conduits with much improved capacity and efficiency. http://phys.org/news174240031.html Physics Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:03:28 EST news174240031 Peat has been a major component of substrates used in container plant production since the 1960s. Highly porous with the capacity to hold water, peat makes an ideal rooting and growing medium for potted plants. But harvesting peat (and draining valuable peatlands in the process) releases the carbon stored in peat into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. And because peat plays an important role in wetland ecosystems—peat bogs improve groundwater quality and are unique habitats for wild plants and animals—the use of peat has been challenged and peat mining is increasingly regulated. http://phys.org/news171655520.html Space & Earth Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:40:01 EST news171655520