News tagged with physical mechanism

Sound increases the efficiency of boiling

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology achieved a 17-percent increase in boiling efficiency by using an acoustic field to enhance heat transfer. The acoustic field does this by efficiently removing vapor bubbles ...

Physics / Soft Matter

created May 24, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 6

Wild blue yonder: Engineers tackle challenges of hypersonic flight

(Phys.org) -- Aeronautical engineers believe hypersonic planes flying at seven to 15 times the speed of sound will someday change the face of air and space travel. That is, if they can master such flight's known unknowns.

Technology / Engineering

created May 16, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 2

Physicist awarded prestigious John Bardeen Prize

James A. Sauls, professor of physics and astronomy in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University, has been awarded the 2012 John Bardeen Prize for his contributions to the theory of unconventional ...

Physics / Superconductivity

created May 11, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Paper stirs up controversy over the nature of the quantum wave function

(Phys.org) -- Back in November, a paper posted to a preprint server arXiv by three British physicists prompted some heated debate regarding the nature of the quantum wave function, a probability function that p ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created May 09, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (23) | comments 131 | with audio podcast weblog

Researchers demonstrate new way to control nonvolatile magnetic memory devices

(Phys.org) -- Cornell researchers have demonstrated a new strategy for making energy- efficient, reliable nonvolatile magnetic memory devices -- which retain information without electric power.

Physics / General Physics

created May 07, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Long-held genetic theory doesn't quite make the grade, biologists find

New York University biologists have discovered new mechanisms that control how proteins are expressed in different regions of embryos, while also shedding additional insight into how physical traits are arranged in body plans. ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Apr 26, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

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

What is the best way of stacking apples?

When stacking apples on a market stall, fruit sellers "naturally" adopt a particular arrangement: a regular pyramid with a triangular base. A French-German team, which includes in particular the Laboratoire ...

Physics / General Physics

created Apr 25, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Raising the prospects for quantum levitation

More than half-a-century ago, the Dutch theoretical physicist Hendrik Casimir calculated that two mirrors placed facing each other in a vacuum would attract. The mysterious force arises from the energy of virtual particles ...

Physics / General Physics

created Apr 18, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (11) | comments 1

An efficient method for solving sound propagation in range-dependent ocean waveguides

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 ...

Physics / General Physics

created Apr 10, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Physicists control quantum tunneling with light for the first time

Scientists at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge have used light to help push electrons through a classically impenetrable barrier. While quantum tunnelling is at the heart of the peculiar wave nature of particles, this ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Apr 05, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (15) | comments 11 | with audio podcast

Highest honors for quantum computer pioneer

Experimental physicist Rainer Blatt from the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) in Innsbruck, Austria, will receive the Stern-Gerlach Medal of the German Physical Society. The medal ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Mar 23, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 0

Transverse instability of megaripples

Aeolian ripples, which form regular patterns on sand beaches and desert floors, indicate the fundamental instability of flat sand surfaces under the wind-induced transport of sand grains.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Mar 20, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Looking at quantum gravity in a mirror

Einstein's theory of gravity and quantum physics are expected to merge at the Planck-scale of extremely high energies and on very short distances. At this scale, new phenomena could arise. However, the Planck-scale ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Mar 18, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (27) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

Quantum strategy offers game-winning advantages, even without entanglement

(PhysOrg.com) -- Quantum correlations have well-known advantages in areas such as communication, computing, and cryptography, and recently physicists have discovered that they may help players competing in ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Mar 13, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (11) | comments 1 | with audio podcast feature