News tagged with water droplets

Lasers could be used to make rain (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Optical physicists in Europe have shown that lasers can be used to create tiny water droplets when they are fired into the air. The idea could eventually develop into an alternative to cloud ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created May 04, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (13) | comments 3 report

Experimental explanation of supercooling: Why water does not freeze in the clouds (w/ Video)

Supercooling, a state where liquids do not solidify even below their normal freezing point, still puzzles scientists today. A good example of this phenomenon is found everyday in meteorology: clouds in high ...

Physics / Soft Matter

created Apr 21, 2010 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (20) | comments 13 | with audio podcast

Freezing point of supercooled water varies with electric charge

(PhysOrg.com) -- Just as water can be superheated and remain liquid above the boiling point if there is no nucleating surface (such as a surface defect or a speck of dust), it can also become supercooled and ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Feb 08, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (13) | comments 2 | with audio podcast report

'Wet' computing systems to boost processing power

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new kind of information processing technology inspired by chemical processes in living systems is being developed by researchers at the University of Southampton, UK.

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Jan 12, 2010 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (10) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Can a drop of water cause sunburn or fire?

To the gardening world it may have always been considered a fact, but science has never proved the widely held belief that watering your garden in the midday sun can lead to burnt plants. Now a study into sunlit water droplets, ...

Biology / Ecology

created Jan 11, 2010 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Study sheds light on microscopic flower petal ridges

(PhysOrg.com) -- Microscopic ridges contouring the surface of flower petals might play a role in flashing that come-hither look pollinating insects can't resist. Michigan State University scientists and colleagues ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Dec 22, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Governments turn to cloud seeding to fight drought

(AP) -- On a mountaintop clearing in the Sierra Nevada stands a tall metal platform holding a crude furnace and a box of silver iodide solution that some scientists believe could help offer relief from searing ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity 2.3 / 5 (3) | comments 2

The lotus's clever way of staying dry (w/ Video)

An ancient Confucian philosopher once said, "I love the lotus because while growing from mud, it is unstained."

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Oct 22, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 1

Opposites attract -- but they may not stay together

(PhysOrg.com) -- Opposites may always attract. But they may not remain together long-term. In a counter-intuitive discovery published in the current edition of the journal Nature, researchers from Harvard, the Un ...

Physics / General Physics

created Sep 24, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (6) | comments 1

Cosmic meddling with the clouds by seven-day magic

Billions of tonnes of water droplets vanish from the atmosphere, as if by magic, in events that reveal in detail how the Sun and the stars control our everyday clouds. Researchers of the National Space Institute in the Technical ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Aug 01, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (21) | comments 9

Scientists Create Smallest Ever Droplet of Acid, Solve Ozone Puzzle

(PhysOrg.com) -- In its atomic form, chlorine can destroy vast quantities of ozone. But exactly how chlorine is created in the ultracold conditions of the stratosphere has puzzled scientists. Now, a team of ...

Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry

created Jun 25, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 1 weblog

Back to basics: Scientists discover a fundamental mechanism for cell organization (w/Video)

Scientists have discovered that cells use a very simple phase transition -- similar to water vapor condensing into dew -- to assemble and localize subcellular structures that are involved in formation of the embryo.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 21, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 0

Research gives clues for self-cleaning materials, water-striding robots

Self-cleaning walls, counter tops, fabrics, even micro-robots that can walk on water -- all those things and more could be closer to reality because of research recently completed by scientists at the University ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created May 04, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (8) | comments 0

Two lasers better when attacking cancer

Two lasers may be better than one when attacking cancer cells, according to a paper by Rice University scientists.

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Mar 25, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

Report: Images from Mars lander show liquid water

(AP) -- Did NASA's Phoenix Mars lander find evidence of liquid water before it froze to death?

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 11, 2009 | popularity 3.3 / 5 (9) | comments 2