A University of Maryland-led team of researchers has created a heat-to-electricity device that runs on ions and which could someday harness the body's heat to provide energy.
Surface wear describes the process of material loss when two surfaces come into contact with each other. It has significant economic, social and health consequences—consider the fine particles emitted by moving vehicles. ...
The so-called Abelian sandpile model has been studied by scientists for more than 30 years to better understand a physical phenomenon called self-organized criticality, which appears in many real-life situations such as the ...
A building's architectural plans map out what's needed to keep it from falling down. But design is not just functional: often, it's also beautiful, with lines and shapes that can amaze and inspire.
Fractal patterns are common in nature, including in the geometric patterns of a tortoise shell, the structure of a snail shell, the leaves of a succulent plant that repeat to create an intricate pattern, and the frost pattern ...
In 1982, the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to Ken Wilson for his contribution to understanding what goes on in certain materials as they undergo a phase transition—like the transition between liquid water and steam. ...
Ambient energy emitted by cellular phones and modems can be captured and converted into electricity using unusually shaped technology.
The sun defies conventional scientific understanding. Its upper atmosphere, known as the corona, is many millions of degrees hotter than its surface. Astrophysicists are keen to learn why the corona is so hot, and scientists ...
One transistor can become an oscillator with a surprising richness of behavior. However, even more interesting effects emerge if the structure of connections is fractal and shows some imperfections. Could similar rules explain ...
Soot belches out of diesel engines, rises from wood- and dung-burning cookstoves and shoots out of oil refinery stacks. According to recent research, air pollution, including soot, is linked to heart disease, some cancers ...
