Virtually every material undergoes atomic-level ordering when cooled to temperatures approaching absolute zero. Liquid water, for example, is frozen into atomically ordered crystalline ice. However, condensed matter physicists ...
Quantum Physics
May 2, 2013
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(Phys.org) —Squeeze a piece of silicone and it quickly returns to its original shape, as squishy as ever. But scientists at Rice University have discovered that the liquid crystal phase of silicone becomes 90 percent stiffer ...
Condensed Matter
Apr 29, 2013
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Dutch nanotechnologists at the University of Twente's MESA+ research institute have developed a tiny chip that makes it easy to create micrometre scale gradients. Gradients are gradual transitions in specific properties, ...
Nanophysics
Apr 12, 2013
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Large impacts on the Moon can form wide craters and turn surface rock liquid. Geophysicists once assumed that liquid rock would be homogenous when it cooled. Now researchers have found evidence that pre-existing mineralogy ...
Space Exploration
Apr 2, 2013
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(Phys.org) —While scientists know that information is represented in the brain by the electrical activity of neurons, the details of this representation, called "neural coding," remain mysterious. How exactly do pulses ...
(Phys.org)—In ytterbium nickel phosphide there is a quantum critical point between the ferromagnetic and non-magnetic states that was previously not thought possible.
General Physics
Feb 27, 2013
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(Phys.org)—Why certain catalyst materials work more efficiently when they are surrounded by water instead of a gas phase is unclear. RUB chemists have now gleamed some initial answers from computer simulations. They showed ...
Materials Science
Feb 21, 2013
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(Phys.org)—In many physical processes, substances undergo phase transitions, where they are transformed from one state (solid, liquid, or gas) to another. Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome Proteins (WASP) function as intracellular ...
Analytical Chemistry
Nov 16, 2012
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(Phys.org)—Atmospheric chemists at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have found that when it comes to secondary organic material in the atmosphere, there are two distinct breeds: liquids and ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 16, 2012
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(Phys.org)—Proteins embedded in the lipid membranes of cells feel long-range attractive forces in specific patterns that mediate the proteins' behavior—for example, assisting in the clumping sequences in response to allergens, ...
Biochemistry
Aug 30, 2012
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