The fine structure constant is one of the most important natural constants of all. At TU Wien, a remarkable way of measuring it has been found—it shows up as a rotation angle.
General Physics
Nov 21, 2022
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332
Electrostatic actuators are simple and lightweight devices that emulate human muscles. However, their usage has primarily been restricted to moving small devices since they need high voltages to generate significant forces. ...
General Physics
Nov 17, 2022
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16
When polar seas freeze and ice forms, it is not only due to cold air chilling the surface of the water. Even more important is that warm water is prevented from rising to the surface from the depths of the ocean, due to the ...
Earth Sciences
Nov 16, 2022
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41
The world is getting hotter and more crowded and the two issues are connected, but not quite as much as people might think, experts say.
Environment
Nov 15, 2022
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190
We recently examined how and why Saturn's icy moon, Enceladus, could answer the longstanding question: Are we alone? With its interior ocean and geysers of water ice that shoot out tens of kilometers into space that allegedly ...
Astrobiology
Nov 14, 2022
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25
Chirality is the breaking of reflection and inversion symmetries. Simply put, it is when an object's mirror images cannot be superimposed over each other. A common example are your two hands—while mirror images of each ...
General Physics
Nov 9, 2022
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336
In an experimental study, participants' first impressions of photos of strangers' faces were strongly influenced by disclosure of the stranger's political partisanship. Brittany Cassidy of the University of North Carolina ...
Social Sciences
Nov 9, 2022
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30
A new publication from Opto-Electronic Advances discusses highly efficient vectorial field manipulation using a transmitted tri-layer metasurface.
Optics & Photonics
Nov 8, 2022
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16
While conventional photodetectors can only measure light intensity, the light field contains much richer information. This information includes but is not limited to phase, polarization, and spectrum.
Optics & Photonics
Nov 4, 2022
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12
A trio of researchers at the University of Akron in Ohio has conducted a study of the polar bear paw with a focus on the papillae—the microstructures on the footpad that help with traction. Nathaniel Orndorf, Austin Garner ...
