A photonic curveball has real-world examples in soccer, baseball

Have you ever been amazed by a curveball goal scored by Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi or Christiano Ronaldo? Then you have—possibly without knowing it—been exposed to the Magnus effect: the fact that spinning objects tend ...

Spider-Man-style robotic graspers defy gravity

Specially designed vacuum suction units allow humans to climb walls. Scientists have developed a suction unit that can be used on rough surfaces, no matter how textured, and that has applications in the development of climbing ...

Robots that can sort recycling

Every year trash companies sift through an estimated 68 million tons of recycling, which is the weight equivalent of more than 30 million cars.

Surprising dunes on comet Chury

Surprising images from the Rosetta spacecraft show the presence of dune-like patterns on the surface of comet Chury. Researchers at the Laboratoire de Physique et Mécanique des Milieux Hétérogènes (CNRS/ESPCI Paris/UPMC/Université ...

Graphene balloons show their colors

Researchers from the Graphene Flagship have found a new potential application for graphene: mechanical pixels. By applying a pressure difference across graphene membranes, the perceived color of the graphene can be shifted ...

PNNL helping make hydropower cheaper, more fish-friendly

Enabling fish to migrate past dams could cost a fraction of conventional fish ladders with the help of a new study of the so-called Salmon Cannon, which transports fish through a flexible tube that works by creating a small ...

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