New research examines corrosion on atomic level

When water vapor meets metal, the resulting corrosion can lead to mechanical problems that harm a machine's performance. Through a process called passivation, it also can form a thin inert layer that acts as a barrier against ...

Plastic laser detects tiny amounts of explosives

(PhysOrg.com) -- Detecting hidden explosives is a difficult task but now researchers in the UK have developed a completely new way of detecting them, with a laser sensor capable of detecting molecules of explosives at concentrations ...

Nanotech device mimics dog's nose to detect explosives

(Phys.org)—Portable, accurate, and highly sensitive devices that sniff out vapors from explosives and other substances could become as commonplace as smoke detectors in public places, thanks to researchers at University ...

Water could have been abundant in the first billion years

How soon after the Big Bang could water have existed? Not right away, because water molecules contain oxygen and oxygen had to be formed in the first stars. Then that oxygen had to disperse and unite with hydrogen in significant ...

Making bendable ice by growing single-crystal microfibers

A team of researchers working at Zhejiang University in China has developed a way to grow water ice that is elastic and bendable. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes how they grew their single-crystal ...

'Magic' solvent creates stronger thin films

A new all-dry polymerization technique uses reactive vapors to create thin films with enhanced properties, such as mechanical strength, kinetics and morphology. The synthesis process is gentler on the environment than traditional ...

Meteoroid strikes eject precious water from moon

Researchers from NASA and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, report that streams of meteoroids striking the Moon infuse the thin lunar atmosphere with a short-lived water vapor.

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