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Category: Applied Physics

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21 November 2003 | ScienceNOW

Nanodevices Get Connected

by Robert F. Service
Tiny circuitry makes fresh strides toward real-world applications
10 November 2003 | ScienceNOW

Catching More Rays

by J.R. Minkel
New alloy could lead to more efficient solar panels
25 August 2003 | ScienceNOW

Plonk Your Atom Down Right Here

by Adrian Cho
Physicists take a key step toward atom-by-atom electronics
15 July 2003 | ScienceNOW

Early Strikes Against Missiles Doomed

by Charles Seife
American Physical Society report calls strategy unfeasible
Def
7 March 2003 | ScienceNOW

How Cool Is That?

by Adrian Cho
Rattling electrons could set a new standard for measuring temperature
26 June 2002 | ScienceNOW

Bad Clocks Keep Good Time

by Adrian Cho
A nearly perfect timepiece can be made from faulty clocks, physicists find
14 June 2002 | ScienceNOW

Magnetic ‘Gate’ Opens New Path to Computing

by Adrian Cho
Chips using magnetism instead of electricity could be useful in extreme conditions
17 April 2002 | ScienceNOW

Seeing Beyond the Limits

by Adrian Cho
New technique improves light microscopes' vision
25 March 2002 | ScienceNOW

Rough Reflector Smoothes Way for Atom Hologram

by Adrian Cho
Quantum reflections enable atoms to bounce off solid surfaces
image
29 May 2001 | ScienceNOW

Solar Wind Theory Confirmed

by Mark Sincell
Protons turning into hydrogen atoms could be used to forecast solar storms
snlasers
24 May 2001 | ScienceNOW

Lasers Get a Stretch

by Andrew Watson
Rubbery liquid crystals at heart of laser that can be pulled like taffy
snbeer
21 May 2001 | ScienceNOW

Foam Research Has Intoxicating Implications

by Andrew Watson
New model could inspire better beers and other froths
image
28 February 2001 | ScienceNOW

Atomic Sliding Puzzle

by Charles Seife
Moving holes allow copper atoms to skitter about a surface
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24 January 2000 | ScienceNOW

Blue-Blood Semiconductors on Low-Rent Silicon

by Robert F. Service
Researchers trying to coax light from semiconductors have a case of the blues, but they couldn't be happier. A team has found a better way to build blue light-emitting diodes...
Def
18 January 2000 | ScienceNOW

Lots of Clutter? Doesn't Matter

by Dana Mackenzie
Is your office a jumble of filing cabinets, furniture, and piles of old magazines? That's okay--at least as far as the hottest technology in wireless communication is concerned. Researchers have...
Def
1 December 1999 | ScienceNOW

Helium Beam's Gentle, Sensitive Touch

by Andrew Watson
A microscope with unprecedented sensitivity, based on a beam of atoms rather than a standard setup using light or electrons, is one step closer to reality. Researchers have coaxed helium...
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16 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

Blue Lasers Power Up

by Alexander Hellemans
Blue and red lasers are both typically made of a layered semiconductor that gives off photons. The light escapes from one edge of the thin chip, which makes it difficult...
Def
20 July 1999 | ScienceNOW

Surveyor of the Atomic Landscape

by Science News Staff
Today is the 52nd birthday of Gerd Binnig, a German physicist who, together with Heinrich Rohrer, invented the scanning tunneling microscope (STM), an instrument used to create atomic-level images of...
Def
9 July 1999 | ScienceNOW

His Invention Is Still Current

by Science News Staff
Nikola Tesla, a Croatian-American physicist and engineer who pioneered the use of alternating current electricity, was born at the stroke of midnight on this day in 1856. Believing he could...
Def
8 June 1999 | ScienceNOW

Caught in a Trap of Light

by Meher Antia
Physicists have engineered a highly stable laser beam that can trap tiny clouds of atoms for up to 100 times longer than any laser so far could. Reported in the...
Def
13 May 1999 | ScienceNOW

Flipping Atoms in a Flash

by Meher Antia
Researchers have found a very fast way to flip the magnetic alignment of atoms in a layer of nickel and iron, using an ultrashort pulse of laser light. The finding,...
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7 April 1999 | ScienceNOW

Desktop Nuclear Fusion, for Real

by Alexander Hellemans
Long the domain of megascience, nuclear fusion conjures up images of massive lasers housed in cavernous buildings. Now physicists have shown that deuterium nuclei can fuse when hit by short,...
Def
4 March 1999 | ScienceNOW

Atoms on a Wire

by Alexander Hellemans
Physicists have coaxed ultracold atoms to migrate along the outside of a wire by sending a current through it, opening a new way to move such atoms around. The technique,...
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23 February 1999 | ScienceNOW

Yucca Panel Says DOE Lacks Data

by Richard A. Kerr
With just 2 years to go before deciding whether Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada should be a permanent home for spent fuel from the country's nuclear power plants, the U.S....
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5 February 1999 | ScienceNOW

Laptops Without Glass

by Alexander Hellemans
Drop a laptop computer--oops!--and the glass and brittle semiconductors of its screen may shatter. For the clumsy techie, an all-plastic display would be more durable as well as cheaper, but...
Def
19 January 1999 | ScienceNOW

Pressure Doesn't Get Nanotubes Down

by David Kestenbaum
Scientists knew that nanotubes combine the strength of a weightlifter with the flexibility of a contortionist. But these tiny carbon hoses may also be near-perfect springs. In a recent issue...
silicon rods
8 January 1999 | ScienceNOW

Silicon Lattice is a Snare for Light

by Science News Staff
Scientists have created a crystal that acts like a semiconductor for light: It reflects wavelengths essential for optical communications but allows other wavelengths to pass through, akin to the way...
Def
6 January 1999 | ScienceNOW

Trapped by Lasers

by Science News Staff
The first scientist to use lasers to trap tiny spheres published his groundbreaking study 27 years ago this month. His research led to the development of "optical tweezers," laser-based devices...
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5 January 1999 | ScienceNOW

Gauging DNA by Its Glow

by Meher Antia
Physicists have manufactured a tiny device that can size up individual pieces of DNA about 100 times faster than standard techniques while requiring a million times less sample. The new...
Def
29 October 1998 | ScienceNOW

New Carbon Shines Bright

by Alexander Hellemans
Scientists have created a sparkling form of carbon that can scatter light like opal. The relatively simple technique for making the carbon, described in tomorrow's Science, may provide an easier...
Def
22 October 1998 | ScienceNOW

Cheap MRI Port-a-Scanners?

by David Kestenbaum
A hospital magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) room is no place for credit cards. The MRI magnets used to paint precision pictures of your innards are strong enough to yank a...
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16 October 1998 | ScienceNOW

Spotting Mines With Dolphin Sonar

by David Kestenbaum
NORFOLK, VIRGINIA--Dolphins can easily locate a meal of razor fish or eels hiding beneath the ocean floor by emitting chatterlike sonar clicks and listening to the echoes. Now researchers have...
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14 October 1998 | ScienceNOW

Silence Deafened Civil War Generals

by David Kestenbaum
NORFOLK, VIRGINIA--Bad acoustics may have shaped the outcome of key battles during the U.S. Civil War, according to research presented today at a meeting of the Acoustical Society of America....
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8 October 1998 | ScienceNOW

Crystal Puts a Kink in Light

by Andrew Watson
E-mail and other telecommunications zip across the globe via satellite as microwaves or through optical fibers as infrared light. But there's a logjam at either end of such transmissions: The...
Def
29 July 1998 | ScienceNOW

Atom Waves Could Detect Oil Pools

by Science News Staff
Gravity may be the law of the land, but the force it applies varies slightly depending on the rocks beneath our feet. In the 3 August Physical Review Letters, researchers...
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29 July 1998 | ScienceNOW

Molecular Microscopy Beats Limits of Light

by Science News Staff
LEIDEN, THE NETHERLANDS--Researchers can map single atoms or molecules on surfaces almost as routinely as cartographers map hills and lakes, thanks to instruments like the scanning tunneling microscope. But below...
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23 July 1998 | ScienceNOW

X-rays Reveal Signs of Stress

by Science News Staff
CRYSTAL CITY, VIRGINIA--When metal bends, the stress shoves atoms into long ridges that weaken the material. These stretch marks are notoriously hard to study, for most are hidden deep inside...
Def
9 July 1998 | ScienceNOW

His Invention Is Still Current

by Science News Staff
Nikola Tesla, a Croatian-American physicist and engineer who pioneered the use of alternating current electricity, was born at the stroke of midnight on this day in 1856. Believing he could...
Def
11 June 1998 | ScienceNOW

Physicists Snare an Atomic Bond

by Science News Staff
With atomic-scale tools, you can write your name in molecular letters billionths of a meter wide. Now scientists have put these tiny tweezers to better use, to test the strength...
Def
11 June 1998 | ScienceNOW

The Future of Display Screens: Plastics

by Science News Staff
In a step toward making display screens out of a material not too different from garbage bags, researchers for the first time have got plastic transistors and glowing diodes to...
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