Physicists estimate how fast Usain Bolt could have run
Sep 11, 2008 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- By the record books, Jamaican runner Usain Bolt is the fastest human being on earth, and yet no one knows for sure exactly how fast he really is. At the Beijing 2008 Olympics, on Saturday, ...
Astronomers discover upper mass limit for black holes
Sep 11, 2008 |
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There appears to be an upper limit to how big the universe's most massive black holes can get, according to new research led by a Yale University astrophysicist.
Superconductivity can induce magnetism
Sep 11, 2008 |
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When an electrical current passes through a wire it emanates heat - a principle that's found in toasters and incandescent light bulbs. Some materials, at low temperatures, violate this law and carry current without any heat ...
MIT quantum discovery could lead to better detectors
Sep 11, 2008 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A bizarre but well-established aspect of quantum physics could open up a new era of electronic detectors and imaging systems that would be far more efficient than any now in existence, according ...
Sony Unveils the Worlds first 24.6-megapixel DSLR Camera
Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets
Sep 11, 2008 |
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Sony's DSLR-A900 will be available in November, along with related accessories; online pre-orders start on September 10. The DSLR-A900 is designed to deliver ultra-fine picture quality with its stunning 24.6 ...
Using 'slow light' to modulate single photon wavepackets
Sep 11, 2008 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Single photons have been studied for a long time, Steve Harris tells PhysOrg.com. “But this is the first time that their wavepackets have been modulated.” Just as electrons may be described as either particles ...
Ice core studies confirm accuracy of climate models
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Sep 11, 2008 |
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An analysis has been completed of the global carbon cycle and climate for a 70,000 year period in the most recent Ice Age, showing a remarkable correlation between carbon dioxide levels and surprisingly abrupt changes in ...
Seeing through the skin
Sep 11, 2008 |
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Feeling blue? According to Prof. Leonid Yaroslavsky from Tel Aviv University, the saying may be more than just a metaphor.
World's water ecosystems under threat
Sep 11, 2008 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Human activities such as fishing and water use are over-riding the effects of global warming on the ecosystems that support the world’s water and fish supplies, experts have revealed.
Stroock lab creates first synthetic tree
Sep 11, 2008 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- In Abraham Stroock's lab at Cornell, the world's first synthetic tree sits in a palm-sized piece of clear, flexible hydrogel -- the type found in soft contact lenses.
The 'satellite navigation' in our brains
Sep 11, 2008 |
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Our brains contain their own navigation system much like satellite navigation ("sat-nav"), with in-built maps, grids and compasses, neuroscientist Dr Hugo Spiers told the BA Festival of Science at the University of Liverpool ...
As good as it gets?
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Sep 11, 2008 |
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Albert Einstein once quipped, "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." The famous scientist might have added that the illusion of reality shifts over time. According to a new Brandeis University study ...
NASA Developing Fission Surface Power Technology
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Sep 11, 2008 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA astronauts will need power sources when they return to the moon and establish a lunar outpost. NASA engineers are exploring the possibility of nuclear fission to provide the necessary ...
New Simulation Poised to Chart the Staggered, Scattered Cosmic Dawn
Sep 11, 2008 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A new simulation method recently developed by Stanford astrophysicist Marcelo Alvarez and Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship student Patrick Ho spurns complexity to make headway in ...
Scientists Watch As Listener's Brain Predicts Speaker's Words
Sep 11, 2008 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the University of Rochester have shown for the first time that our brains automatically consider many possible words and their meanings before we've even heard the final sound of the word.
