Why a hydrogen economy doesn't make sense

Why a hydrogen economy doesn't make sense

Technology / Energy

created Dec 11, 2006 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (435) | comments 13

In a recent study, fuel cell expert Ulf Bossel explains that a hydrogen economy is a wasteful economy. The large amount of energy required to isolate hydrogen from natural compounds (water, natural gas, biomass), ...


Study Suggests the Existence of Ferroelectric Ice in the Universe

Study Suggests the Existence of Ferroelectric Ice in the Universe

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 27, 2006 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (85) | comments 0

Various forms of ice have been found in many locations within the frigid reaches of our galaxy, from interstellar clouds to comets, moons, and planets. But a particularly intriguing and rare type, “ferroelectric” ...


A New Approach to Superconducting Memory

A New Approach to Superconducting Memory

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 06, 2006 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (62) | comments 1

Despite the potential of superconductor-based electronics to significantly impact the electronics industry – for example, a superconducting computer chip is a thousand times faster than the one within the laptop ...


Light-emitting transistor uses light to transfer an electrical signal

Light-emitting transistor uses light to transfer an electrical signal

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 01, 2006 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (107) | comments 0

In one of the early discoveries of the current "silicon electrophotonics era," scientists from Hitachi, Ltd. in Tokyo have built a light-emitting transistor (LET) that transfers, detects and controls an electrical ...


Scientists present method for entangling macroscopic objects

Scientists present method for entangling macroscopic objects

Physics / General Physics

created Oct 24, 2006 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (107) | comments 0

Building upon recent studies on optomechanical entanglement with lasers and mirrors, a group of scientists has developed a theoretical model using entanglement swapping in order to entangle two micromechanical ...


Penguin Diagram

Particle decay may point to New Physics

Physics / General Physics

created Oct 11, 2006 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (142) | comments 0

A tiny flaw has caught the attention of physicists: the Standard Model (SM) predicts that the B meson mixing phase should be measured at nearly the same result using two different classes of decay modes. However, ...


Single-particle interference observed for macroscopic objects

Single-particle interference observed for macroscopic objects

Physics / General Physics

created Sep 28, 2006 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (134) | comments 1

With a variation on the famous double-slit experiment of quantum mechanics, scientists Yves Couder and Emmanuel Fort from the University of Paris 7 are rewriting the textbooks. Their accomplishment, however, ...


A Printer that Delivers 1,000 Pages a Minute?

A Printer that Delivers 1,000 Pages a Minute?

Physics / General Physics

created Sep 21, 2006 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (157) | comments 1

Two researchers from The College of Judea and Samaria in Israel have designed an ink-jet printer head that could lead to printers capable of chugging out 1,000 pages per minute – or even more.


The creation and growth of communities requires a degree of cooperation among citizens

A 'prisoner's dilemma' for real-life situations

Physics / General Physics

created Sep 20, 2006 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (48) | comments 0

What's best for the individual and what's best for society are often not the same thing--this predicament is the premise for the famous "prisoner's dilemma" game. However, healthy societies depend on individuals ...


New theory (and old equations) may explain causes of ship-sinking freak waves

New theory (and old equations) may explain causes of ship-sinking freak waves

Physics / General Physics

created Sep 13, 2006 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (155) | comments 0

On a stormy April day in 1995, the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 was sailing in the North Atlantic when the ocean liner dipped into a "hole in the sea." Out of the darkness, a towering 95-foot wave threatened to crash ...


Dark Energy and Dark Matter – The Results of Flawed Physics?

Dark Energy and Dark Matter – The Results of Flawed Physics?

Physics / General Physics

created Sep 11, 2006 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (238) | comments 5

There are few scientific concepts as intriguing and mysterious as dark energy and dark matter, said to make up as much as 95 percent of all the energy and matter in the universe. And even though scientists ...


LCDs get brighter with nano polarization recycler

LCDs get brighter with nano polarization recycler

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Sep 06, 2006 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (114) | comments 0

LCDs (liquid crystal displays) provide a popular method for lighting screens on everything from computers and TVs to watches, clocks, cell phones and more. However, as scientists Sang Hoon Kim, Joo-Do Park ...


Sterile neutrinos and the search for warm dark matter

Sterile neutrinos and the search for warm dark matter

Physics / General Physics

created Sep 01, 2006 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (54) | comments 0

Matteo Viel, a research fellow at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, England, believes that particle physics and cosmology could be more compatible as scientists work toward understanding the origins ...


Snakes’ heat vision enables accurate attacks on prey

Snakes’ heat vision enables accurate attacks on prey

Physics / General Physics

created Aug 31, 2006 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (55) | comments 0

Call it a sixth sense, or evolution’s gift to these cold-blooded reptiles: some snakes have infrared vision. Also called “heat vision,” the infrared rays, which have longer wavelengths than those of visible ...


Flies provide aerodynamic model for tiny flying vehicles

Flies provide aerodynamic model for tiny flying vehicles

Physics / General Physics

created Aug 28, 2006 | popularity 4 / 5 (57) | comments 1

When it comes to flying, the fly reigns supreme. This two-winged insect’s sophisticated flying behavior enables it to make sharp turns, aim at targets and hover – traits which make the insect an ideal prototype ...