Feature Stories

Stock market network reveals investor clustering

(PhysOrg.com) -- The stock price of a company continuously changes, going up or down depending on the collective activity of a large number of investors. Although this process seems fairly straightforward, ...

Physics / General Physics

created 8 hours ago | popularity 3.9 / 5 (13) | comments 2 | with audio podcast feature

Of microchemistry and molecules: Electronic microfluidic device synthesizes biocompatible probes

(PhysOrg.com) -- Microfluidic chemistry is fast gaining popularity – and for good reason: In addition to allowing highly-precise reaction control, micro-reactions often exhibit higher yield and proceed ...

Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry

created Jan 26, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast feature

Study supports role of quantum effects in photosynthesis

(PhysOrg.com) -- Until a few years ago, photosynthesis seemed to be a straightforward and well-understood process in which plants and other organisms use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into sugars, ...

Physics / General Physics

created Jan 25, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (10) | comments 6 | with audio podcast feature

Blunt nanostructures could make high-efficiency solar cells easier to fabricate

(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the most promising methods for increasing the efficiency of solar cells consists of coating the cells’ surfaces with a thin layer of metal nanoparticles. The nanoparticles scatter ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Jan 24, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 9 | with audio podcast feature

DNA as invisible ink can reversibly hide patterns

(PhysOrg.com) -- While most people know of DNA as the building blocks of life, these large molecules also have potential applications in areas such as biosensing, nanoparticle assembly, and building supramolecular ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Jan 23, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast feature

Scientists design solar cells that exceed the conventional light-trapping limit

(PhysOrg.com) -- The best performing solar cells are those that are thick enough to absorb light from the entire solar spectrum, while the cheapest solar cells are thin ones, since they require less, and potentially ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Jan 20, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (36) | comments 28 | with audio podcast feature

Not by asteroid alone: Rethinking the Cretaceous mass extinction

(PhysOrg.com) -- At the end of the Cretaceous period some 65 million years ago, an asteroid slammed into Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, causing severe but selective extinction. While that is widely accepted, ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jan 19, 2012 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (14) | comments 25 | with audio podcast feature

Bubble-propelled microrockets could operate in the human stomach

(PhysOrg.com) -- Recently, researchers have been designing a wide variety of self-propelled micromotors, many of which operate using an oxygen-bubble propulsion mechanism that requires a high concentration ...

Chemistry / Other

created Jan 18, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (11) | comments 0 | with audio podcast feature

Decoding cosmological data could shed light on neutrinos, modified gravity

(PhysOrg.com) -- Today’s most powerful telescopes collect huge amounts of data from the most distant locations of the universe – yet much of the information is simply discarded because it involves ...

Physics / General Physics

created Jan 17, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (13) | comments 104 | with audio podcast feature

Light control technique could lead to tunable lighting and displays

(PhysOrg.com) -- Over the past several years, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have become a popular light source due to their advantages including bright displays, wide viewing angles, and the ability ...

Physics / General Physics

created Jan 11, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast feature

Leonardo da Vinci's tree rule may be explained by wind

(PhysOrg.com) -- More than 500 years ago, Leonardo da Vinci observed a particular relationship between the size of a tree’s trunk and the size of its branches. Specifically, the combined cross-sectional ...

Physics / General Physics

created Jan 04, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (24) | comments 16 | with audio podcast feature

Physicists propose test for loop quantum gravity

(PhysOrg.com) -- As a quantum theory of gravity, loop quantum gravity could potentially solve one of the biggest problems in physics: reconciling general relativity and quantum mechanics. But like all tentative ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Jan 03, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (34) | comments 106 | with audio podcast feature

Social robotics: Beyond the uncanny valley

(PhysOrg.com) -- From science fiction and academia through assembly lines and telemedicine, robots have become both conceptually and physically ubiquitous. Technologically, robotics technology has advanced ...

Electronics / Robotics

created Dec 29, 2011 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (7) | comments 9 | with audio podcast feature

Remembrance of things future: Long-term memory sets the stage for visual perception

(Medical Xpress) -- Rather than being a passive state, perception is an active process fueled by predictions and expectations about our environment. In the latter case, memory must be a fundamental component ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Dec 28, 2011 | popularity 3.6 / 5 (11) | comments 4 | with audio podcast feature

Swimming upstream: Flux flow reverses for lattice bosons in a magnetic field

(PhysOrg.com) -- Matter in the subatomic realm is, well, a different matter. In the case of strongly correlated phases of matter, one of the most surprising findings has to do with a phenomenon known as the ...

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 27, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (12) | comments 10 | with audio podcast feature