Feature Stories
Quantum Mysticism: Gone but Not Forgotten
Jun 08, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (52) |
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Does mysticism have a place in quantum mechanics today, or is the idea that the mind plays a role in creating reality best left to philosophical meditations? Harvard historian Juan Miguel Marin argues the ...
Why Things Become Unpopular
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Jun 04, 2009 |
3.5 / 5 (29) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- "Why is everybody suddenly wearing those new sandals and listening to that new band? It's so trendy!" A recent study has investigated this sentiment in order to understand why some cultural ...
Physicists Propose New Ultracold Scheme for Scalable Quantum Information Processing
Jun 03, 2009 |
4.1 / 5 (14) |
1
(PhysOrg.com) -- Since 1994, when Peter Shor famously showed that a quantum computer could factor large numbers exponentially faster than any current classical algorithm, physicists have been investigating ...
Atom Pinhole Camera Acts as a Shrinking Copy Machine
Jun 01, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- In 1983, Richard Feynman proposed the idea of a machine that could create smaller scale replicas of itself. Today, such a system is still a challenge, but a machine that can produce nanometer-sized ...
Galactic nuclei offer some indication of axionlike particles
May 28, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (26) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- “Axionlike particles are interesting because they come up regularly when scientists study string theory. By looking at their properties, you hope to learn about string theory, or some other unified theory ...
Studying the 'mountains' and 'starquakes' that develop on neutron stars
May 26, 2009 |
3.8 / 5 (13) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Neutron stars have the potential to play an important role in understanding some of the mysteries of the universe. One of factors that could help lead to an understanding of gravitational waves and the mechanisms ...
Too much entanglement can render quantum computers useless
May 25, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (20) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- "For certain tasks, quantum computers are more powerful than their classical counterparts. The task to be performed is the same for quantum or classical systems. However, the former ones can do it in a more ...
Engineering Carbon for Impressive Hydrogen Storage
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
May 22, 2009 |
4 / 5 (16) |
14
(PhysOrg.com) -- University of Missouri researchers recently showed how carbon nanostructures can be engineered to become excellent media for hydrogen storage, work that may be important for the advancement of hydrogen-energy ...
Rotating Space Elevator Propels its Own Load
May 21, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (44) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The idea of the space elevator just got a little crazier. While the “traditional” concept involved using rocket propulsion or laser light pressure to propel loads up a cable anchored to Earth, ...
Magnetic Cactus Experimentally Demonstrates Mathematical Plant Patterns
May 20, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (20) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- One of humanity’s earliest mathematical inquiries might have involved the geometric patterns in plants. The arrangement of leaves on a branch, seeds in a sunflower, and spines on a cactus ...
'Writing' Patterns on Carbon Nanotubes With Polymer Chains
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
May 19, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (11) |
3
(PhysOrg.com) -- Carbon nanotubes are at the center of the nanoelectronics research movement, with scientists making great progress toward getting nanotube-based electronic devices into the hands of consumers. ...
Is random lasing possible with a cold atom cloud?
May 18, 2009 |
4 / 5 (6) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Random lasing, Robin Kaiser tells PhysOrg.com, is like standard lasing, with a little bit of a twist: “You don’t know the direction the photons will go, as you do with a more standard laser. This is becaus ...
Radiation Review: Some People May be 'Allergic' to Cell Phones, Computers
May 15, 2009 |
3.4 / 5 (38) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- How exactly does the radiation from electromagnetic fields (EMF) affect the human body? Is it possible that cell phones, computer monitors, TVs, and other electronic devices - which operate ...
The Origin of Artificial Species: Creating Artificial Personalities
Technology / Computer Sciences
May 14, 2009 |
3.8 / 5 (10) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Does your robot seem to be acting a bit neurotic? Maybe it's just their personality. Recently, a team of researchers has designed computer-coded genomes for artificial creatures in which a ...
Ion trap quantum computing
May 12, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- “Right now, classical computers are faster than quantum computers,” René Stock tells PhysOrg.com. “The goal of quantum computing is to eventually speed up the time scale of solving certain important proble ...
