Condensed Matter news

New materials designed to deal with hypersonic and supersonic hot stuff (w/ Video)

Physics / Condensed Matter

Dec 24, 2009 | 4.4 / 5 (19) | 6

University of Queensland researchers are testing new materials to withstand the extreme heat experienced by hypersonic vehicles in flight so they can fly for substantially longer.

Next generation lens promises more control

Physics / Condensed Matter

Dec 20, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (22) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Duke University engineers have created a new generation of lens that could greatly improve the capabilities of telecommunications or radar systems to provide a wide field of view and greater ...

Rare earth metal enhances phosphate glass

Physics / Condensed Matter

Dec 15, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (2) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Adding cerium oxide to phosphate glass rather than the commonly used silicate glass may make glasses that block ultraviolet light and have increased radiation damage resistance while remaining colorless, ...

Researchers take the lead out of piezoelectrics

Physics / Condensed Matter

Nov 13, 2009 | 3.7 / 5 (3) | 0

There is good news for the global effort to reduce the amount of lead in the environment and for the growing array of technologies that rely upon the piezoelectric effect. A lead-free alternative to the current ...

Ionic Liquid's Makeup Measurably Non-Uniform at the Nanoscale

Physics / Condensed Matter

Nov 10, 2009 | 5 / 5 (1) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Texas Tech University, Queen's University in Belfast, Ireland, the University of Rome and the National Research Council in Italy recently made a discovery about the non-uniform chemical compositions ...

Materials scientists find better model for glass creation

Physics / Condensed Matter

Nov 04, 2009 | 3.6 / 5 (7) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Harvard materials scientists have come up with what they believe is a new way to model the formation of glasses, a type of amorphous solid that includes common window glass.

Hunting for new zeolites

Physics / Condensed Matter

Nov 02, 2009 | 5 / 5 (3) | 0

In all the world, there are about 200 types of zeolite, a compound of silicon, aluminum and oxygen that gives civilization such things as laundry detergent, kitty litter and gasoline. But thanks to computations ...

Bacteria mix it up at the microscopic level

Physics / Condensed Matter

Nov 02, 2009 | 3.5 / 5 (4) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Many hands -- or many flagella -- make light work. In studies of the motion of tiny swimming bacteria, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory found that ...

PhD student solves decade-long mystery of magnetism

Physics / Condensed Matter

Oct 27, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (32) | 3

(PhysOrg.com) -- A PhD student from the London Centre for Nanotechnology has won a prize for solving a decade-long mystery central to understanding modern magnetic systems.

The lotus's clever way of staying dry (w/ Video)

Physics / Condensed Matter

Oct 22, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (3) | 1

An ancient Confucian philosopher once said, "I love the lotus because while growing from mud, it is unstained."

Scientists find new set of multiferroic materials

Physics / Condensed Matter

Oct 20, 2009 | 2 / 5 (2) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- The trail to a new multiferroic started with the theories of a U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory scientist and ended with a multidisciplinary collaboration that created ...

Unexpected Hydrides Become Stable Metals at Pressure Near One Quarter Required to Metalize Pure Hydrogen Alone

Physics / Condensed Matter

Oct 12, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (11) | 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- From detailed assessments of electronic structure, researchers at the University at Buffalo, Cornell University, Stony Brook University and Moscow State University discovered that unexpected ...

Puzzled Physicists Solve Decade-Long Discrepancies

Physics / Condensed Matter

Oct 09, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (31) | 7

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team led by physicists at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) have resolved a decade-long puzzle that is set to have huge implications ...

Bacterium helps formation of gold

Physics / Condensed Matter

Oct 07, 2009 | 4 / 5 (8) | 0

Australian scientists have found that the bacterium Cupriavidus metallidurans catalyses the biomineralisation of gold by transforming toxic gold compounds to their metallic form using active cellular mechan ...

Breaking Down the Barrier for Smaller, Faster Electronic Devices

Physics / Condensed Matter

Oct 05, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (5) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of international researchers is the first to uncover the chemical composition and structure of a microelectronics element that is vital to producing ever smaller - and, thus, cheaper ...

New Sulfur- and Coking-Tolerant Material Could Expand Applications for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Physics / Condensed Matter

Oct 01, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (11) | 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new ceramic material described in this week's issue of the journal Science could help expand the applications for solid oxide fuel cells - devices that generate electricity directly from a ...

Why they grow? Getting to the roots of lethal metal whiskers

Physics / Condensed Matter

Sep 29, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (11) | 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- A short circuit can be quite hairy: satellites have failed, a NASA computer centre was repeatedly paralysed and the US public heath authority recalled thousands of pacemakers - all because ...

Computation helps predict heat transfer in diamond

Physics / Condensed Matter

Sep 22, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (8) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Cornell researcher Derek Stewart and collaborators have calculated the exact mechanism by which diamond conducts heat, a breakthrough that could lend insight into many fields, including electronics.