Forces out of nothing

User rating: 4.7 / 5 after 43 vote(s)

Floating measurements: A beam of light is reflected completely from the side of a glass container just a little light leaks into it. How much of it the sphere reflects depends on its distance from the wall and therefore on the force that attracts it ...
Floating measurements: A beam of light is reflected completely from the side of a glass container; just a little light leaks into it. How much of it the sphere reflects depends on its distance from the wall and therefore on the force that attracts it to the wall. Image: Ingrid Schofron/Max Planck Institute for Metals Research

When a machine jams, it’s the fault of the engineer - or of physics. The latter is true at least for the first simple nanomachines which are slowed down by the Casimir effect. This force only works on the scale of a few millionths of a centimeter and makes tiny machine parts cling together.


Full story »
All News summaries from Physics news
All News summaries for January 10, 2008

The Lightness of Electrons in a Twisting Metal Crystal

Jul 25, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of researchers at Princeton University's Materials Research Science and Engineering Center has observed electrons moving through a crystal of bismuth metal behaving like light.

Proposed Particle Help Explains Odd Galactic Photons

Jul 25, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
In 2002, a satellite called INTEGRAL was launched by the European Space Agency with an instrument on board to detect and measure gamma rays from space. Four years later, it yielded some intriguing data: An unusually high ...

Electron microscopy enters the picometer scale

Jul 24, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
Jülich scientists have succeeded in precisely measuring atomic spacings down to a few picometres using new methods in ultrahigh-resolution electron microscopy. This makes it possible to find out decisive parameters ...

Revolutionary materials reflect ancient forms

Jul 24, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- Although order is pleasing to the eye, it can quickly become boring. In Islamic architecture therefore, decoration often follows a strict yet aperiodic pattern. Similar structures also form ...

Shielding for ambitious neutron experiment

Jul 24, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
In science fiction stories it is either the inexhaustible energy source of the future or a superweapon of galactic magnitude: antimaterial. In fact, antimaterial can neither be found on Earth nor in space, is extremely complex ...
Goto Archive PhysOrg Forum Goto Archive Video Goto Archive Editorials Goto Archive Free Magazines Goto Archive Newsletter

News Archive