Ants and Avalanches: Insects on Coffee Plants Follow Widespread Natural Tendency

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This photo shows an Azteca ant tending green coffee scale. Credit: Ivette Perfecto
This photo shows an Azteca ant tending green coffee scale. Credit: Ivette Perfecto

Ever since a forward-thinking trio of physicists identified the phenomenon known as self-organized criticality---a mechanism by which complexity arises in nature---scientists have been applying its concepts to everything from economics to avalanches.


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All News summaries for January 23, 2008

Researchers team up to probe iron-arsenic superconductors with new instrument

8 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory are part of collaborative team that's used a brand new instrument at the DOE's Spallation Neutron Source to probe iron-arsenic compounds, the "hottest" new find ...

New spintronics effect could lead to magnetic batteries

Oct 10, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists have recently discovered that heating one side of a magnetized nickel-iron rod causes electrons to rearrange themselves according to their spins. This so-called "spin Seebeck effect" ...

Ripple effect: Water snails offer new propulsion possibilities

Oct 09, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- A UC San Diego engineer has revealed a new mode of propulsion based on how water snails create ripples of slime to crawl upside down beneath the surface.

Spallation Neutron Source sends first neutrons to 'Big Bang' beam line

Oct 09, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
New analytical tools coming on line at the Spallation Neutron Source, the Department of Energy's state-of-the-art neutron science facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, include a beam line dedicated to ...

Cosmic strings might emit cosmic sparks, answer cosmological questions

Oct 09, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- For astronomers, understanding what happened in the early moments of the universe could answer many questions in physics and astronomy. One possible player in the early universe is cosmic strings, which arise ...
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