http://www.physorg.com/physics-news/physics/ en-us PhysOrg.com provides the latest news on physics, materials, nanotech, science and technology. A peckish bird briefly knocked out part of the world's biggest atom smasher by causing a chain reaction with a piece of bread, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said Monday. http://www.physorg.com/news176969873.html Physics - General Physics Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:18:45 EST news176969873 (PhysOrg.com) -- In 2008, scientists built a loudspeaker made of carbon nanotubes that produced sound and music based on the thermoacoustic effect. Now, a different team of scientists has built a loudspeaker made of tiny aluminum wires suspended like a bridge between two supports, producing sound in a similar way. The new wire bridge also has the advantage of being much easier to fabricate than the nanotube device, offering the potential for a wide range of audio applications. http://www.physorg.com/news176543078.html Physics - General Physics Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:00:01 EST news176543078 (PhysOrg.com) -- The first stars in the universe may have been very different from the stars we see today, yet they may hold clues to understanding some of the mysterious features of the universe. These "dark stars," first theorized in 2007, could grow to be much larger than modern stars, and would be powered by dark matter particles that annihilate inside them, rather than by nuclear fusion. In the early universe, dark stars would have emitted visible light like the Sun, but today their light would be redshifted into the infrared range by the time it reaches us, and so dark stars would be invisible to the naked eye. http://www.physorg.com/news176457990.html Physics - General Physics Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:40:01 EST news176457990 (PhysOrg.com) -- Research by Michigan State University scientists has shed new light on the properties of neutron stars, galactic oddities that are formed when a large star runs out of fuel and collapses. http://www.physorg.com/news176409161.html Physics - General Physics Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:33:35 EST news176409161 (PhysOrg.com) -- The first experiments are now underway using the world's most powerful X-ray laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source, located at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Illuminating objects and processes at unprecedented speed and scale, the LCLS has embarked on groundbreaking research in physics, structural biology, energy science, chemistry and a host of other fields. http://www.physorg.com/news176388048.html Physics - General Physics Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:10:07 EST news176388048 An international team of physicists at Los Alamos National Laboratory has succeeded in using intense laser light to accelerate protons to energies never before achieved. Using this technique, scientists can now accelerate particles to extremely high velocities that would otherwise only be possible using large accelerator facilities. Physicists around the world are examining laser particle acceleration and laser produced radiation for potential future uses in cancer treatment. http://www.physorg.com/news176375335.html Physics - General Physics Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:09:30 EST news176375335 (PhysOrg.com) -- Terms such as the "invisible hand," laissez-faire policy, and free-market principles suggest that economic growth and decline in capitalist societies seem to be somehow self-regulated. Now, scientists Arto Annila of the University of Helsinki and Stanley Salthe of Binghampton University in New York show that economic activity can be regarded as an evolutionary process governed by the second law of thermodynamics. Their perspective may provide insight into some fundamental economic questions, such as the causes of economic growth and diversification, as well as why it`s so difficult to predict economic growth and decline. http://www.physorg.com/news176365278.html Physics - General Physics Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:00:03 EST news176365278 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of scientists from France have worked out why teapots dribble at low flow rates, and how to stop them. The effect is called the "teapot effect", and solving it could finally put an end to tea stains from dribbling teapots. http://www.physorg.com/news176363839.html Physics - General Physics Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:00:02 EST news176363839 (PhysOrg.com) -- Finally, an optical frequency comb that visibly lives up to its name. Scientists at the University of Konstanz in Germany and the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the U.S. have built the first optical frequency comb -- a tool for precisely measuring different frequencies of visible light -- that actually looks like a comb. http://www.physorg.com/news176046009.html Physics - General Physics Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:41:00 EST news176046009 A team of researchers led by a Case Western Reserve University physicist is planning the world's largest, most sensitive experiment to catch the stuff of dark matter, stuff that's proved way beyond invisible. http://www.physorg.com/news176041529.html Physics - General Physics Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:10:02 EST news176041529 Does your laptop sometimes get so hot that it can almost be used to fry eggs? New technology may help cool it and give information technology a unique twist, says Jairo Sinova, a Texas A&M University physics professor. http://www.physorg.com/news176037299.html Physics - General Physics Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:15:50 EST news176037299 (PhysOrg.com) -- "Scientists have been working with dipole fields for quite some time," Peter Barker tells PhysOrg.com. "However, most of the work is focused on very small particles, like atoms, or on larger particles, such as for use as optical tweezers. There is an interim region between atoms and large particles, and that is what we are looking at. We want to be able to control molecules a little differently." http://www.physorg.com/news176032268.html Physics - General Physics Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:52:22 EST news176032268 (PhysOrg.com) -- By taking advantage of the vagaries of the natural world, Duke University engineers have developed a novel approach that they believe can more efficiently harvest electricity from the motions of everyday life. http://www.physorg.com/news175966447.html Physics - General Physics Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:35:22 EST news175966447 Racing across the universe for the last 7.3 billion years, two gamma-ray photons arrived at NASA's orbiting Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope within nine-tenths of a second of one another. The dead-heat finish may stoke the fires of debate among physicists over Einstein's special theory of relativity because one of the photons possessed a million times more energy than the other. http://www.physorg.com/news175965994.html Physics - General Physics Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:27:56 EST news175965994 Sandia researchers have developed a process that can mix tiny volumes of liquid, even in complicated spaces. http://www.physorg.com/news175873414.html Physics - General Physics Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:44:59 EST news175873414 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Cornell researchers recently tested their work on the mysterious physical phenomenon of flux pinning aboard a near-zero gravity aircraft. http://www.physorg.com/news175868095.html Physics - General Physics Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:15:24 EST news175868095 During the last weekend (23-25 October) particles have once again entered the LHC after the one-year break that followed the incident of September 2008. http://www.physorg.com/news175812230.html Physics - General Physics Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:44:21 EST news175812230 Red blood cells, which make up 45 percent of blood, normally take the shape of circular cushions with a dimple on either side. But they can sometimes deform into an asymmetrical slipper shape. A team of physicists have used simulations to explore how fluid flow might be responsible for this deformation, as well as how the deformation in turn affects blood flow. The insights could help understand the mechanisms involved in arterial disease and other blood flow-related ailments. Their research is reported in Physical Review Letters and highlighted with a Viewpoint in the October 26 issue of Physics. http://www.physorg.com/news175781298.html Physics - General Physics Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:08:56 EST news175781298 Ultrasound and underwater sonar devices could "see" a big improvement thanks to development of the world's first acoustic hyperlens. Created by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the acoustic hyperlens provides an eightfold boost in the magnification power of sound-based imaging technologies. Clever physical manipulation of the imaging sound waves enables the hyperlens to resolve details smaller than one sixth the length of the waves themselves, bringing into view much smaller objects and features than can be detected using today's technologies. http://www.physorg.com/news175702307.html Physics - General Physics Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:12:53 EST news175702307 Scientists often have to make sacrifices for their work. Physicist Dominic Vella chopped his bathroom rug into strips, and L. Mahadevan's coauthor ran off with his bookshelf. With these sacrifices, these two teams were able to glean enough information to revolutionize the world's understanding about the physics of lumpy carpets. http://www.physorg.com/news175284653.html Physics - General Physics Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:12:35 EST news175284653 (PhysOrg.com) -- Investigating mysterious data in ultracold gases of rubidium atoms, scientists at the Joint Quantum Institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Maryland and their collaborators have found that properly tuned radio-frequency waves can influence how much the atoms attract or repel one another, opening up new ways to control their interactions. http://www.physorg.com/news175281818.html Physics - General Physics Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:24:24 EST news175281818 (PhysOrg.com) -- Since a failed terrorist attack in 2006, plane passengers have not been able to carry bottles of liquid through security at airports, leaving some parched at the airport and others having expensive toiletries confiscated, but work by a group of physicists in Germany is paving the way to eliminate this necessary nuisance. http://www.physorg.com/news175259067.html Physics - General Physics Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:05:05 EST news175259067 (PhysOrg.com) -- The LHC (Large Hadron Collider) is once again colder than deep space as it is prepared for experiments to resume in late November. http://www.physorg.com/news175243758.html Physics - General Physics Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:20:01 EST news175243758 (PhysOrg.com) -- Troubles at the Large Hadron Collider have led some physicists to suggest the Higgs boson is sabotaging its own discovery. Nahn explains why he disagrees. http://www.physorg.com/news175181725.html Physics - General Physics Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:36:42 EST news175181725 Rogue waves -- giant waves that spring up suddenly and tower over the seas around them -have inspired physicists to look for an analogue in light. These high-intensity pulses can cross large distances without losing information. Now a team of physicists have identified one set of conditions that produces optical rogue waves. Their findings are reported in Physical Review A and highlighted with in the October 19 issue of Physics. http://www.physorg.com/news175172691.html Physics - General Physics Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:05:41 EST news175172691 (PhysOrg.com) -- Over the past few decades, the idea that our universe could be one of many alternate universes within a giant multiverse has grown from a sci-fi fantasy into a legitimate theoretical possibility. Several theories of physics and astronomy have hypothesized the existence of a multiverse made of many parallel universes. One obvious question that arises, then, is exactly how many of these parallel universes might there be. http://www.physorg.com/news174921612.html Physics - General Physics Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:20:53 EST news174921612 (PhysOrg.com) -- A magnetic charge can behave and interact just like an electric charge in some materials, according to new research led by the London Centre for Nanotechnology. http://www.physorg.com/news174851494.html Physics - General Physics Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:52:33 EST news174851494 When Imre Jánosi's teenage daughter asked him how her new lava lamp worked, she probably expected a quick explanation. But her innocent question sent Jánosi, a physicist at Loránd Eötvös University in Budapest, on an experimental quest to plumb the physics of the popular novelty toy. http://www.physorg.com/news174764751.html Physics - General Physics Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:46:17 EST news174764751 With the speed of computers so regularly seeing dramatic increases in their processing speed, it seems that it shouldn't be too long before the machines become infinitely fast -- except they can't. http://www.physorg.com/news174750105.html Physics - General Physics Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:42:19 EST news174750105 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of physicists from the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, including graduate student David Bernstein, have made a promising discovery that a well-known synchrotron technique is applicable to free-electron lasers. http://www.physorg.com/news174589801.html Physics - General Physics Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:11:29 EST news174589801