http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. In finding answers to the mystery of the origin of life, scientists may not have to dig too deep. New research is shedding light on shallower waters as a possible location for where life on Earth began. http://www.physorg.com/news180726917.html Space & Earth Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:40:01 EST news180726917 (PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists theorize that quantum phenomena could provide a major boost to batteries, with the potential to increase energy density up to 10 times that of lithium ion batteries. According to a new proposal, billions of nanoscale capacitors could take advantage of quantum effects to overcome electric arcing, an electrical breakdown phenomenon which limits the amount of charge that conventional capacitors can store. http://www.physorg.com/news180704455.html Physics Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:42:13 EST news180704455 Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have proposed a new paradigm that should allow scientists to observe quantum behavior in small mechanical systems. http://www.physorg.com/news180632559.html Physics Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:44:00 EST news180632559 Scientists have experimentally verified a theory suggesting that hot electrons could double the output of solar cells. The researchers, from Boston College, have built solar cells that successfully use hot electrons to increase the cells' power ouput. Although the power increase is small, the concept could lead to solar cells that break conventional efficiency limits. http://www.physorg.com/news180365359.html Nanotechnology Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:44:26 EST news180365359 (PhysOrg.com) -- It looked like a light show in Elkton, Md., on Tuesday, Dec. 15, as NASA ground tested a full-scale attitude control motor, or ACM. The motor operated with precision as its elaborate eight-valve control system opened and closed each valve at exactly the right moment with alternating bursts of light. http://www.physorg.com/news180293601.html Space & Earth Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:34:25 EST news180293601 (PhysOrg.com) -- Fundamental constants, such as the standards for length and mass, are a given in our society. However, research has shown that these constants might be changing slightly with the expansion of the universe. http://www.physorg.com/news180287597.html Physics Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:30:05 EST news180287597 The medical establishment and politicians must do more to crack down on alternative medicine, argues a senior scientist on BMJ.com today. http://www.physorg.com/news180256755.html Medicine & Health Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:30:02 EST news180256755 (PhysOrg.com) -- Solitary waves that run a long distance without losing their shape or dying out are a special class of waves called solitons. These everlasting waves are exotic enough, but theoreticians at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) , a collaboration of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Maryland, and their colleagues in India and the George Mason University, now believe that there may be a new kind of soliton that`s even more special. Expected to be found in certain types of ultracold gases, the new soliton would not be just a low-temperature atomic curiosity, it also may provide profound insights into other physical systems, including the early universe. http://www.physorg.com/news180207149.html Physics Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:10:11 EST news180207149 (PhysOrg.com) -- Spacetime, which consists of three dimensions of space and one time dimension, is such a large, abstract concept that scientists have a very difficult time understanding and defining it. Moreover, different theories offer different, contradictory insights on spacetime`s structure. While general relativity describes spacetime as a continuous manifold, quantum field theories require spacetime to be made of discrete points. Unifying these two theories into one theory of quantum gravity is currently one of the biggest unsolved problems in physics. http://www.physorg.com/news180203376.html Physics Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:34:34 EST news180203376 (PhysOrg.com) -- Always on the cutting edge of new computing technologies, Google has recently announced that it is investigating the use of quantum computing schemes to achieve faster image recognition rates. Last week, at the Neural Information Processing Systems conference (NIPS 2009) in Vancouver, Canada, the company demonstrated that their new search technology outperforms the algorithms used on the computers running in its data centers today. http://www.physorg.com/news180107947.html Physics Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:00:29 EST news180107947 University of Toronto quantum optics researchers Sajeev John and Xun Ma have discovered new behaviours of light within photonic crystals that could lead to faster optical information processing and compact computers that don't overheat. http://www.physorg.com/news180039909.html Physics Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:05:46 EST news180039909 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have discovered the microscopic mechanism behind the phenomenon of superinsulation, the ability of certain materials to completely block the flow of electric current at low temperatures. The essence of the mechanism is what the authors termed "multi-stage energy relaxation." http://www.physorg.com/news180035393.html Physics Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:40:02 EST news180035393 (PhysOrg.com) -- University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have achieved a nanoscale laser structure they anticipate will produce semiconductor lasers in the next two years that are more than twice as efficient as current continuous-wave lasers emitting in the mid-infrared. http://www.physorg.com/news180032976.html Physics Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:00:20 EST news180032976 AOptix Technologies, a leading edge developer of ultra-high bandwidth laser communication solutions, and NuCrypt, a provider of technology for ultra-high security over optical communication networks, disclosed today the recent completion of a first-of-its-kind quantum encryption test over free space optical (FSO) links for the United States Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) located in Rome, New York, with funding provided by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research in Arlington, Va. http://www.physorg.com/news180023020.html Physics Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:24:04 EST news180023020 (PhysOrg.com) -- When it comes to the workings of the Web, the brain, or a social network, physics finds universal truths. http://www.physorg.com/news179766565.html Physics Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:10:09 EST news179766565