Selling chip makers on optical computing

Selling chip makers on optical computing

Technology / Semiconductors

created Nov 24, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (11) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Computer chips that transmit data with light instead of electricity consume much less power than conventional chips, but so far, they've remained laboratory curiosities. Professors Vladimir ...


Cassini Captures Ghostly Dance of Saturn's Northern Lights

Cassini Captures Ghostly Dance of Saturn's Northern Lights (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 24, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (10) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- In the first video showing the auroras above the northern latitudes of Saturn, Cassini has spotted the tallest known "northern lights" in the solar system, flickering in shape and brightness ...


Should I buy a PC or Mac?

Technology / Software

created Nov 25, 2009 | popularity 2.6 / 5 (19) | comments 30

Q. Our 6-year-old PC computer is dying a slow death and we are considering moving to a new iMac but have a few concerns. First, of all, we have several Word documents on our disk drive now that we want to keep and add to ...


Caltech scientists explain puzzling lake asymmetry on Titan

Scientists explain puzzling lake asymmetry on Titan

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created 18 hours ago | popularity 4.6 / 5 (10) | comments 0

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) suggest that the eccentricity of Saturn's orbit around the sun may be responsible for the unusually uneven distribution of methane and ethane ...


Computational microscope peers into the working ribosome

Computational microscope peers into the working ribosome (w/ Video)

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Nov 23, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (9) | comments 2

Two new studies reveal in unprecedented detail how the ribosome interacts with other molecules to assemble new proteins and guide them toward their destination in biological cells. The studies used molecular ...


Straightening messy correlations with a quantum comb

Straightening messy correlations with a quantum comb

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Nov 23, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (9) | comments 0

Quantum computing promises ultra-fast communication, computation and more powerful ways to encrypt sensitive information. But trying to use quantum states as carriers of information is an extremely delicate ...


Design chosen for British 1,000 mph car

Design chosen for British 1,000 mph car (w/ Video)

Technology / Engineering

created Nov 25, 2009 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (11) | comments 8

(PhysOrg.com) -- A British team hoping to be the first to get a car to 1,000 mph (1,610 km/h) has made its final design selection. The six-tonne car, known as the Bloodhound, will be powered by a Eurofighter ...


Herschel takes a peek at the ingredients of the galaxies

Herschel takes a peek at the ingredients of the galaxies

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 27, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (9) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- The European Space Agency has today released spectacular new observations from the Herschel Space Observatory, including the UK-led SPIRE instrument. Spectrometers on board all three Hershel ...


Acute stress leaves epigenetic marks on the hippocampus

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Nov 24, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (9) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists are learning that the dynamic regulation of genes -- as much as the genes themselves -- shapes the fate of organisms. Now the discovery of a new epigenetic mechanism regulating genes in the brain ...


Ice Cold: Cooler Than Being Cool

Ice Cold: Cooler Than Being Cool

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Nov 24, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (10) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Water expands when it freezes. Anyone who has ever left a can of soda or bottle of water in the freezer too long has witnessed this first hand. So how do plants and animals survive severe ...


Got a pain? -- Have a cup of Brazilian mint

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Nov 24, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (9) | comments 0

For thousands of years it has been prescribed by traditional healers in Brazil to treat a range of ailments from headaches and stomach pain to fever and flu.


Nanowire Formation

Nanowires key to future transistors, electronics

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Nov 26, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (9) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new generation of ultrasmall transistors and more powerful computer chips using tiny structures called semiconducting nanowires are closer to reality after a key discovery by researchers ...


Climate change could boost incidence of civil war in Africa

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created Nov 23, 2009 | popularity 2.4 / 5 (17) | comments 11

Climate change could increase the likelihood of civil war in sub-Saharan Africa by over 50 percent within the next two decades, according to a new study led by a team of researchers at University of California, Berkeley, ...


New computer-developed map shows more extensive valley network on Mars

New computer-developed map shows more extensive valley network on Mars

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 23, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (9) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- New research adds to the growing body of evidence suggesting the Red Planet once had an ocean.


Drug users know their stuff

Drug users know their stuff

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Nov 24, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (8) | comments 5

Drug users are well informed about the harms associated with the drugs they use, and perceive alcohol and tobacco to be amongst the most dangerous substances, according to a survey by UCL (University College ...