Weblog & Reports: News From the Web

Repulsive gravity as an alternative to dark energy (Part 2: In the quantum vacuum)

(PhysOrg.com) -- During the past few years, CERN physicist Dragan Hajdukovic has been investigating what he thinks may be a widely overlooked part of the cosmos: the quantum vacuum. He suggests that the quantum vacuum has ...

Physics / General Physics

created Feb 01, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (73) | comments 143 | with audio podcast report

Repulsive gravity as an alternative to dark energy (Part 1: In voids)

(PhysOrg.com) -- When scientists discovered in 1998 that the Universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, the possibility that dark energy could explain the observation was intriguing. But because there ...

Physics / General Physics

created Jan 31, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (49) | comments 118 | with audio podcast report

Scientists rediscover self-healing silicone mechanism from the 1950s

(PhysOrg.com) -- Research in self-healing organic polymers has grown recently, but one simple self-healing mechanism from more than 60 years ago has been nearly forgotten until now. Using this mechanism, which ...

Chemistry / Polymers

created Jan 30, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (25) | comments 10 | with audio podcast report

Google might launch Drive for cloud storage soon

(PhysOrg.com) -- Google's next big move, according to the Wall Street Journal, is a cloud storage service called Drive. Hardly first to the plate, Google is simply catching up to introducing its cloud reposi ...

Technology / Internet

created Feb 12, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (8) | comments 6 | with audio podcast report

Walney offshore wind farm is world's biggest (for now)

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Walney wind farm on the Irish Sea--characterized by high tides, waves and windy weather--officially opened this week. The farm is treated in the press as a very big deal as the Walney ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Feb 11, 2012 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (14) | comments 67 | with audio podcast weblog

Humans may have helped the decline of African rainforests 3000 years ago

(PhysOrg.com) -- Large areas of rainforests in Central Africa mysteriously disappeared over three thousand years ago, to be replaced by savannas. The prevailing theory has been that the cause was a change ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Feb 10, 2012 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (15) | comments 21 | with audio podcast report

Borexino Collaboration succeeds in spotting pep neutrinos emitted from the sun

(PhysOrg.com) -- To learn more about how the sun works, scientists study particles that are emitted from it into space due to thermonuclear reactions that occur inside; by applying known physics principles, ...

Physics / General Physics

created Feb 09, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

Soraa LED light may dim 50-watt halogen rivals

(PhysOrg.com) -- Soraa, a Fremont, California company founded in 2008, this week launched its first product, a light that uses LEDS (light emitting diodes). The "Soraa LED MR16 lamp" is the "perfect" replacement ...

Technology / Semiconductors

created Feb 09, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (26) | comments 24 | with audio podcast report

Quantum physicist explains $100K offer for proof scaled-up quantum computing is impossible

(PhysOrg.com) -- MIT researcher Scott Aaronson has certainly riled the physics community with his offer this past Friday, of $100,000 to anyone who can prove that scaled-up quantum computing is impossible. ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Feb 08, 2012 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (16) | comments 40 | with audio podcast weblog

Solar start-ups set new efficiency records

(PhysOrg.com) -- Although Alta Devices and Semprius make different types of solar panels, both start-ups have been breaking records in the past few days. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Alta Devices announced that ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Feb 08, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (17) | comments 12 | with audio podcast report

Haptic cube lets you feel tomorrow's temps

(PhysOrg.com) -- Will it be an invention joining a storage room of other inventions? Or kicked further up to gadget boutiques for the very rich? Or a popular gadget for many worldwide? Whatever its destiny, ...

Technology / Hi Tech & Innovation

created Feb 07, 2012 | popularity 3.4 / 5 (7) | comments 6 | with audio podcast report

Nicira promises virtual networks will transform networking

(PhysOrg.com) -- For the past four years, founders of the start-up company Nicira have been developing cutting-edge software that they predict will transform the networking technology underlying the Internet. ...

Technology / Software

created Feb 06, 2012 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 3 | with audio podcast weblog

Fold-it computer action set for Canada conference (w/ video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- What nonsense, sitting in front of one, single display screen and struggling with a split-screen view of multiple-sites plus data entry or word processing. Is this the way it has to be for ...

Technology / Hi Tech & Innovation

created Feb 04, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (10) | comments 7 | with audio podcast report

Amazon fungi found that eat polyurethane, even without oxygen

(PhysOrg.com) -- Until now polyurethane has been considered non-biodegradable, but a group of students from Yale University in the US has found fungi that will not only eat and digest it, they will do so even in the absence ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Feb 03, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (46) | comments 27 | with audio podcast report

Airborne robot swarms are making complex moves (w/ video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- The GRASP Lab at the University of Pennsylvania this week released a video that shows their new look in GRASP Lab robotic flying devices. They are now showing flying devices with more complex ...

Electronics / Robotics

created Feb 02, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (31) | comments 10 | with audio podcast report