Scientific American

Antarctic Neutrino Observatory Detects Unexplained High-Energy Particles

Sat, 18 May 2013 07:00:00 EST

Hot on the heels of detecting the two highest-energy neutrinos ever observed, scientists working with a mammoth particle detector buried in ice near the South Pole unveiled preliminary data showing that they also registered the signal of 26 additional high-energy neutrinos. The newfound neutrinos are somewhat less energetic than the two record-setters but nonetheless appear to carry more energy than would be expected if created by cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere--a prodigious source of neutrinos raining down on Earth. The particles thus may point to unknown energetic astrophysical processes deeper in the cosmos .

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Google and NASA Snap Up Quantum Computer D-Wave Two

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:50:00 EST

From Nature magazine

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400 PPM: Can Artificial Trees Help Pull CO2 from the Air?

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:01:00 EST

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have touched 400 parts per million for the first time in at least 800,000 years. The jagged saw-toothed line of the Keelings' father-and-son measurements climbed above that milestone briefly this month before the budding growth of the Northern Hemisphere's spring began sucking CO2 back out of the sky. But human greenhouse gas pollution looks set to continue to rise--and photosynthetic plants on land or at sea can only do so much. As greenhouse gas levels increase further, could machines help wash the skies of the excess CO2? [More]

Soapy Science: How Microwaves Affect Matter

Thu, 16 May 2013 10:00:00 EST

Key concepts [More]

Magnetar Found at Giant Black Hole

Wed, 15 May 2013 10:00:00 EST

From Nature magazine

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Riding Technique Affects Horse Force

Mon, 13 May 2013 21:14:08 EST

It’s tough to have a job where the boss is always riding you. That’s literally the case with a horse. Now a study finds that stress experienced by the equine spine can vary drastically with the style and skill of the rider. The findings are trotted out in the Journal of Experimental Biology. [Patricia de Cocq et al., Modelling biomechanical requirements of a rider for different horse-riding techniques at trot ]

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Saturn Is Shaking Its Rings

Mon, 13 May 2013 16:55:00 EST

Saturn's rings are such a spectacle that you can see them through even a modest telescope. Made mostly of water ice, the rings contain countless particles, large and small, that orbit the planet in a thin plane. For decades scientists have known that gravitational tugs from Saturn's many moons imprint patterns on the rings. Now they have discovered a new ring sculptor: oscillations of the planet itself, which promise insight into the interior of the solar system’s second-largest planet.

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Pear-Shaped Nucleus Boosts Search for Alternatives to "Standard Model" Physics

Fri, 10 May 2013 11:00:00 EST

A lopsided atomic nucleus may help to refine nuclear theory. The stubby pear shape, described today in Nature , may also be pointing towards new tests of particle physics that could reveal why matter became more common than antimatter in the early moments of the Universe .

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Moth Smashes Ultrasound Hearing Records

Fri, 10 May 2013 10:00:00 EST

Many moths have evolved sensitive hearing that can pick up the ultrasonic probes of bats that want to eat them. But one species comes pre-adapted for anything that bats might bring to this evolutionary arms race. Even though its ears are extremely simple -- a pair of eardrums on its flanks that each vibrate four receptor cells -- it can sense frequencies up to 300 kilohertz, well beyond the range of any other animal and higher than any bat can squeak.

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Print, Aim and Shoot: What Does a Plastic Handgun Mean for the Future of 3-D Printing?

Fri, 10 May 2013 06:30:00 EST

A University of Texas at Austin law student has demonstrated to the world that any ambitious tinkerer can make a handgun almost entirely out of 3-D printed parts . Cody Wilson’s revelation is not likely to lead to an arsenal of plastic zip guns anytime soon, but it does raise a number of hairy questions about a technology that, until now, has been highly touted as central to the future of manufacturing in the U.S. [More]

Quantum Meld Brings Photons Together

Thu, 09 May 2013 17:00:00 EST

Encoding information in quantum particles such as photons, the quanta of light, could lead to powerful new technologies, such as ultrafast quantum computers and unbreakable quantum cryptography. A method for loading the information carried by two photons into a single photon, described in Nature Photonics , suggest a way to boost the efficiency of data transmission in such systems.

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Physics Gets Frothy as Mathematicians Dissect Mister Bubble [Video]

Thu, 09 May 2013 15:00:00 EST

Few of us have not paused at one time or another to marvel at the beauty of a soap bubble. The iridescent, evanescent orbs, which can persist for minutes before vanishing in an instant, have captivated bubble-blowing children and pensive bathtub recliners alike.

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Hanford Nuclear Waste Cleanup Plant May Be Too Dangerous

Thu, 09 May 2013 07:00:00 EST

The most toxic and voluminous nuclear waste in the U.S.--208 million liters --sits in decaying underground tanks at the Hanford Site (a nuclear reservation) in southeastern Washington State. It accumulated there from the middle of World War II, when the Manhattan Project invented the first nuclear weapon, to 1987, when the last reactor shut down. The federal government’s current attempt at a permanent solution for safely storing that waste for centuries--the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant here--has hit a major snag in the form of potential chain reactions, hydrogen explosions and leaks from metal corrosion. And the revelation last February that six more of the storage tanks are currently leaking has further ramped up the pressure for resolution.

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19 Ways That Art and the LHC Open a Portal to Physics [Interactive]

Wed, 08 May 2013 07:30:00 EST

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Astronomers Discover New Neighbor Galaxy to the Milky Way

Wed, 01 May 2013 09:20:00 EST

In recent years astronomers have extended their view almost to the very edge of the observable universe. With the venerable Hubble Space Telescope researchers have spotted a handful of galaxies so faraway that we see them as they appeared just 400 million years or so after the big bang.

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In the Fog of Battle Acoustic Sensors Pinpoint Gunfire by Measuring Air Movement

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 07:00:00 EST

Sensors originally designed to alert pilots of single-engine planes to the location of nearby aircraft are instead finding a military role locating unseen battle threats as far away as 40 kilometers. [More]

Smartphone App System Locates Snipers

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:59:08 EST

When the first shots were fired at JFK's motorcade, police couldn't immediately locate the gunman based on sound alone. Today, the technology exists for them to it with their smartphones, less than a second after the first shot.

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James Cameron Donates His Tricked-Out Deep-Ocean Sub to Science

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 07:00:00 EST

Before setting his sights once again on the far-off moon Pandora for the next Avatar adventure, filmmaker and aquanaut James Cameron has bequeathed arguably his greatest technological accomplishment to science. Cameron’s DEEPSEA CHALLENGER submarine, which he drove to the deepest part of this planet last March, will in June arrive at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts, ultimately helping researchers there better understand life in Earth’s last unexplored frontier. [More]

Diamond Shows Promise for Quantum Internet

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:00:00 EST

Today's Internet runs on linked silicon chips, but a future quantum version might be built from diamond crystals. Physicists report today in Nature that they have entangled information kept in pieces of diamond 3 meters apart, so that measuring the state of one quantum bit (qubit) instantly fixes the state of the other - a step necessary for exchanging quantum information over large distances.

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Steamy Science: Demonstrating Condensation

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:00:00 EST

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