Here’s two things that you probably don’t know about icicles — they are usually filled with liquid water and their shapes are defined by hot air. So says a theory put forth by Martin Short of the University of California at Los Angeles in his talk “How the icicle got its shape” (B7.00003). Icicles elongate […]
Windmills could someday reduce net global carbon dioxide emissions to zero, says Klaus Lackner of Columbia University. But these aren’t the sort of windmills that generate electricity. Instead, they scrub carbon dioxide from the air passing through them — much like a conventional smokestack scrubber. In his talk “The future of fossil fuels” (A2.00003), Lackner […]
I arrived in Denver on Saturday and had a fantastic Sunday touring the mountains with an old physicist friend of mine who lives just outside of the city. While most of our tour involved taking in the beautiful scenery of the Rocky Mountain foothills, it had a definite physics theme. Steve’s a bit of an […]
Researchers think that graphene could be used to make a tiny electron lens
Read article: When graphene meets negative refraction
Resistance changes in steps
Medieval mathematicians 500 years ahead of the West, claim physicists
Read article: Islamic ‘quasicrystals’ predate Penrose tiles
Heating observed at relatively low field strengths
Quantum phase transition defies conventional classification
16-qubit device sparks controversy
Read article: Firm claims first “commercial” quantum computer
Wave interaction exerts pressure on the continental shelf
