Sensors reveal the secrets of car tyres
The best place for these sensors is in the tyres themselves because this is where all the external forces on the car, with the exception of wind resistance and gravity, are felt. In the January issue ...
Read article: Sound waves deliver a faster pint
Sound waves deliver a faster pint
With millions of litres of beer and lager sold every day, brewing is big business. One of the main aims of the industry is to increase production by reducing the time needed to turn the barley, hops, ...
Read article: Star high-school students find pulsar
Star high-school students find pulsar
Using data from the Chandra satellite, the young scientists pinpointed an X-ray source in the supernova remnant known as IC443 and asked the National Radio Astronomy Laboratory for data from the VLA t...
Read article: Flying the flag for fluid dynamics
Flying the flag for fluid dynamics
Zhang and colleagues found that the filaments – which are several centimetres long – have two distinct stable states depending on their length. Below a certain threshold the filament stret...
Radiation from mobile phones amplified in human cells
Earlier studies used simplistic models that assume human cells are spherical. But many cells – for example, muscular and red blood cells – are not spherical. Sebastián’s team th...
UK physics scoops extra money
The JIF scheme was set up in 1998 by the UK government and the Wellcome Trust – the world’s largest biomedical research charity – to provide much-needed funding for university labora...
Superconducting tape promises more efficient energy
Researchers at the laboratory first created a superconducting tape five years ago. They used a process known as Ion Beam Assisted Deposition (IBAD) to create a film of the ceramic superconductor yttri...
Read article: The pulsar’s powerhouse
The pulsar’s powerhouse
Pulsars are rotating neutron stars that emit radiation, which is seen from Earth as a series of highly regular pulses. Anomalous x-ray pulsars (AXPs) are not, however, powered like most pulsars. AXPs ...
Read article: Martian sedimentary rocks suggest a watery past
Martian sedimentary rocks suggest a watery past
One of the key questions in planetary science is whether the early climate of Mars was warm enough for liquid water – and hence extraterrestrial life – to exist. The layered rocks, thought...
Buckyball scores high-temperature goal
Carbon-60 is in a class of organic materials known as fullerenes, which are insulators. Scientists first generated superconductivity – current flow without resistance below a certain ‘tran...
