Applied Physics

5-Minute Science: Ketchup Packet Cartesian Diver

You can easily build a Cartesian diver toy using an empty one liter soda bottle (with the label torn off), a ketchup packet, and tap water. You may want to have a few ketchup packets on hand and put them in a cup of water to see if they sink or float. Keep ...

Article - Steve Schuler - Aug 12 2014 - 12:17am

How Geckos Turn Their Stickiness On And Off

If you've ever spent any time watching a gecko, you've been impressed by their uncanny ability to adhere to any surface- including upside down on ceilings.  A new study in the Journal of Applied Physics reveals that  the little lizards can turn ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 14 2014 - 10:26am

4 Reasons Computers May Have Reached The End

11 years ago, DARPA predicted that there was a physics-induced train wreck coming straight at the computer chip industry; the limits of what electricity and existing materials can do. Even then, quantum computers were touted as the answer, with black box ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 13 2014 - 5:45pm

Laser Makes Microscopes Way Cooler, As In-265 Degrees Celcius

Laser physicists have found a way to make atomic-force microscope probes 20 times more sensitive, using laser beams to cool a nanowire probe to minus 265 degrees Celsius.  Atomic force microscopes achieve extraordinarily sensitivity measurements of micros ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 15 2014 - 11:00am

I Found My 555 Guitar Tuner Circuit on talkingelectronics.com

It’s true. Here’s my 555 Guituner circuit: go to 50 – 555 circuits web page on talkingelectronics.com and search for “guitar tuner” and you will find my circuit. Actually they’ve modified it slightly. You can review my Guituner article here. My 555 Guitune ...

Blog Post - Steve Schuler - Aug 15 2014 - 2:48pm

Quantum Mechanics: Why We Respirate Rather Than Asphyxiate

By Peter Gwynne, Inside Science Why don't we suffocate whenever we try to take a breath? An international team of scientists has used quantum mechanics – the science that usually deals with events at the level of the ultra-small – to solve this human ...

Article - Peter Gwynne - Jun 7 2015 - 2:13am

Tesla At Last? Researchers Send Electricity Through Thin Air

Researchers have created highly focused pathways that can channel electricity through the atmosphere. It's not a new idea, Nikola Tesla worked on powering wireless lamps using electrostatic induction, but the new technique can potentially direct elect ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 20 2014 - 6:30am

No Radiation: Using Ions To Test The Shelf-Life Of Nuclear Reactors

The structural components of advanced reactors such as the sodium fast reactor and the traveling wave nuclear reactor must be able to withstand the extreme levels of radioactivity from the fission reaction itself, at temperatures well above 400 Celsius. S ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 20 2014 - 9:24am

Quantum Inside Cold Helium Nanodroplets Mapped

Scientists have mapped quantum tornadoes that swirl within tiny droplets of liquid helium, which confirms that helium nanodroplets are in fact the smallest possible superfluidic objects and opens new avenues to study quantum rotation. Superfluid helium ha ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 24 2014 - 10:10am

Superconductivity Rethink: It Can Coexist With Magnetism

New measurements of atomic-scale magnetic behavior in iron-based superconductors are challenging conventional wisdom about superconductivity and magnetism.  ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 23 2014 - 12:30pm