Applied Physics

Electric Sparking May Have Altered Properties Of Lunar Dust

The moon is a tranquil place but an article in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Planets suggests that periodic storms of solar energetic particles may have significantly altered the properties of the soil in the moon's coldest craters through the ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 21 2014 - 6:32pm

Sorting Cells With Sound

Researchers have devised a new way to separate cells by exposing them to sound waves as they flow through a tiny channel. Separating cells with sound offers a gentler alternative to existing cell-sorting technologies, which require tagging the cells with ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 26 2014 - 4:01pm

Old Tires Lead To Better Anodes In Lithium-Ion Batteries

In the 1970s, Florida environmentalists who had invented the notion that landfills were going to overrun America came up with the idea of making coral reefs out of tires. A few short decades later, the clean-up costs when those all came loose were 100X th ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 28 2014 - 4:01pm

Researchers Watch Glass Flipping From One Structure To Another Under Pressure

Glass is ideal for applications that require resistance to thermal shock or to chemically harsh environments and manufacturers commonly use additives such as boron oxide to tweak its properties by changing the atomic structure of glass. ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 30 2014 - 4:00pm

Aerogel Monoliths Made Of Copper Nanowires And PVA Nano-Glue

Bending, stretching, twisting, folding, modern materials that are light, flexible and highly conductive are the future of products like artificial skin or electronic paper.  But these "aerogel monoliths" have required precious gold and silver na ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 30 2014 - 2:00pm

The Science Reason Your Beer Loses Its Cool So Quickly

By Marsha Lewis, Inside Science (Inside Science TV) – Ever wonder why that cold can of beer you opened heats up so fast? Well, there's a scientific answer behind it…literally. Atmospheric scientists at the University of Washington have new insights o ...

Article - Inside Science - Apr 3 2015 - 5:47pm

Breaking Beautiful- The Useful Mechanism In Patterns Of Cracks

High resolution photograph of cracks in thin layer of glass atop a silicon wafer. The colors come from optical interference between the thin wafer and the glass above. Image credit: Joël Marthelot (ESPCI). Rights information: Used with permission By:  Gab ...

Article - Inside Science - Aug 31 2014 - 9:00am

Falling Down: Without Enough Gravity, It's Hard For Astronauts To Tell Which Way Is Up

Keeping upright in a low-gravity environment is not easy and nothing shows that more than by how often NASA has documented astronauts falling on the lunar surface. A new paper suggests these moon mishaps might be common because its gravity isn't suff ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 4 2014 - 12:10am

Using Advanced Membranes To Catch Greenhouse Gases

Greenhouse gases, originating from natural sources, industrial processes and the burning of fossil fuels, are the culprits behind current global warming fears. The most abundant among them is carbon dioxide, which made up 84% of the United State's gr ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 4 2014 - 11:02am

No Moses Needed: Researchers Part Water With Electric Prism

At first glance, water seems to be a simple molecule because a single oxygen atom is bound to two hydrogen atoms- but it is more complex when taking into account hydrogen's nuclear spin, a property reminiscent of a rotation of its nucleus about its o ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 8 2014 - 10:43am