Applied Physics

Cellulose is not digestible by humans, that's why it's considered dietary fiber. Plants produce it to use as their cell walls and to provide rigidity to their structure. Along with lignin and…

Isoprene is a hydrocarbon volatile compound emitted in high quantities by many woody plant species, with significant impact on atmospheric chemistry. The Australian Blue Mountains and the Blue Ridge…

Imagine a chip, strategically placed in the brain, that could prevent epileptic seizures or allow someone who has lost a limb to control an artificial arm just by thinking about it. It may sound like…

A team of researchers is seeking to determine if an ingredient found in shrimp and lobster shells might make future missions to Mars safer for space crews who could be injured along the way.…

The emergence of nanotechnology brings with it the opportunity to manipulate materials at practically the molecular level. So, could a nanotech computer be built? Robert Blick and colleagues in the…

In an advance that could help curb global demand for oil, MIT researchers have demonstrated how ordinary spark-ignition automobile engines can, under certain driving conditions, move into a spark-…

What do sand, coal, cereal, ice cubes, marbles, gravel, sugar, pills, and powders have in common" They are all granular materials, members of an unruly family of substances that refuse to completely…

Improved sensing and detection to combat terrorism has brought the need for advanced defense technologies to the forefront and laser-based defense systems are now being designed for this need,…

“It’s an amazing little marvel,” said Heinrich Jaeger, Professor in Physics at the University of Chicago. “This is not a very fragile layer, but rather a robust, resilient membrane.” Even when…

A new National Science Foundation (NSF) report finds the number of U.S. science and engineering (S&E) articles in major peer-reviewed journals flattened in the 1990s, after more than two decades…