Physics & Math, features and articles | Educational Science

Sep 30, 2013

Spintronics Goes Through Blue Period

A dye used in ink, paint and in the blue livery of British Rail could be key to building future computing devices and exploring quantum mechanics. It's called copper pthalocyanine. A team of scientists in the U.K. used it to explore spintronics, the manipulation of electron spins. Electrons can have...

Aug 31, 2013

Beam Me Up: Bits of Information Teleported Across Computer Chip

Quantum mechanics allows for some very strange things, like the teleportation of information and computers that can break even the toughest codes. Recently, scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich made a step toward building a working quantum computer by teleporting bits of information across a...

Jul 31, 2013

Sluggish Surprise Found Deep Inside Earth

The way heat flows near the Earth's core, which is key to understanding the planet's evolution, has now been revealed to move more sluggishly than previously thought, researchers said. The manner in which heat flows inside the Earth helps control how the world's innards move. That in turn drives major...

Jul 31, 2013

How Does Newton's Cradle Work?

Whether you know it as Newton's Cradle or the Executive Ball Clicker, chances are you've seen the educational desk toy that seems to defy explanation. The device consists of a row of five metal balls — positioned to just barely touch one another — suspended from a frame by thin...

Mar 31, 2013

Space Station May Test 'Spooky' Entanglement Over Largest Distance Yet

Spooky quantum entanglement connects two particles so that actions performed on one reflect on the other. Now, scientists propose testing entanglement over the greatest distance yet via an experiment on the International Space Station. Until now, entanglement has been established on relatively small scales in labs on Earth. But now...

Mar 31, 2013

Mysteriously Shrinking Proton Continues to Puzzle Physicists

DENVER — The size of a proton, long thought to be well-understood, may remain a mystery for a while longer, according to physicists. Speaking today (April 13) at the April meeting of the American Physical Society, researchers said they need more data to understand why new measurements of proton size...

Feb 28, 2013

Mind-Controlled Devices Reveal Future Possibilities

This 4-part series, published to coincide with Brain Awareness Week, highlights investments made by the Engineering Directorate of the National Science Foundation to develop cutting edge tools and technologies that will advance our understanding of the brain. A team of scientists and engineers at the University of Minnesota is giving...

Feb 28, 2013

Celebrating Einstein Through 100 Years Of General Relativity

Inside Science Minds presents an ongoing series of guest columnists and personal perspectives presented by scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and others in the science community showcasing some of the most interesting ideas in science today. (ISM) -- Albert Einstein is probably the most well-known scientific genius. His creative ability allowed him...

Oct 31, 2014

New 'Super-Repellent' Material Could Protect Medical Implants

Scientists have created the most non-stick surfaces yet, using microscopic liquid-repellent structures instead of plastic coatings such as Teflon. These new surfaces could help protect medical implants from gunk that can build up on and ruin the devices, endangering patients, researchers say. Natural materials such as insect wings and duck...

Aug 31, 2015

Passing Quantum Secrets: The Next Level Beyond Quantum Computing

This article was originally published on The Conversation. The publication contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The one thing everyone knows about quantum mechanics is its legendary weirdness, in which the basic tenets of the world it describes seem alien to the world we live...

Jun 30, 2015

Dark Pion Particles May Explain Universe's Invisible Matter

Dark matter is the mysterious stuff that cosmologists think makes up some 85 percent of all the matter in the universe. A new theory says dark matter might resemble a known particle. If true, that would open up a window onto an invisible, dark matter version of physics. The only...

May 31, 2015

After Higgs, Ramped-Up Collider Hunts for Next Puzzle

Don Lincoln is a senior scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermilab, America's largest Large Hadron Collider research institution. He also writes about science for the public, including his recent The Large Hadron Collider: The Extraordinary Story of the Higgs Boson and Other Things That Will Blow Your Mind...

Mar 31, 2015

What's Next for the World's Largest Atom Smasher? How to Watch Live

Physicist Jon Butterworth, who works at the world's largest atom smasher, is intimately familiar with the drama that surrounded the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson. Butterworth will recount the trials and tribulations in the hunt for the most wanted particle, in a lecture tonight (April 1) at the Perimeter...

Mar 31, 2015

The World's Most Powerful Atom Smasher Restarts With a Big Bang

The world's most powerful atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider, which provides a window into the universe just milliseconds after the Big Bang, came back to life this morning, after more than two years of maintenance and upgrade work, and it's stronger than ever. At 10:41 a.m. local time near...

Nov 30, 2016

Isaac Newton's Book Auctioned for Record-Setting $3.7 Million

A bound copy of Sir Isaac Newton's seminal book on mathematics and science was sold for $3.7 million, making it the most expensive printed scientific book ever sold at auction, according to Christie's, the auction house that handled the sale. The book has a Latin title — Philosophiae Naturalis Principia...