Physics & Math, features and articles | Educational Science

Feb 28, 2006

Feds Lose a Few Neutrinos, Gain Some Information

Somewhere between Illinois and Minnesota, the federal government lost some neutrinos. No matter. These invisible elementary particles are ubiquitous in the universe. Neutrinos are incredibly elusive. They rarely interact with matter. They can pass right through you with ease and even through the entire Earth. This makes studying neutrinos very...

Oct 31, 2007

Small World: Quantum Identity Crisis Observed

A quantum enigma has been put to the test once again, but this time physicists have made the experiment smaller than it has ever been. The classic double-slit experiment tests the behavior of light, electrons, atoms and some molecules as both particle-like and wave-like, a mysterious duality that has intrigued...

Sep 30, 2007

MIT Researchers Improve 'Tractor Beam'

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Taking up the sci-fi staple of tractor beams,'' scientists have developed a way to use light to grab and move minuscule particles on a microchip. The research could lead to fine-grained biological sensors and other precisely built nanoscale devices. The work by Massachusetts Institute of Technology...

Dec 31, 2006

Nobel Prize Winners Live Longer

Winners live longer, at least when it comes to the Nobel Prize, new research shows. An analysis of 524 nominees for the Nobels in physics and in chemistry between 1901 and 1950 showed that the group’s 135 winners lived about two years longer than the also-rans. The finding points to...

Nov 30, 2008

Is Einstein the Last Great Genius?

Major breakthroughs in science have historically been the province of individuals, not institutes. Galileo and Copernicus, Edison and Einstein, toiling away in lonely labs or pondering the cosmos in private studies. But in recent decades — especially since the Soviet success in launching the Sputnik satellite in 1957 — the...

Jun 30, 2008

The Top 10 Mad Scientists

Albert Einstein He's certainly got the mad scientist hair thing down. One of the last century's most celebrated scientists, Albert Einstein turned physics on its head with his theories of relativity, and made enormous contributions to the fields of gravitation and quantum theory. He also liked to take his sailboat...

Sep 30, 2009

Physicist: Studying Lizards Since Age 5

Georgia Tech physicist Daniel Goldman recently helped figure out how sandfish — small lizards with smooth scales — move rapidly underground through desert sand. In this first thorough examination of subsurface sandfish locomotion, he and his colleagues used high-speed X-ray imaging to visualize sandfish, formally called Scincus scincus, burrowing into...

May 31, 2009

Deer Disoriented by Power Lines

To aesthetes, high-voltage power lines are a blight on the rural landscape. But zoologists at the University of Duisburg–Essen in Germany welcome them as a tool for testing the power of large ruminants to perceive Earth's magnetic field. Last year, a team led by Hynek Burda and Sabine Begall discovered...

Apr 30, 2009

World's Smallest Light Bulb Created

Some bright researchers say they've created the world's smallest incandescent lamp, so teeny it's invisible except when lit. The lamp's filament is just 100 atoms wide. It is made from a single carbon nanotube. When lit, the itty bitty bulb can be seen with the unaided eye as a point...

Apr 30, 2009

The Truth about Angels, Demons and Antimatter

An antimatter explosion threatens to level the Vatican in the movie adaptation of the thriller Angels and Demons, but real-world physicists are unfazed by this plot. The story features Da Vinci Code hero Robert Langdon racing to recover an antimatter capsule stolen from the CERN particle physics facility in Switzerland....

Feb 28, 2009

Watchmen: The Science of Dr. Manhattan

Among all the characters populating the Watchmen film, the glowing, blue figure of Dr. Manhattan stands out as a god-like being that is seemingly beyond comprehension. Yet when filmmakers approached the character, it was essential to comprehend as much as possible about Dr. Manhattan and his strange powers. So they...

Nov 30, 2010

Crystals With Pleats Reveal Order and Disorder

It turns out seamstresses aren't the only ones who use pleats to gather a flat fabric around a curved surface. Crystals can form pleats too, a recent study found. Getting a flat layer to form around something curved isn't easy: Imagine trying to cover a beach ball with wrapping paper....

Dec 31, 2009

Twisted Physics: Scientists Create Light Knots

Like your shoelaces or electrical cords, light can get twisted into knots. Now, scientists have used a computer-controlled hologram and theoretical physics to turn a light beam into pretzel-like shapes. The twisted feat not only led to some pretty cool images, but the results have implications for future laser devices,...

Nov 30, 2011

The Funniest Theories in Physics

Intro Nobel Prize winner Ernest Rutherford once said, all science is either physics or stamp collecting. (Ironically, Rutherford won his Nobel in chemistry, not physics). Physicists may not be the most modest people out there, but if there's one thing they are good at, it's coming up with names for...

Aug 31, 2011

What would it be like to travel faster than the speed of light?

Physicists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) have made a mind-bending — and rule-bending — discovery: They've measured strange subatomic particles called neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light. Superluminal travel may be a common trope in science fiction, but Einstein's theory of special relativity strictly forbids...